AfterDawn: Tech news

Latest news

AfterDawn: News

Jailbroken iPhone 4, iPod Touch get hacked Siri

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Dec 2011 2:48

Jailbroken iPhone 4, iPod Touch get hacked Siri Jailbroken iPhone 4 users, rejoice.

The blog InTech-BB (currently down) has posted a guide on how to add the popular Apple virtual assistant Siri to the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G (fourth gen).

H1Siri comes via the Chinese dev group "CD-Team" and the app has been released to Cydia, which is the App Store for jailbroken iOS devices.

The only requirements are Cydia and iOS 5.

Because the app is new, there are expected bugs, including a camera bug that requires its own fix.




AfterDawn: News

EU: Heavy fines for privacy breaches

Written by James Delahunty @ 05 Dec 2011 2:47

EU: Heavy fines for privacy breaches Reform of rules regarding privacy could take up to two years to be delivered.

Under proposed new rules for the European Union market, firms that break privacy laws could be fined up to 5 percent of their annual turnover. This could amount to billions for multinationals that got on the wrong side of the law.

The European Commission is seeking to reform laws in the region related to privacy, some of which have been untouched since 1995. The ultimate goal would be to harmonize laws across the 27 member states, but there are differences of opinion among national governments that could take some time to settle.

The reforms are aimed at companies selling consumers' personal data on the market, or when private information is compromised from a digital service.

According to the Financial Times, one proposal is to call for all companies with more than 250 employees to dedicate staff to data protection issues, which is not a requirement currently in any EU country.




AfterDawn: News

The iPhone accounted for more than 10% of US mobile phones in October

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 05 Dec 2011 2:44

The iPhone accounted for more than 10% of US mobile phones in October According to the latest numbers from comScore, the iPhone accounted for more than 10% of US mobile subscribers in October. Their 10.8% subscriber share was up from 9.5% a month earlier.

Keep in mind, this is an accounting of phones in use, rather than sales.

By comparison, Samsung phones were used by 25.5% of US subscribers, but that includes both smartphones and feature phones. Despite the sales gains in smartphones they have made in recent months, their usage share was unchanged from September.

Other companies whose phones were used by more Americans in October were LG and Motorola, but the trend for both companies was a slight downturn of 0.3% and 0.5% respectively.

At the same time, overall Android usage was up from a month earlier, accounting for 46.3% of smartphones compared to 41.9% in September. However, that gain didn't come at the expense of Apple, whose phones accounted for 28.1% of usage, compared to 27.1% in September.

Not surprisingly, the biggest loser was RIM. They dropped from a share of 21.7% in September to 17.2% in October.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

HTC Flyer getting Honeycomb update in Europe today

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Dec 2011 2:40

HTC Flyer getting Honeycomb update in Europe today HTC previewed the much-awaited Honeycomb update for its Flyer tablet in September but has been notably quiet since.

Today, the software update will hit all European nations offering the device.

The company says U.S. owners will be getting the update "very soon," without providing a solid timeline.

For those with Flyers, the update is 210MB large and will bring the OS to version 3.55.405.1.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) could eventually come to the Flyer, says the company, but the chances are likely low.




AfterDawn: News

Dell to still back Android

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Dec 2011 2:25

Dell to still back Android Despite their recent discontinuation of the Streak 5 and Streak 7 tablets, Dell has said they will still back Android into the future.

The company has currently shut down most of their mobile devices, and their only remaining American-available smartphones are the Dell Venue and Venue Pro, each of which run on Windows Phone 7.5. Speculation was Dell is waiting for Windows 8 for their next round of tablets.

Dell offers a 10-inch Android tablet, but only in China.

Says the company of their thoughts on Android (via Verge):

Dell remains committed to the mobility market and continues to sell products here and in other parts of the world. Streak 7 delivered a unique experience for customers who wanted a larger screen-size yet the freedom of staying connected to their personal and professional content while on the-go. It continues to be available in many markets through retail, distributors and carrier partners such as Optus in Australia. A 10-inch version of the tablet, Streak 10 Pro, is currently offered in China, offering the ultimate digital divide between work and life. The Venue and Venue Pro devices, as well, continue to earn accolades for performance, design and functionality around the world. We also recently launched the Latitude ST, a 10-inch Windows 7-based touch-screen tablet designed for vertical markets such as education, finance and healthcare in November of this year. We remain committed to expanding our reach beyond PCs with a targeted set of open, standards-based mobility solutions and services designed for commercial and mobile professional customers.




