Nintendo cleans up Wii U Miiverse after accidental “hacking”

Nintendo says that Miiverse, its new Wii U online gaming and social network, wasn't hacked on Sunday after a user posted images of a debug mode for the network online. The menu was just an inactive prototype, but why was it there at all?

Of the many small troubles reported about Nintendo’s Wii U, not all are the fault of the Japanese video game giant. It isn’t Nintendo’s fault after all that users are unplugging their Wii Us in the middle of a 5GB mandatory system update, accidentally breaking the console in the process. Other technical issues concerning new owners definitely should have been caught by Nintendo in the quality assurance testing phase. For example: Users probably shouldn’t be able to access Miiverse’s debug mode, whether it’s active or not.

NeoGAF member Trike posted images on the forum on Sunday night after seemingly accessing the Miiverse debug menu—a debug menu is an interface built into software to let developers freely manipulate it, typically to fix problems—on accident. By navigating through menus attempting to set up a friend list, he found himself navigating menus for a prototype version of the Miiverse, as well as browsing commands including “Delete Admin” or generating new passwords. There were even references to possible unannounced Wii U games including Metal Gear Solid, Yoshi’s Land Wii U and Soul Hackers, an old Japanese RPG recently ported to the Nintendo 3DS.

The post indicated that Nintendo’s security for Miiverse was so poor that users could stumble into administrative tools, potentially accessing personal information of other users. For a fledgling online gaming network, such a security gaff could spell certain death. According to Nintendo, though, these menus are simply mock ups and don’t actually represent functioning Miiverse admin tools.

“It has come to our attention that some people were able to access a mock up menu on Miiverse following the launch of Wii U in the US,” reads a statement Nintendo issued to GamesIndustry International, “Please note that this was only a mock up menu and has now been removed and is not accessible.”

Mock up menu or not, it’s troubling that Nintendo’s fledgling network was opened to the public before it was properly polished. Between this, reports of glitch-troubled third-party software and the need for a sizable firmware update on the first day, evidence suggests that Nintendo’s Wii U was rushed to retail to make it in time for the holiday season. Nintendo’s Wii was a rock solid product from day one when it released in 2006. Hopefully for Nintendo, this rocky launch week isn’t a sign of trouble to come.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Steve Jobs’ yacht unveiled in front of family, named ‘Venus’

Several years before his death in 2011, Steve Jobs began working with Phillippe Starck on the design of a luxury yacht. On Sunday, it was unveiled at a special ceremony in the Netherlands.

The yacht that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs helped to design has been unveiled in the Netherlands just over a year after his death.

The building of the yacht was something of a pet project for Jobs and had been in the works for over five years.

Designed with the help of the acclaimed French product designer Philippe Starck and built by Dutch custom yacht builder Feadship, the 80-meter-long vessel is made with lightweight aluminum and features 3-meter-high clear glass windows as well as a large number of 27-inch iMacs on the deck. Sounds like a floating Apple store, some might say. Indeed, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs published shortly after his death in October 2011, the former Apple CEO called on the skills of the chief engineer responsible for the Apple stores, asking him to design special glass that would be able to provide structural support for the vessel.

Named Venus after the Roman goddess of love, the unusual looking boat – whose design will certainly not be to everyone’s taste – was reportedly unveiled at a special ceremony in Aalsmeer in the Netherlands on Sunday. Jobs’ widow Laurene and children Reed, Erin and Eve were at the launch.

Speaking to the BBC about the vessel, Starck said, “Steve and I shared the same idea about the elegance of the minimal, the elegance of work well done,” while  at the same time admitting that it does “look strange for a boat.”

In Isaacson’s biography, the Apple co-founder said that despite being seriously ill with pancreatic cancer, he couldn’t suddenly stop working on the design of the boat.

“I know that it’s possible I will die and leave Laurene with a half-built boat,” he told Isaacson, “But I have to keep going on it. If I don’t, it’s an admission that I’m about to die.”

It’s not clear when Venus will make its maiden voyage, or indeed what plans the Jobs family has for the vessel, though we guess at some point it’ll be transported to a location close to their California home.

[Top image and video: onemorething.nl]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Foxconn factory at center of riot reopens, supply not affected

The Foxconn factory at the center of a large riot on Sunday night reopened on Tuesday, a company spokesperson said, adding that there has been no impact on supply.

The Foxconn factory at the center of a serious disturbance late Sunday involving thousands of rioting workers has reopened.

Company spokesperson Louis Woo told Reuters Tuesday that despite staying shut all through Monday, no impact on product supply is expected. “We have 79,000 people working in Taiyuan campus, and we always have spare inventory,” Woo said.

The trouble, which reportedly involved more than 2,000 workers causing widespread damage throughout the factory campus, was brought to a halt by around 5,000 police. About 40 people were injured, with countless arrests made.

China’s state-run news agency said the brawl started after a fight broke out between two workers in a factory dormitory. However, workers allege the incident erupted after a security guard manhandled an employee at the factory gates.

Foxconn, the world’s biggest component maker, is a major manufacturer for Apple, as well as other giants in the electronics industry. The Taiwan-based company has so far refused to say whether this particular facility, located in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan, is involved in the production of Apple’s new iPhone 5 handset.

