Filed under: Cell Phones, Celebrities, iPhone

In a story that seems ripe to be translated into a modern-day cinematic update of ‘Annie,’ a Chinese woman has gone from factory worker to national celebrity after her photo was accidentally loaded onto an Apple iPhone — and into the hands on an unsuspecting new owner.

According to company spokesperson Liu Kun, the woman was snapped by her coworker, an iPhone quality tester in manufacturer Foxconn’s factory in Shenzhen. She smiled and made a peace sign for the camera, and her colleague apparently forgot to delete the photo from the phone. It was sold in Britain shortly thereafter, and the owner immediately posted the images on the Web.

According to Liu, the woman was “unsettled” by the sudden fame, after her photo graced Web sites and newspapers around the world. Fortunately, her bosses have assured her that her job was safe, and that the company wouldn’t release her personal information to the public.

“Even passers-by recognize her face and can’t help noticing her,” Liu said. “She is quite nervous right now because she never experienced this much attention.” It’s not the first time such a thing has happened, but Kun insists that his company is working with Apple to prevent such accidents in the future.

“Small mistakes are unavoidable,” he said. “I would call this a beautiful mistake.”

Looks like our little movie has a title, folks. [From: AOL Money & FInance]

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Filed under: TV

What we’re watching tonight:

• ESPNU HD (720p) premieres HD with Vanderbilt/Miami (OH) at 7 p.m.
• NBC (1080i) brings NFL with Jaguars/Redskins at 7 p.m.
• ESPN HD (720p) kicks off the college football season with North Carolina State/South Carolina at 7 p.m.
• USA (1080i) has U.S. Open Tennis at 7 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) lines up ‘Some Assembly Required‘ at 8 & 8:30 p.m., followed by ‘Destroyed in Seconds‘ at 10 p.m.
• ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC & PBS has the Democratic National Convention at 10 p.m.
• History (1080i) brings ‘The Works’ at 10 p.m.
• A&E (720p) has ‘Jacked: Auto Theft Task Force‘ at 10:30 p.m.
• ESPN2 HD (720p) brings college football with Oregon State/Stanford at 9 p.m.
• FSN (720p) has college football with Wake Forest/Baylor at 8 p.m.

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Filed under: Computers, Top Lists

Whenever you’re on the Web, chances are there’s someone looking to take advantage of you. We know it and you know it. Still, many people browse the Internet as if there are no threats to their security, blissfully ignorant of the many ways they leave themselves vulnerable — especially to crimes such as ID theft or financial theft. Since we at Switched have your back, we’ve compiled a list of common mistakes people make online and solutions to correct them.

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Filed under: Cell Phones

Ready for some truly staggering figures? VeriSign has reported that it delivered some 95.4 billion text messages between US carriers in the first six months of the year, setting a new record. Single-day and single-hour records were also set in the same period — 648 million and 42 million, respectively — proving that Americans are finally warming up en masse to text messaging as a totally valid means of communicating, probably thanks in no small part to the proliferation of devices like the enV2, Rumor, and Blitz. If you can call the complete bastardization of the English language used during texting “communicating,” that is. [From: RCR Wireless News]

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Filed under: Audio/Video, Computers, Celebrities

The upcoming Guns N’ Roses album ‘Chinese Democracy‘ is the ‘Duke Nukem Forever‘ of the music world. Its imminent release has become the butt of so many jokes we’re beginning to feel mean about picking on Axl Rose and his motley band of hired guns that now make up the iconic ’90s-era band.

Back in June, nine semi-finished sounding tracks surfaced online that were supposedly from the eternally forth-coming Guns N’ Roses comeback album. Kevin Cogill (a blogger) somehow got his hands on the tracks and posted them on his blog, Antiquiet. Well, it turns out that ‘Chinese Democracy’ might not just be a Santa-Claus-type tale parents spin to convince kids to behave, because it turns out that the tracks were quickly pulled down and Cogill was slapped with a cease and desist order.

Things quickly got worse, though. In the latest turn of events, Cogill has been hauled in by the FBI and charged with violation of federal copyright laws. Cogill faces up to three years in prison and $250,000 in fines. And that doesn’t include civil suits that could be brought by Axl and others with an interest in the copyrighted material.

Seems like a high price to pay just to share some crappy songs from a has-been and a bunch of no-names posing as a great band. [From: New York Magazine]

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Filed under: Computers

The Dead Sea Scrolls are among the most important finds of the twentieth century. Discovered in the 1940s, the badly deteriorated pieces of parchment that make up this 2,000-year-old edition of the Hebrew Bible have been carefully preserved, but continue to fade and fall apart with each handling. This has led to reluctance in granting scholars access for viewing and studying, but that’s changing with an effort to digitally photograph all the scrolls and post them online for anyone to view.

