SMART Utility 1.2 detects drive failures...

Volitans software on Monday released SMART Utility 1.2, a significant update to the hard drive diagnostic scanning application. The new features include more readable attribute names, displaying the model family, sending additional information to the smartctl engine, and French localization. The SMART Utility scans the internal hardware diagnostics system of hard drives SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology), a system built into hard drives by their manufacturers to report on various measurements. The information detail can be used to detect when a hard drive is having mechanical or electrical problems, and can indicate when the hard drive is failing. The software can read and display these attributes in an effort to avoid device failure.

Yahoo leaves door open for other offers...

With Microsoft retracting its bid Saturday, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang today announced it would listen to any interested bidding parties, including Microsoft, despite explicitly saying the company is for sale.Bloomberg reports that Yahoo is currently evaluating revenue-generating relationships with companies such as Google and AOL to raise the company's value, but is leaving the door open "should somebody else come back someday and want to buy the company", said Yang.

Boston Apple store to open May 16th, 6pm...

Apple will unveil the Boylston Street retail store on Friday, May 16th at 6pm in the Boston Area. According to ifoAppleStore, the store will feature three stories of product, will feature mostly glass construction on the surrounding sides of the building, which is currently hidden behind green construction masking, giving it the appearance of the Green Monster at Fenway Park. When the store was first constructed, Boylston Street was closed at 5AM on August 19th for work crews to deliver construction materials.

Apple tops Consumer Reports tech support list...

Apple recently topped Consumer Reports' list of hardware manufacturers technical support services in a recent study. Consumer Reports says that while the industry standard solve-rate for technical issues sits at around 60-percent, while Apple's phone support yielded an 80-percent solve-rate, and the company's Genius bars accounted for a 90-percent solve-rate. The statistics were discovered through a survey of over 10,000 desktop and laptop computers.

First Look: Toast Titanium 9, disc burner...

Every Mac with a Superdrive can burn your iTunes music files to a CD, your iMovie video files to a DVD, and your digital photographs (or any files and folders) to both a CD/DVD. However, if you want to do more than ordinary CD/DVD burning, you may want to look at Roxio’s latest version of Toast Titanium 9, a multi-purpose optical media authoring application that can burn CDs/DVDs and do a whole lot more.

Original ringtone subscription for iPhone...

Composer Geoff Smith today unveiled RingtoneFeeder, a new subscription service that allows users to form a collection of original iPhone-optimized ringtones. The subscription grants users the five most recently finished ringtones, and as long as the subscription is maintained, a new ringtone every week. After signing up, users get ringtones delivered right to their phones. Monthly subscriptions are available for $2 a month, while a yearly subscription costs $20.

RBC: iPhone to go non-exclusive, subsidized...

Sales of the iPhone in 2008 will exceed Apple's projected goal of 10 million and reach 14 million, in part due to some radical changes to the device's distribution schemes, argues RBC analyst Mark Abramsky. He first agrees with suggestions that AT&T may subsidize the iPhone by up to $200, reducing the price of an 8GB model to $199; this could increase sales by between 50 and 100 percent. In exchange, however, Apple would likely have to agree to drop revenue sharing, which has been extremely lucrative but an obstacle to adoption in countries like China.

SteelSeries intros 7G professional gaming keyboard...

SteelSeries on Monday introduced its latest gaming product to the US market, the 7G keyboard. The company claims the mechanical 7G is 90 percent more responsive and 10 times more durable that regular keyboards, and eliminates anti-ghosting by supporting a key press command for every key. For low latency communication, the 7G features 18K gold-plated connectors. The 7G utilizes iron-infused plastic and gold-plated no-click switches, among other features, to endow it with a guarantee for 50 million keystrokes by its maker.

Sprint mulls Nextel sell-off, WiMAX team-up...

Sprint is strongly considering selling off its Nextel division after just three years folded into the company, the Wall Street Journal says while crediting anonymous sources. One of Nextel's founders, Morgan O'Brien, is purportedly creating a group of investors that would buy out the push-to-talk group and restore its place as a separate company. Other private companies are also an option, as is a spin-off similar to the landline Internet provider Embarq.

Google says Verizon dodging 700MHz rules...

Google has filed an FCC petition asking that the FCC drop Verizon's $4.7 billion winning bid in the recent 700MHz wireless auction. Filed late last week, the motion accuses Verizon of planning to use its Any App, Any Device plan to shelter customers buying its own devices from having to follow FCC open access guidelines set out before the auction, which would require that any 700MHz service on the relevant spectrum support any legal device or software regardless of which company has sold either component. Verizon's plan forces users of truly open devices to follow a different set of rules while those who buy from Verizon itself are trapped, Google claims.

AudioCodex unifies media types for mixing...

After an extended beta period, MachineCodex has released v1.0 of AudioCodex, an unusual music and video application. The program unifies iTunes libraries with Quartz Composer, and CoreAudio Audio Units (AU) effects; while the software can be used strictly for playback, it also allows time- and pitch-shifting, along with real-time AU chains. Users can moreover create their own loops and Quartz visualizations, enabling the creation of original art and music.

Kensington Battery Pack and Charger for iPhone, iPod...

