Most GSM-based cellphones suffer the same problem: No matter how fast they are at download, they will upload at only 384Kbps, or less, as you can see in our iPhone 3GS network test. This is because the hardware doesn't support the HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) standard, created by Nokia—the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) refers to this standard as Enhanced Uplink.

Some would say that this is not needed because Enhanced Uplink—which runs at 1.4 and 1.9Mbps—is not supported by AT&T yet, but in Europe there are networks that already support this standard. I would imagine that users of the popular JesusPhone would love to upload their photos and videos to Facebook and YouTube as fast as possible.

On the other side, with AT&T still struggling to get 7.2Mbps off the ground and most of the other networks having problems and slowdowns everywhere, I would be happy if they all just managed to actually deliver their advertised download speeds. [PC World]

This little nugget of Apple envy was pointed out by TechCrunch, and I will have to agree that the similarities are pretty obvious. What's more striking is U2's willingness to play the corporate field. Bono is a founder of Elevation Partners, a company with a major stake in Palm. U2 has also been heavily involved with Apple in the past and their new concert tour is sponsored by RIM. Three major rivals...I hope they all wore protection. [TechCrunch]

On Friday 3rd July, I received a really lovely mad gift for my birthday (which is on the 5th) from Jonathan Ive and Jody who works with him at Apple - a perfect model of an Ipod but as you can see slightly bigger than usual. Jonny knows I like strange things; as the real thing gets smaller, he sends me a giant version!

Oh, those crazy designers and their crazy presents. Paul, you should send Jon and Jody one of your Mini bags. One the size of a real Mini. [Paul Smith via Macenstein]

This is my (second) Paul Smith wallet. And this is the Mini bag, which I use to tote my MacBook Pro, camera, and spare t-shirts and underpants in trips.

The letter itself isn't too illuminating; Hofmann was an incredible 101 years old at the time of writing, and merely mentions that he knew Jobs had mentioned LSD in a positive light in the press. Hofmann asks whether Jobs would like to contribute to an LSD-assisted psychotherapy study, and colorfully asks for Jobs's assistance in turning his "problem child" (Hofmann's pet name for LSD) into a "wonder child."

I understand from media accounts that you feel LSD helped you creatively in your development of Apple computers and your personal spiritual quest. I'm interested in learning more about how LSD was useful to you.

But the story around the letter, and Jobs's affiliation with the hallucinogen, are pretty interesting. Check out the original text (Hofmann's got great handwriting for a guy 101 years old) and background over at HuffPo, and read our exhaustive summary of the life of Steve Jobs here. [Huffington Post, thanks Caitlin!]

It's just an investigation now, and no promises of filings or accusations of wrongdoings may be made.

One issue lawyers agree on: The law is murky when it comes to corporate disclosures about a CEO's health. That may make the SEC reluctant to press a case, said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor and SEC lawyer who teaches at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. Regulators will probably focus on the two statements made by Jobs in January, he said.

[Bloomberg]

"The new iPhone is an evolution rather than a revolution and for people trying to decide whether to get a Nokia N97 or an iPhone, it comes down to a decision on performance and value for money… The new iPhone seems to have the same design and colour, upgrading from a sub-standard two-megapixel camera to a still low 3.2-megapixel camera, and is probably a disappointment for many people given the high tariff and lifetime ownership costs."

It's not about specs—and if we are going to go there, what's up with the N97's dinky processor—it's about being usable. I had hope that the N97 is a stopgap until something better to keep Nokia's head in the game, but quotes like this make me less sure. [Intomobile]

Much like Lauren before them, the couple chose an HP dv7. However, this couple seems to be the least tech savvy of all the participants in the laptop hunter ads as their decision did not seem to be based on specifications at all. Rather price, screen size and the inclusion of Windows Photo Gallery was the focus here. In doing so, Microsoft touts their PCs as the laptop for families on a budget.

Of course, they rip on Macs for being "too small" and too expensive and with a $700 budget they weren't in danger of getting a Mac in the first place. [CrunchGear]

The app takes sound from a mic—be it the built-in, in a headset or standalone—and amplifies it according to your demands: you choose the level, as well as which tones to jack up the most (useful for isolating a particular voice, or eliminating a constant background noise). The app also stores the last 30 seconds of audio in a temporary cache, in case you missed anything the first time around.

