IBLOG SPACE

When it comes to tablets and operating systems we’d like to see hacked open for greater access, the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook and its custom PlayBook OS aren’t exactly at the top of the list of must-haves – but regardless of this, it has in fact happened. WIth a tool that’s sure to capture both your heart and your giggles, one that’s called DingleBerry, of all things, a team of three developers have found their way to true device freedom inside this recently deeply discounted tablet. Now with a root method out there and Best Buy sold out of the device, can we commence with the popularity? It sure seems to have worked for the HP TouchPad, so why not here with the PlayBook? We’ve got word that this hacked version isn’t held nearly in as high a regard as the doomed TouchPad, and no sign of Android is in sight, so what’s to be done with this little monster? We can watch Hulu on it, for one. Time to break out the Office, Community, and Parks & Rec, team, Thursday night’s shows on Friday f

If you were here yesterday checking out the story that many publications were saying was “confirmed” on how the Galaxy Nexus was going to be up for pre-order on Verizon today, you may well be sort of like “WHAT IS THIS” on the news that Japan’s DoCoMo may well be another carrier to get the device before anywhere in the states. Yesterday’s news told of a man who heard from a man who heard from a Verizon representative, or so he said, that today was the day, and yet here we stand, next to a tiny model of a promise that might as well be for ants (see below), it’s so small now! In all seriousness though, yes, we will be getting the Galaxy Nexus at Verizon some day soon, just not this day. Remember that the last we heard from DoCoMo, the device would be released inside November – in fact what’s actually going on is that pre-orders have already begun while the actual device will be shipped on the 2nd of December (that being this Friday). The specifications on this device are essentially the

Microsoft has released its fourth platform preview for Internet Explorer 10, making it available today to those with a developer preview of Windows 8. IE10 integrates Microsoft’s new Metro UI while maintaining the option for the traditional desktop interface. This latest test build adds more HTML5 support. The HTML5 improvements of this platform preview 4 release include the following: - Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) for safe use of XMLHttpRequest across domains. - File API Writer support for blobBuilder allowing manipulation of large binary objects in script in the browser. - Support for JavaScript typed arrays for efficient storage and manipulation of typed data. - CSS user-select property to control how end-users select elements in a Web page or application. - Support for HTML5 video text captioning, including time-code, placement, and captioning file formats. This release can be downloaded at Microsoft’s test drive site is only for the IE10 on the developer preview of Wi

During a conference call today, the FCC announced that it will accept AT&T’s request to withdraw its application for the T-Mobile merger. The agency also revealed that it will be releasing findings today of what it uncovered from reviewing the merger application, but some portions will be redacted. The FCC findings include the assessments that the merger would lead to significant job loss, the cost savings would unlikely be passed on to consumers, the efficiencies attainable by the merger have been overestimated, and that there lacks evidence that AT&T can’t provide more than 80% LTE coverage without the merger. A report of the findings will be sent in full to the Department of Justice to aid in their lawsuit against AT&T. The trial date is scheduled for February 13, with a hearing set for November 30, when it’s speculated that AT&T may propose selling greater portions of T-Mobile’s assets in order to close the deal.

If there’s one thing you can expect from ioSafe as an external harddrive manufacturer, its hardcore physical protection for your data, and with this ioSafe Rugged Portable, you don’t have to be in the comfort of your own home to get that bulletproof love. Though this one-pound wonder does not give you the same fire-proofing that its 18 pound bigger SoloPRO cousin offers, it’s essentially battle proof in every other respect. You can connect with such universal options as USB 3.0 or a USB 2.0/Dual Firewire 800 combo, and the rig comes in 500GB or 1 TB 5400 RPM flavorings. And it’s all one color silver aluminum to match your MacBooks, of course. The silver colored enclosure is one single piece of billet-machined aluminum, and again, it’s fully bulletproof. You can also dunk it in a bucket of water or toss it down a flight of stairs without damaging it, and should you want to crush it with a truck, you can, just so long as its under 5000 lbs. You can hold it under water for a while, too ju

