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Samsung speaks up about broken Galaxy Fold review units
Even after extensive durability testing, reports surfaced yesterday that several Galaxy Fold reviewers had already suffered from broken devices. It appears they're experiencing more than one type of issue, mostly tied to the device's innovative folding display technology, and in a statement released tonight Samsung said it "will thoroughly inspect these units in person to determine the cause of the matter." According to Wall Street Journal reporter Joanna Stern, the Fold's planned April 26th launch is still on with no hint of a delay.
Defective Sony stereo is a fire hazard that drives your dog nuts
The Sony CMT-SX7 HiFi was supposed to be a compact, high-end sound system with multi-room capabilities and a full suite of wireless streaming standards (including AirPlay and Google Cast). Instead, it's a recalled safety hazard that doesn't play music right, makes your dog bark and threatens to catch on fire. Sony has issued an impassioned plea to stop using the stereo immediately. You probably don't have one (it's brand-new, and only available in Japan right now), but if you do, you should listen.
Apple's iOS 8.3 update breaks Touch ID purchasing for some users (updated)
If you haven't downloaded and installed iOS 8.3 yet, you might want to hold off for a bit first. Apple says the update packs that new emoji keyboard and a slew of performance fixes, but multiple reports on Reddit, Twitter and Apple's own support forums claim that the new software build basically breaks TouchID support for iTunes and App Store purchases. It's not yet clear how widespread the issue is -- Twitter in particular is light on the moaning today -- but we've just installed iOS 8.3 on a pair of iPhone 6s on different carriers and now neither of them work the way they're supposed to.
PewDiePie joins MLG.tv with exclusive BroKen streams
PewDiePie, the internet's most famous YouTuber (this sentence wouldn't have made sense 10 years ago), has signed a deal to bring episodes of his "BroKen" podcast to launch exclusively on MLG.tv, with the premiere stream tonight. "BroKen" stars PewDiePie – normal name Felix Kjellberg – and fellow streamer CinnamonToastKen. "Our vision for MLG.tv is to make it the home for premium content and producers like PewDiePie and his show 'BroKen,'" MLG VP of Programming Ryan Wyatt said. "This type of programming deal with PewDiePie, one of the biggest stars in digital media, is a great example of the premier talent we have joining the growing MLG.tv line-up." PewDiePie brings in $4 million a year in ad revenue, The Wall Street Journal reported in June. Earlier in September, PewDiePie announced that he would permanently disable all comments on his YouTube videos, forever and always.
Sir, I believe your Mac may be broken
I'm not a certified Apple repair technician, but I'm going to go ahead and say that this is not a good sign. However, on the bright side, there is 45 GB of free disc space available, so that's a plus. [Photo credit: Beghin]
How much is a completely trashed iPhone worth?
You can buy iPhones of all shapes, sizes, and conditions on eBay. There are brand new items, used items, really used items, and broken items. This 16GB iPhone 5 makes a strong argument that there should be a fifth category for "Completely Destroyed." The auction description notes that the phone has a bent frame, "cracked" screen, red substance on the screen, a bent frame, and of course water damage just to top it off. The rear of the phone has an interesting pattern of trauma, and the auction gives no clues as to what kind of abuse the poor little device has been through. In short, it looks like it's been through the jaws -- and digestive system -- of a gigantic robotic tyrannosaurus. But despite all that, it's not worthless. The winning bidder threw down a cool US$31.00 for this tribute to mishandling. What could this thing possibly be used for? Could any of its insides still be usable as repair parts, even with the noted water damage? Perhaps its value is simply as a piece of modern art.
I guess you can bend an iPad in half after all
People always talk about the inevitable future of bendable digital screens, but did you know that you can bend the iPad Air? Apparently you can. You'll destroy your tablet in the process, but according to the photographic evidence above, it's definitely possible. I originally spotted this image on one of those horrible "Retweet to win an iPad!" spam bots on Twitter, and a reverse image search didn't provide any background info. The highest resolution version appears on UK-based hardware leasing company Hardsoft. I'm not sure how this was accomplished, other than brute force, but the results are pretty dramatic.
