Nokia offers software update for Lumia 900 glitch

In response to recent data connection problems that Nokia Lumia 900 users reported since the device's launch last week, Nokia has issued a software update sooner than expected.

Lumia 900 users have the option of updating their device with the software fix on or around Monday, or swapping their current Lumia 900 for an updated version. As a "gesture of goodwill" users who have purchased the device or will purchase one by April 21 will receive a US$100 credit to their AT&T bill, Nokia said in a blog post. AT&T is selling the phone at $100 with a two-year contract.

The move by Nokia has delighted users. "This is beyond a gesture of good will...this is the kind of a response by a company that cements customers for life," said user Jim Linehan in a response to the Nokia offer.

The Lumia 900 is seen as critical to Nokia's attempt to renew its presence in the U.S. market, and to Microsoft in its bid to counter phones running the Android operating system.

The software update will be available both through Zune on Windows and Windows Phone Connector on Mac. Nokia said late Wednesday in a reply to a question on its blog that it did not have an exact date for when the updated phones will arrive in stores, but any phone can be updated when the new software arrives on or around Monday.

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Nokia offering free Lumia 710 color cover

Nokia is bringing back its Xpress-on color cover program by giving Lumia 710 owners in the U.S. one free cell phone cover during the month of April.

Nokia and T-Mobile apparently want to remind us that the Lumia 900 isn't the only Windows Phone available in the US. To that end, Nokia is bringing back a promotion where Lumia 710 owners can get a free custom "Xpress-on" backplate of their choice in white, cyan, fuschia, or yellow to replace the white or black version they purchased. Yes, CMYK is a go. The sign up site requires that owners enter in their IMEI, phone number, and purchase date in order to qualify, and then Nokia will send the cover out for free.

T-Mobile also is bowing to the inevitable and reducing the price of the mid-range handset to free with a two-year contract, down from its original price of $49.99. Unfortunately, new customers won't be able to walk out the door having paid nothing, as the price still includes a $50 mail-in rebate. Nokia says that the price is good through April, but we would be surprised if the 710 didn't settle in at that free on-contract price permanently.

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SwiftKey 3 Beta: The best Android keyboard

SwiftKey 3 Beta, the newest version of the incredibly popular Android replacement keyboard, is now available to SwiftKey's VIP Community members. And from what I've seen so far, it is something for the public to be excited about.


SwiftKey has released a new version of its software keyboard for Android devices, SwiftKey 3 Beta. The main new feature is an enhanced auto-correction algorithm that is able to detect multiple words at once, intelligently inserting a space where necessary. What this means, essentially, is that if you miss (or simply skip) hitting the spacebar, the software will compensate for that instead of just correcting each word individually. As with previous versions, the predicted text appears in a suggestion bar above the keyboard, so you can see if what it's guessing is accurate. In our testing, we found that for simple words it works to just skip over hitting the spacebar about half the time. However, the qualitative feel of just being able to bang away that much faster felt much better than we expected — it's certainly a bigger update than the last version of the software.

In addition to the new auto-correct, SwiftKey tweaked its keyboard layout and added some new themes. Unfortunately, the company still insists on keeping voice-to-text a long-press away —in favor of a popup dialog button that seems more geared towards branding than entering text. Voice-to-text is also unfortunately built using Google's method of voice entry from Gingerbread, the real-time voice entry from the Android 4.0 keyboard isn't supported. On the bright side, SwiftKey now supports a few more languages (including Korean), bringing the grand total up to 42.


As of now, SwiftKey 3 Beta is only available to members of SwiftKey's VIP Community. But fortunately, you can get the current, public version of Swiftkey X now from Google Play. SwiftKey X is available for phones (free trial | paid full) and for tablets (free trial | paid full). And I think it's worth mentioning that the tablet version offers a superconvenient split-key layout when in landscape mode, which makes it easy to type quickly with just your thumbs. It's definitely worth a look.

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Ashampoo Burning Studio 2012 Free License Key

Ashampoo Burning Studio 11 is a lightweight disc burning application that has an emphasis on being easy to use, yet also still manages to include some interesting and unusual features.