Market research firm Nielsen has released its Q3 report for the US smartphone market, revealing that the Android mobile platform continues to dominate and grow, now reaching 42.8 percent share, up from 39 percent last quarter. Apple’s iOS platform comes in second place at 28.3 percent with more modest growth, but takes the lead among smartphone manufacturers. RIM’s BlackBerry platform continues to slide, dropping to 17.8 percent market share, while Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 platform slid down to 6.1 percent. Since this data covers the 3-month period ending in September, consumer anticipation of major product launches in Q4 may have affected summer sales, especially in the case of Apple’s iPhones with the iPhone 4S launch in October. Overall, 44 percent of the US mobile phone market now owns a smartphone, with smartphones being 56 percent of all US mobile phone purchases made in Q3. Of the smartphone subscribers in the US, 71 percent have a device that runs either A

If you’ve been curious about Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 Mango platform, you can now try it out directly on your iPhone or Android device without having to download or install anything. Microsoft launched an HTML5 website that simulates the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango interface, allowing you to take a test drive by simply navigating to the site via your mobile browser. The demo is located at the webpage http://aka.ms/wpdemo and is completely self contained using pre-populated user information such as contact list, agenda, and photos instead of any data on your phone. Microsoft also provides two guidance icons in the form of blue dots to help you learn how to navigate through the interface, which is fairly intuitive and slick already. This is a nice little move by Microsoft to engage potential users that may be hesitant to switch to a Windows Phone without having first tried out the interface, which is very different from what they might be used to with the iPhone or Android. Microsoft ha

Facebook reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission today in regards to the privacy-relatedlawsuit that accused the social network of “unfair and deceptive” business practices. The FTC lawsuit claimed that the company repeatedly shared user information with the public despite telling users that their information would be kept private. The settlement requires Facebook to go through a series of privacy policy assessments, starting with the first review to take place within the next 180 days followed by audits every two years for the next 20 years. Facebook must also appoint privacy-focused employees to run a comprehensive privacy program, ensuring that user privacy and privacy risks are addressed in current and future products. In a long blog post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that many of the FTC complaints have already been addressed and that the company has today appointed Erin Egan and Michael Richter as the its two Chief Privacy Officers. “Facebook has always b

Over the last couple days, I’ve been playing Battlefield 3, a game that Electronic Arts said prior to its launch, could go head-to-head with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and win. But after playing through the majority of the single-player campaign, I can tell you without any reservation that it can’t do anything of the sort. In fact, Modern Warfare 3 has a much, much better single-player experience. Interestingly, when I talk to people who love Battlefield 3, they readily agree that the single-player campaign could be better. But for them, the real winner is the game’s multiplayer experience. The same might be said for other games, including Madden NFL 12 and Modern Warfare 3. Sure, they’re fun to play alone, but for many gamers, they’re at their best when playing with others online. I see it a much different way. I think Battlefield 3’s single-player campaign falls short because EA wanted so badly for the game to be a multiplayer hit that it made the single-player mode an afterthou

With the USA release of the Galaxy Nexus on the horizon and many folks on the outside of the states with the international edition in their hands already, we’ve only to cry in a corner until Verizon lets loose the device – but until then, we can dream with things like this iFixit teardown released today. What the folks over at the teardown palace have revealed is that not only is the Galaxy Nexus right in the middle of the pack when it comes to repairability, it’s basically as simple on the inside as it is on the out. Not just one whole heck of a lot of surprises are contained within, but some pointers on how well you should treat the device do reveal themselves. First, the display is fused to the glass, this meaning that if you’ve got to repair one, you’ve got to repair the other – and that means replacement, and high cost. Better you don’t toss your Galaxy Nexus down any stairwells is the lesson to be had here. You can get most the the device apart with some fine screwdrivers and gui

