Section: Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week? Here's your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles! - Will the next HTC Droid Incredible OTA update feature Android 2.2?
” Back in early July, we reported a user experiencing a new OTA software update which revealed 3G Mobile Hotspot and 720p video recording. At the time, we weren’t sure when HTC would roll out this update…” MORE » - Verizon “officially unofficial” confirms Droid Incredible Android 2.2 update coming soon
” As of yesterday we learned (by way of a tipster) that the Droid Incredible would be getting Android 2.2 sometime later this month or early next month. Of course, at the time it was coming by way of an unofficial source. Thankfully…” MORE » - HTC issues its own rebuttal to Jobs’ antennagate mention
” Just as I predicted, HTC issued its own statement against Jobs’ assertion that every smartphone experiences some sort of antenna issue. Well, HTC didn’t release issue a complete statement like RIM and Nokia, but Eric Lin, the…” MORE » - New HTC Droid Eris OTA software update begins rolling out
” The HTC Droid Eris was rumored to receive an OTA software update beginning July 16 and it looks like users in the Verizon Community Forum did indeed receive the update. One of the…” MORE » - Motorola Droid X users begin reporting screen issues [Image & Video]
” Verizon officially released the Motorola Droid X back on July 15th, which means it has not even been available for a full week…” MORE » - Slacker brings ABC News to Slacker Plus
” As of this morning you can now get your news by way of Slacker Radio, that is as long as you are a Slacker Plus subscriber. The good news is that current Plus subscribers will have…” MORE » - Amazon: Sales of the Kindle have tripled, more people are purchasing digital books
” How popular is the Kindle and digital books? Pretty damn popular if you ask Amazon. According to the latest figures, ever since Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle from $259 - $189, sales have tripled. Of course with more people using…” MORE » - Verizon to roll out Droid X OTA software update starting July 19
” While the Motorola Droid X experienced a successful launch just a few days ago, Verizon Wireless is wasting no time in rolling out a new OTA update that makes several improvements and enhancements. The update is dubbed 1.13.604.MB810.Verizon.en.US/Baseband:…” MORE » - Magellan releases new 510, 610 and 710 eXploris GPS
” All of you nature loving outdoorsey folk, Magellan has released three new handheld GPS units to help you find your way across unfamiliar terrain. The 510, 610 and 710 ($349.99, $449.99 and $549.99 respectively) boast a 3-inch screen a 3.2 megapixel…” MORE » - T-Mobile’s 4G network serves 85 million Americans, plans to serve 185 million by years end
” On July 14, we reported T-Mobile USA was planning to introduce HSPA+ speeds in 19 additional markets. Today, T-Mobile USA announced the roll out is completed and the giant cell phone carrier now serves…” MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Computers, Gadgets / Other, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack What's the most common phrase heard around the Gadgetell newsroom? Is it "I love Apple?", "that's cool!" or "sweet!" ? Answer: none of them, it's "they are on crack". This week we take a look back at the things that made us chuckle in the tech world. Let’s get to the suspects: - A Kindle for this, a Nook for that?
- Dell ups the ante in what they’ll pre-install
- Droid X gobbling up data like me eating turkey on Thanksgiving
- Don’t be now says Micorsof
t
Kindle get’s an exclusive. This isn’t good. Word is from Shaun Ingram, Amazon is fragmenting the market. Awesome. As Ingram explains, “Amazon has announced that is has a new deal with the literary agent Andrew Wylie. The deal would give Amazon an exclusive for e-books from all authors the agent represents. The full list is here, and includes notable names such as Al Gore and Phillip Roth, it also includes the estates of popular authors including John Updike, William Burroughs and Hunter Thompson. So, if in any time in the next two years you wish to purchase an ebook of classics such as "Naked Lunch" or "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas" or current books like "An Inconvenient Truth" or Roth's upcoming "Nemesis," you need a Kindle or a device with Kindle software.” Imagine if you wanted to listen to U2 (pretend with me on their later stuff) and Sony pulled an Amazon. -You’d have to get a Sony Walkman (cringe!). But if you wanted to play REM (again bear with me) your iPod would be just fine. The whole idea is bad. Amazon is setting themselves up in a bidding war vs. other ebook reader makers to divvy up the authors. If all the ebooks I want are not available because of the brand I bought, I buy none. In the end, we all lose. Stupid books. 
