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ExtraBITS for 24-Aug-09

Exploding iPhone Coverage Overheated — BusinessWeek tackles the media feast surrounding reports of exploding iPhones in Europe. Apple is currently investigating several instances of reportedly overheating or exploding iPhones in France and Britain; though given the amount of attention the matter has received, one would think the number of cases was much higher than that. With only 15 heat-related complaints about iPods to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (out of over 200 million iPods sold since 2001) there’s no need to start shopping for a Kevlar-lined case. (Posted 2009-08-21)

iPhone Poised to Become Top Camera on Flickr — Mobile phones with integrated digital cameras have been around for a while, but it’s the combination of a camera and always-on Internet access that is boosting the iPhone’s ranking as the top digital camera used on the photo sharing site Flickr. (Posted 2009-08-20)

Adam Talks Outlook for Mac on Your Mac Life — Sure, it won’t see the light of day for over a year, but Microsoft’s forthcoming Outlook for Mac will be a big deal for everyone using Entourage now, and for everyone using Microsoft Office in multi-platform organizations. Adam and Your Mac Life host Shawn King discuss what’s known and what’s likely, and debunk the FUD theory others have suggested to explain the early announcement. (Posted 2009-08-20)

Dig into HandBrake’s Video Encoding Settings — Christopher Breen at Macworld ventures into the often-confusing morass of video encoding options available in HandBrake. If you know what you’re doing, you can improve the output of video you throw at it (such as DVDs), but it’s not easy to grasp the myriad of options. (Posted 2009-08-18)

Cut Your Phone Bill with Internet Calling — Need advice on trimming your home and small-office telecom fees? TidBITS editor Glenn Fleishman contributed a set of advice to Macworld’s feature on cutting all kinds of tech costs. VoIP has matured enough to replace landlines for many people, reducing the cost of reaching out. (Posted 2009-08-18)

The Ins and Outs of iPhone OS 3.0’s Hotspot Login — At MacObserver, our friend and colleague Ted Landau explains the intricacies of iPhone OS 3.0’s automatic hotspot login feature and how to control the way it rejoins such networks. (Posted 2009-08-18)

Tr.im Service Turns to Community, Openness — In the latest twist with the tr.im URL shortening service, the company that owns it – The Nambu Network – will move it to a community-run system, with the firm’s CEO personally making up any shortfall from donations to cover expenses. The underlying software will be released under an open-source license. (Posted 2009-08-17)

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