Tis the season for PC innards, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core is just the limited-edition graphics card you may have been looking for, what with its vast similarities to the existing GTX 560 Ti already on the market and its cut-back GF110 in its guts. The GPU you’ve got here, the GF110, was originally used in the GeForce 580, then again in the GTX 570, and now here in the GTX 560 Ti 448 Core, it being cut back each time to accommodate the lower powered systems. You’ve also got 56 texture units, 40 ROPs, 448 shader cores, and a 320-bit memory interface. Know what all that means? You’re in the right place! What we’re doing here is going down the list of trusted reviewers who today have their hands on the new core in a couple different brand flavors. Note here that each photo or benchmark sits below the author who photographed and/or provided it, except the image above which is also coming from HotHardware. The first of these is Don Woligroski of Tom’s Hardware who has the Zot

When it comes to the world’s single biggest music subscription service Spotify, changes such as opening up to the USA after 2 years of preparation don’t come easy – but what they’ll reveal this Wednesday may well change their whole outlook by opening up to 3rd party developers. Spotify recently sent out a message that they’d be having a press conference this week, and as All Things D’s Peter Kafka notes, the change they’ll be revealing more than likely has more to do with how their music is delivered to you, the consumer, than it does with what music and services they’ll be providing. It does make sense that they’d be connecting with more services, as their recent deal with Facebook has proven to be more than lucrative for them already. What does this mean for you, the Spotify free service user? Not a whole lot. How about you the Spotify Premium user? Perhaps a new collection of options for places of access! The team at Spotify seems to be excited about the prospect of becoming a middl

The fine game-oriented folks at Verizon are this month tending to the Xbox 360 crowd with an offer for FiOS internet, TV, and phone that’ll give users a free copy of Halo: Anniversary as well as Xbox LIVE Gold for 12 months. The best part about it is that there’s no annual contract requirement, and your price per month is locked in for two years. And Halo: Anniversary – how could you do without that if you’re a true Halo fan? You absolutely cannot, that’s the answer to that. The FiOS internet connection will have you rolling out on 35/35 Mbps so you’ll have no lag when fragging, and a guarantee from the FCC in the form of tests which say FiOS internet is the #1 in delivering speeds as advertised. According to other FCC tests, says Verizon, FiOS connections provide customers with even MORE internet speed than they pay for as well, and not only that, Verizon claims that it’s America’s most advanced 100% fiber-optic network. How about that! That’s of course now what you came for, of cours

Certain HP printers could be remotely persuaded to collect confidential information or even cause physical damage, researchers have demonstrated, with a covert reprograming hack causing them to overheat and present a possible fire hazard. The government and industry funded research team at Columbia University were able to tweak an official HP management tool to include malicious programming in with a regular print job, MSNBC reports, allowing them to coax some LaserJet printers into overheating their fuser. Update:  HP has issued us with a statement; you can find it after the cut. That, in the demo, built enough heat to cause paper to brown and begin to smoke, before a thermal switch came to the rescue.  Whether that would always be the case is unclear.  [HP says the thermal breaker would automatically kick in, and could not be overcome by malicious firmware.] However, it’s arguably less destructive implementations that could be more worrying, for instance reprograming the printers to

Apple has approved a tethering app that allows iPhone users to share their smartphone’s data connection via a USB hook-up with their laptop, even if they don’t have a tethering plan with their carrier. The app, iTether, has prompted questions over why Apple approved the app in the first place and how long it might last in the App Store, given carriers are unlikely to be impressed at their tethering revenue stream being curtailed. For instance, AT&T charges $45 per month for its DataPro 4GB with Mobile Hotspot plan, which specifically allows subscribers to use the data both on their iPhone and on a wirelessly-tethered device. Verizon adds a $20 fee on top of its regular data packages if users want to share that with their laptop or tablet. iTether costs $14.99 upfront, and doesn’t support WiFi tethering at this stage, but it’s certainly cheaper considering that, to the carrier at least, it supposedly looks just like an on-device app is using the data. You need an app running on your

