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Deal: $50 gift card with 4GB 360 Kinect bundle at Gamestop
Purchasing the 4 gig Kinect/Kinect Adventures Xbox 360 bundle will run you about $300 no matter where you buy it, but only at Gamestop will purchasing one also net you a $50 gift card, which can then be spent on most of a new game, or 10 to 20 used Barbie and/or horse-related DS titles.
Apple demos Passbook, a one-stop shop for tickets and boarding passes
From airline and train boarding passes to concert tickets, we've seen a variety of tix make their way into the digital realm at venues around the world. With today's announcement of Passbook, the hard copy credential may soon be a thing of the past. Speaking on stage at Apple's WWDC keynote, VP of iOS Software Scott Forstall demonstrated the feature with United boarding passes, Fandango movie tickets and a Starbucks gift card. While none of these examples are making their premiere debut, Passbook will certainly make the QR-code-based stubs more user-friendly, while also increasing awareness among folks who continue to opt for paper while doubting the usability and authenticity of a digital counterpart. Passbook is also location aware, bringing up a Starbucks card as you approach a shop, for example. You can also get updates related to your stored credentials, such as a gate change announcement with a pending United boarding pass. The feature will come bundled with iOS 6, set to launch this fall. Check out our full coverage of WWDC 2012 at our event hub!%Gallery-157917%
Examining an iTunes Store account hack
ZDNet has a long report on a recently hacked iTunes account that involved a linked PayPal account. We've seen an increase in the number of hacked iTunes accounts in which people's gift card balance or linked accounts have been mysteriously drained. This report, like many others, leaves us wondering how the hack occurred. Is it a flaw in iTunes that's giving hackers access to accounts, does the user have an insecure password or did the user fall for a phishing scheme that somehow exposed their password? The good news in the ZDNet report is that PayPal already reversed the charges for five of the seven fraudulent transactions. This incident should be a warning for iTunes users -- you still need to guard your iTunes account password closely and you should choose a payment method that lets you easily reverse an unauthorized charge.
Apple adds iPad 2 to its recycling program
If you're looking for another outlet to offload an iPad 2, then you should check out Apple's reuse and recycling program. The program now accepts the iPad 2 and will give you an Apple Gift Card if your tablet is still operational. It'll also take broken devices that would normally land in the refuse pile. The program works just like Gazelle and ebay's Instant Sale. You fill out a questionnaire about the condition of the iPad and Apple will give you an estimated price. You then send in the tablet and Apple will send you a gift card after it evaluates the device's condition. Prices for the iPad 2 start at US$205 for a good condition 16 GB WiFi model and go up to $320 for the 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G version. If your device is a bit worn around the edges or doesn't work anymore, Apple will still recycle it for you. You'll may only get a small amount of cash for your broken device, but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you recycled it properly. [Via Computerworld]
PSA: Apple offering up to $320 if you trade in your iPad 2 in reuse and recycling program
Eyeing the iPad 3, but have yet to take the pre-order plunge? Per The Next Web, your patience is about to be rewarded as Apple's updated its Reuse and Recycling program, which means owners of iPad 2s in "good condition" can sling them back to their maker in exchange for an Apple Store gift card. How much the mothership will subsequently send back naturally varies on what iPad 2 you've got -- ranging anywhere from $205 for the base 16GB WiFi model, all the way to $320 for the most capacious 64GB WiFi + 3G variant. Or you could try your luck with similar programs such as eBay's Instant Sale or the one from Cupertino's tablet rival to the north. And would you look at that, we've even gone ahead and put links to all three just below.
Some iTunes customers still struggle with account hacking
Late last year, reports of hacked iTunes accounts and unauthorized purchases surfaced on Apple support forums. People complained their accounts were compromised and their gift card balances drained by in-app purchases. Most cannot remember falling for a phishing scam and had no idea why or how the hijacking occurred. It's been a few months and these reports continue to grow. That original thread, once thought to contain only a few isolated incidents, is now 70 pages long as noted by The Global Mail. The sentiment on the thread has also changed from initial confusion about why this is happening to anger that Apple is not addressing this problem. Some even say Apple is aware of a security hole in iTunes and is deliberately trying to cover it up. Apple has sidestepped this issue which only exacerbates the problem. When reached for comment, the company responded with a canned statement, "Apple takes precautions to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft and misuse, as well as against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Apple online services such as the Apple Online Store and iTunes Store use Secure Sockets Layer encryption on all web pages where personal information is collected." No one knows why these unauthorized purchases continue to occur. Some posters note that many hacked accounts have in-app purchases from an app called, Kingdom Conquest. Others suggest it might involve Apple's iTunes gift card algorithm which Chinese hackers cracked in 2009. It's also possible some accounts may be hacked by an automated system which scans for accounts that are easy to compromise. Once an account is hijacked, the login details are either sold on the Internet or used to make purchases that go to a developer who will share the profit with the hijackers. [Via AppleInsider]
Amazon's gift card restriction patent: puts some thought in your otherwise thoughtless present
We all have that one friend or family member that's nigh impossible to shop for, whether it's because they have everything or like nothing. Gift cards are the quick and dirty solution to this gifting conundrum, but what if you don't trust that special someone to make a purchase you'd be proud to call your present? Never fear, Amazon is here... with a new patent that lets you, the gift-giver, control which of the retailer's wares can be bought with its gift cards. Of course, those who aren't such control freaks can simply have the card make purchase recommendations instead. Plus, this gift card of tomorrow can also let you know what was bought with the card to give you some insight for future gifting occasions. Maybe then you'll be able to give your mother-in-law something she'll like, instead of just some repurposed retail cash.
