Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

First off, we’ll warn you that these reports are currently unconfirmed by the suits in Redmond, but word has it that Microsoft is working with at least one OEM to have the Windows XP “downgrade” deadline pushed out from January 2009 to at least July 31, 2009. That’s according to an e-mail sent from Microsoft to an unspecified partner company, which purportedly details a plan to work with other buddies in pushing that deadline out another half year. Given the results thus far, we suppose we’re not too surprised to hear that firms are still clamoring for the XP option, but one wonders when this madness will ever end. Will folks really be opting for XP on new machines after Windows 7 is out?

[Via Download Squad]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Hold your horses, vaquero. Let’s not blow this all out of proportion here. While it’s no secret that a certain amount of Vista purchasers are utilizing that “downgrade to XP” option to its fullest extent, a small (and let us emphasize “small”) collection of data suggests that some 35% of “mainly enterprise-class users” have opted for XP over Vista on their newly-purchased rig. By scouring data from the 3,000 or so members feeding information to the InfoWorld Windows Sentinel tool, the site found that just over 1 in 3 users had defected to Microsoft’s previous OS. Granted, the tool cannot take into account Linux users or even the “Hackintosh crowd,” though as Randall Kennedy puts it, 35% is “still a huge percentage, and way out of proportion for even the dramatically unpopular Windows Vista.”

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Hold your horses, vaquero. Let’s not blow this all out of proportion here. While it’s no secret that a certain amount of Vista purchasers are utilizing that “downgrade to XP” option to its fullest extent, a small (and let us emphasize “small”) collection of data suggests that some 35% of “mainly enterprise-class users” have opted for XP over Vista on their newly-purchased rig. By scouring data from the 3,000 or so members feeding information to the InfoWorld Windows Sentinel tool, the site found that just over 1 in 3 users had defected to Microsoft’s previous OS. Granted, the tool cannot take into account Linux users or even the “Hackintosh crowd,” though as Randall Kennedy puts it, 35% is “still a huge percentage, and way out of proportion for even the dramatically unpopular Windows Vista.”

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Adding injury to insult, then pouring salt in the wound, and finally kicking mud in Microsoft’s eye, NEC has launched an official Vista downgrade product, FlexLoad. The company debuted a two-DVD package on Tuesday priced at an affordable £7, which is meant to help (mainly business) customers create an XP partition that they can use to boot from. Says David Newbould, NEC UK’s product marketing manager, “We do have some customers who are very happy with XP and see [no need] to move to Vista at the moment.” Of course, we’re pretty sure that when he said “some” he actually meant “lots.” Another nasty burn for the folks in Redmond — though those 100 million units sold can probably buy a lot of kleenex.

[Via FSJ]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Maybe you got word that the iPhone development community supposedly has a jailbreak method for v1.1.3 — but they’re not releasing it yet. (They claim they want to wait until the next firmware update in February that will enable the SDK, so Apple won’t patch the hack in the mean time.) We understand if you’re feeling a mite bit let down, so if you jumped the gun (or just didn’t hear the good news), restoring your phone back to trusty old v1.1.1 isn’t too big a feat. That supposed jailbreak video is after the break though, if you want to whet your whistle.

Continue reading Feeling regretful? Downgrade to that v1.1.3 iPhone / iPod touch

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Filed under: Gaming, Portable Audio

Generally speaking, the reaction to Photo Channel v1.1 wasn’t exactly positive — especially when the MP3 faithful banded together to protest against the update’s newfound adoration for AAC. Thankfully, Nintendo has created an official process for downgrading back to v1.0, and yes, users who choose to take advantage will indeed have MP3 support once again. Interested? All you have to do is hit up the Data Management section on your console, select “Channels,” choose the Photo Channel icon and confirm that you want it deleted. Subsequently, Photo Channel v1.0 will immediately be available again from the Wii Menu. Oh, and if you get downgrader’s remorse, you can apparently switch back and forth at anytime.

[Via NintendoWiiFanboy]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

For those following this stuff religiously: the iPhone “Elite” Team has released a method to downgrade the baseband on v1.1.1 iPhones. Ok, that basically means if you accidentally disabled the phone end of your iPhone with anySIM or iUnlock during the upgrade (or just decided v1.0.2 is where it’s at), now you can revert to the last working version and restore order to your iPhone’s wayward cell radio. Right, for free without paying iPhoneSimFree a cent for their unbricking solution. Alright, maybe you don’t care about any of this stuff — honestly, we don’t blame you. Anyway, it’s out there, so for those in the crowd who’ve been waiting for this — and judging by our tips, that’s a lot of you — enjoy.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

Well would you look at that, instructions are now available for downgrading your iPhone from 1.1.1 to 1.0.2. It won’t downgrade your baseband, meaning so far you can’t re-unlock an iPhone that’s been 1.1.1-ified, but it’s still 1.0.2 in all its third-party application glory. The iPhone Dev Team folks are working on a way to downgrade the new firmware to let people unlock their phones again, but for now AT&T users sitting pretty, and non-AT&T folks can at least do the WiFi thing. There’s a video tutorial after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - iPhone Dev Wiki instructions
Read - Hackint0sh thread where the magic happened

Continue reading iPhone 1.1.1 to 1.0.2 downgrade instructions released!

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!