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AfterDawn: News

Is PS3 firmware 3.50 finally jailbroken?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Dec 2010 10:39

Is PS3 firmware 3.50 finally jailbroken? Although still unconfirmed (the software hasn't been released yet), the French site Logic Sunrise has reported that PlayStation 3 firmware version 3.50 has finally been jailbroken.

The firmware has been hacked by the developer team behind X3Max, a USB dongle used to jailbreak or downgrade other firmwares.

Says the site (translated):

"This marks the third major advance in the world of hack Playstation 3: Jailbroken firmware 3.50 the PS3 by Team X3 with X3max without need for a downgrade! The X3 team has managed to run homebrew on official firmware 3.50 without downgrading! The downgrade is still possible."


The software update will be free, but it is unclear if it will work on anything but the X3max.

For now, take the report and video as rumor until the actual software is released, likely within 48 hours.

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AfterDawn: News

Apple expands patent lawsuit against Motorola

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Dec 2010 10:15

Apple expands patent lawsuit against Motorola It appears that Apple has amended its ongoing lawsuit against Motorola this week, adding 12 more alleged patent violations, bringing the total to 24.

In their own suit, Motorola says Apple has infringed on 18 of their patents.

Motorola sued Apple in October, just days before Apple sued HTC for patent violations. HTC and Motorola sell the most popular Android smartphones.

At the time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said: "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it."

The patents relate to 3G, GPRS, 802.11 wireless and antenna design, and OS user interfaces.

Since 2009, Apple has been sued 27 times over alleged patent violations.




AfterDawn: News

Samsung Galaxy Tab sales hit 1 million, earlier than expected

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Dec 2010 9:58

Samsung Galaxy Tab sales hit 1 million, earlier than expected Samsung has said today that they have sold 1 million Galaxy Tab tablets already, surpassing their expectations.

When the device launched two months ago, Samsung said it expected to just hit 1 million sales by the end of the year.

The device sells on all four major carriers in the U.S., and on a number of carriers worldwide.

Both Verizon and AT&T said recently they were "encouraged" by Tab sales, but neither revealed specific numbers.

For comparison's sake, the market leader Apple iPad hit 1 million sales in just 30 days, and sales have recently topped 8 million.

Samsung's tablet runs on Android 2.2, has a 1GHz processor, a 7-inch multi-touch screen and dual cameras.




AfterDawn: News

Video Daily: The PlayStation Phone 'in action'

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Dec 2010 4:00

Video Daily: The PlayStation Phone 'in action' Following Wednesday's blurry "spy" video of the device, we now have a nice, clear "hands on" with the upcoming Sony Ericsson PSP Phone (Z1), although the smartphone still does not have any gaming content available for it.

The oft-rumored device could see an official announcement as soon as December 9th.

It will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 1GHz Qualcomm chip, have a 4.1-inch multi-touchscreen, a 5MP camera, 512MB of RAM, a 5 megapixel camera and 1GB of internal storage.

The smartphone will also have a dedicated gaming app store.

Gaming will be made possible via a slide-out control similar to the PSP.

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AfterDawn: News

Netbook with Google Chrome OS set for December 7th unveiling

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Dec 2010 3:28

Netbook with Google Chrome OS set for December 7th unveiling Google has sent out invites for a December 7th event relating to the Chrome OS, likely unveiling the first netbook to run on the operating system.

Chrome OS was revealed last year to much fanfare, but so far there has been little actually unveiled about the OS.

Google has said in the past that the Chrome OS will run on netbooks and desktops (machines with keyboards) while their popular Android mobile OS will remain on all touchscreen devices, like tablets and smartphones.

A Chrome OS machine can boot in seconds, faster than systems running Windows, Mac OSX or Linux.

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AfterDawn: News

Internet Explorer 6 market share finally falls under 15 percent

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 04 Dec 2010 2:56

Internet Explorer 6 market share finally falls under 15 percent According to new figures from NetMarketShare, the antiquated Internet Explorer 6 browser has finally fallen under 15 percent market share, globally, for the first time since its launch in 2001.

The browser has fallen to 13.72 percent, with most of that figure coming from China, where half of Internet users still use the "legacy" browser.

Outside of China, the share has fallen to 7.62 percent.

The market share leader remains Internet Explorer 8, at 32.79 percent, with Firefox 3.6 in second at 18.17 percent.

Behind IE6 is IE7 at 9.53 percent, followed by Chrome, which continues to see extremely strong growth whilst moving to 8.02 percent.

Other browsers, including IE9, Opera, Safari 5 and Firefox 3.5 hold the remaining 16.94 percent.




AfterDawn: News

Groupon rejects Google's $5.3 billion offer

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 04 Dec 2010 2:26

Groupon rejects Google's $5.3 billion offer According to multiple sources, Groupon has rejected Google's massive offer to acquire the company.

The search giant had offered $5.3 billion, with another $700 million in performance-based incentives.

It appears Groupon's board of directors were divided on the decision to sell, with some new directors believing the company will be worth even more in a couple of years.

Other sources say the daily deal site will instead launch an initial public offering in 2011.

Groupon has 35 million users in 300 cities.




