So much news passes before our collective eyes every day that we couldn’t possibly cover it all. Mostly because much of it isn’t worth covering! But here are a some borderline tidbits we passed on, just in case.
Another Day, Another iPhone Rumour
The tear drop-shaped case pictured above is supposedly based on an iPhone 5 that was smuggled out of a Foxconn factory in China. With Apple’s big iPhone announcement next week approaching, rumours like this just aren’t that exciting anymore. We’re a fickle bunch. [Business Insider]
This Is an Energy Stand
… Or at least that’s what the Japanese call it. In the United States we call it a wireless iPad charger. The Air Voltage by Hitachi Maxwell isn’t pretty — it looks like a clunky paper stand. [Tech Crunch]
Tablets Are the New Netbooks
Brent notes that the new US-only 7-inch Toshiba Thrive is pretty decent and that if it was priced cheaply enough, people might actually buy it. Well over at Wired, Charlie Sorrel argued that factors like “race-to-the-bottom prices” and standardised hardware and OS offerings were a sign that tablets are headed the route of the netbook — which is to say to the grave. The MacBook Air killed the netbook, and Android tablets will fail to catch on. The iPad will continue to be the best product. It’s an interesting argument. The only difference? We all still really, really want tablets.
Left Behind is our daily collection of chaff we didn’t think was quite good enough to post on its own, and why.