In a heated dispute over how to handle a woman's estate, the son secretly set his iPhone to record a conversation that happened between him and the other members of his family days before she passed. The stepfather tried to get it tossed out by saying it violated the Wiretap act, but the case was dismissed and also lost on appeal. This has important implications for people who are interested in recording their customer service calls.

In the ruling, the court reaffirmed that in order for there to be a legal problem with recording a conversation with only one person's consent, the recording must be for a nefarious purpose.We affirm, and, in so doing, hold that the exception to the one-party consent provision of 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d) requires that a communication be intercepted for the purpose of a tortious or criminal act that is independent of the intentional act of recording. So, recording a conversation to commit blackmail or fraud - not okay. Recording a conversation to have proof that the company agreed to waive a fee? That's looking pretty good, at least as far as the Federal statute is concerned.

Court OKs Covert iPhone Audio Recording [Threat Level] (Richard)

Who says story time has to stop when you exit kindergarten? Audio books provide all the stimulation of reading without that annoying reading part. And the internet is full of avenues to get them for free without having to resort to piracy.

MakeUseOf suggests these sites as prime places to download audio books:

BooksShouldBeFree -- Classic literature in iTunes and mp3 formats, with Wikipedia links to read up on the authors and titles.

NewFiction -- Focuses on new serialized fiction. Actors give dramatic readings, providing a soap opera feel.

ThoughtAudio -- Gives you a selection of classics you can download in chunks, as well as PDFs.

LibriVox -- A volunteer-led site in which people with a lot of spare time upload audio recordings, providing a selection of public domain books.

Podiobooks -- Serialized downloads available via RSS, with more than 400 newer books to choose from, including "chick lit."

If you're an audio book fiend, what are your primary sources?

10 Best Websites For Free Audio Books [MakeUseOf via Delicious]

Taiwan news media produced this thrilling animated replay of how JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater quit his job, complete with cursing on the PA, beer grab, emergency slide run, and embracing his lover. This looks like the making of the best Sims mod ever!

[via Business Insider]

PREVIOUSLY: JetBlue Flight Attendant Gets Bail Following Flip-Out
Flight Attendant Weighs In On Angry Passengers, Job Stress
JetBlue Flight Attendant Curses Out Passenger, Uses Emergency Slide To Exit Plane And Run Away

The simplest and most expansive iDevice jailbreak was released last night. In the past, and prior to Spirit, most jailbreak solutions required a computer intermediary running software locally to get the job done. It wasn’t difficult, but it did require research and could be somewhat intimidating to the uninitiated. Whereas the new jailbreakme.com website offers jailbreaking to anyone who can simply navigate to a URL. But I wonder how big the need or interest in jailbreaking is these days.

When I first jailbroke my original iPhone, it was prior to Apple supporting apps… This was the only way to expand iPhone functionality by loading custom software. At the time, my top “illicit” apps were Fring and Twinkle – an early and fine Twitter client. Later on, I had need to jailbreak once again when restrictive 3G policies prevented Skype and SlingPlayer from running on AT&T’s network. Plus, I needed folders before Steve Jobs decided I needed folders. Fortunately, these issues have since been remedied.

Obviously jailbreaks are community developed hacks – exploiting the iSystem to provide deeper and less restrictive access. Along with that often comes buggy behavior, the potential for data loss, and perhaps the voiding of your warranty. And while there are some useful UI enhancements, most of the amateur skinning can’t compete with Apple’s designers. So, with Apple’s large app marketplace and AT&T’s relaxed 3G policies, who needs to jailbreak?

The only path to an iPhone carrier unlock is via jailbreak. And some days I wake up thinking I’d prefer a 2G-only iPhone running on T-Mobile’s network versus my current AT&T coverage blackout (about 8 hours per weekday) and frequently dropped calls. Also, anyone interested in tethering and/or MiFi-esque hotspot capabilities (without paying AT&T twice for the same data bucket) is a good candidate for jailbreaking. In fact, I took a look at MyWi ($20) and was very impressed (pics below) – despite it crushing my battery. But, aside from those two scenarios, I don’t see a pressing need to go down this path. You?