Yahoo! could have finally found a buyer, for its US business at least, with reports that a private equity firm is considering a $5bn-6bn bid for the beleaguered giant. Thomas H. Lee Partners’ US-centric strategy differs from that of rivals, Reuters‘ sources claim, which are considering staged minority investments of around 20-percent; that would keep them under the trigger for shareholder approval, allowing Yahoo!’s board greater flexibility in choosing its new partners. Thomas H. Lee Partners already has experience running Nielsen Co, Clear Channel and Univision, and believes it can use the same understanding to return Yahoo!’s US business to its former fortunes. However, it will go up against a Microsoft-backed investment, among others, previous sources have claimed; the software giant is tipped to be contributing to a proposal by private equity firm Silver Lake, though the extent of its involvement is unknown. A common theme for potential investors is the belief that they can do a b

If you are an Android user and have been wishing for something along the lines of Siri for your smartphone, Cluzee is looking like your alternative. Cluzee might lack the integration with some of the outside devices and services like Plex media and such that Siri offers. However, it will do the core voice functions Siri offers. Cluzee does have a few tricks that Siri is missing reports BGR. One of those cool tricks is that if you have Cluzee read your schedule to you for the day and say you have a doctor appointment on the books, Cluzee will tell you if an issue on a road you would take to get to your appointment might make you late. That is a neat trick for sure. The app also does the basic reading of email and text message aloud to the user. It will also take the user’s speech and turn that into a text or email. The voice commands that the app will respond to are plain language spoken commands and it will do all sorts of cool things including local search if you tell it what you need

Microsoft is reportedly “actively working” on bringing a version of its Office suite to the iPad, challenging Apple’s own Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps. Individual titles in the iPad Office package have not been confirmed, but are expected to sell for around $10 apiece sources tell The Daily; the likelihood is that Word, Excel and PowerPoint will all make the jump to the iOS tablet. It’s not the first time we’ve heard talk of Microsoft looking to the iPad for its next big Office push, though the company isn’t short on iOS software currently. So far, though, only Windows-based tablets have been able to run Office, leaving iPad owners to pick up the iWork bundle instead; Apple pushed those apps out to the iPhone and iPod touch back in May. A focus on tablet content creation is something Microsoft and its partners seem to be slowly waking up to. CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed the company’s engineers were looking at how Office could be reworked in the Metro style of Windows 8 during Build 2

Windows 8 will have a considerable impact on the desktop but struggle to find a foothold in tablets, analysts are predicting, with low-cost Android slates as well as the established iPad titan presenting an uphill struggle for those using Microsoft’s platform next year. The delay in reaching the market has allowed Apple and Samsung to push out several generations of tablet while Windows models are still languishing with the finger-unfriendly Windows 7, Forrester’s JP Gownder highlights, while the NOOK Tablet and others continue to set expectations of what affordable slates look like. Microsoft’s own delays in bringing out Windows 8 on ARM are likely to contribute to the company’s problems in the tablet market. The version of the OS – which isn’t expected to show up on shipping products until mid-2013 - is most likely to be found running on tablets, where ARM chipsets’ low power demands and strong multimedia abilities help make for slimline hardware with strong entertainment credentials

Samsung has field for a new trademark that hints at a new line of smartphones and tablets that may be coming to market reports Fusible. Granted simply filing for a trademark isn’t a guarantee that a new product is coming to market. The trademark that Samsung grabbed is for Samsung Galaxy Sleek. We can imagine the name being used on a family of thin tablets and smartphones. The trademark was field for on November 23. According to Fusible, the serial number for the trademark app is85480030. The trademark covers a gamut of geek products including telephones, smartphones, mobile phones, and tablet computers. That seems to cover just about anything that Samsung might want to make. There has been no official comment form Samsung on the trademark app. We are left to our own devices to figure out what the gadgets might be like. I would like to see a very thin tablet rocking a high-resolution display and Tegra 3 power on Android 4.0. That would be a very interesting tablet in deed. I would bet

The Little Printer is a strange item that seems to be aimed a the person who both likes and loathes digital media. This Little Printer allows you to enter your subscriptions for social networking sites and other places and then each morning it will print that content out for you. Granted that isn’t green, but if you want a printed page to take with you this might be the ticket. The idea is that the printer will produce a little newspaper for you to peruse. Naturally, you could just use a tablet or a smartphone to read this content like the rest of us. The device will launch in 2012 as a beta product. Pricing is unknown. It appears that the printer itself is thermal. The paper appears to be the continuous roll sort. Thermal printing means if you leave printouts in the hot sun or keep it too long you might lose that content. The printer can print text and pixel art as well. What do you think of this thing? Check out the video below.

