Cory Doctorow wrote this Creative Commons-licensed fiction story for Radar Online magazine.

  Une version française est disponible ici

“Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them to hang him.” –Cardinal Richelieu

“We don’t know enough about you.” –Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Greg landed at San Francisco International Airport at 8 p.m., but by the time he’d made it to the front of the customs line, it was after midnight. He’d emerged from first class, brown as a nut, unshaven, and loose-limbed after a month on the beach in Cabo (scuba diving three days a week, seducing French college girls the rest of the time). When he’d left the city a month before, he’d been a stoop-shouldered, potbellied wreck. Now he was a bronze god, drawing admiring glances from the stews at the front of the cabin.

Four hours later in the customs line, he’d slid from god back to man. His slight buzz had worn off, sweat ran down the crack of his ass, and his shoulders and neck were so tense his upper back felt like a tennis racket. The batteries on his iPod had long since died, leaving him with nothing to do except eavesdrop on the middle-age couple ahead of him.

“The marvels of modern technology,” said the woman, shrugging at a nearby sign: Immigration–Powered by Google.

“I thought that didn’t start until next month?” The man was alternately wearing and holding a large sombrero.

Googling at the border. Christ. Greg had vested out of Google six months before, cashing in his options and “taking some me time"–which turned out to be less rewarding than he’d expected. What he mostly did over the five months that followed was fix his friends’ PCs, watch daytime TV, and gain 10 pounds, which he blamed on being at home instead of in the Googleplex, with its well-appointed 24-hour gym.

He should have seen it coming, of course. The U.S. government had lavished $15 billion on a program to fingerprint and photograph visitors at the border, and hadn’t caught a single terrorist. Clearly, the public sector was not equipped to Do Search Right.

The DHS officer had bags under his eyes and squinted at his screen, prodding at his keyboard with sausage fingers. No wonder it was taking four hours to get out of the god damned airport.

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Tags: 2007, 24, access, account, air, airport, analysis, arc, arms, art, ATT, batteries, blog, book, brown, bt, camera, card, cars, ces, columbia, communication, computer, CTU, design, digital, dress, engine, explain, Festival, fiction, find, flash, free, Fun, google, google maps, History, HP, ia, ict, identify, im, International, internet, ipod, ITU, keyboard, King, lan, laptop, launch, law, LED, LG, light, live, map, MIT, money, network, nomadcom.net, nyt, officer, online, organize, pair, personal data, pet, photo, picture, police, politics, post, power, press, privacy, project, public, raw, release, science, sco, screen, scroogled, search, security, simple, social, soviet, storm, story, suspect, technology, term, terror, theme, touch, upgrade, USA, usage, user, violation, web, webcam, wifi, wonders, world, wp, www, XP, yahoo

Hewlett-Packard has presented its new iPAQ handheld devices. Among them the 600 series a two-in-one 3G phone and navigation device and the 900 series which comes with a full QWERTY keyboard.

Both models share the following specifications: 

• O/S : Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• CPU : Marvell PXA270 520 MHz
• Memory : 128 MB SDRAM and 256 MB ROM
• aGPS (assisted navigation)
• Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Tri Band HSPDA
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth 2.0
• USB 2.0 connector, MicroSD card slot
• 3 Megapixel camera

900 series model only (within brackets, specs of HTC C730)

• Size: 113 x 64 x 16mm (112.5 x 62.5 x 13.5)
• Weight: 146 gr. (120 gr)
• Battery: 1850 mAh (1050 mAh)
• Display: 2.46 in TFT with 65000 colors (2.4 TFT 65000)
• Price Tag: ~800 USD (~520 USD)

Will this model becomes a serious competitor to HTC Cavalier (C730, replacement of S620 Excalibur) which is a 3.5G phone, smaller, lighter and cheaper but does not come with GPS navigation and tactile screen?   

All info about new iPAQ on HP Mobility 2007
Availability: October 2007

Sources : Mobilitysite, Blog de Pierre

Tags: 2007, 802.11, 900 Series, 914, api, asia, ATT, availability, blog, Business Messenger, C720, C720w, C730, camera, card, Cavalier, ces, dopod, excalibur, gap, gsm, handheld, Hewlett Packard, HP, htc, ia, im, iPAQ, keyboard, lan, light, memory, messenger, mobile, Mobile Communications, mobility, models, nomadcom.net, pda, pet, phone, press, public, S620, screen, share, space, Telecommunications, usb, windows, windows mobile 6, WM6, wp, www

Finally, long waited HTC S620 (Excalibur) upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 has been released. This upgrade was already available in July for T-Mobile Dash users.

Windows Mobile 6 upgrade will provide the following new and improved features :

• Stay connected to your e-mail, calendar, and contacts.- Find what you need quickly and easily including business listings, maps and directions with Windows Mobile's powerful search and filtering features.
• Get access to corporate networks for data and documents stored on file shares and SharePoint sites.
• Fit your style with a variety of designs ranging from touch screen devices with slide out keyboards to sleek full-keyboard smartphones or compact flip phones.
• Receive HTML e-mail support, improved security and encryption, greater integration with Microsoft products including direct SharePoint® intranet access from e-mail links and superior connectivity to Windows Vista™.

45 MB upgrade package is available on HTC member page but be ready for a slow connection as I can imagine the server to be a bit overloaded with S620 and TyTN upgrade downloads.

More once upgrade completed
Update completed, first impressions posted

Source: HTC Club 

Tags: 2007, access, arc, art, blog, ces, connection, connectivity, design, europe, excalibur, find, htc, im, keyboard, lan, list, login, map, microsoft, mobile, Mobile Communications, network, nomadcom.net, pda, phone, phones, post, power, press, quickly, release, S620, screen, search, security, share, smartphone, space, Telecommunications, touch, touch screen, TyTN, update, upgrade, user, vista, windows, windows mobile 6, windows vista, WM6, wp, www