Hasta La Gadget!

Verizon Wireless’ vaunted network may not be paying off for some users of the Droid, who are complaining about problems with call quality on their smartphones.

“There’s a problem with echo on the phone, so when someone calls you, to them it sounds like they are having a conversation with themselves,” says Heath Brashier, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, software developer who bought his Droid, which is manufactured by Motorola, just about a week ago. “It’s happened to me twice so far.”

Similar complaints have been posted on Motorola’s support forum, where people have posted dozens of comments saying that their voice sounds ‘tinny’ and ‘clipped.’ Some subscribers have found a quick DIY fix to the problem: Quickly turning the speaker phone on the device on and off makes the echo go away, they say. Others suggest rebooting the phone.

The problem is not widespread enough for Verizon to have launched an investigation yet, says a Verizon spokesperson. “We stand behind our products,” says the spokesperson. “Customers have a 30-day return-and-exchange policy if they are not happy with their phone.”

Motorola and Verizon launched the $200 Droid (with a two-year contract) Nov. 6 to excellent reviews. Droid has a crisp screen, zippy Android 2.0 operating system, 5-megapixel camera and maps with free turn-by-turn navigation.

The phone has proved a good seller for Verizon, so far. Flurry, a mobile-analytics company, estimates Verizon sold 250,000 Droid phones in the first week since the product’s launch. That compares to about 60,000 T-Mobile HTC MyTouch phones sold during that device’s first week, but falls far short of the estimated 1.6 million Apple 3G S iPhones that customers bought during a similar period.

The gripes about Droid’s call quality, however, have dampened the enthusiasm of some users. “It is irritating,” says Brashier.

Verizon may not be ready to officially acknowledge the problem, but it is likely aware of it. A leaked technical bulletin from the company suggests it is planning an over-the-air software update Dec. 11 to fix it. It will also include a patch for problems such as lack of availability of 3-way calling in some areas and inability of some users to transfer contacts by Bluetooth.

Seperately, a Wired.com reader said in an e-mail note that Droid’s Wi-Fi connectivity can be unreliable. While the phone connects to a Wi-Fi network, it doesn’t always connect to the internet from there. It’s not clear if that’s a problem with just a few phones or a more widespread issue among Droid devices.

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See Also:

• Why I’m Not Getting a Droid Today
• Review: Motorola Droid
• Droid Weekend Sales Top 100000, Says Analyst
• Verizon to Offer Tethering For Motorola Droid
• Verizon Won’t Offer Free Tethering, but Droid Hackers Might

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

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Filed under: Handhelds

Sony offering ePub upgrade / trade-in program for PRS-500 e-reader originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has won an important round of its legal battle against Psystar, a Florida-based startup that has been selling Mac clones for over a year.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled late last Friday that by selling PCs hacked to run Mac OS X, Psystar has violated Apple’s copyrights. Alsup also ruled that Psystar violated anti-circumvention provisions in the Digital Millenium Copyright act.

Psystar in April 2008 opened its business selling non-Apple PCs hacked to run Mac OS X. Its first offering was a desktop system called the “OpenMac,” which cost $400 — about $2,400 cheaper than Apple’s Mac Pro. Apple filed suit in July 2008, alleging that Psystar was committing copyright, trademark and shrink-wrap license infringement.

“Psystar’s use of Mac OS X has been in excess and has violated Apple’s copyrights,” the judge wrote in his 16-page order.

Apple’s end-user agreement for Mac OS X reads, “You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.” In his Friday, Alsup noted that Psystar did not modify Mac OS X, but instead installed the software used to circumvent settings on non-Apple PCs to install Mac OS X. Alsup said this action constituted “facilitation of circumvention” and was a violation of Section 1201(a)(2) of the DMCA, which states the following:

(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that –

(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or
(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

Though Apple has won this portion of the case so far, the Cupertino, California company still has a long road ahead if it wishes to destroy the entire “Hackintosh” industry. In an article summarizing Apple’s battle with Psystar, ArsTechnica’s Jacqui Cheng cites Fred von Lohmann of Electronic Frontier Foundation, who said there are plenty of workarounds still available to hack OS X, which are not repeating Psystar’s offenses.

“While the ruling is a serious setback for Psystar, I don’t see it having much impact beyond the facts of that case,” von Lohmann told Ars. “On a number of important points, the outcome was driven by Psystar-specific factors, such as Psystar forfeiting one of their strongest defenses by failing to plead it in time. Moreover, my understanding is that the commercial ‘hackintosh’ industry has moved on to selling software that enables the user to bring their own PC and OS X DVD, rather than selling a pre-installed solution like the one at issue in the ruling.”

An example of a Hackintosh solution is a dongle with the Mac OS loaded, which ships with PCs, effectively turning them into sort-of Mac clones, which Wired.com reported in November. A lawyer told Wired.com such a device would face legality issues with regard to copyright, because the device would copy the Mac BIOS and put it in a chip. However, it would likely require another long legal battle with Apple, since the circumstances are different.

Meanwhile, plenty of open-source DIY solutions for consumers to install Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware are still available on the web. Thus, it’s unlikely Apple will put an end to the Hackintosh era anytime soon.

Apple and Psystar are scheduled for a final briefing on Dec. 14 to declare any monetary relief Apple may receive as a result of the hearing.

See Also:

• Psystar ‘Rebel EFI’ Patch Installs Snow Leopard on Any PC
• Psystar Marches Forward With Beefy Mac Clone
• Apple, Psystar File to Protect Secrets Before Battling in Court …
• Judge Dismisses Mac Cloner Psystar’s Bankruptcy
• Mac Copycat Psystar Gets Ammo to Countersue Apple
• Psystar: Blu-Ray Hackintosh for Sale; MacBook Clones on the Way …
• Psystar: Apple Is Paranoid for Alleging Conspiracy

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