Hasta La Gadget!

We knew that Denon and Marantz receivers components would be the first to get upgraded to support AirPlay, but we didn’t think it would take quite this long. The patch to add AirPlay support to nine network-enabled receivers and other devices. It was also supposed to be free until November 7th. Well, it didn’t get out by then, and sure doesn’t look free now, but it is at least available, a $49.99 patch downloadable for the following devices:

• Denon AVR-4311CI
• Denon AVR-3311CI
• Denon AVR-991
• Denon AVR-A100
• Denon N7 Networked CD Receiver and 2.0 Channel Speaker System
• Marantz SR7005 A/V Receiver
• Marantz AV7005 A/V Preamplifier
• Marantz NA7004 Network Audio Player
• Marantz M-CR603 Networked CD Receiver

Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Denon and Marantz AirPlay update finally released for $49

Denon and Marantz AirPlay update finally released for $49 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Word on the street from Microsoft savant Paul Thurrott is that Windows Phone 7’s first update might go gold as early as this week — in time for Ballmer’s CES keynote, in fact, which means he might give it a mention and / or spend a few minutes showing it off. It’s said to be codenamed “NoDo,” short for “No Donuts” — a pretty obscure (and odd) reference to the fact that Redmond doesn’t want to release incremental, minor updates like Google did with Android 1.6 Donut. We’re not sure why they’d bother taking a swipe at an Android build that happened… oh, four versions ago, but Microsoft works in mysterious ways. Anyhow, it’ll apparently add copy / paste, CDMA location support (which might be the only thing holding up Verizon and Sprint from launching at this point), support for additional Qualcomm chipsets, and miscellaneous bug fixes.

Moving on, Thurrott says that the rumored Mango update isn’t the next update after NoDo, but it’s real — and it’s big. It’ll add Internet Explorer 9 with HTML 5 and Silverlight support, but notably, its code line is being referred to internally as the “entertainment branch,” so there might be some other magic in store. Current version numbers for Mango are in the 7.2 range, but builds are in the 7500 range, suggesting Windows Phone 7.5 branding is a possibility. An exciting 2011 for Microsoft on the mobile side? Looks like.

Update: Microsoft’s Charlie Kindel has chimed in on Twitter in direct response to Thurrott:

“BTW, a guy failed to bring donuts to a meeting after loosing [sic] a bet. The ‘nodo’ codename had nothing to do with Android.”

Makes a heck of a lot more sense — and it confirms the accuracy of the codename. Thanks, CrookedC!

Windows Phone 7 ‘NoDo’ update hitting phones in early February, ‘Mango’ coming later with IE9? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A quick gander at Samsung’s Canadian support site for the Galaxy S line reveals that two Android 2.2 updates are currently available: one for the Vibrant — offered by Bell, Virgin Mobile, and SaskTel — and one for the Fascinate as sold be Telus. This all follows just a few days after Sammy had to pull the Vibrant’s Froyo update on word that it seemed be killing the internal microSD storage, so hopefully, this build will be just a little more drama-free. Oh, and Samsung had originally said that Telus Fascinate owners would be waiting until next year to upgrade their units, so it’s pretty neat that they were able to rein that in a bit and get it pushed at the tail end of ’10. So have fun, Canadians — you’ve beaten your friends with T-Mobile Vibrants and Verizon Fascinates to the punch on this one, and we encourage you to lord it over them at every opportunity.

[Thanks, Robert B.]

Samsung Vibrant and Fascinate get Froyo in Canada, hopefully with fewer bugs this time originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 03:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t know what it fixes yet, but we’ve gotten some tips — and we’re now seeing it on xda-developers — that Nexus S handsets in the field are getting blessed with their first software update, build GRH78 (up from GRH55) with an official version of 2.3.1. Not everyone has it yet (we don’t on ours), so as usual, this would seem to be getting sent out on a rolling basis. Hang tight, owners!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: The full text of the update is “This system update from Google contains important bug fixes plus the latest version of Maps.” It’s 1.9MB — so yeah, don’t expect much!

Update 2: By the way, it appears that the “checkin” trick is actually working to force this update (it usually doesn’t). Just dial *#*#checkin#*#* from the dialer and you should get the update notification. Have fun!

Nexus S gets its first update over the air originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The original Google phone got us all excited a couple of weeks back when an OTA update was presumed to be the oven-hot Gingerbread upgrade, only to disappoint us. Now we’ve got the most lucid statement from the Android chefs yet on when the real Gingerbread Nexus One will stand up, which is placed in the relatively ill-defined window of “the coming weeks.” Hey, better weeks than months, right?

Nexus One will get Gingerbread OTA update ‘in the coming weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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