AfterDawn: News

Sony Ericsson transition back to just 'Sony' will be completed by mid-2012

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Dec 2011 2:05

Sony Ericsson transition back to just 'Sony' will be completed by mid-2012 Earlier this year, Sony bought out Ericsson's stake in their decade-long "Sony Ericsson" joint venture for 1 billion euros.

Today, Kristian Tear, an executive VP at Sony Ericsson, has said that the company's transition back to just Sony will be completed by the middle of next year.

The new company will be "doubling down" on its smartphone offerings and killing off its feature phone division.

Finally, Tear says the company will be significantly increasing advertising and marketing in key markets.

Sony's mission statement is to eventually become a top Android vendor.




AfterDawn: News

Confirmed: Gowalla bought out by Facebook

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Dec 2011 1:43

Confirmed: Gowalla bought out by Facebook Gowalla has confirmed that they have been acquired by social networking behemoth Facebook.

The company says that its founders and team members will join Facebook and move to the Palo Alto headquarters with Gowalla "winding down at the end of January."

Users can then export their data at that point.

Adds FB, via Crunch:

We're excited to confirm that Gowalla co-founders Josh Williams and Scott Raymond, along with other members of the Gowalla team, are moving to Facebook in January to join our design and engineering teams. While Facebook isn't acquiring the Gowalla service or technology, we're sure that the inspiration behind Gowalla will make its way into Facebook over time.


Gowalla, which was made popular due to its "check-ins," recently redesigned its mobile apps to move towards "user-generated place recommendations." The site was beginning to feel the heat from check-in services like FourSquare and from daily deal behemoths Groupon and Google. Additionally, Facebook had added its own "Places" location-based deals service, but recently shut it down.




AfterDawn: News

Freegal MP3 service for libraries - the high price of free music

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 05 Dec 2011 1:26

Freegal MP3 service for libraries - the high price of free music The Washington DC Public Library is getting some publicity for their new offering of the Freegal MP3 service to give card holders free music, but on close inspection it may not be such a good deal for anyone but the service provider.

Library Ideas offers the Freegal service to a number of libraries throughout the US. The selection of songs is exclusively from Sony Music, and each person is limited to just three downloads per week, and two downloads for each individual song.

The downloads are DRM-free MP3 files, and once you download a song you own it. While that may not be a bad deal for free, if you look at the terms Library Ideas is apparently giving libraries, it's far from free.

Last year a librarian from San Rafael, California blogged about her dealings with the company providing the service, and she wasn't at all impressed.

According to Sarah Houghton, downloads from Freegal actually cost libraries an average of $1 or more per song. On the other side of the equation, she says the reaction from users to getting a mere three songs per week, and only from a single label, hasn't been positive.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

VIDEO: The Mozilla Story

Written by James Delahunty @ 05 Dec 2011 8:51

VIDEO: The Mozilla Story Mozilla tells its story in context of the history of the web.

Mozilla has published a short video, briefly describing the problems faced by users of the Internet as it grew and started to be influenced by both positive and negative elements

It focuses on its own part in the story, selling itself as a good guy in the battle for an Internet for everyone.

Brand-recognition efforts or whatever the case may be, the video is worth the few minutes of your life. You can't help but wonder if the video has anything to do with the rumoured end to a search deal between Mozilla and Google, which could result in significant revenue losses for the non-profit.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Xbox 360 update brings TV entertainment to Xbox Live

Written by James Delahunty @ 05 Dec 2011 8:36

Xbox 360 update brings TV entertainment to Xbox Live Microsoft partners with more than 40 media firms.

The Redmond-based giant has detailed the launch of an all-new Xbox 360 experience, the first group of new, custom applications from world leading TV and entertainment content providers.

"A new era in entertainment begins where all your entertainment is together in one place ? your games, movies, TV shows, music and sports," said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.

"With this update, Xbox 360 system owners will experience Kinect voice control integrated with Bing search, making your TV and entertainment experiences more social and personal than ever."

