Samsung announced Galaxy Note II at IFA little more than a month ago, and the handset was among the first smartphones to come with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box. Acknowledging the popularity the previous model has among modders, the South Korean electronics giant has released the open-source code for its latest phablet.

The source code is available to download from the Open Source Release Center and covers the international model, as well as what appears to be three regional devices (codenamed SEA, MEA and SWA). By using the source code, modders can customize the stock Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz to create custom images that include various tweaks, but can just as well take a number of elements to use in custom Android distributions such as CyanogenMod 10.

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If you’ve looked into Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) before then you’ll probably know that it’s a powerful Microsoft technology with a lot of useful system management capabilities, ideal for creating scripts to report on your current system state, or tweak it in just about any way you like.

But it’s also, well, a huge topic. And often highly technical. Even if you’re an expert developer, wading through the various namespaces, classes, methods and more will probably make your head hurt.

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Apple tends to have unintentionally witty responses to most problems associated with the iPhone. Cofounder Steve Jobs told a user "you're holding it wrong" in response to "Death Grip". Now comes similar response to the purple haze in pictures taken with the iPhone 5.

Apple updated a knowledge base article in which it acknowledges the discoloration issue with the iPhone 5 camera, represented by a purple haze, flare or spot that appears due to the position of the light source. According to the Cupertino, Calif.-based corporation the problem isn't new and affects all iPhone generations.

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DivX has revealed the first public beta of its DivX Plus 9 Software, which as previously includes the Codec Pack, Player, Web Player and Converter.

And while DivX releases aren’t the big deal they used to be, there are some major steps forward here.

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Life for a modding enthusiast is never easy, but sometimes manufacturers lend a helping hand. After the Droid Razr HD Developer Edition was introduced three weeks ago, Motorola added the international Razr HD and Razr i to the "Bootloader Unlock" program.

The "Bootloader Unlock" Motorola Razr HD and Razr i are addressed to modding fans that want to avoid any hassles associated with manually trying to unlock the bootloader, making the factory-available solution an easier choice. Just like with previous models, such as the Motorola Razr Developer Edition, they both come with no warranty and the "obligatory" hefty price tag associated with a no-contract smartphone. But that shouldn't stop enthusiasts looking to get their favorite custom Android distributions up and running.

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Windows 8 officially launches in three weeks, and Microsoft has sent out media invitations for an event the day before. Surface sales start at Midnight on October 26 at Microsoft retail and pop-up stores. The Redmond, Wash.-based company has a full retail store here in San Diego, and I plan to be there.

But there's something strangely missing: Surface pricing. Microsoft promotes the tablet's launch but holds back pricing information -- even as some partners release theirs. Just yesterday: Acer revealed $799.99 starting price for the Iconia W700 tablet that goes on sale the same day. Isn't it about time to break the silence?

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The official launch of Windows 8 is just around the corner, and so is the holiday shopping season, the high point in consumer spending for the year. What better way for AT&T to capitalize on both events than to offer two exclusive Windows 8-based tablets?

AT&T looks to be covering both important Windows bases (RT and Pro) with its selections: the Windows RT-based ASUS VivoTab RT, and the Windows 8 Pro-based Samsung ATIV Smart PC. Both devices will have mobile connectivity via AT&T's 4G network.

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LA-based iolo Technologies LLC has announced a minor update to its flagship PC optimization tool. System Mechanic 11.1.1, also available in cut-down freeware form as System Mechanic Free 11.1.1, delivers a number of enhancements and minor adjustments to the major 11.0 release, designed to eke that little bit more improvement from customer PCs.

There’s enhanced ActiveCare and AcceleWrite functions, the ability to remove clutter without rebooting your PC and a streamlined Windows 8 installation among other tweaks.

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Nominum is the world’s leading provider of integrated subscriber, network and security solutions for network operators and its software currently processes over one trillion Domain Name System (DNS) queries per day from hundreds of network operators worldwide; a number that far exceeds the combined 6.5 billion searches, likes and tweets served by Google, Facebook and Twitter each day.

Its new N2 Platform and Nominum IDEAL ecosystem gathers and anonymizes this data, allowing application providers’ seamless access to it. I spoke to Nominum’s CEO, Gary Messiana, to find out more about how it works and what it means for network operators and consumers.

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Lengthy boot times must be one of the greatest irritations you can have with any PC. Not only can Windows take an age to load, but then the hard drive thrashing can continue for minutes, in some situations, slowing down everything else you want to do.

Investigating exactly which programs are being launched along with Windows is a good first step to resolving this situation, of course. A tool such as Autoruns will reveal all, and disabling or uninstalling surplus applications should make a difference.

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Today marks one year since former Apple CEO Steve Jobs left this world, and in commemoration to its former leader and founder the Cupertino, Calif.-based corporation changed its front page, replacing it with a video detailing a few key moments from the man's life.

The black-and-white video slowly transitions the late Steve Jobs from one of his favorite Wayne Gretzky quotes to the iMac then to the more popular iPod and iPhone devices that have revolutionized the MP3 and smartphone market. The video ends in typical Steve Jobs fashion, delivering one of his powerful speeches.

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Apple's cofounder died one year ago today, and there will be plenty of headlines looking back at him and how the company he left behind performed since. I decided that the best way to remember him is to move on. Jobs is gone. At GigaOM, Eric Ogg opines: "Why the tech industry needs to let Steve Jobs rest in peace". It's good advice, and much better than stories suggesting Jobs would fire CEO Tim Cook for the iOS 6 Mapocalypse or how he would have delayed iPhone 5, among others (I've seen them this week).

It's better to focus on the living, not the dead, nor is it sensible to let his ghost haunt by way of speculation and guesswork. Move on people. Live for the moment, and plan for the future. Still, it's obligatory do something for such an iconic figure, and BetaNews has posted so many stories already. So my homage is simple: Links to a collection of our stories about Jobs written since his death.

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Today marks a year since the death of Steve Jobs -- a year that has changed my life in many ways with at least two of those ways yet to be announced. The anniversary seems to be an excuse for anyone with a byline who knew or even bumped into Jobs to throw out a reminiscence or two, and I’m not immune to that disease. So here’s the story of when I tried to get Jobs and Apple to back my Moon Shot.

I’ve been trying since 2007 to mount a private unmanned mission to the Moon, though five years in it feels sometimes like I could have walked there by now. It turns out that the greatest challenge to reaching the moon isn’t technical but financial. Even though my Moon project is by far the cheapest one around, the trick is to raise money at a faster rate than the budget expansion that inevitably happens as you face realities along the way.

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There are hundreds of tools that promise they’re the ideal solution for cleaning up your hard drive, but in our experience the vast majority are a huge disappointment, achieving little more than Windows own Disk Cleanup applet.

And so our expectations of JFRemover (a brand new temporary file remover) were, well, low. To put it mildly.

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This is my promised update on bufferbloat, the problem I write about occasionally involving networks and applications that try to improve the flow of streaming data, especially video data, over the Internet but actually do the opposite, defeating TCP/IP’s own flow control code that would do the job much better if only it were allowed to. I first mentioned bufferbloat in January 2011 and it is still with us but the prognosis is improving, though it will probably take years to be fully resolved.

If you read my last column on LagBuster, you know it’s a hardware-based workaround for some aspects of bufferbloat aimed especially at gamers. LagBuster is a coping strategy for one type of bufferbloat that afflicts a population of people who aren’t willing to wait for a systemic cure. LagBuster works for gamers and might be a workaround for other kinds of low-latency data, but that’s still to be determined.

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