Engadget giveaway: win one of five Nexus S 4G phones with $1,000 Google Wallet credit!
We're pretty excited about Google Wallet, but the service is currently only available for Nexus S 4G phone owners, leaving most of you waiting for broader implementation. Well, how would you like to skip the line, getting to test it out on a Nexus S 4G of your very own? Google has supplied us with five phones to give away -- the company is even throwing in $1,000 (yes, one THOUSAND dollars) of prepaid credit to help fund those first few dozen taps. There's one catch: you'll need to use your Nexus S 4G with a Sprint plan, though the carrier is throwing in one month of demo service to get you started. Check out our in-depth preview for a detailed look at the service, and simply leave a comment after the break to be entered to win -- after checking that you meet the entry requirements, of course.
A week with Google Wallet (video)
Contactless payments have been something of a curiosity in the credit card industry. MasterCard's PayPass has been around for the better part of a decade, but merchants and banks alike seem hesitant to adopt the technology required to make the system work, and inconsistent implementation adds to the confusion -- particularly for customers. Google's new mobile phone-based Wallet service has the potential to transform the technology from its current status as a transaction turkey, to a future as a checkout champion. But will it work? We spent a week with a Wallet-enabled Nexus S 4G, using the device to pay whenever we encountered a MasterCard PayPass terminal. Unfortunately, that wasn't often enough, limiting us to just a handful of transactions in the first week. Still, with Google just beginning to roll out the service and only a limited selection of launch partners ready to go, it's impossible to deliver a complete verdict just yet. Jump past the break for an inside look at Google Wallet, including a video of the service in action, and a brief look at what the world of contactless payments may look like in the future.%Gallery-130759%
Verizon wants you to upgrade to a smartphone, offering $100 gift card in exchange?
How much is Verizon willing to pay you to switch from a basic phone to a smartphone? A cool $100, according to rumors. The provider is reportedly gearing up to launch a new offer aimed at encouraging more customers to get with the times, as part of its trade-in program. Under the incentive, basic phone users eligible for a two-year upgrade (or those who qualify for an early upgrade) would be able to re-sign a two-year contract, tack on a data plan and purchase a new smartphone at a reduced price. Once that's done, they'll receive a PIN code for Verizon's trade-in site, where they'll find instructions on how to send in their old phones to receive a $100 gift card. A tipster told Phone Arena that the offer will run from August 18th to September 30th, though it remains unclear whether it will be regional or nationwide. For more details, check out the source link, below.
HP TouchPad 4G surfaces for pre-order on Amazon, wearing $700 price tag
It looks like the HP TouchPad 4G is inching its way closer to the market, now that the webOS tablet has made a pre-order appearance on Amazon. According to the listing, the 32GB slate will retail for a cool $700, sans contract -- about $100 more than its exclusively WiFi, equal-sized brethren. Given HP's recent discount spree, however, it may not be long before that price gets knocked down a few notches. Over the weekend, in fact, the company announced yet another promotion, offering $50 worth of App Catalog credit to users who purchased a TouchPad in the US between July 1 and August 4th. The offer is valid through December 31st, so check out the link below to find out how you can take advantage of it. [Thanks, Peter]
Target offering $100 gift card with purchase of Xbox Kinect bundle this weekend
Target is offering up a pretty solid deal on an Xbox 360 Kinect bundle, if you need one for the garage (you know, the one place in your house where you actually have enough room for the thing to work). For this weekend only, you can get the standard Kinect setup for $299, and the Targe will throw in a $100 gift card as a bonus. Unfortunately, that bundle only includes 4GB of memory, so you might have to pay out for an upgrade if you want to download a lot of XBLA titles. But perhaps that extra Benjamin you'll have picked up can help with that.
