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Sprint posted a 1st quarter loss of over $500 million, prompting the company to announce they may seek changes to its credit agreements.  The company expects to have enough cash to cover it’s operations and debt repayments through the end of 2009 but may ask its creditors for waivers or amendments.

“This is a nightmare game of whack-a-mole where new problems keep popping up faster than you can address,” said Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett. “The fact they’re now talking openly about their available liquidity makes it clear this is not a short-term turn around.”

Sprint reports a net debt of nearly $20 billion, much of it coming from its 2005 merger with Nextel, which many consider a failure. Standard & Poor dropped Sprint’s credit status to junk earlier this month. Rumored to be an acquisition target of Deutsche Telekom AG, the third ranked cellular provider promised to update shareholders in August. As a long time Sprint customer who has been very happy with the service, I can only hope for the best and wonder where Sprint would be today if they hadn’t made the mistake of merging with Nextel.

Read [Reuters]

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Electronics and water don’t play nice as they’re something of arch enemies, and mixing both won’t do any good to your wallet either. Enter the Overboard Waterproof Gadget Cases that ought to give you some peace of mind.

These OverBoard Waterproof Gadget Cases are 100% waterproof and float if dropped in water. They are perfect for safeguarding your gadgets (phone, camera, mp3 player) and also keep out dust, sand and dirt. The Phone/GPS Case lets you take your phone (or compact GPS) to places you wouldn’t normally dare and will protect your phone without stopping you from using it. The Camera Case lets you take pictures down to 19ft (6m) underwater and is perfect for digital cameras without a telescopic zoom lens. The MP3 Case is a heavy duty waterproof padded MP3 case with Pro-Sports Arm Strap. Your MP3 player is fully useable when safely sealed in the case. By the way, the MP3 Case is the one suggested to hold your iphone.

Depending on the size of the case you purchase to accommodate different devices, the Overboard Waterproof Gadget Cases will retail between $24.99 to $39.99.

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by Darren Murph, posted May 16th 2008 at 11:17PM
iKey’s done this whole rugged keyboard thing a time or two before, so when it builds one meant to operate like a champ around environments laden with grease, you know it means business. The new line of Membrane keyboards — which arrives in a trio of flavors — boasts a stainless steel enclosure, or customers looking to integrate can snag the OEM edition and do as they please. The board possesses a “hard-coated, textured, polyester film that is more rugged than industrial silicone rubber keypads,” and it’s designed to withstand “directed hose water, disinfectants and environmental contaminants.” Seems as though you’ll have to phone up iKey to find out what this Apocalypse-approved device will run you, but it should get along quite well with that impenetrable Iron Drive of yours.

[Via Coolest-gadgets]

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Filed under: Peripherals

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted May 16th 2008 at 9:49PM
With its minute keyboard, the Eee PC can be tough to use in the dark. Imagine, then, if yours had a backlit keyboard. The folks at Popsci have come up with — and explained — a way to add one of your own. And get this: you can do it in 3 hours for just $13.50. But before you go ripping apart your new Eee PC, mind this: this isn’t the easiest mod in the world. You have to be cool with removing the keyboard, slipping some wires, and doing some light soldering. In addition, the hack plops a Techno Flash luminescent wire inverter on the outside of the case, so if you’re big on minimalism, this might be a skip.

[Via Pimp My UMPC]

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Filed under: Laptops

by Ryan Block, posted May 17th 2008 at 5:24AMSeriously though, how many are surprised to hear that Motorola’s Chief Technology / Strategy Officer Richard Nottenburg is jumping off the sinking ship? Apparently dude “left to return to the New York area to be with his family and pursue other opportunities,” which is code for a) he was passed over for CEO of the new mobile devices company, b) he was fired, or c) he finally wised up to the direction the company’s taken. Either way, we can’t really blame him.

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Filed under: cellphones