Hasta La Gadget!

What shall we call this, Frodroid or Droyo? Either way, an Android 2.2 update has been made available for Motorola’s all-conquering slider, and it awaits eager firmware upgraders at the download link below. Produced by the good folks at My Droid World, this includes almost everything you’ll need to get your Froyo on in style, though it excludes WiFi support at this stage. Such is the way with unofficial upgrades, but if you really need consolation, there’s a whole set of superuser privileges to explore as this bad boy comes pre-rooted. You could of course skip this whole community business and wait for Moto’s official update, but that company’s idea of the “near future” is about as precise as the length of a piece of string.

Motorola Droid gets early Android 2.2 ROM, ready to download… now! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Boy Genius Report  |  My Droid World  | Email this | Comments

Well, it looks like you should count yourself lucky if you were among the first few to get the Kindle 2.5 firmware update — Amazon has now announced that it’s pushing back the update for everyone else in order to make some “small adjustments” based on user feedback. Exactly what those adjustments are isn’t clear, and Amazon isn’t offering a new date for the updated update either, with it only going so far as to say that will be rolling out to “more users over the coming weeks.” As far as we can tell, however, there isn’t actually anything wrong with the 2.5 update that did roll out to some users, so go on enjoying your social networking and PDF zooming — if you can.

Kindle 2.5 update pushed back a few weeks for some ‘small adjustments’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Amazon  | Email this | Comments

Japan hasn’t had a lot of time to get used to the PlayStation 3’s Torne digital TV tuner since it launched in March, but it’s already getting an update which will add a few more DVR features to improve the experience. Coming in June, v2.00 will enable MPEG-4 AVC compression to squeeze HDTV recordings by as much as 3x their original size as opposed to just copying the original MPEG-2 stream even while playing a game, plus the ability to start watching a program and fast forward/reverse while it’s still recording and update the user’s PSN status. The free update will be issued in June, until then Torne fans can argue with European and Australian PlayTV owners about whether or not their new features are better than Facebook integration while the U.S. sits out like the ginger kid of a previous marriage it is.

PS3’s Torne digital TV tuner / DVR adapter gets 2.00 software update next month originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

This silvery-set top box above may look rather drab, but never fear: its next production run will sport a nice, colorful Windows 7 sticker. That’s because Western Digital recently signed an agreement to make its WD TV Live HD network media players compatible with Microsoft’s “Play To” feature, allowing you to push media right to your TV from a Windows Media Player 12-equipped PC. While the feature actually snuck its way into firmware revision 1.02.21 in late March, WD only just began trumpeting its inclusion today… possibly to let memories of its disastrous prior update fade. Whatever the reason, the box is not the “first network media player compatible with Windows 7” — Denon has four recievers that predate it. Press release and an example of what ‘Play To’ looks like, right after the break.

Continue reading WD TV Live HD gets ‘Play To’ functionality, full Windows 7 compliance

WD TV Live HD gets ‘Play To’ functionality, full Windows 7 compliance originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 02:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Crucial’s RealSSD C300 had a sizable problem coming out of the gate: price. Initially starting at $800 for 64GB 256GB it cost more than most laptops (it’s now down to $700), but crazy people pay crazy amounts for crazy performance and so off to retail it went. Recently, Anand over at AnandTech indicated that his review sample “apparently bricked itself” before eventually coming back to life — albeit at a ridiculously reduced speed. Yesterday Crucial issued an official firmware “fix” for his particular problem and, as you could probably tell by the use of quotes there, it isn’t necessarily a good thing. Numerous people in the Crucial forums are reporting that this update has completely bricked their drives, while others are simply unable to apply it in the first place. This particular piece of firmware is still available on Crucial’s site (version 0002), and we would definitely advise steering clear until at least version 0003 — maybe 0004 for good measure.

Update: We heard from Kristin at Micron Technology, who passed along the following update:

We wanted to let you know that we’re aware of the issues some users are experiencing with the firmware update tool. Initially, it sounds like there needs to be some additional steps in the process for their specific systems. As you know, aside from the issues experienced, there were/are several users that had success with their updates.

We’ll post an update on the forum as soon as we have more information, and will keep you apprised with what we know.

Additionally, we had the pricing wrong on the initial C300. It was $800 for 256GB, not 64GB.

Crucial issues RealSSD C300 firmware fix, bricks more drives originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 May 2010 11:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  AnandTech  | Email this | Comments