BlackBerry Bold Too Hot To Handle In Japan

Research In Motion has a bit of a PR mess on its hands after news broke that Japanese Telco DoCoMo was pulling the BlackBerry Bold off the shelves due to an overheating problem:

DoCoMo said it has sold about 4,000 high-end Bold phones, and about 30 users have complained the phone’s keyboard area had heated up. The company said it has received no reports of users getting burned or of phones catching on fire.

RIM claims that this issue is restricted to these particular BlackBerries. But in the interest of science, please leave a comment if you’ve experienced anything that’s similar to what is described above.

Bell Canada Backtracks On Twitter Charges…. More Or Less

I guess the Twitterati must have given Bell Canada an earful over their rather ill advised plan to charge $0.15 for each Twitter message that is sent or received via SMS, because Bell has decided not to charge the $0.15 fee:

“Bell and Twitter have agreed that all Twitter SMS (short message service) messages will be included in Bell text bundles at no charge,” said Julie Smithers, spokeswoman for Bell. “The bundles start at $3 per month for unlimited incoming messages and up to 30 outgoing peer-to-peer messages.”

In fact if you check the original press release, it has no mention of the $0.15 fee anymore. But of course Google cache has the proof that Bell did actually want to charge this fee once upon a time. Which means that Bell’s PR droids people weren’t smart enough to think of that before attempting to rewrite history.

In the words of Nelson Muntz….. HA! HA!

This just proves that you should never underestimate the power of the Twitterati.

MacBook Air Has Hinge Problem…. Considered Accidental Damage By Apple…. Fanbois Unhappy

I tripped over these two posts on Apple’s discussion boards that talks about a a problem with the hinges of the MacBook Air where the hinge falls apart. Posters are claiming that they didn’t abuse the computers and Apple is denying warranty claims due to “accidental damage.” Engadet is also running a story on this and they’re calling it a defect:

Reports of cracked hinges on the laptop are nothing new, but we always assumed Apple would eventually ‘fess up to the problem and comp those repairs. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and we just got another report of a hapless MacBook Air owner who has a broken hinge that Apple says will cost $800 to repair, despite the fact the laptop is under warranty. Our own MacBook Air Rev. A had the exact same problem — the hinge becomes loose over time, then suddenly catches and cracks from normal use, it’s not from undue stress — and Apple did the repair for free, but only after we escalated the issue to a manager, who let us know how very nice of them that was. From reading various reports, that seems the exception to Apple’s repair policy, which lists this sort of damage as “accidental,” and we’re wondering how widespread this issue may be.

Any comments on this? Please post away!

An Update On My Toyota Matrix…. It Seems That I Am Not Alone…

First, let me update you on my issue with my Toyota Matrix (click here in case you need to catch up on this nightmare of mine). The car continues to work just fine as I type this. So I continue to remain optimistic that it is fixed and fixed for good.

I think I mentioned that my postings about this issue got thousands of page views. It seems that one of them was from another Toyota Matrix owner in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) who has an interest in my story. He has the same model of Toyota Matrix that I have with exactly the same options and he loves the car…. however:

And just the other day as it rolled past 15,000km all the warning lights came on for us too. The vsc control, the awd light, the engine light. Took it to the dealer, and the code was for ” Camshaft Position “A” Circuit Malfunction”. They checked the sensor, and the sensor was fine. checked the wiring harness ( was good), and cleared the code, and told me they suspect the ECU may have had a glitch. They said if it happens again, they will check it again, and may have to replace the ECU.  So we will see if it comes back, and I suspect it will, since really all they did was clear a code. Having a Camshaft malfunction, doesn’t sound like it would be an easy fix, if there truly was a camshft malfunction ready to happen, and the car was trying to warn me about it!

The fact that he has the same symptoms that I had seems to indicate that the problems with my car may not have been a fluke. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself. He’s promised to keep me posted on his progress and he plans to take my postings on my experience to his dealer.

I hope he has better luck than I did as I do not wish my experience on anyone.

Microsoft Says That Vista Service Pack 2 Will Hit The Streets In Q2-2009

A brief entry in the Microsoft blog has announced that Windows Vista SP2 will be available “sometime” in Q2-2009:

SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 include updates that have been delivered since the release of SP1, as well as support for new types of hardware and emerging standards. As we’ve described since we first talked about SP2, we’ve taken your feedback into account when developing SP2. Specifically, we expect SP2 to continue the security benefits of both products and simplify deployment for our customers.

