Cesar over at Zune Insider is clearing things up regarding the piracy countermeasures and he’s saying MS has no plans to filter content on the Zune. Don’t you to toy with my affections, Cesar.

We have no plans or commitments to implement any new type of content filtering in the Zune devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC.

We think some folks in the industry were expressing hopes for how the entire industry, not just Microsoft, would come to look at content distribution, and some speculation has ensued. Again, no plans are in place toward this end.

I switched to T-Mobile as soon as AT&T Wireless switched from CDMA to GSM when Cingular took over and haven’t really looked back. I made the move because the new plans implemented by Cingular were atrocious and I hated the fact that incoming texts were now being taken from my SMS plan. And the Sidekick 2 was free on Amazon at the time. I haven’t had too many issues with T-Mobile other than having the worst device ever made, the Sidekick 3. That phone alone almost made me switch carriers. But now I have the Curve and I’m quite content with the service and quality.

So, I’m happy to say report that T-Mo now has over 30 million subscribers wherein they signed up close to 1 million new customers in Q1. Revenue is up 14 percent from Q1 of last year with a total service revenue of $4.6 billion. The acquisition of SunCom certainly helped, which brought in an additional 2.1 million subscribers. And last week’s 3G rollout in NYC with other markets to follow is an obvious step in the right direction. If that whole Sprint M&A deal happens to go through then they’ll surely be the number one carrier in the US.

Good luck, T-Mo.

I’m not going to watch this whole thing, but the N96 sure looks purdy. It better be since Cellulare-Magazine.it takes an entire 10 minutes to profess its love for the upcoming Nok.

The on-again, off-again Wi-Fi service that AT&T offered for free to iPhone users last week is now back on. The AT&T wireless site has been updated to reflect that iPhone users now have access to more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots including Starbucks. I’m sure we’ll get an official statement from AT&T today.

Dances with Childrens: the RC-R2D2 story
100-year-old Adix calculator: elegant, beautiful, and practical
Wits and Wagers now on XBLA… plus a contest
Concept CD/MP3 DJ kit seems far from wikka-wikka-whack
Iron Man vs. GTA IV: They’re both winners!

I can’t even begin to tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this particular phone to reach the US. I was completely enamored with it, the F700, when I first saw the press release more than a year ago. This was back in February and then I finally got a chance to play with it in October when I was in Korea. I knew right then and there that I had to have it, but I wasn’t really willing to pay the exorbitant amount for an unlocked version from Europe. Then I caught wind of a CDMA variant that would be coming to the US. I was told it would probably be announced sometime before the end of 2007, but we all know that didn’t happen.

So I have before me the u940, which has been redubbed the Glyde. Do I love it? Yes. Do I hate it? Yes.

If you’ve been privy enough to see the F700 in person then you’ll immediately notice that the Glyde is much smaller than its GSM counterpart. It also lacks the front camera and the 5-megapixel camera has been downgraded to 2-megapixel, but it’s still retains the AF function, so I can overlook that. I’m not in love with the keyboard, but that’s only because I’ve grown accustomed to the keyboard on my Curve and I still need some more time with this one. My first impression was that it was too flush and that the keys weren’t distinctive enough, but, again, it’s something you get used to. It’s an otherwise solid keyboard that’s easy to peck away at and the spring assisted slide mechanism is very nice.

The UI is relatively easy to navigate through and it’s supposed to be a variation of the Croix UI found on most of the European models, but it’s really not. The blue columns and rows appear when you tap on each icon, but that’s pretty much the only similarity. Once you dive down into the menus you’ll encounter Verizon’s proprietary menus. On the main splash page you’ll find an active task manager-like menu at the bottom that keeps track of your alarm clock, calendar, missed calls, voicemails, new messages, and volume. This remains regardless of whether or not you’re in landscape or portrait mode. However, there is one difference between the two modes. When in landscape, you have a messaging icon while this disappears when in portrait mode. The dial pad, menu and contacts icons remain either way. Hitting the blue square leads to user defined shortcuts. The one external hard button is the home key and does exactly that.