Fixed Samsung Galaxy Nexus stock has arrived in the UK, with a software patch in place to address the volume bug that affects existing handsets when using 2G 900MHz networks. The new supplies have been updated with new software by Samsung, retailer Clove claims, though it’s still not exactly clear what the amended firmware actually does to the Ice Cream Sandwich handset. The news fits with reports from pre-order customers in Ireland last Thursday, who told SlashGear that they’d been advised by retailers that a fresh batch of Galaxy Nexus was due in this week. Again, the expectation was that software rather than hardware could address the smartphone’s problem, which presents as wildly fluctuating volume when the Nexus is being used on the 900MHz band. An unofficial release of a patch to fix the volume bug took place yesterday, tipped to be the same package that Samsung itself will release for existing owners imminently. Neither the Korean company nor Google have said exactly when early-

Twitter has bought a mobile communications security firm, Whisper Systems, specializing in hardening Android devices to make them more private and secure. Through modifying the core Android kernel, as well as developing custom apps for encrypted messaging, calling, backup and more, Whisper Systems has carved out a niche protecting smartphones and tablets for enterprise and other privacy-aware users. Currently, the company offers five products, each Android based. RedPhone and TextSecure add encryption to voice and messaging, meaning even if either are intercepted the contents shouldn’t be accessible. Flashback makes system backups to the cloud, encrypting them first so that if the remote storage is hacked, user files can’t be accessed. Finally, WhisperCore and WhisperMonitor work together to lock down devices and track their use, including “full disk encryption, network security tools, encrypted backup, selective permissions, and basic platform management tools for Nexus S and Nexus On

American Airlines has filed for voluntary bankruptcy, promising to maintain current services while it attempts to restructure its “cost and debt structure” into a manageable form. The airline’s parent company, AMR Corporation, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in the US today, a process that can take anything from months through to years: in the meantime, it will operate normal flight schedules, make refunds and exchanges as usual, and honor all existing tickets and reservations. AA also says it will be paying staff as usual, as well as suppliers, and the various loyalty and airmiles programs will continue to run as normal. “As we have made clear with increasing urgency in recent weeks, we must address our cost structure, including labor costs, to enable us to capitalize on [our] foundational strengths and secure our future” CEO Thomas W. Horton said in a statement today. “Our very substantial cost disadvantage compared to our larger competitors, all of which restructured their costs

Robots are used for all sorts of different tasks including exploring areas where it is too hazardous for humans to venture due to war or disaster. The problem with many of the robot designs is that wheels and legs can have hard time navigating very rough terrain. To help make robots that are better able to navigate certain types of terrain and are more resistant to bumps and impacts a new bot has debuted that is made from soft materials and resembles a starfish. The bot is made from a soft and flexible rubber material and is driven by compressed air. The compressed air is fed into little bladders inside the rather creepy looking clear body and that air moving in and out of bladders allows the bot to move. The design of the bot allows it to move under objects that normal robots would have no chance of making it under. According to the designers, the bot can move under a pane of glass that is only 2cm above the ground in under a minute. There are some downsides to the soft robot design t

Acer has announced two new products that will launch today and can convert your 2D content to 3D for you to enjoy. The products are the HR274H 3D computer display and the new H9500BD projector. The new display has a cool Acer chip-based 3D conversion solution to turn 2D into 3D with no software required. The display also uses passive polarized glasses that are much cheaper than active 3D glasses. The display measured 27-inches and has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 for full HD 3D content and video gaming. The 3D chip tech will work with any video card as well. The display ships with a single pair of 3D glasses. Connectivity for the display includes HDMI. The other new product is the H9500BD projector that will support 3D tech from NVIDIA. The projector also converts 2D to 3D automatically and has full 1080p resolution. It can throw an image up to 300-inches diagonally. The projector uses DLP tech and has a 120Hz and 3D software. It has 50000:1 contrast ratio and uses active shutter 3D gla

