Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

In the world of modding, a brick is used to describe something which has been modified and no longer works. It essentially becomes a paperweight, hence the name, a brick. Yesterday Apple warned that with an update for the iPhone on the way, there’s no guarantee that unlocked phones will continue to work. And of course once an iPhone is modified, it’s no longer covered by the warranty. Some are saying that Apple’s announcement is just a scare tactic and that everything that was done to unlock a phone is reversible, which is definitely possible.

Apple’s announcement talks about “irreparable damage” to the iPhone’s software, and “strongly” discourages people from installing unlocking programs on their phones.  The announcement reads:

Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed. Apple plans to release the next iPhone software update, containing many new features including the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store (www.itunes.com), later this week. Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorized unlocking programs on their iPhones. Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty. The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone’s warranty.

This statement is not likely to scare those who have modified their phones because they knew what they were getting into before they did it, and they know that there are risks involved. There’s certainly a chance that the firmware update won’t turn the modded phones into a brick, but just in case, the iPhone Dev Team which released a version of iUnlock has said that they will provide a tool within the next week that would allow users to restore their unlocked phones to a “factory-like state.”

Sources: Beta News, TUAW

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

Keeping your portable devices like computers, tablets, and smartphones charged up on the go can be a big challenge. This is especially true if you spend most of your time away from an outlet. A new product has turned up on Indiegogo called the Fusion Pack, that aims to keep you juiced up for hours or possibly days on end.

These battery packs are linkable allowing you to get more power for charging larger devices like notebooks. Each individual Fusion Pack has a substantial 24000mAh of internal power, and when linked you get 48000mAh.

The individual pack measures a little more than six inches square by about a half inch thick, and takes about six hours to charge fully. It can recharge an iPhone 5 in 45 minutes, and you can recharge that same phone about 15 times per charge. A pledge of $120(USD) will get you a Fusion Pack during the early bird stage. A pair of the devices for linked power requires a pledge of $200.

Your wrist is a hotly contested new battleground, with a small fry like Pebble doing battle with giants including Samsung, and activity trackers like the Jawbone UP and Nike+ FuelBand fighting it out, too. A new Kickstarter project also wants to be a contender, with the Carbon wearable solar charger. The project debuted a couple of weeks ago, with a blank-faced wrist-mounted charger that had a… Read More

Are you still on the search for the perfect iPhone case to match your personality? For some, it’s near impossible, considering how their personalities change on an almost-daily basis (you know what they say about self-discovery being an ongoing process…)

But with the advent of the 3D-printed Fraemes iPhone cases, then that first-world problem might be put to rest.

Fraemes are a welcome change in the current sea of bland phone cases on the market: they’re colorful, customizable, and interchangeable so you can swap the designs out for another, depending on your current mood or what you feel like at any given time.

The Fraemes team has collaborated with designers and will be offering 150 designs to choose from when they officially launch. Aside from the many designs and patterns available, the inserts can be customized further in terms of their color and by adding text and shapes. You can even upload your own designs and have them rendered.

Fraemes are up for funding on Kickstarter through March 27, where a pledge of $25(USD) or more will get you one of your very own. A $50 pledge gets you a custom design, while a $250 pledge will get you a dozen, so you can have a different look for each month of the year.

BlackBerry isn’t doing so good at the moment, based on our earlier reports which shows that the company actually lost market share to Windows Phone, not to mention having carriers lose confidence in them. All of this seems to make for an uphill battle for BlackBerry’s CEO, John Chen, who despite the odds believes that he will be able turn things around.

If anything Chen has a sense of humor regardless of how bleak the situation is, and even has no qualms about poking fun at the competition which he recently did during the Oasis Montgomery conference. (more…)

BlackBerry’s John Chen Calls iPhone Users Wall Huggers original content from Ubergizmo.