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Gmail can now restore deleted contacts, still can't mend broken friendships
So what if Google knows and remembers all our data, at least it's turning that stuff into something useful. The latest enhancement to its Gmail client is a neat Contacts restoration option, which can rewind you back to a maximum of 30 days ago, offering a chance to recover rashly deleted email addresses or to remedy an ill-advised sync with any of your other contact-keeping services. As is par for the course with Gmail, it's a neat and seemingly minor improvement that'll probably keep users from leaving it for greener pastures over the long term as they grow accustomed to its security. Just how Google likes it.
iOS 4: Updating woes with iPhone 3G
It is for you, the faithful Apple consumers whose upgrades have gone awry, that we post this little tidbit and attempt to help you maintain your sanity. While we can't help much with the activation errors that some of you have had (potentially due to overloaded communications between Apple), we can help with the infamous error 3002 that many iPhone 3G owners are seeing when attempting to update their devices.
Samsung Restore coming to Sprint this weekend for $50
Sprint's latest option for saving the environment will run you exactly $49.99 on contract after rebate, and it'll be available in just a couple days' time. It might not be the hot news on the carrier right this second, granted, but we imagine a few folks will fall for the Samsung Restore's sliding landscape QWERTY keyboard, Energy Star 2.0-compliant charger, 2 megapixel camera, and microSD expansion all the way up to 32GB (assuming you can find a 32GB card, that is). Sunday, June 6 is your target date in your choice of "midnight" or "limeade," but you can start preparing now by recycling stuff and buying a hybrid car.
Samsung Restore coming to Sprint, has its eye on saving the world
Looking for a landscape QWERTY slider that's 84 percent recyclable? Well, you've pretty much pigeonholed yourself into the Samsung Restore, Sprint's latest in a line of eco-friendly devices that kicked off in earnest with the Reclaim last year. Like the others, the Restore is a fairly basic device with a 2 megapixel camera, microSD expansion up to 32GB, stereo Bluetooth, and a pair of keypads for operation both in the closed and open positions -- needless to say, you won't find even a hint of a smartphone operating system here. It comes bundled with an Energy Star 2.0-compliant charger which, conveniently, sits in a 100 percent recyclable box without a user manual -- it's only available online so you can feel good about saving a tree or two (not to say you won't be able to master the phone on your own within an hour or two anyway). Look for it to launch "this Summer" in your choice of "Midnight" or "Limeade" for $50 on contract after rebate. Follow the break for Samsung's press release. %Gallery-91250%
Palm and Sprint issue statement acknowledging Profile backup issue
Even in a world full of racket, it seems that the squeaky wheel still gets the grease. In yet another blow to this whole "cloud" agenda, a vocal segment of Palm users began to notice that information transferred from their online Palm Profile was only a fraction of what it should have been. Today, both Palm and Sprint have issued a joint statement acknowledging the issue and promising to work much, much harder in order to avoid having something like this ruin your life once again. To quote: "We are seeing a small number of customers who have experienced issues transferring their Palm Profile information to another Palm webOS device. Palm and Sprint are working closely together to support these customers to successfully transfer their information to the new device." Between this mess and the T-Mobile fiasco, we're pretty certain we're being forced to stay on the manual backup bandwagon for the foreseeable future. [Thanks, Mike]
Palm Pre backups can be easily overwritten by a replacement device: replacers beware!
We've just been alerted to an unsettling trend in Palm Pre land, where strings of replacement devices are a bit too common for comfort: some users have been losing their Palm Profile backup, or a large majority of it, once they pair up their new device. The big issue is that since this problem is rather sporadic, Palm doesn't seem to have a good way to deal with it yet -- the trend in the forums seems to be a complaint sent to Palm, followed up by word of an inability to restore data from Palm a few weeks later. Lucky for these hapless Pre replacers, a particularly repeat offender (working on his seventh Pre) has posted instructions for making sure this sort of data loss doesn't happen to you. His theory is that it has something to do with a refurbished device loaded with an old firmware trying to sync with the newer-firmware-styled backup your dead device made with Palm's servers, and messing stuff up in the process. He recommends walking out of the store before Sprint tries to trip you up, and upgrading and wiping the phone before reactivating it and syncing. Sounds foolproof enough, right? Let's hope. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] %Poll-37250%
Firmware 2.50 adds hidden recovery menu
It appears that firmware 2.50 also added one other feature, meant to help PS3 owners that are trying to troubleshoot their system. A recovery menu (pictured above) gives users access to a variety of restore features. It will even allow users to install a new firmware update, should anything go wrong during the installation process. To access the menu, you must hold down the power button to turn on the PS3 until you hear three beeps. Then the menu will show up.There are a few reports of systems bricking after firmware updates, so this may be Sony's attempt at creating a fix for future problems. Hopefully, we'll never have to actually use this feature -- but if we do, it may be a quick way of avoiding a trip to the post office to send the PS3 to Sony's support center.[Thanks, Noshino!]
