fast food usb drives: i can has cheeseburger and fries with that

Now we’ve certainly seen our share of odd food-themed USB drives here at technabob, but it seems that there’s an entire cottage industry in China dedicated to creating a never-ending supply of even weirder flash memory devices, seemingly just so we can write about them.

usb_cheeseburger

These fast food USB drives come in two flavors: cheeseburger and french fry. The french fry drive stores 4GB of files, and tastes better with salt and ketchup and sells for $19.99 (USD). The 8GB cheeseburger memory is already loaded with all of the toppings you’d want on a burger and sells for $29.99.

french_fry_usb_drive

At this point, they’re not offering any Chicken McNugget, Filet ‘O Fish or McRib drives, but I figure it’s only a matter of time before they do.

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Yahoo Comes Full Circle With Retreat From Search

Source:http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=8207337
by jano
Yahoo Inc. invested billions of dollars in its Internet search engine during the past six years before realizing it made more sense to entrust the job to an outsider — hearkening back to a conclusion the company's co-founders reached shortly after they started their Web directory in the mid-1990s.The latest shift in direction will put rival Microsoft Corp. in control of the search results and the ads that appear alongside search results on Yahoo's highly trafficked Web site, assuming the proposed partnership is approved by antitrust regulators in the United States and Europe.The 10-year deal announced Wednesday blows up a search expansion undertaken under Yahoo's former chief executive, Terry Semel, who resigned under shareholder pressure two years ago. The repudiation of Semel's strategy returns Yahoo to a philosophy embraced by co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo in the company's early days.

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Microsoft’s sweet Yahoo deal to take on Google !!!

Source:http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6736245.ece
By Jano
Not long after Carol Bartz took over at Yahoo in January she dropped the “F Bomb”. Explaining what was wrong at Yahoo, the tough-talking executive said there were “a lot of people running around telling engineers what to do but nobody is f*****g doing anything”.If anything, that endeared Bartz to potential critics. After years of bloodless management, here was a woman fired up to get Yahoo moving again.She arrived as the floundering internet giant was showing co-founder Jerry Yang the door. Shareholders were furious that Yahoo had rebuffed a $33-a-share offer from Microsoft and today the shares are worth less than half that.It had lost its way defending against the software giant and was falling ever further behind Google. Bartz was going to give Yahoo “some friggin’ breathing room” so it could “kick some butt”. Seven months later it’s Bartz’s butt that is getting the kicking. She is accused of selling off Yahoo’s crown jewel for a song.Microsoft finally reached a deal with Yahoo last week to, in effect, take over its search business. It will make Microsoft’s Bing search service Yahoo’s search engine, handing the Windows software giant almost 30% of the search market and is the end of an era in internet search, reducing the field to two key players: Microsoft and arch enemy Google.Microsoft will pay Yahoo 88% of the search revenue generated from its sites in the first five years of the agreement, the companies said. But for Yahoo, once the leader in online search, it is the end of the road.

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Google sill in love with Youtube

Source:http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/07/31/google-still-loves....By Jano
The video-sharing site loses money and has failed to attract quality studio programming. So why does Google continue to pump money into it?YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley (left) and product manager Salar Kamangar YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley (left) and product manager Salar Kamangar You would think Google’s executive triumvirate — CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page — would be worried about YouTube. Almost three years after they forked over $1.65 billion in stock to acquire the video-sharing site, YouTube last year delivered only an estimated $240 million in revenue and is deeply in the red.YouTube is the largest video platform in the world. Users upload 20 hours of video to it each minute, at tremendous cost to Google (GOOG). The company doesn’t break out YouTube’s expenses, but analysts believe it spends tens of millions of dollars each month just on network capacity to host all those videos.And, oh, what videos! Four years after its inception YouTube remains a repository for “long tail” content that appeals to niche audiences: clips of cats on skateboards, babies laughing, and kids lip-synching. (There are occasional mass-audience moments, like the clip of Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent, viewed 71 million times.) Gallery: See YouTube’s greatest hits But despite Google’s repeated efforts, YouTube has failed to create an environment for professional video content, where many advertisers are clamoring to put their money right now.Instead, Google’s executives have watched rival Hulu, a joint venture of GE’s NBC, News Corp.’s Fox, and now Disney’s ABC, catapult to success among consumers and advertisers alike. With its sharp media player and an interface that feels comfortingly like traditional television, Hulu has become the second-most-watched video site (after YouTube) since it launched in March 2008 and began hosting episodes of Saturday Night Live and The Office. YouTube’s attempt to capitalize on professional content? A tab on the site marked “Shows” that is home to programs like Bewitched. Really.

