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Nintendo

Nintendo Penalizing Homebrew Users? 95

Posted by Soulskill from the thanks-so-much dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Bricked your Wii? Not only will Nintendo charge you for the repair, they will now add an additional fee if they detect any homebrew software. 'Should Nintendo have to pay to repair hacked Wiis under warranty? Maybe not, but they have no (moral) right to gouge customers out of spite for having the HBC installed. This actually poses a technical dilemma for us with BootMii. As currently designed, BootMii looks for an SD card when you boot your Wii, and if it finds the card and the right file, it will execute that file. Otherwise, there's no way to tell it's installed.'"
Cellphones

iPhone App Refund Policies Could Cost Devs 230

Posted by Soulskill from the money-for-nothin dept.
CBRcrash writes "Apparently, if iPhone users decide that they want a refund for an app (users can get a refund within 90 days, according to Apple policy), Apple requires that developers give back the money they received from the sale. But, here's the kicker: Apple will refund the full amount to the user and says that it has the right to keep its commission. So, the developer not only has to return the money for the sale, but also has to reimburse Apple for its commission."
The Internet

Submission + - ADSL2+ speeds throttled by half in matter of days? (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by pnorth
pnorth writes: A research firm has released a report claiming that advertised ADSL2+ speeds drop off after a matter of days, leaving customers without the speed increases they are paying for as they upgrade from basic ADSL. The firm Epitiro blamed line attenuation and provisioning that fails to consider an increase in users for the slow broadband speeds but stopped short of recommending users stay on their older ADSL connections. However, it did say that in many cases ADSL2+ services "do not deliver proportionately faster web browsing speeds than ADSL services" and that, on average, ADSL2+ services delivered just over half of the speed they are advertised to run at.
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook returns to old ToS

Submitted by eeshan
eeshan writes: 'Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.' says the Facebook homepage now, as it switches back to the old Terms of Service withing two weeks of changing them.

I guess the 72015 people strong "People Against the new Terms of Service" group did the trick.
Wii

Submission + - Nintendo Wii Fully Hacked at 24C3, runs Homebrew (wiinintendo.net)

Submitted by
cHALiTO
cHALiTO writes: "From the site:
The guys over at 24C3 just demoed a Wii hack that is set to provide native Wii homebrew in the near future (not running in GC mode, and with full access to all the Wii hardware!)
They were able to find encryption and decryption keys by doing full memory dumps at runtime over a custom serial interface. Using these keys, they were able to create a Wii 'game' that ran their own code (their demo happened to show live sensor/Wiimote information, amongst a few other things).
Read here and watch video here."
Music

Submission + - The Death of High Fidelity (rollingstone.com)

Submitted by
88NoSoup4U88
88NoSoup4U88 writes: "Over the past decade and a half, a revolution in recording technology has changed the way albums are produced, mixed and mastered — almost always for the worse. Producers and engineers call this "the loudness war", and it has changed the way almost every new pop and rock album sounds. By applying dynamic range compression, which reduces the difference between the loudest and softest sounds in a song, the engineers can make the music louder to grab the listeners' attention."
Unix

Submission + - Linux / Unix boxes sweep Amazon's 'best of" 20 (businesswire.com)

Submitted by
christian.einfeldt
christian.einfeldt writes: "Computers and handheld devices running default GNU Linux or Unix OSes have swept Amazon's 'best of' list for 2007, according BusinessWire.com for 28 December 2007. Best selling computer? The Nokia Internet Tablet PC, running Linux. Best reviewed computer? The Apple MacBook Pro notebook PC. Most wished for computer? Asus Eee 4G-Galaxy 7-inch PC mobile Internet device, which comes with Xandros Linux pre-installed. And last, but not least, the most frequently gifted computer: The Apple MacBook notebook PC. Microsoft makes only one appearance on the list, and it wasn't in games, but in the best selling software package: Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. Microsoft fans will point out that 'all of these computers are capable of running Windows', but in years past, that line belonged to the Linux / Mac crowd."
Biotech

Submission + - Snortable Drug Keeps Monkeys Awake

Submitted by sporkme
sporkme writes: A DARPA-funded research project at UCLA has wrapped up a set of animal trials testing the effects of inhalation of the brain chemical orexin A, a deficiency of which is a characteristic of narcolepsy. From the article:

The monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. The monkeys given orexin A in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert monkeys, while the saline-control group was severely impaired. The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look "awake" in PET scans. Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is "specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness" without other impacts on the brain.
Researchers seem cautious to bill the treatment as a replacement for sleep, as it is not clear that adjusting brain chemistry could have the same physical benefits of real sleep in the long run. The drug is aimed at replacing amphetamines used by drowsy long-haul military pilots, but there would no doubt be large demand for such a remedy thanks to its apparent lack of side-effects.
Editorial

Submission + - Will Linux Ever Make it to the Desktop? (wildgardenseed.com)

Submitted by BlueParrot
BlueParrot writes: Almost every year someone declares it to be "The Year of the Linux Desktop." Yet, these pundits are wrong-every year. Definitely, Linux has made a lot of progress since the days of Red Hat 6.0, but it still has major architectural problems that have existed since the beginning (and actually, in the pre-Linux days as well). http://www.wildgardenseed.com/Taj/blog/2007/04/15/will-linux-ever-make-it-to-the-desktop/
Google

Submission + - Will Google lose its trademark? 1

Submitted by 140Mandak262Jamuna
140Mandak262Jamuna writes: Once upon a time, Google was the new kid on the block in the search engine arena. Then it became the big kahuna of that area. There was a time when using google as a verb would have brought a smile. But now every body and his brother and even the prim and proper, stiff upper lip and what not types like the Deputy Attorney General Ronald Smetana are using it as a verb. The quotes have been dropped, the capitalization still persists as some vestigial token acknowledging it as a neologism.

Already a number of dictionaries define google as a plain English word. If OED or some such big name dictionary includes it, would Google lose its trademark? Does Google have lawyers who assiduously take steps to protect its trademark and not allow it to become a generic word to mean "search the internet"? Didn't Xerox lose its trademark or came close to losing it? Imagine a world where Microsoft Live could be branded as "Microsoft Live Google"!
Privacy

Submission + - Germany plans to email trojans (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by speardane
speardane writes: The BBC is reporting that the German authorities are planning to send emails containing trojan horses to suspected terrorists. This is apparently supported by the German chancellor despite protests.

Apparently "the spyware would be used only in a few cases and for a limited time".

It seems to me that this is even more stupid than Sony.

Perhaps the Greman authorities have never heard of emails being forwarded...

Perhaps criminals and terrorists (no I didn't say hackers) won't re-use the weapons the German government have given them...
Portables

Submission + - Sony squeezes HSDPA into TZ notebooks

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As if Sony's TZ range of notebooks weren't cool enough with their 2.4lb weight, LED screens, 8 hour battery life and solid state disks. Now Sony has somehow squeezed HSDPA into these incredibly thin machines, providing mobile data speeds of 3.6mbps. If you want the ultimate notebook, you better start saving for one of these. http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/news/2007/ 08/28/Sony-Adds-HSDPA-To-TZ-and-SZ-Series-Notebook s/p1

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