Has iPhone mania gone too far? Scams and speculation rife

andy-merrett.jpgAndy Merrett writes…

I’m looking forward to the imminent release of the iPhone, even if it is taking place thousands of miles away from the UK, but it seems that every day someone has a new theory as to exactly when the iPhone will start being sold, and an utterly convincing reason for why they’re right.

The latest date is June 29th, and that’s true because a local manager in one of the AT&T mobile phone stores saw an email telling her. Apparently, they’ll all arrive in the dead of night (or maybe, mid afternoon) on June 28th, ready for packs of hungry iPhone fans (and not the occasional eBay scammer) to swoop in and sign up.

That doesn’t necessarily negate the “official letter” from AT&T telling staff that annual leave during this period would be discouraged.

Will ad-funded TV streams kill off the video download market?

stu-mugshot2.jpgStuart Dredge writes…

There’s no shortage of big firms trying to sell us video downloads, including Apple and Microsoft. In theory, they should be pushing at an open door. Faster broadband connections are more widespread, devices like Apple TV make it easy to watch these downloads on our proper TVs, and more people have video iPods or PMPs to watch these vids on the go, too.

Ten ways the government will spy on us using technology

spies.jpgDid you know that every time you walk down the high street, your movements are logged by 16 CCTV cameras? And the footage is transmitted directly to MI5 headquarters, to be tagged and analysed. By robots. This is the Big Brother nation we live in, etc etc.

But the government won’t stop there. For most of us, new technology is just a new way to listen to our music / manage our working lives / record every episode of M*A*S*H ever made to view on our watch. But for The Man, new technology offers a myriad of ways to spy on us. Here’s ten of the most nefarious.