News

Businessman buys $15 million black-diamond iPhone

What do you do with a 26-carat black diamond that's been in the family for generations? If you're a fan of Apple with a few extra coins clanking around in your pocket, you apparently attach the jewel to an iPhone.

According to CNN and British craftsman Stuart Hughes' Web site, "Joe," a businessman from Hong Kong, commissioned Hughes to turn an iPhone 5 into a shiny $15 million affair.

After crafting a solid gold chassis, Hughes added 600 white diamonds as decoration, and reserved the Home button to be adorned with the aforesaid black diamond. … Read more

T-Mobile: iPhone drove one of the biggest weekends ever for us

T-Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert boasted that the carrier had "one of its biggest weekends in the history of the company" thanks to the launch of the iPhone on Friday.

T-Mobile on Friday launched the iPhone in its stores for the first time, finally catching up to its larger rivals, and even smaller regional carriers. Sievert told CNET that iPhone sales did better than he expected, although he declined to provide specific figures.

"We had really ambitious internal goals, and we beat them," he said.

The iPhone is important to T-Mobile in multiple ways. It … Read more

Dish-Sprint merger may bring new bundles, deals

Consumers may potentially get an even bigger price break if Dish is able to snap up Sprint Nextel.

Dish's $25.5 billion unsolicited bid for Sprint certainly adds a wrinkle to Sprint's existing merger plans with Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank. But a deal with Dish may be a boon to consumers, particularly ones looking for a mix of video, mobile, and Internet services.

A combination between Dish and Sprint means the two could bundle satellite-TV and mobile service together. In select markets where the telecommunications and cable providers don't have a strong presence -- particularly in rural … Read more

Ichikoh rear-view monitor records all it sees

If you need to prove you're a good driver -- or if you expect to meet a UFO on a lonely highway -- this rear-view monitor can record everything.

The Safety Vision STR-100 from Japan's Ichikoh Industries is an LCD screen that replaces the rear-view mirror in cars and commercial vehicles.

We've seen many similar products, but up to three cameras can be linked to the unit, which has its own forward-facing camera. The STR-100 records up to 60 hours of footage on a 16GB or 32GB SD card. … Read more

Dish's 'Seinfeld' play: Sprint ties it all together

Dish founder Charlie Ergen is clearly a massive "Seinfeld" fan.

Ergen wasn't shy about providing a shout-out to Jerry Seinfeld's classic situation comedy in discussing Dish's proposed $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel.

In fact, Ergen compared his strategy to an episode of Seinfeld: 28 minutes filled with a lot of scenes that don't make sense, and a final two minutes where everything comes together.

For Dish, Sprint represents that final two minutes. The deal would be the linchpin to a strategy that Ergen said has been in the works for years. Ergen, … Read more

San Francisco Exploratorium shows off its huge new digs

SAN FRANCISCO--Whether you're an adult looking for a cool place to have your kid's birthday party, or a kid wanting to get your hands messy with science, the Exploratorium has been a favorite for all ages since it first opened its doors more than 40 years ago. But it eventually faced a problem: space.

Originally located at the Palace of Fine Arts, the only building left standing in its original location from San Francisco's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the Exploratorium had outgrown the Beaux Arts house and began planning to move. Now completed, the Exploratorium will reopen to the public on April 17.

Its new space straddles the city and the bay at Pier 15, an overhauled warehouse located near the heart of downtown San Francisco. The hands-on science museum, founded by J. Robert Oppenheimer's physicist brother Frank in 1969, is using its new location to drive its popular mix of art and science into the 21st century. And it's huge. … Read more

Twitter launching music discovery app

CNET Update tweets to the beat:

Twitter is launching a new music service that will suggest songs to listen to based on accounts you follow or artists that are trending. As the world waits for the official launch, Ryan Seacrest seems to be enjoying it.

Android users can experience Chat Heads on the Facebook Messenger app, rather than download the Facebook Home interface.

Also in this tech roundup, I bring you the highlights from the DigitalFocus technology showcase, which includes the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat, the Linkase Wi-Fi signal booster for smartphones, the new Duracell Powermat iPhone 5 wireless charging … Read more

Dish reportedly seeks merger with T-Mobile

T-Mobile and Dish Network may be the next two companies to walk down the aisle.

Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen informally talked to T-Mobile's parent, Deutsche Telekom, about a potential deal, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Deutsche Telekom, in turn, is considering a deal with Sprint Nextel, but may look to Dish if that merger falls through, the report said.

A deal would give Dish what it has badly coveted for a while: access to an actual wireless network that it can pair with its own satellite-TV service. With the satellite-TV business stagnating, Dish could lean on the faster-growing … Read more

Get a Dr. Seuss e-book collection for $7.99

Every parent knows (or should know) the importance of reading to their kids. And when it comes to stories adults and toddlers alike can enjoy, it's hard to beat Dr. Seuss.

Of course, browse the aisles (real or virtual) of any bookstore and you'll see that your average Dr. Seuss hardcover can run $10-15. Ouch!

That's why I continue to be a big fan of Oceanhouse Media's Dr. Seuss e-book apps, which not only provide the complete Seuss experience (and then some), but also save you considerable coin.… Read more

Bump for iPhone loses iTunes music sharing

Bump, the application that lets users share everything from contacts to photos and files, no longer supports iTunes music transfers.

The company announced the feature loss yesterday in its App Store update, saying, "we're sorry, but we are no longer permitted access to iTunes audio files on the device." Bump didn't say why it was forced to remove the feature, but it's likely that Apple took issue with its functionality.

Previously, users were able to share iTunes tracks with other Bump users. The audio files could also be shared on computers.

It appears that the … Read more