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After a brief hiatus, Manic Monday posts are back. This one's filed under the "Real or fake?" files.

Remember that classic Timex slogan, "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking"? If you believe this vid, the same could be said of the iPhone 3G S. The YouTube clip below shows a user trying out the video recording feature on his new handset — before accidentally dropping it right into the swimming pool. Unbelievably, the phone looks like it still records just fine even after its little dip.

Seems like everyone wants to know if the new iPhone can swim: The video, which was posted just last week, has already got 181,000+ views on YouTube. The debate hinges on the authenticity of the video. Mashable posted a couple of arguments both for and against:

FOR: the shadow on the bottom of the pool is iPhone-shaped and the camera position is correct.
AGAINST: a strap is seen in the image, which some YouTube (YouTube) commenters allege is from a waterproof camera...the creator claims it's a strap through the phone's earpiece, and that he'd put the phone in a rubber case.

What do you think?



[via Mashable]

Two new handsets have landed to remind customers that not every cell phone purchase has to be a wallet-busting experience. AT&T just released a new teen-oriented sliding texter/social hub, and Verizon has unveiled a WinMo smartphone for the budget-conscious adult.



AT&T's Motorola Karma QA1 boasts lots of features for the money. At 3.46 x 2.51 x 0.70 inches, the quad-band EDGE/dual-band HSDPA device is kind of short and stubby until you pop open the slider to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. It's also got a 2.5-inch QVGA display, 2MP camera (with 8x zoom and LED flash), aGPS, web browser, media player, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, 3.5mm jack, microSDHC slot and social/communications features like Facebook, MySpace, IM, MMS and threaded SMS support. The Karma's selling for $79.99, with $50 MIR and 2-year contract.

Verizon's CDMA lineup just expanded with the HTC Ozone, which rocks WinMo 6.1 with dual-band 1xRTT/EVDO Rev. A, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE for international roaming, 2.4-inch QVGA display, full QWERTY with 5-way nav key, 2MP cam w/ auto-focus and vid capture, 256MB ROM/128MB RAM, Wifi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and microSD slot (up to 16GB).

You can get the Ozone for $49.99 (with $70 MIR and 2-year contract) via the web, telesales or through business-to-business contracts. Otherwise, you might have to wait until July 13th, when it's expected in-store.


[via BoyGenius Report]

This is my last video from the Hero event in London. I still have one more post coming with all of the specs and nitty gritty on what this thing can do, so be sure to keep an eye out. I know the footage isn't the highest of quality, but it brings you one step closer to the actual event.

Social networking is everywhere! Sprint's new messaging phone, the Samsung Exclaim, is a dual-slider with a QWERTY board, camera, and apps for Facebook, twitter, and mySpace.

Looks like 3GS owners can't keep their fingers off their new video record feature.

According to YouTube, iPhone users were responsible for more than half of the mobile uploads to the site last week. When you take into account that YT is the world's biggest user-generated video site, that's pretty huge.

Uploads of mobile phone vids are up 400 percent per day since last Friday, when the new iPhone was released. And actually, cell phones in general are becoming a major vehicle for the website. In the last six months, uploads from cell phones have increased 1,700 percent.


Chris Pirillo, reviewing the iPhone 3GS in a vid shot and uploaded by iPhone 3GS. (Check out Noah's unboxing of the 3GS, or his latest dogfight between the 3GS and the 3G.)



YT might have some difficulty figuring out what to do with all those numbers. Vids created by content partners that attract thousands of views are easy to monetize with ads. That capture of a pet hamster sleeping? Well, not so much. (At least, not unless the vid has gone viral. But that would have to be one really frickin' hilarious hamster.)

Personally, I'm hoping that the new throngs of vid-enabled people will do great things for citizen journalism. When the "Neda death" vid showed up, people got a sad dose of reality watching a young Iranian woman's murder during a presidential-election protest. The clip aired all over the world and rallied people to the cause like never before.

Score: YT/mobile technology 1, Iranian regime 0.

[via NewTeeVee]

Ever wondered what's inside that hot new handset? If it's the iPhone 3G S, here's your chance to take a peek. iFixit.com and RapidRepair have the hardware gore to appeal to your inner übernerd.


via iFixit.com


Both sites show a step-by-step breakdown of all the little doo-dads that go into the hottest gadgets, including Palm Pres and Amazon Kindles. If you have ever wondered what those hundreds of dollars are actually buying you (or have a mad scientist lurking within), make sure to check out the illustrated tear-downs.

(And if you actually try any hacks based on this info, let us know. I'm dying to see what an iPrendle would look like.)

[RapidRepair and iFixit.com via iPhoneCentral]

Ever wondered what's inside that hot new handset? If it's the iPhone 3G S, here's your chance to take a peek. iFixit.com and RapidRepair have the hardware gore to appeal to your inner übernerd.


via iFixit.com


Both sites show a step-by-step breakdown of all the little doo-dads that go into the hottest gadgets, including Palm Pres and Amazon Kindles. If you have ever wondered what those hundreds of dollars are actually buying you (or have a mad scientist lurking within), make sure to check out the illustrated tear-downs.

(And if you actually try any hacks based on this info, let us know. I'm dying to see what an iPrendle would look like.)

[RapidRepair and iFixit.com via iPhoneCentral]

If you've ever visited the Apple website, you might remember this guy:



Well, here's some news — Bob Borchers (the senior director of worldwide iPhone product marketing, known simply as "Bob" in the site's help videos) just left the company to become a partner at Opus Capital, a venture capital firm. In Bob's five-year run at the company, he helped direct Apple's image for the iPhone and iPod. Not a bad set of creds.

In other news, Apple seems to be inadvertently benefitting from current events. Michael Jackson's death has created a demand for the pop star's music, and iTunes has become one of the THE go-to destinations for it.  



As of Friday night, Jackson's songs were six of the top 10 tunes purchased in the US App Store, his albums accounted for nine of its top 10, and 19 of the top 25 music vids were his, either individually or as one of his collaborations. (Remember "We Are the World"?) According to AppleInsider, no other artist has hit that kind of popularity in iTunes since its inception in 2003.

Score one for Apple — not for its success in sales, but for its classy behavior. It chose not to over-promote its song collection to capitalize on the tragedy, but rather, the store stuck to its customary gesture of posting a single banner in memoriam for the performer. (iTunes did the same to honor deceased artists like James Brown and Johnny Cash when they passed away.)

[via Apple Insider]