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IT glitch sees 600,000 RBS payments go missing (updated)
RBS has just stepped into another IT nightmare. The company, which owns the Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Coutts and Ulster Bank, has admitted that 600,000 customer transactions weren't completed last night. It hasn't revealed the exact nature of the problem, referring to it only as "an issue with our overnight process." The electronic mishap means a large number of customers haven't had direct debits and credit applied to their accounts -- the sort of transactions that people normally use to make important payments, like household bills. The banking group says sorting its customer's balances is now a top priority and that delayed payments will be processed "no later than Saturday." That's quite a wait, although the larger question is how such a technology-centric failure was allowed to occur in the first place. Shouldn't there be fail-safes for these sorts of situations?
Missing tweets? It's a bug that Twitter is investigating (update: tweets restored)
This afternoon Twitter users started noticing that they couldn't get to certain tweets, including Ellen's most-retweeted Oscar selfie. From Major Nelson to Justin Bieber, "Sorry that page doesn't exist" is all that exists if you try to link directly to the missing posts. According to Twitter Support, a bug is to blame and it is investigating, although there's no word yet on when the posts will be back. Update: As noticed by The Verge, Twitter has announced that the error's been resolved and that it's restored the missing tweets and their respective favorites and retweets.
The Daily Grind: Are there games you miss but still don't play?
I don't really play Final Fantasy XI these days. I miss it, though -- quite a bit, even. It was my first MMO, and while a lot of its feel shines through in Final Fantasy XIV, it's not quite the same. But I don't really have the time to play it even by its lonesome, let alone with multiple other games already on my agenda, so it's not on my playlist, even though I still get the periodic urge to throw caution to the wind and dive right back in. There are games we want to play but can't (such as City of Heroes, in my case) and games we want to play and do, but we don't talk much about the games we want to play but still don't. Are there games you miss but still don't play? Are they previous favorites you grew out of, places with lots of emotional memories that don't hold up to reality, or really fun games that just get edged out by games you find even more fun? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EQII gamer goes missing after cross-country trip [updated]
One of EverQuest II's players, Katherine Masson, was driving home from Las Vegas when apparently she vanished. According to The Raven-Mythic, she has been missing for over two days now after sending out a text message from a rest stop in New York. A police report has been filed, but there have been no announced leads concerning her disappearance. So what happens when one of our own gamers goes missing? The community mobilizes, of course. The folks at The Raven-Mythic, an EverQuest II roleplaying guild, are continually updating a thread about Katherine's disappearance, spreading the word, and doing some of their own detective work. Katherine is also known as Jia, Essie, and Willasye in-game. Her last known location was at a rest stop near Albany, NY off of I-90, heading toward Boston. Parties with any information should contact Dan at dmak205@gmail.com. [Update: It now appears that Katherine has chosen to disappear in Las Vegas and she has done something similar at least once in the past. The owner of The Raven-Mythic writes, "By all accounts, Kate's issues caused her to use Dan, and by extension, use a lot of us. And that's terrible on many levels. Please don't let that diminish the fact that, as a community, we proved our worth in spades."]
Sony's My Xperia smartphone recovery service launches worldwide
Sony's My Xperia phone-finding service isn't just for Nordic climates anymore; following a pilot earlier this year, the recovery tool is now rolling out worldwide. Anyone with a 2012- or 2013-era Xperia phone should get access within the next few weeks. Whatever Sony device is involved, the web-based controls are the same: owners can pinpoint a lost phone's location, lock it down, sound an alert and wipe its storage. If you just can't bear to part with your Xperia Z, you'll want to sign up for My Xperia at the source link.
Sony confirms its My Xperia smartphone recovery service, starts limited trials
Sony piqued its fair share of interest when it trademarked the My Xperia name for an online service -- what could it do in the cloud that it hadn't already done? Tracking lost devices, it seems. The now-official My Xperia service trial gives Sony phone owners the equivalent to a recovery tool like Find My iPhone or the early form of HTCSense.com, letting them pinpoint a missing Xperia and ping it, lock it down or wipe at least some of its data. Be ready for a very gradual launch, however. The very first wave of tests involves just Xperia acro S users in Nordic countries, and the trial will expand only to 2012 smartphones in the region that are still running Android 4.0. Those of us further abroad will have to wait for the eventual worldwide expansion if we want to easily find that Xperia S buried between the couch seats.
iTunes 11 for the change-averse: Where did all that stuff go?
