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Comment Re:Why is Nintendo being so restrictive with saves (Score 1) 34

by neovoxx (#57272656) Attached to: Nintendo's Promised Cloud Saves On Switch Won't Work For Every Game

Each of these games have mechanics in them that would be broken/exploited by having the ability to restore a save file to a previous version.

In Splatoon 2, you could restore a lost ranking, in Pokemon you could trade away all your pokemon then restore your save to get them back, in Dark Souls (which features perma-death as an option) you could die then restore your save to act as if nothing ever happened, etc. The sports games for whatever reason, have multi-gigabyte save files which are impractical to sync with a server.

While this may be Nintendo's decision, it isn't as silly or restrictive as some people are making it out to be.
Cloud

Nintendo's Promised Cloud Saves On Switch Won't Work For Every Game (arstechnica.com) 34

Posted by BeauHD from the read-the-fine-print dept.
An anonymous reader writes: The first paid online service for Nintendo Switch, simply named Nintendo Switch Online, is set to arrive at some point later this month, and we're still waiting on a few key details. One detail about the service emerged on Friday via Nintendo's official site, and it's not a great one: there will be specific limits to the service's promised cloud-save support. Nintendo Switch Online's $20/year cost includes a promise to "save your data online for easy access" -- which, for the uninitiated, will be the only way to back up your Switch games' save data when it launches. Currently, should your Nintendo Switch be lost, stolen, or damaged, your progress in games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is toast, as you can neither move save data from one console to another nor personally back it up to a hard drive. The following current and upcoming Switch games do not support Save Data Cloud backups: Splatoon 2, Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu, Pokemon Let's Go Eevee, Dark Souls Remastered, Dead Cells, FIFA 19, NBA 2K19, and NBA Playgrounds.

Comment Alternate Licenses (Score 1, Interesting) 251

by neovoxx (#55709629) Attached to: Intel's ME May Be Massively Infringing on Minix3's Free Software License

People forget that the software author can always privately license software under whatever terms they like. The likelihood of a company like Intel improperly licensing a piece of software is highly unlikely when more likely is that they obtained a license allowing them to do with it what they want.

If I or anyone else publishes a work of open source software, we can always negotiate a different license with a company or individual to suit their purposes.

This isn't unlike the people who freak out when a company has a piece of software they've licensed as open source, but charge for it, then don't have the source freely available - because people think the GPL requires source to be given away when it doesn't. The source must only be made available at reasonable distribution/copying costs when the binaries are distributed. If I want to charge a million dollars for a piece of open-source software I've written, I don't have to give away the source to anyone except the person who bought a license to the software, but a different license can always be negotiated.
Canada

Subway Sues Canada Network Over Claim Its Chicken Is 50 Percent Soy (yahoo.com) 296

Posted by BeauHD from the tastes-like-chicken dept.
jenningsthecat writes: As reported here back in February, the CBC, (Canada's national broadcaster), revealed DNA test results which indicated the chicken used in Subway Restaurants' sandwiches only contained about 50% chicken. Now, Subway is suing the public broadcaster for $210 million, because "its reputation and brand have taken a hit as a result of the CBC reports." The suit claims that "false statements [...] were published and republished, maliciously and without just cause or excuse, to a global audience, which has resulted in pecuniary loss to the plaintiffs."

Personally, my working assumption here is that the CBC report is substantially correct. It will be interesting to see how the case plays out -- but should this have happened at all? Regulatory agencies here in Canada seem to be pretty good when it comes to inspecting meat processing facilities. Should they also be testing the prepared foods served by major restaurant chains to ensure that claims regarding food content are true and accurate?

Comment Manufacturing tolerances (Score 2) 241

This is nothing new. Every manufacturer has a note about the number and/or type of acceptable dead/bright pixels on an LCD though they vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. In some cases, a display can have dozens of dead pixels as long as they aren't clustered together, where others will allow several dead pixels but no bright pixels.

