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Motorola had a "refurbishment process error" which means they sold refurbished Xoom tablets with the previous owners information and more

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Motorola had a "refurbishment process error" which means they sold refurbished Xoom tablets with the previous owners information
AT&T Motorola ATRIX 2 has a bug fixing software update ready, arrives as version 55.13.25
Telus looks ready to give end-of-life status to the BlackBerry PlayBook
Amazon Kindle Touch now shipping internationally
NASA releases a second high-resolution of the Earth, this time showing Africa and Asia
Google statement regarding "support for CDMA devices" [Verizon Galaxy Nexus]
Skype for Windows receives a much-needed update
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Motorola had a "refurbishment process error" which means they sold refurbished Xoom tablets with the previous owners information

It looks like Motorola had some issues with sales of refurbished Xoom tablets. Or maybe more accurately, some unsuspecting users may have had some of their information revealed when Motorola began selling those refurbished tablets. And just to clarify, these were the devices that were being sold between October and December on Woot and they came back to Motorola as returns from Amazon.com, Best Buy, BJ’s Wholesale, eBay, Office Max, Radio Shack, Sam’s Club, or Staples and “a few other independent retailers” between March and October 2011.

In short, it looks like some of those refurbished devices that were sold were not properly wiped clean and contained some information from the old owner. Motorola did not offer anything specific in terms of how many tablets this affected, though they did state that it was a “small number.” Regardless, if your information was leaked it was leaked and small number does not matter all that much.

Anyway, it does look like Motorola is trying to smooth things over. Just to begin with, Motorola has come forward with a press release announcement detailing the whole event (which you can read by clicking the link at the bottom of this post). And perhaps a bit more important — Motorola is taking steps to help those who received the units as well as those who originally returned the units.

For those who fall in the “returned a tablet” category;

“Motorola is offering customers who purchased and then returned a Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi tablet to Amazon.com, Best Buy, BJ’s Wholesale, eBay, Office Max, Radio Shack, Sam’s Club, or Staples and a few other independent retailers between March and October 2011 a complimentary two-year membership of Experian’s ProtectMyID™ Alert to mitigate any risks. Original owners are advised to contact Experian at 1-866-926-9803 to sign up for the credit monitoring service. These original owners are also advised to take precautionary measures to protect their identity, such as changing their email and social media passwords. Original owners who performed a factory data reset prior to returning the device are not impacted.”

And for those who fall into the “purchased a tablet” category;

“Customers who purchased a refurbished Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi tablet from Woot.com between October and December 2011 are encouraged to visit motorola.com/xoomreturn or to call Motorola Mobility Customer Support at 1-800-734-5870, select Option 1, in order to determine if their tablet is affected.”

Nice to see Motorola taking these steps but perhaps the best thing to do — make sure you properly wipe your data from any device before it leaves your possession — regardless if you are returning it or selling it.

Via [PR Newswire]

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AT&T Motorola ATRIX 2 has a bug fixing software update ready, arrives as version 55.13.25

Those using a Motorola ATRIX 2 with AT&T may want to be on the lookout for an update notification to arrive. Yup, the ATRIX 2 has an update ready and waiting. And no, this is not going to give you anything fancy — read: no Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. But that aside, judging from the changelog that was provided by the folks at Motorola, the update contains numerous fixes and enhancements — it looks worthy of installation. Anyway, the update arrives as software version 55.13.25 and “can only be downloaded over a Wi-Fi network.” With that, here is what one can expect once the update has been downloaded and installed;

Google Music: Addition of Google Music application so you have greater access to the world of music. Shop millions of songs and hundreds of free tracks. Store your purchases on Google Music for free, and listen instantly on your mobile device.
My Gallery, My Music, My Files: Re-naming of Motorola Gallery, Music, and Files applications for easy access in the Applications Tray
Device Security: Enhancements to deliver greater device security, including addition of Android security patches from Google and Cisco Any Connect VPN enablers.
Emergency Alerts: Enhancement to allow you to receive emergency alerts from authorities such as Hurricane warning notifications.
Amazon Kindle: Enhancement to include link to app for quick and easy method to access your library of Amazon digital books as well as access to the entire Amazon library.
AT&T Messages: Enhancement to include link to app for quick and easy method to give you access to all of your texts, calls and messages which have been stored in the cloud.
Keyboard: Improvements to keyboard functionality for better email experience
>Mobile Hotspot: Improved stability for better overall performance
>Webtop: Enhancements to improve stability and better overall performance

And lastly, once the update has been downloaded and installed you can navigate to Menu -> Settings -> About phone and verify that it all went as expected. Hint: you should see the following;