So THAT'S what the inside of an iPhone looks like
No word on how this unfortunate iPhone 2G met its demise, but the damage it pretty remarkable and certainly points to something more than a simple drop. I like to imagine it died while being shot out of a cannon from the summit of K2. [Photo credit: Helen K]
A wounded iPhone
There's something about seeing an iPhone with chunks of its front entirely missing -- and the phone still function as intended -- that makes them seem like Terminator robots. [Photo credit: Pankaj Kaushal]
Know Your Lore: Shattrath City and the Lost
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Standing in Outland as a sanctuary capital shared by both Alliance and Horde, Shattrath City isn't exactly much to look at. The city is divided into several different sections, housing a variety of occupants from draenei to arakkoa to everything in between -- refugees, for the most part. In Warlords of Draenor, we'll finally see Shattrath as it was in its glory days. A coastal city, a museum metropolis, described as an architectural marvel. Unfortunately, the city will also be occupied by the Iron Horde. The events that turned Shattrath from shining capital of the draenei to the ruins we're familiar with today are steeped in tragedy that still affects the draenei race to this day. Certainly there was sorrow to be found in the fall of the city -- but its fall, and the fall of the other draenei cities scattered around Draenor, were also directly responsible for the evolution of the draenei race as we know it.
The best mistake ever
Mistakes happen, of course. One of the biggest to ever happen in the history of World of Warcraft led to the creation of the draenei as we know them today, and I think it's safe to say that the game and the lore of the Warcraft setting is the better for it. Going into Warlords of Draenor it's worth looking back at that moment. What mistake am I talking about? I'm talking about the time Chris Metzen forgot the work of a major lore writer on Warcraft III and changed things. What writer did Chris forget about? None other than the Senior Vice President of creative development himself, Chris Metzen. The obvious lore contradiction with Sargeras and his encounter with the eredar was clearly documented in the Warcraft III manual. I wrote those bits about four years ago, and to be totally honest, I simply forgot. -- Chris Metzen, Metzen on Lore What happened is fairly simple. In Warcraft III, we're told that the eredar were a race of sorcerers and warlocks whose corrupt magics date back to the dawn of time, devourers and corrupters who ran afoul of Sargeras before the titan went mad. In fact, in the original story, it was his encounter with the eredar that started Sargeras down the road that would lead him to go mad. At this time, no mention was made of the eredar being in any way related to the draenei, nor were the draenei depicted as anything beyond the deformed model used by Akama. Even when World of Warcraft debuted, the few draenei in game were known as lost ones, such as Magtoor or Kum'isha the Collector, and they were nothing like the draenei we have today. And then the mistake happened. Mr. Metzen, in preparation for The Burning Crusade, came up with a way to link the draenei of Outland to the eredar and in so doing, completely contradicted what he himself had written in the Warcraft III manual. And in so doing, he made the game as a whole much stronger.
Xbox One disc drive broken for some users, YouTube videos show [Update: Microsoft responds, twice]
A handful of YouTube demonstrations show Xbox One disc drives broken in the same way: The console accepts a game disc and then makes an awful skipping sound and doesn't register any game data. One YouTuber, Gabriel Ortiz, compiled a few videos of busted Xbox One disc drives, which he found under the search term "Broken Xbox One." We've reached out to Microsoft for more information. Update: A Microsoft spokesperson provided the following statement: "We know that with a hardware launch of this magnitude customers will have questions and we have many avenues for customers to get the answers they need and get back in the game as soon as possible. Rest assured we plan to take care of our customers. "Any customer who believes they are experiencing an issue with their Xbox One should reach out to us. There are many avenues available for customers to get in touch with us including: Talking to a live customer support person that can call you back if you don't want to wait Xbox.com for support pages and forums On Twitter with @XboxSupport There are also Help and diagnostics on the console by saying 'Xbox Help.'" Update 2: Microsoft followed up with another statement more clearly addressing the disc drive problem: "The issue is affecting a very small number of Xbox One customers. We're working directly with those affected to get a replacement console to them as soon as possible through our advance exchange program. Rest assured, we are taking care of our customers."
