Updating iOS5 Tips

Problems updating to iOS 5? Here's what you need to know

iPhone and iPod users have reported a variety of problems when trying to upgrade to iOS5 (Photo: Apple)

The latest version of Apple's iOS left many iPod and iPhone users shaking their heads when they tried to upgrade. Problems ranged from lengthy downloads of the new iOS from iTunes, to some users who had been left with bricked phones and erased contacts after the update. Others complained that their paid apps had been wiped from their phones, and not restored when they did get iOS up and running.

On a personal level, about 50-percent of my iPhone-using friends experienced severe problems, the most common of which was a bricked phone. Those that did get the update still experienced issues with paid apps not showing up ready for download in iTunes. Those with bricked phones were forced to do a factory reset, and lost all of their contacts, saved notes, photos and videos.

The first signs of trouble began popping up on Twitter and in forums about an hour after the release of iOS 5.

Here's a quick rundown of the most common problems users are reporting, and a fix, if one exists.

"Internal Error 3200"

This is an error message that pops up during the iOS 5 upgrade process that indicates Apple's authentication servers aren't responding.

The fix: This problem has mostly fixed itself. The problem originated from the entire world trying to download the new iOS right as it had launched. Apple has opened up new server space, and the demand is dying off slowly due to reports of problems.

"Error -34"

If you get this error, it's iTunes reporting to the Apple server that you are out of disk space. As some of you have figured out, this may not be the case.

The fix: There isn't one just yet, but it was discovered that the problem originates mostly with users who compress their files to 128Kbps so that they can fit more music on their iPod. When upgrading, it seems that the file size is being reverted to the uncompressed form. Apple is aware of the issue.

"Error 1603"

Although the cause of this error is unknown, it's supposed to put your device into recovery mode shortly after you see it. It's not doing that in all cases with this new update. This is what most users refer to as a "bricked" iPhone or iPod touch.

The fix: You'll have to put your phone into forced recovery mode. You stand a good chance of losing stored data as your phone recovers. This is why it's always a good idea to make a backup of your data before doing a new iOS install.

Putting your iPhone or iPod Touch into forced recover mode

Disconnect the USB cable from the device, but leave the other end connected to the USB port on your computer.

Turn off the device by holding down the Sleep/Wake button. A red slider will appear next. Slide the slider and then wait as the device shuts off. If holding the power button doesn't turn off the device, press the Sleep/Wake button and the home button at the same time until the device powers down. Don't release the Sleep/Wake button or the home button until the device is off.

Press and hold the Home button while reconnecting the USB cable to the iPhone. Once the device is connected, it should begin to power on. Don't release the Home button.

Continue to hold the Home button until the "Connect to iTunes" screen appears. Release the button.

If iTunes doesn't open automatically, open it manually. You should see the "recovery alert" pop up.

Follow the prompts and allow iTunes to restore the iPhone or iPod touch.

Apple's new iPhone 4S

No iPhone 5 folks, but say hello to Apple's new iPhone 4S

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Apple's new CEO Tim Cook has taken the wraps off the company's new iPhone - the 4S

In his first product launch since becoming CEO, Apple's Tim Cook has announced a new version of the iPhone at Apple HQ in Cupertino, California. The iPhone 4S retains the ground-breaking Retina display technology and glass back of its predecessor, but has undergone something of an internal overhaul. Apple's new smartphone gets a brand new dual-core processor, an 8 megapixel camera capable of also shooting full high definition video, and a new personal assistant application that uses voice recognition. The 4S also promises up to double the previous download speeds and will be available on over 100 carriers worldwide.

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Announced in the very same room as 2001's original iPod, Apple's new iPhone 4S runs on the new iOS 5 platform and is powered by the company's new dual-core A5 chip, that's said to be twice as fast as its predecessor. Mobile gamers will no doubt be pleased to hear that the included dual-core graphics are up to seven times faster than before. The new smartphone's battery life is claimed to offer either eight hours of 3G talk time, six hours of browsing, nine hours on Wi-Fi, ten hours of video playback, or 40 hours of music.

