The face of Google is changing for the worse in my opinion. Rather than viewing the user of Google technology and services “as a customer”, Google is increasingly exposing the technology or service to the customer and profiting from them. Take a look at the example below (click on the thumbnail below to enlarge):

As reported by Wired.com, in a shocking declaration by the Federal Communications Commission, according to the Communications Act of 1934. If you own any wireless RF device, this includes a baby monitor, wireless router, cell phone or cordless phones, the FCC has a right to enter the property and inspect the item in question:

You may not know it, but if you have a wireless router, a cordless phone, remote car-door opener, baby monitor or cellphone in your house, the FCC claims the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it.

That’s the upshot of the rules the agency has followed for years to monitor licensed television and radio stations, and to crack down on pirate radio broadcasters. And the commission maintains the same policy applies to any licensed or unlicensed radio-frequency device.

I imagine that this will be challenged in court but according to the Wired.com article, the FCC is trying to shut down “Pirate” radio stations. I understand the need to monitor radio stations to make sure that there isn’t some complete wacko giving out advice on how to commit crimes or something but it seems like that information can be ascertained by actually listening to the station!

Repeat after me!  You will not listen to anything over the airwaves that the government and corporations do not control or cannot monitor. Failure to comply will result in financial ruin.

Tired of the same old wearisome unimportant “news”? Wondering about the peculiar lack of coverage of the Republican National Convention? Well fear no more. Get “real news” from the Coldsnap twitter feed. Its real time commentary of the Coldsnap legal team on the ground in St. Paul. There are some interesting tidbits being posted on the twitter feed such as:

Person tackled by 5 SPPD in riot gear for refusing a search. Media was present for this. 02:08 PM September 01, 2008 from web

Female individual snatched off street by unmarked car on 6th & Wacouta 02:12 PM September 01, 2008 from web

Rage Against the Machine just took 200 people on unpermitted march toward river. They are chanting, “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.” about 6 hours ago from web

Report from prisoner: had been pepper sprayed all over her body, was not allowed to wash it off, now has first degree burns. about 5 hours ago from web

If the Twitter feeds are indeed accurate, theres some nazi germany tactics going on in St. Paul. This is MOST certainly stuff you won’t hear coming from the spoon fed corporate media outlets.

With the host of problems and hidden costs with Apple’s 3G iphone as of late, T-Mobile is reportedly releasing the G1 phone next month. There are several designs from different manufacturers but this particular device looks like the HTC design. Here are the specs from Conceptpop:

This data is coming from various sources, so none of this is confirmed official…
528Mhz Qualcomm 7201 processor
Data kit for USB connectivity in the box
64MB Internal RAM
128MB Internal ROM
1GB MicroSD card
5 Row QWERTY keypad
Trackball
Dedicated camera button
3.1MP camera (no flash)
Video playback files – H.264, streaming, 3GPP, MPEG4, and Codec 3GP
Audio playback files – MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, MPEG4, WAV, MIDI, REAL AUDIO
Wallpaper supports JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF
Speakerphone (mono, natch)
Ringtones (MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA)
HTTP, WAP Push, xHTML
Bluetooth (class 1)
Picture Caller ID
SMS and MMS support (Take that Apple!)
POP, IMAP, and SMTP, AOL, and GMAIL email
AIM, MSN, and YAHOO messaging

I’ve grown weary of my Samsung Blackjack and I will definitely be picking one of these baby’s up. Watch videos and additional screenshots here.

Looks like iphone mania is sweeping the world! Evidentaly, the overwhelming purchases of the new 3G iphone tied up the itunes activation servers when too many people tried to connect.

From reuters:

“Activation problems marred the U.S. launch of the new iPhone on Friday, with many eager buyers leaving stores frustrated that they could not use the hotly anticipated gadget after waiting in line for hours.AT&T Inc, the sole U.S. carrier for the iPhone, blamed problems synchronizing the phone with Apple’s iTunes online music and software store, saying it was probably caused by too many people trying to access iTunes at the same time.”

I guess the venerable Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO) was wrong again when he was quoted as saying:

“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”

Oops?

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