 "Photo: wired.com")
1) iPhone 4 leak: The veil of secrecy surrounding future and unreleased Apple products is legendary. Employees have been fired for leaking future products to the press, though these leaks are incredibly uncommon. Last Monday, however, the next iPhone, expected to be released this summer, was revealed by gadget blog Gizmodo. To make a long story short, an Apple engineer lost the prototype phone in a bar, someone found it, Gizmodo bought it for $5,000 and their exclusive coverage got more than 6 million hits on the first day. Want to know the specs on the new phone? Go ahead and give Gizmodo another hit.
2) Downfall’s downfall: German film Downfall has been parodied hundreds of times, generating a meme that has lasted the past two years. The parodies have made Hitler rant about the iPad, the new Watchmen ending, Michael Jackson dying and countless other events. This week, unfortunately, Constantin Films, the owner of Downfall, has requested that these parodies be removed from YouTube via a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) request. The meme’s not done yet though — Hitler can now be seen ranting about Constantin Film’s blatant disregard for fair use.
3) Floppy disks killed off: CD-RW’s were always too clunky to replace the floppy disk as mobile storage and the flash drive made 1.44MB just seem like too little space, but apparently the little disks have stuck around. Until now. On Monday, Sony announced that they will stop manufacturing the media in March 2011. All you Sony Mavica FD-series users better upgrade soon.
4) Skype marriage: The eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajokull left thousands of Europeans stranded this past week, including Sean Murtagh and Natalie Mead, who were scheduled to be married in London. Did they cancel their date at the church? Of course not. Thanks to a couple of webcam-equipped laptops, the pair streamed their impromptu marriage ceremony from Dubai to the church in London where their friends and family were gathered, according to schedule.
5) Hulu stops being free: Starting May 24, there will be a premium option for Hulu users. Called Hulu Plus, it will cost $9.99/month and will allow Plus users to go back and watch significantly more past episodes of shows than are currently available. What about everything that you watch on Hulu now? Still free.
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