Virus inside - que Intel “ba bum pa da” Saving all of us valuable time and effort, thoughtfull Dell has taken bold steps in what they are willing to pre-install on our machines. Our Sue Walsh explains, “a red faced Dell is apologizing to customers after admitting that some of their PowerEdge rack servers shipped with malware infected firmware.” That’s right, forget being forced to hit up some porn sites to get a virus, Dell will do it for you. Sweet. Even better, Sue finishes the post with, “the company has offered no explanation of how the malware got into the servers in the first place.” Magic perhaps? Ninjas? Hacker Big Foot? The world may never know. 
Droid X users eating 5x more data What the heck are you Droid X users on? 2x more, I can see. 3x more perhaps. But 5x? Is the thing doubling as an HDTV for you guys (and I assume gals)? Seriously, are you streaming movies while streaming music while running speed tests? Our Natesh Sood gets all factual: “according to Jennifer Byrne, Verizon's Business Development Executive Director, Motorola Droid X users are using a lot of data - 5x more than other Verizon smartphones.” What’s worse is you guys are going to ruin it for the whole Verizon party. This conversation must have gone on at Verizon HQ:
“Chief, we’ve got a problem”
“Droid X users are consuming 5x more data then the rest of our flock” (they really do call them that at HQ)
“What? Fine, charge them 5x more!”
“Sir, we just said we wouldn’t do that.”
“Grrrr. Fine, we’ll do it next month.” I’ll say what we are all thinking at this point, “stay away from the porn, Droid X users.” 
Microsoft hates the present. Probably conceived during the Vista years, Microsoft announced their new slogan, “Be what’s next”. Our Natesh Sood again brings us some insight, “Maybe Microsoft is looking to change things up and have a refreshed tagline for its impending Windows Phone 7 launch. It's a unique and different tagline to say the least and saying it aloud sounds weird. ” Yes, yes it does. So where did this come from? Our Crack team uncovered the tagline was developed to be a two-part phrase. Here were the contenders: - Be what’s next, because today sucks.
- Be what’s next, because what now sucks.
At this point, the project was moved out of the Vista team and sent over to the Windows Mobile team: - Be what’s next, because we gave this up to RIM, Apple and Google
. - Be what’s next, actually, with our UI chops, maybe you’re safer being the “thing after that”
At this point the project was kicked over to the Xbox team: - Be what’s next, because we totally knocked off Wii
.
Then Ballmer got a hold of it and said: - You suck in the now. Be what’s next
. Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Computers, Security, Web  Over 70,000 people lost their blogs after the service’s host booted them. The loss of service to Toronto-based Blogetery happened after their host Burst.net discovered they were under investigation by the FBI. Earlier this month Burst was asked for information about Blogetery by the FBI, who were investigating allegations that the blogging service hosted instructions on how to make bombs and al-Qaeda hit lists. Investigators never asked that Blogetery be shut down but Burst immediately did so following the information request. The site’s owner insists they know of no wrongdoing by any of their members and that they are seeking legal representation. Burst.net defended their actions saying Blogetery had been a problem client with a history of TOS complaints and suspensions.
As for the 70,000+ users who lost their blogs and data, it’s not yet known if they’ll get them back. Burst says it’s not their problem, although they are considering turning over a copy of Blogetery’s data, and Blogetery hasn’t yet commented. Critics say it’s unfair to punish innocent users over what are for now, mere unproven allegations. Read [CNet] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Computers, Security, Features A red faced Dell is apologizing to customers after admitting that some of their PowerEdge rack servers shipped with malware infected firmware. They gave no specifics about the malware but assured customers that only a limited number of servers had the issue and that the remaining inventory has been removed from the supply chain. Dell also said they don’t believe the malware poses any serious threat: We take matters of information security very seriously and believe that any impact to a customer's information security is unlikely. To date we have received no customer reports related to data security. Systems running non-Windows operating systems are not vulnerable to this malware and this issue is not present on motherboards shipped new with PowerEdge systems.
The affected servers include the PowerEdge R310, PowerEdge R410, PowerEdge R510 and PowerEdge T410. The company is contacting affected customers but if you own one of these servers and are worried, contact Dell customer service. The company has offered no explanation of how the malware got into the servers in the first place.
