Hasta La Gadget!

Steve Ballmer must have busted out his secret stash of magic dust, as Microsoft has just come out with the announcement that it has recovered “most, if not all, customer data” that was lost during the recent Sidekick debacle. Following the wildly embarassing fiasco attributed to a “system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up,” T-Mobile and Redmond have “rebuilt the system component by component” and now promise to restore data to affected users in the most expedient fashion possible. Guess that means you won’t be getting $100 from T-Mobile for losing your Tetris high scores after all.

[Thanks, Abe G.]

Filed under: Cellphones

Microsoft recovers ‘most, if not all’ Sidekick customer data originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, well, looks like Unkie Walt accidentally programmed his calendar to publish a combined preview of the Motorola CLIQ and the BlackBerry Storm 2 a little earlier than everyone else. Nothing particularly insightful on the CLIQ, but Mossy says RIM’s latest is a big improvement over the original Storm — mostly because of the revamped touchscreen, which provides “faster, smoother typing.” Yep, that’s pretty much what we were expecting. Walt’s also high on the inclusion of WiFi and the portrait-mode keyboard, but ain’t nothing gonna make that BlackBerry browser any good, and the big guy says the touch interface still feels tacked to the rapidly-aging BlackBerry OS. So Walt — now that you’ve confirmed RIM and Verizon’s big holiday launch, what can you tell us about pricing and availability? “Likely to appear in November at around $200,” you say? Thanks, buddy. You’re always so dependable. Video that we took of a broken Storm 2 prototype in May after the break, tons of pics in the gallery

Continue reading Walt Mossberg leaks the BlackBerry Storm 2

Filed under: Cellphones

Walt Mossberg leaks the BlackBerry Storm 2 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t want to say Nikon has something of a trend here, but as with most of its major releases in recent memory (c.f. D300s, D5000, Coolpix lineup), the umph of tonight’s 12.1-megapixel D3S announcement has been somewhat lessened by a pretty large leak from earlier tonight. Still, let’s act a little surprised. Ready? Okay! The professional-grade DSLR is packing a rather wide ISO range of 200 to 12,800, which can be further boosted to 102,400 — although we’re dying to see just how pictures taken under those conditions actually turn out. There’s a video mode, 720p at 24 frames per second with autofocus and a “new algorithm” to lessen the effect of rolling shutter, but as far as we can tell there’s still no image stabilization. Release date for US is about on par with its UK brethren, launching in late November for the favorably comparable price of $5,199.95 for body only. Full details in press release after the break.

Continue reading Nikon D3S is officially official, bringing its ISO extremes in late November

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Nikon D3S is officially official, bringing its ISO extremes in late November originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew it was coming, and here it is — the glorious first showing of the Palm Pre in its GSM garb. From today, our Deutsch comrades can grab a Pre and do whatever they want to do to it, courtesy of O2, its exclusive German supplier. The device will set you back €481 without contract, with the O2 My Handy option letting you finance it via 24 monthly payments of €20. Check out the online store link below for full details and available calling plans. Pre Thinking have also noted the arrival of two new free apps in the Pre catalog — ran and VZ-Netzwerke, both in German — and the likely prospect of even more coming along as the Pre starts its long-awaited rollout across Europe over the next few days.

[Via Engadget German]

Read – O2 Germany online store
Read – Pre Thinking

Filed under: Cellphones

First GSM Palm Pre now on sale in Germany, with new Euro-specific apps in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, this is shaping up to be one of the biggest disasters in the history of cloud computing, and certainly the largest blow to Danger and the Sidekick platform: T-Mobile’s now reporting that personal data stored on Sidekicks has “almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger.” They’re still looking for a way to recover it, but they’re not giving users a lot of hope — meanwhile, servers are still on the fritz and customers are being advised not to let their devices power down because anything that’s still on there will be lost the next time the device is turned on. Another communique is promised from T-Mobile on Monday to give everyone a status update on the recovery efforts, but at this point, it’s not looking good at all.

Update: Apparently T-Mobile has paused the sale of new Sidekicks, as all models are now listed as “temporarily out of stock” on the company’s site. Additionally, a warning as been added to the post on T-Mobile’s forum which reads: “Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power.” Scary stuff, Sidekickers.

T-Mobile: we probably lost all your Sidekick data originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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