Australia Tech Gadget: January 2012

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Nikesh Arora rumored to become Motorola CEO after acquisition

Nikesh Arora, Google’s SVP and Chief Business Officer, will run Motorola once the Google acquisition closes later this year, according to rumor published by Business Insider. Arora ran the company’s international business for Eric Schmidt, taking over the global business after the former CEO stepped down. Arora has reportedly been “agitating” for a CEO position and was included on a short list of candidates to head Yahoo. It is possible, however, that a promised CEO slot at Motorola could have prompted Arora to continue with Google. The rumor further notes that Dennis Woodside, Google’s current head of U.S. sales, will take over Arora’s current position.

Mozilla’s Firefox 10 now available for download

Mozilla on Tuesday released the latest version of its Firefox browser. In addition to allowing users to run full-screen apps, Firefox 10 offers the following enhancements:

The forward button is now hidden until you navigate back.
Most add-ons are now compatible with new versions of Firefox by default.
Anti-Aliasing for WebGL is now implemented.
CSS3 3D-Transforms are now supported.

Mozilla also made some HTML5 changes and noted two bug fixes. The company said that it has fixed a Java-related crash, which Mac OS X users experienced in earlier versions, as well as a crash related to moving bookmarks. Firefox 10 is available immediately as a free download.

Google TV Update Rolling Out Now For Sony Blu-Ray Players

The official Google TV Twitter account tweeted just moments ago that a software update for Sony Blu-ray players has begun rolling out. The 260MB update will bring about the ability for the players to now playback Blu-rays in the 3rd dimension and much needed speed enhancements to the Chrome browser. Lord knows, my Revue browser could perform a hell-of-a-lot quicker. If you haven’t received the update just yet, you can pull it manually by jumping into your System Settings > About > System Updates.

How to replace a GSM/AT&T iPhone 4 speaker assembly and cellular antenna [Weekly mod]

Having speaker or cellular reception issues on your GSM/AT&T iPhone 4 and want to DIY repair it? iMore has you covered. We can guide you through the process and give you advice on where to get your parts and tools. Replacing the bottom speaker assembly or cellular antenna are both pretty straight forward repairs if you’ve got good instructions, the right tools, and quality parts.

Disclaimer: As with any repair, iMore nor PXLFIX can be held responsible for any damage you may do to your device. It’s also worth considering that opening up your device to perform any repair or modification can and will void your Apple warranty. If you don’t feel comfortable opening your device, don’t. Use extreme care and caution when performing a repair on any device.

What issues this repair will address

Cellular reception issues – if your iPhone 4 can’t hold a cellular signal, won’t connect to 3G, or constantly says “Searching..” – you may need to replace your antenna. First try replacing your SIM or speaking with your carrier.
Bottom speaker doesn’t work when using speakerphone or playing music

What you need for a DIY speaker or cellular antenna repair

PXLFIX recommends using only quality and genuine parts from a reputable supplier like eTech Parts. They have quality parts, tools, and much more for all your repair needs.
Please note the speaker assembly is the same across all models of iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S but the antenna will be different.

GSM iPhone 4 (please note there ARE internal differences between the GSM and CDMA models)
New GSM iPhone 4 speaker assembly or cellular antenna (whichever part you are replacing)
SIM removal tool (or a paper clip)
#00 Phillips screwdriver
Pry tool or spudger
Security screwdriver (only if your iPhone has 5-point security screws in the dock connector)

Power off your iPhone 4

Before performing any repair, always power off your device before removing any screws or parts.

Remove the back

First remove the bottom 2 dock connector screws in your iPhone 4. Use either your #00 screwdriver or the five point depending on whether or not your iPhone 4 has security screws in the dock connector. Almost all newer devices will have security screws.
To remove the back simply slide the back upwards and lift it off gently.
Set the back and 2 dock connector screws aside.

Remove your SIM card

Use a SIM removal tool or a paperclip to remove your SIM card and tray. Set them aside.

Remove the battery

To remove the battery you’ll need to remove the #00 screw holding the battery clip in place. Remove this screw located to the bottom left of the battery.
The metal clip on the battery is what clips the battery to the logic board. You’ll need to pop this clip up with your plastic pry tool. Simply stick the end of your pry tool underneath the clip and gently pull upwards until it unfastens from the logic board.
To remove the battery, I do not recommend using the plastic pull tab. There is quite a bit of adhesive underneath the battery and the tab will normally just rip off or you can bend the battery. Instead, run your pry tool along the right side of the battery and break the adhesive that way. Once the battery is free from the adhesive, you can pull the battery out of the phone. There are no other connectors holding it in.
You will notice a tiny grounding clip sitting underneath where you unscrewed the battery. Set this aside for replacement during reassembly. This is a grounding clip for your antenna. Make sure you put it back in place before reconnecting your battery.

