Nook Color Update Bricking: Barnes & Noble Responds

We contacted Barnes & Noble yesterday after reports from user indicated some units getting stuck in a “registration mode” because the device would randomly reset and refuse to join wireless networks. The response from B&N is that the issue has already been found and corrected.

Thank you for your email.

A small number of NOOK Color customers were affected by the NOOK Color
1.2 software update causing their devices to revert to factory settings.
We had already identified the problem and fixed it immediately.

We hope you find this information helpful.

Sincerely,

Sofia
Customer Service Representative – Digital Support
Barnes & Noble

Anyone still having issues with their Nook Color?

Intel: 50Gbps Thunderbolt Sequel Already Being Prepared.

Thunderbolt, Intel’s renamed LightPeak technology is still an infant in the global market and already we’re hearing rumros being thrown about of the next-gen sequel — we’d assume Thunderbolt 2. The news comes from Intel’s very own circuit strategy director, Jeff Demain. The current tech maxes out at a rather brisk 10Gbps. The next gen of Thunderbolt, however, will up the ante to a super speedy 50Gbps. The newfound speed reportedly comes from the use of silicon photonics to transfer data at lightspeed. The use of silicon, mind you, will allow Intel to up the speeds and still keep prices in check.

We’re still waiting for any worthwhile Thunderbolt hardware to drop, let alone think about what’s coming next. Speaking of which, Intel says we shouldn’t expect to see Thunderbolt 2 until 2015 at the earliest. Get ready to wait.

Motorola Droid 3 Screenshots Leak. Again.

The previously leaked shots of the Droid 3 appear to be early renders as the latest leaked image above paints a slightly different picture. GlobalDirectParts.com is selling screen replacements for the Droid 3. The so called third-gen Droid will feature a larger 4″ display that stretches closer to the edges of the device thereby getting rid of the old lip of the first and second gen units. Oddly enough GDP is listing the phone above as both the Droid 3 and Targa. Everything we’ve heard so far says these two phones are different. Looks like we’ve got a quandary on our hands…

Scam Artist Stealing Tech Blogs’ FaceBook Fan Pages By Filing False Take Down Requests.

If you’re the owner of a somewhat successful (or better) tech blog, better keep a tight grip on your Facebook Fan Page. Some one is running around filing false infringement notices and getting a slew of Fan Pages taken down. So far, the list includes Ars Technica, TiPB, Neowin, and RedmondPie.

Losing your Fan Page because of bogus take down claims is one thing. But learning that Facebook is completely incompetent in getting them back to the rightful owners is adding insult to injury.

Today, April 28th, marks the day in which the affected websites are finally getting someone at Facebook to talk to them after numerous failed attempts going as far back as a couple months. Though the bigger and much scarier issue at hand isn’t that someone is hijacking a bunch of Fan Pages, but that Facebook doesn’t even check the person filing a complaint, their email address, or if the company the accuser is claiming to represent even exists! Obviously there’s a massive problem with Facebook’s takedown process. For the record, Neowin.net has had multiple false takedowns spread across several months and adding up to many weeks of a hijacked Fan Page.

Ars Technica is reporting to have reached someone at Faecbook earlier today and is currently working through the issue at hand. Hopefully the other sites can get their respective Fan Pages back up and running in the meantime as well.

Sign Of The Times: Sprint Reports ~10% Loss In iDen Subscribers — In One Quarter.

If Sprint announcing the end of the road for Nextel and it’s archaic iDen network weren’t clear enough, perhaps the latest figures announced by the carrier itself will get the point across. For all intents and purposes, iDen is dying. How else would you describe a nearly 10% drop in post-paid subscribers in one quarter.

For example: Sprint reported that they had 5,617,000 post-paid (Nextel) iDEN subscribers at the end of Q1 2011 (-424,000). On the BoostMobile side of things, Sprint cited 3,200,000 customers at the end of the first quarter of 2011 (-560,000). In total, nearly 1,000,000 previous iDen customers jumped ship to either Sprint’s CDMA network or other carriers altogether.

Most of the remaining subscriber base sticks with iDen mainly because of the walkie-talkie/push-to-talk feature and ruggedized cellphones. But now that Sprint has officially put the kibosh on iDen, customers don’t really have a choice one way or another. Time to move on it seems…

HTC Kingdom And Rider Leaked In Blurry Cam Love Fest.

The HTC Kingdom and HTC Rider have officially been leaked — well, sort of. It’s hard to make out any unique characteristics due to someone’s inability to take even a decent picture. Minor gripes aside, we are thankful to at least have some basic idea on what two of HTC’s upcoming Android devices look like. Though unfortunately outside of these two pictures we don’t have much to go on except for one small rumor that the Kingdom will feature a 960 x 540 qHD display. Given the newness of the phones, we’d also have to guess a ~1-1.2GHz single-core/1GHz dual-core processor also comes standard.

You know the drill — You’ll know when we know…

Hulu Plus Launching On Xbox Live April 29th. Free For First Week.

Video streaming gurus looking to subscribe to Hulu Plus on Xbox Live have until tomorrow (April 29th) to wait, in which the service will officially launch. Also, thanks to Jack Link’s Beef Jerky the first week of service (April 29th-May 6th) is completely free, after which the price rises to the standard $9.99/month. Better get your stream on…