Read[ZDnet] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks The e-book wars have been heating up with the main companies involved releasing new apps, adding new features when possible, and lowering device prices. For the most part, with the arguable exception of the switch to the “agency model,” the war has been good for readers. Now it looks like we might be on the brink of a new battle which could end up being bad for consumers. Amazon has announced that is has a new deal with the literary agent Andrew Wylie. The deal would give Amazon an exclusive for e-books from all authors the agent represents. The full list is here, and includes notable names such as Al Gore and Phillip Roth, it also includes the estates of popular authors including John Updike, William Burroughs and Hunter Thompson. So, if in any time in the next two years you wish to purchase an ebook of classics such as “Naked Lunch” or “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” or current books like “An Inconvenient Truth” or Roth’s upcoming “Nemesis,” you need a Kindle or a device with Kindle software. Random House, a publisher of many Wylier-represented books isn’t happy about the situation, and will not purchase any more rights from Wylier until a truce is put into place. This is the first time Amazon has worked directly with an agent, and it seems to make sense for the company. With the possible exception of marketing, e-books don’t seem to require a publisher. As long as they’ve been edited and approved by all involved, e-books can just be pushed out. There’s little overhead involved in e-book publishers as there is in ink-and-paper publishing. For consumers, it means that if this becomes a trend a tablet such as the iPad or a smartphone might be the platform of choice for reading e-books. There’s no point in choosing a specific company’s hardware to purchase if you don’t know if the books you want will be on the device. It might become confusing, but simply launching a different app is much easier than having to switch to a different device, cheaper as well. Or, we could just switch back to books and save the complaints about possible eye-strain and batteries running out. Yeah, the tablet or smartphone idea seems much better, it saves a lot of space and trees. Read [Electronista] Via [CrunchGear] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Web  Experts are warning that the internet will run out of space in less than a year. The problem is that there are a rapidly diminishing supply of IP addresses left under the current IPv4 protocol, which only supports 32-bit addressses. IPv6 supports 128-bits meaning it can provide more than enough room for everyone, but the transition to it has been slow. Major sites such as Facebook and Google are already making the switch but most ISPs are lagging behind. Some are just not taking the issue very seriously, labeling it another Y2K fuss over nothing. Verizon and Comcast however are actively working on deploying the new protocol.
Read [ReadWriteWeb] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones 
Just a few days ago, a reputable source came forth with information claiming Verizon is going to announce tiered data plans on July 29. As you can imagine, many people decided to go to the source themselves to see if it was true. A leaked internal document from Verizon confirms Verizon customer service reps have received calls regarding tiered data plans and are prepared to say that they “have no information on any pricing change at this time.” In addition, “recent blog activity regarding data pricing changes” is what prompted Verizon to issue instructions to every customer service rep. You can check out the image above for the statement Verizon issued as reasoning to every customer service rep, and then the statement the customer service rep should say to the inquiring customer. Since Verizon will not announce anything about the tiered data plans, because Big Red does not comment on speculative stories or rumor, it looks like we’re going to have to wait until July 29 to see if the rumor pans out. Via [Droid-Life] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Web  Republicans on Capitol Hill have vowed to fight the FCC’s attempts to impose net neutrality regulations on internet providers. A group of GOP senators lead by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina have introduced legislation that would strip the FCC of most of its power to regulate broadband providers.
“The FCC’s rush to takeover the Internet is just the latest example of the need for fundamental reform to protect consumers,” DeMint said in a statement. Without this legislation, DeMint said, the FCC will “impose unnecessary, antiquated regulations on the Internet.”
The issue of net neutrality has been highly controversial since Comcast was caught and heavily fined for throttling BitTorrent feeds. Opponents of net neutrality call it just another attempt by big government to control businesses by taking over the internet, while supporters say it’s crucial to prevent broadband providers from acting as gatekeepers and blocking content or giving one type of traffic priority over the other. They say they just want equality, but opponents say it’s oppressive and damaging to free enterprise and hinders new services and innovations. We at Gadgetell want to know what you think! Are you for or against net neutrality? Read [CNet] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones 
According to Jennifer Byrne, Verizon’s Business Development Executive Director, Motorola Droid X users are using a lot of data - 5x more than other Verizon smartphones. Hey, if you’re going to pay $30 a month for unlimited data, you may as well take advantage of it, and that’s the mindset of many Droid X owners. Web surfing, video streaming, and maybe even using some of Verizon’s pre-installed apps, are probably awesome to view on the large 4.3 inch screen, so it’s not hard to understand why Droid X users are using so much data. Instead of going to a nearby computer to view something on the Internet, users are simply doing it using their Droid X which has a big enough screen to make viewing a pleasure. In any case, I’m sure this statistic is persuading Verizon more and more to introduce tiered data plans. Via [paidContent.org] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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