Remove the dock connector shield and disconnect the cable

There is a shield held on with two screws covering the dock connector cable. Remove the two screws holding it in place and set the shield and screws aside, remembering where they came from.
Next, use your pry tool to pry up the actual dock connector cable. Be careful as there is adhesive holding the cable in place as well. Peel back the adhesive gently to free the cable.

Remove the top logic board shield

There are 5 screws holding the logic board shield in place. Remove the 5 screws holding it in place. Just be sure to remember which holes they came out of as the screws are different sizes. I always keep them in order of how they came out.
Next you’ll need to remove the shield. There is a tiny clip built into the shield holding it in place. (Refer to the photo above.) Pop it up with your pry tool and you should be able to slide the shield up fairly easily. Just take care not to bend it or break off a clip.

Disconnect the 6 cables from the top of the logic board

There is only one connector holding the camera to the logic board. Remove this cable in the picture above using your pry tool. Gently lift upwards and it will pop right off.
Next gently lift the camera out of the device. You’ll notice there is a tiny tab that is seated underneath the LCD and digitizer cables to the right.
Next pop up the LCD and digitizer cables to the right of where the camera cable was connected. You pop them up in the same direction.
The 3 cables further to the right will need to be disconnected as well. They pop up in the opposite direction.

Remove the logic board

Start with the 2 screws holding the logic board down in the middle and at the bottom left. Both use your #00 Phillips screwdriver. They are the same size. The one on the right of the logic board in the middle of the device has a water sensor over it you’ll need to remove.
The second screw is located where the logic board meets the speaker assembly towards the bottom left of the device.
The third and final screw holding the logic board in is located at the top of the logic board off to the right. It is the only cross-head screw in your device. Use a small flathead screwdriver to carefully remove it.
You should now be able to remove your logic board. Holding it at the bottom, gently pull it upwards. I use my other hand to lift up at the top where the rear facing camera used to be.
Take note that there is a small rubber piece that sits at the top of the logic board. You will need this for re-assembly so make sure it doesn’t fall off. If you lose this, you could see reception issues.

Remove the speaker assembly

To remove the speaker assembly you have one more #00 screw to remove. It sits to the right of the speaker assembly in the bottom right hand corner of your device. Remove it.
The second screw holding the speaker assembly into your iPhone you’ve already removed when you removed the logic board.
Gently lift the speaker assembly out of your device and set it aside.

Replace the speaker assembly

If you’re replacing the speaker assembly, you’ll just need to unscrew the cellular antenna and peel back the adhesive holding it in place. There are only 2 screws holding it in place. Place the cellular antenna carefully on the new speaker assembly and follow the instruction video for reassembly below.

Replacing the cellular antenna

Remove the 2 screws holding the old assembly down and peel it off the speaker assembly. From here you can apply the new cellular antenna to the speaker assembly. Most will come with adhesive already on them and ready for installation. Be sure to put any folds or creases where necessary as some come flat and you’ll have to work it into place.

Reassemble your iPhone

Once you’ve gotten your new speaker assembly or cellular antenna reassembled using the steps above, you’ll just need to reassemble your iPhone 4. We’ve put together a reassembly video you can watch above.

And… done!

Rogers to release the Nokia Lumia 900

To-date Nokia has sold 1 million Lumia smartphones and we’ll soon see our Canadian carriers add to the numbers. It’s been a very long trek for Windows Phone 7 handsets in Canada. There hasn’t been a new model since October 2010… but both Rogers and TELUS are on tap to change that. Rogers will be releasing the Lumia 710 and TELUS will be releasing the Lumia 800. A few weeks back we let you know that the Lumia 900 was en route and now we’re hearing from several sources that you can expect to see this heading straight for Rogers. No details on prices, but the launch is tentatively scheduled to be happening this May.

NEW GAME: Space shooter / RPG hybrid X Fleet

X Fleet is a new Android shooter that’s been designed a little differently. It’s sort of a cross between a 2D shooter and an adventure game with… RPG elements. It could be the best thing ever, heralding a new age and inventing an entirely new genre. Or it might be nonsense.

Here’s how the developer describes this new experience:

I set out to do things differently – I desperately wanted to avoid the puzzle / physics cloning that’s rampant in the market. I didn’t even want to bring a classic space shooter into the world.
The end result is a space shooter cut up with the familiar RPG elements of weapons/ship upgrades, NPCs, quests, and a full narrative. Final Fantasy-esque towns take the form of the orbit of all the worlds of the solar system.

Still none the wiser. Here’s what it looks like:

Good to see the British Pound used as a space currency for once. The game’s free to download, with a few ads and some non-essential micro transactions inside to help support it and pay for the maker to one day update his PC’s graphics card.

There’s a trailer on the developer’s site and X Fleet is on the Android Market here

Asus Padfone Confirmed For MWC 2012 Launch

Yesterday we heard a rumor hat Asus would be showing of their new smartphone and tablethybrid device, the Asus Padfone at this years Mobile World Congress which takes place in Barcelona next month.