As the rumor-mill predicted, the 4S features a new 8 megapixel camera sensor (in actuality a 3264 x 2448 pixel resolution, backside illuminated CMOS sensor). There's a hybrid IR filter for more accurate colors and a five element f/2.4 aperture lens for 30 percent sharper images. The sensor also caters for full 1080p high definition video recording with image stabilization and noise reduction. Users can line up a shot using optional onscreen grid lines, and the new Photo app allows for simple in-device editing - such as crop, rotate, enhance and red-eye removal.

Access to the camera has been simplified - users just need to double-tap on the home screen to activate the new camera app, and use the volume up button as a shutter release. A new Apple-designed Image Signal Processor caters for face detection, improved white balance, and it sees the camera ready for its first shot in just 1.1 seconds (in only 0.5 seconds, the next one can be captured).

Improved call quality and voice control

Apple says that intelligent switching between the transmit and receive antennas results in much improved call quality, and users are no longer asked to choose between GSM or CDMA networks, as the 4S supports both. Theoretical data download capabilities have been doubled to up to 14.4 Mbps with HSDPA, with uplink remaining the same as the iPhone 4 at 5.8 Mbps. The 4S has also been treated to AirPlay Mirroring, which allows gamers to throw the device's image onto the big screen - wired or wireless.

As previously mentioned, perhaps most impressive of all the new features is an Intelligent Assistant named Siri, which uses sophisticated voice recognition technology to do your bidding. Press down the onscreen icon and speak to Siri via the phone's microphone, then everything from the local real-time weather to checking stocks and shares to setting appointments, alarms and reminders to searching online for information, is made available via vocal commands.

Apple has also included a beta version Dictation feature that currently supports U.S., UK and Australian flavors of English, along with French and German, with more languages to follow in the near future.

Pricing and availability

Pre-orders for the new iPhone 4S will start on October 7, with U.S., Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan getting first bite on October 14. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have all been confirmed as U.S. carriers and both black and white versions will cost US$199 for the 16GB model, US$299 for the 32GB version and US$399 for the 64GB flavor (with a 2-year contract).

Another 22 countries (including Mexico, Singapore and most of the rest of Europe) will take delivery from October 28, and the 4S will be available in 70 countries by the year's end.

In other news...

The Apple team also highlighted a few of the 200 plus new features in the new iOS 5 platform - including an interruption-free, swipe down Notification Center, a new iMessage service for sending and receiving text messages, photos and videos between iOS device users, location-aware Reminders, the Newsstand feature with background downloading of latest subscribed issues, and wireless, PC-free updates. There's also an update to the Safari browser that brings tabbed browsing to the iPad and new reader functionality with device sync. iOS 5 will be available from October 12.

Apple is also launching its iCloud services on October 12, including Find My Friends, where you can view the locations of friends who've opted to share - useful for guiding lost guests to your new house. iTunes in the Cloud comes with iTunes Match, that scans your own music library, upgrades matched songs to 256kbps AAC file format, and places the matched files into iTunes - all for US$24.99 per year (available in the U.S. from the end of this month). iCloud comes with 5GB of online storage free for iOS/OS X Lion users, with more available at a price.

By Paul Ridden

Samsung's Galaxy Note

Samsung's Galaxy Note supersizes the smartphone with 5.3 inch screen and stylus

The Galaxy Note next to Tim's Galaxy S II

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Samsung showed its new Note smartphone today at IFA, just 12 months after it showed the Galaxy Tab to great acclaim, and when history judges the 5.3" supersized smartphone it just might play a much greater role in the development of the personal computer form factor. The incorporation of a stylus and the 1280×800 high-resolution Super AMOLED screen give the thin Android phone additional functionality by way of both sketching and note-taking and when Gizmag's Tim Hanlon tried the phone with its 1.4GHz dual-core processor, he's now thinking of trading in his Galaxy SII.

