Nokia said on Twitter Wednesday that a second software update will roll out to Lumia 800 devices over the next two weeks. It is largely expected that the update will help fix the poor battery life that has plagued some, but not all, Lumia 800 users. Nokia has already addressed the battery issue, which limits the capacity of the battery, and has even recommended that those with the problem send their devices in for replacement phones.

[Via The Verge]

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HTC’s chief executive officer Peter Chou recently said his company has already developed a solution to dodge an ITC injunction, which was issued after a ruling that found HTC guilty of infringing two of Apple’s patents. “It’s actually quite rarely used,” Chou said of the feature that violates Apple’s patents, suggesting that the company isn’t afraid of the ban that is set to take effect on April 19th. HTC issued a statement following the ITC’s decision and explained that the patent ” is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.” In other words, don’t worry too much if you have your heart set on buying HTC’s upcoming Elite flagship device set to launch on AT&T early next year.

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Nokia’s European support team has issued an official statement to those who have a Lumia 800 with poor battery life. “We immediately started to investigate these reports and can now confirm that while the battery itself is fine, a software problem on certain variants is limiting the phone’s ability to access the full battery capacity,” a Nokia representative wrote on the support forums Monday. Michael explained that the battery life issues are only the result of a software flaw and, as such, Lumia 800 owners can expect a software patch that fixes the problem early next year. Lumia 800 users who do not want to wait that long can contact Nokia and request a replacement handset. Hit the break for Nokia’s explanation of how to find out whether or not your Lumia 800 is affected by the bug.

Anyone who wants to know if their phone is affected can run the battery status test from the diagnostics tool already installed on their phone. (The tool is designed for service use and only displays approximate values.) Dialling ##634# opens the diagnostics tool. By accepting the disclaimer and then selecting ‘Battery Status’ from the list of options, anyone will be able to see their available battery charge capacity.  If your full charge capacity reads less than 1000 mAh then your phone is affected with this specific issue and you may find it is necessary to charge your phone more frequently than normal.

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Verizon Wireless on Monday confirmed that it is working on a software fix that will address what it refers to as a “signal strength issue” present in its just-released Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone. “The signal strength issue is currently being investigated,” a Verizon Wireless support representative posted on a company Twitter account. “We don’t have an ETA, but a software update is being developed.” We’ve noticed that the signal strength displayed by our Galaxy Nexus review unit is sometimes weaker than other Verizon smartphones in the same room, but we haven’t experienced any above-average call drops, slowed data throughput or anything else that might result from poor reception. Verizon launched the highly anticipated Galaxy Nexus last week, and we called the international version of the handset the best Android phone to date when we reviewed it last month.

[Via Engadget]

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Apple on Thursday released an update to iOS 5 that addressed issues many users were having with poor battery performance. The Cupertino, California-based company had been testing the solution for some time, even uncharacteristically reaching out to affected end-users and having them install the potential fix to test its effectiveness. Despite Apple’s determination that iOS 5.0.1 resolved issues related to battery life, however, not all users are finding that to be the case. Read on for more.

“After upgrading to 5.0.1 my iPhone is draining the battery even faster,” one user posted to Apple’s support forum. A number of other iPhone owners have taken to Apple’s forum to complain that instead of improving their battery life, iOS 5.0.1 has actually exacerbated the issue. Numerous threads can be found on Apple’s website and on other forums around the web, and some users claim to lose as much as 50% of a charge in two hours or less. Apple has not publicly addressed users’ complaints.

Apple released iOS 5 on October 12th and reports of significantly decreased battery life surfaced almost immediately. BGR has independently tested a number of handsets and while battery life does seem less impressive than it was with iOS 4, we have not found performance to be nearly as bad as many reports indicate.

