signatures
Latest
Visa will make signatures optional for chipped credit cards
It's been about a month since American Express and Mastercard decided to stop requiring signatures for EMV chip credit cards. Now Visa is joining their ranks, making signatures optional for chipped transactions in North America.
Microsoft resumes publishing Windows Phone apps, all is right with the world
Everybody, you can stop panicking. Microsoft has solved the digital signing problem that prevented app installations on older Windows Phones, as promised, and the flow of new apps is back to a steady stream. It may take a day or two before new titles show up in earnest; developers whose work was in caught in submission stage limbo won't have to restart the process from scratch, however. The quick turnaround is no doubt good news for developers. We'd argue that it's equally good news for Microsoft, too -- there's no doubt that the crew in Redmond would rather not have to explain any lengthy publishing outages while it's onstage with Nokia next month.
Microsoft halts posting new Windows Phone apps after some refuse to install on older devices
Microsoft may face a few uncomfortable questions at Build this fall. A bug in digital signatures resulting from the Windows Phone Dev Center rollout is preventing a "small percentage" of apps in the Windows Phone Store, including not-so-insignificant titles like WhatsApp and Microsoft's own Translator, from installing on older phones that had to upgrade to Windows Phone 7.5 after the fact. While the company already has a fix in the works, it's performing some painful triage to keep the damage from spreading: it's putting the brakes on publishing any new apps until certificate signing is back under control. Microsoft doesn't yet know when it can open the taps once more, either. The momentary freeze won't stop downloads of already-published apps, but it's likely to leave a few customers jittery about resetting their phones -- and developers twiddling their thumbs.
Adobe Mobile Reader 10.2 adds signature, form support
For years, you've been eager to dump that aging landline-tethered fax machine, but those occasional signature requirements have forced you to delay the disposal, time and time again. Well it might just finally be time to kick that beige beast to the curb. The latest version of Adobe Mobile Reader for Android and iOS effectively negates that need for scanning signatures, delivering that functionality through an in-app Ink Signature tool instead. You'll also want to take Note of the free-hand drawing option, text markup feature, sticky notes, EchoSign integration, intra-document link and form support, search tool and thumbnail navigation -- all available in Mobile Reader 10.2. There's also an update to the desktop app, Adobe Reader X (10.1.3), which includes the same Ink Signature Tool and EchoSign integration available in the mobile version. Click through to our source link for all the juicy deets.
Vertu's overpriced Signature S Design gets hands-on treatment
We won't lie -- we've always been harsh on Vertu handsets. As a rule, they're technologically inferior to handsets that are a twelfth the price, and honestly, they're usually pretty unsightly. But you know, Boy Genius Report's hands-on experience with the stainless steel Signature S Design really has us back on the fence. Sure, it's the price of a decent subcompact, but man, it's as sleek as sleek could ever hope to be. Have a look in the read link for a hands-on gallery that's sure to make you envious -- whether you're willing to admit it or not.
Seven graphical WoW signature generators - and one for your car
Want to have a picture of your WoW toon (or, in my case, toons) on your blog, forum posts, or emails? There are plenty of tools out there to help you. They all work by tapping the Armory to find information about your character -- some better than others. They can only update as often as the Armory does, but some of them take even longer. Most have customization options which allow you to choose the background, colors, and stats your sig displays. They also usually include code for your sig (if you want it dynamically updated) in HTML and BBCode format. After the jump, nine different ways to sign your character's profile.
Guild Launch signatures are back
One of the more popular dynamically generated signatures out there are provided by guild forum hosting site Guild Launch. For those that don't know about it, they provide nifty signatures to go on the bottom of your guild forum posts, and look just like the one pictured in this post. The signature updates based on the WoW Armory data provided by Blizzard. Pretty handy for showing off your stats. After all, who doesn't want to show off that their warrior has just over 16k HP unbuffed?About two months ago the signatures stopped updating entirely. The major problem was that the Armory, which we are always reminded is still in beta, was experiencing some problems. Last week the Guild Launch signatures stared updating again (thanks to the Armory working again), but with a twist. They now will update automatically every 6 days instead of every day. However, you can still manually recreate the signatures once every 24 hours if you just have to get your stats updated. (Although with that said, I have rarely seen the Armory update right after you equip new gear and log out... still in beta. Yup.)Your old signatures will still work indefinitely, but they won't be updated anymore. To take advantage of the new updated signatures, head over to the announcement page and follow the instructions. Basically all you have to do is change one word in the html line for your signature; find the word "sig.php" and change it to "wsig.php". Poof! You're done. What site do you use to make your graphical signature?
