Archive for December 31st, 2007
Filed under: Cell Phones, TV
We don’t want to be downers, but… When you’re out tying one on tonight, it’ll be easy to forget those out there who can’t be with their friends and family on this ultimate party night. But we’d like to encourage everyone out there to show a little love and support for the men and women in uniform serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The nonprofit, nonpartisan, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) is running ‘Operation New Year’s Eve‘ to send messages of support to U.S. troops via text message.
The messages will be broadcast on an LED screen at the top of the 48 story 4 Times Square, the tallest building in the epicenter of New Year’s Eve, and streamed live at operationnewyearseve.org. By texting “care” followed by your message of support to 94444, you to can share your gratitude through this simple gesture in a venue where tens of millions of people will see it.
99 cents and a text message may not seem like much, but sometimes an outpouring of support like this can have an tremendous impact and will hopefully bring at least a few smiles to the faces of those in harm’s way.
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Filed under: Computers
The typical concern around a Web site security breach regards credit card or personal data. But when a major operator of pornography sites has its user lists swiped, there could be more at stake. Would you rather lose money or suffer a dose of shame?
New Jersey-based Too Much Media Corp. announced that its user lists had been compromised. No credit card data was taken. Too Much Media manages lists for thousands of pornography sites and — so far — the stolen e-mail addresses have been used to blast users with lots of spam.
The concern for users is that their online activities may be exposed to associates, friends or family, people to whom they’d rather not reveal their cravings for porn.
The concern for the pornography industry, on the other hand, is a loss of trust with their customers. Too Much Media states it is looking into how the breach occurred.
Now, aren’t you glad we made it all this way without any innuendo? The word “breach” alone is just begging to be twisted.
From LA Daily News.
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Filed under: Computers
 Wal-mart announced Thursday that it shuttered its movie download service less than a year after introducing it to consumers. The service gave access to movies the same day they were available on DVD, with Wal-mart hoping for high traffic (and high revenues). According to reports, however, it was not Wal-mart’s decision to pull the plug but instead Hewlett-Packard’s, maker of the technology that powered the system.
Apparently, sales were just not high enough.
This comes at the same time a reported deal between 20th Century Fox and Apple to make movie rentals available via iTunes. It seems someone still thinks online downloading of movies is still a viable option.
Wal-mart’s FAQ (frequently asked question page) on the canceled service states that previously purchased and downloaded movies cannot be refunded, nor can they be played on any other device but the initial PC used to make the purchase. This strikes us as a bit odd, since Wal-mart is intent on forcing DRM-free music for it’s music download service.
From AOL News.
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Filed under: Cell Phones, iPhone
The Internet is ablaze with images — and now a video — of an upcoming iPhone feature set. The update, Firmware 1.1.3, includes a whole lot more than just a few bug fixes. Among the reported (and see for yourself in the video) feature updates are:
- User-customizable application dock like OSX
- Google map location finder (finds your location based on cell towers)
- Web bookmarks on home screen
- Text messaging to multiple people
These are welcome updates, and we expect to see them in the next couples weeks, hopefully around MacWorld next week. Sources for the leak are unclear, of course, but the new features and video are pretty clearly legitimate.
From GearLive
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Filed under: Gaming
It’s been ten days since we started tracking The Great Xbox Live Outage of Late 2007 — ten days that the team at Microsoft has spent working 24/7, apparently unable to quash the issues affecting untold thousands (or millions) of users. Things were supposedly looking better until earlier today when they apparently got worse again, resulting in Xbox Live’s service status box making a decisive turn towards the apology side of the spectrum. Granted, the whole thing may seem a little gratuitous at this point, especially considering that the issues are still tagged as intermittent — but at least our informal polling at Engadget HQ has improved, with some of us even able to get on and play a game (slow and sticky though it may be).
