A look at gadget, game and geek happenings in the week ahead.
Apple continues to remain the hottest topic in consumer technology this week as CEO Steve Jobs offers free Bumpers (rubber covers that prevent the reception dropping due to gripping the phone in the ‘wrong’ way) to iPhone 4 owners to resolve any reception issues they may be having while at the time bringing out a software update to the iOS 4 and giving refunds to those who have already purchased a Bumper.
What really got BlackBerry’s interest at Friday’s press conference was Jobs’ assertion that all other smartphones allegedly had these issues and well, specifically the Blackberry 9700 as well as the Samsung Omnia II and the Droid Eris.
Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie had their say on the official BlackBerry blog: “Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable.
“Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation.”
Lazardus and Balsillie went on to say that RIM is a global leader in antennae design and that BlackBerry customers have never had to buy special covers to get good reception on their phones. Zing.
Xbox 360 surpasses Nintendo Wii
While BlackBerry is busy defending its name, another old-school brand has been busy: Microsoft’s Xbox 360 outsold the Nintendo Wii in the US throughout June, which just goes to show that casual gaming is not going to take over the world. Well, not until Microsoft releases Kinect for the Xbox 360 this autumn, that is.
One of the biggest online-buzz generating blockbusters this past few weeks has been The Social Network, and as we all know this is based on Facebook and its flip-flop wearing CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The thing is, Facebook doesn’t allow for anything advertising Facebook itself without its permission which means that Sony won’t be marketing it this way.
So ironically, the social buzz around The Social Network is actually happening on rival platform Twitter and is using the new Promoted Tweets feature to do this.
