Filed under: Tablet PCs

Dell’s Latitude XT is a pretty special piece of equipment, namely because it boasts multi-touch capabilities while being a Tablet PC. Unfortunately, it seems that quite a few users are growing increasingly frustrated with the touch-lovin’ screen, with GottaBeMobile going so far as to call Dell out to remedy the myriad issues with its N-Trig digitizer. Among the problems are “digitizer not found” errors upon restart, a digitizer that won’t work properly without a few reboots and a nice selection of applet loading errors to top things off. It seems the readers of the aforesaid site aren’t faring too well either, with the forums filling up with folks eager and willing to yell “amen!” and “me too!” Are you also experiencing wonky N-Trig problems? Are you fed up with Dell’s public silence on the matter? Or have you figured out a solution that you’ve been keeping all to yourself for the past seven months? Chime in down below.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Safe mode, huh? While we had previously assumed only our clearly cursed PCs could fall into such a dark, dark place, apparently we were badly mistaken. The recently launched Giove-B satellite, which is the second bird launched for Europe’s next-gen satnav network, was recently sent into some sort of “safe mode” after being “rocked by a surge of space radiation.” Reportedly, said mode halts the satellite’s mission activities and forces it to “concentrate on keeping its batteries topped up by ensuring its solar panels are properly aligned with the sun.” Thankfully, the poor Giove-B was able to resume its frolicking in outer space around a fortnight after being blasted, though we hear if it had been just a tad worse, ground control would’ve had a real mess on their hands with the Blue Screen of Death.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

For years, Diebold has embarrassed itself by claiming that obvious faults were actually not faults at all, and during the past decade or so, it mastered the act of pointing the finger. Now that it has ironically renamed itself Premier Election Solutions, it’s finally coming clean. According to spokesman Chris Riggall, a “critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point” has been part of the software for ten years. The flaw is on both optical scan and touchscreen machines, and while Mr. Riggall asserts that the logic error probably didn’t ruin any elections (speaking of logic error…), the outfit’s president has confessed to being “distressed” about the ordeal. More like “distressed” about the increasingly bleak future of his company.

[Via Techdirt]

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Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Details are slim at the moment, but one thing’s for sure: Dell customers affected (or not affected… yet) by those wonky NVIDIA GPUs will have their warranties extended by 12-months to compensate. The 1-year “limited warranty enhancement” will add coverage for this issue to everyone who recently purchased one of the 15 NVIDIA-equipped machines listed in the read link, and we’re told to expect further details about the whole ordeal in short order. Breathe easy, folks — you’ll be taken care of somehow or another.

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Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

So yeah, quite a few NVIDIA GPUs have been acting up. Nothing new there. However, Dell’s attempting to help its laptop owners out by making a few notable BIOS updates readily available for download. Apparently the issue “is a weak die / packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations.” In order to combat the problem, Dell’s BIOS flashes “modify the fan profile to help regulate GPU temperature fluctuations,” though the Round Rock powerhouse only promises that the updates will “help reduce the likelihood of GPU issues.” Hit the read link and give it a go — it can’t hurt… we hope.

[Via Electronista]

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Filed under: GPS

Just over a month after the internet got all fired up about the problematic AVIC F-Series navigators, Pioneer has come to the rescue (we hope, anyway) with a free firmware update. Aimed specifically at the US-based AVIC-F90BT, AVIC-F900BT and AVIC-F700BT, the update will reportedly “improve overall system performance and resolve certain software issues.” The outfit also notes that the AVIC-F500BT doesn’t need the upgrade, and even if your unit has been a-okay thus far, it still recommends applying the software. Take ten minutes or so and see what the latest firmware has to offer, and be sure to let us know if all (or some) of the kinks have indeed been ironed out.

