ASUS has released the promised official bootloader unlock for its Transformer Prime tablet. It took the company nearly two months to do so, but is still one of the few to allow bootloader unlocks on tablets. The APK file can be downloaded from ASUS' support site, though ASUS warns of some consequences.
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Plans by India's government to roll out the $35 Aakash tablet were thrown into turmoil Wednesday after the country's Human Resource Development Ministry cast doubts on whether the Android device would survive the second wave of adoption. Despite hopes of providing a rough equivalent to the iPad for education, contracted supplier DataWind was no longer guaranteed to move on to a second phase of production after a research institution raised major complaints about the Aakash's quality. Early users complained about low battery life, sluggish performance, and an unworkable resistive touchscreen.
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With the full launch of the PS Vita in the US on Wednesday, Sony has released a number of new games and apps in the online PlayStation Store. Users can now download the free Flickr, Live Tweet, and Netflix apps. Flickr is a photo-sharing site that lets users join groups and make personalized photo streams.
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Fujitsu now plans to bring its quad-core Arrows smartphone to Mobile World Congress, and release more information about, perhaps including shipping and prices. We saw the phone at CES behind glass, and now the Japanese company has revealed its major specs. The phone will be powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 3 chip, which is capable of 1.5GHz clock speeds.
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Adobe on Wednesday published a roadmap (PDF) giving a peek at the long-term future of Flash. Having dropped the mobile version, it's now focusing on games and video on the desktop and now agrees that HTML5 and other web standards are more suited for animation. Accordingly, the imminent 11.2 update would improve hardware graphics acceleration, multi-core video processing, and support for right clicks when using mice.
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2 hours ago | Posted in: industry
The European Commission reacted to mounting pressure Wednesday by at least temporarily halting plans to ratify the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) proposal, choosing to pass it to the European Court of Justice for inspection. The continent's high court will decide if ACTA violates fundamental EU rights. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht took a balanced position, wanting neither to accept media labels' views at face value nor act based on preconceptions held by some of those protesting the measure.
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Verizon's data growth problems resurfaced on Wednesday after it confirmed another nationwide outage. Officially, only 4G LTE access is down and preventing the fastest possible data. It didn't yet have an estimate for when 4G would be restored.
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T-Mobile USA has urged the FCC to block the $3.9 billion sale of wireless spectrum by cable companies to Verizon Wireless on Tuesday. Possibly frustrated after its own deal with AT&T was denied, the provider argued the deal between Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, and Cox Communications would give Verizon an "excessive concentration" of wireless spectrum. Verizon is already the biggest cellphone company in the US, while T-Mobile is fourth largest.
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3 hours ago | Posted in: industry, Apple
Underage Foxconn workers were transferred to other departments or not scheduled to work overtime in advance of inspections by the Fair Labor Association, an activist group tells AppleInsider. Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior project officer Debby Sze Wan Chan says that last week, she heard from two Foxconn workers in Zhenghou who said the company prepared itself before the FLA arrived. "All underage workers, between 16-17 years old, were not assigned any overtime work and some of them were even sent to other departments," Chan claims.
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Nike expanded its Nike+ mix Wednesday with two combinations of shoes and apps that go beyond its traditional focus on running. Both Nike+ Basketball and Nike+ Training can track jump height and other factors besides horizontal distance. A new Pressure Sensor integrated into the shoes themselves contributes to the existing motion tracking to reveal details that were previously impossible to follow in the Nike+ system.
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Computer chipmaker AMD will turn to Cyclos Semiconductor for its resonant clock mesh technology in its upcoming Piledriver-based chips. They will replace the Bulldozer-core chips introduced in the fall of 2011. The new technology will reduce the chip's clock distribution power.
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SanDisk's NAND flash lineup may have set a record Wednesday after the company claimed to have the world's smallest 128-gigabit (16GB) memory chip. The 19 nanometer, three-bit-per-cell storage has a footprint of about 170mm square (0.26in square), or less than that of a penny. It's also relatively quick for its capacity and size at 144Mbps (18MB) per second.
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Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner in a posting confirmed company was echoing Apple's strategy and filing a formal complaint against Motorola with the European Commission. The new dispute, like Apple's, alleges that Motorola is abusing standards-based patents by trying to charge unreasonable rates to license technology. Microsoft's case centered around elements like the H.264 video codec and Wi-Fi that are at the heart of Motorola's lawsuits both in Europe and the US.
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Lawyers for Apple and Proview exchanged heated words today in a Shanghai court hearing, according to reports from the Associated Press and Reuters. Proview is seeking a ban on iPad sales in the city as a part of its ongoing trademark dispute with Apple. "Apple has no right to sell iPads under that name," said a lawyer for Proview Shenzhen, Xie Xianghui. Proview once sold a product called the IPAD, or Internet Personal Access Device.
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Hitachi staked out a claim as the top builder of thin hard drives on Wednesday through a 500GB version of the Travelstar Z7K500. The drive is the first to hit a half-terabyte at the slimmer 7mm height while keeping a full 7,200RPM spin speed and just one drive platter. Along with being the first to have both a 6Gbps SATA3 connection and a 32MB buffer, it's billed as being not just faster than other 7mm drives but faster than many regular 9mm drives as well.
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Apple took advantage of its current exclusive on The Beatles (iTunes Store) with the first-ever availability of ringtones from the band on iTunes. The initial batch involves ringtones cut from the singles highlight album 1. Picks range from the very earliest songs, such as "Love Me Do," to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and the very tail end of the band's career.
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