Mash subscribers received this email message: “Thank you for trying out our Mash Beta service. We hope you had fun with it. Please note that we will shut down Mash on September 29, 2008. As a result, your current profile on Mash will no longer be available.”

So ends Yahoo’s second attempt at social networking, following the former demise of Mixd. One of Mash’s features was that you could create a profile for one of your friends, then ask her/him to customize it. Sounds a little creepy to us. We will now share about a nanosecond of silence to commemorate the loss, and ask Yahoo to stick to what it does best, if they ever figure out what that is.

Tags: email (T), internet (T), mash beta (T), mixd (T), social network (T), subscribers (T), yahoo (T)

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Filed under: Gaming

Japan's Nikkei is reporting what we've been hearing Stateside for weeks: Xbox 360 price cuts across the board. Expected to go official sometime later today, the Japanese Xbox 360 Arcade will drop to just ¥19,800 or about $182 (tax inclusive, presumably) in hopes of boosting sales. The new pricing represents a near 30% drop from its previous ¥27,800 (about $256) price and undercuts the Wii sold locally for ¥25,000. Nikkei's sources also claim that Microsoft will cut the prices on all three Xbox 360 models without going into specifics. If true then this bodes well for the US price cuts expected on September 7th.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

While Apple's App Store was far from being the first of its kind, we're now seeing a job posting over in the Redmond area that suggests that Microsoft is looking to produce something similar for its Windows Mobile platform. The news comes hot on the heels of Google's own Android Market announcement, and if the Product Manager position writeup is to be believed, said platform will be christened Skymarket. Described as a "marketplace service for Windows Mobile," Skymarket could seemingly be a critical part of WinMo 7. But don't take our word for it, the proof is the pudding -- or in the read link, in this instance.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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Filed under: Laptops

There are two kinds of Dell rumors: sure things, and ones that aren't sure things. This one falls in the latter camp, so proceed with caution. We've got a tipster who says a friend of his from Dell handed him this shot of what is purportedly a new XPS M1330 / M1530 design. As you can see, pretty much the same old fare... but what's this? A large glossy touchpad? Here's our hunch: Dell is tired of drawing inspiration from Apple after the fact, and decided to turn the tables by capitalizing on one of the most persisten (and outlandish) Apple rumors in existence. A good capacitive touchscreen for the trackpad on a laptop would undoubtedly be a blast if it was done right, with the right software support, and at least seems like a good gimmick. Or maybe it'd just be lame. We won't go further than that, this could just as easily be a Photoshop, but we will be keeping an eye out.

Update: False alarm, turns out this is just a still from an NVIDIA Tegra demo on YouTube. Thanks, shiv, for pointing this out in comments. Boo, tipster, boo.

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Filed under: Cellphones

After what feels like centuries of waiting (and suffering through that painful CeBIT demo), we finally get to see the Meizu M8's OS in action... and it's not as bad as you think. Sure, the interface is totally derivative of the iPhone, and there is that pesky cursor floating around, but all-in-all it looks like the company has managed to knock out a decent -- if incredibly familiar -- UI for its long-delayed phone. Still, there's some low rent hilarity in this video. Our favorites? The smattering of soft porn pictures and video, and Meizu CEO and all-around bon vivant Jack Wong revealed in a reflection... wearing a face mask! Don't believe it? Check the clip after the break (and freeze frame of Mr. Wong).

[Thanks, Patrick P.]

Continue reading A functional Meizu M8 UI, CEO Jack Wong finally caught on video

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Filed under: Gaming

You know how it goes with Sony and PS3-related peripherals. A big introduction, followed by a slight delay, followed by a longer delay, followed by a little something to take the sting off. Here we have word from Noam Rimon, senior development manager at SCEA R&D, that the news-blasting (and uncomfortably named) Life with PlayStation will once again be delayed. According to Noam, Sony is "still pushing some paperwork" on the service, though he gave no expected time frame for the actual launch. Nevertheless, he softened the blow by announcing once and for all that it will indeed be free (and accessible directly from the XMB) whenever it finally goes live. Gotta take the good with the bad, we guess.

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Section: Apple News, Rumors, Updates, Software + Apps, MobileMe, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iTunes, iPhone + Communications, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Originals

With the given that there will be a September Apple event, we can now turn to what that event might bring. Of course, everyone’s gone over the new stuff: new iPods, MacBook updates, and all that good stuff. However, we also should turn an eye to fixing what’s already out there. A whole lot is broken.

• Apple’s MobileMe / iPhone 3G / iPhone Software 2.0 / iTunes 7.7 release was the cause of huge issues in almost every area. Hopefully, the September event, and software updates and releases subsequent to the event, will fix these problems.
• Bring my iPod syncing time back down to a few seconds, not a few minutes. If backing up takes so long, don’t do it every single time I plug the thing in.
• Get iPhone application updates under control. I still can’t update from my computer without getting a whole new clean app, missing all of my data. All you have to do is let the app replace, and not rename itself. Come on.
• Make the App Store less of a bloated, buggy, crashy app. Don’t take me back to the home screen with every app update or download. When an app updates, put it back where I have it placed. I organize my apps for a reason. Don’t undo it. When an app is installing, don’t freeze the entire App Store. I still want to browse.
• iPhone Software 2.1. Swear to God, if you cost money for iPod users...

On a separate note to GMail, introduce push to the iPhone. Don’t you feel pathetic knowing that Yahoo! has it but you don’t?

What are some of your hopes for the new releases? Sound off in the comments below.

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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Section: iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone + Communications, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps

The Last.fm development team has provided a new sneak peek at the Last.fm iPhone app 2.0. It offers the ability to listen to music based on tags you enter, check out artist bios and concerts in your areas, and even add concert dates to your calendar.

All in all, it offers great new features and integrates with the other Apple apps on the iPhone, and a whole lot more. Looks like a worthwhile update.

Via [9to5Mac]

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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Filed under: Desktops

CTL, the same cats who brought us the 2go PC laptop, are apparently working up an equally cheap and not-exactly-flashy nettop PC. The 2go PC Nettop will reportedly range in price from $149 to $299 depending on specifications, and the baseline model will feature Intel's DG945GCLF motherboard, Intel's Atom 230 processor, 1GB of Kingston DDR2 RAM, a GMA 950 graphics accelerator, support for one HDD and one optical drive, six USB 2.0 ports and an Ethernet jack. The Essential Plus Edition ($199) adds in Ubuntu and an 80GB 7,200RPM hard drive (while slashing RAM to 512MB); the $299 Essential Performance Edition comes with Windows XP Home, a 160GB hard drive and 1GB of memory. There's no word just yet on when the 4.5-pound boxes will be released, but we'd expect 'em to surface pretty quietly.

[Thanks, Nate]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Peripherals

For better or worse, it looks like the so-called iControlPad is edging closer to reality -- or at least something really similar. According to a new image (and our limited Spanish translation skills), Belkin is actually looking to produce an App Store gaming controller, though we're still not entirely convinced that what we're seeing is legitimate. Whatever the case, the JoyPod would somehow, someway provide users who purchased Super Monkey Ball to play it using a bona fide game pad, though we can't figure out if the iPod touch / iPhone slips in behind the controller or if it just morphs to fit the JoyPod's space constraints. Guess we'll see (or not) soon enough.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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