Verizon gives Droid Razr HD and Maxx owners some Jelly Bean for the holidays

Verizon has announced that its second generation Droid Razr handset will be getting the long-awaited update to Android 4.1 next week.

A few days age we reported that Verizon has slashed the price of Motorola’s Droid Razr M for the holiday season, but that’s not the only surprise for Droid fans. On Friday, the carrier also announced that all three Motorola phones – the Droid Razr HD, Droid Razr Maxx HD, and Droid Razr M will be eligible for the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update as soon as next week.

The software upgrade will be pushed out to Droid Razr M owners in phases over the course of next week, Verizon said. The update will come to users over the air (OTA) but customers who wish to manually download Android 4.1 through the settings menu will be able to do so as well. Android 4.1 should take between 10 and 15 minutes to download and install, and users can manually check for the update by heading to Settings > About phone > System updates > Download.

Verizon has a support page detailing instructions on how to install Android 4.1 and outlining the benefits of using Jelly Bean. Some major improvements include Google Now, a Smart Keyboard that predicts the next word before a user types it, better notifications, and improvements to overall speed and usability.  To check out Verizon’s full list of features or for more instructions, view its support page here.

This is the Verizon’s second smartphone series to get the highly anticipated Jelly Bean update. Back in September, Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus received Google’s mobile operating system upgrade. These are the only devices on Verizon’s network that have been confirmed for the Jelly Bean update at the moment. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2, which just saw its Verizon launch on Thursday, comes with the updates software out of the box.

The Droid Razrs will also be getting ISIS NFC capabilities. This mobile wallet feature allows owners of the device to turn their smartphone into their own personalized digital wallet. Users can make payments simply by tapping their phone at ISIS compatible merchants, though ISIS is only up and running in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas at the moment.

This news also comes just after Consumer Reports named Verizon as the top cell phone carrier in the United States, although AT&T was ranked as providing the best LTE service. 

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Wii U’s massive mandatory update causing headaches for new owners

Just one day into its lifespan, the Nintendo Wii U is going through the gauntlet of intense consumer scrutiny. The first problem: A mandatory firmware update is causing some users to accidentally break their consoles.

In the era before the Internet, new game console launches were accompanied by scant television news coverage and traded anecdotes between friends and family that happened to get their hands on whatever new machine was making the rounds.

Now when a video game console launches, it comes with millions of testimonials from critics, pundits, fans, and consumers offering up their opinion on every personal blog, social network, and comments section across the web. The result is that every blemish, imperfection, and defect in the initial run of consoles is scrutinized in painstaking detail. Nintendo’s Wii U, released on Sunday, has received decent reviews for its peculiar tablet controller but a veritable drubbing due to technical problems. Chief among them: A mandatory firmware update is casuing major problems for Wii U out of the package.

As previously reported, the Wii U requires new owners to download updated software for the machine as soon as it’s activated in order to take advantage of its many Internet-based features, including access to the online social and gaming network Miiverse. The software in question is substantial, approximately 5GB of data. The downloading, installation, and updating process takes more than two hours to complete according to reporters like Ben Fritz of The Los Angeles Times. The drawn out process is prompting some Wii U owners, suspecting that something is wrong to unplug the console or power it down during the process. Unfortunately doing so irreparably breaks, or “bricks,” the Wii U.

At this point in time, it’s not unreasonable for Nintendo to expect consumers not to deactivate a console during a firmware update. Every PC operating system, smartphone, tablet, and gaming console provides some variation on the warning, “Do not reset or power down the machine during a software update.” That said, it’s unusual for Nintendo to release a consumer device lacking such substantial and crucial software. Why aren’t networked apps and services like Miiverse and the eShop included in the software pre-installed on the console?

Nintendo’s accustomed to these sorts of launch hiccups. That users are breaking their consoles due to impatience is hardly as big of a PR fiasco as having many users injuring themselves and breaking televisions due to over-enthusiastic sessions of Wii Sports.

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Kaxi BETA now open to BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device owners

With well over 5,000 BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha devices out there, C2 Development has opened the doors to beta testing on their new app called Kaxi. If you're not familar with Kaxi, it's an app that aims to make finding taxis in your local area whether you are in the UK or USA, super simple:

Simply tap "find local taxis" and Kaxi will search for the nearest taxi companies to you and display their name and number. You can also search by a town or city and Kaxi will display all the taxi companies in the given area.

Like any beta that you sign up for, you'll be given early access to app before it hits BlackBerry App World and as such be able to help C2 Development through the Kaxi BETA Portal which may be used to submit feedback and bug reports.

Right now, the UK version is completed and the US version is in bugfixing stages and a Canadian version is being considered. Have a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha and interested in helping out? You can sign up for the beta via the C2 Development site link below.

Sign up for the Kaxi beta program

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