Click to enlarge:

(author unknown)05969609925153969205092693041497780116910046207442102392486300913145688669511799104024894949867387091396864977768166243814150312322511447126133455194433369422791194526825212460278804435921663166661366058026645485970000391740890275493724170914675581060421620676162203273011317255671717215427801250626717375018901449876297079653570335337784991612988312532707075401378362922825043920018847194710011632560847450515955287487201823577980330051037111570068280527412171429716926953650479200150466847891379414167703714992022984811809342539455729184413004188242926467829101360077918700223630915668687844489643401008377889417097771171768944028011464550205753104150879176713956018910866918894004964161895963135980552864252505650844004220874865391187998077532160956659968460669083339678076373214070121529045419965063571896852758070731684139049258125942607994167044985552430068364225281501264850191510289562856302505453755222541483962177220010121600518950491161174141069575717772541382114875006139658168181820808021631149787377493995706577203438141658919167071453390413662680978175932351976364110350048067618189343040085107807971484280205172066705559249304117501878562674129113395272403179933630933104551019719407703043185676656307084174311242276227130231314141800153408642608270047540933657720084950958859685777720687457564195109935615452630811458668329062736031366486891580237416927109678021405757550912035039614162281446719890343700676756269314764812609708353595688925816091416638452893456501680455456242340040210730510679414708353081591950085418568090340387619927171238201832847899998308628060959925343784202130649942498184648328713595075257906065621125193707543591100361225592830167735391900582399460707729451174819669567594843801725894571452282235813561442551542571752048769699447668571721834889293656157832810632136548990896996064057299125624637601761522151666277790808021730651828846031011962967188935388110227554765519540639600944978082624133087152607289787884232030020227057222113197108540824221842736401

A federal judge ruled this week that Vitaminwater will not, as its labels promise, keep you "healthy as a horse." Nor will it bring about a "healthy state of physical or mental being". Instead, Vitaminwater is really just a sugary snack food; non-carbonated fruit coke disguised as a sports drink. Because it's composed mostly of sugar and not vitamin-laden water, judge John Gleeson held that Vitaminwater's absurd marketing claims were likely to mislead consumers.

Coke tried to explain away claims like "vitamins + water = all you need" as "only puffery." The judge disagreed.By including the suggestion that the product will “keep you healthy” or “help bring about a healthy state of physical and mental being” alongside such statements, the quoted language implies that the nutrient content of vitaminwater may help consumers maintain healthy dietary practices. I conclude, therefore, in light of the language and context in which they are used, that the statements on the “defense” and “B- Relaxed” labels constitute implied nutrient content claims which use the word “healthy.” Such claims are in violation of violation of FDA regulations because . . . vitaminwater achieves its nutritional content solely through fortification that violates FDA policy.The ruling rejected Coca Cola's motion to dismiss a class action suit brought by the scrappy do-gooders at the Center for Science in the Interest. The case should now be clear for trial, although it could settle if Coke is willing to change Vitaminwater's name to something less misleading. Cake in a Can, perhaps?

Lawsuit Over Deceptive Vitaminwater Claims to Proceed [CSPI] (Press Release)
Order on Motion to Dismiss [U.S. District Court] (pdf)

Consumerist reader Frank noticed that the shows on Nickelodeon didn't match what was showing up on his TiVo schedule. He'd try to record Dora the Explorer and end up with Spongebob. Thinking it must be an issue with TiVo, he checked against what was on TVguide.com and found that they also had incorrect info.

Smelling something fishy, Frank wrote TiVo customer service and eventually got this reply:
Thank you for contacting TiVo Customer Support. I apologize for any inconvenience this incorrect guide information for Nickelodeon may have caused and would be happy to give you information on this. Nickelodeon has recently informed us that "for competitive reasons" they are unable to send out updated schedules in advance. They greatly apologized for the inconvenience, as do we. We are currently hard at work at a workaround for this issue and appreciate your patience and cooperation as we try to get this resolved.

