Class action suit filed over iPhone 4 antenna

Barely a week since the public got its hands on the iPhone 4, the first lawsuit over it has been filed. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of Kevin McCaffrey, Linda Wrinn, and others on Wednesday, the suit accuses Apple and AT&T of knowingly distributing a phone with a malfunctioning antenna. The iPhone maker and its exclusive carrier partner in the U.S. are accused of a laundry list of infractions, including: general negligence, defect in design, manufacture, and assembly, breach of warranty, deceptive trade practices, intentional and negligent misrepresentation, and fraud by concealment. The class action suit is latching on to the reported issue some customers are having with signal loss when the iPhone 4 is gripped in a certain way. It's been suggested the problem is tied to the iPhone 4's design, which incorporates the cellular radio into the metal band running on the outside of the phone, right where most people put their hands when holding the device. However, it's still not clear if a software update to the phone would help with the issue. Apple has maintained that it's a problem common to any phone when held in that manner and suggested that customers buy a rubber case as a solution. The class action suit says: "Almost immediately after the purchase of their iPhone 4 devices, both McCaffrey and Wrinn began to experience significantly reduced reception and performance when handling the phones as demonstrated in Apple's advertisements or as a reasonable person would handle a mobile telephone while making phone calls, browsing the Internet, sending text messages, or utilizing other services provided by the iPhone 4."

Blu-ray apparently isn't coming to Macs

The more Apple customers pelt Steve Jobs' in-box, the more he seems to respond. But unlike the last flurry of e-mails that were made public on iPhone and iPad issues, this time Jobs is apparently expounding on why Blu-ray won't be coming to Macs.According to the MacRumors fan site, which posted an e-mail exchange, one of its readers e-mailed the Apple CEO to ask why a Blu-ray drive didn't make its way to the company's newly updated Mac Mini. In Jobs' apparent response, he seemed unconvinced of the value of Blu-ray. He supposedly said it doesn't make much sense to include it in the company's computers.

Federal rules on campus file sharing kick in today

The University of Kansas will suspend Web service to students accused of file sharing. (Credit: Screenshot by Greg Sandoval/CNET)

Frat parties and free music have been among the perks of attending college in the United States during the past decade. But now the days of using fat campus bandwidth to download movies and music via file-sharing networks appear to be coming to an end. Thursday is the deadline for colleges and universities that receive Title IV federal aid to have implemented antipiracy procedures on their campuses as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008.

IBM names Firefox its default browser

Firefox has become the default browser for nearly 400,000 IBM employees, a big coup for the open-source project during a time of increasing browser competition. "All IBM employees will be asked to use it as their default browser," Bob Sutor, vice president of open source and Linux at IBM's Software Group, said in a blog post Thursday. "Firefox is enterprise-ready, and we're ready to adopt it for our enterprise." Mozilla has said in recent weeks it believes nearly 400 million people use its software.

Get a Creative Vado 720p camcorder for $59.99

Put a high-def camcorder in your pocket for just 60 bucks.(Credit: Creative)

The last time I wrote about the Creative Vado HD pocket camcorder, it sold out in what seemed like minutes. Let's try again, shall we? Creative, by way of Amazon, is offering the Vado HD 8GB "B-Stock" pocket camcorder for $59.99. That's after applying coupon code BLVF5JPR at checkout, and not including around $6 for shipping.

Three 3D TVs compared

Our favorite 3D TV so far is Panasonic's plasma.(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Amazon updates Kindle DX, drops price

The new, improved Kindle DX ships July 7 for $379.(Credit: Amazon)

With the arrival of the iPad in April, many tech pundits wrote off Amazon's similarly sized--and similarly priced--Kindle DX as a non-viable product. But almost three months after Apple launched its tablet, Amazon is making efforts to resuscitate the DX with a price cut to $379, a new graphite finish, and screen that offers higher contrast and darker fonts. It's available for preorder now and ships July 7. The device still has "free" integrated 3G wireless connectivity from AT&T, and aside from the new "high-contrast E-ink screen," doesn't appear to add any additional hardware enhancements.

Experts: Android, iPhone security different but matched

This screen shot shows what the My Tracks Android app has access to and prompts the user for approval before the app can be installed.(Credit: Google)

IE reverses usage share slide; Microsoft cheers

This chart shows the changing usage of the five top browsers; the darker colors are from earlier and the lightest color shows percentages for June 2010.(Credit: data from Net Applications, chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Internet Explorer has reversed a years-long slide in browser usage, at least for the month of June, reclaiming share at the expense of Firefox. IE increased usage from 59.8 percent to 60.3 percent, according to new statistics from Net Applications, an analytics company that monitors browser usage across a large network Web sites. It was buoyed by increasing usage of IE8 that offset the decline in IE7--and by what Web developers no doubt hope will be only a temporary pause in the decline of the despised IE6.

Droid X ad hits iPhone 4 with antenna jab

I understand that people are getting rather excited about the Droid X.Well, iPhone 4 has been out for a week, so, this being cell phone technology, it is only right that people get excited about something else.However, those crafty Droid folks have not merely a finger on the pulse, but a whole hand wrapped around it. I have reason to believe it is their left hand.