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SanDisk's 1GB WORM SD card stores evidence longer than your prison sentence (video)
You can think of SanDisk's latest WORM SD card like a mini time capsule... for criminals. As the name implies, these write-once-read-many cards are tamperproof slivers of flash storage that can only be written to once by an SD WORM-compatible device like, say, those security cameras, witness voice recorders, and photo cameras used by the police. SanDisk claims that the data will still be readable after 100 years, long after you and your crimes have been forgotten. Why the fuss after not hearing about SanDisk's SD WORM ambitions since 2008? Well, Sandisk just announced that Japan's police force will use the SanDisk SD WORM card "as the storage media of choice for tamper-proof forensic image archiving." We suspect that the Yakuza will be getting right on that "tamper-proof" claim just as soon as they finish viewing the video embedded after the break.
PSN survey hints at upcoming subscription-based features
Sony's European team has sent out a survey to some of its UK PSN members asking them yet again about possible subscription models for the service. The survey is run by a market research company called Ipsos, and appears to offer up a list of possible member benefits for a few different plan tiers, along with pricing for each. The benefits range from more tame ideas like exclusive and early access to content to more interesting options like "free title trials" (first hour of a game for free), user-to-user challenges, "token wagering" and a service called "catch-up TV." Oh, and since it's Sony we're talking about, there's even a listed option for "cloud storage space for games." You can find the full list of possible features after the jump. The price options differ from plan to plan, but they go as cheap as £2.99 (about $5 U.S.) up to £14.99 (about $25) for monthly fees, with annual fees also listed for 55% less than you'd pay month to month (so around £19.99 up to £99.99, or $32 to $160). Note that just because all of these things are on a survey doesn't mean that Sony has them up and running -- it only means that they're testing the water in terms of what UK members are willing to pay for certain features. But you can just add this to the growing mountain of evidence that Sony is planning some sort of premium subscription service. [Thanks Marc and everyone who sent this in!]
TASER's AXON on-officer recording system could revolutionize COPS
Oh sure, technically COPS is still a current show, but seriously, the formula hasn't changed in eons. TASER International's AXON / EVIDENCE.com tandem is gearing up to change all that -- so long as officers agree to strap the hardware on their person, that is. In short, AXON is an on-officer recording system that captures audio and video of arrests, and after the scuffle is complete, it sends the data (encrypted heavily, of course) to EVIDENCE.com servers that are managed far, far away from the potentially dubious grasp of police departments. There are built in sensors to see if any data has been tampered with, and if all goes to plan, the entire system should be ready for deployment in Q3 of this year. In other words, go ahead and get all your stupidity out before the summer ends.[Via Engadget Spanish]
NYPD implores citizens to submit photo and video evidence
Tired of the fuzz body-checking you right off your bike during Critical Mass rides? Well lucky you, New York Police Commish Ray Kelly is responding by flipping the switch on user-generated crime reports, enabling ordinary citizens to submit photos and video as evidence of criminal activity. Granted, we think it's always been the case that people could dial-a-detective if they've got a hot lead on a crime, but here Kelly specifically referred to the "fact of life" that nowadays "everybody has a camera in their telephones. When people can record an event taking place that helps us during an investigation, it's helpful." Details are not yet clear, like how much manpower it's going to take to weed through the billions of tattle-tale clips that will inevitably be sent in of Sbux line-cutters, or what codecs the NYPD will support (fingers crossed for motion-JPEG and 3GPP).[Via The Raw Feed]
Fallout MMO rumors persist
The Fallout MMO continues to bounce around as a rumor, and unfortunately nothing more than that. The big impetus this time seems to be the Fallout-looking concept art on Interplay's new teaser page (we've conveniently marked it above), but there's a whole host of evidence, including a job posting for a "next-generation MMORPG," and various "coming soon" hints dropping around.We're supposed to hear more in two weeks if there is anything to hear. Look at it this way: even if there is a Fallout MMO on the way, it's not going to be done and ready to play for a long, long time. We may all be sitting in Vault 13 by the time this thing makes it out of beta and on to store shelves.[Via CSG]
1UP weighs evidence for and against the KotOR MMO
The gaming community has been a-buzz with all sorts of speculation since LucasArts and BioWare announced that they'd be partnering up for a new project. The most popular theory: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is going massively multi-player. This theory isn't a total shot in the dark, but it's not without its flaws either, and if you're looking for conclusive answers, you won't yet find any. But maybe you just can't let it go. Maybe you can't wait until LucasArts and BioWare officially say something one way or the other; the possibility of a KotOR MMO is so cool, it nags at you, even if you won't get to play it for two long years. 1UP feels you. That's why they've written up a succinct overview of everything we know (and don't know) so far.You'll still be left wondering, but hey, at least it will be a sort of informed wondering, if that makes any sense at all.[Via TenTonHammer]
Owner of seven failed Xbox 360s speaks out
Our thoughts that anecdotal evidence would pile up publicly about the failure rate of the Xbox 360 took less time than we imagined. Dean Takahashi of the Mercury News wrote a piece this morning about a loyal Xbox 360 fanboy who has given up on the system after seven units "croaked" on him. Rob Cassima, 42, who attended the Zero Hour Xbox 360 launch event in the Mojave Desert said, "All of the four that we got at Zero Hour croaked on us.''Takahashi met Cassima and his wife at the event a year and a half ago. After Cassima contacted Takahashi about his plight, the journalist got him in contact directly with Peter Moore ... that must be nice. An Xbox 360 representative has since contacted Cassima to offer him a brand new unit. Cassima says, "A new 360 was all I really wanted in the first place, but after two failed attempts dealing with Microsoft's overseas call centers, I am very annoyed that it took an e-mail directly to P. Moore to get results ... I am just so gun-shy about the reliability issue ... I still feel like a chump."Tina Conley, a spokeswoman for Microsoft, told Takahashi the failure rates are "within the consumer electronics industry average." Microsoft refused to give exact failure rates. Yeah, that's not going to cut it much longer if these stories of failure continue with less than two degrees of separation between people. Purchasing extended warranties should not be the answer to defective production.See also: Ring of Death: An Xbox 360 story -- Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 BBC show tackles 'clapped-out old banger' Xbox 360