Nintendo has a bunch of new bundles and video games that launched just in time for Black Friday. We talked about several of the new bundles and games already. Among the new bundles were the pink nintendogs 3DS bundle, the black 3DS Ocarina of Time Zelda bundle, and a red Super Mario 3D Land bundle. Along with those bundles was the launch of some anticipated games. Two of the new games launched close to Black Friday time were Super Mario 3D Land and the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Wii. The 3DS Super Mario Land 3D game sold very well with more than 500,000 copies movie since it launched. That makes it the fastest selling portable Mario game in history. Skyward Sword sold even better for the Wii with 535,000 copies sold since November 20 making it the fastest selling Zelda game ever. Nintendo also notes that last week 3DS sales tripled up to 325%. Nintendo also notes that the increase in 3DS sales means that in eight months the gaming firm has been able to match the first year sale

Nokia hasn’t been shy promoting the Lumia 800, but it cranked things up even higher in London, UK, last night with a huge animation projected onto a 120m high building on the banks of the River Thames. Millbank Tower saw electro producer deadmau5 pumping out an exclusive set while its 800 windows – specially vinyl-clad for better graphics – were painted by light from 16 projectors across the water. Check out the video after the cut. Using projections to bring buildings alive isn’t new, but it’s quite the departure for Nokia whose previous launches have been somewhat more low-key. The Finnish firm can’t afford to play it safe with the new Lumia range, however; Nokia has turned to Windows Phone to restore its fortunes, but Microsoft’s platform is running catch-up in comparison to iPhone and Android. High-profile events like the impromptu deadmau5 concert are obviously one way of raising attention, though Nokia has also been investing cash – its own and Microsoft’s, part of the two compan

The iPhone is the most popular single smartphone in most markets even though Android is the most popular platform. Sales of the iPhone are booming in the UK thanks to the launch of the iPhone 4S reports The Guardian. Apparently, demand was pent up in the UK waiting for the 4S to land and now that it is here the sales of the iPhone in the UK tripled in October. Smartphones may only have 27% of the global mobile phone market, but the percentage is higher in the UK alone. In October 42.8% of all smartphones sold were iPhones. Android on the other hand took 35% of the smartphone market. At the same time, overall smartphone sales in October inside the UK grew by 43% as the overall phone market declined 4%. The Android OS is still more popular than iOS with 46% of the smartphone sold for the 12 weeks ending October 31. Statistics also show that 44.8% of the British population owns a smartphone. That still leaves more than half of the people living in the UK with no smartphone and lots more

Notebooks running Windows 8 on ARM processors rather than Intel or AMD x86 chips aren’t expected to hit the market until June 2013, insider sources have suggested, indicating Microsoft’s Windows on ARM project will lag considerably behind the mainstream build. The platform itself is tipped to go public at the end of 2012, DigiTimes‘ sources tell them, but with the first hardware not scheduled until midway through the following year, broad adoption isn’t seen until 2014 at the earliest. In fact, so the notebook players reckon, it won’t be until 2015 until Windows on ARM hardware presents a significant, market-share grabbing challenge to Intel and AMD based hardware. Software support and notebook vendor reluctance are cited as the two main problems: apps written for Windows 8 on regular x86 processors will need to be reworked to run on ARM chipsets. Nonetheless, producers of ARM chipsets – like NVIDIA and Qualcomm – are believed to be “aggressively cooperating” with firms like Lenovo and

