Hasta La Gadget!

Amidst all the Mountain Lion excitement from yesterday, a few members of the Apple crowd were inadvertently forgotten — yes, we’re talking about 2011 / 2012 MacBook Air and Retina MBP owners looking for some extensive Power Nap action. Luckily for most of them, however, the Cupertino behemoth’s quickly acted, outing a solution that’ll see the efficacious napping feature make its way onto the aforementioned generations of MacBook Airs. Unfortunately, not all is good news, as that pixel-packed MacBook Pro will have to wait it out on the sidelines a little longer, with Apple saying an SMC update is “coming soon.” Sound good? You’ll find the download on the company’s support page, linked down below to save you more troubles.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Laptops, Software

Apple delivers update to bring Power Nap feature to 2011, 2012 MacBook Airs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Galaxy Note isn’t the only device on AT&T getting the precious upgrade to Android 4.0 today, as the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket is jumping on the bandwagon. Sadly, it’s not an OTA update, which means you’ll need to get into the Kies client on your computer to get your refresh on. If you’ve never done an update this way, head to the source link for plenty of details on how to propel your device to the next level.

[Thanks, Horst]

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket gets updated to ICS originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ah, what a difference a couple years can make. After earning notoriety for is frustrating MotoBlur skin, the manufacturer has made strides on the Android user interface front. Its next attempt, known by many as “BlueBlur,” was a far better experience, if only because the original user interface could hardly get any worse. These modest improvements aside, though, we’ve always wondered how the company would make its mark on Android 4.0, a newer version of the OS that ushered in a major redesign. Would Motorola once again choose a heavy, proprietary skin, or would it be more heavily influenced by its new Google overlords and develop a UI more in line with stock Ice Cream Sandwich?

Unfortunately, Motorola kept us waiting in suspense longer than any other major OEM: Samsung, HTC, Sony and (gasp!) even LG have already started shipping devices loaded with skinned versions of ICS. But while Motorola popped the update onto one specific tablet earlier this year, it only managed to push test copies of Ice Cream Sandwich to a handful of Droid RAZR and Droid RAZR Maxx devices before Jelly Bean was announced. Even now, we still haven’t seen how the now-antiquated firmware will look on new Motorola handsets (though we hopefully will find out with the upcoming Atrix HD, RAZR HD or Photon Q). We have to wonder if the drawn-out acquisition process put the outfit in an awkward holding pattern, preventing it from cranking out fresh handsets and accompanying firmware updates.

So is HelloMoto making a grand entrance by being the last to show up to the Ice Cream Sandwich social? What makes Ice Cream Blurwich tick? We’ll take you through the major elements of the user interface to give you a sense of what to expect when your Motorola phone is ready to make the jump.

Continue reading Motorola ICS UI review: this isn’t the Blur we used to know

Motorola ICS UI review: this isn’t the Blur we used to know originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have you managed to get your hands on Nikon’s elusive D4 full-frame DSLR? It should be smooth sailing from here, with the occasional firmware update being your only critical acquisition going forward. D4 firmware 1.02 brings a handful of minor fixes, but if you’re in need of any of the enhancements listed below, it’s surely a must have:

• Format memory card can now be added to My Menu.
• Gamut for Adobe RGB images displayed in the camera’s monitor has now been changed. This enables more vivid display of images.
• The stability of network connections when the FTP upload option is selected has been increased.
• When recording movies using a lens with an aperture ring in [P] or [S] exposure mode, and Aperture ring selected for Custom Setting f10: Customize command dials>Aperture setting, the minimum aperture was applied. This issue has been resolved.
• When a still image captured during movie recording with 1920 ×1080; 30 fps; crop, 1920 × 1080; 25 fps; crop, or 1920 × 1080; 24 fps; crop selected for Movie settings>Frame size/frame rate and Live frame grab selected for Custom Setting g4: Assign shutter button was displayed in Capture NX 2 or ViewNX 2, the position of the focus point displayed differed from actual recording position. This issue has been resolved.
• An issue that caused the camera to freeze when attempting to format a memory card (setup menu > Format memory card) while the camera was connected to a network in HTTP server mode has been resolved.

OS X and Windows users alike can hit up the source link below to get their download on.

Nikon releases D4 firmware 1.02 with minor display, formatting, network stability improvements in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s hard to believe, but the last the last time we covered a major firmware update for Canon’s 7D DLSR the iPhone 4 was still fresh in our minds. Now, nearly two years later, Canon is offering up a bevy of new features for the camera with its soon to be released — and free — 2.0.X update. To start, folks who shoot RAW will be pleased to know that they can shoot up to 25 continuous frames (17 in RAW + JPEG) in burst mode — that’s up from just 15 previously. You’ll also be able to edit images captured in the format straight from the camera, as well as set a maximum limit of 6400 (up from 3200) for its Auto ISO mode. If that wasn’t enough, Geotaggers should know that Canon is also going to make its GP-E2 GPS module (originally introduced with the 5D Mark III) 7D-compatible. Lastly, videographers are getting a nice bump in the audio and multi-camera shooting departments; you’ll be able to manually control the mic-input with a choice of 64 volume levels (like the Mark II) and an updated sub-menu interface will allow the first four characters of your videos’ file names to be changed. The update won’t be available until early August, but you’ll find full details and a video demo at the source link below.

Continue reading Canon 7D 2.0.X firmware update scheduled for August, brings plenty of free fixins

Canon 7D 2.0.X firmware update scheduled for August, brings plenty of free fixins originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 20:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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