Hasta La Gadget!

Think your Snow Leopard woes are finally over? Don’t go logging into that Guest account, then. A flurry of reports have surfaced around the web explaining that even an accidental login to one’s Guest account within Snow Leopard could lead to mass deletion of all user files on the primary account, and when we say “mass deletion,” we mean “mass deletion.” The problem goes something like this: if one clicks on the Guest account after upgrading their machine to OS X 10.6, and everything hangs, there’s at least a decent chance that all of your data will be evaporated whenever you surf back over to the main profile. Apple has yet to address the issue (at least publicly), but we’d probably recommend disabling Guest accounts on your rig(s) until all of this gets sorted. You know, unless you actually enjoy watching your data vanish.

[Via Neowin]

Filed under: Software

Snow Leopard ‘Guest Account’ bug deleting user files, terrorizing children? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While penning our Zune HD review, we were initially quite baffled by our inability to do much of anything with it after installing Microsoft’s newest firmware update. Our concern had been properly kiboshed by assurances from the company that we’d gotten a fluke unit… and by the properly working replacement we received to finish the review with. Now, however, it seems as if we weren’t alone in our glass cage of emotion, with gaggles of irate Zune HD users emerging from the woodwork in order to express their disappointment online. Hop on past the break for a video of the issues we were having, and if you’re seeing something eerily similar on your own device, drop a vote / comment below.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Poll: Has your Zune HD screen been unresponsive?

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Poll: Has your Zune HD screen been unresponsive? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eagerly waiting to change that drive password within the system BIOS on your fancy new X25-M G2 solid state drive? Good news, storage junkies — today you can. After Intel saw its next-gen SSD launch party hit a snag with an off-the-wall quirk that could cause data corruption for those who altered or disabled a drive password within the system BIOS, the company has finally come forward with a firmware update that solves the dilemma, along with world hunger, “the economy” and an undisclosed amount of other universal pains. Hit the read link for instructions on how to update your drive, but don’t blame us if every precious memory you’ve ever collected goes down in flames during the process. Just kidding.

[Via HotHardware]

Filed under: Storage

Intel issues X25-M G2 SSD firmware fix for BIOS password conundrum originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Um, yikes? An unexpected (and unwanted) surprise struck some 145,000 BlackBerry users in the UAE this time last week, when an official looking prompt coerced many of the aforesaid Etisalat customers to follow through with a software update. Rather than bringing about performance enhancements, the SS8-built app enabled the carrier to keep tabs on customers’ messages. According to RIM:

“Etisalat appears to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance application… independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could then enable unauthorized access to private or confidential information stored on the user’s smartphone. Independent sources have concluded that the Etisalat update is not designed to improve performance of your BlackBerry Handheld, but rather to send received messages back to a central server.”

Like we said, yikes. The zaniest part is that Etisalat isn’t backing down, still assuring the world that the upgrades were “required for service enhancements.” At any rate, RIM has made remarkably clear that the update wasn’t one authorized by the company, and it’s even providing an app remover for those who’d prefer their BlackBerry to be in working order and, you know, not forwarding all their email to some dude in an Etisalat supply closet. Good on you, RIM. Bad on you, Etisalat.

[Thanks, Gerald]

Read – Confirmation of spyware
Read – RIM app remover

Filed under: Cellphones

Etisalat BlackBerry update was indeed spyware, RIM provides a solution originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As we said following the Pre launch, no new gadget is immune to growing pains — especially when it’s tied to a manufacturing and distribution campaign on the scale of the iPhone 3G S. Statistically, it’s just not possible to walk away from an opening weekend without a few hiccups when you’re pushing this many units of anything; the best manufacturers can realistically hope for is to keep problems minor, respond to issues quickly, and spin the crap out of anything that comes up.

To that end, here’s what we’re tracking on the 3G S from the first three full days of sales:

• Apple is awarding $30 iTunes store credits to individuals affected by lengthy activation times on their new phones. Regular activations shouldn’t take more than an hour or two (ours were basically instantaneous) and ports from other carriers should take a maximum of 48 hours, but some unlucky individuals are still waiting to come online. We probably would’ve destroyed the phone with a hammer or a direct impact with a wall by now, so our respect goes out to those of you who are still waiting and haven’t destroyed anything of value.
• It seems that some users are getting the error message pictured above when attempting to hack tethering support onto their AT&T iPhones using mobile config files available online, though repeatedly deleting and re-adding the configuration seems to help in some cases. Of course, AT&T isn’t supporting tethering on the phone at this point anyway, so we wouldn’t expect a shoulder to cry on if you call in to customer service with this one.
• Boy Genius Report is reporting that sounds played by the phone are immediately followed by some sort of extremely high-frequency tone — the kind little kids and the next door neighbor’s dogs hear, but you may not.

Anything else going on out there in the field? Perhaps more importantly, anyone being driven batty by shrieking blasts of ultrasound they couldn’t identify?

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Apple iPhone 3G S trouble roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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