June 24, 2009 New Android phone debuts; city backs off on password demands Play video

(NECN: Ted McEnroe) - The latest device with an eye toward stealing the buzz from Apple's iPhone got a little premature debut today. Engadget and other blogs discovered the new web pages for HTC's new Hero smartphone a couple of hours before the phone's official debut in London this morning.

The phone features a 3.2-inch touchscreen, a 5 megapixel camera, and some cool customization features, including the ability to set up multiple profiles, so you could have one set of icons for work, and switch to a different setup for the weekend. And an apparent odd fact - the white Hero will be Teflon-coated, in an effort to make it stay cleaner.

Unfortunately, while the phone will debut in Europe in July, it won't arrive on U.S. shores until late in the year.

Meanwhile, there was good news and bad news in Bozeman, Montana last week - the good? There were jobs to be had. The bad? As part of the application process, applicants were going to be required to turn over both their usernames and passwords to social networking sites.

Now there is apparently just the good news. After a hue and cry from people all over the internet, the city of Bozeman has backed off on its password request.

"This was an honest

mistake," said the Bozeman city manager. "Human Resources, our Police and Fire Departments were doing something they believed was consistent with our core values."

After the news that Bozeman was requesting the personal information hit the web, the city was apparently getting one email a minute objecting to the requirement. You can only imagine how much worse that might have been had the Internet's attention not been swept up in Iran.