Top Tech Story of the Day
|
Sony pulls PS3 update after
gamers report bricked systems |
| |
 Just hours
after making it publicly available, Sony has pulled the PlayStation 3's latest
firmware download (v2.40) due to reports of inoperable consoles after the update
process.
SCEA's director of Corporate Communication and Social Media,
Patrick Seybold, played down the problem, saying that incoming calls regarding
failures have been of a low volume, and the removal is only temporary.
If incidents are in any way reflected by the voluminous message
board chatter on the subject, it has only affected a fraction of users. Of the
hundreds of posts reporting v2.40 update status for Playstation.blog readers,
only several dozen posted system failures, and conditions surrounding those were
somewhat inconsistent.
The worst outcome that several users have reported is a PS3
that simply does not boot after upgrading. One user said, "I tried to update to
v. 2.40 this morning. Probably around 10:30 or 11:00 PST. It rebooted and left
me hanging on the screen with the squiggly wave lines. It did not make it to the
XMB. Upon calling Sony, I unplugged the machine. I plugged it back in. I
restarted it. I held down the power button until it turned red again. Then I
repowered the machine. Now I don't even get to the wavy squiggly line screen. I
just get a black screen." Several other users reported the same.
Read more... |
|
Latest Tech News Headlines
 Viacom Wins Access to
Google, YouTube User Information |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
A judge ordered this week that Google must turn over personal
records of YouTube users to Viacom, according to court documents. The ruling
comes as part of the discovery phase of a lawsuit filed in March 2007 in which
Viacom alleges that YouTube users are using the service to upload and view more
copyrighted content than organically created video.
The ruling means that Google will have to produce all personal
content of users, including names and IP addresses, to Viacom. Viacom's
intentions are to get their hands on user information in order to identify
YouTube users who are committing copyright infringement.
The contention is that organic YouTube content is not as popular
as material that is subject to copyright. Viacom believes " and a judge agreed "
that the best way for this claim to be substantiated is for Google to turn over
the personal records of users.
Google argues that the content posted to the YouTube Website
should be protected because it complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DCMA) and flags material under copyright and remove it from the site. The
DCMA was written into law in 1997.
Read more... |
|
Adobe
Pairs With Google, Yahoo For Better Flash Searches Results |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Adobe announced a partnership with Google and Yahoo to make rich
Internet applications (RIAs) friendlier to search engines. The enhanced
capabilities by search engines are targeted at crawling and reading the Flash
file format (SWF). Previously, search engines like Google were able to crawl
text and links on static SWF Web content, but the new partnership looks to help
bring that information to users immediately.
"Until now it has been extremely challenging to search the
millions of RIAs and dynamic content on the Web, so we are leading the charge in
improving search of content that runs in Adobe Flash Player," said David
Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at
Adobe.
Writing on the Google Webmaster Central Blog, Ron Adler and Janis
Stipins, both software engineers on Google's indexing team, answered questions
about the changes that the search engine will be implementing to crawl Flash and
RIA content. One of the changes involves how Google matches Flash content to a
search.
Read more... |
|
Google Talk Revamped
For Apple's iPhone |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
In a move likely to make AT&T sweat, Google on Thursday introduced
a new version of its Google Talk instant messaging application that runs on
Apple's iPhone.
The new Google Talk is designed specifically to run in Apple's
Safari browser on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
In order to accommodate the restrictions that Apple placed on
iPhone apps to conserve system resources, this version of Google Talk shuts down
if you launch another application.
"In order to receive instant messages with Google Talk on your
iPhone, the application needs to be open in your Safari browser," explains
Google engineer Adam Connors in a blog post. "When you navigate away to another
browser window or application, your status will be changed to 'unavailable' and
your Google Talk session will be restarted when you return."
Read more... |
|
AT&T opening early
for new iPhone |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Lessons learned from the first release of the iPhone have prompted
AT&T Inc. to open its stores at 8 a.m. July 11 to accommodate customers wishing
to buy the latest version of Apple Inc.'s smart phone.
