Jul 05
Marco Arment is reporting that Apple’s trusty App Store is offering up corrupt apps for download, supplying updates that are buggy and tend to crash as soon as they’re launched. More »
Jul 04
Nikon releases D4 firmware 1.02 with minor display, formatting, network stability improvements in tow
Posted in: Today's Chili 
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.
Jul 04
EU clears resales of used software, shoots down Oracle’s new-sales-only dreams
Posted in: Today's Chili 
One advantage American technology fans can celebrate is the right to resell software. After the initial purchase, they’re usually cleared to pass along any apps or games as long as the technology itself allows. Europeans haven’t had that (legal) option to date, but the EU’s Court of Justice has just ruled in a case against Oracle that they will going forward: no matter what the license says, those in EU countries can resell their downloaded apps as long as they don’t try to keep a working copy for themselves. The new owner doesn’t even have to shuffle over a local example and can go straight to the source. We can’t imagine that Oracle and other companies averse to used software are jumping for joy, although copy protection and a lack of digital resale mechanisms might help them simmer down and let us treat our apps like we do our gadgets.
[Image credit: Maciej Bliziński, Flickr]
EU clears resales of used software, shoots down Oracle’s new-sales-only dreams originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Jul 04
German company UberSoft found itself in some hot water after Oracle tried to block the company’s resale of used software licenses. Now the European Court of Justice has ruled in the case, deeming that used software licenses can be resold. The court said that once a copy of the software had been sold the company waives its “exclusive right of distribution.”
The court also said that when the software is sold, the company enters into an implied contract, with the customers allowed to use the software for an unlimited period of time. The key ruling is that other companies and customers are allowed to resell the software, so UberSoft looks to be in the clear. Having said that, the court also mentioned that once the software is resold, all copies have to be removed from the original customer’s computer.
It’s a problem that others have faced in the past as well. Developers and publishers get no income from a second hand sale, prompting the industry to move towards tighter DRM, online only software, and licenses locked to a single user. Blizzard’s games are a good example, with its latest release, Diablo III, requiring an active internet connection even for single-player in order to avoid piracy issues.
[via Boing Boing]
EU Court: Used software sales are a-ok is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 04
Chrome Web Store offers app recommendations from your Google+ mates, allows you to return the favor
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Looking to your online pals for some Chrome Web Store suggestions? If so, the folks at Google have just made accessing said list of recommendations much easier. The outfit unveiled a new feature for the app repository that allows you to see all of the add-ons that your Google+ mates are raving about. You’ll also be able to provide some tips of your own thanks to the addition of the trusty +1 button on the detail page of each offering. Just in case you forget to hit the “From Your Circles” link before browsing, each application will bear a stamp of approval — should it be deemed worthy of the extra clicks. If you’re short on acquaintances or are still new to the social network, the Chrome dev team’s lists will appear for you as well.
Chrome Web Store offers app recommendations from your Google+ mates, allows you to return the favor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 02:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Jul 03
This week has been a bad one for the lawyers in charge of keeping Samsung’s mobile products on the shelves as not only the Galaxy Tab 10.1 but the Galaxy Nexus have now had bids to end their preliminary sales ban in two separate Apple court cases. Apple is currently working on legal suits against Samsung in regards to alleged patent infringement and has won preliminary sales bans on both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus in the USA until the court cases take place. In other words – good luck trying to find either device for sale in the USA until the cases are resolved.
Just yesterday it was ruled that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 preliminary sales ban would be upheld despite protest by Samsung. Now with the Galaxy Nexus held up until its own case is resolved, Samsung finds itself in a bit of a precarious situation with a whole lot of product sitting in the back room with no legal means for sales.
“Samsung is disappointed with the court’s decision that denied our motion to stay. We believe today’s ruling will ultimately reduce the availability of superior products to consumers in the United States.
We will continue to pursue an appeal of the GALAXY Nexus preliminary injunction, which we filed on July 2 to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Meanwhile, we are also working closely with Google to resolve this matter, as the patent in question concerns Google’s unified search function.” – Samsung spokesperson
Have a peek at the Samsung Galaxy Nexus timeline we’ve got sitting below to see the short history of this case as well as some of the fabulous hands-on posts this device has been getting into as of late. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is Google’s current hero phone showing off their latest Android operating system version 4.1 codename Jelly Bean, complete with advanced search functions as well as voice recognition to go with it. We’re fully expecting the Nexus 7 to also fall under this Apple patent umbrella as the iPad has similar functionality – we shall see!
UPDATE: It’s being reported that Samsung and Google will also be seeking to implement a software patch that will take out “local” results in its updated voice search to help get the Galaxy Nexus out of this jam. Hopefully this update isn’t true – we’ve been loving the hot Google Now action we’ve seen thus far!
