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Reuters - Journalists in the Gaza Strip held a
symbolic work stoppage on Monday as part of a protest to demand
that Israel explain why its troops killed a Reuters cameraman
in the Palestinian enclave two months ago to the day.

Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush is
ranked only slightly above the rulers of Pakistan and Iran as
one of the least-trusted leaders in the world, a survey
released on Monday showed.

AP - Al Gore made his debut in the 2008 presidential campaign Monday night, encouraging voters to back Barack Obama because “take it from me, elections matter.”

Filed under: Accessories, Multimedia, Rumors, Apple

According to a recent MacRumors posting, Apple might be working on a “next generation” high definition iSight camera. This comes after a reference in the localization strings file for QuickTime shows “iSight HD” as one of the import devices.

You can see the localization strings for “iSight HD” by opening the following file in either QuickLook (space bar) or by opening it in TextEdit: /System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings

Once you have the file opened, you can clearly see where Apple has placed the following bit of code:
/* Next Generation USB iSight */
“iSight HD” = “iSight HD”;

We should note that while this code has been found, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple will release a new iSight product, but this does give us hope.

Filed under: iPhone

MacNN noted in a recent post that AT&T is listing the iPhone as having a 1.4 Mbps connection (down-stream) while other 3G phones such as the Motorola Q have upwards of 3.6 Mbps connections. If you are thinking that this is a typo on AT&T’s website, think again, because it was also mentioned in their press release about the iPhone (PDF link).

The mobile phones, of course, have a slower connection compared to the 3G cards that AT&T offers. Some of the 3G cards can connect as fast as 7.2 Mbps down. So while Apple is touting their “3G speeds approaching WiFi speeds” you have to wonder why is AT&T limiting the bandwidth on the iPhone 3G so much.

Update: MacNN updated their post shortly after this posting. MacNN’s sources are saying that the 1.4 Mbps speed is “observed” speed over the network.

Filed under: Hardware, Rumors

Speaking of Intel, The Register is reporting that the chipmaker is preparing three, next-generation processors based on its “Nehalem” architecture, with the fastest topping out at 3.2 GHz. Each processor has four cores with eight processing threads.

The chip architecture, codenamed “Bloomfield,” is targeted mostly at gamers. This is purely speculation, of course, but Apple’s mid-range high-end desktops could be good candidates for the chips as well.

Intel anticipates the processors will be available in the fourth quarter of 2008.

[Via AMD vs. Intel.]

Visual browsing of webpages and media is an increasingly attractive prospect for Internet users. Names like Viewzi, Searchme come to mind, as do inventions like Tag Galaxy and even MSNBC’s Spectra RSS news reader. This weekend, one market player, PicLens, developed by Cooliris, is stepping forward with some advancements and additions to its engine.

PicLens version 1.7, now available for Mozilla Firefox editions 2.0 and 3.0 (Release Candidate), on both Windows and Mac, as well as Microsoft Internet Explorer, offers users the option to browse not only video clips and images from YouTube, Flickr, Photobucket, Facebook (as well as images discovered through Google Image search and other services), but also view material from MSNBC, ESPN, and movie trailers. Users can also browse for products on Amazon through a process akin to, in the words of Cooliris, “window shopping.” PicLens now presents a search box and a pull-down menu of categories to filter through the online retail warehouse and find products one might be interested in.

This release of PicLens is certainly an advance over the last in terms of features, with both premium media and shopping rolled into a browser add-on that has shown itself to be one of the best of its kind. If the previous edition didn’t offer you enough options in its 3D-like viewing environment, 1.7 is no doubt a more substantive push by its creator.

The PicLens 1.7 download is free of cost, and essentially functions the same as the previous iteration - albeit with more a good deal more stuff to look at. A Safari-compatible option for 1.7 has yet to be delivered.

Wired’s Gadget Lab details how to create a better iPhone or iPod touch ebook reader using the Books application on a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch and a Moleskine notebook. In a nutshell, you strip out a hole in the book secret hollow book-style just the size of your iPhone. It may seem stupid, but if you’ve ever tried holding that small little phone as a book for any amount of time, it gets uncomfortable. This little hack gives you the same feel of reading a book but all the touch navigation ebookness of an iPhone. Hit the jump for a look at the time-lapse video of the Moleskine Reader in the making.

Before you dive in, you may also want to add a slot at the top of the book to pull your headphone cord through à la the iPhone-in-a-book carrier.