Though you shouldn’t expect to find updates on a weekly basis, you should perform a firmware search for all of your PC’s devices at least once per quarter. The frequency of a device’s firmware updates varies by manufacturer and product. Firmware updates from Apple overwrite the customized firmware that some people use to jailbreak and unlock the devices, sending hackers back to the drawing board to search for a new, deployable approach.) Other products in your house–like Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which gained features such as native 1080p HD support and a new user interface via a single download–can also benefit from firmware updates. (That’s how people hack the iPhone–and how Apple tries to outsmart them. You can even upgrade the firmware on your phone, depending on the model. You can (and should) update the firmware in external devices such as network-attached and external storage hubs, as well as wireless routers and portable media players. Some firmware, located in the device’s PROM or EPROM (programmable read-only memory or erasable programmable read-only memory), can be altered, or “flashed.” You do this by running software applications from the device’s manufacturer such programs load new firmware onto the device to extend its feature set, life span, or performance, as well as to correct significant errors.įirmware isn’t a PC-only concept. But even though we call it “unchangeable,” it isn’t necessarily so.
0 kommentar(er)
