Gizmodo: trouble

Helio Stores And Kiosks Closing Soon, Company In Trouble?

Jason Chen — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:59:59 EDT

A tipster told us that the talks between Virgin Mobile and SK Telecom/Helio are going nowhere, with Virgin backing out unless there's some sort of bankruptcy declaration or huge liquidation. Our tipster says that Helio's corporate stores and kiosks will be closing very soon, which is backed up by similar info from Engadget. They say that there's no merger between Helio and Virgin, and that customers might just be moved over to Virgin's network.

When we called up Helio stores, their people sounded like they were reading off a script, or that they've gotten a memo, and were trying to convince us that they shouldn't worry if Virgin takes them over. So in essence, Helio customers won't be plan-less if Virgin does take over their customers—you'll just be making out your checks to Virgin instead of Helio.

F-22 Raptor Airframes Falling Apart Due to Bad Glue

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:30:13 EDT

According to a just-released Air Combat Command report, 30 of the F-22A Raptors delivered by Lockheed Martin use "inadequate adhesive" in their airframes. That means two things in plain language: bad glue; and big trouble.

The report comes after investigators finished looking into an accident that happened last November. Part of the airframe of a F-22A fell off into the engine intake, causing a whopping $1.2 million of damage.

And, while we understand that machines so amazingly complex will always have flaws that need to be ironed out, let's hope they used SuperGlue with the F-35 Lightning II. Or gum. [The Dew Line]

Having Trouble Activating Your iPhone?

Jason Chen — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:00:19 EDT

If you are, you're probably familiar with the image above. You've probably seen it about 100 times while pawing hungrily at your $650 paperweight while waiting for that activation email from iTunes/AT&T. It's not your fault, it's AT&T/T-Mobile/Sprint/Verizon's. Join the club. Post your grief in the comments and we'll all have a pity party.