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Mozilla Firefox Hits 1 Billion Downloads

Source:http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Mozilla-Firefox-Hits-by Jano
Mozilla Firefox, the open-source challenger to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, passed the 1-billion download mark on July 31, with a Web site and Twitter feed marking the occasion. Although Firefox has managed to seize an increasing percentage of the consumer market since its original rollout in 2002, its gains have been somewhat slower in the enterprise, where a variety of factors have kept Internet Explorer as the browser of choice for many IT administrators.Mozilla's Firefox browser hit 1 billion downloads on July 31, with the open-source foundation using the occasion to trumpet itself as a viable alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.On August 3, Mozilla plans to launch a Web site to mark the achievement; details of the site content are under wraps, but the foundation plans on highlighting "how global and diverse our community has become," according to a posting on a corporate site. Mozilla also set up an account on Twitter counting towards that 1-billion mark.Resource Library:Navigating The Recession For Competitive Advantage With IBM's Dynamic Warehousin Stripping Complexity from SMB IT: Virtualization Does It Data in Action: Effective data management for smarter outcomes Integrating SharePoint with Lotus Notes: Drive SharePoint Adoption While Managin At the moment Firefox hit that milestone, the browser was being downloaded some 24 times per second.Since its original release in 2002, Firefox has slowly managed to gain market-share in the consumer market. A report by research firm StatCounter in early July found that the various versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer held 54.4 percent market share, down from 65.8 percent in March 2009, while the next-to-newest version of Firefox, 3.0, held a 27.6 percent market share.

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Gaming on the Apple iPhone

Since Apple launched its iTunes Application Store in July 2008, iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded more than a billion “apps” - city guides, translation dictionaries, travel tools, photo-sharing widgets and restaurant-finding applications - on to their devices.But it is the unexpected success of the iPhone and iPod touch as a gaming platform that has taken everyone by surprise.The touch-screen interface and motion-sensing capabilities of Apple’s devices have allowed video-game developers to experiment with new kinds of gameplay. Instead of simply bashing buttons, as on a conventional hand-held games console, players instead tap the screen of their iPhone, or move the device itself, to control on‑screen action.Games account for 14 of the 20 most popular paid-for iPhone and iPod touch applications of all time, and six of the top 20 free applications.While games companies such as Sony and Nintendo are largely dismissive of the threat posed by the iPhone and iPod touch in the portable gaming space, they ignore the platform at their peril. Apple has sold more than 35 million touch-screen devices worldwide since July 2007, creating a huge potential audience for a growing number of game developers who are making titles specifically for Apple’s gadgets.
And a recent software update has enabled the use of micropayments in applications - this means that users will be able to make in-game purchases, splashing real money on virtual weapons, armour and new levels, generating more revenue for Apple and game makers, and keeping players engaged with their favourite games.

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Windows Mobile to be Windows Phone!

Now, this is one rumor we seriously wish remains a rumor. So, someone from Microsoft's naming department (we made that up, alright) seems to think Windows Mobile, the age old mobile operating system needs a name change. And why not? In the midst of the Androids and the OSX'es of the world, Windows Mobile juts out like a Ford Model T in the midst of a dozen Lamborghinis.So, after zillions of round table conferences and board room meetings, they seem to have come up with the "Windows Phone" moniker for the revolutionary Windows Mobile 7 (sigh) OS that is set to hit the shelves by next year. This is not the first time we have seen Microsoft's obsession with the word "phone". In fact, earlier this year, we had heard of the same name crop up and then die a natural death. If the rumors have sprung up again, it more or less looks likely that this one might just not remain a rumor.Why would someone want to change something that's been doing so well? Windows Mobile is still cool! Why fix it if it's not broken Microsoft?

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Researchers identify critical iPhone security flaw

Researchers have identified a critical iPhone security flaw that could allow hackers to take control of the shiny device. Although Club Cupertino was warned of the ulnerability in July, it has yet to issue a patch or even comment on the issue.Security experts Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner explained that the public needed to be cognizant of the fact that iPhones were at least as vulnerable to attack as personal computers."If we don't talk about it, somebody is going to do it silently," Mulliner told Reuters at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. "The bad guys are going to do it no matter what."According to Mulliner, hackers could exploit the flaw to prevent users from making calls, acccessing the Internet and exchanging text messages. He added that the two have already tested the hacks on four German carrier networks. The hacks - which are reportedly enabled by an SMS memory corruption bug - were also successfully implemented over the AT&T network in the US.

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Microsoft Released Silverlight 3 !!!

