Hasta La Gadget!

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. 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 we could find during 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!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of October 29th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

Refresh Roundup: week of October 29th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Nov 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you didn’t get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we’ve opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This past week, Cricket added a compact smartphone to its lineup, new press images landed for Verizon’s next QWERTY-enabled handset and Canadian carriers grabbed a rugged smartphone from Samsung. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of October 29th, 2012.

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of October 29th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

Mobile Miscellany: week of October 29th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Move over, Western Digital. A*STAR’s Data Storage Institute (DSI) has developed its own 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, and it’s packing a 1TB HDD and a 32GB SSD within its 2.5-inch confines. Aptly dubbed A-Drive, the firm’s razor-thin hardware relies on a new proprietary motor and 30 additional design patents to lower power consumption and achieve its diminutive form factor. The outfit envisions the drive being put to work in tablets, where it could stretch battery life by up to 30 percent, and in ultrabooks or business-centric storage solutions. To top things off, A*STAR says its hybrid drive will be cheaper than SSDs currently used in ultrabooks, and Yahoo! News reports the device could ring up at roughly $73. Can’t wait to have the hardware in a machine of your own? Hold your horses, vaquero. According to DSI Executive Director Pantelis Alexopoulos, it might take six to eight months to kick off production after they strike a deal with a manufacturing partner, which hasn’t happened quite yet.

[Image Credit: Yahoo! photo/ Deborah Choo]

Continue reading A*STAR unveils 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, touts affordability and improved energy efficiency

Filed under: Storage

A*STAR unveils 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, touts affordability and improved energy efficiency originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PS3 owners: do not adjust your TV sets, the PlayStation Store has received a makeover. Sony’s new revamped media portal is now available in the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. If you’re experiencing a case of déjà vu, the update was originally set to hit back on October 23rd, but was sidelined after its UK launch was derailed by some early performance hiccups. Now that it’s here, users will be treated to a snazzy new UI along with Most Popular charts, streaming videos on item pages, improved filters and an enhanced search engine. If you haven’t already, you can grab this update by firing up your PS3 and directing the XMB to the PlayStation Store icon.

Filed under: Gaming, Sony

Redesigned PlayStation Store now live in North America originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rogers and its banking partner CIBC have been making much ado over bringing NFC mobile payments to Canada since the spring, but the companies have been mostly silent on actual availability and let a rumored October 15th launch date pass by without fanfare. The two partners are at last ready to swing into action, at least symbolically — a photo-op at a Tim Hortons in Toronto on Friday will officially represent the first instance of their payment system being used in the wild. What we’ve seen officially and otherwise hasn’t changed, which means that event star and triathlete Simon Whitfield will be using one of two NFC-equipped BlackBerry phones with a special SIM card while he buys a meal that we imagine involves coffee and maple-glazed donuts. Rogers hasn’t said how soon the less sporty among us will be making payments, although the limited choices of phones (two) and carriers (one) will only give a handful of Canucks a chance to join in.

Update: Just as Whitfield’s coffee is cooling off, Rogers has given out full details: the CIBC mobile payment option will roll out later in the month to at least 2,300 Tim Hortons restaurants across Canada, with 3,000 more joining in by December. It’s called Suretap, as the earlier leak confirmed, and there’s no surprise support for Android, Windows Phone or other platforms.

Continue reading Rogers and CIBC kick off Canadian NFC-based mobile payments with mini event (update: full details)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, RIM

Rogers and CIBC kick off Canadian NFC-based mobile payments with mini event (update: full details) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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