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"It might look like the awkward stepchild of a phone and tablet, but as soon as I went from my iPhone to the Galaxy SII, I became used to the additional screen-size instantly", said Tim.

"My old iPhone now seems like a toy compared to the SII and although the 5.3 inch Note looks awkward, it just might be indispensable once you get used to it. It is bigger than the Galaxy SII, but because it's thin, at 9.65mm, it's still small enough to slip into my jeans pocket."

"I wasn't crazy about the note taking feature as there was a slight lag, but it's likely to be a lot quicker than typing for a lot of people. The Note also loads web pages very quickly, and the camera seems much snappier than the Samsung Galaxy SII."

"It's funny, but I think the odd form factor is the type of thing that people might mock until they try it, then they'll have their opinion turned around like mine was. I pull out my iPad or laptop noticeably less with the Galaxy SII in my pocket, and I expect this would be amplified significantly if I had a Note...and although the Note won't replace my iPad, it will probably replace my Galaxy SII."

"Last but not least, it's surprisingly comfortable to use as a phone."

Computer research done on desktop computers has shown many times that the amount of screen real estate is almost directly proportional to productivity, so it may well be that the 5.3" HD Super AMOLED display offers considerable productivity advantages over existing smartphones.

Samsung also demonstrated two apps which leverage the Note's large screen and are sure to be sought after. One is the S Planner, a cross between a personal organizer and a management planning tool which integrates a To-Do list and schedule and will make a very useful life organizer. The other is a multimedia app named S Memo, which can take any form of user-created content (pictures, voice recordings, typed text, handwritten notes and sketches) and combine them in a memo which can be edited, annotated and shared. Those two apps alone will make the Note a very useful tool.

There's also a really easy-to-use screen-capture which means you can capture any screen and make notes on it before being filing or sharing - a genuinely useful tool .

There are several other trump cards associated with the Note. Firstly, its connectivity speed is exceptional as it has both HSPA+ and LTE, making it fast enough to stream video in real-time or participate in online gaming.

The other is via the use of Juniper Networks' Junos Pulse SSL VPN which enables secure remote access to corporate networks. This last one could prove to be a killer app as large enterprises have until now had very little choice in the smartphone arena and the SSL Virtual Private Network meets high-volume secure access and authorization requirements. By offering a smartphone that enables IT managers to centralize control and protect corporate data, Samsung has produced a device which can finally go head-to-head with the iPhone.

The Note will also no doubt sidestep most of Apple's legal complaints about "look and feel" too, as it's entirely different to either the iPad or iPhone and hence it looms as a real competitor to both as Apple is unlikely to be able to block its arrival in the marketplace.

The Note has enough smarts to significantly influence the form factor of the personal computer once more.

Toshiba's 55-inch 3D TV

Toshiba's 55-inch, Ultra HD, glasses-free 3D TV

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Toshiba has taken the wraps off a 55-inch, 16:9 ratio LED backlit TV with glasses free 3D capability and Quad Full HD resolution. That's a massive 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, or in other words, four times as many pixels as a 1920 x 1080p TV. We've just checked out the Toshiba 55ZL2 on the floor at IFA and the consensus is that it looks great.

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Billed as the world's first large-screen glasses free 3D TV, the 55ZL2 is designed to allow several viewers to watch 3D content from different positions. Its CEVO-ENGINE calculates multiple wide-angle viewing zones in front of the lenticular screen and face tracking operated by the remote control is used to detect the viewers' actual positions and optimize the nine viewing zones.

The CEVO-ENGINE also handles Auto Calibration which Toshiba says achieves "studio level picture quality" and personalized settings - including the volume level you last had the TV set to - can be stored for up to four users.

Content can be recorded to an external hard drive via USB, SMART-TV functions allow access to Toshiba's Places online platform, Resolution+ converts lower res formats into Quad Full HD resolution and if you have an iPhone, you can download an app and throw the remote control away.