Report By Jano
Microsoft has rolled out Silverlight 3 with a lot of new stuff including the Smooth screening feature. Silverlight is a browser plugin that enables rich media experience, audio playback, vector graphics and animation. Silverlight 3 was released a day early, as it was supposed to be out officially on July 10. Currently, Silverlight 3 supports Internet Explorer 6/7/8, Firefox 2/3 and Safari 3/4 browsers - no support for Opera and Chrome browsers.Microsoft's Silverlight is a direct rival of Adobe Flash and is available for download from Microsoft's Silverlight site.This new Silverlight 3 RTW (3.0.40264.0) version brings along a number of features, including Smooth Screening, GPU hardware acceleration, H.264/AAC/MPEG-4 Video support, and out-of-the-browser experience without any additional plugin downloads. Thousands of other API features are enumerated by Tim Heuer, program manager for Microsoft Silverlight. Microsoft touts that Silverlight 3 brings streaming of high-definition video in full screen with stutter-free live and on-demand video. For a demo of Smooth Screening, head to this special link for checking out the Smooth Screening experience of playing HD video at any point of time, instantly. The third version will allow streaming of 720p HD content over the web with an ability to Pause and Rewind the video.The GPU hardware acceleration support will allow this framework to make the best of the available graphics in the user's system. Apart from that, version 3 is a mash up of streaming video and offering Rich Internet Applications experiences. Developers would be able to create Silverlight based apps so that videos can be seen even if the browser is shut off.

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World Has 2,000 BlackBerry Apps

Report By Jano
In just over 4 months, Research in Motion managed to get double their applications on their App World store for the BlackBerry in hopes to get more Apple users on their side. This will be pretty hard to achieve, seeing that the iPhone App Store now has about 50,000 applications up and running.Although they're not even close, RIM is pretty happy with the number of apps, saying that "it doesn't matter whether it's 40,000 or 2,000, you've still got a broad range of choice".This month, RIM's 2,000 BlackBerry apps will be available to users in France, Italy, Germany and Spain, with Brazil and India to follow in the coming months.

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The first men to walk on the Moon

Report By Jano
The crew of Apollo 11, the first men to walk on the Moon, helped their families plan for their deaths before they launched, memorabilia to be sold at auction has revealed.When the crew of Apollo 11 set off for the moon in 1969, they were feted as heroes and praised as pioneers.But mementoes to be sold at an auction commemorating the mission's 40th anniversary shows how the three astronauts secretly feared they may be on a one-way ticket – and how they helped their families to plan for their deaths.With insurance companies unwilling to cover them for such a treacherous venture, and aware that government compensation in the event of their demise could be modest, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins dreamed up an idea for securing their loved ones' futures: autographed first-day covers.One of the signed envelopes – bearing the Apollo 11 mission emblem and postmarked at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, on July 16, 1969, the day of the launch – is among 400 lots going under the hammer in a sale of rare space memorabilia at Bonhams auction house in New York."Since we were unable to obtain adequate life insurance due to the high risk nature of being an astronaut, we signed this group of covers and evenly distributed them to our families for safe keeping while we performed our mission," explained Buzz Aldrin, 79, in an accompanying letter certifying authenticity."If an unfortunate event prevented our safe return, the covers would have provided a limited financial means of support to our families."The auction, one of many events marking the anniversary later this month, is expected to draw bidding from space enthusiasts and collectors around the world, and raise at least $1.5 million. (Report By Jano)

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Lightning delays shuttle launch

Report By Jano
The launch of US shuttle Endeavour has been delayed after a thunderstorm around Cape Canaveral, Nasa officials say.Blast-off was postponed for 24 hours to allow technical teams to assess the effects of lightning strikes near the launch pad on Friday.Two previous launch attempts in June were scrapped because of a potentially hazardous leak in a hydrogen vent line.The craft is to take and install a last piece of Japan's space station lab.Lift-off had been scheduled for 1939 local time (2339 GMT) on Saturday.But on Friday evening, the area surrounding the launch pad was hit by 11 lightning strikes.Head of mission Mike Moses said the launch would take place at 1913 local time (2313 GMT) on Sunday.He added weather forecasts suggested there was a 60% chance of acceptable conditions for take-off.Nasa: 'We're just being cautious'Forecasters earlier had predicted that stormy weather could delay the launch.The launch pad is rigged with lightning protection system designed to attract bolts away from the shuttle.But Nasa said that while none of the strikes hit the shuttle or its external tank and rocket boosters, there were strikes to the lightning mast and water tower.Mike Moses, chairman of the pre-launch Mission Management Team, said checks were continuing but there was no indication so far of any damage to the shuttle's systems."We need to be 100% confident that we have a good system across the board," he said.

