Author: Jeff Morgan (Page 81 of 168)

Verizon offers a band-aid for the Droid’s booboo

Verizon band-aid on the droid.So you just dropped two-hundred bucks on your new Droid, not to mention the two-year contract you just signed, and things are mostly great. Sure, the keyboard leaves a little bit to be desired, but you just keep the thing closed on use the totally competent touchscreen keypad for all your input. The phone feels solid when you drop it into your pocket. On pulling it out, though, the battery cover pops off the phone and just doesn’t want to go back on.

And this happens time and time again. So you take the phone to your local Verizon store. At first, they offer you some scotch tape. After all, they didn’t make the phone. They’re just selling the thing. But scotch tape isn’t good enough for you, the tech savvy consumer. You want something more. A permanent fix. Something that won’t peel off. Your Verizon rep heads into the back of the store and returns with, low and behold, a Verizon band-aid.

Yes, this is really what Verizon is doing for you, Droid customers. Happy?

Source: Android Central

Psystar’s fat lady has sung

Psystar box.Psystar is officially shutting down. The company attorney, whose name is Eugene Action by the way, told news sources that the company would be firing all eight of its employees, putting an end to all manner of copyright infringement.

Action said the company is still planning to appeal a federal judge’s recent ruling on the matter, which encouraged Psystar to shut down as soon as possible. It’s been a year and a half, and I’m not totally clear where all of Psystar’s money is coming from. There is no way in hell they’re going to win this appeal, a sentiment I’ve shared with you before, so I’m going to leave this news as it stands today.

Psystar’s done. Apple wins. The end.

Source: Nasdaq

Palm’s still bleeding money at alarming rates

Palm lineup.I’ll start of on a positive note. This is no $500 million dollar hematoma, the likes of which we saw from Palm last year. That’s as good as it gets, though. When you look at the raw numbers, the situation is bad.

For Q2 of fiscal 2010 for Palm, the company sold just 783,000 smartphones, a decrease of 5% from last quarter. Just so you get that, leading up to the holidays and on the heels of the Pixi release, Palm sold fewer smartphones than it did last quarter.

Here’s CEO Jon Rubenstein:

We are continuing to execute strongly against our long-term strategy with the delivery of Palm Pixi, the new carrier launches completed this quarter, and the upcoming opening of Palm’s full developer program. We’re still in the early stages of a long race, and we’re energized by the opportunity to compete in this exciting market.

I hate to be the one to tell you, Jon, but this won’t be a long race at all if you keep losing money and market share. There is no long-term plan. You need to get app development going in a big way. You need to get your devices into the hands of three times as many consumers and hope that half of them like what you sell. You need to have thought of this a year ago, long before the Pre launch.

Unless, of course, your long-term strat is to get bought. That I can actually see happening.

Source: AllThingsD

Psystar gets injunctified

OS X running on a PC.A federal court has granted Apple’s motion for permanent injunction against Psystar, a decision that not only protects current hardware and software but all future versions as well. Pending an appeal, something I can guarantee won’t succeed, the company has until the New Year to cease and desist on selling, copying, modifying, and doing whatever else it was doing with Apple property.

Psystar tried to keep Rebel EFI, the software that allows you to install OS X on the machine of your choice, out of the injunction. The judge made it clear, though, that Psystar should just comply without too much question.

“Psystar will be selling Rebel EFI at its peril, and risks finding itself held in contempt if its new venture falls within the scope of the injunction.”

Sounds pretty cut and dry to me. Of course, I don’t know how you could delude yourself into thinking you were in the right in this situation. All of this stuff belongs to Apple, and Rebel EFI is just open-source software that Psystar has put in a box.

Source: Ars

Correction: Android only has 16,000 apps

Android Marketplace.Google has been notoriously quiet about the number of apps available in the Android Marketplace. After this week’s announcement that the mobile OS has 20,000 available apps, the search giant stepped in to set the record straight. As it turns out, there are just over 16,000 apps available, not that 20k AndroLib reported.

Google contacted TechCrunch with the updated stats, and mentioned that it was looking at new ways to disclose information about marketplace growth to consumers. Google wouldn’t confirm the ratio of paid to free apps. AndroLib claims the discrepancy is because Google is only counting the apps available to US customers, or not including anything since the end of November. I’d guess the former, since it’s highly unlikely 4,000 apps have been added in 16 days time.

Source: TechCrunch

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