Hasta La Gadget!

Toshiba’s Android-powered Thrive just started shipping to end users during the past couple of weeks, but already we’re seeing an alarming amount of bug reports crop up over at the outfit’s own site. Specifically, legions of users are suggesting that their Thrive is having a whale of a time coming out of Sleep mode without a full, hard reboot, and some are even suggesting that it’ll turn on by its lonesome on occasion. Hard to say if this is something that could be remedied via a future firmware update, but here’s hoping, right? Let us know if you’re seeing the same troubles in comments below — we haven’t seen any of this in the handful of days we’ve been testing our own, but we’ll be sure to report more thoroughly in our upcoming review.

Update: We spoke too soon. Although our Thrive review unit behaved just fine at first, we, too, have since found that it’s unable to wake from sleep without a hard reboot. In our case, it happened after charging the Thrive overnight, as opposed to letting it sit around unplugged. Since then, Toshiba has acknowledged the problem and promised a fix is on the way, though it’s still unclear when, exactly, the company will pull through.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Toshiba Thrive experiencing sleep / wake / reboot issues? (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 12:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ok, Windows Server Solutions Phone Connector doesn’t exactly sound exciting but, if you’re one of the few people out there rocking a Windows Home Server 2011 machine and a WP7 handset, you’re probably gonna want to get this set up ASAP. The combination of server-side plug-in and phone app lets you remotely control your server — triggering backups, managing users, and viewing alerts. It also lets you pull up media files stored on your server, though you can’t copy them locally for your later viewing or listening pleasure. It’s not just for home users either. The plug-in works with Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials, for smaller companies that rely on Microsoft-powered mobiles. You can download the server add-on at the more coverage link, and the smartphone app from the Zune Marketplace.

Windows Phone 7 Connector now puts your Home Server in your hand originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 10:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in May, we caught a glimpse of Acer’s TravelMate 8481, rocking an extra thin bezel and up to 13 nine hours of battery life for the road-weary sojourner. At the time, Acer was touting a mid-June launch, but we’ve just received word that the Core i7-packing notebook won’t make it into carry-ons until late August. As of now, we’ve only got UK pricing — £699, to be exact — leading us to wonder when the thing will make the journey stateside. As per usual, we will keep you abreast of the details as they roll in. Until then, you can peep the full PR after the break.

Continue reading Acer TravelMate 8481 lands late August, £700 price tag in tow

Acer TravelMate 8481 lands late August, £700 price tag in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 06:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on June 11, 2006 by CyberNet.

Windows Vista Beta 2 has been made available by Microsoft for users to download for free. However, the download speeds can be terrible because there are so many people downloading it! So that is why a site was created that has made the Vista Beta 2 torrent available. They include the MD5 checksum so that you can verify that this is the real version of Windows Vista Beta 2.

Microsoft has not setup this site but some very reputable people, Chris and Jake, have put the site together. They said that if Microsoft wants them to take the site down then they will. So this is not officially done by Microsoft but the torrent is the Official Windows Vista Beta 2 version that was released to the public.

Here are the steps that you have to take to download Vista Beta 2 via the BitTorrent network:

1. Start by downloading **FILE REMOVED FROM HOST**. If you don’t already have a BitTorrent Client, we recommend the free µTorrent for Windows (or the open source Azureus on Linux and/or OS X).
2. When the ISO has completely downloaded, please run a checksum verification against the file. It must match this MD5 hash: 4B6641731977D390838B24A0C300D1C6. Accept no substitutes, as we downloaded this ISO directly from Microsoft’s servers. We recommend freeware like MD5 for verifying file/text integrity.
3. If you haven’t already, you will need to visit Microsoft to get your registration code for this Vista beta. They’re free for the taking!
4. This step is optional, but we ask that you please keep the torrent open once you’ve finished downloading it – as that will help increase the speed of subsequent downloads. We’d also appreciate it if you let others know about this site and the torrent.

Do you think Microsoft will let them leave the torrent up? I think that they might because of the horrible experience people are having when they try to download the ISO image from Microsoft.

News Source: TechCrunch

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Windows Vista 5384 Torrent AvailableTake A Look At Windows XP vs. Windows Vista 5270Make Sure To Activate Windows Vista Beta 2Leaked: Download Windows XP SP3 3180 TorrentWindows Vista Beta 2 Is One For The Record Books

This article was written on December 10, 2010 by CyberNet.

Windows only
One of the features in Windows 7/Vista that I use quite regularly is the ability to click on the time in the System Tray to reveal a month-to-month calendar. The only problem is that some of the systems I use on a regular basis are stilling running Windows XP, but in situations like that I fallback to a solution I’ve been using for years… a customized wallpaper for the desktop.

Lately I’ve been using a free app called SE-DesktopContructor that works really well. You can have it put both a clock and calendar on your desktop, and it works with custom images if you have an existing background that you’re particularly fond of already. Personally I opt for the solid black background for simplicity sake.

Here’s a rundown of my favorite things in SE-DesktopConstructor:

• Customizable colors along with preset themes.
• Adjust the positioning of clock/calendar using a drag-and-drop interface – remember, these are not widgets so any changes to the position will need to be made from within the settings interface.
• Turn on/off the display of the clock and calendar depending on your own needs.
• Automatically updates background as time/date changes.
• Portable version is available.

The only thing I don’t like is that I can’t set the clock to a 12-hour format, but they do have some analog styles available if you’d rather go that route.

SE-DesktopConstructor is available in both installable and portable formats. It will always need to be running if you want the wallpaper to automatically update, otherwise killing the app leaves the modified wallpaper in place. In my tests it only used up about 11MB of memory, and didn’t use any CPU except for the split-second that it makes the wallpaper change at the turn of each minute.

SE-DesktopConstructor Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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