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Check Twitter for Bargains

By Jano
Businesses from your preferred airline to your favorite cafe are using Twitter to trumpet last-minute discounts and giveaways. You, too, can get looped in to these immediate and often exclusive deals.Users of the social network (Twitter.com) can sign up to "follow" stores or clubs they like. Messages, or "tweets," from businesses, like those from individual users, are limited to 140 characters.The best bargains, such as free meals at your local diner or cross-country flights for less than $20, may be gone in a few hours."For people that are on the go all the time, this is a great way to find the deal and it might be the only way to find a deal," said Hillary Mendelsohn, who uses Twitter to find bargains for her Web site, thepurplebook.com, an online shopping guide.Find your favorite businesses by using the search or "Find People" tools on Twitter.com. A quick search for a key phrase like "deals to Vegas" or "cheap laptops" will also yield a stream of messages, which you can then re-post to share with other users or keep to yourself -- you don't have to post tweets to take advantage of these deals.Stick to brands and names you trust to avoid scams and be wary of imposters, since Twitter is still developing a verification process for users who register well-known names..

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Apple iTunes App Store is 1 year old this week

Report By Jano
In case you didn’t know, Apple are celebrating the 1 year old milestone of the iTunes App Store this week. As a result of this, the company are promoting and recommending some of their favourite apps and games.As reported from Cnet, in just one year, the Apple App store has managed to accumulate more than 50,000 apps, a staggering number when you think about it. They have also notched up more than 1 billion app downloads and made the App store one of the most essential things about the iPhone.Well I guess congratulations is in order, isn’t it? Well not if your an angry developer who have had their apps swiftly declined by Apple. Let us know your thoughts on the milestone.

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YouTube Became hit by Singer's airline tune !!!

Report By Jano
A strung-out musician who blames United Airlines for breaking his prize guitar has taken revenge by writing a song that has become a YouTube hit.Dave Carroll composed "United Breaks Guitars" after his Taylor acoustic was damaged at Chicago's O'Hare airport.The fretting Canadian said he wrote the tune after months of trying to get the carrier to pay compensation.United Airlines said the 41-year-old musician's song would be used for internal customer service training.Mr Carroll says his instrument was wrecked by clumsy ground staff as he switched planes last year in Chicago, en route between Halifax and Nebraska. The musician was left with a 1,400 Canadian dollar ($1,200; £740) repair bill, he says.When the airline apparently struck a bum public relations note by refusing to take responsibility, he made the humorous folk music video and posted it online.Featuring his friends posing as indifferent flight attendants and butter-fingered baggage handlers, by Friday the clip had been viewed nearly 1.4m times on the video-sharing website.A United Airlines spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times: "His video is excellent and we plan to use it internally as a unique learning and training opportunity to ensure that all our customers receive better service."

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* News * Technology * Google Google's new platform Chrome aims to show Microsoft's Windows the door

It is the technology industry's equivalent of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. Google, the web upstart founded 11 years ago, has announced it will go head-to-head with Microsoft with an operating system (OS) – the programs that make a computer work – for machines ranging from handhelds up to desktop computers.If Google can get enough people to buy computers running its new Chrome OS, it will cut into Microsoft's two biggest cash cows: Windows and its Office suite of programs, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft, which once spoke of "cutting off the air supply" of a web-based rival, Netscape, has woken up to find a new threat reaching for its throat.The confrontation has been expected for years – despite Google's insistence it had no such ambitions – but it still caught observers by surprise when a Google spokeswoman confirmed to IT news service IDG that it plans to announce this week the names of computer makers in Taiwan and China signed up to work with Chrome OS, and said that it will show off Chrome's user interface later this year.The challenge to Microsoft is implicit, yet also direct. In a blog post, Sundar Pichai, Google's vice-president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, explained that "the operating systems that browsers [used to access pages on the web] run on were designed in an era when there was no web". That is a swipe at Windows, which dates back to the 1990s. Pichai and Upson also promise that with Chrome OS, "we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS" to ensure that "users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates" – another swipe.