Is the new iTunes 11 interface making you a little hot under the collar? Reader response was so strong and so warm to our first iTunes 11 "where did it go?" post, we decided to follow it up with a handful of additional tips. Here are five things you might be looking for and struggling to find in the new iTunes 11 interface. 1. Where did those downloads go? Like Safari, iTunes 11 has adopted the philosophy of "we won't show you the downloads window unless you're actually downloading something." You'll find the downloads activity indicator at the top-right of your window, to the right of the search field. A pulsing bar tells you iTunes is in the middle of downloading items. Click the indicator to open the downloads window. Here, you'll discover the items currently downloading or waiting to start downloading. 2. Mini Player volume control Frustrated with the mini player and its apparent lack of volume control? Don't be. You can use Command-up arrow and Command-down arrow to adjust the volume, or you can click the AirPlay button and adjust the master volume slider. 3. Genius iTunes 11 now offers Genius playlist building from several places. Most easily, you can build a Genius playlist from the current-playing item by right-clicking the title bar at the top of the window. Choose "Start Genius." Sadly, iTunes 11 doesn't provide any coherent feedback after you do so, but if you check the Up Next list (it looks like a three-item bullet list at the right side of the current-playing box), it tells you "Up Next: From Genius", so you know it "took." Another way to begin a Genius playlist is from the track listings. Right-click any track, and again, choose Start Genius to begin. 4. Loop and randomize In iTunes 11, loop and randomize have hopped up to the top current-playing box. Looping can be found to the left of the track scrubber, with randomize (that "x"-shaped thing) to its right. They work just like they used to in iTunes 10. They do not, however, appear when playing Genius mixes. So if they disappear? Clear the Genius list from the Up Next pop-up. 5. Restoring "missing" movies, TV shows, music Apple, bless its oddly thoughtful little heart, now offers media streaming from the cloud. A little cloud icon indicates items stored off your computer at Apple's data centers. What you might not realize is that iTunes 11 allows you to hide these items. So if you're looking for something in your library and it doesn't seem to be there, you may want to check the View menu. Choose Show XXX in the Cloud -- whether movies, music, TV shows, etc, and restore their listings to your iTunes 11 categories. Note: Original headline changed.
Android's Plan B app: an editorial love story
Plan A, we suspect, is not losing your phone. Plan C is biting the bullet and buying a new one. Plan B, on the other hand, is an Android app that helps you locate a missing handset even if you don't have it installed when you misplace the device. Sounds too good to be true, right? Turns out the thing actually works, something an Ars Technica writer discovered the hard way, after his phone slipped out his pocket during a cab ride from the airport. What follows is a wild mobile goose chase -- one, thankfully, with a happy ending. Get the full story in the source link below.
Intel Turbo Boost is MIA on new 13-inch MacBook Pro? (update: negatory)
If you were expecting your new 13-inch MacBook Pro's Core i7 CPU to Turbo Boost its way north of that default 2.7GHz clock speed, we might suggest discontinuing your anticipation. Two separate reviews of the laptop are reporting the curious case of its Core i7-2620M processor failing to automatically overclock itself the way it should. Intel's dual-core chip is capable of a maximum speed of 3.4GHz, but reviewers weren't able to get it any higher than its stock setting while testing Apple's latest 13-incher. High temperatures were identified (north of 90C / 194F) as the likely culprit, with Notebook Journal also finding its machine throttled down to 798MHz due to heat dissipation issues. PC Pro theorizes that Apple intentionally disabled the Turbo Boost functionality on this particular MBP model in order to preserve your lap and your pride from being scalded by melting components. That would make sense to us, and hey, it's still a fast machine, just not Turbo fast. [Thanks, Markus] Update: AnandTech's findings contradict the above, with Anand asserting that "there's absolutely no funny business going on here, the dual-core 2.7 is allowed to hit its maximum frequencies." Seems like we'll need to keep digging to get to the bottom of this one. Update 2: We've confirmed with Apple that there are no specific hardware or software limits to block the Turbo Boost function, however we've also discovered, through less direct sources, that the company is providing new low level software tools to diagnose cooling issues with the 2011 batch of laptops. Ergo, the speed limits that PC Pro and Notebook Journal encountered might have been caused by inadequate heat dissipation, which arguably is no less troubling than an Apple-mandated de-Turbo-fication.
Google restores Gmail access to one-third of affected users
If you've been following the seemingly-massive Gmail outage, you'll know that it's actually not as massive as it sounds. Google's revised its estimate again to say that only "0.02% of Google Mail users" -- roughly about 38,000 by our calculations -- were affected by the issue in total, claims that a full third of them have already had access restored, and expects the issue "to be resolved for everyone within 12 hours." As to the fate of years worth of email, Google reps wouldn't say, but promised us that engineers are working "as quickly as possible" to see the data restored as well. Keep hanging on, folks.
Gmail accidentally resetting accounts, years of correspondence vanish into the cloud? (update)
If you've got a working Gmail account, you might want to back it up every so often -- as many as 500,000 Gmail users lost access to their inboxes this morn, and some of them are reporting (via Twitter and support forums) that years worth of messages, attachments and Google Chat logs had vanished by the time they were finally able to log on. While we haven't experienced the issue personally, we're hearing that the bug effectively reset some accounts, treating their owners as new users complete with welcome messages. For its part, Google says that the issue "affects less than .29% of the Google Mail userbase," engineers are working to fix the issue right now, and that missing messages will be restored as soon as possible. We'll soon see if this is a momentary setback... or a lengthy wakeup call. Update: No fix yet, but Google's revised its estimate as to how many users might have been affected by the issue -- "less than 0.08%" -- which means we're probably looking at closer to 150,000 individuals, rather than 500,000. We're assuming that the revised estimate means that the initial count wasn't precise, and not that customers are ditching Gmail in droves. Update 2: Google's provided promising but terribly vague guidance on when the situation will be resolved: "Google Mail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change." Update 3: One-third of users have now had their account access restored, according to Google. Read all about it here. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Five MMOs that have gone MIA
Unlike Chuck Norris, who seems to hang on as an MMO meme with insane tenacity (perhaps it's that extra fist under his beard), there are a handful of MMOs that appear to have dropped off the radar in the last several months -- if not years. Admittedly, this was originally to be a top 10 list of missing MMOs, but in the last half of this year, several developers have seen fit to thwart our plans by actually releasing information about their games. Shock! Horror! Nevertheless, I've armed myself with an enormous cup of coffee and plundered the archives of Massively and general press releases for MMOGs that seem to have dropped off the radar. Are they still under development? Will we see some movement on them in 2011? Will it take a Chuck Norris-level feat-of-strength and all-around badassery to pull them back from the developmental abyss they appear to be in? Join me behind the break as I run down some of the MMOs we're still waiting for word on.
Breakfast Topic: The one missing item in World of Warcraft
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. We all have our favorite in-game items, be it our uber T10 gear, our Zulian Tiger mount or our Diamond-Tipped Cane. But sometimes, we can't find what we want in game. We know what it is, search around for it, check the websites, but nothing quite fits the description. All our research leads back to the same sad conclusion: what we want simply doesn't exist in Azeroth. We resign ourselves to move on without it and harbor the hope it will appear in the next patch or expansion. What do I want in Cataclysm? I just want a pizza. I don't even care about the toppings. It can be thin crust, cheese-only, out of the grocer's freezer for all I care. Maybe my Chicago upbringing is coloring my perception here, but I just think that in such a vivid, exciting world with so much to offer, it is inexcusable that the most universally consumed dish in western civilization is not represented anywhere. I have scrolled through all 466 items listed in Wowhead's Food & Drinks category, searching for anything that might meet the bare minimum criteria of what in my mind constitutes pizza, but for naught. We have defeated Old Gods, dragon aspects, even the Lich King ... But not one of us has ever even had a slice of pepperoni and cheese.
What's missing from the iPad
All in all, the iPad turned in a pretty exciting product debut. I don't think Apple will have any trouble selling these things, and it can't be a very good day in Amazon, Sony or Barnes and Noble's executive suites. While all the final info is not out yet, there were a few major omissions from the iPad hardware. Here's the highly desireable stuff that came out missing : No camera, which means no video conferencing. No quick shots for blog posting. No videos. No Verizon. The AT&T pricing looks good, but is it really unlimited or is there a 5GB ceiling? Many users are pretty desperate to get away from AT&T, so it was surprising Apple went for another partnership with them. No notifications. Not a word was said about them. They might be in there, since the iPad clearly runs iPhone apps (and what iPhone app doesn't notify you these days?) but nothing was demoed. Enhanced multitouch. As far as we can tell, it works the same as the iPhone -- no dynamic tactile interface, no pressure sensitive screen, nothing special that we know about yet. No TV content. Of course there's the iTunes deals, but Apple has apparently been scrambling around to make so DVR deals as well. So far, nothing. No multitasking. Perhaps the biggest disappointment: no streaming media apps while punching out a document in Pages. No MLB video running in a corner while you read your mail, or pulling up a PDF while chatting with a friend. I think the iPad will be a superior device, and will sell like the proverbial hotcakes. Apple will certainly extend and enhance the iPad over time, but it would have been great to see some of these things in the initial release. Anything else we missed that they missed?
Five widgets for Friday
As we've previously pointed out, in many ways, Dashboard Widgets are the precursor to iPhone apps. Need to know when your latest packages will arrive? Yes, there's an app for that. But there's a widget too. Need to figure out how many pesos are in a dollar, or what a Quarter Pounder with Cheese comes out to in the metric system? There's an app, and a widget, for that as well. For this Friday afternoon, here are five useful Widgets to help you make the most of your Mac. And best of all, they're all free.
What I'd like to see in iPhone 3.0 (but probably won't)
Yeah, I know we haven't seen it yet, but based on what we do know, here's some things I'll bet Apple missed that I'd like to see ASAP. Unified mailbox as an option: This works great in OS X. I sure am getting tired of checking 3 email accounts with hundreds of extra finger swipes every day. Even an icon to get me to any inbox I want to see would be an improvement. Some people don't want this. A simple software switch would be fine. Louder speakerphone: I have no idea why this as been such a problem since day 1. The volume of this phone is just not loud enough in a noisy environment. Maybe this is a hardware thing, maybe it's software. Whatever. Just fix this! Getting to Bluetooth and location manager: These settings are just buried too deep. How about a switch in the top level of settings? Once again, save me all that tapping. Consistency of app settings: Sometimes they appear in settings, sometimes within the app. I shouldn't have to scrounge around trying to guess which app works which way. Moving icons around on the desktop: Have you ever tried to organize icons by type, or popularity? Gee whiz, what a nightmare. Maybe this could be done by dragging apps in iTunes, or some easy method on the phone itself would be even better. As it is now, it's like one of those old plastic puzzles where you had to get things in order. Every drag of an icon on the iPhone often has unexpected or at least unwanted results. This is not one of those 'it just works' things on the iPhone. Apple might surprise me and sneak some of this stuff in. Or not. You probably have your own list. Let's hear it. C'mon Apple, we're counting on you to get these things right. For the rest of us.
Six things I learned from losing my iPhone 3G
A couple of weeks ago, I was on a two-day business trip to Kansas City. As usual, the moment my plane landed I turned on my iPhone and gave my wife call to let her know that I had made it to my destination safely. I told her I'd text her as I got my rental car, and then call when I got to my hotel.Heading out the door of the terminal to catch the rental car shuttle, I reached into my pocket for my iPhone only to find that it was gone. I did a quick search of my other pockets, my briefcase; anything within reach. Nothing. The next step involved running back into the terminal, talking to the folks at United to see if they could have someone check my seat on the airplane. They did, with negative results. I gave them my name and home phone number so that they could call me if it was found on the airplane when the cleaners did their job, and then I headed on to collect my rental car and go to the hotel.The next morning, I called the lost & found office at the airport, and nothing had been turned in. Since I depend so heavily on my iPhone for my work, I ended up going to the nearest AT&T store to buy another phone. Read on to see what I learned from this experience.
Fix for missing items to come during rolling restarts; instructions follow
There have been rolling restarts the past several days, which is nothing new. However on the morning of April 18th beginning at 5:00 a.m. PDT the realms will be restarted in order to correct a bug where items were missing from players backpacks after the previous restart.Not every player experienced this issue. For those that did, items which were in their bags when they logged off Monday night were not there when they finally got into the game after patch 3.1 was applied Tuesday evening.Blizzard blue poster Idrandra gives some specific instructions as to what you need to do to ensure the items are returned. More after the break.
Breakfast Topics: 37! In a row?
Yesterday I was out tromping around Nagrand with my Shaman leveling her up, killing mob after mob. There was a point that when I killed about 10 mobs in a row, and I thought to myself "Killing Spree!" Harking back to the days of yore and Quake 3.This got me thinking. There is one critical achievement that is missing in the game. A killing spree achievement, ideally reached when you kill 37 mobs in a row without stopping. In fact, there's a great title for it featured as the name of this article. Go ahead Blizzard, take this one idea for free. To you, from me; your friend Adam.But oh wait, there's more. I was twittering last night about this, and there were some good suggestions that came across the feed. More after the break!
BGR brings the pain: ten things wrong with the iPhone
Yesterday's Boy Genius Report post citing the top ten deficiencies of the iPhone (no copy & paste, no video recording, and more) has generated more than 100 responses, some suggesting a fix for many failings (jailbreak the phone) and others hopping on the Blackberry or Palm Pre bandwagons in the hope that competition for the iPhone will spur more software innovation from Apple. While the App Store may be the hottest thing since that soldering iron you accidentally left turned on that ignited your Dad's workbench (and that's why you're not allowed in the garage anymore), even the sneakiest third-party developers can't effectively replace what Apple has failed to provide.Given the sense of pent-up frustration from some (but not all) iPhone 3G owners over a laundry list of things the phone doesn't do, or doesn't do well, here's your chance to cheer or castigate Apple in the hopes of a brighter day to come. Vote in our poll and comment below with your top priorities for improvements -- or, if you're a happy camper, your favorite feature of today's iPhone.%Poll-25419%[via Smoking Apples/Twitter]
