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Orange, O2, and T-Mobile agree to iPhone revenue deals
Merely days after we caught wind of Apple's rumored discussions with Vodafone, three other European carriers became the ones to reportedly agree to Apple's terms. According to FinancialTimes, "Apple has succeeded in committing European mobile phone operators that want exclusively to sell its new iPhone to share parts of their revenues with the technology group." The contract, which was signed by T-Mobile Germany, Orange, and O2, "requires that the operators hand over to Apple ten-percent of the revenues made from calls and data transfers by customers over iPhones" -- the same chunk required of those wanting to slap that Made for iPod logo on their accessories. Unfortunately, there's no word just yet on pricing, a launch timeframe, or any other lingering deals with overseas carriers, but we could very well hear more from all sides during IFA.[Via The Boy Genius Report]
Polymer Vision plans to commercialize foldable paper this year
If there's one thing the business-savvy CEOs of the world know, it's that you don't want your competition to get too far ahead of you, and just as Plastic Logic announced its plans to build the first electronic paper plant in Dresden, Germany, Polymer Vision is trying to make good on its nearly two-year old promise. During 2005's IFA expo, Philip assured us all that we'd be blown away by the firm's rollable, bendable displays in a mere two years, and now that 24 months have nearly elapsed, a company spinoff is looking to make it happen. According to a German report, Polymer Vision is still on track for "commercializing the foldable PV-QML5 display" that we've all grown quite fond of. Planning to use the technology in e-books and electronic map guides, the initial 4.8-inch display will tout a 320 x 200 resolution, 10:1 contrast ratio, support for four gray tones, and be only 100 micrometers thick. Sadly, no hard dates were passed down as to when we could expect the first production batch to head out to consumers, but now that there's some serious competition brewing just a few miles down the road, we'd bet a good bit of effort goes into making that 2007 date a reality.[Via I4U]
Multimedia Dome, the ultimate surround-sound theater
You think you have surround sound in your home theater? What if the sound really enveloped you, putting you at the center of the action? Enter the "Multimedia Dome," the "first digital dome theater to feature natual spatial sound." Fraunhofer, the maker of this aural hemisphere (and creator of MP3, among other things), says that films are shown with six projectors (including one at the pinnacle of the dome), and nearly 100 speakers to create a bubble of dynamic sound. Each projector also comes with its own PC, using software to seamlessly blend the borders of each image. If we were in Berlin at this year's IFA, we'd definitely be spending our days kicking back and watching every other company's video product demo in here.
Pretec releases first 8GB SDHC card
If you're someone who really needs the ability to take several hundred photos (or extremely high res photos) while you're in the field, then you may want to drop the three bills for Pretec's 8GB SD card, the first like it that we've seen so far. Pretec says that its card is the largest SD card in the world and is fully compliant with the SD 2.0 (SDHC) specification, and has access speeds up to 20MB per second. While Pretec says you can order one "for sampling," they won't be mass produced until later this year. Unfortunately, SDHC cards aren't backwards compatible, so it looks like we'll have to stick with classic SD cards for our Treos and cameras. We also noticed while checking out Pretec's site that it'll be releasing a 16GB flash drive tomorrow at the IFA show in Berlin, which the company claims is the biggest in the world (and we know that's obviously not the case). No mention of the price yet, but again, like its little cousin, will be available later this year. Man, just a few months ago that we saw the first 4GB SD cards; anyone figured out the Moore's Law for flash memory yet? [Via Geekzone]
Xbox 360 launch pictures from Berlin
Stumbled across this photoset on Flickr of the Xbox 360 launch event in Berlin. The metadata says the pictures were taken on December 3rd, but were just uploaded today. Similar to pictures from the launch event in Mexico City, this venue has undergone a thorough Xbox-branding. Noticeable in the above image are the 360-green lights and flags, while in this image you can barely make out an Xbox Live lamp and a 360 console in the lower right. What sort of people go out for a night and take pictures of one another when they're surrounded by next-gen consoles? We've got to have priorities!
mycitymate: European City Notes for iPod
Here's a neat little tidbit for you iPod users out there who may be travelling to Europe in the near future. On mycitymate.com you can download a guide for select destinations including Berlin, London, Rome, and more.I downloaded and copied the Berlin guide (free with registration) to my iPod nano. The guide is well formatted and each subsection is organized by neighborhood or category. They're not exhaustive guides, but for a free (with registration) collection, the mycitymate guides are a great find. I especially liked the handy "Nearest Metro/Tube" note at the bottom of each entry. Snazzy![via iLounge]