AfterDawn: News

Global iPlayer will be subscription-based, iPad-only

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 04 Dec 2010 2:11

Global iPlayer will be subscription-based, iPad-only The BBC has said this week that their global iPlayer will be iPad-only, as well as subscription-based.

Since its release in the UK last year, the video-on-demand streaming service has been the most popular in the nation, giving license-fee payers a chance to watch shows like Doctor Who and Top Gear when they miss it on TV.

Says BBC.com managing director Luke Bradley-Jones:

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AfterDawn: News

Android 2.1 or higher now on 83 percent of Android devices

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 03 Dec 2010 12:50

Android 2.1 or higher now on 83 percent of Android devices According to new Google figures, Android 2.1 or higher is now installed on 83 percent of all Android smartphones, as of December 1st.

That number is up from 77 percent, posted in early November.

43.4 percent of phones have Android 2.2 while 39.6 percent are running 2.1.

A shocking 6.3 percent are still running the ancient Android 1.5, with another 10.6 percent running 1.6 (mainly G1 owners).

Google is set to launch Android 2.3 Gingerbread in the coming weeks, with a few handsets getting the update right out of the gate.




AfterDawn: News

Droid 2 explodes, injuring Texas man

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 03 Dec 2010 12:01

Droid 2 explodes, injuring Texas man Aron Embry of Texas has claimed today that his brand new Droid 2 smartphone exploded while he was making a call this morning, injuring his ear, neck and face.

Says Embry: "I heard a pop. I didn't feel any pain initially. I pulled the phone down. I felt something dripping. I realized that it probably was blood. I went into the house and as I got into the bathroom and once I got to the mirror and saw it, it was only then I kinda looked at my phone and noticed the screen had appeared to burst outward."

He then drove to his wife's job and they called 911, while also taking pictures of the damage.

His wife, Kara, had thought Aron had been in a car crash due to the massive amount of blood coming from his neck and face.

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AfterDawn: News

99 cent NBC show rentals headed to iTunes?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 02 Dec 2010 11:11

99 cent NBC show rentals headed to iTunes? NBC may be on the verge of bringing 99 cent rentals to iTunes, if a new screenshot is to be believed.

9to5Mac posted a picture that shows NBC hit show "The Office" available for purchase for $2.99 per episode or $.99 for a rental.

For now, only ABC and Fox have made their shows available for rental through iTunes at 99 cents.

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AfterDawn: News

Xbox modder gets case dismissed by prosecution

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 02 Dec 2010 10:39

Xbox modder gets case dismissed by prosecution Yesterday we reported that the jury trial for the case of Matthew Crippen had been delayed, after the presiding judge took 30 minutes to lecture the prosecution.

Today, the prosecution has dismissed the case, after just hours, "based on fairness and justice."

Prosecutor Allen Chiu says: "The government has decided to dismiss the indictment."

Crippen was on trial for allegedly modding Xbox 360 consoles to be able to play pirated games and homebrew.

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AfterDawn: News

Netflix to pay $100,000 per episode to play in-season TV shows?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 02 Dec 2010 9:57

Netflix to pay $100,000 per episode to play in-season TV shows? The New York Post has reported today that Netflix is prepared to pay up to $100,000 per episode for the ability to stream in-season TV shows, such as current episodes of hits like "Glee" and "The Office."

If accurate, the move will position Netflix next to Hulu as the premier destination to view TV episodes from current running seasons.

In October, Netflix announced it had signed a deal with NBCU to bring full back catalogs of hit shows like "30 Rock," "The Office," and others to the streaming service, as well as a deal that gives Netflix the right to stream "Saturday Night Live" the day after it airs on TV.

Netflix recently began offering a streaming-only service for $8 per month in the U.S., the first time the company has offered a deal that does not include physical media rentals.

The company has spent close to $1 billion on streaming rights over the past years, placing a big bet on the future of streaming.




AfterDawn: News

LimeWire scraps plans for legal music downloads

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 02 Dec 2010 7:48

LimeWire scraps plans for legal music downloads LimeWire, once the world's most popular P2P client, was officially shut down last month, following a four-year legal battle against the record industry.

A New York federal court issued a permanent injunction against the site, ruling that LimeWire caused a "massive scale of infringement" by intentionally giving users a platform to share millions of unauthorized music tracks.

At its peak, LimeWire was seeing 50 million monthly users.

Today, the company has sent out a memo scrapping their longstanding plans to open a new legal music download store, meaning there is literally nothing left of the company.

The current LimeWire store will also shut on December 31st, and the company will not accept any new payments, effective immediately.




AfterDawn: News

Amazon to invest $175 million in LivingSocial

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 02 Dec 2010 7:12

Amazon to invest $175 million in LivingSocial Yesterday we reported that Amazon was preparing to purchase an investment stake in daily deal giant LivingSocial, following Google's $5.3 billion bid for market leader Groupon.

Today, Amazon has announced an investment of $175 million in the site, a deal that will put the two companies in a "deep operating partnership."

LivingSocial will use the massive cash infusion to expand to more countries.

The site is currently available in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Australia. For those nations, the deals are available in 120 different cities.

Read more...



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