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Steve Appleton, CEO of Micron, dies in plane crash at 51
Sad news to report this Friday. Steve Appleton, the CEO and Chairman of Micron, died this morning in an airplane crash shortly after takeoff from the Boise, Idaho airport. He was the only one aboard, and was piloting a fixed wing, single engine kit aircraft. Appleton started working at Micron in 1983 shortly after graduating from Boise State University, first working the production line and eventually rising through the ranks to become the company's COO in 1991. He took the reins of Micron in 1994. The plane crash wasn't Appleton's first. In 2004, he and a flying partner walked away from an accident, having sustained only scrapes and bruises. He later commented on his life's passions, which included aircraft aerobatics, "I'm very fortunate, lucky to be able to experience the kinds of things that I do. If my life were to end tomorrow, I've had a full life." Steve Appleton leaves behind a wife and four children. Comments from Micron's Board of Directors, as well as Boise's mayor, Dave Bieter, can be found after the break.[Thanks, Fazzitron]
Verizon rolling out LTE coverage in 21 additional markets on June 16th, wins 4G blackjack
This could be just the news your lonely little Thunderbolt has been waiting for. Verizon today announced the addition of 21 new markets to its LTE coverage, starting June 16th. The list includes some biggish spots, like Boise, ID, Milwaukee / Madison, WI, Salt Lake City, UT, and Hartford, CT -- Northern California will be getting a major coverage boost, as well, with the existing Bay Area coverage being expanded to Marin and Solano counties. The network launched with 38 markets back in December and those, plus these new additions and a handful announced earlier this month, are bringing the company ever closer to its proposed 175 markets by the end of the year. That's a whole lot of green stars.
Final ESPN 3D NCAAF games announced with a Tostitos Fiesta Bowl surprise
Mad you missed ESPN's previous 3D college football broadcasts and worried it might not come back? Then get your DVRs and calendars at the ready, because the network has announced its remaining 3D college football broadcasts will follow the Boise State Broncos as they play the University of Hawaii on Saturday, November 6th at 3:30PM ET and Idaho on Friday, November 22th at 9PM ET. Combined with the first ESPN 3D NCAAF game, this means the heavily debated Broncos will at least temporarily hold the record for most 3D appearances in college football history. Sadly, it won't enhance their bid for the biggest 3D game of the season -- you know, the Tostitos BCS Championship on January 10th. But even if the blue turf's weak schedule woes keep them from the title, at least one of their records could still improve by returning to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl -- which ESPN also shared will be aired in 3D. Obviously waiting is no fun, but unless you jacked Adam Sandler's DVR from Click, reading our college football kickoff review can help pass the time until game day arrives.
Leaked Sprint WiMAX roadmap names new cities for 2009 rollout
Well, what do we have here? One of our readers sent us a screenshot from Sprint's Sales Portal that included the above roadmap for its WiMAX rollout this year. A number of the yet-to-be-launched cities we've already heard about -- Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Charlotte -- but to the best of our knowledge, the rest of them are brand new entries. Additionally, Baltimore residents can look forward to some sort of coverage update in the fourth quarter. We'd be lying if we said we weren't jealous that Salem (population 3,000) and Milledgeville (population 19,000) are getting the wireless network before most of us on staff, but the service has to start somewhere, right? No indication here of 2010 plans, but last we heard that included Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Update: As tipster Carlos points out, Clearwire's website already has some coverage maps for some of the cities listed in the third quarter, as well as some markets not listed here.
DirecTV lights up HD locals in six new markets
DirecTV's a few months behind on finishing up its summer HD locals expansion, but we're pretty sure subscribers in six new markets are willing to forgive the delay now that their favorite broadcast networks are in shining high-def. As of now, customers in Boise, Idaho; Harlingen-Weslaco-Brownsville-McAllen, Texas; Macon, Georgia; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Traverse City-Cadillac, Michigan; and Fort Smith, Arkansas can tap into HD locals via DirecTV, and the satcaster can now claim that over 86% of US households are within range of 'em.
Nano crushed by highway traffic
We've finally found something that can kill an Apple product: 30 minutes of highway traffic. Sam O. wrote in to tell us what happened to his brother's 2G Nano-- his grandmother apparently found it in the driveway, and decided to pick it up and put it on the hood of his car. He didn't realize this had happened, however, until he'd driven out for some errands, so after swearing profusely for a bit, he got back in the car to follow his route and see if he could spot it.It's hot pink, obviously, so he did find it-- just in time to see an 18-wheel semi run it over. The gory results are below. We've seen Apple products take quite a licking and keep on ticking before, but apparently sitting on the highway for 30 minutes in Boise, ID will shut them down for good. Good to know.Of course, the real question is: did AppleCare cover it?%Gallery-6537%