When you need to burn a data disc, for instance, it's all very straightforward. Just click "Burn Files and Folders" from the simple front-end menu, drag and drop the required files onto the program, and it'll be burning them to CD, DVD or Blu-ray in a couple of clicks.

But if you need a little more, the program also allows you to create Autostart discs, which include interactive multi-page menus which appear when the disc is inserted. These can launch files or documents on the disc, open a folder, link to a web page and more, and are a perfect way to help the recipient of your disc understand exactly what you've provided for them.

Similarly, Burning Studio 11 can create simple video DVDs, just like most of the competition: drag and drop in your source movie clips, then burn them to DVD in a clip or two. But again, that's just the start. The program includes a video editor, supports customising your menus, and minimises encoding hassles by automatically adjusting the video quality (if necessary) to ensure everything fits on the disc.

You're also able to quickly rip CDs, or create an MP3 or WMA CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc. The program can create and use all the major disc image formats (ISO, CUE/BIN, ASHDISC). There's support for all the standard features like copying discs, erasing rewriteable discs, and extras include a simple backup tool and a designer to help create covers, labels and booklets.

And this new build extends Burning Studio with many powerful new features.

It's now easy to add files to projects directly from your smartphone, digital camera, or Facebook, Dropbox, Picasa or Flickr accounts, for instance.

A new Compact Mode makes it even quicker and easier to create your disc projects.

The program can now burn many common audio playlist formats, and normalise the volume of MP3 and WMA CDs. You can browse disc images to see exactly what they contain. And new multi-core support ensures all this happens faster than ever.

 Get Free License Key Ashampoo Burning Studio 2012 :

1. Visit the Ashampoo Burning Studio 2012 Computer Bild Giveaway Page and download Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 Advanced installer.

 

2. After you have finished downloading, just install it. The installation is in German language. But after installation, you can choose the language you would like to use. Also take note that during installation, Ashampoo tries to install Ashampoo toolbar, change your homepage, etc. Make sure to uncheck them  if you don’t want the toolbar.

 

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TuneUp Utilities 2011 Free Product License Serial Code

PC tune-up tools are a dubious proposition. Often they make no measurable difference to performance, and when they do help it’s chiefly by removing services and startup items, which can be done without special software.

Yet TuneUp’s latest suite has a few unique tricks. For one, rather than uninstalling an application, TuneUp lets you temporarily deactivate it. Associated background services are disabled, reducing the load on your system, but when you launch the application they’re automatically re-enabled. This could be a big help on overloaded systems, but annoyingly it’s only a one-shot setting. Once you’ve finished using a program you have to go back into the TuneUp interface and manually deactivate it again.

TuneUp deserves credit for the multiple fresh ideas in this package, but we still have reservations. Turbo Mode and the Program Deactivator give you more flexibility than the old-fashioned approach of simply removing programs and services from your system, but it’s tiresome to have to switch modes to use certain programs and re-deactivate heavy applications after each use.

In light of that compromise, the price feels high, even though it does cover three machines. Still, if you have one or more systems that are seriously overloaded, and removing applications and services isn’t an option, this is one of very few tools we’ve seen that could actually help.

Get product key for TuneUp Utilities 2011 Free:

Go to giveaway page

• Enter your e-mail address and submit the form
• They will send you an e-mail containing an activation link
• Your personal product key is displayed together with the download information

 The product key given this time is valid for 9 months only, there will no free upgrade for this giveaway version either.

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Foxconn Says iPhone 5 Arrives in June

It wouldn't be a solid week of news without some kind of rumor about an Apple gadget. For your Tuesday Edition, we have the iPhone 5 slated to arrive in June.

The news arrives by Macotakara discovered this rumour during an interview on TV Tokyo's "World Business Satellite" (WBS) show, when one of Foxconn's recruiters explained that the manufacturer was currently undertaking a massive hiring process. "We're looking for 18,000 employees...for the fifth-generation phone," detailed the respondent.

When the reporter asked if such a large number of extra employees are required for the iPhone 5, he replied: "That's right. It will come out in June."

