Electronics packaging has been growing steadily smaller and less annoying over recent times, but here comes Apple adding complexity where we didn't know it was needed. The bright sparks at Cupertino envision powered, data-transmitting boxes that will ensure the device within is fully juiced, packing the latest firmware, and capable of pumping out video demos so that the packaging needn't get in the way of wooing customers. Sure, up-to-date firmware and a full battery sound nice, but we can't help but wonder about the price premium we'd have to swallow to be able to see our new toy dancing before we've even set it free from its box.

[Via Phone Arena]

Step aside, JAC Hero, there's a new firmware in town. Fatal1ty (that Fatal1ty?) and nk02 have not only managed to obtain the HTC Hero's new (and almost final) Sense UI-infused firmware, but have spruced it up for consumption by HTC Magic / Dream users. There's naturally a bit of glitchiness -- apparently WiFi and Bluetooth don't work at the moment, and the camera is all funkified, but the real treat here is the first implementation of Flash 10 on Android, even if it is a bit "laggy" on the RAM-starved G1. The widgets are also on display, and other than Flash the general experience is apparently pretty snappy. Naturally, the xda-dev folks won't be leaving well enough alone, and we should be seeing refined versions of this and future Hero firmwares leading up to and after the release of the actual device.

[Via xda-developers forum; thanks Jeremy W., screenshot by johnnylicious]

We don't know exactly what's new yet, but Palm's released firmware version 1.0.4 for Pres on Sprint (not to say there are any other Pres out there at the moment, anyhow). Stay tuned for details.

Update: Looks like the only changes here address security vulnerabilities -- and interestingly, Palm gives a shout-out to Townsend Ladd Harris (a Pre homebrewer no less) who helped find them. Cheers to that.

Update 2: Sadly, Palm's plugged the hole that allowed homebrew apps on the phone without a jailbreak, though software you've already installed on the phone will continue to work. The hole that's been plugged was admittedly dangerous to leave open (installing apps via a link in email), though rooting and installing otherwise remain unchanged as far as we know.

Kodak's already taken some steps to cut down on counterfeiting of its batteries, and it looks like Panasonic is now taking some fairly drastic measures of it own, which could leave some users of its cameras a tad unhappy. Apparently, the company has determined that some third-party batteries amazingly don't meet its own rigid safety standards, so it's now released a new firmware update that can detect said batteries and prevent them from working. At the moment, that only includes cameras that use DMW-BCF10, DMW-BCG10, or DMW-BLB13 battery packs (some sixteen cameras in all), but it seems safe to assume that this'll soon be standard practice on all Panasonic cameras.

[Via Slashdot]

It didn't take long for Garmin to get into gear, once it acknowledged the firmware update had ultimately brought ruin to its nüvi 7x5 series GPS units. The company's released a new software update that should provide a fix -- it should be available now via its WebUpdater. If you're one of those whose device won't even turn on anymore, there's also a support section online for requesting a return authorization to have it repaired under warranty. Garmin acknowledged a few other devices that may be affected, including 800 series, 8x5 series, zūmo 660, and GPSMAP 620 / 640. Those will all be getting updates "in the near future."

Things are still a little early with this one, but a sizable number of reports have cropped up today indicating that there's some seriously wrong with Garmin's 7x5 series GPS units, with a firmware update seemingly the likely culprit. Interestingly, it doesn't look like the firmware update instantly bricked the units when it was installed, but rather caused them all to suddenly seize up at some point on June 22nd. While it's not saying anything official just yet, a number of folks that have spoken with Garmin's customer support say that the company is aware of the problem now that the calls are pouring in, although it's unfortunately not offering much in the way of solutions to the problem just yet (though at least a few customers seem to have been offered a replacement unit). So, has your nuvi left you in the lurch? Let us know in comments.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Garmin is aware of the issue and is working to fix it. Full response is after the break.

We've seriously no idea why Apple didn't just ship all of the June 2009 MacBook Pro units with the SATA 3Gbps specification enabled, but at least it caved to the chorus of complaints and enabled it today via a firmware update. MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7, as it's called in Software Update, weighs in at just 3.35MB and requires OS X 10.5.7 to be installed. According to Apple, the update "addresses an issue reported by a small number of customers using drives based on the SATA 3Gbps specification with the June 2009 MacBook Pro." Of course, it goes on to say that it still doesn't support the use of drives that can take advantage of such speeds, but at least you have the option now of taking matters into your own hands and upgrading to a non-hamstrung SSD should you choose.

