Appletell

Apple seems to be diverging from their general strategy of locking the iPhone to particular carriers in foreign countries. According to an article in the Washington Post, they are now offering the iPhone 3G unlocked for use on any carrier legally in Hong Kong.

On its Hong Kong Web site, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is advertising direct sales of iPhone 3G, saying people can “buy directly from Apple” and choose their own carrier.

“Phone 3G purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier,” it said on the site.

Offering free shipping, the 8-gigabyte phone goes for $5,400 Hong Kong dollars ($695) while the 16-gigabyte version costs HK$6,200 ($798).

Read [The Washington Post]

The Ballmer brigade up there in Redmond really are shameless. The irony is almost as hilarious as it is ridiculous.

For those who don’t know, Microsoft recently ended their short lived Jerry Seinfeld campaign, and started a new campaign featuring a John Hodgeman look-alike and various other people ranging from celebrities like Eva Longoria and Deepak Chopra, to ordinary joes, to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates himself.

Microsoft is hoping that their new, more direct response to Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign will help revitalize the Windows brand’s tarnished image.

Strange, because Microsoft doesn’t seem to think their products are all that great for video and image editing themselves, as they’ve admitted to creating their latest ad on a Mac…

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There’s a new player the the browser wars, and it’s Google.

Google announced on the company blog today that they will be launching the beta of “Google Chrome” tomorrow morning for Windows, with versions for the Mac and Linux set to roll out in the coming weeks.

This certainly won’t ease tensions in Google’s “Cold War” with Microsoft, as now the folks in Redmond will have another innovate product to “compete” with.

Details after the break.

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It seems the latest internet service to fall victim to the “Great Firewall of China” is Apple’s iTunes Store. According to a New York Times article, this is likely the Chinese government’s response to the “Songs for Tibet” benefit album, which features many popular artists—including Rush, John Mayer, Sting and Dave Matthews—that was released on iTunes on August 5th, just before the start of the Beijing Olympics.

The start of the problems coincided with an announcement from an activist group which said that around 40 Olympic athletes had downloaded a pro-Tibet benefit album that was also carried on iTunes.

More after the break.

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With the announcement of the iPhone 3G at WWDC also came the announcement of the iPhone’s expansion into a plethora of new countries. Reuters reports that Russia will now join that list.

Details after the break.

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Just when you thought nothing else could possibly go wrong with MobileMess, it seems that Apple has created a spammer’s paradise!

Learn about it after the break.

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Really? I always thought that it was grizzly bears! On Thursday’s “ThreatDown” on Comedy’s Central’s Colbert Report, it seems Steve Jobs’ recent acknowledgment of an iPhone “kill switch” makes the smartphone the number one threat to America!

Check out the video after the break.

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Probably one of the best features of iTunes and the iTunes store is the convenient access to thousands of free audio and video podcasts. With so many viewing and listening choices, where does one start?

Check out a few of my recommendations after the break.

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Have you heard nothing but bad things about Windows Vista? You aren’t the only one. 

Microsoft has recently launched a new website and ad campaign called “The Mojave Experiment” in response to all of the bad publicity that Vista has gotten since its release over a year and a half ago. Basically, Microsoft reps using hidden cameras ask unsuspecting people if they would like to try out Microsoft’s “Next Gen” operating system (not Vista, Windows 7), calling it “Windows Mojave.”

Learn about their reactions, and our unanswered questions, after the break.

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The Steve Ballmer era has begun.

It seems Microsoft has failed to properly consider Mac users in the development of the NBC Olympics site. Video streaming is done through Microsoft Silverlight, which cannot be installed on Macs that are more than about a year or two old. I am personally affected by this, and can’t install Silverlight on my MacBook which I bought in June 2006.

In addition, most users of the iBook, older iMacs, and Mac Minis will not be able to install Silverlight to enjoy live video streaming or even highlights of the games in Beijing.

Find out what Microsoft said about the matter after the break.

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