Changeover
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Facebook, Google urge Congress to hand over internet control
On October 1st, the US is supposed to hand the "keys" of the internet to ICANN, and Congress is not happy about it. The mostly Republican lawmakers, led by Ted Cruz, feel that ceding control will stifle online freedom and give power to authoritarian governments. However, technology companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter penned an open letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to hand internet domain control to the international community as promised.
Sony Online Entertainment offers an updated ProSiebenSat.1 FAQ
If you're in Europe and playing EverQuest II, DC Universe Online, or many other Sony Online Entertainment games, you're probably aware that a major change is on the horizon. The company has signed an agreement with ProSiebenSat.1, giving that company a great deal of control over the publication and operation of SOE's games in the region. There was some backlash over the change, as players were in particular concerned about being forced to play on specific servers. While some of the details have already been addressed, SOE seeks to remedy a variety of player concerns with an updated FAQ detailing exactly what will take place when the service changes hands. Worth noting is that Station Cash will be converted into a similar but proprietary currency and all customer service issues will be handled by ProSiebenSat.1. Players will also need to make a new account with ProSiebenSat.1, although their old SOE accounts will still be used for certain games, such as the original EverQuest. If you're one of the many players affected by the change, there's no time like the present to take a look at what you can expect.
The pros and cons of Battle.net
Well it's finally happened -- as of next month, you'll be required to have a Battle.net login to get into the game, so you might as well head over and merge your account up right now. It's not like we have a choice in the matter any more, but that doesn't mean lots of players still have apprehensions about the process. Naissa puts some of the concerns together clearly over on her blog -- putting all of her accounts under one username scares her, and that's a legit point. Not only can Blizzard presumably cut access to all of their games for just one (or even one false positive) ToS violation, but presumably, one hacker could now gain access to all of your Blizzard games with one hack. The online profile is another concern -- Bungie already has something like this running with Halo, and from my online profile, you can see clearly just how bad I am. With the Armory, there's a level of anonymity (you can't see your account name, just character names), but if Blizzard starts posting profiles under account names -- or even worse, "Real IDs," which are apparently real names -- that's one more layer of separation lost. Surely, they'll have to have a way to opt out of that.Of course, the changeover isn't all bad.
FCC hitting the road to talk digital TV
For anyone who's still confused about the digital television transition -- somehow missing the TV ads, radio spots, numerous articles and a part of the small minority not vigorously refreshing the Engadget HD front page -- the FCC is sending staff out on tour (sans the slick bus, didn't anyone tell them you've got to have a bus? It worked so well for HD DVD...ok maybe not such a great idea) to spread the 0 and 1 gospel. 23 cities identified as having more than 100,000 households or with at least 15% getting their TV strictly via antenna are on the list to be visited by a commissioner, while others will have to make do with mere staffers. FCC.gov has thedetails on when and where they'll be (warning: PDF read link), feel free to see when they're coming to your town. Will you save your ticket stubs to tell everyone "I was at digital switch '08"? (Note: FCCapolooza '08 is not actually converging on Haight-Ashbury in a phenomenon of cultural and political rebellion, but it would be much better if it were).[Via Variety] [Image courtesy of Supertouch Art]
Break the FCC's digital transition rules? That's a $6 million finin'
As seen previously, the FCC isn't scared to put the financial smackdown on anyone it finds not playing up to the rules of the digital transition, and has dropped about $6 million in fines on 11 companies. Several of the companies fined were retailers it says did not properly mark TVs that had only analog tuners and won't get OTA TV after it's shut off next year. Wal-Mart got dinged for $992k, $1.1 million went against Sears, $712k for Circuit City, $296k against Target and $280k against Best Buy. Syntax-Brillian was one of two companies that caught a charge for importing TVs without a digital tuner after the deadline, two more were fined for V-chip violations, while Panasonic and Philips were among seven others that settled to avoid fines. That probably won't cover all those $40 coupons, but it can't hurt. [Via Zatz Not Funny & Cable Digital News]
What do you think of HKO Insider?
We're a good part of the way through our first day here at HKO Insider, so we figured now might be a good time to get some feedback from the community about what you think of the new focus of our site. Do you miss the green forests of Ashenvale or are you sold on Sanriotown? Is class QQing sounding pretty good to you right about now or are you krazy for Keroppi?Our overlords at AOL directed us this morning to switch focus to a more popular MMO (since Wrath of the Lich King doesn't even have a release date yet), and some of our readers (and, frankly, writers) are a little uncomfortable with the change. But what do you think?%Poll-11998%Choose your opinion in the poll above (and post a comment below, if you like), and let us know what you think about the changeover to cover Hello Kitty Online 24/7 instead of our usual World of Warcraft coverage.