Now Asus has confirmed that the Padfone will appear at MWC 2012, and sent out invites, which you can see below, featuring the new Asus Padfone.

We are looking forward to seeing the new Asus Padfone, a device which we first heard about early last year, and it is made up of a 4 inch smartphone and a 10.1 inch tablet which are docked together to form one device.

Wikileaks looks move servers offshore to avoid prosecution

In an attempt to evade U.S. prosecution, Julian Assange’s investors are said to be in the process of moving Wikileaks’s servers offshore, according to Fox News. Multiple unnamed sources spoke with the news network and said Assange’s financial backers have been going through the logistics of moving the servers to international waters. “They can keep running Wikileaks and nobody can touch them,” a source told Fox News. “If you get a certain distance away from any land then you’re dealing with maritime law … They can’t prosecute him under maritime law. He’s safe. He’s not an idiot, he’s actually very smart.” Read on for more.
Wikileaks’s servers are currently located in Sweden and Iceland, among other locations. The company is reportedly eyeing a move to the Principality of Sealand, a World War II-era former anti-aircraft platform in the North Sea off the coast of England. Due to a 1968 British court ruling, the facility is outside the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom, with Sealand’s owners declaring the facility a sovereign state.
Others have dismissed the idea, however, claiming that simply moving servers would not protect Wikileaks and its members from prosecution. “Where the data resides isn’t what determines jurisdiction,” said Jim Dempsey, vice president of public policy with the Center for Democracy and Technology. “You prosecute real people, you don’t prosecute servers. So if the Wikileaks people want to live on a platform in the North Sea and educate their children there … for people who have lives, that doesn’t make sense.”
Assange, who is currently facing extradition for sexual assault charges, announced last week that he would be hosting his own talk show and will be a guest on the 500th episode of The Simpsons.

Samsung Nexus S 4G Ice Cream Sandwich ROM Leaked

The leaked Android 4.0 ROM seems to be an official release and has been published on theXDA Developers Forums, and reports it version as 4.0.4. Once installed it was also discovered that the leaked ROM also provided an update to the handsets baseband.

Google started rolling out an update to Ice Cream Sandwich for the GSM version of its Nexus Sback in December last year, however an update for the 4G version, has never been announced. The leak of the new ROM reveals that here is an update in the works and could be landing on devices very soon.

First impression of the leaked ROM provide positive feedback with reports of faster WiMAX speeds with the new baseband installed. Jump over to the XDA Forums if you would like to try the leaked ROM out for yourself, with full instructions on how to complete the installation. Enjoy!

Apple Motion 5.0.2 Update Rolls Out, Adding Improved Speed And Responsiveness

Joining the new update rolled out by Apple today for their Final Cut Pro X video editingsoftware. Apple has also rolled out an update for its Motion 5.0.2 software. Motion 5 providesFinal Cut Pro X users with additional tools to tweak and customise video footage, and is available to purchase for $50.

Enabling users to create and edit motion graphics, titling for video production and film production, and 2D and 3D compositing for visual effects. The new update released today is around 1.05GB in size and improves speed and responsiveness of text editing.

When first released the new Motion 5 packages was updated with an interface had been redesigned specifically for Final Cut Pro editors, with a familiar look and feel. Making it easy to switch between the two applications. A new single-window layout puts all the tools you need at your fingertips, and redesigned icons make it easy to identify options at glance.

The new Motion 5 update also brings with it improved overall stability and performance tweaks and is available as a download via the Mac App Store software on Mac OS X Lion.

Unannounced HTC Ville with Android 4.0 and Sense 4.0 shown off in leaked video

HTC’s upcoming smartphone code-named the HTC Ville just stared in a leaked video ahead of an official announcement, which is expected to come at next month’s Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. BGR exclusively reported this past November that HTC will unveil the Ville at MWC. We said the device would be thinner than Apple’s latest iPhone and would feature Android 4.0, Sense 4.0, a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon Series 4 processor, an 8-megapixel display, HSPA+ and a 1,650 mAh battery. This new video confirms much of our report — HTC Hub’s footage shows Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 4.0 running on a sleek and slender smartphone with a gorgeous display. HTC is also expected to announce the quad-core flagship HTC Edge at the show next month according to our sources. The HTC Ville video can be viewed after the break.

The iPhone Lens Wallet

Mobile phone cameras are becoming more and more popular, we have already seen a number of add on lenses for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, and now the guys from Photojojo have launched the iPhone lens wallet.

The iPhone Lens Wallet is designed to let you carry your multiple iPhone lenses around with you, and it can be purchased as a standalone wallet or with a number of different lenses for your iPhone.

The iPhone Lens Wallet features a magnetic strip that holds all your different lenses in place, and it also has room for a mini tripod and an 8x telephoto lens.

The case is available for $15 on its own or you can buy it for $79, which include four different lenses, you can find out more information over at Photojojo.

via-Photojojo.