Sony looking into 'isolated' PS4 issues
Sony is investigating what it claims is a "very small" number of "isolated" issues with PS4 hardware, after a couple of high-profile games sites reported problems with their newly-acquired devices. Both Kotaku and IGN received consoles unable to output through HDMI, in the latter's case after updating the firmware to 1.50 and downloading the Netflix app. While it's unclear what exactly caused IGN's PS4 to stop working, Sony was able to quickly identify and fix the issue with Kotaku's unit. As Sony reps told the site, an "obstructing piece of metal" in the PS4 had knocked some of the connecting "teeth" out of inserted HDMI cables. Neither Kotaku nor Sony was able to explain how the issue arose, although the site didn't discount human error from its end. Meanwhile, a Reddit user who received a PS4 early through a promotion also experienced issues; his PS4 turned on, producing the blue pulsating light on the console, but wouldn't send a signal to TV. The issue with his unit remains unresolved, but Sony will provide him with a replacement unit. Responding to these reports and ones that surfaced elsewhere including on NeoGAF, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida tweeted, "Be assured we are investigating reported PS4 issues. The number is very small compared to shipped, we believe they are isolated incidents."
WRUP: In which there are elves and broken
The delicate subject of new classes was discussed this week by various members of our staff, and while we seem to be split on the matter, there's another option to consider. In this week's bonus question, we look at the possibility of new races and what everyone would like to see -- along with a glimpse at what the staff is playing this weekend. But enough of that -- what are you playing this weekend? Leave your comments, and while you're at it, maybe you want to answer this week's bonus question of what new races you'd like to see yourselves! Daniel Whitcomb (@danielwhitcomb) I'll be farming battle pets and working on my last few rares on Timeless Isle for the Timeless Champion achievement. I keep barely missing Chelon and Osu. As far as a new race goes, I am still a High Elf fan. As someone who's loved them since Elven Archers in WCII, I think we should have them from the start. Plus, with the extra development the Silver Covenant got in Patch 5.1 and 5.2, it's a perfect time to bring them in to the Alliance. Yes, I know they're "too similar to Blood Elves." I figure we can just give the Horde some "reformed" Eredar that look like red-skinned Draenei, and we'll be even.
Marvel Heroes patch 1.11 breaks game, reverts back
Marvel Heroes was proud to roll out patch 1.11 last night, and the playerbase was proud to receive it. There was only one problem: It didn't work. Gazillion couldn't get the game up and running for everyone, and after several hours of outages, the team decided to create a new patch to revert the game back to a pre-1.11 state. CM Stephen Reid explained the studio's response: "After an evening of working to see if there was a quick solution to the issues we encountered when we brought up game update 1.11 tonight, we've decided to go with 'Plan B:' deploying a patch that essentially 'reverts' the live game to its pre-game update 1.11 state. This is safer and will allow the game to be up and for you to play in the live environment while we diagnose, fix, text, and redeploy game update 1.11." Patch 1.11 contained the Human Torch playable character as well as the new eternity shards system. Gazillion assures players that if they managed to log in last night and purchase the Human Torch, it will be safe and sound when 1.11 returns.
Hartsman: 'The traditional AAA style of development and distribution' is broken
A few days ago we reported on RIFT's impending free-to-play conversion, followed by the news that Trion was undergoing a second set of apparently unrelated layoffs. Former Trion studio GM and CCO Scott Hartsman responded to the layoffs on Twitter, intimating that aspects of the gaming industry are "fundamentally broken." After we invited your thoughts on that same subject in a Daily Grind earlier this week, we contacted Hartsman in the hopes of getting him to elaborate. Join us after the cut for the resulting interview.