Foxconn is also under international pressure from its main partner, Apple, as well as the Fair Labor Association to ease the working conditions in its facilities. Recent audits revealed that Foxconn runs sweatshop-like factories and shortly after this information was made public, the company agreed to enforce a limit on its work hours.

Currently, 1.2 million people work for Foxconn and 80,000 of them are assembling iPhones. If the iPhone 5 is rumoured for release in June, then it's obvious why Foxconn needs to employ more manpower.

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Google’s Nexus Tablet Render Leaked

Render me this, render me that, is this a Nexus tablet, or are we full of crap? Honestly, we can’t answer that one, as the render above looks like any other Android tablet we’ve seen before. While we do know the tablet is very real, we still can’t say for sure that we know anything other than the fact that the device will soon be announced. For now, feel free to soak in the picture above.

Rumors have pegged the device to launch sometime between May and June, which puts it in the prime position to be announced either sometime at CTIA Wireless in early May, or at the Google I/O conference in late June. Specifications for the tablet have been switched up once or twice, as we were initially expecting the device to ship with NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor, but now it seems that the search giant has opted for a cheaper, dual-core processor to keep costs down.

What’s odd about the render above is the size. As PocketNow points out, the tablet looks like it’s of the 10.1 inch variety and not the 7 inch tablet we’ve been expecting this whole time. (However, the amount of icons on the tablet indicate that this is a 7 inch device) We’d really like to see Google announce two tablets; one 7 inch and one 10.1 inch, but we have our doubts that will happen. I for one would welcome a 7 inch device, as I prefer the smaller form factor. I have two tablets on my desk – the Asus Transformer Prime and a Toshiba Thrive 7, and I use the latter frequently. Crazy, right?

Said to be made by Asus and possibly cost under $200, the Google Nexus tablet could very well sway some potential Kindle Fire buyers, easily. If Google has actually created a 10.1 inch device with some decent specs for under $200, that would be an impressive feat. That said, the tablet could actually have a 7 inch screen — with an annoyingly large bezel.

From what we can see in the render, the tablet looks to sport the standard affair of ports. Micro USB, full-sized SD, and micro HDMI are all a go, along with stereo speakers and a port for a dock.

But we can't rule out a 10-inch version as seen in the render. Google could be attacking the tablet sector on both the low-end and high-end fronts, taking on Amazon's Kindle Fire while also addressing Apple's iPad 3 with a premium Android offering. If Asus is building the smaller device, it's not difficult to imagine Samsung producing a device similar to its Galaxy Tab. The latter is what Apple will likely fear most as it currently views the Galaxy Tab line as the iPad's true competitor.

We expect to hear more about the Nexus tablet(s) during Google's I/O conference in June.

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Megaupload’s Kim get back online

A judge in New Zealand has allowed the founder of the Megaupload files sharing service to get back online - because of Kim Dotcom’s “exemplary” behavior since arrest in January.

­The bail conditions of 38-year-old Kim Schmitz, German national more known as Kim Dotcom, denied him web access. He remains under house arrest – but with web access now.

Also, the judge ruled Dotcom could go swimming daily and visit a studio in Auckland to record music twice a week.

Other co-accused Megaupload staff could meet their boss once a week till August when Kim’s fate will be decided at an extradition hearing.

In the meantime the US prosecutors apply serious effort in order to extradite him to America on of internet piracy and money laundering charges. The US federal prosecution wants Kim Dotcom for allegedly inflicting $500 million damage in lost revenue to copyright holders.

The US accuses Dotcom of making a fortune by organizing free share and download of copyrighted material on the website Megaupload, which belongs to him and was closed January 19.

Dotcom’s lawyers insisted at a court hearing in January that their client’s company only offered online storage, claiming their client is innocent.

The Megaupload used to be the most popular files sharing service in the world with its 150 million registered users.

In response to the closure of file sharing site Megaupload, the Anonymous hacker community kicked off DDoS attacks on US government websites, including the White House, the FBI, the US Department of Justice and the main plaintiff in the Megaupload case – the Universal Music Corp.

A hearing in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is scheduled for next Friday.

By: RT News

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