Hasta La Gadget!

Ever since the Dev-Team kinda sorta promised that they would have a neatly packaged iPhone 3G unlock ready for release by the year’s end, we’ve all been waiting on pins and needles, counting down the moments until freedom was in hand yet again. Now, a cryptic message on the crew’s blog has been followed up with a not-at-all secretive image (shown above), which shows that whatever magic they’ve got going on will work with the latest (v2.2) iPhone 3G firmware. According to a related writeup at yellowsn0w, we’re clearly told that the unlock tool will be made available by midnight PST at the latest, though we’re hoping those guys have their AM / PM mixed up — otherwise, you might be waiting until noontime tomorrow. At any rate, now you’ve more than a day off and black eyed peas to look forward to tomorrow, right?

[Via MobileCrunch]

Filed under: Cellphones

Dev-Team teases v2.2-compatible iPhone 3G unlock for the New Year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new report from Fudzilla claims that Microsoft is getting ready to lay off 15,000 employees, or about 17% of its worldwide staff. The axe will apparently fall on January 15th, exactly one week before its second quarter earnings report, and they expect MSN division to be hit hardest, while the successful Xbox crew will probably make it out relatively unscathed. Meanwhile, an anonymous blogger who goes by the name Mini-Microsoft and claims to be an employee well-versed in the goings-on inside the company has been fielding questions from other purported Microsoft workers on recent cutback concerns. This past Monday he posted a handful of anonymous comments saying that the rumored layoffs aren’t happening — at least not in January — although a re-organization might be in the cards. Both reports should be taken with a grain of salt, but one thing’s for certain — Windows 7 is gonna rule.

[Via Joystiq]

Read – Fudzilla report
Read – Mini-Microsoft

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Microsoft preparing for new layoffs? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A research project funded by the European Union has developed a cheaper and faster system to manufacture flexible OLED displays.

According to researchers of project ROLLED, ramping up the production of the energy-efficient displays will accelerate the availability of associated future applications, like wearable displays and rolled up e-Ink newspapers.

Fittingly, the manufacturing process that Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre came up with is similar to that of regular newspaper printing. OLEDs are printed directly on top of flexible protective films (like the old roll-to-roll ‘pressing’ of the papers), where the resulting displays are rolled through in a single sheet that is later separated into individual pieces.

Currently, most of the OLEDs used in consumer electronics devices, like those of the Sony XEL-1 TV, are produced in a glass substrate. It’s a process that often lasts a long time, and is generally inefficient and wasteful.

In order for the OLED printing to work, the researchers developed new printable ‘nano-particle oxide (ITO) coatings’ that form the anode needed to drive an electric current between itself and and the cathode layers, lighting up the organic layer that forms the meat of the display in between.

What is also remarkable is how thin they’ve managed to make the completed OLED sheet. Each roll is .20 millimeters, or about as thick as three sheets of paper.

The ROLLED project isn’t the only one to figure out that the old/new printing process is a good idea.

Earlier this year, the main research group at General Electric produced a similar equipment module that mass-manufactures large, flexible OLED screens. GE is also focusing on developing a longer lasting OLED through more efficient diodes. In addition, companies as varied as LG Philips, Fujitsu and Sony have all teased flexible-displays with similar applications in mind.

According to Arto Maaninen, a manager for VTT, the first type of OLEDs that will likely come out of the project will be of the two-color variety and are likely to be used for ID packaging.

Lead photo: VTT

See also:

• GE Makes OLED Christmas Tree, Automates Scary 3D Surveillance Cameras

TUAW has the most complete description yet of the new Mac mini widely rumored/expected to launch at Macworld. It’ll be topped with iMac-esque black plastic instead of white, and have a lip like Time Capsule.

The lip conceals the Mac mini’s optical drive slot, which is useful now since TUAW says that the new drive will be SATA, meaning it can be swapped out for a second hard drive, probably as a custom build option. The second drive is boon to the business crowd that uses Mac minis in server farms (like this one), since it not only adds more storage, but makes RAID1 mirroring easy.

No other details on specs—we’re pretty interested in what processor these things will be packing—though it’s looking fairly certain (as certain as these things ever look, anyway) that they’ll have Nvidia’s GeForce 9400m chipset from the new MacBooks in tow.

We’ll know in about a week, along with whatever other surprises Macworld has in store. What would you like to see in the new Mac mini, besides a Blu-ray drive? (Cause that’s what everyone wants.) [TUAW]

Microsoft’s responded to the Zune 30GB failure, blaming a leap-year handling bug. And they’ve provided a fix. Which is to wait til New Years, when the bug will go away by itself. Huh.

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. That being the case, the issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.

Customers can continue to stay informed via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).

We know this has been a big inconvenience to our customers and we are sorry for that, and want to thank them for their patience.

Q: Why is this issue isolated to the Zune 30 device?
It is a bug in a driver for a part that is only used in the Zune 30 device.

Q: What fixes or patches are you putting in place to resolve this situation?
This situation should remedy itself over the next 24 hours as the time flips to January 1st.

Q: What’s the timeline on a fix?
The issue Zune 30GB customers are experiencing today will self resolve as time changes to January 1.

Q: Why did this occur at precisely 12:01 a.m. on December 31, 2008?
There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.

Q: What is Zune doing to fix this issue?
The issue should resolve itself.

Q: Are you sure that this won’t happen to all 80, 120 or other flash devices?
This issue is related to a part that is only used in Zune 30 devices.

Q: How many 30GB Zune devices are affected? How many Zune 30GB devices were sold?
All 30GB devices are potentially affected.