Now what could those "competitive reasons" be?

Could they only be giving the correct information to one scheduling service?

Is it a ploy to get people to not use their DVRs and thus have them only watch shows (and, more importantly, ads) live?

Are other youth-targeted networks battling to get their hands on Nickelodeon's apparently top-secret broadcast schedule?

I tried to contact Nickelodeon and its parent company Viacom, but was told that, in spite of its being a massive media company with numerous 24-hour operations, the entire company was on summer hours (except the poor woman answering my call) and that I couldn't speak to anyone because it was after 1pm on a Friday.

So if you have any idea why Nickelodeon would not want to share their correct schedule with TiVo, feel free to conjecture wildly in the comments.

Custom electric guitar build by Travis S., incorporating an original Millennium Falcon toy over a hard maple backing block attached to a purchased neck blank. I especially like the light-up engine blocks. More details are available here. [via Neatorama]

More:

• Millenium Falcon bed gets comfy in less than twelve parsecs
• Millenium Falcon holochess table
• Stop action Millenium Falcon build
• Cardboard slices of Millenium Falcon

Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!Sean Michael Ragan01791710261601255095057710760477976853111151709750232166239309225792983377770702061452897179611754351726818317867356899701065124500542560326106369289726805128381389431955744483750907638689813910026102036484896080999253790822795704915276016210164978834470159719018922492510304168770283439130416206274112905267204033508094087256149954894231991596477747721050841415525322880972854371011235276098316082640516758801257409278513765513891441883609160939241284712477570304293415336566232212449806044731641142084733519147892612240747313506005167177013221769283753463129149878860656975788540684238453584075110718131412057338263293116639199584346674011405420724293515094400202124476118165095030795245110576600570043784485756022868509269617197786013444131494817565155411571172431085183238751718149590655963504916

Boxee Chief Product Officer, Zach Klein gives a low-fi un-Boxee-ing intro video (recorded via iPhone) of the first D-Link Boxee box in its final production hardware. My favorite aspect of Boxee hardware continues to be the IR/RF remote control with QWERTY keyboard on the backside. The Boxee Box is slated for arrival in late October or early November and should retail for approximately $200.

This post republished from GeekTonic.

If there’s one TV feature I want above all else, it’s an infinite on-demand catalog. I don’t want five episodes of Burn Notice, or the second season of Weeds, I want to be able to start at the beginning of a show’s run and have access to every episode that’s ever aired. Such a model doesn’t exist today. In fact, Clicker released research this week that shows just how far off we are. Despite the fact that 90% of broadcast TV shows (i.e. shows from the five major free networks) from the 2009-10 season became available online at some point, 60% went offline again within three weeks of airing. Certain shows, like Law & Order and The Mentalist, never made it to the Web at all.

The practice of windowing content is in clear effect here. You can get stuff for free, but only for a limited time. The problem is, so far there’s no good pay service available that completes the package. In theory, Hulu Plus is the answer to the catalog conundrum, but in early tests, Dave has so far been unimpressed. Netflix comes closest for me because there are certain shows available starting from season one, episode one. But the overall options are still woefully limited. The holy grail remains elusive.

via

Well, I might have recommended a Droid X for big-phone-lovin’ fandroids out there… but now that I’ve read about Motorola’s insane eFuse tampering-countermeasure system, I’m going to have to give this one a big fat DON’T BUY on principle. I won’t restate all my reasons for supporting the modding, hacking, jailbreaking, and so on of your legally-owned products here — if you’re interested in a user’s manifesto, read this — but suffice it to say that deliberately bricking a phone if the user fiddles with it does not fall under the “reasonable” category of precautions taken by manufacturers.

Really. If you want to make it difficult to hack, that’s fine. You think your software should be enough, that’s fine. But once I pay money for the item, it’s mine, and disabling my device because you don’t like what I’m doing with it falls under the category of sabotage.

