Oh sure, we've seen alleged criminals wriggle out from under the strong arm of the law, but this one takes things to an entirely different platform. Reportedly, a truck driver in Germany was pulled over for yapping on his cellphone while cruising, but apparently, said trucker actually wasn't talking when the boys in blue saw his handset upside his melon. As the story goes, the 43-year old was actually using the freshly recharged mobile to "warm his ear" in an attempt to alleviate an earache. Astonishingly enough, he was even able to provide "an itemized telephone bill proving he had not been using the phone at the time he was stopped," thus, a court in Hamm accepted the excuse and let him go sans penalty. Something tells us this guy's got friends in low places.

[Via Switched]

So there's been a relatively weighty grassroots effort the past few weeks to convince HTC that there's something horribly flawed with its Qualcomm MSM7xxx-based devices -- essentially that video acceleration isn't nearly as well off as it could be because the company isn't taking advantage of the chipset's ATI Imageon circuitry. HTC has weighed in on the hullabaloo today, and in short, the news isn't good for anyone hoping to get a software update out of the deal: "HTC believes the overall value of its devices based on their combination of functionality and connectivity exceeds their ability to play or render high-resolution video. These devices do still provide a rich multimedia experience comparable to that of most smartphones and enable a variety of audio and video file formats," reads the official response, in part. Furthermore, the company has officially confirmed that Imageon drivers are not in use on the affected devices, but that it "plans to include video acceleration hardware in future video-centric devices that will enable high-resolution video support." To be totally fair, HTC never promised Imageon acceleration to begin with -- but it's a shame that we'll apparently be looking at buying new hardware to get it.

We're seeing a serious flow of tips from people upset with supposed performance issues on a good pile of HTC's newest sets. Handsets like the HTC TyTN II, Touch Dual, Touch Cruise, Wings, Titan, Vogue, Libra, and Iris are all apparently affected by underperforming video drivers which in turn slow the device significantly. The list -- and length -- of threads covering this is snow-balling at the well known XDA-Developers forum pages, as is talk of class-action suits. A site has now been set up called HTCClassAction to help people sort through all the buzz and get the nitty gritty details, so hit the read link if you're inspired to learn more. Of course we'll hopefully hear something official from HTC on this in the near term and will be sure to fill you in as we do.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

If you're pleased as punch with the BlackJack II's in-built (and non-free) TeleNav app, you can go ahead and skip over this blurb. Otherwise, take note: the latest release of Microsoft's SDK for Windows Mobile 6 has revealed a little gem that'll change everything. The GPS Intermediate Driver, or GPSID as the cool kids are calling it, now has an on-device configuration utility that allows you to specify that the GPS chipset on your WinMo 6 Standard device be exposed on a particular serial port, allow third party location-based apps to get in on the fun. Of course, downloading, installing, and sifting through the actual SDK doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, but never fear -- MoDaCo has done us all the favor of boiling it down to the utility alone. Click on!

Every once in a while, a device comes along whose stupidity is exceeded only by the individuals advocating its use; a device so confusing and controversial, it creates twice as many problems as it solves. Enter Highway Safety & Technology's "Cellular Detection System" (or as we like to call it, the "Automatic Civil Unrest Creation System"). The idea is this: through some magical, thoroughly unexplained array of "electronic sensing equipment," the system can somehow detect drivers talking on their phones and set the subsequent legal process in motion without any law enforcement involvement whatsoever. Never mind that other people in the car might be using their phones and the fact that headsets are almost always legal when handsets are not, we guess. The product is actually so ridiculous that we're leaning toward it being an elaborate hoax -- or we're hoping as much, anyway -- otherwise it'll allegedly be available to overzealous municipalities this fall.

[Via Techdirt]