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Malware downloader infects your PC without a mouse click
You think you're safe from malware since you never click suspicious-looking links, then somebody finds a way to infect your PC anyway. Security researchers have discovered that cybercriminals have recently started using a malware downloader that installs a banking Trojan to your computer even if you don't click anything. All it takes to trigger the download is to hover your mouse pointer over a hyperlink in a carrier PowerPoint file.
Patch 4.3: Background downloader now available
Multiple sources are confirming that the Blizzard background downloader is now beginning to download patch data for the upcoming patch 4.3, Hour of Twilight. We have been hypothesizing a release date of the next and final Cataclysm content patch around the late November/early December mark. Having the background downloader active now means that a good portion of the content for the patch has been finalized and is loading into our games as we speak. Now it is up to Blizzard to tweak numbers and encounter design rather than add new objects, art, and so forth to the patch. As we learn more about the patch and its release date, we will be sure to let you know. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Patch 4.0.1 now available on background downloader
Good news, everyone! If you open up your World of Warcraft launcher, you might notice a line at the bottom that says, "Data for the next patch is available." Yes, it looks like patch 4.0.1 will be coming really soon. It seems like we're getting closer and closer to a release date. It looks like the first stage patch is about 1.58 GB. If you're getting ready for bed, it might not be a bad idea to open the launcher, start the game and close it in order to trigger the background download.
Cataclysm brings new launcher and patch process
Zarhym (Blizzard community manager) announced in the Cataclysm forums that the launcher as well as the patch download process will be getting overhauled as well. This new system will include a color-coded progress bar similar to a stoplight system. Zarhym There are three stages of download progress: SETUP (RED): Core game content is being prepared. You cannot enter the game at this time. AVAILABLE (YELLOW): Major game content is not completely applied. You can play, but your game experience will not be ideal. PLAYABLE (GREEN): Final game content is almost complete. You may experience a few game issues with playing at this stage. source What does this mean for players? Once you're into the yellow part of the download, you can actually log into the game and play. Things that are missing will likely be along the lines of art, model and sound files. While this might cause lag or strange graphic issues, it will allow for players to get back onto their servers faster during patch days. Those of you in the beta will see this relatively soon. However, it will require that you re-install the beta client from scratch. The full blue post and instructions after the break.
Scheduled downtime for December 8th, 2009
Looks like we're in for a long maintenance period with a great reward for our patience this week, folks. Blizzard announced their window for this week's scheduled downtime on the official forums, and given its length, we'll be seeing Icecrown tomorrow after all. Maintenance is scheduled to start at 1 AM PST/4 AM EST and end at 11 AM PST/2 PM EST. Given that this is a patch day, it's likely that maintenance will be extended at least once, likely several times, meaning your forays into Icecrown might end up a little later than you expect. Just remember that this is the big one, the one we've been waiting for, and that you can wait a little bit longer. In the meantime, brush up on what's coming with Patch 3.3 in our big ol' guide. Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Patch 3.3 downloader active again
Looks like the wait for Patch 3.3 is getting even shorter now. We're getting the second chunk of data for the upcoming content patch now via our Blizzard downloader, making sure most of us are ready for patch day without having to spend the day wrangling with the downloader. The first piece of the patch, wow-partial-1.mpq, was 459 MB, and this newest piece of the patch, wow-partial-2.mpq, is 656 MB, making the total size of the patch so far 1.1 GB. That's a pretty big patch! Fitting for the wrapup of the Wrath cycle and the culmination (and fulmination) of one of the last remaining Warcraft III storylines. We'll keep you posted as either more parts of the patch drop or as the patch goes live, but in the meantime you can brush up on what you'll have in store when the patch hits by reading our Guide to Patch 3.3 or checking out our Icecrown Citadel coverage. Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Brief launcher update
Blizzard updated the launcher again today without warning and hopefully without incident -- unlike Monday, when everything went awry, errors abounded and people were unable to connect. There is no indication that patch 3.3 is anywhere near downloading or anything other than a small tools patch. There has also been no word from Blizzard yet on exactly what this patch does, but it is required if you want to log into the game. The patch is very small and only takes a handful of seconds to download and apply. We'll keep an eye on this issue for any problems, but as of this writing, all is well.