Here’s what eFuse does. This information is a couple days old but it’s worth reading if you’re interested in Android, development, or open standards in general. Besides, I just found out about it, so you have to read my words whether you like it or not. or you could just stop reading. Either way. Anyway:

If the eFuse failes to verify this information then the eFuse receives a command to “blow the fuse” or “trip the fuse”. This results in the booting process becoming corrupted and resulting in a permanent bricking of the Phone. This FailSafe is activated anytime the bootloader is tampered with or any of the above three parts of the phone has been tampered with.

It requires a hardware fix, apparently, only available through Motorola, of course. This is the equivalent of a MacBook detonating some core component if you try to install an OS to dual boot.

Will many users run into this problem? Probably not, but Android is a platform that not only was founded on the idea of openness, but thrives because of it. The grey market of sideloaded apps and custom ROMs will only get more popular and more easily accessed as people realize that their phones are tiny computers waiting to be customized. That idea is anathema to Motorola and clearly they will continue to stoop to unreasonable means to “protect” their hardware — which you bought and paid for.

So here’s my official recommendation: don’t buy a Droid phone and don’t recommend them to your friends. There are too many good options out there that aren’t locked down by nefarious means. Look up a Galaxy phone or wait for the next awesome thing to come along. Vote with your wallet and tell Motorola “open or GTFO.”

[via Android Police and TG Daily]

Update: Woke up to 200 comments — hi Reddit and Slashdot and others! Come in. Stay a while. Also, two things. First, I don’t know where people got the idea this was a pro-Apple or pro-iPhone post. It’s not even related to Apple except perhaps tangentially. Second, it is true that this security feature or a similar one is implemented in some way in other Droid-branded phones, and has yet to be bypassed. It may or may not be implemented in the way the guy I quoted above describes, but the system is in place. I’d say don’t give up, but honestly, I’m going to go with please don’t waste your time unless you view it as a challenge to be overcome. There are a ton of amazing handsets out there worth using and hacking, and I’d rather we just threw Motorola out the window.

Update 2: Engadget asked Motorola and Motorola says:

In reference specifically to eFuse, the technology is not loaded with the purpose of preventing a consumer device from functioning, but rather ensuring for the user that the device only runs on updated and tested versions of software. If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed. Checking for a valid software configuration is a common practice within the industry to protect the user against potential malicious software threats.

Whether there’s a meaningful difference between bricking and being locked into recovery mode, I leave to people more experienced in hacking than myself to discuss. Obviously you don’t lose your data, but if you still have to have it restored by an authorized source, it amounts to almost the same thing.

(author unknown)03417259312931750035020179100061334552251040248949498673870915687942234892547420062171350328305932980112042988482730408304927890067681280495028546022538993659100929401581000424633906142911439750907695104831812739526154621707750093948620422508757901009614506121023229887418011556791618153128726793765213345519443336942279138225960213022253210628154192916373693917995108192172037096157683059719085013940885808165337258131315876073630747133581058026645485970000390025983819123201344614550250467456371313070860563238649548980385467707443648281005361811494135501135139449208019149184310718735218248127069211052398809700567130064841521749175946601123080230945041671917172154278012506267038396770940520677870562318475319903027705895771686155777746039693370349510682321243653644175128422101884719471001163256154840609780208303461730576990484613821510367519987159160438170985772900529018850311922286825755633414297169269536504792048900676192184352000867704840850492061104086038236110678149051710328762327868960576317687187658753107798828345547361076017575654483799402371836907747265012160401264695575747169245096058668289787371910552864252505650844007753216095665996846081128723595361247051142491319471157557907994167044985552430069909559189015500650683642252815012648505669836152188157550020294644803653093950861400413480296254413605092412825727766054537552225414839621715400492526294424400666605023632803448059594480545003363341765388556331578858214125920687535419432043889071734800900670491161174141069575709399873603125808719167071453390413662680279733068581473944601084786167848209711101661817495728030541659017922740447219404923166679261896719122909289238885536601710052294407711666510218846872704360477093310455101971940771269931649588894232417431124227622713023148554704830927909140873218722217970354504917150861196500322131709613059560877250827004754093365772015415732862474654733133588859739965575691006087233452194034911984314005533176759150867557117332077250657769056142304956209141663845289345650