"But," you might say, "all this app does is pump up the volume on a microphone, which is probably the simplest possible idea for a non-novelty app, ever." And you'd be right! But it's useful in the same charming way that your DSLR serves as an improvised monocular, or your in-ear headphones work as earplugs when disconnected. Plus, it's not difficult to imagine situations in which the app could be useful for non-hearing-impaired folks. One issue: it's $10, which is too much even with the semi-medical pretense. [Techcrunch]

What you do is set up Orb on a Windows machine to transcode, on the fly, your already downloaded Zune songs. This way you can listen to your music (your entire music library, not just 16GB or 32GB worth) wherever you have an internet connection. It works over 3G as well as Wi-Fi, but EDGE is a little too slow for full-quality music.

Head over to Gear Live for a walkthrough. [Gear Live]

They predict that Apple, on the other hand, will hit 33 percent marketshare by that point, matching Nokia sometime in 2011—just two years away—with 77 million phones.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.That scenario, though, depends on some awesome conditions for Apple (think about 77 million iPhones!) on top of some truly horrific ignorance from Nokia, letting the smartphone market go almost entirely with a half-assed defense of its position as it focuses on profits from its mass volume low-cost wares in developing countries.

I don't really think it'll get that far, honestly, even if that's sorta kinda what Nokia seems to be doing right now. Besides, when have we ever listened to analysts? [Generator Research via Electronista]

First Place — Christian Jeffries

Second Place — Anonymous

Third Place — Nandor Moore


Let all the thumbs load before you dive into the gallery, if you please.

Go to the brand new iSaw website and you'll discover the engineering mastery that goes into such a nonexistent but lethal USB device, including "Instant plug 'n' play. Zero startup time. [And] Patent-pending technology [that] allows for an unparalleled distribution of power." You'll also note that the 3/8" saw chain is meticulously labeled as part no. 31170—an important point for industrial users.

I actually "pre-ordered" the $59.95+shipping iSaw, which only required a social security number along with three credit cards and a cosigner. Luckily, I received order confirmation immediately:

Congratulations! You will soon be the proud owner of an i.Saw.

We have taken note of your no-obligation pre-order. You will be contacted as soon as the i.Saw is ready. Payment will only be required just before shipment.

Please tell your friends about the world's first USB powered chainsaw.

At your service,
i.Saw Team

Until my saw comes in, I'll enjoy the complimentary iSaw wallpaper available on their site. After my saw comes in, I'm gonna rule this place. [iSaw via Gadget Lab]

In terms of capabilities, the OWLE is actually much more impressive than the $300 Zgrip stabilizer we saw last week, boasting a front-facing microphone, mounts for lighting equipment and a 37mm lens. Future versions could have battery packs, stereo mic support (via the dock connector) and a few other accessories, but hey, one thing at a time OWLE.

So, the elephant in the post: the OWLE looks like giant game controller, and a close examination reveals rough edges and even lumpiness—that's because, strictly speaking, the OWLE isn't in regular production yet. Its makers plan a limited release for August, and a full run at Christmas. The price? Anywhere from $30 to $50. Not so bad if you're dead set on shooting seriously with your iPhone. [Crunchgear]

The possibilities really are endless: You can be pinged with a push notification when a torrent finishes downloading, you get a new IM or email, you're mentioned on Twitter, or anything else Growl can notify you about.

You can customize which notifications are pushed to your phone and when they're sent (like only if you're not at your Mac), and Prowl stores up to 30 days of them. Way awesome, since it effectively makes iPhone push notifications infinitely extensible. Update: Ooo, support for Growl for Windows is coming soon too (thanks Samsita!). [iTunes, Prowl via Daring Fireball]

It's compatible with the iPhone 3G only, for some reason, but 3G owners should be pretty excited—the case features wide-angle, closeup, and fisheye lenses that screw on to the back, in case you want all your contacts to look like they're in a late '90s rap and/or skateboard video. But it doesn't come cheap, at $200 for the case and $15-55 for each additional lens, and the company even warns that reception may not be so hot, considering all that metal between the receiver and signal. [Factron via Engadget]

AcrossAir, the makers of the app, claim it as one of the first "augmented reality" apps for the iPhone, meaning it adds digital signs to a real-time video. It only supports the London Underground for now, and is currently being approved by Apple, but we could definitely see this coming in handy for most any major city. Can we humbly request a version for Chicago, city of the miles-apart subway stations? We'll let you know when it's eventually approved and released into the App Store. [AcrossAir]

Jobs, for all of his virtues, clings to the Great Man Theory of Leadership - a CEO-centric model of executive power that is outmoded, unsustainable, and, for most of us mere mortals, ineffective in a world of non-stop change. A Wired magazine cover story from last year made the point well. The article begins with a memorable anecdote - the CEO, in search of a space in the company's crowded parking lot, regularly leaves his Mercedes in a handicapped space, sometimes taking up two spaces. The pattern became so noticeable that employees, according to the article, put notes on his windshield that read, Park Different.

