I hate to love rumors. I love to hate rumors, at the same time, especially when they come with so-called "product spy shots." The reason? Simply because these rumors usually prove to be nothing more but rumors, and since tomorrow is the 1st of April...how would you take an article from a Russian magazine about the "upcoming" MacBook Mini?

The question above wasn't really rhetorical, so you can answer by placing a comment below, if you want. Anyway, before we get to that point, I think we should take a look at what we know. OK, so let's see what is this story all about now, shall we?
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While the picture that you can see above has been probably a little photoshopped, starting with a MacBook Air picture, the technical specifications are looking good. Anyway, that doesn't mean Apple is really coming with something new for the netbook market, as long as the specs below will be the ones of the MacBook Mini, if the product will ever come to life:

- 10.4" WXGA display.
- 1280 x 768 pixel with LED backlighting.
- NVIDIA MCP79
- Intel Atom Z740 1.83GHz with 1MB L2 cache.
- 2GB DDR3-800.
- NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
- 64GB Solid State Drive.
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n
- 1 x USB 2.0
- 1 x Mini Display Port
- Battery Li-Ion 5100mA

Oh, yeah, DDR3 memory is not something you get to see in most netbooks these days, but I am sure this is also going to be a good excuse for Apple to pump up the price a little.

Unfortunately - as you probably figured out already - there's no word about pricing and availability, but the most interesting part of the story is that the pictures are showing clearly a keyboard with cyrillic characters, so this is probably nothing more than a good 1st of April piece of news...

If you think the Voice feature of the Yahoo Messenger! client is the best thing you can get, then I feel pity for you. Really, open your eyes! As far as I'm concerned, the client offered by the messaging giant is a really bad application, and I've been always using anything else I could find(Trillian and Pidgin, for most of my time) to connect to my YM friends. Now, even if you're only using the iPhone for messaging, there's no excuse left to stay away from Skype!

If you're asking why, then my only advice is to download Skype for your desktop computer or laptop, give it a try, and figure out for yourself. After all, the best way to find out how good is a product for your needs is not to read reviews and customer feedback, but try the thing and see how it feels and works for you and your own needs.
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According to the official Skype website, there's a lot to be had from this great app. Just take a look below:

"Skype for iPhone delivers a true Skype experience: make free Skype-to-Skype calls and low cost calls to landlines and mobile phones – and participate in conference calls – from any WiFi zone. You can IM to your heart’s content, and participate in group chats too, whenever you have network connectivity, whether it's WiFi, 3G, EDGE or GPRS.

The user interface is everything you’d expect from an iPhone app, and it integrates with your Address Book for super low cost calls to friends, family and colleagues abroad. It also integrates with the Camera Roll and your photo albums so you can select a profile picture you love."

As its older users surely know, Skype comes for free, and it wasn't the case to change that on the iPhone platform. You can download it from the App Store and start talking right now! ;)

Cydia not working for you? Good, I found a replacement! No idea about what Cydia is all about? Well, I guess you are one of those who didn't realize yet how much they lose by not jailbreaking their iPhone, but there's still hope! Icy is a lightweight solution for installing jailbroken iPhone apps, and the best part of it all is that we're talking about a free program that's fully compatible with the existing Cydia repositories!

No, I won't give you any reasons for jailbreaking your iPhone, but if you take a look at the apps being rejected by Apple's App Store, that's only the beginning. Another problem is that, for a software producer, getting into the App Store is becoming harder with each day, and it also takes a lot of time until your apps get approved.
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These being said, and considering the fact there are a lot of jailbroken iPhones out there, having awesome apps for these "outlaws" is a reality. A cruel reality for Apple, I must add.

According to the official Icy page, this is a "take on the freeware package manager that uses APT repositories to install and remove packages available in another free iPhone installer application, Cydia. The goal was to create a fast, lightweight and more slick solution that is easy and cool to use. Icy is only at version 1.0, but we're already working on the improvements."

Built on Open Source Foundation, Icy comes with a slick interface, it only takes 1Mb on your device, compared to the 32 taken up by Cydia, and was design to work by eating only a fraction of your network traffic. Even more, Icy is following the trend set by Apple in the 3.0 firmware, currently still in Beta stage, and allows you to browse installed packages in landscape mode.

These being said, here's what to do if Cydia is not working at all, or stopped working - be sure your iPhone is still functional, and install Icy! Pretty cool, don't you agree? ;)

Some like to watch football games, but I think watching advertising campaigns going on around us is much better. After all, there's always a fight in this field, no matter if it's being taken to the customer via the usual advertising channels, or it's simply a battle in terms of advertising efectiveness. There may be this crisis, and a lot of consumers looking at the purchase price before anything else, but I still think comparative advertising sucks, and today, the time has come for Microsoft vs Apple once again...

...because they decided to enter this slippery terrain some time ago, when Apple started its "Get a Mac" campaigns. When I look back in the past, there's one of those things I'll always remember, related to TV advertising - "our detergent is better than a regular one," and you probably know the rest. Now, Microsoft is doing about the same thing, but with a twist.

The twist is they don't go with the "better" part, but with the "cheaper" approach. After all, they seem to have some decency, at all. Just as a side note, I think this is a dirty war, and it was started by Apple, so I am not crazy about the way any of the two companies chooses to advertise its products.
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Now, the story is that Microsoft uses two slot machines, one ringing up a Mac with bits of garbage, and the other showing a cheaper generic PC along with the Zune, Xbox 360, and other things buyers could get with the money they'd save with the PC, but it doesn't get deeper. After all, there's the price of software and long-term maintenance too, right?

These being said, the Microsoft vs Apple match is going off the field once again. What about being honest, guys? Admit your mistakes, and try to make things right. I don't want to know what could happen if some Chinese or Indian company starts chewing off your market share...

I know the little scenario above won't happen anytime soon, but I think Microsoft did it again. Why aren't they directing all available resources into making its products better? After all, customer satisfaction is the best way to advertise your products, and Apple simply kills the Redmond giant when it comes to this part!

I don't know how religious you are, but no matter the god you worship, you simply can't do anything but have a good laugh when hearing about people who don't use SIM cards because there's a little Satan hidden in them. A little, microscopic one, hidden in some barcode, or inside the passive chip of the card. I call this paranoia, while others call it "faith," but today there's good news for all - the SIM free iPhone can be purchased!

The story is very straightforward - Play.com has the SIM free iPhone listed in stock, so you can get it right away! Obviously, we're talking about the 3G iPhone, and not the old one. So...what's so big about this?

Well, according to a reader of Pocket-lint, these new Apple smartphones appeared recently in the UK, making this a first time. Why a first time? Think about this - we're talking about the SIM free iPhone legally available, and completely independent, so you won't have to use O2's network!
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As the product page says, "This is a genuine sim free mobile phone and therefore unlocked to all UK networks. It is not unlocked from a UK or European network and is available due to EU legislation ensuring the sale of sim free mobile phones. Comes with a full manufacturer warranty."

Unfortunately, the price is simply ridiculous. The Play.com product listing says "Apple iPhone 3G 16GB Sim Free / Unlocked 2.0 Megapixel Mobile Phone (Black) – available for £599.99, a £50 saving of the RRP: £649.99 - In stock - Usually dispatched within 24 hours." In US dollars, that's roughly $860. Damn, I'd rather get a decent(SIM free, too!) laptop for this price! :|