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Apple Deals Product Issues

Magic Wand To Couple Apple Keyboard and Trackpad

How would you like it if your keyboard and trackpad were to be adjoined to each other? The idea sounds great, does it not? Apparently you can use Magic Wand to do the same. Well! It is not something that you would be waving, in fact it is a mini mount that would help attach the trackpad to Apple‘s keyboard. This non-electrical mini mount is being made available by Twelve South which would enable one club the two wireless devices to be used without the need of a separate table for the two. Also, another unique and lovable feature of the Magic Wand is that it’s ambidextrous, meaning that the trackpad can be fitted either to the left or right of the keyboard making it convenient for both left and right arm users.

The mount costs only 30$ along with a free delivery option.

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Product Issues Sony

LG Wants Sony PS3 To Be Banned in US

Can we imagine America without PS3? Scary, is it not? Apparently LG, the third largest manufacturer of televisions in the world have filed a lawsuit against the Japanese giant Sony for having infringed patents of LG. LG is alleging Sony of infringing four patents of theirs as far which include the televisions. Along with the patent infringement of televisions, LG has also alleged the Blu-ray players of Sony which includes the Playstation 3 as well to have infringed patents of LG.

All this started in December when Sony alleged LG of infringing seven patents on their mobile technologies. The case was brought to the notice of the International Trade Commission, which has the power to prevent the import of products that have violated US patents.

If LG were to win the lawsuit, Sony would either have to pay huge royalty amounts to LG or stop the sale of PS3 in the US. World without PS3, sounds definitely boring.

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Gaming Google Mobile Product Issues

Android Market Web Store Users Need Not Be Concerned Yet

We reported yesterday that there was possible malware or a spyware threat evident from the Android Market Web Store to its smartphone users. The security firm Sophos assessed the online Android web store and suggested that the acceptance mechanism associated with the store was flawed and could enable third party users to install spyware on to the smartphones.

Google has now come up with an explanation for the same problem and has suggested that for now, there is no evident security threat from the store and it is risk free for the moment. Google has suggested that there is atwo-tire verification process on the online store which would make it very difficult for third party users to break in and install spyware. However Google has asked users to maintain strong passwords and also suggested that users should remember to log out of their accounts, especially when they access the store through a public domain.

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android Gadgets Product Issues

Honeycomb Is Just Around the Corner, Hang On

Anyone looking to buy an Android tablet, better hang on. Android 2.3 or as codenamed Honeycomb is just around the corner and there is no point in investing in Android tablets just yet. Right now, there are five tablets in the market that run on the Android OS. But, as a matter of fact, none of these tablets guarantee the same rich experience that an iPad can.

The five Android tablets now available in the market are-

  • Cherrypal Cherrypad
  • Coby Krios MID7015 Internet Touchscreen Tablet
  • Dell Streak 7
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab
  • Viewsonic Viewpad 7

Apparently all the above mentioned tablets possess both hardware and software issues like low resolution, improper touchscreen sensitivity, limited apps et. Not that, these tablets are entirely US, but they are no match iPad.

So, anyone looking to buy Android tablets better wait for the Honeycomb versions to come out. The first one in this breed would be the Motorola Xoom which will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress this month.

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Apple Product Issues

Apple Retina Display Set To Improve

Apple did announce last month that it was going to invest 4 billion dollars into various components that were going to be brought from three separate companies. Although it was not mentioned then which components were going to be purchased, it is now evident that the investment has gone into display components. The companies involved in the supply of the displays are Toshiba, LG and Sharp as revealed by the market researcher iSupply.

Apple’s latest investment is sure to make the lives of smaller mobile manufacturers difficult. It is quite evident now that Google Android is the most popular software being used in phone technologies. If Apple has to stand any chance against the elevating Android, it can only be through a higher resolution display.

Apple’s reason for buying from these companies is because of the higher resolution output that these companies bring on small screens.

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Product Issues

Access Contacts List From Locked iPhone With Newly Discovered Security Flaw

Yet another security flaw on the iOS 4.1 has been discovered. And this time it will let users bypass the mandatory input of passcode to let users access private details like contacts list, recent calls, voicemails,etc. The security bug will also let users send emails and MMS messages without having to know the passcode.

How do you do this? Simple. Users simply have to tap on the ‘Emergency call‘ option in the Passcode window and once here, dial a non-emergency number like #### followed by a tap on ‘Send‘ and quickly followed by pressing the iPhone lock key. This will force the user on to the iPhone’s phone application from where all these private details can be accessed.