System version  55.13.25.MB865.ATT.en.US
Android version 2.3.6
Baseband version  2011-11-16.23.52.Off.Bld  LUD_EDISON_R1D7_PATCH_36_111116_2336
Webtop version WT-1.3.0-176
Kernel version  2.6.35.7-g98a0a06  hkdp76@ca25rhe91 #1
Build number  5.5.1-175_EDMR1.25

Via [Motorola] and [AndroidCentral]

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Telus looks ready to give end-of-life status to the BlackBerry PlayBook

RIM may be discounting the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in an effort to attract some attention and get some sales. Not to mention, we are expecting RIM to release PlayBook OS 2.0 update fairly soon. And while that is all going on direct with RIM, it looks like one Canadian wireless carrier is getting ready to do the opposite — give the device end-of-life status. That carrier is Telus and the details are coming by way of a leaked screenshot. Bottom line here, it looks like Telus has stopped (or will soon stop) selling and accepting returns on all three models of the PlayBook.

Via [MobileSyrup]

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Amazon Kindle Touch now shipping internationally

It looks like Amazon has expanded upon where they will ship the Kindle Touch ereader. The folks over at The eBook Reader blog have recently noticed that the Kindle Touch is now shipping to quite a few more countries outside the US. And worth noting, this is referring to the Kindle Touch and not the Kindle Touch 3G (at least for now). Anyway, according to the dropdown shipping list, the Kindle Touch can now be send to lots more places. Those interested can follow the Amazon link below and check out the “Selected Country: Select your country of use” dropdown menu to see if your location is included.

Via [Amazon (Kindle Touch)] and [The eBook Reader]

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NASA releases a second high-resolution of the Earth, this time showing Africa and Asia

A short while back NASA released a nice high-resolution image of the Earth as taken from space. That image, which was dubbed as the Blue Marble 2012 was released on Flickr in various resolutions including 640 x 640 and 1024 x 1024 as well as the super large 8000 x 8000. That previous image showed the Earth with North and South America front and center. And well, it looks like NASA has since released a second image. This latest comes similar to the previous in that it was released in various resolutions. The key here, this latest image is showing the Earth with Africa and Asia showing. Lastly, the above image comes as the 640 x 640 and you can follow the link below to grab some higher-resolutions — and just for reference, the 1024 x 1024 works rather nicely on the iPad.

Via [Flickr (NASA Goddard Photo and Video)]

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Google statement regarding "support for CDMA devices" [Verizon Galaxy Nexus]

Yesterday afternoon the geekier side of the web exploded into controversy and confusion when someone noticed that the CDMA version of the Galaxy Nexus had been removed from the google support pages. Of course, as many will realize, the CDMA version of the Galaxy Nexus is the Verizon version. That being said, many many immediately thought the worst and people were claiming that the Verizon Galaxy Nexus had lost its Nexus status. But that being said, the folks over at Droid-Life reached out to Google for a statement and found that things are not nearly as bad as they seemed. In short, the Verizon Galaxy Nexus is still a Nexus device and it will still receive the quick updates that users expect when using a Nexus device. Lastly, those looking for more of an answer — here is the statement that was received from Google;

For various technical reasons, recent CDMA Android devices implement core telephony functionality in .apk files provided in binary form by the carriers. To function correctly, these .apk files must be signed by the so-called "platform" key. However, when an individual creates a custom build from the AOSP source code, they don't use the same signing key as these CDMA flies were signed with.
The result is that these files don't work properly, and pure AOSP builds running on these devices can't place calls, access mobile data, and so on. Because we aim to make sure that we are as clear as possible about the degree of support that devices have, we updated the docs over at source.android.com to reflect this reality.
We will still make available as many as possible of the closed-source binaries for these devices, and Nexus devices will continue to have unlockable bootloaders. And, of course, GSM/HSPA+ devices are still supported, as are any other devices we're able to support. We've simply updated the documentation to be clearer about the current extent of CDMA support.
We are of course always working to improve support, and we'll keep everyone updated as we make improvements. Thanks as always for your interest in AOSP!

Via [Droid-Life]

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Skype for Windows receives a much-needed update

Skype has just released version 5.8 of Skype for Windows, bringing in some nice features particularly full HD video-calling, support for Facebook audio and video calling, and group screen sharing. With the new version of Skype for Windows, you can now make crystal-clear video calls with your loved ones or business contacts. This was made possible with Skype’s collaboration with Logitech through its C920 webcam. Using Logitech C920 webcam, video encoding is carried out inside the camera, enabling full HD or HD video quality even for older computers. Another new feature of Skype for Windows 5.8 is group screen sharing which lets you share your entire screen or single application window with other participants during a conference call. While sharing your screen, video streaming continues to run. Also working with the updated Skype for Windows is video calling to Facebook users. This lets you make video calls with your Facebook friends even if they are not using Skype for Windows. Other new features of Skype for Windows include – push to talk, Skype updater service, and Bing Bar integration.

via [Skype Garage]

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