"Jobs' fabled attitude toward parking", writer Leander Kahney says, "reflects his approach to business: For him, the regular rules do not apply." That means shrouding his company in secrecy; treating his employees to tyrannical outbursts; and refusing basic accommodations that would make beautifully designed products more customer-friendly. (As one wise-guy blogger commented, in decidedly bad taste: "I can't believe Steve Jobs's liver is replaceable but the battery in my iPhone is not.")

So to all those execs that are looking to Steve Jobs to emulate? Cut it out. Emulate his good points, like the ability to get products out the door, but not his lousy points. [Harvard Business via PC World]

Cult of Mac put these earbuds to the test and found that they looked and sounded almost exactly the same as the real deal—right down to the packaging. However, don't go looking for a black market bargain here. The knockoff versions broke after only a week of use. [Cult of Mac via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Using TimeLapse, available for $2 in the App Store, along with a Gorillapod GoGo, available for $30, one iPhone user shot mountain cloud footage that's worthy of the Discovery Channel (standard def broadcast).

The quality is so good that I figured the reflection you can see in the clip revealed that the footage was phone—a mere camera aimed at a TV screen. But upon further examination, it looks to be an iPhone with the GoGo tripod mount reflecting in a window. [via BENM]

Machine sewn from various colors of felt (yet lined in simple black), this $15 Gameboy iPhone case was just listed back on July 2nd but is already "sold out."

Still, the site is probably worth a bookmark if you're interested. As soon as Etsy user toastkawaii's hands stop bleeding from high demand, we're (not) sure she'll restock. [Etsy via iPhone Savior via MAKE]

First, the Techcrunch take:

Apple has placed an order for a massive number of camera modules of the type that they include in the iPhone. These are inexpensive cameras, in the $10 range. And the size of the order, our source says, means they can only be used for one thing - the iPods.

That, and this report of a suspiciously perforated upcoming iPod Touch case. Not a terribly huge amount of information, but even so, such a move's objectives are immediately obvious: to enter, eat away at, and eventually obliterate the cheap camcorder space. Here's how it goes: Apple puts a camera in their iPod Touch; customers already eager buy an iPod are suddenly more eager; customers looking for a cheap pocket camcorder suddenly have a new, price-competitive option with a ton more features than the typical video-recording bricks of the genre.

The iPod Touch has always had near-parity with the iPhone in terms of features, barring the obvious cellular features. The other, non-cellular differences—lack of camera, microphone, and for a while, GPS—disturbed this parity, though one assumes they were necessary for reasons of price. Adding a camera would close the gap, mostly eliminating the annoying penalty of buying a Touch over an iPhone.

Techcrunch goes so far as to say the order is big enough to expect cameras in all iPods except the shuffle—a rumor we've heard bits and pieces of before. That'd be fine, I guess, but the Touch seems like a much more obvious (and practical and functional) choice: it's already got the screen, the software and connectivity it needs to be a competitive camera product; Apple just needs to give it eyes. [Techcrunch via GadgetVenue, Macrumors—Thanks, Matt!]

In a sign of the times, Arlington County police are using YouTube to help catch the Apple Store shooter.

From the YouTube post:

"At approximately 10:15 a.m. on July 3, 2009, an unknown man rang the doorbell at the service entrance to the Apple Store in the 2700 block of Clarendon Boulevard. An employee walked to the back of the store to answer the door. A short time later, another employee heard a gunshot. The victim, a 26 year old female, was found suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the right shoulder. The suspect had already fled the area on foot. The victim was transported to an area hospital where she remains in serious but stable condition."

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Anyone who has information about this shooting or the identity of the suspect is asked to call the Arlington County Police Department Tip Line at 703 228-4242 or Detective Alan Lowrey at 703 228-4199/Alowrey@arlingtonva.us or Detective Michael Austin at 703 228-4241/ Mausti@arlingtonva.us.

