My Samsung Galaxy S II had been great to me. It’s a thin, light phone with a gorgeous Super AMOLED Plus display and a dual-core processor that handles Android with ease. When people asked me if I’d ever return to an iPhone–my previous handset was an iPhone 3GS–my answer was a cheery “nope!”

That was until last week, when AT&T delivered an Android 2.3.6 update to the Galaxy S II that destroyed its battery life. Before the update, the phone could easily last through a day of moderate use. After the update, the phone would lose about 8 percent of its battery per hour in standby. Even if I rarely touched the phone during the day, it was dead by bedtime.

I’m telling this story not just to rant–although I’m grateful for that opportunity–but to point out a risk that Android users face: An update that’s supposed to deliver nothing but good things could carry unforeseen consequences. Another example of this popped up this week, with users of Asus’ Transformer Prime reporting lock-ups and graphical glitches after updating to Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

I wasn’t alone in my battery drain problem. Similar complaints have appeared in forums on AT&T’s website, XDA-Developers forums and Android Central (where some T-Mobile users are reporting the same issue), but other users said they weren’t having any issues. This is both the best and worst kind of Android bug, because it’s less likely to merit immediate attention from the phone maker and wireless carriers when it doesn’t affect everyone.

When I asked Samsung Support over Twitter what was going on, the support team said it had passed my info on “for further evaluation.” After following up today, I was told to factory reset my phone (more on that shortly).

The Galaxy S II battery drain issue has even stumped the hackers at XDA-Developers, who haven’t been able to come up with a reliable fix. Some people are rooting their phones and rolling back to an earlier version of Android, but that can apparently introduce other problems, such as buggy Wi-Fi. Besides, rooting your phone voids the warranty, which is exactly what you don’t want to do when something goes wrong.

So today, I took Samsung’s advice and went nuclear, backing up all my data and resetting the phone to its factory defaults. Google’s built-in backup only restores apps, system settings, contacts, calendar info and e-mail, so before resetting, I coughed up $5 for MyBackup Pro so I could easily restore my home screen layout, text messages, phone calls, and photos as well. Neither process went smoothly, so I still have to spend a bunch of time tweaking my phone to get it back to its old state.

For now, I’m not quite sure whether the factory reset completely solved the problem. After about two hours of idle time, my phone’s battery is down about 10 percent, which isn’t stellar but seems better than it was before the update. Either way, I shouldn’t have to start from scratch whenever a system update comes around.

In fairness, buggy updates can happen on any smartphone platform. Windows Phone users and iPhone users have been victims too. But Android’s presence on many phones, with many slight variations in software, across several wireless carriers–yes, I’m talking about the dreaded “F” word–makes problems trickier to identify and fix.

If you’re really unlucky, like me, the companies who made your phone won’t be in any rush to help. The best you’ll get is some generic advice that may or may not solve the problem. If it doesn’t, and you don’t want to attempt hacking a fix on your own, getting a new phone under warranty is your only option.

Are my battery woes enough to make me swear off Android when it’s time for a new phone? No, because a lot can happen between now and then. But this is the first issue I’ve had that’s given me second thoughts.

[This post republished from Techland.]

But now I can relive the magic for the first time, thanks to a new version of DONKEY.BAS for iOS. It’s 99 cents, is compatible with Game Center, and includes both iPhone and iPad versions. It seems to be a faithful rendition of the original, complete with blocky graphics and bloopy sound effects, and the same objective: Drive down road, avoid hitting donkeys. And it’s um, just as fun as it must have been back in 1981.

The new version is by Johnny Ixe; I’d love to think that’s a pseudonym for William H. Gates III. Probably not, though, so let’s hope that Microsoft doesn’t issue a takedown notice….

A source at Microsoft has confirmed that the devices are indeed official prototypes of laptops featuring a Kinect sensor. In terms of functionality, there are hundreds of different ways that motion control could be leveraged in a portable. Gaming has the most obvious applications, but a Kinect-enabled laptop could also toggle between programs with the wave of a hand, or media controls could be tweaked with the wag of a finger. What’s more, motion-controlled portables could offer a new way for disabled individuals to interact with their devices.

As Mashable reports, the Nintendo Network will offer the requisite connected console fare, including user accounts, online multiplayer, downloadable add-ons and eventually full game downloads.

Although Nintendo’s Wii and 3DS can already connect to the Internet for downloadable games, online play and a couple of streaming video apps, the company’s online services are limited compared to what Microsoft and Sony offer. Nintendo doesn’t currently sell add-ons for existing games, offer system-wide voice support or even allow players to choose an online nickname that other players can easily look up.

Nintendo is still being cagey about the particulars of its upcoming network, but there have been clues. Last July, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime told Forbes that Nintendo will allow other publishers’ networks–services like Valve’s Steam and EA’s Origin, I assume– to operate as part of Nintendo’s online service:

“So instead of a situation where a publisher has their own network and wants that to be the predominant platform, and having arguments with platform holders, we’re going to welcome that. We’re going to welcome that from the best and the brightest of the third party publishers,” Fils-Aime said.

How that’ll work remains unclear. Actually, see if you can make sense of the business jargon in Nintendo president Satoru Iwata’s statement on the matter: “Unlike Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which has been focused upon specific functionalities and concepts, we are aiming to establish a platform where various services available through the network for our consumers shall be connected via Nintendo Network service so that the company can make comprehensive proposals to consumers.”

Verbose statements to investors aside, I’m just happy Nintendo’s working on something.

Over at TIME.com, my Technologizer column for this week is about the theory that people who buy Apple products act like cult members. As the theory would have it, they snap up Macs, iPhones, and iPads not because they’re good products, but because they’re mesmerized by Apple advertising and think that owning the company’s products makes them better human beings. Or something like that.