Siri, secure yourself. If only that command worked; as it turns out, the popular virtual assistant feature on the iPhone 4S that allows users to schedule appointments, search the web, check the weather and more, may be a security threat to users who want to keep private information away from prying eyes — and ears. CNET discovered that Siri’s default security setting allows users to access the iPhone 4S feature even when the phone is locked. That means if you leave your iPhone in a cab, for example, a thief could easily access your address book, appointments and other personal information. Thankfully, there is an easy way to turn the setting off. Simply visit Settings and click General, then click Passcode Lock and toggle the option for “Allow access to Siri when locked with a passcode” to Off. The iPhone 4S will now require the the phone to be unlocked before it allows access to Siri. 

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Apple made Lion, its eighth major OS X release, available to Mac computer users on July 20th, and the Cupertino-based tech giant noted in the first sentence of its press release that Lion includes “more than 250 new features.” Unfortunately for a seemingly large group of users — this editor included — the only new features that really mattered were the numerous annoyances that came to light after just a few minutes of usage. The new autocorrect, the annoying new event behavior in iCal, the lack of key repeat, the bizarre defaults set throughout the OS… we could go on for quite a while. Some love these new features while others seriously considered rolling back to Snow Leopard. While unhappy users will have adjust to much of the new behavior if they wish to continue using Lion, there is now an answer for several common gripes: Lion Tweaks. Developed by “Fredrik W,” Lion Tweaks allows users to dial back some of the improvements that are common sources of agony, including the new spelling correction feature, a bunch of annoying animations and more. Lion Tweaks is at version 1.2 right now, and it looks like the app is being actively developed, so we can hopefully expect new capabilities soon. Hit the break to download the utility from the developer’s site.

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T-Mobile has officially announced that it is now pushing out Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) to its LG G2x customers. The update includes the following enhancements:

Improved battery life

Improved front-facing camera operation when using Qik record and share

Improved disabling Car Home

Helps address unexpected reboots.

T-Mobile confirmed the update is rolling out over the air (OTA) now, but you should be able to manually check for the software by going to Settings > About Phone > Software Update. We heard early reports that some G2x customers were experiencing a lot of bugs with their devices so we hope this update fixes most, if not all of them.
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Skype confirmed early Thursday morning that some users may experience connection issues signing into the service or making Skype calls. The company says it has identified the problem and has posted instructions for fixing the issue. The good news is it doesn’t look like the outage will be as massive as the one last December, which was later blamed on an overloaded cluster of support servers. If you’re experiencing issues now, hit the jump for some quick fix instructions from Skype. Just don’t blame it on Microsoft, alright?

Update: Skype says Windows users should update their client to the newest version for an immediate and easier fix. A Max OS X update is also on the way.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

1.    Close Skype.
a.    Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
b.    Choose Quit.
2.    Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
a.    Click Start, type run and press Enter.
b.    Type control folders and click OK.
c.    Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3.    Locate the shared.xml file.
a.    Click Start, type run and press Enter.
b.    Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
c.    Delete the shared.xml file.
4.    Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

Windows XP

1.    Close Skype.
a.    Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
b.    Choose Quit.
2.    Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
a.    Click Start and then Run…
b.    Type control folders and click OK.
c.    Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3.    Locate the shared.xml file.
a.    Click Start and then Run…
b.    Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
c.    Delete the shared.xml file.
4.    Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

Mac OS X

1. Quit Skype.
2. Go to the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/
3. Delete the file shared.xml (it will be recreated once you open Skype again, this is fine).
4. Start Skype.

Please note that the ~ sign means your home folder. You can find your home folder by opening Finder and selecting Go > Home from the menu bar or pressing Command (Apple), Shift and H keys at the same time.

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Well that didn’t take long. Yesterday, we told you about an Android vulnerability found in ClientLogin that could have serious security ramifications. Using a dummy open access-point, a nefarious third party could passively — via Wi-Fi — collect authentication tokens to password protected services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Calendar stored on affected Android devices. Speaking with Mobilized’s Ina Fried, the Android-maker has stated that it is taking action, and fast. “Today we’re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts,” Google told the publication. “This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.” The vulnerability will still be present in the company’s Picasa online photo offering, but Google stated that it is working to patch that service as well.

