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  • Every Day: The Best of the Verve Years

    • 8 out of 10
    • Joe Williams
    • Joe Williams was Figure Two in my three-man education in singing. A brilliant vocalist, scatter, and interpreter of jazz and blues, Williams produces music that's totally unique, yet sounds so effortl
  • The Dresden Dolls

    • 10 out of 10
    • The Dresden Dolls
    • The energetic duet of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione that make up the Dresden Dolls have created a wonderfully haunting sound in their self-titled album. They have been able to construct an imme

  • The Wall (Deluxe Packaging Digitally Remastered)

    • 10 out of 10
    • Pink Floyd
    • Okay, someone had to say it, and though others on the iPO staff are more qualified to review this album, I decided the time was now. This is the quintessential concept album. Though others came before
  • Stadium Arcadium

    • 8 out of 10
    • Red Hot Chili Peppers
    • What? Only four stars, you stingy bastard? I'm asking myself the same question, so let me explain myself to myself... If I compare the new

  • The Stooges

    • 8 out of 10
    • The Stooges
    • Another pillar of my musical foundations, The Stooges' first album is one those records whose influence far outweighed its popularity. Like The Velvet Underground & Nico, hordes of people wh

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BW: iPhone’s Reluctant Gray Marketer

Of all the people making some money from the iPhone gray market, Pavel Zaboj in the Czech Republic may be the most reluctant, according to Peter Burrows at Business Week. The constant technology war that has left software hacks of the iPhone viable, then useless, has created a roller coaster ride for Mr. Zaboj’s business. Now, he just doesn’t care anymore.

Mr, Zaboj, 36, a former mathematics student was working with banks, helping them develop software for online banking. His small company, Bladox, developed on a tiny circuit card, called a Turbo SIM, which allows a mobile phone to be used on multiple networks.

"But within a week of the iPhone launch, technophiles had figured out that the card could also ’unlock’ an iPhone, rendering it usable on networks other than the one run by AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier," Mr. Burrows wrote. As a result, sales boomed.

However, when hackers developed a software unlock of the iPhone, his sales plummeted. And when that was defeated by Apple, his sales again boomed out of control. Mr. Zaboj finally had to shut down his direct to customer business. Often they became angry when his suppliers couldn’t keep up with the hardware, and his own deliveries were late.

"Now, Bladox’s iPhone ride has taken yet another turn," Mr. Burrows wrote. "New Jersey college student George Holz has figured out a new software-only way to unlock the iPhone, and he’s giving it away for free. It’s no surprise that Turbo SIM sales have plummeted again. While a few consumers are still ordering, interest from gray-market resellers has evaporated. "Let’s see what Apple does" in response to Holz, Zaboj wrote in an e-mail. "But we really don’t care."

Even so, it’s been a ride. Mr. Zaboj estimated that he’s sold a total of about 30,000 of the Turbo SIMs.

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