Wednesday Evening Links

A new technology to prevent lithium-ion batteries from catching fire or exploding in laptops and mobile phones may be on the market as soon as the first quarter of 2010, its inventor said on Wednesday.

The invention, called Stoba, was developed at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan's national research organization.

Stoba sits between the positive and negative sides of the battery and when the battery hits 130 degrees centigrade (266 degrees Fahrenheit), Stoba transforms from a porous material to a film and shuts down the reaction.

They expect to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2010, he said.

Pang, in Orlando, Florida, to get an award, said by phone that Stoba will add only two percent to three percent to the cost of manufacture. He said he wants to try selling the technology to major laptop and phone manufacturers.

We reached out to Hewitt for more details, and he attributed his decision to quit the project entirely on Apple’s tyrannical App Store approval policies:

My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer.

Apple has built some truly fantastic products, but their approach to the App Store is frightening — especially given the fact that other platforms may see the iPhone’s success and start adopting a similar model.

Hewitt’s move is a big deal, because he has essentially been the one-man show behind the iPhone’s most popular application of all time.

Microsoft this week booted as many as 1 million players from its Xbox Live gaming service due to the company's belief that they modified their consoles to play games illegally downloaded from file sharing sites.

"All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty, and result in a ban from Xbox Live," Microsoft said in a statement.

Consoles banned from Xbox Live will still function if games are played offline, but players booted from the Xbox Live service will not be able to sign into their accounts or engage other players over the Internet.

A player banned from Xbox Live told the U.K.'s Radio 1 that he was "gutted" and "distraught" by the decision. The player admitted paying an electronics shop more than $100 to modify his Xbox so it could play pirated games.