This is nothing new and has been Nintendo's policy ever since the Gameboy Advance was released. But, if you're nice when you call support, you may be able to get it replaced, or of course, you could just swap the unit at the store. The same goes for any other LCD you buy.
Nintendo

Nintendo Switch Owners Complain About Dead Pixels, Nintendo Says They're 'Normal' (theguardian.com) 241

Posted by BeauHD from the don't-worry-be-happy dept.
Nintendo says the dead or stuck pixels Switch owners are complaining about are "normal" and not defects. "New Switch players have taken to online discussion boards, including a 2,000-comment strong Reddit post, to complain of screen issues distracting play, unbecoming of a $300 handheld gaming machine," reports The Guardian. From the report: In a support document entitled "There are black or bright dots on the Nintendo Switch screen that do not go away, or there are dark or light patches on the screen," Nintendo said: "Small numbers of stuck or dead pixels are a characteristic of LCD screens. These are normal and should not be considered a defect." Customers wishing to swap their Switch consoles with defective screens will get no support from Nintendo. A similar issue happened with the Nintendo DS at launch in the U.S., but the Japanese gaming company eventually relented after complaints from buyers, begrudgingly offering replacements under warranty. Nintendo also warned users that using the Switch near an aquarium or within a meter of another wireless device, including laptops, wireless headsets, wireless printers, microwaves, cordless phones or even USB-3.0 compatible devices "such as hard drives, thumb drives, LAN adapters, etc," might cause the Joy-Con controllers to disconnect from the Switch.
Japan

200 Dolphins Await Slaughter In Japan's Taiji Cove 628

Posted by samzenpus from the but-we've-always-stabbed-them dept.
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "CNN reports that more than 200 bottlenose dolphins remain penned in a cove by Japanese fishermen, many of them stressed and bloodied from their attempts to escape before fishermen start to slaughter them for meat. Until now, the fishermen have focused on selecting dolphins to be sold into captivity at marine parks and aquariums in Japan and overseas as twenty-five dolphins, including a rare albino calf, were taken on Saturday 'to a lifetime of imprisonment,' and another 12 on Sunday. 'Many of the 200+ Bottlenose dolphins who are in still the cove are visibly bloody & injured from their attempts to escape the killers,' one update says. Although the hunting of dolphins is widely condemned in the west, Japanese defend the practice as a local custom — and say it is no different to the slaughter of other animals for meat. The Wakayama Prefecture, where Taiji is located condemns the criticism as biased and unfair to the fishermen. 'Taiji dolphin fishermen are just conducting a legal fishing activity in their traditional way in full accordance with regulations and rules under the supervision of both the national and the prefectural governments. Therefore, we believe there are no reasons to criticize the Taiji dolphin fishery.' Meanwhile the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society describes how about 40 to 60 local fishermen work with nets to divide up the pod, whose initial numbers were estimated by the group at more than 250. 'They tighten up the nets to bring each sub-group together then the skiffs push them toward the tarps. Under the tarps in the shallows is where the trainers work with the killers to select the "prettiest" dolphins which will sell and make the best pay day for the hunters,' the group says. The fishermen will 'kill the "undesirable" dolphins (those with nicks and scars) under the tarps to hide from our cameras when that time comes.'"
Blackberry

Pentagon Approval of iOS and Samsung KNOX Is Bad News for BlackBerry 49

Posted by Soulskill from the slicing-up-that-sweet-taxpayer-pie dept.
rjupstate writes "The Pentagon is quickly moving to approve the latest devices and platforms from BlackBerry, Samsung, and Apple. That's good news for two of those companies. It's not-so-good news for BlackBerry. 'The Pentagon currently has about 600,000 smartphone users – almost all using BlackBerrys – but ultimately aims to have as many as 8m smartphones and tablets, under the terms of a scheme made public last November.' 'In its effort to expand into the high security government niche, one that BlackBerry has enjoyed near singular control of for years, Samsung recently created a government advisory board made up of Samsung executives and security experts from various U.S. and foreign government security agencies. ... In the end, the program will likely elevate that status of both Apple and Samsung within military and civilian government agencies in the U.S. and other western countries.'"
Censorship