In an on-screen interview with the UK’s Channel 4 News program, one former Foxconn worker explained that new devices can cause great stress among workers, saying, “When a factory launches a new product, workers do overtime for long periods to test the production line until they are ready, which really puts pressure on the employees.”

He added, “A new generation of workers has higher demands. They know their rights and they’re more rebellious.”

Foxconn, which employs more than a million people across China, has been under the spotlight for the last few years following reports of employees suffering poor living and working conditions. More recently, the company has apparently been implementing changes in an attempt to improve the situation.

The Fair Labor Association said in August that Foxconn had been making good progress towards its goal of providing better living and working conditions, though if Sunday night’s disturbance can be attributed to a frustrated and beleaguered workforce cracking under the strain, it clearly still has some way to go until its job is complete.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Riot breaks out at Foxconn plant, 40 injured [video]

A riot involving thousands of workers and police has caused the temporary shutdown of a Foxconn plan in northern China.

A riot broke out late Sunday night at a Foxconn plant in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan. The impromptu protest involved more than 2,000 workers and 5,000 police, according to official Chinese government reports. The clash is said to have lasted about four hours, and around 40 people were injured. Three people were in serious condition.

A report from Chinese website TechWeb said that “at least” 10 people had died as a result of the massive brawl. However, a statement from Foxconn obtained by The Next Web said that “no employee deaths related to the incident” had occurred.

The Foxconn plant, which according to an undercover report produces back covers for Apple’s iPhone 5, among many other components for major electronics companies that include Sony, Nokia, and others, has been temporarily shut down while authorities investigate the cause of the upheaval. Foxconn has refused to officially confirm that Apple components are made at the Taiyuan factory.

Reports from Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, said that the clash began after a fight broke out in a factory dormitory between two workers from different Chinese provinces.

“The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related,” said Foxconn in a statement.

The exact cause and other details of the protest are difficult to know, as China retains notoriously tight control of its media and social networks. As Engadget reports, information about the riot posted to Chinese social network Sina Weibo has already been deleted, presumably at the hand of the Chinese government.

Video and photos posted to Sina showed broken windows and other destruction. One highly cited video, posted to Chinese video sharing site YouKu, has been removed.

Foxconn employs about 1 million people in China. The Taiyuan alone has 79,000 workers, according to Foxconn.

Foxconn has repeatedly made headlines for poor working conditions and brutal treatment of its employees. In 2010, at least 13 people committed suicide at Foxconn plants. The company later installed “suicide nets” in employee dormitories in an attempt to prevent further deaths.

“Foxconn is known to have a very authoritarian management style and discipline is very strict,” said Geoffrey Crothall, a spokesman for the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, in a statement to AFP. “When you have a working environment like Foxconn where workers are treated simply as units of production, essentially robots, not human beings… then sometimes violence is the only way out [and] you see minor disputes escalating into violence.”

Similar incidents of worker outrage broke out in January and June of this year at other Foxconn plants.

Watch a video of the Taiyuan incident below:

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Topshop and Facebook join forces for unique London Fashion Week event

If you're into fashion, Facebook and online shopping, you might be interested to hear more about Topshop's plans for its catwalk event at London Fashion Week this Sunday....

Fashion retail giant Topshop has joined forces with Facebook for a unique event at London Fashion Week this Sunday.

Working with engineers from the social networking site, Topshop is for the first time offering armchair fashionistas a ‘front row’ live-stream view of its catwalk event, giving viewers the chance to customize and even purchase garments and accessories worn by models as they appear on stage. It could well be the most intense shopping experience you ever have.

Those who join the live stream will be able to switch the color of the clothes worn by the models, take screenshots to share immediately with Facebook friends with the aid of a special on-screen button, share video clips, buy the show’s soundtrack from iTunes and purchase garments and accessories worn by the models. Shoppers will be able to receive the clothes well before they appear in stores.

“Fashion enthusiasts are sharing the things they love on Facebook more than ever,” Joanna Shields, Facebook’s vice-president and managing director, told the Guardian. “This is where the conversation happens, it’s among friends and it’s where great brands need to engage.”

The live stream from London will be broadcast on the fashion retailer’s Facebook site as well as at Topshop.com. On top of that, the event is set to be shown on big screens at Topshop’s flagship store on Oxford Street in central London, as well as on the websites of over 200 of its media partners.

“We want to take the energy and the excitement of our iconic Oxford Street store to millions of people all over the world through Topshop.com,” says Justin Cooke, chief marketing officer of Topshop. “It’s social, it’s commerce and it’s entertainment all rolled into one.”

The special event could prove to be a decent money-spinner for Topshop, as online shopping addicts and fashion lovers flock to its site on Sunday (10am ET) in search of a new kind of retail experience.

[via Guardian / Mashable]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

ArmA III developers arrested in Greece for spying on military base

Two Bohemia Interactive employees were accused of espionage on Sunday, but the Greek government has other issues with the ArmA III studio.