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Adobe has identified a zero-day exploit in the latest version of Flash Player 10.2 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. Using the the security hole, an attacker can potentially run malicious code and even take control of an affected system. While the vulnerability and potential damage to a system are significant, common sense will help users avoid the issue in most cases. The malicious code that takes advantage of this exploit is typically delivered as a Flash file embedded in a Microsoft Word document attached to an email. Most users in this day and age know to avoid such files. Adobe is currently working on a fix for the security hole, though the company has not stated when the fix might become available.

[Via Android Police]

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Google has stated that it is in the process of restoring data to accounts affected by a bug that wiped out email and chat history for some Gmail users. The number of user accounts wiped out by the bug has also been revised down again, this time from 0.08% of Gmail’s user base to 0.02%, or roughly 36,000 accounts. Google apologized for the mishap and the company insists that no data was lost as a result of the bug. Some user accounts have already been restored, the company said, and the remaining accounts should be back to normal soon. Google says the bug was caused by a storage software update it began deploying over the weekend. As soon as engineers were alerted of the issue, they stopped rolling out the update and reverted back to the old software.

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Last week, we told you about a pesky SMS bug that has been plaguing some users of  Google’s Android operating system. The issue in question, which Google asserts is quite rare, causes text messages to be sent to unintended or random recipients. In the company’s bug-tracking system, a response has been posted to those users filing complaints in hopes of a solution. Google writes:

Thanks to everyone for your patience while we’ve been investigating these reports. As it turns out, we believe there are two distinct situations being discussed on this issue chain. Fortunately, we have fixes for both of them.

When some users tap to open a message in the Messaging application, they’re seeing a different message appear instead. We don’t believe this issue is affecting many users, but we’ve developed a fix that we’re preparing to deploy. Of course, double-checking the displayed message before hitting “Send” will prevent any messages from being sent to the wrong recipients. We’ve found in testing this issue, it is more likely to occur if you tap on a message before the Messaging app is fully loaded, so we recommend waiting for all the elements to load before clicking on the message you want to display.

Separately, some users have reported that their SMS messages are being delivered to the wrong people. It took us some time to reproduce this issue, as it appears that it’s only occurring very rarely. Even so, we’ve now managed to both reproduce it and develop a fix that we will deploy.

While we don’t anticipate any persistent problems, we’ll continue to investigate in case we come up with additional ways to trigger these bugs. Thanks again for helping us improve Android.

No word on exactly when the fixes will be pushed out to handsets, but if you’re mobile is affected… know that help is on the way.

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AT&T’s Captivate and T-Mobile’s Vibrant are among several Samsung Galaxy S-branded smartphones that have been plagued by GPS issues since they launched. While this isn’t the first time the manufacturer has issued a supposed fix, Samsung today announced the availability of a new app called GPS Restore — which has the sole purpose of restoring a device’s GPS settings to their original state. We’re not sure how this would help resolve any issues, unless Samsung is suggesting that some carrier tweaks are responsible for the problems. In any case, owners of with the Captivate or the Vibrant will undoubtedly be happy to give Samsung’s new GPS Restore app a whirl. Simply search the Android Market for “GPSSamsungRestore” to give it a go.

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Earlier this month, BGR exclusively confirmed that Apple was working on fixes for a string of troublesome MacBook Air bugs. The issues were widespread, and they involved a variety of problems with display flickering, fading and discoloration when affected notebooks woke from sleep. Internal documents revealed by BGR suggested that the problems would be addressed by an upcoming software update and as expected, OS X 10.6.5 appears to have resolved the bugs described in those documents. Apple also issued a new support document on the matter. While Apple’s description of the issues does not appear to encompass all of the problems reported earlier this month, we have confirmed with several affected users that these bugs no longer occur on their devices.

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