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Gmail, Google Apps Finally Out of Beta

It may be difficult to believe, but Gmail and Google Apps are finally out of beta, indicating Google is getting serious about marketing its products to large businesses."More than 1.75 million companies around the world run their business on Google Apps, including Google," the official Google blog states. "We've come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn't fit for large enterprises that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase. So we've focused our efforts on reaching our high bar for taking products out of beta, and all the applications in the Apps suite have now met that mark."Gmail users aren't going to notice a difference, but it's true that removing the beta tag may help Google convince companies to begin using paid versions of its software. Google hopes to get Gmail, Docs, Calendar and other software it develops into the corporate workplace, charging companies for additional perks and benefits unavailable in the free versions.Furthermore, removing the beta tag from some its services indicates their maturity and a stronger dedication towards the corporate workplace.Joining Gmail and Google Apps, the Mountain View-based company also removed the beta tag for Google Calendar and Google Talk (enterprise and consumer); with many computer users previously wondering if the popular services would always be in beta.Although Gmail and other services have continually had a beta tag since launch, they've been stable, reliable services for both home users and businesses for quite some time now. It's unsure why the services remained in beta so long, with Google lacking a true set of policies or rules as to when software can be removed from beta.Google continues to be well known for creating multiple services for its users, but then seemingly keeping all of its services in beta. The company still has dozens of other services and programs that are still in beta, and it's obviously highly unlikely they'll all lose their beta tags in the future.

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ANALYSIS-Google-Microsoft war may bring down PC prices

Report By Jano
Google Inc's (GOOG.O) bid to compete with Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Windows operating system may help lower the cost of personal computers at a time when prices are already being pinched by inexpensive netbooks Google said it will offer its just-announced Chrome operating system for free when it is launched in the second half of 2010, a move that could force Microsoft into a price war.Although Windows is the dominant operating system -- installed on 90 percent of the world's PCs, Microsoft won't take Google's challenge lightly, analysts said. Its new Windows 7 operating system will be available in October."Microsoft's strategy is likely to be to compete on price," said Brent Williams, an analyst with the Benchmark Co. "Now there's a competitor with the muscle and the brand recognition. Google is that company."Google said Chrome OS, which is based on the open-source Linux code, is being designed for all PCs but will debut on netbooks. It makes sense for Google to initially target the stripped-down, Web-centric netbooks, one of the only segments showing any growth in a PC market that is contracting.Netbooks generally sell for $300 to $400, but prices are dropping as new offerings flood the market and wireless carriers offer subsidies with the purchase of a data plan.Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu noted that while the prices on nearly all PC components have been falling, "the one thing that has not been coming down is the cost of the operating system. This is going to put some pressure on Microsoft."Microsoft doesn't say how much it charges PC brands for Windows, but analysts estimate it gets $20 to $40 for the older XP system used in the vast majority of netbooks, and at least $150 for the current Vista system.Wu said price competition could ultimately give a bump to PC makers' margins."I think overall it should improve the profitability for PC vendors. It's really a question of how much they pass on to the customers," he said. REWRITING THE RULES

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Nokia N97 with £30 of vouchers included!

Report By Jano
Those of you that are not enamoured with the iPhone or Pre might be pleased to know that e-tailers are looking after your Nokia (NYSE: NOK) needs with the N97 and some good deals!eXpansys is one of those companies, and are currently offering the N97 for £499.99 - but with £30 of vouchers in there, for you to spend on what you like in the rest of their store:Buy the Nokia N97 from eXpansys and we’ll give you £30 of eXpansys vouchers to spend on accessories so you can make the most out of your new phone. Why not use them to get yourself a car charger or a spare battery so you never run out of power? Follow this link for full terms and conditions.Running Series 60 5th Edition, the Nokia N97 Smartphone makes connecting more personal with the touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard. Take top-quality 5 megapixel photos and watch widescreen videos on the large screen or download the latest games

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iPhone apps get down to business

Report By Jano
The enduring popularity of the Zippo branded lighter app for the iPhone has not been lost on the business world. Its virtual flame has been spotted lighting up concerts around the world, keeping Zippo safely at the top of the iTunes charts.Australian businesses are now getting in on the act, adding their home grown applications to the iTunes app store in the hope that some of the iPhone's marketing magic rubs off on their brand.Starting out as a cottage industry, most iPhone applications in the app store today are the creation of small developer-entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on the faddish appetite for novelties and gaming applications.While a handful of them have reaped small fortunes from apps that went on to top the charts, it is brand visibility rather than profit that has lured companies like ANZ and Honda Australia onto the platform.Both companies chose to act quickly to gain a presence on the iPhone, to project their brand as innovative and forward thinking. ANZ beat competitors to the punch with its first transactional banking app delivered alongside the Australian iPhone launch - which has since been downloaded 50,000 times.Sam Plowman, head of online banking said: "It was very apparent to us that Apple had developed an interface that would bring forward the use of browser and internet apps on mobiles. We decided we had to be ready with app when the iPhone launched here.''

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