The 55ZL2 can also display 2D content at the Quad Full HD resolution.

So how does it look? Our first chance to see the screen in Berlin today definitely left a positive impression - the 3D image had much smoother depth than the "cardboard cut-out" effect on other glasses-free units we've seen, bringing us hope that the reign of 3D glasses will be short lived.

Overall the 3D effect was more subtle, natural and real, with crisper images that seemed to recede into the background rather than jump out at you. In short, it's comfortable to look at.

Of course, native 3D content in Quad Full HD resolution might be a little hard to come by for a while, but the 55ZL2 could well be a new benchmark for the industry.

"It seems like a step towards maturity for the entire market," says Gizmag's Tim Hanlon. "I can't see the downside. This is a pretty sick TV."

The Toshiba 55ZL2 will be released in Germany in December 2011. Release dates for other European countries are yet to be confirmed and there's no word yet on how much it will cost.

The disruptor gets disrupted: how Apple is beating Nintendo at its own game

The Nintendo 3DS

In an industry obsessed with polygon counts and frame rates, Nintendo's Wii console and DS handheld were the proverbial knives at a gunfight. They were grossly underpowered compared to the competition, meaning Nintendo could sell them at a profit from day one. Their innovative control methods ensured they still sold like hotcakes. An animated GIF of Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata holding a DS that printed money became the go to picture to run alongside quarterly announcements of Nintendo's gargantuan profits. If a disheveled man emerged from a time-traveling Delorian with tales of a near-future Nintendo struggling to sell its latest handheld, I'd have been more surprised about the Nintendo thing. So what on earth happened?

A wild STEVE JOBS appears! STEVE JOBS uses DESTROY VALUE. It's super effective!

Late last year, Steve Jobs told the press that Apple was activating 230,000 iOS devices every day, with a staggering 200 million already in the wild.

According to 148apps, there are 72,185 games available in the iOS App Store, of which 28% are 99 cents and 38% are free.

To say that 1% of these games would be worth playing would be an overly generous estimate. Most will pale in comparison to the console games they emulate. Many will take longer to download than they will to grow tired of, if they aren't quit in disgust and deleted immediately. Others will be lost in the noise of the App Store. Occasionally, one will appease the zeitgeist and make a fledgling developer very wealthy.

But what exactly is the alternative that Nintendo proposes?

NINTENDO used HEAD IN THE SAND. It's not very effective!

Satoru Iwata told AllThingsD that the ad supported, freemium and high volume/low cost models of mobile gaming "destroy the value of the game software" and made it clear he is not willing to lead Nintendo in that direction.

Unfortunately, the mass market has spoken - a firehose of cheap and disposable games on a multi-purpose device wins over a drip feed of expensive and...well, lessdisposable games on a dedicated gaming handheld.

It might take you somewhere between 30-50 hours to play through The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, on your 3DS...but how many iPhone games can you get for that US$40? How many can you get for the price of the 3DS itself?

EA CEO John Riccitiello recently told Industry Gamers that consoles represent just 40% of the market, down from 80% in 2000. The casual market that Nintendo fueled with the Wii has jumped ship to cheaper pastures.

Big publishers like EA are coming along for the ride. That NBA Jam game you can get for $0.99 on the iPhone and $4.99 on the iPad is exactly the same as the $39.99 console version (...and it's one of those rare ports that plays beautifully without physical buttons). This probably sounds insane to someone who doesn't realize that they're completely different markets, or that there's people like me who will buy the iPad version and the Xbox 360 version.

What about testing the waters with a stripped-back Mario title in the vein ofCanabalt? Basically guaranteed to sell millions, and won't devalue the Mario brand at all - indeed, it would introduce Mario to a generation of kids who had never had a Nintendo at home. Give them the first hit for next to nothing, and get them nagging Mom and Dad for a 3DS in time for Super Mario 3D Land.