The link that I referenced above also has a list of the things that SP2 will do. The list is very long, but it is worth reading if you’re a user of Vista. Oh, for those of you with testicles of steel brave enough to try it, a release candidate will be available to the public.

Every Excel User Should Fear This New Vulnerability

If you run Microsoft Excel, you need to pay attention to this. Oh, you Mac users over there need to stop snickering becasue it affects you too. Microsoft has warned users that a critical vulnerability has been found in Excel:

Security experts say that the flaw, occurring in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and earlier, exists in the old Excel binary .xls format. The attack is triggered when the user opens the malicious spreadsheet, causing two files to be dropped on the system — the malicious binary as well as another valid Excel document. The shell code then executes the dropped files and opens the valid Excel document to mask the fact that Excel has just crashed or become infected with the malware.

Upon opening an infected Excel file, users unknowingly execute a Trojan horse downloader onto their computers that can be used to stealthily record keystrokes and steal private and financial data.

Products affected by this include:

• Office 2000
• Office 2002
• Office 2003
• Office 2007
• Office 2004 for Mac
• Office 2008 for Mac
• Open XML File Format Converter for Mac

So far, no patch exists. But you can bet that programmers at Microsoft are working hard on one if only to stop the chairs from being thrown at them by Steve Ballmer so that users are safe once again.

Want To Update Your Existing Computer To Windows 7? You May Want To Rethink That…

Microsoft has been telling the world that if hardware supports Windows Vista, it will support Windows 7. Computer Reseller News has put that to the test, and the results don’t seem to support what Microsoft has been saying:

But after a series of tests on older and newer hardware, a number of noteworthy issues emerged: Microsoft’s statement that if hardware works with Windows Vista it will work with Windows 7 appears to be, at best, misleading; hardware that is older, but not near the end of most business life cycles, could be impossible to upgrade; and the addition of an extra step in the upgrade process does add complexity and more time not needed in previous upgrade cycles.

That basically means that if you want Windows 7, you’re best path as it stands is to buy a new box with Windows 7 on it. The article does note that Windows 7 is still in beta and things can improve between now and the time it ships, but this is not a good sign. Why? Ignoring the fact that the upgrade path as it stands right now requires more time and effort than in the past which will be a drain on IT resoursces, there is the fact that companies who are likely suffering with this rather horrific economy are not going to go out and buy new boxes just to run Windows 7.

Microsoft needs to step up and deal with this now. Otherwise Windows 7 could end up being the “son of Vista.”

Bell Brings SMS Service For Twitter To Canada…. At A Price

Here’s the good news, Bell has brought the SMS Service For Twitter To Canada. Here’s the bad news, according to this Bell press release, it’s going to cost you:

Bell Mobility clients can access SMS service for Twitter for 15 cents for each message sent or received. For more information, please visit bell.ca/socialsites.

15 Cents a message??? Is Bell freaking serious?!?!?

Bell must be on crack if they expect Twitter users to pay such outrageous amounts. Somebody at Bell seriously needs to wake up and get a clue as they can fully expect Twitter users to be mad enough to Twitter their followers about Bell’s blatent attempt to rip their users off.

Mac Clonemaker Knows That Their Days Are Numbered… Unlike Those Other Clonemakers….

You might recall that I have posted about PearC previously, and they thought that they were somehow immune to the iLawyers. Well according to the New York Times, reality has kicked them in the ass sunk in as they realize that the iLawyers might be at their doorstep at any time:

“Our PearC computers are for anyone who needs a fast machine, but does not need a good looking computer. We know the product does not have a long life time but we do not fear Apple.”

They still plan on selling their clone Macs until the iLawyers show up, and they still think they’re on the right side of this fight.  At least he’s more realistic than those deluded people at Psystar who’s legal arguments sometimes makes me wonder what drugs they’re using.

Gmail Was More Like G-fail Today

Reports have appeared all over the Interwebs that indicate that Gmail was down today. I personally didn’t notice it myself, but it must have happened as this was on the Gmail help site:

Many of our users had difficulty accessing Gmail today. The problem is now resolved and users have had access restored. We know how important Gmail is to our users, so we take issues like this very seriously, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Did anybody have any problems with Gmail today? If so, please leave a comment.