When Woot announced last week that it was going to be acquired by Amazon.com, just about everyone wrote about it. However, of the many media organizations that covered the deal, only one has floated a policy that would charge bloggers for the kind of excerpting that's historically been considered fair use. So, when the Associated Press, in writing about the Woot-Amazon deal, borrowed some of Woot's own verbiage, the deal-a-day site struck back and told the wire service it expected $17.50 for the words. Or the AP could just buy two pairs of Sennheiser in-ear headphones and call it even.

We'll let Woot put it in their own words, though we really don't need a new set of earbuds:

The AP, we can’t thank you enough for looking our way. You see, when we showed off our good news on Wednesday afternoon, we expected we’d get a little bit of attention. But when we found your little newsy thing you do, we couldn’t help but notice something important. And that something is this: you printed our web content in your article! The web content that came from our blog! Why, isn’t that the very thing you’ve previously told nu-media bloggers they’re not supposed to do?

So, The AP, here we are. Just to be fair about this, we’ve used your very own pricing scheme to calculate how much you owe us. By looking through the link above, and comparing your post with our original letter, we’ve figured you owe us roughly $17.50 for the content you borrowed from our blog post, which, by the way, we worked very very hard to create. But, hey. We’re all friends here. And invoicing is such a hassle in today’s paperless society, are we right? How about this: instead of cutting us a check for the web content you liberated from our site, all you’ll need to do is show us your email receipt from today’s two pack of Sennheiser MX400 In-Ear Headphones, and we’ll call it even.

The AP report on the Amazon deal quoted roughly a sentence and a half from a post written by Woot CEO Matt Rutledge. However, given that the AP has previously suggested that writers pay for the right to quote as few as five words, $17.50 for Rutledge's 17 words, seems like a deal. Though at $6.99 plus $5.00 for shipping, the earbuds are a much better deal.

Sennheiser In-Ear Headphones - 2 Pack [Woot.com]

Well, I guess that pretty much sums it up.

[Via Nerdcore]

Related posts:

1. World Cup Forecasting the Analysts Way
2. World Cup heads up 3D TV push
3. Big Bang Theory + Wil Wheaton + Penny Arcade = Geek Win

Although we generally focus on tangible tech over the business end of things, a compelling Pandora job opening came across my desk this evening. I’m no expert in the market or finance, but I know someone who is. And he’s quite intrigued with the listed responsibilities of an incoming Senior Revenue Specialist, which include:

• Participate in the SEC reporting process, XBRL experience a plus.
• Understanding of FAS123r, FAS123 and other equity accounting/pronouncements and tax issues.

While these bullets are gibberish to me, it leads my source to believe Pandora is likely gearing up for a public offering. And you wouldn’t have to be a day trader to recognize Pandora’s been on a tear. Not to mention, both the New York Times and Techcrunch have previously reported an IPO could be in the cards.

Click to enlarge:

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Ohio cops have been granted superpowers by the state's supreme court, which has ruled that officers needn't bother with such needless trivialities as radar guns. A visual estimate of speed is all that's necessary to give a driver a ticket, the court decided in a 5-1 vote.

WLWT reports:

The dissenting justice said that applying a broad standard to officers' observations should not override juries' instructions to determine the credibility of the officer and testimony in question.

Cincinnati's chief deputy prosecutor, Charles Rubenstein, told News 5's John London that police have used visual estimation of speeding around this part of Ohio for years.

Good to know that Ohio police took the initiative to let their eyes do the clocking in advance of the court system's go-ahead. Because, you know, practice makes perfect.

Court: Officer's Speed Estimate Enough For Ticket [WLWT Cincinnati]
(Thanks, Ted!)