Nintendo Puts a Bedtime On Wii U Content In Europe 190

Posted by timothy from the wait-until-you're-older dept.
kc67 writes "Nintendo of Europe is blocking Wii U content in the region that is rated PEGI 18+ between the hours of 3 a.m. and 11 p.m., according to a Eurogamer report. Under these stipulations, the four-hour window of 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. is the only time users can purchase games like ZombiU or Assassin's Creed III or even view trailers for such games. The story originated from a NeoGAF forum user, which reportedly received an email from Nintendo saying the following: 'Dear customer, we would like to let you know that Nintendo has always aimed to offer gameplay experiences suited to all age groups, observing carefully all the relevant regulations regarding content access that are present in the various European countries. We have thus decided to restrict the access to content which is unsuitable to minors (PEGI) to the 11 p.m.- 3 a.m. time window.' Eurogamer has since verified the claim. It received a message stating 'You cannot view this content' and 'The times during which this content can be viewed have been restricted.' Nintendo has yet to comment on the matter."
Blackberry

RIM Manufacturing Partner Pulls the Plug On BlackBerry Phones 100

Posted by samzenpus from the one-step-closer-to-the-end dept.
zacharye writes "Toronto-based original device manufacturer Celestica on Monday announced that it will stop producing hardware for struggling mobile device vendor Research In Motion. Celestica stated that it will wind down manufacturing services related to BlackBerry devices over the next three to six months, and it expects restructuring charges to be less than $35 million."

Comment Re:Douglas Adams Edition Pulsar (Score 2) 466

by neovoxx (#40040085) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Wrist Watch For the Tech Minded
A great and most likely the last watch I'll ever need is my Citizen Skyhawk A/T Blue Angels edition.  Part analog, part digital.  Syncs with the atomic clock, displays time in UTC 24 hour time, local 24 hour time, and Any extra timezone of your choosing.  Can display a calendar, has 2 alarms, and a timer as well.  Solar powered rechargeable battery, and the atomic clock radio works in the US, Japan, and Europe.

http://citizenwatch.com/COA/English/detail.asp?Country=COA&Language=English&ModelNumber=JY0040-59L&page=1
Bug

Apple Security Blunder Exposes Lion Login Passwords In Clear Text 205

Posted by samzenpus from the whoops dept.
An anonymous reader writes "An Apple programmer, apparently by accident, left a debug flag open in the most recent version of its Mac OS X operating system. In specific configurations, applying the OS X Lion update 10.7.3 turns on a system-wide debug log file that contains the login passwords of every user who has logged in since the update was applied. The passwords are stored in clear text."
Blackberry

BlackBerry 10 Unveiled 185

Posted by Soulskill from the hail-mary dept.
arcite writes "Research in Motion Ltd's new CEO, Thorsten Heins, unveiled BlackBerry 10 in Florida today. Will new features such as a virtual keyboard that learns from typing behavior and a camera that easily focuses on faces be enough to scrape back precious market share (which could possibly fall to 5%) from the likes of Apple and Android? With no physical device yet revealed and a release date ranging anywhere from August to October, it will be an uphill battle." Engadget had some brief hands-on time with a dev Alpha. It seems RIM is trying to jumpstart app development through its App Generator and financial incentives.
Businesses

RIM Firing (Nearly) Everybody 440

Posted by samzenpus from the end-of-the-line dept.
itwbennett writes "Research in Motion (RIM) reported grim Q4 results Thursday and announced sweeping personnel changes. Leading the parade of departing execs is Jim Balsillie, former co-CEO of the company, who has given up his board seat. David Yach, who has been CTO of software for the company for 13 years, is retiring. And Jim Rowan, chief operating officer of global operations, who has been with the company for four years, is leaving to pursue other interests."

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