Apple already running out of white iPad minis, shipping date pushed back

"Hey, buy some of the black iPads, will you?" - Such must be the thoughts of Tim Cook and company right now. Not that we didn't expect it, but it happened almost surprisingly fast - due to inability to meet to the extreme demand for its new iPad mini, Apple has already pushed back the shipping date for some of the models.

If you try to pre-order a white iPad mini now, you'll find out that the device is no longer expected to ship on November 2, but in the somewhat more indefinite "two weeks." The reasons we can think of are two: either Apple has had an insufficient initial stock of white iPad minis, or people are just loving the white variant much more than the black one. Speaking of the black iPad mini, the good news is that the pre-ordered units are still set for a November 2 shipping, but if you like the black one and plan to purchase it, we'd recommend that you don't take too long before placing the pre-order, as we won't be surprised if its shipping date gets pushed back as well.

Thankfully, there isn't a change in the expected delivery date of the 'Wi-Fi + cellular' iPad minis, which is still "mid-November".

source: Apple

Jailbreaking phones becomes legal, but you'd need your carrier's permission to unlock a handset from 2013

Jailbreaking your phone is now finally officially legal in the United States, but if you are trying to treat your tablet to the same level of freedom you’d be in violation of the law. What sounds like an absurd decision comes straight from the US Copyright Office, saying that jailbreaking a phone doesn’t break copyright law, but this does not apply to other devices.

Why are tablets so weirdly not included? It seems that tablets are simply too hard to define and an exemption could have been used for e-readers and mobile gaming consoles. The decision comes in a triennial review of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

But what’s even more baffling, is the fact that unlocking your phone to work with any carrier - while still legal - is now much more limited. You’d be able to unlock your phone freely by January 2013. What happens next? Starting in 2013, you’d need permission from your carrier to unlock your phone to have it work on other carriers.

Outside mobile, the Copyright Office decided that making personal backups of DVDs is still illegal, and modding game consoles is a breach of the law as well.

What are your thoughts about those rulings?

source: US Copyright Office via TheVerge

iPhone 5 Media Event Coverage : Time Zone For All Cities/Countries

Don't know when the iPhone 5 Media Event is going to be streamed live in your region ? No Problem .

Watch the Live Coverage of The iPhone 5 Event March 2012

iPhone 5 Media Event Live

Internet hai toh friendship hai Friendship hai toh sharing hai

 Just enjoyed (read:ROFL) Airtel India's new advertisement . It goes something like this :-

"Internet hai toh friendship hai
Friendship hai toh sharing hai"

The above lines means that if there is Internet , there is friendship and if there is friendship , there is sharing . This is true but not with Airtel . The largest sharing network is torrents . Torrents with high seeds usually get good speeds but Airtel is really throttling torrents and the speeds are decreasing by the hour . The initial stage was experimental wherein they resorted to simple TCP connection-reset method to drop the connection (both sides, so its not enough to simply drop reset packets on client end). This was leading to <1KBps download rate (occasionally lost reset packets allowed very few connections through) . Now they have moved to other more sophisticated methods to throttle torrent traffic. Currently they are using Sandvine traffic shapers to cap torrent downloads . Most technicians dont know what throttling and traffic shaping is. Also, peer to peer means "someone is leeching your connection" to them. Unfortunately this is not unexpected, you dont expect an end user support person to be network specialist. However there is no way to escalate it higher up (or they hide it pretty well). So its time for airtel to change the song of the advertisement to :-

"Internet hai toh friendship hai
Friendship hai toh throttling hai"

which means that if there is Internet , there is friendship and if there is friendship , there is throttling , which is very appropriate for Airtel India . 

iPhone 5 preview

Way back in February, we learned Apple was planning to ditch the traditional Dock connector to go with something smaller. With the next iPhone, new technologies like LTE 4G networking will need every millimeter and milliamp of battery they can get, while AirPlay and Wi-Fi sync are reducing the need for physical cables.
The moment rumors of a new Dock port emerged, many expressed hope it would feature a MagSafe-style connector, like Apple's MacBook line of laptops. Symmetrical, it could be plugged in without worrying about up or down, and magnetically coupled for better ease of use. Others dream of ThunderBolt (sadly, that requires PCI architecture, which iOS currently does not have). Others simply wanted to make sure all their old Dock accessories would still be compatible and still work.
Compatibility is an easier topic to look into, if only slightly...

The current 30-pin Dock connector is a monstrosity of legacy standards and abandoned interconnects. Up until a few years ago, the 30-pin Dock connector had 6 FireWire pins, 4 of which have now been re-tasked to HDMI. It still has 2 serial pins (sending and receiving), and 4 video pins (including the aging composite and component), it has an accessory detector and an audio connection detector, it has grounds on both ends, and it has 2 pins that are unassigned.
The Dock probably doesn't need the unassigned pins anymore. It probably doesn't need all those grounds. Given Apple's fearless aggression when it comes to dropping aging technology, it probably doesn't need the composite and component video pins, or the serial pins.
If Apple really wanted to, they could probably cut all the way down to 4 pins of pure USB (2 data, power, ground). If they did that, however, they could just go with a micro-USB connector, put a smile on the EU's face, and be done with it.
But they're not. They're going with a Dock connector, only newer and smaller. It's tempting to assume the worst, that Apple wouldn't go to micro-USB simply to maintain proprietary control over their Dock connector licensing program. We could also assume the best, however, Apple might be doing what they did with the original Dock -- making a single connector that can do multiple things in the most compact packaging possible. Likely there's elements of both at play.
Multiple things, however, means more pins. TechCrunch claims they've heard 19 pins. iLounge heard 8. 9to5Mac found strings in iOS 6 for 9 pins.