[Via MacRumors]

You can refresh all you want but that won't make the 3.0 update for your iPhone appear any faster. In fact, you might want to give your trigger finger a rest for a few hours -- Engadget bud, Richard Lai, noted in a tweet that Apple's Singapore site says that the iPhone OS 3.0 update will release on the 18th while Apple India says the 17th, the date announced by Apple -- the difference presumably accounting for the 2.5-hour timezone offset between the two countries. That would peg an OS 3.0 release anytime between 1700 and 1930 in London or between noon and 2:30pm in New York. But don't let a little knowledge ruin your obsessive behavior, where's the fun in that?

Update: The theory is supported by reports that carrier 3 in Hong Kong sent a network-wide SMS notifying iPhone owners that OS 3.0 will be available on June 18th, 01:00 local time. That's 1pm on the 17th in New York, 6pm in London, and 1900 in central Europe.

[Via Pocket-Lint and Richard Lai]

Read -- Singapore launch
Read -- India launch

We've got a number of tips this morning about lucky iPhone 3G S pre-orderers getting shipment notifications from Apple. Naturally, with a high profile launch like this we're guessing Apple has done all it can to ensure shipments won't slip through earlier than the June 19th launch date, but hopefully at least few folks will get lucky -- and at least they've got one of the only guarantees of a launch day phone going. In other news, an anonymous Apple Store employee has done some homework and tallied up average reservation numbers at other US stores -- he estimates about 800 people on average are on the reservation list per Apple Store (ranging from a couple hundred to well over a thousand), which amounts to about 200,000 reservations as of now, a number he believes could double before launch. There's no way to back that number up, but it sounds fairly rational. Finally, the iPhone 3G S firmware download link has made its way into the wild. Sure, it doesn't do you any good if you don't have an iPhone 3G S, but we thought you just might want to know all the same.

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]

Read - iPhone 3G S shipping notice
Read - iPhone 3G S firmware

If you were to put the Pre on a scale of hacker friendliness from 1 to 10, where 1 is the iPhone (remember how long it took for the first jailbreaks back in the day?) and 10 is, say, OpenMoko, we're starting to get the impression that Palm's latest effort falls somewhere way past the 5 mark. We got out first hint that they're being good sports about letting developers play with the Konami code access to developer mode, and now we've got news that it's easy -- nay, trivial -- to run whatever firmware you'd like on the phone. It seems all you've got to do is hold down the volume up key when connecting the Pre to your computer via USB, then you can flash the phone 'til you're blue in the face; even better, the enterprising dev who found the trick says that it's mega simple to modify the stock build and he'd wiped out the activation check with minimal effort. This can only be good news for tweakers and anyone wanting to walk off the App Catalog's beaten path, and if this ultimately means we're a few solid steps closer to a Pre running WinMo 6.1, sign us up. Way up.

[Via Daring Fireball]

We'd heard it was coming and now it's here -- the just-released EOS 5D Mark II 1.1.0 firmware update adds a much-longed-for manual exposure control to the video mode. That ought to warm some budding filmmaker hearts our there -- and the rest of us can enjoy a few other minor enhancements. Fun for the whole family!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

An incredible way to start the weekend, Storm owners: Verizon is finally pulling the trigger on a firmware update, which will be available to all comers starting on Sunday at 3PM Eastern time. If that's too much trouble, you'll alternatively be able to sit back, chill, and wait for the over-the-air version to hit, which should follow on at 10PM. Verizon tells us that it'll be releasing 4.7.0.148, as rumored -- just a tiny bump from the failed build 141 that had been rumored before that, but all told, far, far too long since the last official update was rolled out. We can only assume this has been tested better than a NASA launch at this point, so you're on notice, guys.

Remember how we found out that there's a difference between the Google-branded Android firmware and its HTC-modified equivalent, and the latter isn't allowed to feature the silkscreened Google logo? The HTC version is way cooler on account of its Exchange ActiveSync support and the much-improved camera app; the only downside is that you can't flaunt that logo on the case, which -- let's be honest -- is totally meaningless to an end user (unless you're some raving Google fanboy / fangirl, and in that case, no amount of awesome customization is going to sway you). Anyhow, it's up to individual carriers to decide which versions of the devices they wish to launch, and Rogers customers will be excited to know that they're getting the logo-free HTC builds. That makes Canadian Dreams and Magics a whole hell of a lot more useful to business users than the G1s down in the States, and going forward, this is an issue T-Mobile probably wants to think about -- as long as the base Android code doesn't license ActiveSync, anyway.

Ready for some totally prototypical corporate non-answers regarding the alleged release of Android 1.5 on T-Mobile USA's G1s? Good. Here you go:

"T-Mobile USA will confirm details of Android 1.5 availability for our T-Mobile G1 customers in the near future."

Doesn't mean much to us -- and it's hard to tell from that alone whether 1.5's actually begun over-the-air distribution -- but at any rate, it seems like they're not ready to talk about it yet. Don't keep us waiting long, guys.