The HTC Magic, also known as the Sapphire has cleared through the FCC. Before it was uncertain which phone company the HTC Magic would be powered by, but now images have leaked of the phone with the T-Mobile logo etched on it.  So we know now that this phone is making its way to T-Mobile, but what we don’t know is what name they’ll end up using.

[via Engadget / Cellphone Signal]

Earlier this week massive social network company Facebook has hired Timothy D. Sparapani, a senior lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. This hire comes at a time where Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly is expected to take a leave of absence in order to run for attorney general of California in 2010.

While working with the ACLU, Sparapani worked on national ID cards, data mining, and E-Verify. E-Verify is an Internet system used by employers to check on the immigration status of employees. Sparapani has close ties to the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Center for Digital Democracy. Those organizations have been critical about Facebook’s ad targeting technology and whether it is a violation of privacy.

Kelly himself was an adviser to the Clinton administration’s Domestic Policy Council. Sparapani will join Facebook starting next month and will work from Washington. He will be reporting directly to Kelly.

[via NYT]

Sony Ericcson has announced the T707 phone with tennis star Maria Sharapova as their spokeswoman. Sharapova and her dog also endorses Canon’s line of cameras as seen in the TV commercials. The T707 is interesting because calls can be ended by simply waving your hand over the screen.

The T707 has a 3.2 megapixel camera and it has a built-in HTML web browser. The T707 screen is 2.2 inches and FM radio streaming and Bluetooth. There are day and night changing themes, gestures for muting calls, alarm clock, and pulsating notifications.

The built-in camera is ideal for picture and video blogging. Ringtones can be set by adding MP3s to the phone. There is a YouTube application built into the operating system too. Photos can be geo-tagged and the GPS is controlled by Google Maps.

Sharapova has joined Sony at a time when the U.S. head of the company stepped down.

[via Engadget/Sony PR]

Over the past week, YouTube was temporarily banned in China.  It was unbanned again yesterday.  The reason why it was banned was because China was criticized over a video that was released by the Tibetan government in exile.  The video showed Chinese security officers beating handcuffed Tibetans.

People in Beijing found a way to get around the block by using special software to enter the site through a proxy server.  This is a common way to access websites when they are banned by the government which happens often.

The Chinese government quickly responded to the alleged video.  They stated that the police beating a Tibetan to death in the video was a lie concocted by supporters of the Dalai Lama.

Xobni is an e-mail plugin that gives Microsoft Outlook more social features and has a better search for the system.  The company is exiting out of beta and has raised a second round of funding.  The company raised $10.5 million in funding from Cisco ($5 million) and the BlackBerry Partner Fund ($3.2 million).  All of Xobni’s previous investors also participated.

Xobni is currently developing a software update that focuses on performance and compatibility.  The software will have caching and performance tweaks so that Outlook’s speed is not affected by message switching.  The software update will also make the software compatible with other Microsoft products such as Dynamic CRM and Outlook Business Contact Manager.

Xobni still has yet to break even and profit.  However the company plans on announcing a premium product this summer and paid online services.  Xobni is a Y-Combinator company.

[via CNET]

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) are competing for who has more data and imagery of outer space.  Last month Google revealed Mars 3D and now Microsoft released data of their own of the planet Mars on their WorldWide Telescope software.

Through another agreement that Microsoft made with NASA, the software giant now has access to over 100 terabytes of data (20,000 DVDs) from the Ames Research Center.  Ames is based in Mountain View, California and is physically located next to Google’s headquarters.  Microsoft previously used 3D images in their Photosynth software from the Kennedy Space Center.

[via VentureBeat]

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) retail stores have begun to start selling unsubsidized Apple iPhone units for $599 and $699, 8GB and 16GB respectively.  Now there is no limit to how many phones a buyer can purchase and there is no need to have an AT&T contract.

The problem with selling iPhones at these prices is that jailbreaking phones may be encouraged.  Less people will go to eBay to buy iPhones now too.

Activation of the phones can take place through iTunes directly.  The phones are still technically locked in with AT&T.

I think that buying iPhones from the Apple store isn’t the best idea because there are many good subsidized iPhone deals out there with a 2 year contract.  I bought my 8GB iPhone for $150 with a two year contract with AT&T.  If I decide I want to break my contract today, it would run me about $175  That means my 8GB iPhone just costed me $325.  This is $249 less than the unsubsidized price.

And AT&T even prorates the early termination fee.

I might be wrong about the $200 contract break fee, but that is what Sprint charges so I figured it would be the same price for AT&T.  If anyone else has any input, leave it in the comments.  I don’t quite see Apple’s logic for setting those prices.

[via AppleInsider]

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) announced this past week that they are selling a new PC that can be upgraded to as high as 192GB of RAM.  That’s insane!

The Dell Precision T7500 PC has 12 memory slots, each that can support a PC10600 memory stick (1333MHz) of up to 16GB.  The standard PC has about 2-4 slots for RAM that can take up to about 4GB DDR2 memory sticks that run up to about 400MHz and 1066MHz in speed.   The price of the T7500 starts at $1,800.

The memory limits are able to be ramped up because of the company’s use of the Intel Nehalem CPU architecture.  Before the Nehalem architecture, memory controllers were mounted on the core logic chip set.  This causes data traveling between the CPU and RAM to collide with data.

The Nehalem architecture shortens the distance between the memory and the CPU and also creates multiple/direct pathways.  The cost of the maxed out RAM Precision T7500 is estimated to cost roughly $50,000.  Dell also revealed that the ThinkStation D20 can support up to 96GB of RAM.

[via ComputerWorld]