The haptic touchscreen is quite nice, but it’s a tiny bit finicky at times. Once in a while the back button won’t actually do anything at all and you’ll be tapping it two or three times before it responds. I fiddled with the sensitivity settings, but found that it didn’t do anything to alleviate the problem. But it doesn’t happen all that often so it’s something I can overlook. But be warned that when the sensitivity level is set to high, it can get a little schizophrenic if you’re attempting to fly through the menus. Like the Instinct, the Glyde does the flicking scrolling deal that I’m not fond of on any phone, but it works and I didn’t encounter many problems with it.

The 2-megapixel camera with AF is decent. Resolution goes as high as 1600×1200, but when it’s that high the zoom function is nixed. Cameras on phones generally suck and the Glyde fairs just above average. The flash does a decent job in low light, but you won’t be submitting anything for an award. The camcorder doesn’t fair much better, in fact, it’s pretty useless with a 176×144 resolution. There’s an option for 320×240, but I couldn’t get it to work as it remains grayed out.

The HTML Web browser is rather useless since the screen isn’t that big. Everything is truncated and you’re basically forced to use the optimized browser to see anything otherwise you’ll be scrolling horizontally and vertically to figure out what you’re looking at. Load times vary depending on your signal strength. But I blame most of this on Verizon’s browser portal. If you could load Opera onto the Glyde, you’d be cruising in style.

I don’t talk that often on my phone, but just for you guys I made a few calls from the Glyde. It’s relatively clear when there isn’t a whole lot of noise around you and it’s certainly loud enough until you step outside. It’s not the best, but it certainly isn’t the worst. When you slide open the keyboard the phone switches to speakerphone.

I’ve been using the Glyde for over 24 hours after a full charge and it’s down to three bars from the original four. I’m sure with a bit more Web browsing, navigating and calling it’d be down another bar, but I’d say the battery life is top notch. Then again, it is a CDMA phone so it’s not constantly connected like a GSM phone would be.

Overall, I’m happy with the Glyde and I’m glad Samsung decided to bring it here to the States. It’s definitely going to be one of Verizon’s more popular devices. It’s small and light weight at 4.1 ounces and measures in at 4.1 x 2.0 x 0.7-inches. Other than the minor touchscreen glitches here and there, I didn’t run into anything else that was remotely irritating and most of you know I’ll rip anything apart given the chance.

It’s official. Review coming shortly. I hate when embargoes get broken. Quick spec list after the jump.

§ Advanced responsive touch-screen (haptic feedback)

§ Full slide-out QWERTY keyboard

§ Messaging – EMS/SMS/MMS/IM

§ MobileWeb

§ 2 megapixel camera

§ Enhanced camera features

§ Video camera

§ E911

§ Location Based Services

§ Stereo Bluetooth headset support

· Bluetooth profiles: HF, SPP, DUN

§ OPP for vCard, BIP, BPP, PBAP

§ MOD/VOD

§ Music player

§ EVDO

§ Get it Now

§ Data: USB 2.0 Full Speed 12 Mbps

Todays Top Posts:

• Wits and Wagers now on XBLA… plus a contest
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• The loneliness of joining the social
• Id announces Doom 4
• Wii’s Nintendo Channel is now live
• BT making a comeback in the mobile services world, makes me LMAO
• Mass Effect for PC has crappy dial-a-DRM
• Phillips jumping into touchscreen phone race
• External HDD coming for PS3 from Sony?

Movie junkies, rejoice! Criterion, the people who bring the very best versions of movies with lots of extras to DVDs, has officially announced its going Blu-ray. That means many of the best films ever made totally remastered for 1080p, specifically tailored for the format. It makes those $40 boxed sets actually worth the price.

Hit the jump to see a list of the films available soon!

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

The Last Emporer? In 1080p? Yes, please.

In what can only be termed a crushing defeat, leading torrent site TorrentSpy has been ordered to pay more than $110 million to the MPAA by a US District judge. It’s been a losing battle following TorrentSpy’s decision in March to make a stand by erasing a huge amount of MPAA-requested data they considered private.

This isn’t the time for sites like TorrentSpy to win cases like this — that’s still a ways off. In the meantime, though, their best course of action is to do what TorrentSpy and the Pirate Bay have been doing, even if that means you get hammered with an unfathomably huge fee. For those about to pay, we salute you.