RIM will attempt to corner the enterprise smartphone and tablet management market in early 2012, the company has revealed, pushing its security ecosystem even when users have defected to iPhone and Android. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will kick off in closed beta in January 2012, with general availability expected in March, offering enterprise users remote configuration, locking, secure wiping and connectivity management whether they’re using a BlackBerry phone, PlayBook, Android smartphone or tablet, or an iPhone or iPad. The system combines BlackBerry Enterprise Server and a more generic mobile device management system that will work with iOS 4 or higher devices and Android devices running 2.1, 2.2 or 2.3. That’s automatically going to limit Android tablet control from the offset, of course, since most models are running 3.x Honeycomb. RIM’s hope is that it can still grab a share of a mobile market proving less and less enamored of its BlackBerry smartphones. Although the company has en

GM has worked long and hard to bring the Volt to market and the car is now facing its biggest challenge with several fires erupting after crash tests. The car was originally unveiled back in 2007 and then it took longer than GM had hoped to get the car onto the market for consumers to buy. The Volt has hit a few speed bumps along the way, but the cars have been selling and are nice options for the green fans that want an EV but don’t want to worry about how far they can drive. The Volt can go 40 miles on battery power alone and has a range of 379 miles with the gasoline generator. In side crash testing at the NHTSA the Volt passed with no issues. The catch was that three weeks after the crash test the Volt used caught fire. This prompted an investigation into the Volt and its battery packs along with an investigation into the EV market in general to ensure that the battery packs were safe after an accident. Two more crash tested Volts since that original fire have also caught fire afte

One of the tricks that some analysts are saying AT&T might be able to use to revive its dying deal to purchase T-Mobile is to agree to sell off more of the T-Mobile assets to other carriers. The catch is that the sell off would need to be made to a smaller carrier according to some rather than to Verizon. AT&T has apparently decided to try that tactic. According to CNET AT&T was in talks as of last night with Leap Wireless to sell some of the assets gained if the T-Mobile merger goes through to the smaller carrier. The asset that is being talked about in the deal with Leap is reportedly wireless spectrum that T-Mobile owns. The part of the spectrum that AT&T wants is the bands that are needed for networking. Leap Wireless is sold in the pre-paid market under the Cricket Wireless brand. This would be a very good thing for Cricket Wireless since the deal would give the company more spectrum and access to more areas. The service is cheap and has some decent devices. I have

Nintendo has delayed its 3DS update, set to bring 3D video recording and more to the dual-display handheld gaming console before the end of November, though the new functionality will still arrive in time for the holidays. According to Nintendo, the 3DS system update will now drop on December 8, with the “final stages of internal testing” blamed for the delay. As well as the ability to use the 3DS’ twin camera array to record video, rather than just 3D images as is currently possible, the new software will allow 3DS units to communicate between each other and transfer downloaded software and data. There’ll also be new gaming content in StreetPass Mii Plaza, with the addition of Find Mii II among other things. Announced last month, the new firmware is part of Nintendo’s attempt to motivate sales of the 3DS; so far, that’s something only dramatic price cuts have managed to do. The glasses-free 3D gimmick has not proved the must-have selling point that Nintendo perhaps expected it to be,

Apple’s home entertainment hobby, the Apple TV, is readying a leap to its third-generation of hardware according to details spotted in yesterday’s iOS 5.1 developer beta. The new model is believed to have the J33 codename, 9 to 5 Mac reports, a step up from a more general identifier number, and signaling that a commercial launch could be close at hand. What the new iOS beta doesn’t tell us is exactly what the updated Apple TV brings to the table. The current model is a super-compact set-top box, limited to 720p HD and using Apple’s A4 1GHz single-core chipset as in the iPad and iPhone 4. The third-generation version, however, could well shift to the Apple A5 dual-core, as in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, with 1080p Full HD playback among other improvements. We’d also go unsurprised if Apple finally introduced App Store access to the Apple TV, something the company has been rumored to do for some time now. That would position the STB as a more comprehensive Google TV rival, Google having ad

