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Latest Gear Live Videos
Droid Incredible picking up mobile hotspot and 720p recording via OTA update?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cameras, Smartphones, Handhelds, Software, Wireless / WiFi,
Looks like the HTC Droid Incredible is set to pick up a couple of oft-requested features by way of an over-the-air (OTA) software update. Droid Life is reporting that we can expect to see mobile hotspot functionality, 720p video recording, and even the addition of the red Droid eye bootup sequence (not that that one is a big deal.) No firm word on when the update will start being pushed to users, but we have an inquiry out to Verizon on that. Meantime, if you want a peek at the new HTC Incredible boot sequence, check the video after the break.
Read More 
| Droid Life
Gallery: Droid Incredible picking up mobile hotspot and 720p recording via OTA update?
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Amazon Kindle Editions with audio and video support comes to iPhone and iPad apps
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Software,
Amazon is continuing their Kindle strategy—that being focusing on Kindle content sales in addition to Kindle hardware—with an update to the Kindle iPad and iPhone apps. The update brings Kindle Editions support, which allows books to embed audio and video, playable from right in the app. The first books to incorporate Kindle Editions multimedia features include Rick Steves’ London and Rose’s Heavenly Cakes which is a cookbook that shows you how to…bake awesome cakes. As of this point, there are only a handful of books that Amazon is classifying as “Kindle Edition with Audio/Video” but we are sure that Amazon is looking to make this a differentiating feature, so we expect we will see much more of this in due time.
Read More | Kindle Editions
Gallery: Amazon Kindle Editions with audio and video support comes to iPhone and iPad apps
First HTC EVO 4G OTA software update being pushed to devices
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Handhelds, Software,
If you’ve got an HTC EVO 4G, you may wanna check for updates, as Sprint has started pushing out the first OTA (over the air) update to their 4G-enabled smartphone. System update 1.47.651.1 is 21.43MB in size, so we are guessing that it’s mostly meant to kill some bugs and optimize some things—but who knows, it may also unlock and enable the 802.11n antenna in the EVO 4G as well. If you get the upgrade, let us know what you find!
Gallery: First HTC EVO 4G OTA software update being pushed to devices
Apple iOS 4 now available!
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio / Video, Software,
Apple has just unleashed the magic that is iOS 4 to the masses. If you are running an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, or the latest iPod touch—get to downloading so you can enjoy all the new features. Of course, it’s also available for download for the iPhone 4, but, that’s still three days away.
Gallery: Apple iOS 4 now available!
iTunes 9.2 released, plays nice with iOS 4
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Music, Software,
Apple has released iTunes 9.2, which plays nicely with iOS 4 and the iPhone 4 as well. Once iOS 4 is released in under a week, you should see much faster backups and syncing, among these other new features:
- Sync with iPhone 4 to enjoy your favorite music, movies, TV shows, books and more on-the-go
- Sync and read books with iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4 and iBooks 1.1
- Organize and sync PDF documents as books. Read PDFs with iBooks 1.1 on iPad and any iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4
- Organize your apps on your iOS 4 home screens into folders using iTunes
- Faster back-ups while syncing an iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4
- Album artwork improvements make artwork appear more quickly when exploring your library
You can download iTunes 9.2 now.
Gallery: iTunes 9.2 released, plays nice with iOS 4
Mac OS X 10.6.4 update now available
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Software,
Apple just released Mac OS X 10.6.4 update to the masses, and if you are running Snow Leopard, you can get the update right now by running Software Update. According to Apple:
The 10.6.4 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard. It includes Safari 5 and general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:
- resolve an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive
- resolve an issue that may prevent some Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications from opening
- address issues copying, renaming, or deleting files on SMB file servers
- improve reliability of VPN connections
- resolve a playback issue in DVD Player when using Good Quality deinterlacing
- resolve an issue editing photos with iPhoto or Aperture in full screen view
- improve compatibility with some braille displays
For more info on the update, hit the link below.