[via TNW]
Galaxy Nexus sales ban to stay until further notice is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 03
MeeGo isn’t quite dead, and Nokia N9 users are getting another update pushed to their phone to prove it. PR1.3, a firmware refresh that’s been in the works at least since 1.2 was released a few months ago, has finally been made official. But this is no simple bug fix — the latest version of MeeGo offers an impressive 1,000 “quality improvements, including mail, Facebook and Twitter.” According to Nokia’s official support page, the update will also provide several network and connectivity enhancements. The 203MB OTA download is now beginning to roll out, starting with unbranded devices and branching out from there. Continue past the break for the full statement from Nokia.
Update: We’ll give a hat tip out to our commenters, who clued us in on a forum thread that discusses many of these “quality improvements.” It appears that a large number of them are indeed bug fixes. Some of the actual boosts involve camera feature enhancements, higher volume, NFC fixes, better video decoding and more precise copy and paste [thanks BertrandsBox!] We also initially experienced sluggish behavior on the new update, but a factory reset seemed to resolve the concern.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Continue reading Nokia N9 updated to MeeGo PR1.3, boasts 1,000 improvements
Nokia N9 updated to MeeGo PR1.3, boasts 1,000 improvements originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Jul 03
This week Google has let it be known that they’re cutting projects from several sectors in their software and online business, starting with Google Video and ending with a bad sign for a dying Nokia mobile OS. The first cut is Google Video, a website and ecosystem that came before YouTube and stayed around long after Google had purchased the most famous video website on earth. Next is iGoogle, a customizable homepage for the web made for RSS feeds, widgets, and a bunch of other oddities – this system will be cut in 16 months while Google Video will be cut on August 20th, with videos being transferred to YouTube as we speak.
Google Talk Chatback will be cut – this system was a text chat widget for web publishers that will be replaced wholly by Meebo. As you may or may not know, Meebo was purchased by Google just under a month ago this year. Google Mini will be gut, this being a hardware search appliance released in 2005 and replaced by the much more blatantly titled Google Search Appliance.
Of course Gears, Friend Connect, Aardvark, Buzz, and Wave are also in their transition period for death, but its Google’s Symbian search app that should ring the loudest bell. Truly it is the end of that mobile operating system, and Nokia’s candy-coated OS can finally toll the bell for its death. Without Google, a mobile operating system is all but dead – right?
Have a peek at Google’s most recent news bits below in the timeline and see how fabulous the company is doing without this mish-mash of systems and software.
[via Google]
Google cuts projects galore in Spring Cleaning cull is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 03
This week it’s become apparent that Facebook and its switch over to automatically displaying an @facebook.com email address for all users is causing more of a problem than it inevitably would have had “nothing” gone wrong. The folks responsible for making big changes such as the switchover we’ve reported on earlier with Facebook‘s contact emails are certainly used to being shoved around a bit each time they decide that a big aesthetic or behind-the-scenes change has to be made to the social network. What they’re probably not entirely prepared for is when a bug – such as the one creeping up their leg right now – is revealed.
One of the larger bugs to come out of this ordeal is a situation in which the newest email to be added to the Facebook contact list is used for notifications. In this case, that means that anyone who relied on their notifications to see when Facebook needed their attention would have to check their Facebook email – available only on Facebook – to see if they had any Facebook updates. That’s not exactly what Facebook developers had in mind when they decided on the switch.
Fix your Facebook email right this second with these simple instructions.
Mobile users are also experiencing a similar bug in which Facebook’s efforts to make their social networking ecosystem more of a “consistent” one has also resulted in emails being lost – and in some cases, not even showing up in the specified Facebook email box. Facebook’s ghost in the machine – or perhaps it’s a goblin – continues to wreck the days of thousands as Facebook developers continue to hack away at their brains to fix it all as soon as possible.
Have a peek at our timeline below to see the brief history of this bug and the events that immediately preceded it.
Facebook email bug larger than first expected is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 02
Dell has today announced that it will be purchasing Quest, a company that provides IT management software for businesses. Dell looks to be stocking up on software solutions in order to differentiate itself from its competitors and add to a growing patent portfolio. The acquisition of Quest means that Dell will be able to expands its software to in systems management, security, data protection, and workspace management.
Dell currently has its own security solutions, such as SonicWALL and Secureworks, but Quest’s One Identity and Access Management software will add on top of those products. Quest’s Performance Monitoring, meanwhile, is said to be one of the best performance monitoring solutions for keeping track of workloads and performance issues.
In addition, Quest has a Windows Server management tool that will fit into Dell’s services, plus Database Management that slots in nicely with enterprise solutions. Dell will swallow up a business close to turning over a billion dollars in annual revenue, and add around 1,500 software sales experts plus 1,300 software developers.
Dell will be paying $28 per share for a total purchase price of $2.4 billion. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year pending customary closing procedures and approval by Quest’s shareholders.
Dell to purchase Quest for $2.4 billion is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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