Lenovo has launched a trio of new tablets, including a 5-inch LePad/IdeaTab S2005 tablet/phone hybrid, and 7-inch and 10.1-inch slates to sate your browsing the multimedia needs. The LePad S2007 and S2010 will hit China in December, Engadget Chinese reports, running a 1.5GHz Qualcomm dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a 1280 x 800 IPS display; however, Lenovo also apparently has a separate Tegra 3 tablet, the IdeaTab K2 leaked earlier this month, for the international market. Chinese buyers will get an 8-megapixel main camera and 1.3-megapixel front camera on the S2007 and S2010, along with integrated 3G with support for China Telecom’s EV-DO plus China Unicom’s WCDMA. The 3,780 mAh battery in the 360g and 9.7mm thick S2007 is good for up to eight hours of WiFi use, Lenovo reckons, while the 9.9mm thick and 670g S2010 has a 7,670 mAh pack that can run for up to eleven hours. As for the LePad S2005 – which will launch as the IdeaTab outside of China – that has a 5-inch 800 x 480 LTPS d

Google has just announced that its bringing back games to the Android Market in South Korea. The decision follows Apple’s re-introduction of iOS platform games earlier this mont,h and comes because South Korea has changed its policy regarding mobile applications. Until recently, the South Korean government required that all games be appraised and audited by the “Game Rating Board,” a stringent demand that quickly prompted companies Apple and Google to remove their entire games category from their respective app stores. Now that the South Korean policy has changed, Google is reassuring developers to check the “South Korea” box when submitting games as well as localize their apps for the particular region as necessary. Google claims that “Korea is now the second-largest consumer of apps worldwide,” and that “Korea has quickly become one of the top countries in Android device activations”, so there’s plenty of incentive for developers to do just both. Developers, rev your engines, as you

What’s up, fellow Americans. We’ve officially taken the early lead in LTE (Long Term Evolution) smartphone subscribers, according to a new study by TeleGeography. Although, it really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given that the first inaugural wave of LTE 4G deployments took place right here in the U.S. What’s more of a surprise is that the report also revealed that North America’s lead in LTE smartphone subscribers will facing much stiff competition in the way of Asia, as they ramp up their own LTE activity. Let the LTE games begin. Verizon Wireless accounted for 3.1 million LTE subs, about sixty percent of the global total (not surprising at all). Even though Verizon wasn’t the first global telecommunications giant to fully launch an LTE network (TeliaSonera and fellow U.S. provider MetroPCS owns that first), it was the first telecommunications operator to launch LTE on a wide scale. Meanwhile, the rest of the world have been playing catch-up. Also, of the 39 commercial LTE n

Reports from Bloomberg have come in that auction house Sotheby’s is gearing up to auction off the original three-page contract among Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne that established Apple Computer Co. on April 1st, 1976. The document, which will be one of Sotheby’s highlights, is expected to hit the auction block in New York City next month for December 13th and predicted to fetch $100,000 up to $150,000 in auction. Now this is a three page document worth bidding for, in all its historical, societal and sentimental value. “This is a foundation document in terms of financial history, social history and technological history,” said Richard Austin, the head of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s in New York. Also included in the auction package are papers documenting Ron Wayne’s withdrawal as a partner just a dozen days after the company was founded. Wayne initially received $800 for his 10% share of the company, and later received an additional $1,500 payment, before he withdrew

The folks at Seagate have announced the 3rd generation unit in their Momentus solid state hybrid drive line, here in the Momentus XT 750GB – as large as an HDD and as fast as an SSD, and at one tenth the price. This newest unit comes with 750GB of space, SLC NAND at 8GB, and a SATA 6GB/s NCQ interface. This newest drive has 50% more capacity than the previous generation Seagate Momentus, is 1.5x faster, and has both double the NAND flash and double the interface speed of its predecessor. Though it has the same name as its 500GB older sibling, this newest generation hybrid drive acts as the new plateau for Seagate and is available at a handful of online retailers today. Starting immediately, you can pick up the second generation Seagate Momentus XT solid state hybrid drive at Memory Express, NCIX, Newegg, Canada Computers, CDW, and TigerDirect for $245 MSRP. Inside you’ll find that your Serial ATA 6Gb/second interface and 8 gigabytes of Single Level Cell NAND flash both double the NAND