There's also a reward:

Crime Solvers offers a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest. Callers to Crime Solvers do not have to give their names and do not need to testify in court.

[Cult of Mac]

On Friday, George Hotz (aka the guy who unlocked the original iPhone 2G) released his purplera1n iPhone 3GS jailbreak tool.

On the Dev Team's decision to wait until iPhone OS version 3.1 is released, Hotz sniped:

"Normally I don't make tools for the general public, and rather wait for the dev team to do it. But guys, whats up with waiting until 3.1? That isn't how the game is played. We release, Apple fixes, we find new holes. It isn't worth waiting because you might have the "last" hole in the iPhone. What last hole...this isn't golf. I'll find a new one next week."

Meanwhile, Dev Team has posted a video with details of its upcoming iPhone 3GS unlock.

And while many of us were off eating ribs or playing with fireworks, Geohot was busy releasing purplera1n RC2. Amongst a variety of fixes, including less flakiness in the payload, RC2 adds support for more versions of Windows (Vista, Windows 7, International, and 64-bit). Sorry Mac folks, Hotz says an OS X version is coming shortly. Update: Purplera1n RC2a has now also been released for the Mac.

If you're frothing at the mouth to give Purplera1n a try, iPhone Hacks iClarified has a pretty good step-by-step guide. But note: We've not yet tested it ourselves. As with all beta software, try it at your own risk and, please, remember to back everything up first.

I'd also recommend reading through the comments over at George Hotz's blog. Some users have reported random SIM lock-outs and Wi-Fi issues after installing UltraSn0w. Many others are reporting success:

"Louis said...Excellent Jailbreak program! RC2 seems to work better than RC1. Make sure you restore your iPhone 3GS with the original firmware 3.0 from Apple, then run Purplrra1n RC2 from Windows. You must have a valid ATT SIM card to activate the phone, then run Freeze to install Cydia. After rebooting, update Cydia and install ULTRASN0W, then you are ready to use any SIM card you have. Enjoy a jailbroken and unlocked iPhone 3GS!"

Have you tried it? Let us know how it went. Assuming you actually do see a need to jailbreak or unlock, will you wait for OS 3.1 and Dev Team's "official" jailbreak instead? [On The iPhone]

Pocket Universe: It's a pinchy, zoomy, 3D star map for the iPhone and iPod Touch. For the iPhone 3GS, for which the new Pocket Universe is designed, you get full-on astronomical augmented reality. Using location services, accelerometer data and the 3GS's compass, Pocket Universe pseudo-overlays information about your stars, planets, constellations and general space things according to whatever you're pointing at. Three dollars.

Loopt for iPod Touch: The Loopt iPhone app has been around as long as, well, iPhone apps. Since 2008, it's earned its keep as one of the only useful friend-locating apps. Just about every mobile platform has a client, with one notable exception: the iPod Touch. That, along with Of course, Loopt isn't quite the same without GPS, but Wi-Fi location will get you by in a bind. Still waiting for a proper 3.0 version though. Free.

Seek 'n Spell: iPhone games tend to be a lot like games for any other portable device, and rarely leverage some of the traditionally non-gaming capabilities of the handset. Part of this is because, until recently, the developer SDK was sort of limited. Most of it, I think, is because developers just haven't been thinking hard enough.

Take this clever, if obvious, idea for a game: A map of wherever you are is overlaid with letters, which you and you teammates can collect by physically running to their icons. Your goal is to come up with words for points, Scrabble-style. It's a very, very cool idea, and decidedly sweatier than your typical iPhone game. A buck.

MSNBC: Hey, look, another news organization has a content app! Let's talk about it! This one's less about news than about catering to fans of the network, with an emphasis on video content as well as Twitter feeds from MSNBC personalities. It's a bit hard on the eyes, and occasionally goes stuttery on you, but it works fine. Fun fact: according to the iTunes description, this iPhone app, being an MSNBC product, uses "Microsoft's Advanced Technologies." What this means, I have no idea. Free.

Fluent News: If you could sense a lack of excitement about that MSNBC app, that was because of apps like Fluent. It's far from the first multi-source news aggregator, but it's one of the better ones. It behave like Google News, more or less, collecting important news from lots of sources and grouping it in a sensible way Why not just use Google News then, you might rudely interject? Well, for one, Fluent can cache news for offline reading, for plans, subways, caves, or wherever. It also prefetches longer articles, though I couldn't really tell in my brief testing. Anyway, it's free, so why not?

