Gizmodo: downgrade

iClassic App Lets You Revist the Good Old Days of Click Wheel iPods

Kyle VanHemert — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:18:40 EST

If the end of the decade has you feeling nostalgic for the click wheel iPod days of yore, iClassic lets you relive that thumb-twirling excitement by bringing it to your iPhone.

Do you find yourself resenting your iPhone for its complexity? Do you wish you could do away with pesky text messages and confusing navigation applications and all that augmented reality? Though it's currently only available through the Cydia store, with iClassic and a little tinkering can dumb your iPhone down into the iPod you never had. Or the one you once had and replaced with your iPhone. [MobilitySite]

Windows XP On a Dell Means $50 Downgrade Surcharge Starting Now

Jason Chen — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Here's the deal. Dell agreed to Microsoft's plan of allowing Windows XP sales after June 30, but at a surcharge over installing Vista. How much of one? $20 to $50. ComputerWorld says that customers who buy the Vostro (low-end) desktops and notebooks will pay this fee in order to downgrade from Vista, which Dell is still bundling in order to comply with Microsoft's rule.

Vista Business and Vista Ultimate—the two more expensive versions of Vista—are the only two available for downgrade, and only to XP Pro. So in order to get XP on a Vostro 1000, you'd have to install Vista Business first, which costs $99 over the default. Then, you're down another $50 for the downgrade for a total of $149. That's quite a kick in the nards, Microsoft. Then again, Vista is fine and should work fairly OK on pre-built machines if you want to save $149. [Computerworld]

iPhone 1.1.2 to 1.1.1 Firmware Downgrade Instructions

Jason Chen — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:20:07 EST

If you've updated to 1.1.2 and regret it, or if you're one of those new iPhone owners in Europe and want to jailbreak your phone, here's an instruction set to downgrade to 1.1.1. It's still quirky and may not work 100%, so you'll want to be careful unless you know what you're doing. [Hackint0sh]

Microsoft Offering Vista-to-XP Downgrade Option to Anyone, Not Just OEMs

blongo3 — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:14:25 EDT

While many sites today are claiming that MS is only offering Vista-to-XP downgrade discs to OEMs, CNet Asia found out that Microsoft support will allow anybody with a copy of Vista Ultimate or Business to call and request a downgrade disc themselves, just like it says in the license terms. So there you have it, any Joe Schmo can pick up a Vista downgrade disc as long as they have a nice enough version of Vista. [CNet]

Pandora's Battery Unbricks and Downgrades All PSPs

Jason Chen — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:15:08 EDT

Those of you who have managed to brick or accidentally upgrade your PSP have been looking for this Pandora's Battery software even if you didn't realize it. The app lets you turn any battery into an official Sony Jigkick battery, which is what their repair staff uses to unbrick (and also downgrade) your PSP. Best of all, any homebrew-enabled PSP can do this, so you can just find a buddy with a working handheld to do this to your battery so you can fix your own PSP afterwards. [Maxconsole]

PSP 1.50 to 1.00 Downgrader Released

Jason Chen — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 17:34:55 EDT

The PSP 1.50 to 1.00 downgrader we mentioned the other day has been released. The usual precautions apply, since you can brick your PSP whenever you write to your PSP firmware.

Find someone with a 1.0 PSP and get them to install the downhelper program from the downdater download.

Copy the downhelper100 folder to /PSP/GAME/ and start the program.

It will dump your flash and your ipl to the memory stick. After finished, the program will exit.

Send the folder created at the root of your memory stick called "DOWNDATER" to someone with 1.50 to allow them to downgrade using the Easy downgrader app.

You probably shouldn't attempt this unless you know what you're doing and have a good reason for going down to 1.0. – Jason Chen

1.50 to 1.00 Easy Downgrader Released! [QJ.net]