Category: Articles

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AT&T Finally Delivers “Denim” Update for the Lumia 1520

With all the noise around the FCC yesterday, you might have missed a long awaited update start pushing out to the king Lumia on AT&T.

Verizon surprised us all in being first to deliver the Lumia Denim firmware update to the Icon, but now it’s Big Blue’s turn to update the monster phablet Lumia 1520.

Windows Phone fans will be happy to play with a new camera app capable of shooting HDR photos and 4K video. Also on board is a new voice activation trigger for the Digital Assistant search app. Saying “Hey Cortana” by your phone will initiate a voice search or command even when your phone’s screen is off.

This update will also replace any AT&T pre-installed software on the phone. If you uninstalled AT&T Navigator or FamilyMap in the past, they’ll return. Thankfully, unlike bloat on Android devices, these apps can still be uninstalled without rooting or jumping through hoops.

It took us a while to get here, but Denim brings a collection of bug fixes and new features to play with, while we wait for Microsoft to deliver Windows 10.

To see if your Lumia has received the update, head to “Settings”, then to “Phone Update”. You can see our 4K video review from the Icon below (and the 1520’s camera performs very similarly).

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FCC Reclassifies Internet as a Utility, Defends Net Neutrality

FCCThis has been a crazy trip.

From Verizon suing the Government over the Open Internet Order, to proposed “Fast Lane” rules, to now. The FCC has been busy today. First, announcing it will preempt state laws in Tennessee and North Carolina which were preventing community funded broadband efforts.

Second, approving rules which will reclassify broadband internet as a common carrier utility under Title II regulations. Thankfully, unlike the OIO, these new rules will also apply to mobile networks, not just wired ones. The vote was 3-2 in favor, on party lines with the Democrat majority winning the day.

“While I see no need for net neutrality rules, I am far more troubled by the dangerous course that the Commission is now charting on Title 2 and the consequences it will have for broadband investment, edge providers and consumers,”

-Republican FCC member Michael O’Rielly, who voted against the new rules.

We can also expect much crying and gnashing of teeth from the GOP in the House and Senate, with tired FUD and scare tactics, even though companies like Sprint have already pointed out that light touch regulation can be incredibly beneficial to a market as stagnant as our telecommunications industry. You would not have carriers like T-Mobile today, if the cell phone industry hadn’t been reclassified as Title II in the mid 1990’s. You can lead an elephant to water…

It’s a day many supporters of Net Neutrality thought we’d never see, and while there will still be a number of battles to fight over who regulates the internet, and what those actions should resemble, we can at least call today a victory for pretty much anyone who uses any kind of commerce or data driven service online.

The FCC has a five page write up, detailing the new rules.

FCC ADOPTS STRONG, SUSTAINABLE RULES TO PROTECT THE OPEN INTERNET

 

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LG Unveils Urbane Smartwatch in Official Announcement Video

LG has an entry level Android Wear watch with the G Watch, and the G Watch R was nicely positioned at the higher end of the smartwatch market.

It looks like LG is pushing into a more fashionable tier with the Urbane. Using the same tech internals and the gorgeous circular P-OLED display, Urbane streamlines the form factor and introduces gold and silver metal linings for a more upscale look.

We’re awaiting pricing info and shipping dates, but it would seem the Apple Watch has even more competition in the upscale “premium” smartwatch category.  Catch the teaser video below!

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Google Buys Softcard in the Most Frustrating Mobile Payment Move Possible

softcard google walletIt’s officially official. Google now owns Softcard, and it’s everything I can do to not smash my face into my keyboard hard enough to erase from my memory the YEARS of debacles and shenanigans that led us up to this point.

Announced on the Google Commerce blog today, Big G is buying out Softcard from T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless. Google Wallet will now come pre-installed on Android handsets sold by these carriers.