The scrolls are on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where the digital photography is taking place. The photographs will include images of what the scrolls look like today, as well as scans of older infrared photographs taken back in the 1950s. Naturally, you can’t just run them through any ‘ol scanner, so it’s going to take another one to two years before the photographing is completed, and then some months or years after that before everything shows up online.

What happens after that is anyone’s guess, but there’s still considerable debate about the nature and intended order of the scrolls, and we’re guessing there are plenty of folks online who can’t wait to try to figure it all out for themselves. [Source: The New York Times]

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Filed under: Computers, Summer Fun

At long last, Internet access is finally becoming consistently available on flights around the country (and the world). While most technophiles like us are completely jazzed at the prospect of surfing while jet-setting, other folks aren’t so sure. As you can see from the above video, many parents and other porn-averse folks are concerned that mile-high-Wi-Fi will just open the door to some shady fliers surfing illicit porn sites as they cross the country. They might be right — US Air is indicating it won’t filter ‘Net access, but will instead rely on its stewardesses to maintain the peace and handle any complaints.

This, too, has people up in arms, particularly the stewardesses who say they already have enough to do without having to worry about looking for smut (it sure is a long way from the days of ‘Coffee, Tea, or Me.’). But we’re inclined to think this is being blown way out of proportion. People have been watching R-rated DVDs and videos on laptops mid-flight for years now and we haven’t exactly heard a flood of complaints yet.

What do you think? Should in-flight Internet be censored? [From: CNN]

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Filed under: Audio/Video, TV, Home Video, Televisions

Sony’s taken the crown in the race for thinnest LCD HDTV. At just 9.9mm thick the KDL-40ZX1 nearly halves the depth of Hitachi’s former champ (likely throwing up in the bathroom right now) and comes within a whisper of Pioneer’s ultra thin concept. Featuring a LED backlighting, a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 120Hz MotionFlow tech, x.v.Color and BRAVIA Engine 2 image processing this is about as close to a 40-inch window on your wall as is likely to arrive soon.

Only one HDMI in is directly on the screen itself, all unnecessary HDMI / USB / component inputs are relegated to a base station, with the option for wired or — possibly WHDI based? — 5Ghz wireless (unfortunately limited to 1080i max resolution for now). We’d mention the XMB GUI, AcTVila video on-demand and DLNA support, but at some point it’s just piling on. A mere 490,000 yen ($4,474 U.S.) puts the ZX1 on your wall, due at your local Japanese retailer November 10. See you there? [Via AV Watch]

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Filed under: Audio/Video, Cell Phones, Computers, iPhone

Well, a gaping security hole has been found in the iPhone that makes us wonder how much quality control this thing really went through. It looks like a would be data thief could get access to much of your personal information and many of the applications on your iPhone — even if your device is locked with a passcode.

The trick is simple: The data thief slides to unlock the phone, and, when prompted for a passcode, hits the emergency call button. A quick double tap of the home button will bring up your ‘Favorites’ for anyone who knows this trick, which means potential thieves would then be able to access contact information for anyone in your favorites list. Worse still, all of that contact information is associated with applications that can be now be launched directly from the favorites window without a passcode. Double click on a contact’s e-mail address and pull up the Mail application. Web site associated with the contact? Safari will launch. Click ‘Send Text Message’ to pull up the text message inbox.

Clearly, clicking ‘emergency call’ should not unlock any applications except the dialer. , Luckily, there is a simple fix for the hole — change the behavior of the home button. If you go into your Settings menu and change a double click on the home button to bring up the home screen or iPod functions instead of your favorites list, you should be safe… for now. [From: TUAW]

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Filed under: Computers, Google

It was only a matter of time before satellite imagery started sneaking its way into every possible aspect of life. Law enforcement officials are using satellite surveillance imagery left and right in their work, while other folks with way too much time on their hands use satellite photos from Google Earth to study the natural orientation of cows. Thankfully, a French wine consultancy group (ICV) and Infoterra are making use of satellite images for something beyond the terrifying and stupid.

The two group have combined satellite images and aerial photographs to create Oenoview, a system that allows vintners to identify characteristics of large swaths of a grape crop. This allows vineyards to estimate beforehand the quality and worth of a crop, long before it is harvested.

However, not many French vineyards are jumping to use the system. Oenoview comes with a very high price tag, though Infoterra and the ICV expect that many grape growers will come around as competition from vineyards in Italy, Spain, and the United States increases. [From: Reuters]

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