Not like we haven't seen Nintendo's DS used as a music maker before, but this variant may be the most amazing to date. yarglaaaafr's ProteinDS application is currently in demo mode, but judging by the demonstrative video waiting after the break, it's remarkably solid as-is. C'mon, it's a tool that enables users to scratch up tunes via the handheld's built-in touchscreen -- how could Mario not approve?

[Via BoingBoing]

Reports of Xbox 360 consoles scratching discs have have been widespread for several months now, leading the EU to launch an official investigation into the matter -- and Americans to deal with it Uncle Sam style: by filing lawsuits. Mirroring the Florida suit filed earlier this month, two California plaintiffs have filed a class-action suit against Microsoft, alleging the negligent design of the 360 causes damage to game discs and asking for damages in the neighborhood of $5M. Based on how widespread this issue seems to be and the legs it's had, expect to see some speedy settlements involving a lot of tedious paperwork for affected consumers and a lot of green for the plaintiff's lawyers.

Disclaimer: Although the author of this post is an attorney, it is not meant to be legal advice or analysis and should not be construed as such.

[Via Joystiq]

Like carrion to a corpse, so begins the influx of litigious Xbox owners wielding class-action lawsuits against the Redmond giant. Recently a case has been filed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, alleging that the Xbox 360 caused scratching damage to discs during "reasonable, foreseeable, normal and intended use", and while this is the first case we've seen since the company addressed the Xbox 360's other problems, it's certainly not the first of its kind. So how much is all this disc damage worth? About $5 million, according to the claim, which makes explicit reference to the warranty extension as well as the infamous Dutch TV report on the scratching problem, and offers damning testimony from users who were unable to play their lacerated copies of Madden NFL '07. It seems unlikely that Microsoft can hold its ground on this, judging by the recent events concerning the system's build quality -- but only the country's richest lawyers know for sure.

Even though Microsoft seems to be dragging its feet when it comes to addressing the EU's anti-trust concerns, the software-giant-cum-console-maker was quick to respond to European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs Meglena Kuneva's inquiry regarding accusations of faulty 360 hardware. Specifically, the commissioner wanted to know the scope of the disc scratching problem brought to light by Dutch program Kassa -- and unsurprisingly, Redmond seemed to allude to 1UP that it was toeing the same party line in Europe as we heard back in April. The bottom line here is that Team Xbox is clearly adamant that there is no widespread problem, and while they seem to be a little more reticent to blame the end user now, your only recourse remains contacting the company and crossing your fingers.

[Via Joystiq]

Although reports of the Xbox 360 scratching discs have been floating around for a while, the story really got legs a couple months ago when a Dutch TV show called Kassa aired a segment claiming to prove that the 360 damages media. Although Microsoft promised to look into the problem, apparently that's not good enough for Meglena Kuneva, the European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, who has given Redmond exactly one week to detail how it's handled the bad DVD drive situation in the Netherlands, how widespread the problem is in other markets, and how many complaints have been received in those markets. While the Commissioner says the European Commissions doesn't have the "competencies" to force a recall at this time, she does say that she'll be "more than happy to act" if she finds legal grounds to do so. Ouch. Better get it figured out, boys -- the clock's ticking.

Read - Kassa article
Read - Inquirer article
Listen - (Mostly) English interview with Maglena Kuneva [streaming .wma, starts around 2:53]

So far the Xbox 360 has had its fair share of hardware problems, both large and small, and while Microsoft has dealt with most of these challenges by extending warranties and offering up free fixes, it usually takes its own sweet time to come around, which seems to be the case here. After completely ignoring a minor public outcry over what appeared to be a problem with a decent number of the 360s produced in December 2006 -- where a missing part in the drive caused the Xbox to scratch the disc it was reading -- Microsoft is finally confessing that there might actually be a problem and promising to look into it. This statement comes after Dutch TV show "Kassa" gave the movement some PR and ran its own tests on the 360, proving it to be the scratching culprit. Microsoft's still pretty wishy-washy about the whole thing: "We are not able to respond in detail on the results. It is possible that scratches on discs originate from frequent use. However, we have no indication that the results of the tests from Kassa are a large scale problem." But at least now Microsoft is willing to hear out customer complaints on the matter, and recommends that affected users contact support to deal with the issue. We're not quite sure what kind of pyrotechnics it'll take for Microsoft to actually run its own tests on these things, but at least things are moving in the right direction.

[Via gadgetzone.nl]

Update: Microsoft hit us with its actual statement on the matter, since a bit of the meaning got lost in translation. The truth is a bit more encouraging: "Due to the fact that we did not participate in the experiment done by Kassa and have little insight into the methodology that was used, we cannot comment specifically on the outcome. While we are aware that discs can potentially be scratched through normal wear and tear, we have not received any widespread reports of the issue highlighted here. There are millions of Xbox consoles in use today and we know that the majority of our customers are having a great gaming experience. That said, it is important to us that all of our customers have the best gaming experiences possible, and these claims are obviously very concerning to us. We encourage any Xbox customer who believes that their discs have been scratched in the same manner as identified by KASSA, to contact us at www.xbox.com/supportor 1-800-4-MY-XBOX for additional information. We will examine the console and make appropriate repairs if necessary in order to restore the console to full working order, as well as provide customers with information on how to obtain replacement discs should they need them."