My take is that the theory was always silly–and that it’s particularly nonsensical in an age in which truly vast numbers of people are buying Apple products. The company’s customer base isn’t made up of like-minded fanatics; it consists of a large variety of people who buy Apple stuff for all sorts of reasons. But mostly, I hope and think, because they find it useful.

I didn’t expect the cult idea’s true believers to read my column, slap themselves in the forehead, and instantly cease believing that there’s something morally and/or mentally suspect about Apple fans. So I wasn’t surprised that the story attracted some comments that said things like this:

What a blundering article.

The fact is, when you go to buy a PC you have to take in many facts; ultimately make a personal choice for what works best. There is minimal, if any real choices to be made about how your want your Mac laptop/desktop/phone to be. They make products for people who can’t take the time to distinguish one laptop from another, other than new models being skinnier than the older ~ it is less about them being a ‘cult’ and more about people mindlessly praising a product they really know little to nothing about. Honestly, do you need to pay Apple’s prices for what you do on any given day with your laptop? (Well…maybe if it was a gaming rig.)

Android has a reputation for attracting geeks, i.e. ‘people who know what they are doing.’ If I fall into dislike with HTC’s product line, I can switch to Samsung or Motorola & keep my apps, songs, movies, books ~ they aren’t trapped in one rigid ecosystem. It’s no secret that the iPhone sold on simplicity & image, so you’ll excuse us if we’re tired of hearing waves of praise from the unknowing masses. And that’s no stereotype.

Okay, according to this commenter, it’s not so much that Apple users are a cult. But they are “unknowing masses” who are “mindlessly” praising a product they don’t understand.

I guess I have three primary problems with this stance:

1) I’m not an idiot! At least I don’t think I am. And when I’ve bought Apple products, it hasn’t been because I was unable to compare products and make a decision. In fact, in every case, I have compared products–such as multiple laptops, including both Windows PCs and Macs–and chosen the Apple product.

(Sometimes, by the way, I consider the Apple product and buy something else instead.)

2) 37 million people bought iPhones in the last quarter of 2011 alone. They’re all morons? None of them know anything about computers?

3) Really, any theory that involves vast numbers of people all buying any one product for the identical reason is inherently specious. Human beings don’t work that way. There are dozens of reasons to buy Apple products–and dozens of reasons to not buy them–and different people make different decisions based on a variety of factors.

It all seems to boil down to this: Apple products don’t appeal to me, and that means that if they appeal to you, you’re an idiot.

Surely I’m not the only one who finds this attitude not just wrongheaded but sad?

Now, it’s official: Netflix will not rent video games, or at least it has “no plans” to do so, CEO Reed Hastings said in an earnings call. He did not elaborate.

Netflix had planned to rent video games as an optional upgrade for movie renters. The news excited me because both GameFly and Blockbuster have trouble sending out the newest games in a timely manner. I was hoping that Netflix, with its huge DVD operation, would be able to do a better job with new releases, or at least pressure its competitors to do so.

But without a spin-off, it’s no surprise that Netflix doesn’t want to make the investment. That money is better spent on acquiring more streaming content–the inevitable future of media consumption–instead of trying to rent more discs.

More troubling, the groups say, is some suppliers’ disregard for workers’ health. Two years ago, 137 workers at an Apple supplier in eastern China were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iPhonescreens. Within seven months last year, two explosions at iPad factories, including in Chengdu, killed four people and injured 77. Before those blasts, Apple had been alerted to hazardous conditions inside the Chengdu plant, according to a Chinese group that published that warning.

Apple (which declined to comment for the Times) is not the only company that has issues like this: Foxconn, its principal supplier, assembles 40 percent of the world’s consumer electronics, period. And Apple may be moving in the right direction when it comes to doing stuff about this and discussing the situation openly. But if you own Apple products or other gadgets made in China–and you do–you owe it to yourself to read the Times’ stories.

NimbleBit’s Ian Marsh responded by posting an open letter, calling out the similarities between Tiny Tower and Dream Heights. “Good luck with your game,” the letter reads, “we are looking forward to inspiring you with our future games!”

Of course, gamers are outraged. Dream Heights’ iTunes page has a few negative reviews accusing Zynga of theft, while TouchArcade’s Eli Hodapp notes “just how blatant of a clone this is, as Zynga has gone far beyond just copying the premise of the game- They even directly lifted the restocking mechanics, elevator upgrades, UI elements, and more.”

But wait, weren’t people just defending iPhone game ripoffs a couple weeks ago, when Atari got a BattleZone clone banished from the App Store? It looks like another example of the double standard that applies when it’s the big guy ripping off the poor, helpless indie. Only this case is a bit different.

With Atari’s dispute over Vector Tanks, the similarities to Battlezone were mainly cosmetic. Vector Tanks’ developers used similar green wireframe tanks, font styles and sound effects, so that it could easily be confused with Battlezone at a glance. That was an issue of infringement on copyrighted images and sounds, which is easy to point out.

Ripped off game mechanics are harder to judge. If I make a platform game where you run from left to right, collecting valuables and jumping on the heads of bad guys, for example, am I ripping off Super Mario Bros.? If so, Sonic the Hedgehog, Adventure Island and countless other classic platfomers are guilty. But because those games look different, feel different and have a few unique features of their own, no one accuses them of being shameless clones.

Dream Heights does have some features that Tiny Tower doesn’t, including the ability to visit and shop at friends’ towers. It also looks a lot different. While those differences may not exonerate Zynga in the public eye, they’re examples of how the line can blur between ripoff and inspired variation. And like it or not, sometimes blurring the line is how the game is played.