What about releasing a SNES controller dock for the iPhone with some classics from the 16-bit era like Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country? Charge $50 for the controller and $5-10 for the games. That's like a license to print money. Alternatively, what about a strategic move against Apple by throwing its support behind the Android platform, or a partnership with HTC or Samsung?

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, investors are pushing for an embrace of mobile too. Nintendo's share price jumped after JPMorgan Chase & Co. told its clients that Nintendo may start making games for non-Nintendo hardware in June, and fell again after an official rebuttal just hours later.

Qualcomm, makers of the Snapdragon chipset that powers many modern smartphones, also sees mobile phones becoming the consoles of the future. Already some Android phones and tablets feature HDMI outputs and the ability to connect to a console controller via USB or Bluetooth.

There's only so long a company can ignore the market, the industry, and investors.

SONY wants to fight NINTENDO. SONY uses IMPRESSIVE LAUNCH LINEUP! It missed!

With the casual market adequately catered for by the mobile space, Nintendo is increasingly reliant on adoption from the hardcore market. What a shame that Sony had to go and unveil the PS Vita this year, a device that has the hardcore set drooling over its dual analog joysticks, generous 5-inch OLED screen and console-caliber graphical prowess.

On launch, the Vita will have Wipeout 2048, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, LittleBigPlanet and Super Stardust Delta - and titles from system-selling franchises like Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, Call of Duty, Killzone, Mortal Kombat andResistance are in the pipeline.

With Sony's recent admission that the PS Vita won't be released outside Japan until 2012, contrary to its original statement, the executives at Nintendo must be feeling like they've just dodged a bullet.

But can one original Mario title (Super Mario 3D Land), two Nintendo 64 ports (Star Fox 64 3D and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D Edition) and a few third-party titles really compete with the generous array of games headed for the Vita?

NINTENDO used PRICE DROP. It's...?

There's a chicken/egg situation with consoles - people don't want to buy a console without a large library of games, but developers don't want to make games for a console without a large install base.

The 3DS is hurting as a result. With big third-party titles like Assassin's Creed, Megaman and Saints Row being cancelled, and Nintendo looking massively unprepared with its own meager software lineup, there's no rush to buy a 3DS.

Late last month, Nintendo announced it would drop the price of the 3DS from $250 to $170 on August 12. Is this enough to push the 3DS to a critical mass by the time the Vita drops? Only time will tell.

Feel free to chime in in the comments section.

By Tim Hanlon

Fujitsu releases Windows 7 F-07C Mobile Phone

The Windows 7 F-07C mobile phone from Fujitsu - a smartphone mode and a PC mode in one device

Fujitsu has launched what is claimed to be the world's smallest Windows PC / smartphone. Available only in Japan at the time of writing, the new F-07C phone has two modes of operation - one which gives users all we've come to expect from a modern smartphone, and another that launches a full version of Windows 7 to offer personal computing in the palm of your hand. It's powered by an Intel Atom processor, has system memory and solid state storage, and benefits from a slide-out tactile keyboard.

Earlier this year we featured the Magic W3 microcomputer, a handheld computer that also happened to include mobile phone capabilities. Now Fujitsu has unveiled its Windows 7 F-07C mobile phone, a smartphone that's also a PC.

When in smartphone mode, the F-07C behaves much as you would expect a smartphone to behave, supporting the latest NTT DOCOMO services such as i-mode mail, as well as Osaifu-Keitai, i-channel, i-concier, and Oazukari Service for mobile phone data. At the push of a button, though, the device revs up the Intel Atom Z600 processor running at 1.2GHz (note: the Magic W3 features an Atom X530 processor running at 1.6GHz) and boots up a full version of the Japanese edition of Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit (with SP1 already applied).

The phone comes with a 2-year license for Microsoft Office Personal 2010, which includes Word, Excel and Outlook, to satisfy any productivity wants, and also includes Internet Explorer 9. Rather than the onscreen keying of the Magic W3, the F-07C features a slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard with trackball for basic mouse cursor control.