AT&T will open the doors "bright and early to sell the iPhone 3G
at 8 a.m. instead of last year's 6 p.m.," AT&T spokeswoman Cathy Lewandowski
said. All activation will be done in-store this time, she added.
Starting July 11, third-generation technology iPhones will be
available for $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model with a two-year
contract with AT&T. Existing AT&T customers may buy the iPhone 3G for $399 for
the 8GB model or $499 for the 16GB model. Both options require a new two-year
service agreement. In the future, AT&T will offer a no-contract-required option
for $599 (8GB) or $699 (16GB).
Read more... |
|
Linspire
Chairman Frustrated By Futility Of Desktop Linux |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Michael Robertson, chairman of Linspire, said the assets of his
company were sold to Xandros after "years of frustration in trying to achieve
the goal of desktop Linux."
Robertson couldn't disclose the terms of the deal with Xandros, a
rival Linux distributor, but said Linspire's Click'N'Run download technology
would fit in well with Xandros' own bid to establish Linux on end-user machines.
To date, its biggest success has been on the Asus Eee PC, a small notebook with
long battery life and a low price tag from Taiwanese laptop maker Asustek
Computer. It comes with either Xandros Linux or Windows XP.
"Trying to compete with Microsoft on the desktop has been a futile
effort. What the last 20 years has shown is that the Microsoft ecosystem goes
far beyond Windows" into thousands of drivers for PC devices and applications to
run on end-user machines. For Linux to match that may be impossible, he said.
But next-generation devices, including the Asus Eee PC,
smartphones, and other mobile devices may yet prove a lucrative end-user market
for Linux. "Linux has to look at new markets," he said.
Read more... |
|
Four Microsoft
Patches Due Tuesday; Not Rated Critical |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Microsoft will release four security patches for its Windows,
Exchange and SQL products next Tuesday, all rated "important."
The Exchange and SQL flaws are "Elevation of Privilege" bugs,
meaning that an attacker could theoretically exploit them to get administrative
access to a PC. One of the Windows flaws is labeled a "spoofing" bug, meaning
that it could help hackers trick the user into doing things like visiting
malicious Web sites.
The fourth update fixes a Windows flaw that could allow an
attacker to run unauthorized code on a victim's PC, Microsoft said. Normally,
this type of flaw is rated "critical" by Microsoft, but in this case the bug was
probably given a less-severe rating because it doesn't work without the user
first taking some extra actions or adding special software or drivers, said Eric
Schultze, chief technology officer at Shavlik Technologies.
This remote code execution flaw affects Windows Vista and Windows
Server 2008.
Read more... |
|
Guitar Hero DS Sales
Rock Activision |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Activision's Guitar Hero: On Tour for Nintendo DS has set a new
company sales record for North America.
The Santa Monica publisher said Thursday that Guitar Hero: On Tour
sold 300,000 units in its first week in North America, making it Activision's
best DS software launch "by more than a factor of eight" in the region.
The firm added that Guitar Hero: On Tour's sales performance ranks
the title as one of Activision's overall top five best-selling launches in the
company's history.
The music and rhythm game uses a unique peripheral for the DS that
emulates guitar frets.
The title launched in North America and Europe in June.
Read more... |
|
It's official:
Mozilla's Firefox sets Guinness World Record |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
From 18:16 UTC on June 17, 2008 to 18:16 UTC on June 18, 2008,
Mozilla indeed reached its goal of setting the record for "the single most
downloaded piece of software in a single day."
"Mozilla set a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of
software downloads in 24 hours for the 8,002,530 downloads of Firefox 3!" a
Mozilla spokesperson told BetaNews yesterday.
As previously reported in BetaNews, Mozilla needed to keep careful
watch over its servers in handling millions of requests for Firefox 3.0, the
latest iteration of its browser.
Given the final build's file size, just the completed downloads
(never mind the incomplete ones) constitute about 54.56 TB of data during that
period. The actual data transfer has been estimated at something closer to 59.53
TB.