This is ultimately good news, but one can’t help but wonder how much further ahead mobile phone payments would have been if we hadn’t witnessed this format war between cell carriers and Google. The two entities dickering around for years, carriers blocking the implementation of NFC Tap & Pay, until they had rolled out a competing “standard” built on differing security protocols. Making relationships with retailers more difficult. It was presciently fitting that the first iteration of Softcard was called ISIS.  Only to end up now where we should have been all along.

It’s no wonder Apple was able to roll into this space and instantly dominate the market. Google has their work cut out for them, but at least moving forward they wont have the entire wireless industry digging in their heels and holding them back.

Google-Wallet-banner

 

You can read Google’s full press release below.

Continue reading “Google Buys Softcard in the Most Frustrating Mobile Payment Move Possible”

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Sunday Fun: Fighting FUD One Comment at a Time…

It’s a fact that many people stop reading an article after they finish the headline. Makes it rather difficult to discuss nuance when some people trust the “knowledge” they glean from click bait or sensationalized headlines.

Case in point, last week a story started circulating about a new type of malware that can track you and the contents of your phone even when your phone is off. Sounds freaky right! RIGHT! OMG! NO!!!

Screenshot (6) cropWe were treated to a bunch of “falling sky” editorials, a number of people trotted out old talking points about Android and the security of “open” platforms, but few mentions of the actual exploit were made beyond a pithy “requires root access”.

Thankfully this is the internet where we can often turn to the comments for more info.

Screenshot (9) cropRekt.

Just a bummer though that many people stopped at the headline…

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Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over NVIDIA Falsely Advertising GTX 970 RAM

It’s a gripe I’m sure NVIDIA hoped would have blown over by now, but quite the opposite, as it looks like Big Green is facing a class action lawsuit.

The issue stems from how NVIDIA advertised the GTX 970 as including 4GB of RAM. While this is technically true, only 3.5GB is high speed, and that last 512MB is a separate slow bit. Whenever the card needs to access that last partition, performance suffers.

When gamers discovered the anomaly, it was hoped that there might be some kind of driver or software update to improve performance as the card utilized that last half a gig. Unfortunately, it would seem NVIDIA purposely designed the card this way, likely hamstringing it to distance performance from their top tier card the GTX 980. Continue reading “Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over NVIDIA Falsely Advertising GTX 970 RAM”

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Lenovo Publishes SuperFish Removal Instructions with Removal Tool

superfish lenovo removalSuperFish has been an ugly security black mark for Lenovo. It’s often been a criticism in my reviews of their gear that they include too much “value added” software (bloat), and removing a lot of it will noticeably improve system performance.

SuperFish however was a piece of adware. If a Lenovo owner opted into the “service”, SuperFish would analyze images and searches to insert ads for similar products and to do cost comparisons. While that doesn’t sound terrible, behind the scenes SuperFish would install its own security certificates which allowed the service to intercept encrypted traffic.

It’s doubtful that Lenovo or SuperFish seriously wanted to peek in on your private and secured data, but such a gaping hole could easily have been exploited by another attacker.

Lenovo detailed that this adware package was only installed on consumer systems, not on Thinkpads and business systems. Today they’ve published details on removing the service, and they’ve released an app to aid in the removal.

Click here for more info on SuperFish and how to remove it.

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Blackberry Passport and Classic coming to AT&T February 20th

blackberry_passport_left_943x432Blackberry might not be as popular as they once were, but I’m still glad to see the Canadian company producing alternatives to the current crop of rectangular “slabs of glass” design that pretty much every other phone manufacturer has agreed on.

While it’s a bit more niche, for those of us who still enjoy a hardware keyboard, the Passport and Classic BB smartphones will be available on AT&T starting February 20th. The higher end Passport will drop for $199 on two year agreement, and the Classic will go for $49.99 on contract.

blackberry_classic_right_946x432jpg

Are any of you thinking about jumping back on the BB bandwagon? You can find more info here, and AT&T’s full press release is below.

Continue reading “Blackberry Passport and Classic coming to AT&T February 20th”

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