Technology

Peekaboo Pole Dancing, the company behind Carmen Electra's pole dancing kit, announced a few weeks ago that they were seeking a partner to license a pole dancing game for the Nintendo Wii. Since then people around the world have been asking the same question: "Why?"

MTV caught up with the Peekaboo people, and spoke with a company rep who said:

“Peekaboo will be all about fun and fitness for a new generation. Peekaboo wants to make the fitness benefits of aerobic pole dancing accessible to millions of Wii users. The goal is to encourage men and women of all shapes and sizes to improve their pole dancing skills while having fun, toning up and burning calories. Ultimately Peekaboo and AT New Media want to do for pole dancing what ‘Guitar Hero‘ did for rock n roll!”

As for the pole peripheral development, the game’s ESRB rating and how the game would actually work (we imagine you’d need hands on the pole as well as on controllers), he declined to disclose those details. Kay did claim that the company is already in talks with developers and publishers for the Wii title, though they “will still entertain other third parties.”

Never in the history of Research in Motion's existence as a company have they released a clamshell style mobile phone. Never ever! Well apparently that's all about to change...

Photos have now surfaced at BoyGenius of RIM's rumored new clamshell phone, which is named the "Kickstart". Little is known with regards to the phone's specs, but it is being speculated that we could see this phone hit store shelves by the end of the year.

With the addition of a clamshell phone to their line-up, it appears that RIM is making even more of an effort to attract those outside the business world in order to expand their brand.

According to health insurance giant Wellpoint Inc., a security breach may have inadvertently allowed internet access to the personal medical information of nearly 130,000 customers. The Indiana-based company said that Social Security numbers, pharmacy records and other personal health data of customers in several states were not properly secured.

The problem apparently stems from two computer servers which are maintained by a third-party vendor. Wellpoint declined to name the vendor.

Wellpoint has begun notifying customers of the issue by letter, and are offering one free year of credit monitoring services. According to Wellpoint spokeswoman Cheryl Leamon, they've not received any reports of identity theft or credit fraut.

To reduce the risk of similar incidents in the future, Leamon says that outside consults have already been hired.

According to federal regulators, a nationwide emergency alert system that utilizing text messages on cell phones and other mobile devices is currently in the works. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is planning to establish technical standards and other requirements to make this possible.

Wireless would not be required to upgrade their networks to accommodate the alerts. However, those carriers who do agree to join the program will be subject to implementing FCC standards. The network is expected to be operational by 2010.

AT&T, Sprint, Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon have all said that they will participate if the FCC adopts an advisory committee's recommendations on how the system will work. Amongst the recommendations are limiting warnings to English and 90 characters in length. The FCC is expected to approve the recommendations.

One of the bad things about products like Apple's iPhone and iTouch is the fact it comes with no FM Radio. Luckily, a company called FlyTunes has created site which allows users of the those portable devices a chance to have internet radio right in their own pocket. Flytunes boasts over 160 channels ranging from sports, music, and even weather in the 15 biggest markets in the United States. The best part about Flytunes is that is absolutely free.

FlyTunes has attracted hundreds of thousand users according to their management and say that the average user listens to the stations for 8 hours a month.

After hundreds of viewers were able to watch the alleged gang-rape of a young British mother on the popular website YouTube, the mother is speaking out and hitting back at the site that allowed her ordeal to be broadcast to the world. The clip, which is three minutes long, was apparently filmed on a mobile phone.

The attack reportedly occurred on November 6, and was posted within hours of the attack. The video remained on the site for three months, and received more than 600 views before it was finally taken down.

The woman, 25, claims the video showed her being raped by three boys in front of her screaming children, age two and four. She lied there unconscious after being drugged while the attack was carried out.

The video was not removed until mid-February when a visitor to the site filed a complaint.

The woman said,

"They were really hurting me. My daughter was crying and I could not get to her. Afterwards they called me a slag and a bitch. I felt so ashamed.

"It's just crazy to think that someone would get a kick out of watching that - someone perverted, someone not right, someone sick.

"The worst thing about it is you can clearly hear my baby crying.

"The next day I found out there was a video and everybody tried to make out I did it on purpose.

Polaroid, the company famous for their instant cameras and photos, has decided to shut down factories within the United States and abroad as they abandon the technology that made instant photos possible. Polaroid will cease all production of its film by next year.

It seems that the instantly gratifying Polaroid images have finally been done in by digital cameras and the endless Flickr pages full of digital images.

Polaroid's instant camera was first introduced in 1948. When it was first unveiled, it was large and bulky with a stainless steel body and black bellows, and the film came on a roll.

The next incarnation of the Polaroid instant camera came in 1963, when they introduced cartridge film with their 100-series camera. It became an instant hit with pro photographers, who would use the Polaroid to take test photos, and instantly use it to check lighting and composition.

Apple has upgraded its iPhone and iTouch. For $100 more both products can be upgraded to double the current capacity. The largest iPhone now will able to hold 16GB and will cost $499. The iTouch, which is pretty much an iPhone without telephone capabilities, will hold a maximum 32GB of storage.

"For some users, there's never enough memory," Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of worldwide iPod and iPhone product marketing, said in a statement.

"Now people can enjoy even more of their music, photos and videos on the most revolutionary mobile phone and best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world," he added.

Everyone has heard of Guitar Hero but have you heard about the latest application for Apple's iPhone? If you are a fan of the hot selling video game and have an iPhone you may want to download Pocket Guitar. Pocket Guitar transforms your iPhone and iPod Touch into guitar frets so you can "jam on the go".

One of the coolest things about the application is that you can play along with your favorite songs that are already in your iPhones iPod.

So, do you want be like Eddie Van Halen? The new device can be found on Google code with a free download (http://code.google.com/p/pocketguitar/).