As I sit here applying a new layer of Reynolds tin foil to my international hat of conspiracy, its been proven that Apple tracks iPhone usage and tracks IEMI numbers of all their iPhones worldwide. Hidden in the code of the “Stocks” and “Weather” widgets is a string that sends the IMEI of your phone to a specialized URL that Apple collects.

When the widgets perform a query an IMEI is handed off to Apple’s servers:

dgw?imei=%@&apptype=finance

This let[s] Apple knows which app you are using when connecting with your iPhone. Obviously, they know the IP address you were using, the stocks companies you are interested [in], and so they can track down their customers all around the world. This also proves that there are probably other apps that do the same. Weather.app is also acting the same way. (Offset 13AE0)

Any attempts to modify the URL to exclude the IMEI information will not allow you to retrieve any information in the “Stocks” and “Weather” apps. It is still unknown if any other applications leak information to Apple HQ.

And did you know you actually consented to this gross invasion of privacy?

When you interact with Apple, we may collect personal information relevant to the situation, such as your name, mailing address, phone number, email address, and contact preferences; your credit card information and information about the Apple products you own, such as their serial numbers and date of purchase; and information relating to a support or service issue.

Obviously “Weather” is kinda benign, but Apple knowing your Stock habits, isn’t that a little personal? What’s next, they read your email too? Now who thinks I’m crazy?

UPDATE: After 24 hours of being online it’s still not been totally determined that the information being exchanged between you and Apple is anonymous. It seems to now be application identifiers, not an IMEI. Now all we know is that information is being exchanged and we are not sure exactly what.

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UNEASYexclusive!

Gee, That wasn’t long but today MTV is going to announce that it is shutting down URGE (their music service) and merging it with RealNetworks’ Rhapsody service. This will be the second HUGE announcement for Real this month – with the first being that they will be the lead distributor of Universal’s DRM free music.

To announce the new music service (which will be called Rhapsody) MTV will begin a HUGE TV and print adverting blitz. The online music service consolidation has begun!

Official press release will happen sometime today.

Hey all you data addicted junkies. AT&T seems to be suffering a nationwide EDGE outage on their network. More to come…

Update: Seems the network is slowly coming online

If you encode H.264 video for your iPod or AppleTV or if you are a podcaster, the ElGato Turbo.264 should be an essential tool in your workflow. This USB driven, thumb drive sized wonder, is designed to give you some of your life back when waiting for encodes by relieving your processor of the (extremely slow) burden of encoding H.264 video.

Although Intels “Core” chips are extremely fast number crunchers, it is designed to handle general computing needs and doesn’t particularly excel in any specific area. The Turbo.264, is highly specailzed to do nothing but encode video, taking the burden off the processor, and it really works.

Just plug the Turbo.264 into a free USB 2.0 port and drag the included application on an accompanying CD to your applications folder (See gallery for screenshot tour). The application, when launched, also adds the ability to use the Turbo.264 in QuickTimes export options, bypassing the eloquently designed and informative ElGato dashboard application.

This dongle helps you tear through encoding tasks, converting more then 32 frames per second on my test MacBook with 1GB of RAM, results are told to be even faster on G4’s and G5’s. As far as the output file is concerned there is no noticeable difference in between Apple’s H.264 codec and the Turbo.264. The result from codecs were also significantly lighter then the source material.

1080p Source

If you encode video for a living and don’t have the latest eight core MacPro you can only benefit from the Turbo.264. Reclaim your life by encoding files at near real time speeds. Well worth the $99 price tag.

Available from ElGatos website, and select retailers.

We’ve all seen the AppleTV unboxing photos and UNEASYreader Tim just pointed out that I should read the small print on the bottom of the box (pictured above).

©2007 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iTunes, and Mac are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Apple TV is a trademark of Apple Computer, inc. CSI: and Jericho ©2007 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office.

Why would Apple write that?

On the front of the box is a photo of the AppleTV.

On the back of the box from left to right is a movie poster for “The Incredibles”, Album art for Beck’s “The Information”, a scene from “Cars”, album art for “CSI” and “Jericho”, as well as a photo of a couple. Anything Nuclear? Don’t thinks so.

Maybe that is why the damn unit runs so hot.

Thanks for the heads up, Tim!

Come on Palm! A geeks gotta eat some how! Anybody else care to speculate?

AOL has started to roll out its now fresh out of beta webmail product as the default (and only) interface for those who use AOL.

This GM release (complete with an UGLY color scheme) is supposed to make the current ever so bulky and clumsy webmail product more user-friendly with a cleaner interface that leaves room for email to be read in a single window (Eliminating the annoying pop-up’s). They also took a page from Yahoo and Google by quasi-integrating instant messaging right into the suite. You can see if a buddy is online, but you can’t yet IM directly from the application. If you click on a buddys name it will open your AIM application.

By no means does it yet compare to other webmail offerings, but AOL is getting the clue that an AJAXY web application that is not overrun by ads is needed to stay competitive in this increasingly crowded market segment.

Does anybody even use AOL anymore?

Try It

At an average subscription rate being $13 a month, it works out to about 87 cents.

With hold times on XM customer care number (800-967-2346) being longer then an hour, unless you make less then a dollar and hour – don’t waste your time!

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Also, Did you know that you can download a Google Earth overlay of the entire XM ground repeater network? Kinda Cool!

Customers of FeedBurner should not worry since they had a minor delay in database maintenance process that has temporarily led to the display of reduced (or even zero) circulation numbers in your account. They have since restarted that maintenance process, so your subscriber count from yesterday should be reported in the next few hours. Also, no data was lost, so there will be no “holes” in your ongoing stats.

To keep up to date on the issue stay tunes to their support thread.