Check out a video demonstration of the bug.

Do not expect an immediate resolution of this bug though. Apple is expected to release the new iOS 4.2 early next month and it is possible that the bug is attended to only in this update. Or probably later.

Categories
iOS Product Issues

Software Fix For iPhone Alarm Clock Bug On The Way

Late last month, iPhone users in New Zealand woke up to a false alarm; quite literally. The new iOS 4.1 had a curious bug that caused their alarm clocks to set off an hour early than scheduled. This bug spread to Australia earlier this month when the country started observing the Daylight Savings Time. With many more countries including the United States expected to start DST in a few weeks from now, Apple is clearly on tight deadlines to fix this issue.

We had earlier speculated that an update to fix this issue could come as part of the iOS 4.2 release that is expected early next month. However, in a recent statement Apple Australia has revealed that a fix could come earlier than that,

“We’re aware of this issue and already developed a fix which will be available to customers in an upcoming software update.”

But again, no ETA is revealed. So it should not really surprise us if the update happens alongside the iOS 4.2 release.

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News Product Issues

iPhone 4 Cases Causing Rear Glass Pane To Crack?

Apple may have been selling their new iPhone 4 like hotcakes. But there is no denying the fact that the launch has brought about several challenges to Apple engineers. The death grip and proximity sensor issues definitely take the lead, but there are several other challenges too that have surfaced time and again.

It seems that these issues fail to die down. We are now hearing that a new issue is brewing up at Cupertino over the possibility of the rear glass pane of the iPhone 4 to crack due to third party cases licensed by Apple. The issue is not exactly with the free bumpers that Apple offered to their iPhone 4 customers, but with other slide-on cases that are popular among iPhone users. Gdgt writes,

“Apple has apparently found that non-bumper style cases — specifically those that slide onto the iPhone 4, which are occasionally prone to particulate matter getting caught between the rear of the phone and the case — can cause unexpected scratching that could quickly develop into full-on cracking or even much larger fracturing of the entire rear pane of glass. To put it another way: Apple is afraid you might buy a standard slide-on iPhone case, put it on your phone, and then discover the next time you take it off that the entire back of your device has been shattered by no fault of your own.”

The report notes that though this issue is yet to see any widespread prevalence, Apple is already working to ensure this issue does not affect future products. That could mean that the next generation iPhone may not be having a glass back.

Categories
iPod Touch Product Issues

Users Complaining Of Jitter On iPod Touch With Docking Station

Several users on the Apple forum have recently been noticing jitters and random squeaking noises when their iPod Touch 3G is connected to a third party docking station. According to these users, the issue has been primarily occurring ever since the device was updated to the iOS 4.1 platform. Docking stations where the problem has been observed include Wadia 170iTransport, Onkyo ND-S1, Musical Fidelity V-Dac and Musical Fidelity KW DM25 DAC.

According to a Wadia support executive, Apple has worked on this issue for the future versions and that the jitter issue should not affect devices running iOS 4.2 (when that’s released).

Some users have however reported having seen improvements after a full factory restore. A user writes,

I think i have found a solution. What I did was a full factory restore, and when using the dock set ‘Autolock’ in the settings menu to never. It seems to have sorted the problem for me.

Are you one of those who is affected? Did this resolution work for you? Write in the comments.

Categories
News Product Issues

HDR Photography On iPhone 3GS May Come In Future Update

Apple is always known to intentionally block features on older devices in order to push people to graduate to newer devices. One such functionality that is available on iPhone 4 but is not provided on the older iPhones is the HDR capability. As you may already know, this functionality delivers effective contrasts on pictures by superimposing three pictures that are taken in normal, under-exposed and over-exposed modes.

Now, there are jailbreak apps that will let you enable this functionality on the older iPhones. From what we’ve heard in the past, the functionality works perfectly on the older models and there is no reason why Apple shouldn’t have offered the feature to the older iPhones as well. Nevertheless, if ever Apple had decided to block this feature on older models, it appears that this could have been a last-minute decision. Folks at 9to5Mac have uncovered a couple of HDR icons from the iPhone SDK that reference to iPhones with retina display and those that do not have this display. The difference can be noted in the nomenclature that usually contain a @2x in case of documents pertaining to the  retina display.

HDR on iPhone 3GS

If you were to stay an optimist, what this could mean is that Apple could bring the HDR functionality to the older iPhone; iPhone 3GS primarily, via a future software update. The question is however whether Apple would want to.