Skype: Another incremental update to another extremely popular app. This one gets an interface lift, but most importantly, two useful features for people who use Skype's pay services: text messaging with SkypeOut credit (good for cheap international texts; bad for having no reply function), and Skype Voicemail support. Voicemail support is a bigger deal than it sounds: since receiving calls when you're out is still pretty much out of the question, the voicemail access makes being out of touch a little less irritating. Still free.

Air Sharing Pro: We've always been impressed with Air Sharing—it's a solid file storage/viewing solution in its basic form. The Pro version, though, is a different animal entirely. First of all, it's expensive: $10, to be exact. It's also got expanded support for file storage services like, MobileMe, MyDisk, and Drop.io.

The main draw is that there are tons of new file functions: emailing, which is a huge help; direct printing, via OS X printer sharing; archiving abilities, including viewing archive contents without extracting. It's a bit like a walled-in version of Finder, and the closest to a proper file browser you're going to get on a non-jailbroken iPhone.

This Week's App News on Giz:

• Facebook 3.0 for iPhone Adds Events and Photo Albums, But No Push (Yet)

• Apple's Nudie App Headaches Now Involve Underage Girls

• iPhone OS 3.1 Features: Better Video Editing, Voice Control Over Bluetooth, And More

• Remarkable Speech-to-Speech Voice Translator Coming to iPhone and Blackberry

• Birdfeed Twitter App Review: Lean, Fast and Pretty

• Doom Resurrection for iPhone Hits the App Store, Costs $10

• A Whole Lotta Quake Will Be Blowing Up Your iPhone

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory and our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.

The RunPee app features a countdown that lists all of the most opportune times to dash away, and like the site, it'll tell you what happened during your pee break. We're a little bit iffy on people constantly whipping out their iPhones to check anything during a movie, but hopefully this won't lead to any extra film-watching rudeness. The app is available now (link will open iTunes) for $1. [Mashable via Lifehacker]

OK...meaningful...here goes...

For that definition, it was probably an electronics learning kit I got for Christmas at about age 8 or 9. As I recall, it didn't teach electronics formulas or resistor codes, but was full of projects to hook up input devices like switches and output devices like buzzers and lights. It was like learning how to connect all the devices to your hi-fi, or connecting all your peripherals to a computer. It also gave me a good start toward understanding logic rules, like both switches have to be on for the light to shine, or if switch A is on, then switch B selects which light is on.

I call this one the most meaningful, because, pretty clearly to me, it preceded my other important gadgets and inspired me to like gadgets and to understand how to build some. It's like how the transistor led to the chip, which led to microprocessors, which led to personal computers. Everything goes back to the first invention, in that sense. This electronics kit gave me the understanding that made it easy to progress to large logic devices with multi-pole switches, and some relays, which then progressed to a large tic-tac-toe computer with transistors which progressed to a large adding/subtracting machine with transistors, etc.

The word 'meaningful' has the root 'meaning' which implies some emotion. In that sense, my first transistor radio, at about age 10, would fit the bill. It gave me portable music that I could listen to all night long as I slept, every night. 20 years later came the walkman, and 20 more years later came the iPod, but the real change in life, the one having the most 'meaning', was with the transistor radio.

I always wanted my own computer. With the Apple I, I now had a machine that I could program. I would never run out of things to do in my entire life. So it's a close runner up to the other two.

The gadget that has been the most attractive of attention ever is not my Segway. It's my nixie tube watch from CathodeCorner. It looks very large to other people and looks very strange. It's handmade in America too. The nixie tubes run on 140 volts on your wrist. Airport security guards who have seen every kind of watch ever made have a thrilling time with this watch.

I used to fly to Japan regularly to scour new gadgets, and always bought tons of things which were always surprising at the time, but looking back, few have special meaning. The first consumer digital camera, I think the Mavica technology, was meaningful. The first one for computers, not TV's, was the QuickTake from Apple. But in many ways, no digital camera to this day has been as good as the first Ricoh one.

The HP-35 calculator was also very meaningful in my life, as it led me to an incredible job designing for the follow-on models.

Much thanks to Woz for helping to kick off our series. Coming up soon: Phil Torrone, gadget maker and modder extraordinare.

