New Technology Reviews!.: 2011

iPhone alarms may fail to activate on New Year's Day

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If you're using your iPhone or iPod touch as your primary alarm clock, it might be time to reconsider. In 2010, Apple had well-publicized difficulties with the switchover to Daylight Saving Time. Alarms failed to go off at their proper times, causing thousands of people in the Southern Hemisphere to wake up an hour early and many more thousands in the Northern Hemisphere to wake up an hour late. Now yet another bug has struck Apple's Clock app in iOS: single-use, non-repeating alarms fail to go off at all after New Year's Day. 
 
Just like the Daylight Saving Time bug, living in New Zealand has given me the opportunity to test this bug ahead of time. Strangely, a single-use alarm scheduled to go off at 7:00 A.M. today went off on time, but now single-use alarms don't work at all. Only alarms set to repeat at least once during the week will work properly. <a href="http://www.9to5mac.com/45310/new-years-2011-breaks-non-recurring-iphone-alarm-clocks">9to5Mac suggests that the problem will clear up after January 3rd,</a> and our testing confirms that -- in a couple of days, the alarms are back to normal. 
 
This bug in the Clock app is somewhat less insidious than the Daylight Saving Time bug, which affected repeating alarms. With this New Year's Day bug, you'll still be safe if you've got a repeating alarm set during the work week. Only single-use alarms will fail to go off. I've tested this with alarms created in 2010 and alarms created in 2011, and it makes no difference; all single-use alarms now fail to activate until after 1/3. I've tested this on an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.1 -- your experience may differ if you have a different iOS device or software version. 
 
Considering how many things Apple's managed to get right in iOS, it seems really odd that of all things it's the Clock app that keeps getting mucked up. Let us know in the comments if any third-party alarm clock apps are experiencing the same issue (though I doubt it). In the meantime, if you've been using your iPhone or iPod touch to wake you up in the morning, it might be a good idea to invest in a cheap standalone alarm clock -- or take off work until Monday. 
<a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/31/iphone-alarms-may-fail-to-activate-on-new-years-day/"></a> 
<h6></h6><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/31/psa-iphone-alarms-not-working-come-new-years-day-2011">Source</a>

iPhone alarms may fail to activate on New Year's Day

If you're using your iPhone or iPod touch as your primary alarm clock, it might be time to reconsider. In 2010, Apple had well-publiciz...

BenQ Announces Android-based R100 Tablet

<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21384" height="353" src="http://cdn.androidcommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/benqmid-lg.jpg" title="benqmid-lg" width="500" /> 
BenQ announced this week that it too would get involved in the world of Android-based tablets come 2011. They will will enter the market with the R100 tablet, the device will be a 10-inch tablet that will hopefully ship with Android when it’s released. 
 
 
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The device will not be targeted at users who are looking for an ultra-poweful tablet. Instead it will focus on media consumption such as books, magazines and newspapers. It will ship with an 833MHz Samsung processor and will support stylus input for notes in Chinese writing as well as English. BenQ has not yet announced whether the screen will be capacitive or resistive, so multi-touch support is questionable. 
 
The R100 will go on sale in at least Taiwan and mainland China with pricing to be announced. However, it’s specs and BenQ’s focus on subsidization, we can expect this to be a budget option. 
 
[<a href="http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/12/24/benq.r100.android.tablet.coming.early.2011/">Via</a> Electronista]

BenQ Announces Android-based R100 Tablet

BenQ announced this week that it too would get involved in the world of Android-based tablets come 2011. They will will enter the market wi...

Verizon Expecting to get Froyo on the Samsung Fascinate by Year’s End?

<a href="http://cdn.androidcommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Samsung-Fascinate-2.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-21395" height="400" src="http://cdn.androidcommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Samsung-Fascinate-2.2.jpg" title="" width="533" /></a> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
News of the potential Android 2.2 update for Samsung Fascinate users has been quiet over the last few months. Well a tiny bit of light has been shed regarding this update, this time in an internal specs comparison sheet claiming the update will come by the end of 2010. 
 
 
 
 
 
This spec sheet details when Adobe Flash will be available on the device, and you can’t have Adobe Flash without Android 2.2. Hopefully we will see the update in the next week, it’s definitely possible, but don’t get your hopes up. 
 
It’s worth noting that on the sheet the DROID X is listed at having Android 2.1 installed. If you recall the DROID X was updated to Froyo all the way back in September, so this specific sheet could be out of date, but we will definitely keep our eyes open for the potential update. 
 
[<a href="http://www.androidcentral.com/verizon-still-expecting-get-froyo-fascinate-2011?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+androidcentral+%28Android+Central%29">Via</a> AndroidCentral]

Verizon Expecting to get Froyo on the Samsung Fascinate by Year’s End?

News of the potential Android 2.2 update for Samsung Fascinate users has been quiet over the last few months. Well a ti...