We suggest everyone get a little extra drunk tonight on behalf of all those at the Xbox NOC who will be ringing in the new year sitting at terminals so we can have our precious Live service back.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
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Filed under: Gaming
 Controller abuse has always been a mainstay of the video gaming existence — no need to blame your thumbs when there’s this hunk of plastic to chuck at the floor — but who knew Nintendo was working such violence into its own official support curriculum? Wired’s Russ Neumeier gave Nintendo support a ring when one of his Wiimotes stopped sensing motion and none of the usual fixes seemed to work. After explaining his situation, the Nintendo rep asked Russ smack the controller into his hand, button side down, two or three times. After being assured that she wasn’t kidding, Russ did as he was told and was awarded with a fully functional Wiimote. We could see why Nintendo wouldn’t go shouting about this “fix” on its official support literature, but it has us wondering if “blow into the cartridge, whack side of NES, insert cartridge, repeat” was the Nintendo-approved method all along.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
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Filed under: Gaming
 We know customer support reps have a lot on their plates — especially those responsible for answer the queries of 13-year-old Halo mavens protesting supposed hackers stealing all their kills — but it looks like the Xbox Live support staff is dropping the ball on this particular issue. Pro gamer Skyllus vBi, a member of pro gaming group Team vBi, was awarded some super-rare “Recon Armor” by Bungie staff a few months ago for his entertaining method of suicide depicted in a popular online video. Naturally, his account became an immediate target for hackers, and they didn’t have much trouble swiping his info. Turns out there’s a bit of a flaw in the phone support system that allows a hacker to use social engineering to sweet talk account details out of a customer support rep without much hassle. Skyllus has had this particular attack performed on his account three times so far, and is having a bear of a time working it out with Xbox Live support staff. Not only is his precious armor in jeopardy from attacks like this, but all the credit card info and other personal details stored on a Xbox Live / Windows Live account. Stir in some of the login and account retrieval woes that many users have been experience of late and you’ve got a recipe for some much-needed intervention over in Redmond.
[Via Joystiq; thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
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Filed under: Cellphones
With a red Centro already out the door, it’s certainly possible (even likely) that Palm has a pink one all lined up to follow suit, but we’ll still have to treat this latest pic with the usual grain of salt until we hear something official from the company itself. If SprintUsers forum member TheRobin is to be believed, however, the image above is in fact the real pink Centro, which has been rumored to be on track for a release on Sprint sometime in January of February. If that is indeed the case, we should be able to put all these rumors to rest soon enough.
[Via Gadgets on the Go]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
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Filed under: Cellphones
 Plenty of waterproof phones and other small weatherproof devices have made it off the assembly lines and into our clumsy clutches, but P2i, a small spinoff company using tech originated within the Defence Science and Technology Lab in England, could be bringing waterproof gadgets to the masses. The Ion-Mask is a special invisible coating that is chemically bonded to the device and repels water. It should allow waterproofing to make it into devices that are too small for the seals that are usually used to do the trick. Devices can have joins and gaps coated for a general level of water repellence, or have individual components treated for even more protection. The tech was originally designed to repel toxic vapors and liquids from soldier uniforms, and could also be making its way into athletic shoes. Three leading phone makers are apparently in discussions over using the tech in upcoming phones.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
An image surfaced on the BlackBerryForums this morning that purports to be of the upcoming BlackBerry 9000 series. The forum member with the scoop claims that the device has no touchscreen, and that rumors are raging even within RIM as to whether touchscreen devices are in the works. What can supposedly be confirmed is that the device in the picture is part of the 9000 series, 3G is being tested on multiple devices, and that HTML email is in the works for the BlackBerry service, possibly in conjunction with the launch of the 9xxx devices.
Update: Turns out this picture was swiped from an eBay auction, and while that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not an upcoming BlackBerry device, it does call into question the accompanying commentary from the forum user who posted the image, so take it all with a grain of salt.
Update 2: Those auctioneers added a new pic with some spicy innards and a view of the back. Check it out after the break.
[Via Pocket-lint; thanks Cellenin]
Continue reading BlackBerry 9000 series spy shot revealed?
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
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