Czech developer Bohemia Interactive has had a solid 2012 so far. The runaway success of DayZ, the zombie apocalypse themed mod for its military simulators, brought massive mainstream attention to a line of games that has catered to a supportive but small audience. The company is hard at work on both the full version of that game as well as ArmA III, but the company’s smooth seas have grown choppy. Two developers from Bohemia’s ArmA team were arrested for “spying” in Greece.

The two unnamed employees, aged 28- and 33-years-old, were scouting locations for use in the next game on Lemnos, a small island in the Greek archipelago with a small population, some tourist trade, and one military air base. ArmA III’s primary setting, in addition to the Ai Stratis, is Lemnos and the developers were photographing that military base when they were arrested on Sunday under suspicion of espionage.

“We can confirm that two Bohemia Interactive employees, our colleagues and friends, were arrested during their holiday trip to Lemnos,” said Bohemia CEO Marek Spanel in a message on the developer’s forum, “They visited the island with the sole purpose of experiencing the island’s beautiful surroundings.”

“Since its establishment in 1999, Bohemia Interactive has created games based only upon publicly available information. We always respect the law and we’ve never instructed anybody to violate the laws of any country. The same is true for ArmA III. Currently, all our effort goes towards supporting the guys over there, as well as their friends and families affected by this difficult situation. We sincerely hope that this is an unfortunate misunderstanding of their passion as artists and creators of virtual worlds.”

The arrests may be more than just a misunderstanding. In 2011, the Greek government protested Bohemia’s use of Lemnos in ArmA III, claiming that its appearance in a war game might interest the tourist trade that keeps the island’s miniscule economy running. The game could also pose a security threat by realistically recreating the terrain.

 ArmA III definitely has the potential to reach a wider audience than past entries in the series. The popularity of DayZ drove sales of ArmA II, necessary for playing the mod version of the zombie game, up a purported 500 percent in May.

CTK reported on Tuesday that the men have been transported to the island of Lesbos where they will be interrogated by a Greek prosecutor. The Czech government’s Greek consul Blanka Kovacsova is working to help the developers.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Movie director Tony Scott jumps to death from California bridge

Movie director Tony Scott died Sunday after jumping from a bridge in Los Angeles. A suicide note has reportedly been found at his office.

Tony Scott, director of hits such as Top Gun, Days of Thunder and Crimson Tide, has died after jumping from a bridge in Los Angeles.

According to Lt Joe Bale of the LA coroner’s office, 68-year-old Scott was seen by several witnesses parking his car on the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro around lunchtime Sunday shortly before jumping into the water. His body was recovered around three hours later.

Early reports suggested a suicide note had been found inside his car, but it now appears the note was instead discovered in his office.

The British-born director, brother of Ridley Scott, had been working in Hollywood since the early 1980s after beginning his career directing commercials. His filmography includes blockbusters such as Beverly Hills Cop II, True Romance, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and, most recently, Unstoppable. At the time of his death, he was as busy as ever, prepping Top Gun II as well as a number of other movies and TV productions.

Speaking to BBC radio shortly after Sunday’s news broke, Steven Gaydos, executive editor of entertainment magazine Variety, said he felt “extremely shocked” by Scott’s death, calling him “one of the most popular, successful, stylish, creative filmmakers in Hollywood over the last 30 years.”

[Image: Featureflash / Shutterstock]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google axes 4,000 Motorola jobs, closes a third of offices

Google announced on Sunday that it will cut 20 percent of Motorola employees in addition to closing 33 percent of offices worldwide.

Monday morning did not arrive with pleasant news for the Motorola Mobility work force. Google, which bought Motorola in May, told staff Sunday that it will begin cutting 20 percent of its employees and closing 33 percent of its offices worldwide.

The move is inevitable, seeing as how Motorola has been struggling to be profitable, losing money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters, reports The Wall Street Journal. This 20 percent cut will account for approximately 4,000 jobs from its 20,000 employees along with 30 out of its 90 offices slated for closure. A third of the layoffs will come after United States-based employees though it has not been specified which facilities will be affected.

In reducing its work force, Google said in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that this change will “shift its emphasis from feature phones to more innovative and profitable devices.” Which makes sense, since Motorola will have a long way to catch up with Android giants Samsung and HTC.

According to The New York Times, Motorola aims to “stop making low-end devices and focus on a few cellphones instead of dozens.” This means a cut of 27 phone models to select, higher end editions — ones that are packed with unique features no other phones have such as the ability to recognize who is in the room based on voice or batteries that can last for days. Still, an analyst even described Motorola as being “left in the dust by the competition and kind of missed the smartphone transition,” so these ambitions are purely hopeful, to say the least.

The cuts are slated to cost Google no more than $275 million which will be recognized in the third quarter, with continuing charges to incur within the next few quarters. Google told investors that they should anticipate “significant revenue variability” as part of an overall restructuring to make Motorola a viable company again.

“While lower expenses are likely to lag the immediate negative impact to revenue, Google sees these actions as a key step for Motorola to achieve sustainable profitability,” Google stated in the SEC filing.

With Motorola in the hands of the search engine giant, do you think it has a chance to coming back with innovative mobile devices? Or is it true that it has truly been left behind by the likes of Samsung and Apple?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com