Kensington on Monday unveiled a Battery Pack and Charger for iPhone and iPod, along with a Mini version. The portable battery packs plug into the Apple devices' dock connectors and power and recharge them, and are themselves rechargeable. The lithium-ion polymer battery packs feature a USB connector that allows them to be charged via either the AC adapter or a PC, whether or not they are also plugged into an Apple device, charging it as well.

T-Mobile confirms 3G iPhone, new pricing? ...

A 3G-capable iPhone is coming soon and may bring pricing changes along with it in at least one area, says a report by Austrian paper Der Standard. T-Mobile Austria has allegedly confirmed the existence of a phone that would support faster data over the local UMTS-based 3G data network and says it will be a "testing ground" for the device as one of the first to carry the hardware. However, the company declines to say when it will unveil the iPhone for customers and has not provided any technical details beyond the faster wireless speeds.

iPhone 2.0 firmware adds Chinese handwriting...

The latest developer version of the iPhone 2.0 firmware adds dramatically different non-Phoenician language support, accounts say. Most notable in v5A258f may be new support for simplified Chinese, and in particular handwriting support, a feature that may prove crucial if and when the iPhone is adopted in China. Chinese is a more complex language than English, making it difficult to type out quickly; as a result, companies such as Motorola have developed phones whose primary focus is on easing Chinese writing.

AAPL downgrade reversed, marketcap grows to 4x Dell's...

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu has reversed a prior downgrade on share's of Apple Inc, changing his rating on the stock to from Neutral to Buy. Wu's downgrade came right before Apple's blowout March quarter, in which the company announced record revenues on surging Mac sales. Barrons quotes Wu: "We overestimated the potential negative reaction on the quarter and in hindsight should have moderated our near-term posture rather than downgrading. While AAPL shares will likely remain volatile and may offer a better entry point, we need to align our rating with our longer term view on fundamentals." Wu has set a $210 price target on Apple's stock. Barrons also notes that RBC Capital's Mike Abramsky has raised his target price on Apple to $220 from $200, predicting that Apple will sell 14 million iPhones this year.

T-Mobile makes 3G network launch official...

T-Mobile today officially introduced its anticipated third-generation (3G) cellular service. Coming after company hints and unofficial tests, the network is now live in New York City and significantly improves both call quality and data access versus the current 2G network. Like other 3G services, T-Mobile's is seamless and allows supporting phones to automatically switch to 3G when they come within range.

Associated Press launches iPhone site...

The Associated Press has launched a new iPhone version of its online portal, according to an announcement. The newswire service notes that the site should now be visible by visiting apnews.com, and that it contains not just AP news but material from over 100 media outlets, covering topics such as breaking events, business and entertainment. Publications involved include the likes of the San Francisco Chronicle and the Miami Herald.

Apple cash reserves nearing parity with Microsoft...

Apple and Microsoft are on opposite trajectories in terms of their cash reserves, a new report remarks. Over three years ago, the former had a balance of $5.5 billion, while the latter had $64 billion. While Microsoft's reserves have fallen by more than half to reach $26.3 billion, Apple's have climbed to $19.4 billion. Microsoft was in fact arranging to borrow finances until its planned takeover of Yahoo collapsed over the weekend, in the short term saving approximately $44.6 billion.

LG Vu on sale at AT&T with mobile TV...

Following the debut of the necessary mobile TV service on the weekend, AT&T's LG Vu today became available online and in shops. The handset is AT&T's first primarily touchscreen-driven phone since the iPhone and makes video its focus, with a built-in MediaFLO tuner providing live, over-the-air broadcasts of digital TV similar to Verizon's V CAST TV service. AT&T also stresses media playback support with support for Internet radio streams from XM as well as direct downloads from the company's own music store as well as eMusic and Napster.

End of laptop battery shortage in sight...

The lithium-ion battery shortage caused by a fire at South Korea's LG Chem plant back in March should be over in the third quarter of the year, an executive at a notebook battery maker said on Friday. While the shortage is hurting sales of all notebooks, including the ASUS Eee PC, smaller, lower-volume companies are hurt most, as they get least priority when supplies do become available.

Cox set to build 700MHz wireless network...

Wins by Cox Communications during the recent 700MHz auction will let the company set up its own wireless data network, Cable Digital News says. The cable provider successfully obtained licenses in the frequency range that essentially overlap its existing markets, allowing it to switch on a wide-area broadband service that can handle all of its customers. The service is most likely to be based on 700MHz WiMAX and operate on platform-agnostic level that doesn't require locked devices.

McAfee for iPhone beta appears online...

A beta version of a McAfee virus scanner for the iPhone and iPod touch has appeared online, according to reports. The application is named iVirusScan (iPhone link), and has allegedly been installed and uninstalled by a number of users. Users can analyze the contents of their handheld for malware, update their definitions, and adjust a variety of settings. The version number is listed as 1.0a07.

iPhone SDK opens to international developers...

The iPhone SDK is now open to developers from outside the United States, language on Apple's official website indicates. Whereas the site previously stated that "the iPhone Developer Program will initially be available to a limited number of developers in the U.S. and will expand to other countries in the coming months," a message now says that it "will initially be available to a limited number of developers during the beta period."

Nokia seeks US share with more phones...

Nokia intends to recapture some of its influence in the US market this year with a slew of new phones, the company's primary designer Alastair Curtis said in an interview published today with Finland's Helsingin Sanomat. The creator promises many new models within the "next few months" that are tailored to the needs of US carriers, ending a relative drought of devices in recent years.