Blog: Getting that new iPhone up and running will require an account with the iTunes Store, perhaps to reinforce the notion that Apple's the primary source of legal digital content.

Rob Griffiths agrees with some of the talk he's overheard at this week's developers conference -- the approach to building third-party apps for the iPhone leaves a lot to be desired.

It's been pretty obvious from the outset that the next generation of DVD formats were doomed to failure without significant changes. What wasn't for consumers to like? Two competing standards, but both featuring restrictive copy protection (though it's really proving typically ineffective) and high prices. Given the fact that standard DVD players deliver good enough picture quality for many people (even if they have an HD television) and both players and content are readily and cheaply available, it's hardly surprising that Toshiba has sliced its sales forecast for HD DVD players, even as HDTV sales remain strong. The company brags that it's got a 60 percent share of the North American market for next-generation DVD players, which is nice and all, but adds that now expects to only sell 1 million of them in the region this year, down from earlier predictions of 1.8 million in calendar 2007, and 3 million in the fiscal year ending in March 2008. The company's trying to flog an unattractive product using a seriously flawed strategy, and until it delivers some changes, sales aren't going to pick up.

Filed under: Transportation

Just as soon as we finished cheering for the Texas Legislature's stance on those pesky speed cameras, the state's Department of Transportation is apparently trying to override their good will. According to a June 10th filing, the Texas DOT is looking to install "turnkey automated speed notification services" on Highway 10 in Hudspeth County and Highway 6 near College Station (watch those lead feet, Aggies). Reportedly, this project is simply to "assess and evaluate all elements" of such a system, but it doesn't take a genius to guess that money's on the brain. Notably, the "quality assurance" section of the plan points out that these suckers will be accurate to within two miles-per-hour in either direction, so your wiggle room is sliced dramatically. Of course, we can all hope that Texas' iteration of the SPECS-style camera is as easy to circumvent as those in Britain.

[Via FARK]

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