Hasta La Gadget!

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Official Android updates

• Motorola Xoom owners who swapped in their devices for one with LTE capability may have found an OTA enhancement waiting for them when the tablet arrived. It included a few minor changes, such as updates to Android Market and some additional browser security measures. The full changelog can be found at the link. [AndroidCentral]
• The update to the Motorola Droid 2 Global was pulled last month due to an Exchange encryption issue, but we’re hearing reports that it’s once again resuming the rollout with that concern resolved. [Droid-Life]
• Motorola’s Photon 4G on Sprint is on the receiving end of a minor bug fix update, which includes video chat capability for Google Talk. [PhoneArena]
• The good news for unlocked Dell Streak 7 users: the official update to Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) is now rolling out and you should see it over the course of the next couple weeks. the coming weeks. [Dell]
• The bad news for T-Mobile Dell Streak 7 users: Honeycomb isn’t coming to your tablet, for unknown reasons. [Android Community]
• According to a tweet from LG, there’s a small refresh in the works for the Optimus 7 which will finally enable WiFi tethering. [WPCentral]

Unofficial Android updates, custom ROMs and misc. hackery

• A new piece of firmware for the AT&T Galaxy S II was leaked via RootzWiki, and includes a few bug fixes. Sadly, it adds some bugs as well. [Android Community]
• Samsung’s officially released the kernel source for the Stratosphere, Transfix and Galaxy Y Pro. [Android Community]
• And now for the best news for TouchPad owners: after several weeks of progress, it appears that CM7 is now ready to roll on the HP TouchPad. As always, download and install at your own risk — we have a feeling this may be a bit more involved than your typical Android custom ROM. [Redmond Pie]

Other platforms

• Redsn0w 0.9.9b5 is here, giving you the go-ahead to jailbreak iOS5. Up for the task? Head to the link for all of the details on how to make it so. [Redmond Pie]
• Some Windows Phone users have noticed a few bugs popping into their updated devices ever since they received Mango. The main concerns seem to be found in the keyboard and live tiles, though the reported issues are much more numerous. Have you experienced any of these on the list at the link? [WMPowerUser]

Refreshes we covered this week

• Motorola a bit slow boomerangin’ back with LTE update
• iOS5 now available for download

Refresh Resource: week of October 10, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on August 12, 2008 by CyberNet.

Over a month ago NVIDIA came forward and announced that they had shipped some faulty graphical processing units (GPU’s), and that it would cost them between $150-$200 million to cover the damages done. They didn’t announce specifically what cards were affected, but the cause of the issue was a weak die/packaging material that could fail because of temperature fluctuations.

To try and correct the issues the laptop manufacturers were advised to release new BIOS updates that would trigger the fans to turn on more frequently in hopes of lowering the heat. Dell is actually the first one that I’ve seen come forward, admit that some of their laptops are affected, and have already begun taking steps to correct the issues.

So what Dell laptops are affected by the NVIDIA GPU failures? Here’s a list of the models along with any updated BIOS drivers that should be downloaded:

• Precision M2300 (BIOS Update)
• Precision M4300
• Precision M65
• Inspiron 1420 (BIOS Update)
• Latitude D620
• Latitude D630 (BIOS Update)
• Latitude D630c (BIOS Update)
• Latitude D820
• Latitude D830
• Vostro 1310 (BIOS Update)
• Vostro 1400 (BIOS Update)
• Vostro 1510 (BIOS Update)
• Vostro 1710 (BIOS Update)
• XPS M1330 (BIOS Update)
• XPS M1530 (BIOS Update)

The BIOS update won’t do any good if you’re already experiencing the symptoms of a faulty GPU (multiple images, random characters on the screen, lines on the screen, or no video), and you’ll have to contact Dell to have the notebook repaired. They also plan on offering “modified service terms” which likely means they’ll extend your warranty in case you become affected by the problem later on down the road.

The thing that I find the most interesting is that the comments on the Dell blog regarding the faulty NVIDIA GPU’s are people saying that they’ll be purchasing from a different manufacturer next time if Dell doesn’t replace their graphics card… regardless of whether they’re having the problems right now. I understand their frustration, but these people need to realize that Dell isn’t the only one affected by the failures. I haven’t seen any other companies, like HP, come forward saying they’ll replace all of the graphics cards that could cause problems. It’s rumored that all NVIDIA 8400M and 8600M series cards are affected, which also means Apple could be in the line of fire.

Kudos to Dell for stepping forward with information on the faulty GPU’s. It’s apparent that many manufacturers aren’t brave enough to do the same thing.

