Hasta La Gadget!

We were told back at CES that Razer’s Chimaera 5.1 would soon be on sale, and sure enough, the company’s keeping its word with today’s launch. As of… oh, right about five minutes ago, the wireless Xbox 360 headset has been listed for pre-order, with $199.99 (or €199.99 in Europe) netting you a 5.1 channel Dolby surround sound headphone, 5.8GHz wireless technology, a docking base station (up to four are supported), adjustable circumaural ear cups, independent audio and microphone controls on the ear cups and a flexible microphone boom and detachable Xbox Live communication cable. We’re told that they’ll keep up the good fight for eight hours on a full charge, which should be plenty for even the hardest of hardcore single-session freaks. Word on the street has these shipping in April, but there’s no time like the present to commit.

Continue reading Razer’s Chimaera 5.1 wireless Xbox 360 surround sound headset up for pre-order, ships in April

Razer’s Chimaera 5.1 wireless Xbox 360 surround sound headset up for pre-order, ships in April originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Razer  | Email this | Comments

So this is why they do phased rollouts, eh? If Twitter is the font of truth and reality that we suspect it to be, it sounds like users of some Windows Phone 7 models by Samsung are struggling with that minor first update that Microsoft started pushing this week. Basically, it sounds like the update isn’t consistently completing; it some cases, users get an error message, and there doesn’t appear to be any way to roll back or restore the prior firmware and get the phone back to a working state. Mass bricking is probably the greatest fear of software engineers before deploying handset updates to the field, so it’s a good thing they’re taking it slow; of course, that’s not much consolation to the folks who are stuck making a call (on someone else’s phone) to Samsung support.

[Thanks, jdog25]

Update: the::unwired is reporting information straight from Microsoft on how to fix a “bricked” device that doesn’t complete the update, and it’s deceptively simple: just pull the battery, put it back in, and turn the phone on. Failing that, perform a hard reset. Either way, the company is recommending you don’t attempt the update again until the phone reminds you, which it says will happen in about three days.

First Windows Phone 7 update not going smoothly for some Samsung handsets (update: Microsoft suggests temporary fix) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Download Squad  |  ZDNet UK  | Email this | Comments

You don’t need us to tell you what you already know in your gut to be true: Redmond is working hard on its tablet strategy. How embarrassing is it for Microsoft, the company that pioneered tablets and the 7-inch UMPC, to be completely absent from the conversation in 2010 and 2011? That could change in September. Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley recently shared the slide above which she believes to be 99.99 percent genuine. The timeline shows the major milestone dates for a Windows 8 (aka, “Windows Next“) release — an OS that M. JoFo believes to be focused on tablets (aka, “Lap PCs” in Microsoft parlance) with its purpose-built touch-centric design. According to the slide, we’re looking at an M2 milestone this month followed by M3 in July or August. Foley says that would put Microsoft on track for a Windows 8 beta release right around Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) event in September followed by a second beta in 2012 before being released to manufacturing around the summer of 2012 — just like we heard early last year and just in time for Dell’s Hancock tablet. There are still many open questions including Microsoft’s ARM vs. Intel priorities and how the company plans to scale across the enterprise and the “workhorse PC” and “Family Hub PC” in the home. Hit the ZDNet link below for a deeper read or better yet, head on over to TechRepublic where Mary Jo Foley put together an excellent webcast outlining Microsoft’s tablet strategy in much more detail.

Windows 8 beta for tablets at September PDC? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 07:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  ZDNet, TechRepublic  | Email this | Comments

We still have only an official non-denial from Microsoft about the continued livelihood of the name “Zune” as a brand, but now we have Zune Insider saying “Zune is not dead.” Indeed we already knew that, but the question is what’s coming in the future with Windows Phone seemingly getting all the company’s attention of late. The future we still don’t know about, but we do have some news about the present for Canadians: the Zune HD! Yes, our friendly neighbors to the north need no longer look south to purchase Microsoft’s latest entry to the Zune series — though “latest” is a somewhat sad designation for hardware that was released in 2009. However, there’s still no Marketplace available: it’ll strictly be a BYO tunage affair for now.

Zune Insider reminds that Zune isn’t dead, announces Zune HD launch in Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ZuneSpring  |  Zune Insider  | Email this | Comments

Don’t get too excited when you see this update notification pop up — as far as we can tell, it’s got nothing users will notice — but we’ve just been told by Microsoft that the company is getting ready to send out the first software upgrade to Windows Phone 7 devices in the field early this week. It’s being billed as a “minor update to help prepare” for the copy and paste stuff (which we’re assuming is still targeted for early- to mid-March, per Ballmer’s MWC keynote), though the exact timing of this first one will vary a bit depending on carrier. Oh, and a note before you hook up to try to grab it: it also required a recently-pushed update to the Zune software (or the Connector for Mac OS), so you’ll need to get that first before restarting the app and looking for the phone firmware.

Microsoft pushing small update to Windows Phones to prepare for copy and paste update later on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Windows Phone Blog  | Email this | Comments