[Thanks, Steven]

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Filed under: Cellphones

At first, we figured our Instinct here at Engadget HQ had just woken up on the wrong side of the bed, but we’re now receiving a flood of tips from individuals nationwide having the same issues. Put simply, it seems that certain data services are thoroughly borked, with our Weather app being unable to refresh for at least the past 18 hours (some are reporting even longer). Additionally, we’re hearing that folks are having to manually refresh their email and deal with all sorts of error messages when attempting to use any of the data services. So, what gives? Are you having data-related issues with your Instinct? C’mon Sprint, this is your best-selling EV-DO device of all time — it’d be nice to have it working for the weekend. Oh, and great job showing all those angered iPhone 3G users that your network doesn’t have issues, too.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Far from being the first time Time Warner Cable has upset its subscriber base, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office is pulling a Dee Snider and refusing to take the carrier’s lackluster service anymore. In a 25-page lawsuit, the city is alleging that the operator “caused major havoc and distress” two years ago when it “failed to live up to its part of the franchise cable agreement requiring that a company answer subscribers’ calls within 30 seconds and begin repairs of service interruptions within 24 hours of notification in 90% of its calls for service.” The suit claims that no more than 60% of customer calls were answered in time, and cable / internet service was said to be “so intermittent and inferior in quality that it was not much better than no service at all.” Not surprisingly, TWC representatives chose not to comment on the whole ordeal, but the outfit could face civil penalties of tens of millions of crisp US dollars in the case. Should’ve picked up the phone, TWC — it would’ve been easier than picking up this tab.

[Image courtesy of Web 2 Concepts, thanks Scott]

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Filed under: Household

We can’t say we’re terribly saddened that this riveting caper has finally ended — after all, the poor crew needs a reliable place to unload, right? Shortly after the space shuttle Discovery delivered a new pump for the jury-rigged commode, Oleg Kononenko — who we hear is now widely regarded as a galactic hero — spent around two hours installing the hardware and running a trio of tests. After everything was tightened up and functioning as advertised, the crew presumably relieved themselves just before carrying on with the installation of the recently acquired Kibo lab. Crisis averted.

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Filed under: Household

In what is becoming a fascinating space-poop drama, the International Space Station had a fresh toilet pump delivered today by space shuttle Discovery. For the past couple weeks, astronauts were forced to perform manual flushes, but this pump promises to make things go down a bit easier. We’re still under the impression that the toilet will be replaced in the Fall, so more relief is sure to come.

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Filed under: Household

It’s amazing how quickly humans can remedy problems when really placed in a bind, and rather than waiting for supplies to come up with Discovery next week, crew members aboard the International Space Station were able to solve their little dilemma already. Reportedly, cosmonauts were able to cure whatever was ailing the temporarily non-functioning john, enabling those stuck in space to urinate freely. Thankfully, the seven-year old toilet is due to be replaced with a fresh new one this Fall, and we’d say the replacement couldn’t arrive soon enough.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

According to a state judge in Albany, New York, Dell and its financing arm “engaged in deceptive business practices related to financing promotions for its computers and technical support.” The decision, which was just released yesterday, contained quotes from NY State Supreme Court Justice Joseph C. Teresi stating that the Round Rock mega-corp dabbled in “repeated misleading, deceptive and unlawful business conduct, including false and deceptive advertising of financing promotions and the terms of warranties, fraudulent, misleading and deceptive practices in credit financing and failure to provide warranty service and rebates.” The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last year, and while Mr. Cuomo was understandably delighted with the outcome, a Dell spokesman made clear that it didn’t agree with the decision and it would be “defending its position vigorously.” As for potential restitution for NYers, we won’t know any of that until further proceedings are held.

[Thanks, Nate]

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Filed under: Household

You think it’s bad when computers on the International Space Station get spazzed — just imagine the chaos when the primary commode decides to stop functioning correctly. As of now, crew members are being forced to urinate in a “jury-rigged system” that’s connected to the seven-year old (!!!) can, but thankfully, the solid waste collecting part has yet to act up. Still, we can imagine that folks on board are already fearing the worst. NASA officials have stated that they are currently mulling the idea of tossing a few parts on the Discovery just before it lifts off next week for a planned docking trip, which we can only hope pans out. Godspeed just took on a whole new meaning.

[Image courtesy of Nohoz, thanks System48]

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Filed under: Laptops

Attaboy, ASUS. Not even 24-hours after reports starting flooding in over end users receiving less capacious Eee PC batteries in Hong Kong than expected, the firm is stepping up and doing the right thing. According to an admittedly rough translation of a statement on its website, ASUS is openly thanking its supporters for their business, and while it seems as though it’s still chalking the whole mishap up as a simple mistake, every single Hong Kong-based customer will be receiving a free (5800mAh) replacement. ‘Tis a shame we’ll likely still be griping over the battery life.

