iPhone

So i get a refurbished iPhone from at&t’s website and it comes fast but it is basically an expensive paperweight.  Here is what the forzen apple screen looks like when i power it on:

 I have tried everything, replacing the USB cable, trying a new install of iTunes, Upgrading my USB drivers, I even tried a different computer and still get this “Unknown Error 23″.  I tried rolling back to firmware 2.0, 2.01, 2.1 and a few others to no avail.  So now I have to send this paperweight iPhone back to att and wait for a new one.  I tried both a hard reset and a soft reset as follows:

iPhone Hard Reset Procedure

1. Press and hold the home button (the big circle with the square inside below the screen) and the sleep wake button (the button on top of the iPhone to the right) simultaneously.
2. Hold both buttons simultaneously for a few seconds, Ignore the “Slide to power off (which I dont even get on my bricked phone at the moment)” and keep holding them down until….
3. The iPhone should now shutdown automatically – (fade to black)
4. Turn the iPhone back on by hitting the sleep/wake button.
5. You should now see the Apple logo, your iPhone is restarting and thus booting up.
6. You have completed a hard reset successfully (in theory).

iPhone Soft Reset Procedure

To perform a soft reset, press and hold the iPhone’s Sleep/Wake button and the Home button for several seconds, or until you see the apple logo on the screen. (This action did NOT reset my iPhone and I was very pissed at this point).

iPhone/Touch restore procedure

Hold down the circular button with the square below the screen WHILE plugging your iPhone or into your computer.  You should get the iTunes icon with an arrow on the screen.   Here is a picture…

Now… iTunes should detect that an iPhone is connected in restore mode.  To install your own firmware file, shift click the restore button in iTunes and browse for the correct IPSW file (sometimes you need to rename from ZIP if you downloaded from web).  Hope this works for you.

As a last resort after failed attempts at firmware rollbacks, I tried the jailbreak/unlock software made by pwned but that was unsuccessful, so now I have to send my refurbished phone back to at&t to get re-refurbished.

Samsung Omnia - More Than a Phone

NEXUS ONE

Whether the marketplace is ready or not, the Big Guns in consumer electronics are about to make their move at the dawn of the New Year.

Screenshots sent to Gizmodo from an anonymous source reveal the possible price and tariff details of the Nexus One Google phone, along with some extra hardware details.

(Courtesy Gizmodo.com)

Next Tuesday, Google is expected to announce its long-rumored Nexus One smartphone. It is undoubtedly designed to run the Google Android operating system for cellphones, which the search giant introduced more than a year ago. Android was envisioned as a major breakthrough in cellphones because it offered an "open" operating system – i.e., one that other companies could use and design applications for. At the time, this strategy was compared to that of Microsoft Windows, which broke the market hegemony of Apple's decidedly non-open OS in the mid-1980s and within a decade, turned Apple into a niche company. This time around, the new Android phones were supposed to break the hegemony of the Apple iPhone.

So far, it hasn't quite worked out that way with Android. A number of cell phone companies – notably Motorola, HTC, and Samsung – have adopted Android and seen impressive sales. However, this time around Apple, though still exhibiting much of its old "closed" and proprietary ways, has learned some important lessons over the last 20 years.

For one thing, Apple understands, better perhaps than any company on the planet, the importance of being not only perpetually innovative – but with a vast and loyal army of Apple fanatics behind it – to regularly take category-busting risks. Thus, the amazing run, beginning a decade ago, of the iMac, MacBook, iPod and iPhone. These landmark (and in the case of the iPod, historic) products not only were ambitious in their goals and beautifully designed, but they also exhibited multiple features that were so innovative that they forced the competition to spend years catching up – and by then, Apple had already moved on to the next breakthrough.

Military theorists like to say that the goal of combat is to get inside your opponent's "decision horizon" – that is, to move so quickly that the enemy can't respond in time before you have moved on to the next victory. That's exactly what Apple, at its best, has done to the consumer electronics world … and in the process has left competitors reeling, loyal customers thrilled, and not least, Apple regaining its lost market share and making its shareholders wealthy.

G-Day is tomorrow: Google to unveil 'iPhone killer' Nexus One... with an online price tag of £300

Google will finally reveal its first mobile phone tomorrow after months of frenzied speculation about its arrival, it emerged today.

The Nexus One handset, which uses software designed by the internet giant, has been developed to take on the dominant iPhone.

Full details of the Google-branded touchscreen device - manufactured by Taiwanese company HTC -  have mostly been kept under wraps despite occasional leaks.

Calling the future: How Google's new Nexus One phone will look, according to an internet preview

But tomorrow, Google's founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page will host a press conference at their California headquarters and finally show off the phone to the world.

New reports today suggest the Nexus One, named after a type of ‘replicant’ cyborg in Ridley Scott’s science-fiction film Blade Runner, will be sold online for around £300.

 

It is understood that the handset, said to have a larger screen than Apple’s iPhone and with a more powerful five-megapixel camera, will be sold in the U.S. before arriving in Europe.

The smartphone, which uses Google’s Android mobile phone operating system, reportedly has a 3.7in-long screen and runs on an exchangeable 3.7V battery.

It comes with a 4GB memory but also offers users the option of adding a 32GB memory card, according to technology website endgadget.com.

Sleek: The Nexus One looks similar to the iPhone - but its screen is 0.2in longer and it weighs less

Buyers will be able to access the Web, play video games and use Google’s free GPS maps.

Its unlocked version will allow consumers to use any wireless internet provider of their choice.

But Google is thought to have already approached T-Mobile and Vodafone in the UK to provide a cheaper locked version on contract.

The Nexus One looks similar to the iPhone but has a few distinguishing features such as a two-dimensional bar code capable of identifying each individual handset.

Google's phone is a big step for the search giant that, until now, has offered phones only in partnership with other companies.

Functions: Google Maps (left) and a news feed are among the features on the phone manufactured by HTC

It set its sights on developing its own so-called ‘smartphone’ because they are a becoming an increasingly important way of accessing the internet.

As more people go online using their mobile phones and the Web, the firm aims to deliver more ads to them.

The search engine giant hopes to take on Apple’s iconic iPhone, which has become, since its launch in 2007, the benchmark in the rapidly growing market.

Google revealed its open-source Android operating system nearly two years ago.

Since then, a dozen Android phones by companies such as Samsung and Motorola have been launched, including the recent, heavily promoted Motorola Droid.