Update: Dell has announced that they will be offering extended warranties to cover the issue. Thanks Claus for pointing it out!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on May 14, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft is throwing their weight around once again, and this time they are going against free and open-source software (FOSS). The 235 patent infringements in question are largely regarding the Linux operating system. They don’t give details as to what the patents cover, but they did break it down a little:

The Linux kernel – the deepest layer of the free operating system, which interacts most directly with the computer hardware – violates 42 Microsoft patents. The Linux graphical user interfaces – essentially, the way design elements like menus and toolbars are set up – run afoul of another 65, he claims. The Open Office suite of programs, which is analogous to Microsoft Office, infringes 45 more. E-mail programs infringe 15, while other assorted FOSS programs allegedly transgress 68.

It’s almost as though Microsoft has been trying to build-up to this point because the graph seen above points out that in the past few years they have been going patent crazy. As you can see though, they don’t actually receive a lot of the patents that they apply for. I expect that the ones they do receive they are going to start fighting to protect.

Back in 2003 Microsoft executives decided that it was time to determine what they need to do to protect their patents. Here are the three choices that they had come up with.

1. They would do nothing, which basically means the patents would be donated to the community. This wouldn’t make shareholders very happy.
2. Sue everyone who is infringing on their patents.
3. Let others license the patents in return for royalties or access to their patents. This is the route Microsoft decided to take.

So now Microsoft wants royalties from all of the FOSS users, but in the end I think the FOSS community is going to be taking a different route. Obviously free and open source software is extremely popular for multiple reasons, but the biggest is that you don’t have to pay a thing. Don’t worry, I don’t think any of that will be changing, and one Slashdot commenter did a great job of summing it up:

Note: TCO = Total Cost of Ownership; OSS = Open Source Software; MAFIAA = Music and Film Industry Association of America; OSDL = Open Source Development Labs

This week press titles: “New Microsoft sponsored studies proves TCO to be higher for OSS because of patent fees“, “Microsoft to go after individual users MAFIAA style“

Next week press titles: “238 patches and upgrades on Debian and Ubuntu repositories“, “OSDL sponsored study proves that OSS has the highest reaction time in terms of patch release“

Now not every company is in trouble by Microsoft. For example, Novell drew up a deal with Microsoft last year where they agreed to give Microsoft a percentage of its Linux revenue up to the year 2011 (or a minimum of $40 million) in return for immunity from their lawyers. Other companies, including Dell and Samsung, have also drawn up deals with Microsoft which prevent them from getting sued.

I’m going to venture a guess that this is not going to settle well with the FOSS community. It will be interesting to see the reaction as more information is provided, and we find out what the actual infringements are.

Source: CNN Money [via Slashdot]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Continue reading Dell confirms XPS 14z will go on sale in the US in the ‘coming weeks’

Dell confirms XPS 14z will go on sale in the US in the ‘coming weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on May 23, 2007 by CyberNet.

Dell started out in 1984 and has evolved into the 25th largest company in the United States according to revenue ($56 billion in 2006). Now to celebrate their 23rd anniversary they are offering some great deals, and there is also a new feature I caught a glimpse of.

The new feature is a review system for people who purchase Dell computers. It gives the customers a chance to say what they think of the system, and whether they would recommend it to other people. Like most rating systems it is based on a score of 1 to 5, and the reviews can be found on each computer that they offer (example):

The first thing that came to my mind was whether Dell would censor the reviews that people submit to make them look good, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. They offer an option to sort the reviews in various ways with one of them being the lowest ratings first. Most of the ratings seem pretty good, but I did manage to find a few that gave only 1 star for the overall. Putting the fairness of the reviews aside, I do like how they laid it out so that people can see the specs from the computers they purchased:

I wasn’t sure when they had launched this feature because there was no mention of it on their Direct2Dell blog, but then in one of the promotional emails I received last night it gave the current ratings for the computers listed. Underneath the ratings it said that they are as of 5/21/07 which I’m guessing means they just started it 2–days ago. In case you’re wondering, here are some of the deals that they mentioned in the email:

• XPS M1210 for $999 ($200 off normal price)
• XPS 410 with 20” Widescreen monitor for $999 ($200 off normal price)
• Inspiron E1505 Laptop for $699 ($300 off normal price)
• 24” UltraSharp Widescreen monitor ($100 off normal price)

You can also head over to http://www.dell.com/23notebooks to try and win a Dell XPS M2010 valued at over $4000. They’re giving one out everyday for 23 days (until June 8th) so you’ll need to check back often. In order to get entered in the drawing you’ll have to complete a quick quiz, but all of the answers are on the “Need a hint” page.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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