Read more... |
|
PS3 BioShock goes to
Digital Extremes |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Take-Two's recently formed 2K Marin studio is cranking on BioShock
2, and Ken Levine's 2K Boston at work on an unannounced title--rumored to be an
X-Com remake/sequel. It's a wonder, then, that the pair have time for anything
else, namely the PlayStation 3 edition of BioShock.
Take-Two has decided not to let these two go it alone, however.
Today, the publisher announced a partnership with Digital Extremes to help adapt
the award-winning dystopian shooter for Sony's console. BioShock is expected to
surface on Sony's console in October.
Take-Two promises new features and content for the PS3 edition of
BioShock. However, the publisher has been slow to trickle out how, exactly, the
redux will improve upon the Xbox 360 and PC editions of the game, which were
released last August.
Read more... |
|
Does Microsoft +
Powerset Beat Google? |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
What can the plan be with Microsoft's purchase of hot startup
Powerset? The 3-year old company, founded by Dr Barney Pell, recently launched a
semantic search experience for Wikipedia.
It is doubtful that Microsoft bought the company just to enhance
Live Search. Possibly the plan is to replicate the Wikipedia solution, then
incorporate Powerset into Internet Explorer. In this post we look at what the
thinking behind the acquisition might be.
Most initial reviews found the Powerset product release
underwhelming. Critics appreciated the innovative semantic UI and recognized its
potential, but believed it didn't vastly improve Wikipedia. So in view of the
lukewarm reviews, the acquisition by Microsoft was unexpected. The 100M price
tag is around 5x the 12M Series A + 8M investment put into the company.
Microsoft execs must believe Powerset can be a weapon in its battle with Google.
Read more... |
|
Microsoft To Offer
Office On Subscription Basis |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Consumers reluctant to pay $200 for Microsoft Office will have a
new option starting later this month. The software giant plans in mid-July to
offer subscriptions for the popular application bundle at $70 per year.
The subscription of Microsoft Equipt includes the usual Word,
Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote office applications along with the slower-selling
OneCare security offering. Reports said the software giant will also include a
number of free Windows Live services.
Bryson Gordon, who manages the Office group, told the AP the
subscription is designed to attract computer users that don't upgrade the
application suite or use pirate the software bundle.
However, others see the Office subscription as Microsoft's first
steps toward initiating consumers into a business model already familiar with
corporate users.
Read more... |
|
All eyes on the
iPhone App Store |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
The great scramble among software developers to write the first
iPhone killer app is coming to a head.
The race began in earnest in March when Steve Jobs unfolded
Apple’s “iPhone software roadmap,” a two-part package comprised of a tool kit to
help developers write programs for the iPhone and a venue in which to sell them
— a variation on Apple’s iTunes music store model called the App Store.
Although the iPhone 3G is set to go on sale in nine days — at 8
a.m. Friday July 11 — Apple has still not announced when the software store will
open. But on Wednesday it delivered a pretty broad hint: a midnight July 7
deadline for developers to submit their finished apps for the store’s grand
opening.
Read more... |
|
Report: US broadband
market edging towards saturation |
| |
Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
The Pew Charitable Trusts' Internet and American Life project has
been commissioning surveys since the late '90s that provide perhaps the clearest
picture of the role of the Internet in the US. Their latest survey is out, and
the data once again paint a picture of Internet use that may seem foreign to the
readership of a technology site. When it comes to access, it appears that those
who can get and afford broadband already have it, while a substantial population
just isn't interested in faster speeds. Meanwhile, a full quarter of the US
population doesn't seem interested in getting online at all.
The survey was performed by random dialing in April and May of
this year. Over 2,200 adults responded to at least some of the questions, giving
the numbers a margin of error in the two to three percent range. It started by
asking whether the respondents were satisfied with the way the country is
headed; the responses indicated a record amount of dissatisfaction, which may
have influenced the poll by causing people to answer the remaining questions
from a jaundiced perspective.
Read more... |
|
|
|
