Hasta La Gadget!

Remember last week, when Motorola said it was releasing an Android 2.1 update for the Droid, but then totally didn’t? Moto tried to “explain” the situation in forums, but didn’t really, edited its long-erroneous Facebook post retroactively, and ended up breaking a lot of hearts. Well, now Motorola has a new “Software Upgrade News” chart detailing planned upgrades for its Android devices. While this is certainly helpful going forward, the lack of clarification on the Droid update doesn’t exactly solve the confusion that got them into this mess: Motorola is merely saying that the OTA upgrade will roll out “soon.” As previously promised, we’re also going to be getting a Cliq update to 2.1 eventually as well, which is now being pegged for Q2. Sadly, upgrades for non-US handsets are decidedly less expedient — or not even assured — but at least we’ve got something.

[Thanks, Glenn]

Motorola publishes schedule of Android upgrades for its handsets, steers clear of specifics originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not version 3.2, but there’s a little stopgap out now for iPhone and iPod touch owners in the form of OS 3.1.3. According to the changelog, we can expect better battery level reporting and fixes for problems with the Japanese Kana keyboard and some mysterious issues where third-party apps would fail to launch. Sounds good to us!

Update: As usual, we’re hearing blackra1n (and presumably redsn0w) has been busted by 3.1.3, so you probably want to hold back if you’re jailbroken until you’ve gotten the all-clear. Thanks, Eric!

iPhone OS 3.1.3 available now originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Either Apple isn’t operating on the Gregorian calender, or these updates are just straight-up late. Either way, we’re pretty stoked to see the suits in Cupertino finally wise up and allow Microsoft’s best OS ever to work on its machines, as it has today issued new Boot Camp software (v3.1) for both 32-bit and 64-bit users of Windows 7. The updates add native support for Win7 Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate, and in case that wasn’t enough, they also fix “issues” with the Apple trackpad and add support for Apple’s wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse. You’ll also find model-specific drivers floating around to add even more support, and the Boot Camp Utility for Windows 7 Upgrade is said to “safely unmount the read-only Macintosh volume on Windows Vista” when upgrading from Vista to Windows 7. Hit those links below for all the bits and bytes that you’ve been so desperately waiting for.

Update: we’re hearing reports that the 27-inch iMac is responding to Windows 7 with the Black Screen of Death, so make sure you use this tool from Apple before installing Windows 7. Too late? Then you’ll have to manually remove the offending default ATI drivers by starting from point 4 on this page (hold down Option key while booting up to select the Windows install disc, by the way), and then try the Boot Camp update again.

Apple finally brings official Windows 7 support to Boot Camp (update: 27-inch iMac fix) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just weeks after going on sale here in America, Creative’s underwhelming ZEN X-Fi2 portable media player is already seeing its first firmware update. If you’ll recall, we found the unit darn near unusable back at IFA, and even now it’s being panned for forcing users to mash the screen too often and wait too long for things to happen. Reportedly, the 1.10.04 update solves those responsiveness issues, and it also brings about colored icons (yeah, seriously), accelerometer usage (but only for photos), a Sudoku game and a “press and hold” behavior for powering the unit on or off. The most interesting aspect here (in our humble opinions) is the Sudoku bit, as it certainly hints at more titles being possible in future firmware refreshes. Hit the Read link to get that download going, and hop on past the break if you need any video convincing.

Continue reading Creative ZEN X-Fi2 sees its first firmware update, still has aways to go

Creative ZEN X-Fi2 sees its first firmware update, still has aways to go originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We gadget nerds have to endure unspeakable atrocities in order to slake that early adoption jones: first-run gear shipped DOA, buggy pre-release software, and months of waiting after a product leaks only to be greeted by a jacked-up price premium at launch. So we feel your pain, original Kindle owners, after Amazon announced a major firmware update that brings native PDF support to the 6-inch Kindle 2 and DX readers with the promise of a staggering 85% increase in battery life to all Kindle 2 devices — if you haven’t already received it OTA, the 2.3 software update is now available for download and installation via USB tethering. At least owners of “some earlier versions of Kindle” (quote from the press release) will receive native PDF support whenever the 1st generation firmware update (currently at version 1.2) is released. It’s worth noting that Amazon’s PDF reader lacks a zoom function which makes many PDFs entirely unreadable on the device. Good thing Amazon’s store is chock full of easily zoomable books in a proprietary format then, huh?

Kindle 2.3 software update available, generation 1 owners need not apply originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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