[Via jkkmobile]

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Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio

Chances are that if you do your duties on Vista and rely on one of Creative’s sound cards to get your dance on, you may have become frustrated by the firm’s inability to offer up a driver package that lived up to those loosed for Windows XP. ‘Course, if that rings a bell, you’re probably not too concerned — you know, thanks to those unofficial (but totally functional) drivers brought to you by Daniel_K. Unfortunately for users suddenly excited to gain some extra utility from their device, Creative has hopped on the offensive and is forbidding said compiler from distributing the firm’s technology / IP (not to mention collecting donations), and it’s also scouring the ‘net to remove other links to the software. Granted, we fully understand Creative’s right to disallow the distribution of untested, potentially harmful third-party drivers, but c’mon, how about redirecting the energy you’re spending on shutting this guy down to actually developing drivers that your customers are demanding?

[Via Slashdot, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Merely days after Stu Reed racked up as he waltzed out of Motorola’s doors for the final time, and nary a fortnight after the same firm’s chief marketing officer did the same, along comes word that two more bigwigs have now left the building. Effective immediately, Larry R. Raymond has replaced Steve Strobel as treasurer, while Stephen Nolan “is taking over as the head of mobile devices in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)” — a position that was held by Mike Fenger just last week. According to a company spokeswoman, the “leadership changes are part of an overall plan to swiftly transform the senior executive team.” Hey, if it’s lookin’ for turnover, it’s certainly doing something right. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]

[Via PhoneScoop]

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Filed under: Laptops

The TSA has been known to take issue with products designed in Cupertino before, but for one particular traveler, it was Apple’s thinnest laptop ever that caused the latest holdup. Upon tossing his ultra-sleek slab of aluminum underneath the scanner, security managed to find enough peculiarities to remove it from the flow, pull it aside and wrangle up the owner for some questions. Apparently, the TSA employee manning the line was flabbergasted by the “lack of a drive” and the complete absence of “ports on the back,” and while hordes of co-workers swarmed to investigate, the user’s flight took off on schedule. Thankfully, said owner was finally allowed to pass through after some more in-the-know colleagues explained in painfully simple terms what an SSD was, but the poor jet-setter most definitely paid the price for trying to slip some of the latest and greatest under the sharp eyes of the TSA (and cutting it close on time, of course).

[Image courtesy of ABC]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a product proudly designed in Cupertino erupt, but it’s pretty safe to say this story could have had a much more tragic ending. Reportedly, an iPod nano owner recently awoke to a blaring fire alarm around 2:00AM, only to find his beloved PMP wrapped in flames on the bedroom floor. Thankfully, the fire was tiny enough to be extinguished without any major trouble, and no substantial damage of property or human flesh was tallied. As of now, we’ve no idea if the unit simply exploded or if surrounding circumstances are at least partly to blame, but you can bet your bottom dollar that be sleeping with one eye open (and on our media players) tonight.

[Thanks, Sandy]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Is that an exodus we smell, or what? Nary 24 hours after Motorola’s chief marketing officer decided to start his weekend early by parting ways with the company, along comes word that the (now-former) president of Motorola’s Mobile Devices business is doing the same. According to a breaking release from Moto, Stu Reed’s departure is “effective immediately,” and Greg Brown, company president and CEO, made mention that the outfit “appreciates [his] many contributions and wishes him the best in the future.” As of now, there’s no word on who’s lined up fill Mr. Reed’s shoes, but it seems the pool of choices could be dwindling.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

As we’re certain you know by now, there are fails, and then there are epic fails. This case most definitely falls into the latter category, as Sea Change’s shark-deterrent system (affectionately dubbed Shark Shield) was actually bit into by a great white when tested off the coast of South Africa. Reportedly, the device sends out electronic fields that are meant to deter sharks from coming near surfers, but according to the company’s CEO, the botched trial was “due to a problem with the electrode’s configuration.” Furthermore, he noted that the thing is only “guaranteed to work when it’s stationary, not when it’s surfing in the wave or paddling.” Needless to say, the effectiveness of these type devices have now been called into question, and regardless of whether this thing actually works as advertised, the lack of total protection — you know, while actually surfing — is enough to make us steer clear.

[Via UberReview]

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