Peter Rojas and Ryan Block Partner up in Technology start-up

According to TechCrunch, Engadget’s editor-in-chief Ryan Block will be leaving parent company AOL shortly, sources say, to launch a new startup.

"Partnering with him on the new company will be Peter Rojas, Engadget’s former editor-in-chief.

Block became Engadget’s chief editor in June 2007. He took the spot after founding editor in chief Rojas left the blog full time to launch RCRD LBL, an online record label that distributes free music.

The new startup will be a content site around technology, reports TechCrunch, but won’t be a blog. It may be a forum/social network based site to create lots of user generated content."

Something to look forward to.

Civil Liberty Groups Groups Sue U.S. for Data On Tracking By Cellphone

The ACLU and the EFF, two civil liberty groups, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government yesterday, seeking records related to the government's use of cellphones as tracking devices. The Washington Post reports.

"The groups also want to know how many times the government sought location information without first establishing probable cause that a crime was taking place."

Apple considering slider-style iPhone?

Could Apple have a slider-style iPhone up its sleeve? Asks C/net.

That's what The Register thinks, reporting Monday that Apple has shown off prototypes of an iPhone with a hardware keyboard to certain executives at wireless operators.

The report suggests that a hardware-keyboard iPhone will be out around this time next year assuming Apple can work out the kinks."

This is not the first time a newspaper reports on a radically different appearance to the iPhone.

In April, Times Online via Pocket-Lint wrote: "Industry sources told Times Online that the device will have a 'radically different' appearance to the current device, which has a 4.5-inch [sic] screen and slick, aluminium backing".

Among the possibilities are a flip version, which would enable the screen to be larger, and a sliding model with a regular Qwerty keyboard - as opposed to a touchscreen one."

The rising cost of texting

If you thought gas prices were rising too quickly, check out what's been happening to text messaging. News.com reports.

"Since 2005, rates to send and receive text messages on all four major carrier networks have doubled from 10 cents to 20 cents per message. This percentage of increase is on par with similar price hikes at the gas pump as crude oil prices skyrocket.

So what's with the 100 percent price hike in two years? When text messages cost carriers very little to transmit. And when compared with what carriers charge for transmitting other data services, such as music downloads or surfing the Web, the text messaging rates seem exurbanite.

One blogger has done the math. If the same pricing was applied on a per-byte basis to downloading one 4MB song it would cost the user almost $6,000 to download a single song via SMS texting.

... The reason that carriers are charging so much for text messages is because they can. Even at 15 cents and 20 cents a pop, people are willing to pay for it.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like consumers have much legal recourse for getting carriers to adjust their pricing to a more reasonable rate. There's nothing illegal about charging as much as the market will bear for any service."

Mobile firms hit roaming deadline

Mobile phone firms have reached a deadline to cut the price customers are charged for sending text messages in member countries of the European Union, reports the BBC.

Men fined $200 when cell phones rang in city court

Sloan, an Atlanta Municipal Court judge, held two men in contempt of court recently after their cellphones rang, just minutes apart, while court was in session at the downtown Atlanta courthouse. He put both men in the jury box and finished the cases on his docket before doling out identical sentences to the men: a $200 fine or 10 days in jail.

[via ajc.com]

Orange’s awsome hole phone

Designed by De Montfort University student Chi Shing Lo as part of Orange’s D&AD Student Awards, it replaces the cameraphone’s viewfinder with a simple hole, as well as using it to hang the phone on a peg charger when its low on juice, or needs to upload shots to a PC.

[via Electripig]

Teens main producers of child pornography

Australian statistics reveal adolescents last year outnumbered middle-aged men two to one as the main offenders in mobile child porn production. News.com reports.

"Youths 10 to 14 were among the alleged offenders.

In a recent case an eight-year-old was questioned by police in country Victoria over naked pictures found on a mobile phone but no charges were laid."

The iPhone3G Guided Tour Video

Apple has just posted the iPhone3G Guided Tour video. See what's new.

[via engadget_mobile]

iPhone 3G plans start at $25 in Switzerland, $50 in Finland

Swisscom announced Tuesday four distinct service plans for Apple's iPhone 3G starting at $25 USD, though none of them include air time minutes.

Separately, Sonera of Finland said its own iPhone plans will start at $50 USD and include minutes.

[via Apple Insider. Image from iPhone Club]

M-payments value to hit $300bn in 2013

The gross transaction value of payments made via mobile phones will grow over five times to exceed $300 billion globally by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

[via finextra]

AT&T posts iPhone 3G information

AT&T Wireless has just posted official information about the iPhone 3G for US customers.

In addition to touting the iPhone 3G's feature-set and a 3G-coverage tool, AT&T has officially clarified upgrade pricing for existing non-iPhone owning AT&T customers.

[via tuaw.com]

iPhone will ship in green packaging

Apple's new iPhone 3G will be shipped on July 11 in a potato starch paper tray. Apple placed an order with Dutch company PaperFoam, which also makes packages for Motorola.

The company confirmed this today to Dutch blog Bright. According to CEO Hans Arentsen, Apple ordered "millions of paperfoam packages" for its new 3G iPhone.

[The Register via tuaw.com]

Restaurant reservations on your cellphone

Restaurant reservation site OpenTable.com has just launched Table Mobile, allowing people to make reservations via their web-enabled cellphone.

[via USA Today's Technology Live]