Image credit: Sony Mav, HP Calculator

1. The "new" News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
4. Notes
5. Pages
6. Create new photo albums
7. Upload photos to any album
8. Zoom into photos
9. Easier photo tagging
10. Profile Pictures albums
11. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
12. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
13. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
14. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
15. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call

I'm sure Jesus will love being able to finally zoom in on photos. It's coming "soon," but no exact date yet. Later this summer, 3.1 will finally bring push notifications. [Facebook via Inside Facebook]

The fingerprint ID also, of course, can theoretically act as a security device so that only you can activate your phone. There's also haptic (physical) feedback when you're hitting things, as well as using the touchscreen as an RFID reader. None of the three are really mindblowing in themselves, on the surface, but if implemented intelligently might make for a big step forward in the iPhone product line. [Macrumors via Boy Genius]

Send your best design of a new icon that really represents iTunes to me at contests@gizmodo.com with "iTunes icon" in the subject line by next Tuesday morning. Save your entries as JPGs, PNGs or GIFs and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg naming convention using whatever name you want to be credited with. On Tuesday, I'll pick the three best/most awful entries as our winners and post the rest of the best in the Gallery of Champions. Get cracking, in case something comes along and slays the iPod.

Scheduled Communications
"A communications device may be programmed to initiate a communications operation when a particular condition is met. The user may set any suitable condition, including for example a date and time, location, event, received or sent communications operation..."
In other words, automatically email grandma on her birthday, or automatically send your wife a text message when you land in another state "I'm sorry honey, I'm seeing someone else...please pack up my clothing neatly and ship it to me."

Intelligent and Customizable Communication
"The communications system can provide intelligent communications between devices, in which the system can identify appropriate communication modes for incoming communications requests based on a user's preferences and availability. The communications system can determine whether a user is participating in an activity. In response to determining that a user is participating in an activity, the communications system can automatically identify one or more preferred communication modes that are available to the user."
In other words, if I'm at the gym (tracked by my location) or running from the cops (tracked by the jostling of my iPhone since my GPS is off), my family and friends can see that I'd prefer text messages instead of calls.

Life Event Based Modes
"One or more event-based modes of operation may be automatically or selectively applied to the device when a new life event is detected...The event-based modes of operation may be used to restrict access to certain applications or functionalities on the device, enforce or restrict certain user interface or other types of settings, and add or remove or rearrange the priority of device assets. The new life events associated with event-based modes of operation may be of various types, including location-based events, environment-based events, calendar-based events, news-based events, and usage-based events."
In other words, if you walk into a movie theater, your phone could automatically deactivate the ringer and text message notifications, plus it might turn off all push notifications to save some battery life while you weren't actively using your iPhone. Combined with a patent above, potential callers could even see that since you were at a movie, maybe they should delay the call, wait for you in the theater's alley and then threaten you, at knife-point, that you never should have taken out a loan you couldn't pay back just to buy a stupid iPhone.

I'll take it all, Apple. Thanks. [Unwired View]

A superquick recap: Psystar releases the OpenMac, a $400 desktop Mac clone; people debate if this is possible, technically or legally, and if Psystar is a scam; the hackintoshes turn out to be real; they ship; Apple gets upset; Psystar grandstands; Apple continues to be upset; Psystar gets murdered. To death.

That was the story a few weeks ago, at least. Now Psystar is basically acting like nothing happened, releasing a fresh bootloader, a new computer—the $1500, i7-based Open(7) desktop—and revisiting their old, defiant tone in an email newsletter:

As you all may already be aware in late May, Psystar filed for bankruptcy protection. Although this was critical to our continued daily operations, we are now ready to emerge and again battle Goliath.

The whole thing is reproduced below, and definitely worth reading.

Psystar's been subject to all manner or canonization, criticism, popular support and backlash, but now I don't know what to think. On the one hand, all their talk about monopolies, freedom and victimization always stuck me as a little hollow. (David and Goliath? So you're going to kill Apple?) On the other, it now appears as though the guys who run Psystar are either clinically insane, extremely persistent, unusually ballsy or just poorly advised to an extreme. Or all of the above. As Mark said on the story, "they wont stop unless Apple cuts off their hands. And even then, who knows." That spirit alone has got to be worth something, right? [TUAW via Neowin via Slashgear]

We can see how they approved the app, since it's innocent by itself (a photo sharing and uploading app). But when 15 year old girls start uploading topless photos of themselves, like the previously approved and then denied Hottest Girls app, that's when someone needs to take the app off the market. [Krapps via Wired]