Read More | Mac OS X 10.6.4 details
Gallery: Mac OS X 10.6.4 update now available
Sprint Overdrive 2.06.06 update available now
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Software, Wireless / WiFi,
We are big fans of the Sprint Overdrive, especially because here in Seattle, we’ve got 4G coverage. The network is speedy, and the Overdrive pretty much comes with us wherever we go. We use it as a WI-Fi hotspot for the iPhone, iPad, and laptop. We can even let friends hop on the network if need be. That said, there have been a few annoyances every now and then—it would crash once or twice a day, requiring a reboot. Starting the thing up took forever. Random disconnects would have us questioning why we weren’t getting data.
Well, a new firmware update for the Overdrive was released yesterday, and it seems to fix everything we had a problem with. Here’s the full list of fixes and improvements:
- Improved device stability, eliminating all known freeze-ups and lock-ups
- Wi-Fi enhancements that improve Wi-Fi stability and eliminate Wi-Fi disconnects and crashes
- Significant improvement in 3G & 4G WAN stability, eliminating most 3G and 4G disconnects
- Some improvement in overall battery life and battery life in poor coverage; for more information on how to improve battery life, see the “Overdrive Battery Tips” document on DSP
- Faster boot-up time (10-12 seconds faster)
- Improved response time when changing the WAN Mode setting - time savings of approximately 1 minute, 20 seconds; no reboot required (includes switching from 3G to 4G and vice versa)
- Tool Tips added to GPS settings screen to help the users understand the GPS settings
- Faster response time after canceling an operation on the Advanced Settings screen (device reset is no longer required; offline time decreased by 1.5 minutes)
- The ability to now enable or disable the microSD card and the TRU-install™ feature in addition to DataLink support
Just log in to your Overdrive admin console and check for updates. You’ll get the new hotness in short order.
Read More | Sprint Overdrive
Gallery: Sprint Overdrive 2.06.06 update available now
iOS 4 Golden Master SDK released to developers
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Software,
For all you iPhone and iPad devs out there, the iPhone Developer Portal has just been updated with the iOS GM seed, alongside the GM seed of the iOS 4 SDK. Remember, iPhone OS has been renamed iOS, for anyone who is confused. The software build is 8A293, while the SDK build is 10M2262. Apple announced earlier today at WWDC that iOS 4 will officially launch on June 21, available as a free upgrade for iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch users—and that’s the first time that a major update to iOS has been made available for free to the iPod touch! The iPhone 4 launches three days later.
Gallery: iOS 4 Golden Master SDK released to developers
iTunes 9.2: Sync iBooks to iPhone, Organize PDFs, App Folders
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Music, Software,
Apple has released a beta version of iTunes 9.2 to developers, and the feature list seems to be almost exclusively related to iOS 4. The next version of iTunes will allow you to sync the iPhone 4, sync iBooks to and from the iPhone and iPod touch, organize and sync PDFs to iBooks, and organize your apps into folders in iTunes and then sync everything over to your device. Other improvements are there to make iTunes faster, both in scrolling, and in backing up your iOS 4 devices.
Click to continue reading iTunes 9.2: Sync iBooks to iPhone, Organize PDFs, App Folders
Gallery: iTunes 9.2: Sync iBooks to iPhone, Organize PDFs, App Folders
Safari 5: Extensions, Reader, HTML5, Bing. Oh, and it’s fast.
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Internet, Software,
Apparently, the release of Safari 5 wasn’t big enough to be mentioned in the WWDC 2010 keynote this morning, but nevertheless, the company has launched a fully-updated version of its browser. So, what’s new? Quite a bit, actually. First, Safari 5 is much faster—it runs Javascript 25% faster than Safari 4, is twice as fast as Firefox on the Mac, and is even 3% faster than Chrome. So yeah, it’s fast. There’s also a new feature called Safari Reader. If you hit a web page that has an article on it, you can hit the Reader icon, and the article will be overlaid over the site in a very readable fashion. Another biggie is the addition of a bunch of extra HTML5 features. As we know, Apple is all about supporting HTML5 as a platform, and they are putting their money where their mouth is by having Safari 5 be the browser with the most HTML5 support at the moment. Oh, and for those of you who want more choice in your search bar, Safari 5 offers Bing as a search option, built-in, alongside Google and Yahoo! Search.
You can download Safari 5 now.
Read More | Safari 5