iTunes fraud surge hits gift card balances, PayPal accounts
The frustration and questions surrounding iTunes App Store purchase fraud are (unfortunately) continuing. Over the past three weeks, we've received several first-hand reports of accounts with positive gift card balances being unexpectedly drained; often the charges are for in-app purchases for apps such as Section8's World War, Sega's Kingdom Conquest or Kamagames' Texas Poker. Even as Apple is pushing forward with iCloud, questions remain about the security and safety of those millions of accounts. You can read the examples on Apple's discussion boards (stretching from November of 2010 until this week), a series of posts over at Betanews, or coverage at PC Pro -- but many of the stories are similar to the one below. Users who funded their accounts with gift cards saw those balances chewed through with unauthorized purchases; one user with PayPal funding for his account saw over $500 in fake purchases. The in-app buys were for apps the users never downloaded; most claim that their passwords were never compromised and only used for iTunes. Even if phishing or password compromises can explain some of the purchases, it's hard to imagine that all of these accounts were cracked. Here's our first example, from mid-May. If you have similar instances, let us know in the comments or send us a tip. We're asking Apple's media team for answers, if there are any to be had. I bought a $15 iTunes gift card from Apple so I could buy a chat app (Verbs). I also purchased some other apps (Monopoly, mostly because it's cheap, Bumpy Road and loaded a few free apps) which left me with roughly $7-ish dollars remaining in my account. On 5/19, the following happened: I noticed that my store credit had decreased to 51 cents when I went to purchase another app, but thought nothing of it. Actually, my initial thought was maybe a purchase from the past had caught up with me. I wasn't sure. Later that evening I received an iTunes receipt email to the tune of a $99 in-app purchase for a game called "World War". I immediately tweeted about the issue and changed my password. From that I was able to glean info that the app was purchased on 5/18 at 7:59pm. A free app called World War and then a $99 in-app purchase for "1700 honor points." The strange thing is I've never downloaded nor purchased this app myself, it doesn't even exist on my device so this is not a case of the smurf-berries. I emailed Apple support and went to bed because their human-powered support line was closed by 10:30p. Today I called Apple support and was on the line with them for close to 30-40 minutes. I explained everything above to the support person, who at the same time was IM'ing his iTunes store support contacts. They asked me when I had purchased the gift card, I told them at/around the 13th and what my first and last purchase was. I told them the first purchase was for Verbs, the last was Bumpy Road. They investigated further and noticed that prior to the free app + in-app purchase that two $50 store credits were put into my account. At which point the free app was "purchased" along with the in-app purchase of $99 (which equaled to $108 with tax). This raised a flag with them and their Support Manager and they immediately froze my account and escalated my case to Apple's Fraud Dept. The support person says this was the fastest occurrence of this that he has ever seen and he along with others had to deal with the Smurfs case. I'm convinced that they will refund the $7-ish dollars that was there before and they mentioned that the account should only be closed for 24-48 hours. During this time they will be investigating this issue and trying to piece together this on their end. Right now I'm less concerned with the refund and MORE concerned with the app developer and whatever scheme is going on. As for the advice they gave me, basically to change my password (yadda, yadda) and turn off in-app purchases in Settings. They could not, however, explain to me how a free app + in-app purchase was associated with my account. The developer of the app, Section8, are the same outfit who were sued over stealing user data.* A second example, this one featuring multiple PayPal charges totaling over $500: I basically started receiving emails from PayPal saying "You have just sent $44.95 to iTunes" and I was shocked because I did not buy anything. I immediately logged into PayPal and cancelled my payment agreement with iTunes. I received 11 charges of $44.95 each. I have filed a complaint with iTunes and PayPal but I have not received any reply yet. From what I read online, it seems like it is not clear if iTunes has been hacked or if the Sega software used for the hack (which I never downloaded) has been compromised. I never had the feeling that my account had been compromised before. Everything worked perfectly fine, never had strange emails, phishing attempts, etc. Our final report, with gift card balances being drained: Shortly after loading $50 of gift card credit on my itunes account, a remaining balance of $37 (after some earlier purchases) was wiped out by Kamagames Texas Poker chips. I googled the problem and it seems like many many people have experienced the same thing, and a snotty response from Apple about it as well. Everyone affected seems to have been gift card users, or those with a positive itunes balance, rather than money being charged to a credit card. I don't understand how this kind of fraud is being perpetrated but I am angry with Apple for not coming clean about it and explaining the problem given that it clearly seems something more specific than stolen usernames and passwords... The forum linked above is just one of many reporting this issue which seems to have started earlier this month.