Thanks also the to Kinect device, you can use your voice to effortlessly find the games, movies, TV shows and music you want and discover the best offerings on Xbox LIVE, by simply saying what you're searching for. Beginning tomorrow and over the coming weeks, Bing on Xbox voice search will initially be available in English in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. for Zune video, Xbox LIVE Marketplace and select content partners.

Microsoft also gave the line-up of new content partners, and when their services will arrive on Xbox.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

PS Vita does not allow gaming and background browsing

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 04 Dec 2011 11:57

PS Vita does not allow gaming and background browsing According to a Vita developer interview, the new PS Vita will not allow web browsing whilst gaming.

When you hit the PS button during gameplay, the console menu will be brought up including the option to check friends list, music and Twitter. Web browsing is not included, however.

The Vita will run on an ARM Cortex A9 quad-core processor and be powered by a quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU.

Featuring a 5-inch capacitive multitouch OLED screen (with 16 million colors), the device will be 7.16 by 0.73 by 3.28 inches. Furthermore, the Vita has 512MB memory and 128MB VRAM in its graphics processor.

Sony recently announced the Vita will launch in Japan on December 17th and the U.S./EU in 2012.




AfterDawn: News

Sony lists 262 PSP games that can be downloaded for Vita

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 04 Dec 2011 11:13

Sony lists 262 PSP games that can be downloaded for Vita Sony has listed the first 262 PSP games that can be downloaded for the upcoming Vita as part of the UMD Passport program.

How the program works is if you own the game on UMD, you can download a copy to your Vita at a discounted price.

In Japan, the service will launch on December 6th and the games will cost 500 to 1500 yen ($6-$19).

At launch, the 262 games will only represent a portion of the total 606 games available in the Japanese PlayStation Store. However, Square Enix, Namco Bandai, Konami and Capcom have not begun to support the program and they are certainly major publishers.

The games are here, in Japanese.




AfterDawn: News

Drunken RIM employees arrested, suspended, fined after plane fiasco

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 04 Dec 2011 10:25

Drunken RIM employees arrested, suspended, fined after plane fiasco RIM has suspended its two employees after their excessive drunkeness forced a flight to make an emergency landing.

45-year-old George Campbell of Conestogo and 38-year-old Paul Alexander Wilson of Kitchener were so belligerent on a recent flight from Toronto to Beijing that the crew had to physically handcuff them to their seats before eventually detouring and settling for an emergency landing in Vancouver.

The two have also plead guilty to mischief and will have to pay the airline $71,757 in restitution for the flight delay, the landing, and the hotel rooms for all 312 passengers. The flight made it to Beijing 18 hours late after an overnight in Vancouver.

Added RIM (via theRecord):

Based on the limited information available at this time, RIM has suspended the individuals involved pending further investigation.


As part of their punishment, neither can use Air Canada for one year.




AfterDawn: News

Dell Venue Pro finally gets Windows Phone Mango update

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 04 Dec 2011 5:36

Dell Venue Pro finally gets Windows Phone Mango update AT&T?s Dell Venue Pro is the latest device to get the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update, months after its launch.

Says Microsoft:

Hi everyone. Today we've started delivering Windows Phone 7.5 to Dell Venue Pro handsets on AT&T. If you (or friends or family members) haven't installed the update yet, now's the perfect time. You'll find step-by-step instructions at Update Central.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, we're also continuing to deliver occasional firmware updates to specific Windows Phone models and carriers around the world. Firmware updates are designed to improve your phone's performance. If one is available for your phone, you'll see an update notification pop up.


Those instructions are here: Update Central




AfterDawn: News

AMD HD 7000 series won't come cheap

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 04 Dec 2011 5:17

AMD HD 7000 series won't come cheap The upcoming AMD Radeon HD 7000 series video cards have been priced, says FZ, and they won't come cheap.

The HD 7970 high-end card is expected to have XDR2 DRAM, PCI-E Gen 3, built with 28nm tech and include the new GCN architecture.

At $549, the 7900 will be the most expensive card in the lot.

The "mid-range" HD 7950 will sell for $449.

Full details will be revealed this week, says AMD.





  Newer entries Older entries  

News archive