Get Grumpy, Faster and cheaper than Figure Prints!
If you're like me, Greatfather Winter didn't put a golden ticket or an uber laptop in your holiday stocking. And with my luck, I'll probably never win the Figure Prints lottery, either. Sad, but that's the reality of the situation. Enter Grumpycoder with their WoW PaperIdol. While they may not offer a rl figurine, they are the first to provide (that I know of) portrait and full body pictures that auto-update the look of your character as your Armory equipment changes. What this means is you'll be able to not only keep up with every alt you've accumulated over the years, you can now show them off in their current state of progression. No more WoW blogs with outdated character picts and no more forum avatars that look like you just hit level 5. Feel free to proclaim out into the interwebs what lewts you got last night, safe in the knowledge that without lifting a finger, everyone can see exactly how bad they clash with your Beguiler Robes. We'll be giving WoW PaperIdol a test drive after the jump!
Make your own custom armory signature - Updated
You play MMO's, you chat, you express your invaluable opinion on the forums, and you /dance. Your virtual identity is all about customization, and DKPSystem.com's beta Armory Signature Generator is a quick, easy way to snag yourself a l33t forum signature. After all, you might as well try to save your adoring fans some energy; now they don't even have to look you up before they reply!I love the simplicity of this tool. Although it allows you a fair amount of customization, it allows anyone, regardless of technical expertise, to generate a signature complete with character photo and pertinent information. From choosing which stats will be displayed, to choosing your own background, this is one handy tool that should be in every forum-goer's toolkit.
Show your characters on Facebook
A friend who recently invited me to social networking site Facebook showed me the WoW Armory application (you have to have a Facebook account to use that link) the other day. It's a little dohicky (technical term) that will automatically show WoW characters on your Facebook profile. Unfortunately, it's as no frills as they come right now-- basically you can see the character's name, class, level, server, and a basic outline of what they're wearing. No pics at all. But if you want to automatically share your characters on your profile via Armory info, there you go.I was going to suggest the Signature Generator we posted a while back if you wanted to post a much more detailed look at your characters on Facebook or anywhere else, but apparently it's MIA. The site doesn't load at all. The Google cache shows that maybe the site's creator burnt a bridge he wasn't supposed to, and unfortunately while there are a few other sig generators around, none of them look as good (or work as well-- I couldn't get my character to come up on the other one) as that one did.So if anyone knows of a good working sig generator, feel free to throw it in the comments below, and we can all show off our characters in our various webspaces. Oh, and though WoW Insider hasn't made our way to Facebook just yet, we are alive and well on Myspace, so come befriend us there if you like.Update: Reader Nick G sends along his own, self-made Facebook app, which he says is created by a WoW fan, not "a company trying to create a social network website and drive traffic to it via a Facebook App." Which is cool, but unfortunately, when I tried to create my character with his, all I got was an error message. So if his works, you might like it more.
Fix for .Mac sync errors with Mail and random signatures
I recently set Mail on both of my Macs to chose a random signature. From time to time during a .Mac sync, I'll receive an obnoxious sync error claiming that a 'default' signature on one Mac is conflicting with the other. No matter which signature I choose to resolve the conflict, the sync process will lock into a loop, repeatedly offering me a sync error with new choices on either end for resolving the conflict. Obviously, this has lead to an increase of Advil in my regular diet.If you're nodding your head right now, you'll be happy to know we all can cut back on the pain killers. For the first time in a while, I actually received a helpful message from Apple's email support that said something more than "try rebooting." Turns out that, unfortunately, if you enable Mail's random signature feature on one Mac, Mail can't be running on other registered Macs for the first sync after this new feature. I replied to the support rep's email to find out what is up with such an odd quirk, but I didn't receive a very useful answer.Nevertheless, after getting back to square one by resetting my signature data on both Macs, I can verify that this fix works. Hopefully, this issue is on the list of updates coming in 10.4.4.