Best Buy's Buy Back Program will let you trade in old tat for new hotness
Best Buy's crafty ploy for the new year has seemingly been uncovered by BGR's tipsters. According to those knowledgeable sources (and the paperwork they've passed along), Best Buy intends to roll out a new Buy Back Program, which will guarantee a given trade-in value for your gadgets, depending on how old they are. Thus, any laptop, tablet, or smartphone you buy from the retailer will be tradeable for 50 percent of its original price within six months of purchase, 40 percent before the first year passes, 30 in the 12- to 18-month period, or 20 in the dying embers of a two-year ownership period. That's pretty hefty depreciation and you'll have to pay an up-front fee to get enrolled in the Program, but hey, if you upgrade like mad, maybe there's some way to make this a financially appealing proposition for the consumer. Maybe... though probably not.
Buy two games, get a $25 gift card at Best Buy
Best Buy is offering a pretty sweet incentive to do your game shopping on its online store. The retailer will reward you with a $25 gift card when you purchase two games or accessories from its site. There's no end date listed for the promotion, but there is a list you'll have to choose your games or gear from. Don't worry about having to pick from a crop of stinkers though -- it contains 694 items, including all the big upcoming releases. Keep in mind that this deal is only available through BestBuy.com and that, as the fine print says, the gift card will ship separately. (Hopefully that isn't retail-speak for "three months later.") [Thanks, Eric!]
Amazon offering Demon's Souls for $33 with a free $10 gift card
Online retailers are beginning to understand exactly what it takes to get shoppers interested in their discounted products: Free money. Or, rather, pseudo-money. Amazon's learned this lesson well, and has added a nice little bonus to its already appealing offer for Atlus' punishing RPG Demon's Souls: Pick up the game for $33, and you'll get a free $10 Amazon gift card to boot. Actually, forget what we said about "pseudo-money." Do you know how many things are on Amazon? In our humble opinion, Amazonbucks are just as good as cold, hard cash. [Thanks Euclides!]
Get a $50 gift card with Wii purchase at Toys R Us
If you're in the market for a Wii and you don't mind buying one before seeing how that rumored black Wii situation shakes out, Toys R Us has a pretty appealing deal right now. Today and tomorrow, you'll get a $50 gift card with the purchase of the $200 console. It's like the Wii Sports Resort deals Walmart and Target have offered recently, except you can get pretty much any game instead of Resort. Check the weekly ad for your ZIP code before going in. We don't want any of you to drive down to Toys R Us just to be disappointed. [Thanks, Israel]
Walmart handing out $20 gift card with Halo: Reach or Super Mario Galaxy 2
If you're planning to buy either Halo: Reach or Super Mario Galaxy 2 -- and it seems statistically likely that you'll want at least one of those -- then Walmart has a deal you may consider interesting. Right now, you can pre-order Halo or Galaxy and receive $20 in credit from the retailer. And, of course, since it's Walmart, the prices end in .96, saving you an additional three cents. We don't even know when Halo: Reach will be released beyond "fall," but we already have a pretty good idea of what the best deal for it will be. Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be available May 23. [Via GoNintendo]
Dragonica Online kicks off 2,500 dollar gift card contest
We know what you're thinking. You're thinking that Dragonica Online is offering you a 2,500 dollar gift card to their own game. Well, that's what we thought too, but we were wrong. 100% wrong! The Dragonica Online Water Series Game Card Sweepstakes (hereafter referred to as "the contest" because that's one huge name) is offering new players and old players a chance at a very sweet 2,500 dollar gift card to Best Buy, allowing you to stock up on all of your electronic needs! All you need to do to enter is simple -- simply sign up for a THQ*ICE passport, download Dragonica Online, and then log into the game before January 31st. Really, it's that simple. If you're already a Dragonica Online user, simply logging in will enter you into the contest. Five first place winners will be grabbing a $25 limited edition Dragonica Online Water Series Game Card while 10 second place winners will find themselves the proud owner of a $10 limited edition Dragonica Online Water Series Game Card. We don't know what's so "limited edition" about them, but who wants to turn down game credit for logging in? Remember, the contest only runs until January 31st, so make sure to log in to participate! Also, THQ*ICE runs the North American version of Dragonica, so sorry in advance to our friends overseas -- this one's not for you guys.
Facebook gains iTunes gift card feature just in time for Christmas
The 350 million users of popular social networking site Facebook now have another application they can benefit from -- the ability to purchase iTunes gift cards for other Facebook users. This timely functionality, reports The Loop, will let Facebook fans use the familiar interface to purchase and send iTunes gift cards in US$5, $10, $15, $25, and $50 denominations. The interface allows users to select a date on which the gift card will be delivered, meaning that you could theoretically do all of your birthday shopping for the next few years in one Facebook session, and then let Facebook do all the hard work of remembering birthdays and hoildays. There are six different card designs available at this time, including two holiday cards, two birthday cards, and two generic "any occasion" cards. As with other Facebook apps, you must approve the app and let it have access to your profile information. Unfortunately for international Facebook users, the app is only valid for the U.S. iTunes store at this time.