A Star is Born getting 6K makeover: is it worthwhile?
While many film lovers across the universe are still itching to watch something in 4K, studio execs are already eying the next best thing -- or are they? The 1954 A Star is Born will soon be undergoing a 6K restoration makeover prior to its release on Blu-ray, and while this may sound impressive to those not in the know, industry experts have varying opinions on the worthiness of such an undertaking. According to Lowry Digital Images' Chief Technical Officer John Lowry, the 6K transfer "is just an attempt at marketing position," noting that "everything on film is captured at 4K." Listening to The Film Preserve's Robert Harris could make you believe otherwise, as he asserts that while there is only a "slight" advantage to preserving the film in 6K, it's still important to "get every last drop you can." (Not surprising considering his occupation.) Nevertheless, we'd recommend hitting up the read link for a few interesting viewpoints on 6K, and get on down to a 4K theater before it becomes "so last year."
Restoring your Mac from a Time Machine backup
Time Machine is probably the defining feature in Mac OS X Leopard. It provides a nice, clean interface for you to backup and restore your files; but did you know you can also restore your computer from the Time Machine backup? When you insert the Leopard install disk and boot off of it you will be presented with a semi-Mac OS X desktop. In the menu bar, select Utilities and then "Restore System from Backup..." Select your backup drive, the date you want to backup from, and then click restore. James Duncan Davidson has a full guide on his website describing how the process went. He mentions that while it restores all the files, the caches and databases are not restored. This means when you launch programs such as Mail the application will need to recreate the database, which may take some time.
iPhone Troubleshooting: How to Restart, quit frozen apps and Reset iPhone
I'm starting to think there is some sort of bad luck attached to my iTunes Store account, as tonight I experienced the third iTunes Store song that completely locked up an iPod - only this time it was my iPhone. While listening to 'Again with the Subtleties' from the Yppah album You Are Beautiful At All Times (US iTunes link) in my iPhone's iPod app, the phone completely locked up at the end of the track with an almost-faded out display. What was worse, the iPhone became completely unresponsive - the display wouldn't accept any of my taps, and even the external buttons were ignored. Momentarily wishing I could simply yank the battery to cut the power and reset the phone, I realized Apple must have some sort of a contingency in place for lock-ups like these.Fortunately, I was right: The iPhone troubleshooting section of Apple's main iPhone support site contains a walkthrough for situations like this, complete with instructions on how to restart the phone, force quit a frozen app or reset the phone in cases like mine where it has completely locked up. Here are these steps in a nutshell: Restart your iPhone: Most people probably already know how to do this, but just in case, you can simply hold the sleep/wake button on the top for a few seconds to bring up a red slider at the top of the display which allows you to power off the phone. Quit a frozen iPhone app: I know it's a crazy thought, but it is entirely possible that Apple's wondrous iPhone apps can lock up from time to time. In this case, simply hold the Home button when in the app for about 6 seconds to kill the app. You should be able to jump back into the app without restarting the phone itself. Reset your iPhone: Note that this is not Restoring your iPhone; that's the button in iTunes that wipes the iPhone and all your information on it. Resetting an iPhone is nothing more than a hard reset or a forced reboot - you're simply cutting the power and making it reboot. To do this, hold the sleep/wake button and Home buttons simultaneously for a few seconds; the display will quickly wipe itself and you should see the black background and white Apple logo, signifying a reset well done. Fortunately, that reset fixed my problem and I'm jamming again with my iPhone as I write this. Still, you can be sure that I'll ping iTunes support to find out what's going on with these files, as this is the third one I've downloaded from the iTS that's caused an iPod to stop dead in its tracks. Anyone else experience something like this? You know where to sound off.
Knight Rider K.I.T.T. clone hits eBay sans Turbo Boost
Sure, we're probably all guilty of fanboy bickering at one point or another in our lives, but even if you prefer the whips found in Back to the Future or Ghost Rider above all, just about anyone who appreciates restorations (and whiz-bang interiors) would be forced to give this faithful clone its due credit. The Ontario-based 1984 Pontiac Trans Am reportedly became a $40,000 project to turn an ordinary ride into a blast from the past, as the owner took extra care in crafting the posh dashboard and sleek exterior cues to mimic the real K.I.T.T. (which already sold) found in Knight Rider. Aside from the throwback lighting system and branded steering wing, this bad boy packs twin four-inch LCDs, "real working gauges," DVD / CD / MP3 players, and a custom stereo system with amplifiers. No, this ride doesn't come with any sort of warranty (nor a functioning Turbo Boost, sadly), and unless you're a Canuck, you'll be making a trip across the border to pick it up, but if you've got the $19,000 (or more) to burn, here's your chance to be David Hasselhoff incarnate. Click on through for a few more pics, or hit up the auction for the full spill.[Via Autoblog]
