Gadgets

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 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.

Have sent an urgent message to a friend on their Blackberry and they haven't gotten back to you? They may be a victim of the vast blackberry outage that has occurred to users of the popular device.

Blackberry has a released a statement saying:

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/).

Apple has announced that will offer movie rentals through its widely popular iTunes service. The move will likely have an effect on traditional movie rental locations and mail order services. Apple will also probably will benefit in sales of their struggling Apple TV Service that hasn't gained traction with consumers although technology experts praised the device.

Through iTunes, Apple will have more than 1,000 films starting next month. New release movies will be priced at $3.99 and older titles will be $2.99. High definition films will be priced at a premium of $1. All major studios have signed on with Apple.

A father from the Washington D.C. area gave his daughter what he thought was an iPod this Christmas. But come Christmas day, when the girl opened up the box, instead of finding an iPod she found a wacky note.

The note read: "Reclaim your mind the from the media shackles. Read a book and resurrect yourself. To claim your capitalistic garbage go to your nearest Apple Store." Also inside the iPod box were a few books about leading a more enlightened life.

With the annual MacWorld convention coming up in just a few weeks, the Apple rumors are beginning to fly. The first rumor, which seems pretty likely, is that Apple is on the verge of launching a new online video rental service that will redefine the way that movies are rented online.

According to reports, Apple is teaming up with Fox to bring movie rentals to the iTunes Store. Consumers would theoretically then be able to watch these movies on their iPods, iPhones, and even, Apple TV. It is believed that an agreement has been reached between the two companies that will make Fox movies available for limited-time viewing through iTunes as they are released on DVD.

Rumors about an Apple iTunes movie rental service have been floating around since the middle of this year, but so far no information on prices or other details have been leaked.