Filed under: Cellphones

We’re not planning on seeing any sort of confirmation from Sprint on this, but word on the street has it that the carrier has actually halted shipments of the LG Rumor to its retail outlets. Apparently, the handset has a “known issue where certain sets of key presses during startup can trigger a complete erasure of the phone’s firmware.” Purportedly, the device cannot be restored once triggered save for at the factory, but LG is hard at work creating an updated firmware that “removes the code from being accessible.” Once that’s completed and approved, existing users can expect an over-the-air download to be made available, and users to-be can expect the mobiles to start showing back up with the update already loaded on.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

Controller abuse has always been a mainstay of the video gaming existence — no need to blame your thumbs when there’s this hunk of plastic to chuck at the floor — but who knew Nintendo was working such violence into its own official support curriculum? Wired’s Russ Neumeier gave Nintendo support a ring when one of his Wiimotes stopped sensing motion and none of the usual fixes seemed to work. After explaining his situation, the Nintendo rep asked Russ smack the controller into his hand, button side down, two or three times. After being assured that she wasn’t kidding, Russ did as he was told and was awarded with a fully functional Wiimote. We could see why Nintendo wouldn’t go shouting about this “fix” on its official support literature, but it has us wondering if “blow into the cartridge, whack side of NES, insert cartridge, repeat” was the Nintendo-approved method all along.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Transportation

Anyone can claim to be a friend of the environment while proudly jaunting about in a sporty Tesla, so what really separates the hardcore greens from the Hollywood posers is the willingness to shell out nearly twenty-five grand for a no-frills, no hype (and no doors?) solar-powered runabout. It must be this dedicated demographic that a team of builders and racers from Taiwan’s National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences are targeting with the vehicle you see above, which is based on their successful design that ranked second of fifty cars in the latest Australian World Solar Challenge. Unlike their single-passenger, 145kph (90mph) race car, however, the multi-seat commercial ride is speculated to max out at around 70kph (43mph); fine for short city commutes, but not really practical for road trips (and with the three-hour battery, forget about cruising around much at night). Still, those ready to fork over an estimated 800,000 New Taiwanese Dollars ($24,617) for a vehicle that only a short-sighted mother could love should be able to order one as early as next year — probably not tomorrow, though.

[Via The Raw Feed]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

It probably doesn’t come as much of a shock to you that plenty of texting goes down midnight-ish tonight, and naturally the carriers are gearing up for just such an onslaught. Palm isn’t so optimistic about the proceedings: according to a study it commissioned in the UK with lpsos MORI, 70% of people who send messages at midnight experience a delay in delivery, with places like London experience 77% delays, and 23% of Britons waiting over six hours for their text messages to arrive. Palm suggests an IM or email might be in order, and smartphone users will have better luck getting their messages delivered over the comparably unclogged data networks. Verizon seems more excited about the prospect, expecting the 284 million text messages sent last year on its network between 12pm New Years Eve and 4am New Years Day to rise to 300 million. Telstra expects to process more than 53 million messages across Australia, and will have a “small army” of techs on hand to monitor network performance. Canadians are expected to send 50 million texts this year, according to Virgin Mobile Canada, with the average canadian sending two text messages each — double that of last year. However and wherever you party, stay safe out there — friends don’t let friends drink and text their estranged exes.

Read - Palm study warns of delays
Read - Verizon predicts 300 million
Read - Canada doubles in texts
Read - Telstra’s small army in Australia

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

With a red Centro already out the door, it’s certainly possible (even likely) that Palm has a pink one all lined up to follow suit, but we’ll still have to treat this latest pic with the usual grain of salt until we hear something official from the company itself. If SprintUsers forum member TheRobin is to be believed, however, the image above is in fact the real pink Centro, which has been rumored to be on track for a release on Sprint sometime in January of February. If that is indeed the case, we should be able to put all these rumors to rest soon enough.

[Via Gadgets on the Go]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

Plenty of waterproof phones and other small weatherproof devices have made it off the assembly lines and into our clumsy clutches, but P2i, a small spinoff company using tech originated within the Defence Science and Technology Lab in England, could be bringing waterproof gadgets to the masses. The Ion-Mask is a special invisible coating that is chemically bonded to the device and repels water. It should allow waterproofing to make it into devices that are too small for the seals that are usually used to do the trick. Devices can have joins and gaps coated for a general level of water repellence, or have individual components treated for even more protection. The tech was originally designed to repel toxic vapors and liquids from soldier uniforms, and could also be making its way into athletic shoes. Three leading phone makers are apparently in discussions over using the tech in upcoming phones.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We haven’t yet heard of any problems with the RFID tags increasingly being used to monitor inmates in prisons, but it looks like the electronic tags used to keep watch on early release offenders are decidedly less reliable, at least according to a recent investigation into the matter in Scotland. As The Scotsman reports, out of a total of 987 tagging orders issued, there were 285 incidents where the tags failed, with dead batteries the biggest culprit. That rather obvious problem accounted for 185 of the cases, with damage to the unit by the offender, problems with the black box in the offender’s home, and a weak signal rounding out the technical difficulties. That, as you might have guessed, has lead some to question the Scottish government’s practice of relying on electronic tags to monitor early release offenders, but the government seems to be sticking to its guns, with a spokesman saying that “a breach does not necessarily equate to reoffending,” although, as the Scotsman reports, it did recently scrap a plan to tag suspects who were allowed out on bail.

[Photo courtesy of The Daily Mail]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments