end of life
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The original 'Call of Duty: Warzone' battle royale will shut down in September
The original battle royale game Call of Duty:Warzone will shut down definitively on September 21st, Activision has announced.
How to incinerate the International Space Station
There will be no green pastures or Florida beaches for the ISS when it retires at the end of the decade. We're going to kill it with fire.
Wyze will discontinue its first camera on February 1st
The company says Wyze Cam v1 can't support a necessary security update.
Nintendo is shutting down 'Dr. Mario World' for mobile on November 1st
Nintendo has announced that it's ending service of Dr. Mario World, a mobile version of its highly successful Dr. Mario NES game, on November 1st.
Adobe bids farewell to Flash Player in its final update
Don't expect any new features, though.
Germany has to pay Microsoft for failing to upgrade from Windows 7
Last winter, Microsoft announced that Windows 7 would reach its end-of-life on January 14th, 2020. In other words, the company will not be releasing any updates for the operating system -- even crucial security patches -- after that date. The public had nearly a year to make the move to Windows 10, but Germany's government didn't upgrade in time. According to German newspaper Handelsblatt, the German Federal Ministry has at least 33,000 computers still running Windows 7 and, as a result, will have to pay Microsoft about $887,000 in extended security update fees.
Camino web browser reaches its end of life
The developers of the venerable Camino web browser announced yesterday that the product is no longer being developed and that users should move on to "a more modern browser." As the team blog notes, "Fortunately, Mac users have many more browsers to choose from than they did when Camino started 10 years ago." Camino devs have gone on to create Safari, Chrome and Firefox, all of which are under active development and in use by millions. There's one overriding reason to switch from Camino; it isn't receiving security updates. It's time to move on...
Mobile Miscellany: week of October 15th, 2012
If you didn't get enough in mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This past week, we received further evidence of an imminent replacement for the Galaxy Nexus and the Optimus 4X HD found a new home in Canada. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of October 15th, 2012.
HTC Arrive makes its exit, leaves Sprint with a Windows Phone-shaped hole
Call it the end to a brief chapter in the Windows Phone saga. While there had been murmurs that the HTC Arrive was on its way out soon, any doubt has been removed now that the smartphone has vanished from Sprint's website and is likely on the endangered list at retail stores. The QWERTY slider's retirement leaves Sprint without any sort of Windows Phone in its roster, cutting the number of major US carriers backing Microsoft's platform down to three. Before you ask, we honestly don't know if the CDMA provider has a replacement waiting in the wings anytime soon: rumors of a Sprint Windows Phone 8 model surfaced as early as March, but the Yellow Swoosh network was nowhere to be seen among the Windows Phone 8 launch partners slated for this fall. The gap is conspicuous enough that Sprint subscribers may need a heaping amount of patience if they're not willing to switch networks for a Windows Phone fix in the near future.
Mozilla dispatches Firefox 3.6, fills its chair with version 13 beta
If you've been defiantly clinging onto Firefox 3.6 by your fingertips, bad news. Mozilla is officially putting it to sleep -- whether you like it or not -- by auto-updating users to version 12. You've still got a few days to bid your emotional farewells, with the switchover being pegged as early May. But, the browser's creators stop short of setting a date for you to get the flowers delivered by. Official support for the 2010 release finished this week, and the final bout of security fixes was back in January. At the other end of the spectrum, Firefox 13 wobbled up onto its beta legs yesterday, bringing a new homepage, Google's new SPDY protocol and tab extra features with it. If you're making the leap, don't panic if you find some old friends missing.
Sprint discontinues HTC EVO 3D online, limited quantities remain at retail stores
It's not like we're gonna argue with Sprint's rationale, but the EVO 3D has met its end at the Now Network. Visitors to the carrier's online store will notice that the gee-whiz smartphone is no longer available for sale, and Sprint reps have confirmed to us that it's not coming back. Those who insist on owning an EVO 3D will be glad to know that the handset is still available at Sprint's retail outlets, but according to the carrier, quantities are rather limited. Given a phone that debuted less than a year ago, its abrupt and unceremonious demise comes as a bit of a shock, but with the mighty EVO 4G LTE on the horizon, we can't blame the carrier one bit.
All PlayBooks go to heaven: Telus leak points to end-of-life status
This is the end, dear PlayBook-admiring friends. That is to say, it's the end-of-life for RIM's first unsuccessful stab at tablet computing. Unsurprisingly, the marketing blitzkrieg that saw J.Lo and the Flash Gordon theme awkwardly peddle the flailing tab hasn't done much to elevate sales or consumer interest, forcing its Canadian overlords to issue Telus an EOL notice. This not unexpected bit of news comes right on the heels of the BB maker's recently leaked device roadmap, in which a spring bow for a higher-specced, 3G+ enabled iteration is clearly denoted. Whatever Waterloo's near future plans for the category are, we know for sure they won't include BB 10 until much later this year. Chin up though, folks. At least we have OS 2.0 to soothe our fraught nerves in the interim.[Thanks, Jaimie]
Peek killing off US email and Twitter devices after 'lifelong service'
There's an old saying that eternal love lasts for two years. Apparently, that also applies to Peek's bare bones email and Twitter devices, which launched in 2008 and 2009 respectively. We've received emails from users anxious that their handsets -- all running on T-Mo's network -- stopped working on January 30th, despite them having paid up to $299 for "lifelong service." Although at least some users received emails about this, we've just had confirmation from Peek's CEO, Amol Sarva, that the products really are being abandoned. By way of justification, he told us that they're "seriously old" and have reached their end of life, with only a "handful of users" left in the US. He adds that anyone who bought the $299 one-off bundle still eked out 28 months of service, whereas paying the monthly $19.95 subscription plus extra for the device would have added up to much more. As to why the service is being killed, perhaps we should have taken the hint back in July, because now the company is all about software-only cloud services rather than handsets. Here's some more detail from Sarva himself: "Unfortunately we cannot maintain the network forever for a few users, so that end time has come. The networks are changing standards, protocols etc and the old units are now end of life. We have lots going with rapid adoption of our software by phone brands around the world, so Peek is flat out building for a number of platforms that our OEM customers are deploying like Android and Mediatek. We are not offering a Peek-made device to replace these old ones." [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Apple may discontinue the iPod shuffle and classic
We've been sitting on a tip for a while until things came into greater focus, but now that the speculation meter has exploded (see this CNet story), it's a good time to tell you all what we've heard. It seems that the "product transition" Apple mentioned on the last earnings call could very well be within the iPod line. Specifically, if you want to buy an iPod shuffle or iPod classic from Apple, you should do it sooner rather than later. We've heard those two iPods are getting the axe this year. It makes a lot of sense, but only partly due to the numbers CNet mentions. The classic is a holdover from 10 years of iPod existence, bearing many similarities to the original iPod. The shuffle is basically the same form factor as the nano, minus a screen. The classic uses a platter-based hard drive, while Apple is largely transitioning to flash-based memory solutions. The shuffle's lack of a screen has been an issue since it first appeared as a memory stick with music playback functions. If Apple killed these off, all of its iPods would have touchscreens, and something tells me it wants it that way. Obviously we can't divulge our source, but it is NOT an analyst. Most of us listen to analyst predictions with the proverbial grain of salt (or bag of salt). We feel pretty confident that Apple will soon discontinue the shuffle and classic, and we see few changes coming for the iPod touch -- unless you're super excited about it being available in white. The nano will then become Apple's lowest-end iPod (we've heard nothing about a price drop, however) and the iPod touch will remain a premium iPod with its current form factor intact.
Dell quietly pulls the Streak to perform an update, might bring it back next month?
What Dell can give, it can taketh away. That's the story with the Streak, which has quietly vanished from retail as well as the outfit's online storefront. We first got wind of this when a tipster wrote in to say he had spoken to a company employee, who said the 5-inch Android tablet / phone had been discontinued. When we reached out to Dell's PR team to see what's up, we got the pat "Dell does not comment on rumors, speculation, or unannounced products." So then we called customer service, pretending to order one, and that's when things got interesting. The rep told us the Streak hasn't, in fact, been end-of-life'd; it's just been pulled from shelves while it receives an update. The gentleman couldn't say how severe the issue is, though he insists it has zilch to do with Android. Whatever it is, Dell isn't even accepting orders for the 5-inch Streak at the moment. If all goes according to plan, though, we're told it should go back on sale in early August. [Thanks, Venkata]
T-Mobile G2 not long for this world, per leaked document
We'd like to think that good phones -- like soldiers -- don't die, they just fade away, solemn and proud, with a faint tear rolling down the cameraside cheek. This appears to be the case for T-Mobile's G2, which seems content to quietly disappear as younger and fresher handsets are prepped to take its place in the near future. It's no longer anywhere to be found on the carrier's site, and a leaked document (shown above) has surfaced that mentions the phone's inevitable demise. If the G2 is truly nearing EOL status, we suspect T-Mobile is ditching it to make room for newer QWERTY Android phones like the MyTouch 4G Slide. Regardless, if you have any inkling to get the G2 before it completes the path to obscurity, now would be an ideal time to lace up the running shoes.
Apple's numpad-less compact wired keyboard gets discontinued, few tears are shed
The ultraslim, metallic, chiclet-styled obsession all began back in mid-2007, but a revised iMac in March of 2009 delivered something else: a chopped-down version of the Apple Keyboard. If you'll recall, that one dropped the numeric keypad and gained two peripheral USB sockets, making it one of the more compact desktop keyboards on the market. Just shy of its second birthday, it seems as if the supply chain overlords in Cupertino have seen fit to discontinue it, though a number of e-tailers still seem to have stock for the moment. If you're dead-set on snagging one (we know, stocking's aren't that long), Amazon can make your day for $46.99, but we'd probably pony up the extra $3 necessary to bring one home with a number pad on the right.
Sprint's Palm Pre marked for End of Life?
We don't quite know how to break it to you, but if PreCentral sources are correct, Palm's hit a very interesting landmark: its comeback device, the Pre for Sprint, has reportedly reached End of Life (EOL). Warehouse quantities are said to be limited, and after that... well... have fun scouring eBay. Or better yet, maybe consider another carrier for the Plus model or even a full-blown sequel; we can't imagine the original Pixi's gonna cool your cravings. It's been a wild ride since that June 5th, 2009 launch, eh?
Storyboard: The unshuffled mortal coil
Welcome to this week's Storyboard, which originally was going to be very different than normal until I started writing my first idea. I discovered an important fact halfway through the writing -- the idea was really stupid. So I killed it, and that segues nicely into what I want to talk about: Death. Sooner or later every group of roleplayers in an MMO has to deal with it, and considering how many worlds have certain monsters roaming about whose only purpose is delivering untold harm to player characters, it's probably going to be sooner. Of course, death poses all sorts of problems in game design anyway -- what are the penalties, what are the lingering effects, is it a major inconvenience or a small hiccup, et cetera. But it poses a unique problem for roleplaying, because as it stands, you don't stay dead for long no matter what. So how do you deal with the implications of a world where death is less of a great beyond and, at most, a lost potential character title?
Bell HTC Legend prematurely put out to pasture due to AMOLED supply constraints?
It's a sad day for fans of Android, brushed aluminum exteriors, and retina-searing AMOLED displays. Bell's HTC Legend seems to have come to the end of its days, the provider moving the phone to "end of life" status due to "ongoing supply constraints from the manufacturer." Phandroid speculates this is due to AMOLED shortages slowing down HTC manufacturing, and that certainly seems like a reasonable conclusion. We also checked out some other suppliers of the phone and they too are not listing it in stock, so this could be a rather abrupt end of the road for one of the best looking, though not necessarily best performing, Android handsets. Update: David D. wrote in to point out this Forbes article pointing out that chip shortages could also be at least partly to blame here. [Thanks, Tati]
