The FCC hath spake: TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners (a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs), the two private equity firms looking to buy out the paradoxically national-regional carrier Alltel, have been given the greenlight. The two firms will pony up $24.7 billion (about $2050 per customers) to take Alltel, flush with cash and new customers, off the public market, with the expectation of closing the deal by November 22nd and paying some $71.50 cash per share to current shareholders. Two words: cha-ching.

[Via MoCoNews]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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For owners with the right hardware, 2008 is when they will see what Blu-ray Java is truly capable of. Bringing the confusion come to an end, Fox announced during the Blu-ray Festival that the first movie on the format with true picture-in-picture will be the sci-fi flick Sunshine in January. VideoBusiness also learned from Fox VP Steve Feldstein that he expects more players (aside from the PS3 and BD-UP5000) to be in the market that are equipped to handle the extra features. Tomorrow is the BDA’s self-imposed deadline, after which new players have to support PiP, persistent memory, and internet connections. Whether or not Warner Bros. drops HD DVD support, Walt Disney has also announced plans to include PiP on Finding Nemo and other titles later in the year.

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Music is nice, but free music is even better. With all the talk of DRM, lawsuits and the RIAA we tend to forget that there’s still a lot of completely free, legal music out there that just awaits to be taken. Today we bring you 12 top destinations for free and legal music on the net.

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Engadget’s favorite hardware hacker Benjamin Heckendorn is at it again, and his latest mutant mashup is the one-handed Access controller. The modular rig features five interchangeable pods — one each for the analog sticks, d-pad, main buttons, and shoulder buttons — that can be rearranged to make any control scheme one-hand-friendly. Ben says the Access is in pre-production with eDimensional, and will be hitting in PS2 / 3 versions first with a planned 360 version to follow — although it certainly looks like a brave 360 controller was involved in making that prototype. More photos await you at the read link.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Like to sit real close to your TV? Good, ’cause you’ll need to be PC-close to take advantage of these new 1080p LCDs from Sharp. Sharp’s no dummy though, as they’ve fitted their new 22-, 26-, and 32-inch sets with HDCP-loving DVI-D and mini D-Sub for PC connectivity and 2x HDMI, S-Video, and 2x composite for your home entertainment and game console hookups. The new AQUOS P range feature built-in tuners, a 400cd/m2 brightness, 176-degree viewing angle, and a 2,000:1 contrast on the 32-inch before dropping off to 1,200:1 by the time you reach the 22-inch set. The LC-32P1-W, LC-26P1-W, and LC-22P1-W models are expected to range from ¥240,000 ($2,101) to ¥180,000 ($1,576) when they pop on November 22nd in Japan.

[Via Impress]

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According to a Boy Genius Report that shows an alleged leaked advertisement, Rogers could be launching the iPhone on its network on December 7th. You’re gonna need to take this with a big grain of salt though: the depicted iPhone doesn’t show the Rogers logo on the actual iPhone, a red bow effect awkwardly cuts through text on the iPhone, and some comments point out that the Rogers logo is drawn incorrectly. We’re leaning towards Photoshop job at this point — what happened to the trademark dispute? — but if it’s true, Canadians could be looking at paying $499.99 of their dollars plus signing up to a three year contract in order to pick up their own iPhone. Is the border really that far?

[Thanks, Rich]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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We’re not exactly sure what to make of this, but LG’s BH200 combo HD DVD / Blu-ray player is currently listed on Circuit City’s website for $799, which is about $100 cheaper than anywhere else and $200 cheaper than a certain blue competitor. It might well be a typo, of course (and probably is), but between Big Red’s pre-Black Friday price-chopping and our own fervent hopes for format peace, we’re going to keep on dreaming until we hear otherwise.

[Thanks, Mike L.]

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Okay, so, iPhone nano — what do you picture? An identical clone of the original scaled down by a third? Yeah, us neither, which is why we’re calling out this alleged iPhone nano spy shot as a fraud. We’re not disputing that it’s real — in fact, we’d be surprised if it was a Photoshop job, considering how skilled the knockoff manufacturers have become at producing iPhone clones — we just refuse to believe at this point that Apple would inject zero innovation into the design of the iPhone’s baby sib. For what it’s worth, though, gadgetzone.nl says that its source absolutely insists that the shots are real and came from within Apple, which of course explains the Brand X monitor and PC keyboard in the background. We’ll believe it when Steve shows it, guys.

[Via Unwired View]

Update: It’s a media player. Rock on. Thanks, Deniz.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Just in case DirecTV’s lineup of HD channels wasn’t enough to make you take notice, they’ve rolled out their own display — in the mobile space no less. The DirecTV HD Starship made its debt at the World Series, hoisting its HD cameras and 70 x 30-foot LED display to share the video goodness with everybody in attendance. Yeah, that screen measurement is in feet. So it’s huge; it’s gotta be HD, too, right? Well, that’s a little disappointing: 33,600 pixels, which comes out to 280 x 120 pixels. Ouch. Sure, a viewing distance chart will tell you that past 270-feet even ED 480P is more than you need. But still, HD it isn’t. So if you’re lucky enough to catch a World Series game in person, get your eyes back on the game! As we like to say, “How good can it be, if it ain’t in HD?”

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The Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin showcases the latest Web 2.0 business models, development paradigms and design strategies and connects the European web community. The event starts next week and will be held November 5th - 8th. If you’d like to register, we’re offering for our Mashable readers a 100€ discount off the conference or a free Expo Pass by using the code: MLUTBE17.