There's also a 4-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution touchscreen LCD screen sporting 262,144 colors, a 5.1 megapixel CMOS sensor camera, 1GB of LPDDR400 system memory, 32GB eMMC SSD storage, and microSD/SDHC expansion support. As well as FOMA 3G, the phone also has 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR wireless capabilities. Its battery is said to offer 600 hours in standby, 370 minutes continuous talk time in voice mode, or 170 minutes in videophone mode.

With 4.92 x 2.4 x 0.77-inch (125 x 61 x 19.8 mm) dimensions and weighing 7.68 ounces (218 g) including the battery, the F-07C is both lighter and smaller than the Magic W3. For my money, it also wins in the looks department, too.

Physical connectivity to peripherals or big screen televisions/monitors is via a USB/HDMA cradle, which is sold separately.

Mozilla launches Boot to Gecko web-based mobile OS project

Mozilla has announced the start of a new project aimed at creating a new app-centric, completely open, web-based phone and tablet operating system called Boot to Gecko (B2G)

The way we spend our time online is changing fast. While the browser still reigns supreme, more and more people are getting their online fix using apps. Mozilla, the folks behind the popular Firefox browser, has now announced the start of a new project to develop an app-centric, completely open, web-based phone and tablet operating system called Boot to Gecko (B2G).

There are, of course, a good many tried and tested mobile operating systems already out there already but useful apps created for one operating environment are not going to work on another. As a developer, if you want your killer app on an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy S then you'll need to effectively create your innovation twice, or more, using different SDK's.

Rather than confine application development to vendor-specific operating environments like iOS, Android, WP7, webOS, the much-maligned Symbian and so on, the B2G project is looking to develop a complete, standalone operating system that will give developers the tools they need to create locally-cached apps at least as capable as native device applications but that will work across mobile platforms.

Open from day one

While the similarly cloud-based Google Chrome OS heads mostly for netbook-like devices, Mozilla has its eyes on the phone/tablet arena for B2G. Unlike other so-called open source developments in that area, though, B2G's code - built around the Gecko engine that drives its Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client - will be available for all to see from the start.

"We want to do Boot to Gecko the way we think open source should be done," says the project's Andreas Gal. "In the open, from day one, for everyone to see and participate."

As a starting point, the team intends to re-use a small portion of the lower layers of the Android OS. According to the project's Mike Shaver, this only represents the kernel and device drivers, in addition to libc and some ancillary bits and pieces. Although test hardware hasn't yet been chosen, the team says that it's likely that Tegra 2 devices will be chosen for initial rounds because of its support for hardware acceleration of open audio/video formats.

Developers will need to build entirely new web developer tools - as opposed to vendor-specific SDK's - that will allow B2G users to make phone calls, send text messages, take a photo and present a gallery of images, read e-books, play games, utilize near-field communications technology, and all of the other things we've come to expect from our mobile devices.

The project is still very much in its early stages at the moment, being driven by a four-man development team on a part-time basis but could mushroom very quickly as it gathers pace and veer off at any point into wholly unexplored territory. While the project infrastructure gets cemented in place, Mozilla is appealing for ideas and contributions from the online community.

Mozilla's B2G project is also looking for inspiration from and collaboration with other projects such as Chrome OS and Webian, folks at the latter having already expressed an interest in helping via the project development thread.

Huge undertaking

The B2G project is a huge undertaking for Mozilla and will clearly take more than a team of four to oversee the building of an operating system from scratch. That said, the collaborative community approach has proved quite successful for the non-profit group in the past and has also had positive knock-on effects for users of products from other brands - just look how other browser vendors upped their respective games when Firefox started snapping their market share heels.

Anyone else interested in either following or joining in with the development of B2G can find more information at the dedicated Mozilla Wiki page.

If you're wondering, the project team says that Mozilla has no plans to release a Firefox phone.