So lets build back up again.
4 USB pins, plus 4 HDMI (2 data, 2 clock) pins would come out to 8 pins total. Add a proprietary detector pin, and you have 9. (There'd still be a 3.5mm jack for legacy audio.)
Take those 9, however, and add back the 4 audio Line pins (left and right, in and out) for and you have 13. If USB 3.3v and 5v are kept separately as they are now, that's 14. 2 serial pins, 3 composite and component pins (video out + Pb, Y, and Pr), and that could be a way to reach 19.
Obviously, for accessory makers and current and past accessory owners alike, a 19 pin Dock would offer a far more options. With the adapter we learned about in July, it would allow backwards compatibility for the widest range of existing accessories, including the aging video standards.
Unless Apple makes a very elaborate, and very expensive adapter or set of adapters -- which based on past history is highly unlikely -- an 8 or 9 pin Dock would greatly reduce compatibility with current and past accessories. Old cables could charge and transfer USB and HDMI data, but not much else.
Bottom line, space will be at a premium in the iPhone 5, and given the way Apple shoves old connectors aside, even their own FireWire, to make room for the future, it wouldn't be surprising if the newer, smaller Dock connector goes with the fewest pins possible.

Galaxy S3 Bursts into Flames

A Galaxy S III owner in Ireland had posted on a forum that his brand new S3 exploded! The phone exploded with a hearable bang, mounted in the owners carkit. The owner was not hurt, but the explosion apparently left some nasty molten plastic remains on the inside of his car.

The photo’s you see here originate from the original blogpost and are showing a significant amount of molten plastic, about halfway between the USB port and the right edge. The screen still worked but the reception was dead.

This is not the first smartphone to be reported overheating or exploding. In March of this year, a Korean schoolboy said that the spare battery for his S2 exploded in his pocket.

Samsung has already issued a statement on its Samsung Tomorrow blog, saying:

“There have been recent online posts displaying pictures of a Samsung GALAXY S3 that appears to have heat-related damage at the bottom of the device. Samsung is aware of this issue and will begin investigating as soon as we receive the specific product in question.”

Bottomline is that this doesn’t look good. While it’s certainly not the first smartphone burst into flames – the damage is pretty substantial. A spokeswoman said the company will be looking into the matter.

This accident caused the Galaxy S3 to burn from the inside out and melted its case, but it still worked afterwards even though the signal was lost.

"The phone was destroyed and it slightly burned a piece of plastic on the inside of my car," said the person in the post. "And they are refusing to give me a replacement; they had to send it off. Probably nothing I can do, but I'm really annoyed. That could have burned the side of my face or through my pocket and my leg, or set fire to my bed. It's very dangerous."

Samsung issued a statement this week promising to investigate the claim and get to the bottom of what seems to be an overheating of the smartphone.

"There have been recent online posts displaying pictures of a Samsung Galaxy S3 that appears to have heat-related damage at the bottom of the device," said the company on its official blog. "Samsung is aware of this issue and will begin investigating as soon as we receive the specific product in question."

HTC One X Wi-Fi problems confirmed as hardware issue says HTC

 

HTC has confirmed that some of its One X handsets are experiencing issues with the Wi-Fi antenna inside the unit.

TechRadar has received reports from several readers complaining of the issue and after speaking to HTC, we have received the following response:

"After investigating isolated reports of Wi-Fi connectivity issues in the HTC One X, we have identified a fix that strengthens the area of the phone around the Wi-Fi antennae connection points."

HTC committed to a great experience

HTC went on to say, "While many customers have not experienced any problems with signal strength, we have taken immediate steps to implement a solution in our production process to prevent this issue from happening in the future.

"HTC is committed to making sure every customer has a great experience and we apologise for any inconvenience this issue may have caused while we conducted a thorough investigation."

So if you're about to purchase a HTC One X, but are concerned about the antenna problem then fear not, for the Taiwanese firm has addressed this issue at production level. However this doesn't help those who currently own a problematic handset.

We got back in touch with HTC, asking what users with the issue can expect, and a spokesperson said: "HTC is asking anyone who is experiencing a Wi-Fi issue with their phone to contact our customer service team for help."

We’ve been hearing users from XDA and other forums mention squeezing the phone or applying pressure to get a better connection to WiFi and HTC has apparently confirmed that. Stating that they have, “identified a fix that strengthens the area of the phone around the WiFi antennae connection points.” Basically confirming this is a hardware problem, and that the antenna pins aren’t getting good enough contact. HTC later went on to say they’ve “taken immediate steps to implement a solution in our production process to prevent this issue from happening in the future,” but for those who already own the phone are out of luck. Hopefully they’ll be allowing exchanges.