Retribution paladin DPS broken after realm restarts [Updated]
According to several reports, including the official forums, World of Logs, and several of our own staff, retribution paladins are experiencing a bug after tonight's rolling realm restarts. The bug has retribution paladins dealing several times their normal damage, with new records on World of Logs easily exceeding 100,000 DPS on any given Dragon Soul encounter. The bug appears to be related to Seal of Truth, as it's dealing over 60% of the affected ret paladins' damage, vastly dwarfing all other sources. The bug seems to be affecting PvP and PvE, as there are many reports of retribution paladins being nigh unstoppable in Battlegrounds tonight. One group of retribution paladins toppled Lord Rhyolith in under 15 seconds. There has been no official word from Blizzard just yet on these developments, although we can be sure that there will be a change deployed to fix this bug as early as possible. Reminder from the editors: Do keep in mind that abusing things like this is considered exploitation. Blizzard does have the right to ban you for abusing this if you're using it to bypass content à la our old friend Karatechop. Don't make Blizzard's job harder, and don't risk your account. Update 10:00 a.m. EST Blizzard is aware of the problem and is looking for a way to solve it. They also issue the same warning we did -- don't exploit this. Zarhym -- Ret Paladin DPS Bug We're aware of this issue and looking into it right now. It's likely we won't have further updates for you until we're back in the office in the morning PST. Just as a reminder from the Terms of Use: C. Rules Related to Game Play. (i) Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players. source
Breakfast Topic: Has the time come for Outland story updates?
After Chris Metzen's seeming joke at BlizzCon concerning the possible reappearance of Illidan in future WoW storylines, it occurred to me that we really haven't seen much of Outland or its storylines lately. Well, maybe that's not fair -- if you're leveling a character between 58 and 68, I imagine you've seen all too much of Outland and are heartily sick of the whole continent and its dungeons by now. Still, The Burning Crusade featured some great stories, and if Illidan ever does come back, there are a few people I hope he'll (metaphorically) drag alongside him. The two that come immediately to mind are the Netherwing Dragonflight and the Ashtongue Deathsworn. What's up with the Netherwing since Deathwing's demise? Do they even know about it or what's happened with the Aspects? And what's going on with Akama now? I'd argue that he, more than Kael or Vashj or Illidan, was the greatest and most compelling character of WoW's first expansion, and he had one hell of a unique model. The brains behind the Ashtongue's high-stakes Batman Gambit (warning: TV Tropes link) has got to be up to something these days, and if Blizzard ever revamps Outland questing, I hope it gives players a peek. Then again, that's assuming that yanking Illidan back from the dead is even a good idea to begin with (is it?) or that Outland stories can be made relevant to their modern counterparts. Thoughts, readers?
Welcome to UMvC3's Reverse World
Glitches usually come in one of two varieties: The hilarious, and the game breaking. Sometimes, however, you'll stumble across a bug so profoundly weird that it falls into both categories. Enter the "Reverse World," an Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 error which flips the camera 180 degrees on its Z axis, turns the characters into silhouettes and reverses all input motions. As explained in the above tutorial video, the glitch is activated by performing Morrigan's Astral Visions hyper combo and then sliding down a wall as Strider. The effect is devastating to the match, but since the glitch requires the participation of both parties, it doesn't seem like it could be abused for trolling purposes. In fact, we'd take a smiling, floating Servbot over Wesker's DHC glitch any day.
Know Your Lore: Lore Q&A-palooza
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Warcraft has a huge story behind it that stretches back over three expansions and an original MMO, three RTS games, and expansions to those RTS games. It covers novels, comics, manga, short stories, and even books, quests, and items currently found in World of Warcraft. The sheer amount of information out there can be a dizzying, massive pile of stuff to keep track of for the average player. Though Cataclysm's done pretty well with incorporating story and lore into gameplay, there are still tons of question out there left to be answered. Cataclysm doesn't cover everything. That said, this week I decided to mix it up a bit and answer some lore questions from previous posts. To mix it up even more, I also put a call out on Twitter for everyone's burning lore questions. I won't be doing these too terribly often, but if you've got a question that isn't answered in this post, feel free to leave a comment and I'll come back here next time I decide to do a Q&A. Let's get started, shall we? @ericisgame from Twitter asked: How many Old Gods are there currently and how many do you think will be eventually revealed?