WoW launcher and downloader causing validation errors [Updated]
I and many tipsters have encountered some issues tonight when trying to launch the game. Here's what we know: The Launcher is downloading something small. It is taking much longer than the 2 minutes estimated. Sometimes the download fails. Once the "something" has been downloaded, some are getting "unable to validate game version". Constant attempts to log in appear to make the error go away. There is no indication of what has been downloaded. Here's what we don't know: What was downloaded. We will update you as soon as we know anything. Please note: There is no indication patch 3.3 is dropping. NONE. Update 8:55pm: Blizzard says that the downloading issues are due to "prime time" and gives some advice in this link, mostly suggesting to wait. Update 8:44pm: Blizzard is calling this a "Tools Patch" and saying that "Safe Mode with Networking" is solving some people's problems. Obviously the issues are not fixed. Update 8:30pm: Blizzard says they have fixed the issues. Anyone still having problems should take the steps outlined in this link.
Background downloader working as planned
Lots of people have been pointing out the activity of their background downloader. Yesterday Zarhym announced that the download would startup soon, delivering the first part of the 3.0.1 content patch.The downloader is running along for many of us – both the North American and European versions. The patch files it is downloading are between 821 and 992 megs. Be sure to let it run only overnight if you don't want any problems while you run your groups or raids. To exit the downloader, Windows users can click the Blizzard icon near the clock on the taskbar and choose "Cancel" when the window appears. Macintosh users can go to the file menu and choose "Quit" when the downloader application is in the foreground. The download will restart the next time you launch WoW.Patch 3.0.1 will bring about a ton of changes in preparation for Wrath of the Lich King. There is no announced release date yet for WotLK, nor is there a date for when 3.0.1 will go onto the live realms. However most people expect 3.0.1 to hit the live realms in a month or so, and Wrath to be released in early November. Some of the major highlights of 3.0.1 include: New class spells and talents Stormwind harbor Barbershops New Arenas A built in Guild Calendar New Hunter pet skills Inscription No more Zul'Aman bears
WotLK Beta test begins to ramp up
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/World_of_Warcraft_Wrath_of_the_Lich_King_Beta_Is_Starting'; The beta test is beginning to ramp up. Tonight we have word that the beta downloader is in action and delivering data to those that have access to it (via WotLK Wiki). This is an obvious indicator that Blizzard has switched over to the beta testing phase, and that they are getting ready to send out invites.Additionally the beta page at beta.worldofwarcraft.com now shows beta information and activity. If you do get a beta key, you can use this page to sign up and gain access to the client files. It would be a good time to start keeping and eye out for a real beta invite, and let us know if you get one if you're one of the first lucky few. However at the same time, please be very careful not to fall for any beta scams.WoW Insider will keep you posted throughout the evening on this breaking news.%Gallery-5525% Hungry for more Wrath of the Lich King Beta news? WoW Insider has a slew of articles for you including a walkthrough of the new Achievement system, the new Death Knight Runeforging skill and maps of Northrend. Keep checking the site for more class analysis and insights to the changes.
Wrath of the Lich King Alpha in the wild?
Take this with a gigantic shaker full of salt, but a sketchy guild site host named Ejeet Networks claims to have received screenshots of the downloader for the Wrath of the Lich King alpha (watch out for the automatic music player on their site, too). Again, this means almost nothing-- even if the downloader is really out there in the wild, it hardly means the game is anywhere near done, or that anyone but Blizzard employees are still playing it at this point. But Ejeet says the DNS server for the WotLK beta is online and answering DNS resolution, and they claim that a "Swedish contact" sent them screenshots of the alpha downloader.Personally, I call shenanigans-- their first screenshot says version .1, and then the Properties screen they have says version 2.0.3.70, so which is it? They also claim that since the Properties screen says "{c} 2004-2008 Blizzard Entertainment," that's proof that we'll see Wrath in 2008, but that's hardly true as well. I have no doubt that we'll see the beta in 2008, but I'd bet money we won't see the expansion itself until January 2009. I'd love to be wrong, but them's the breaks.But I leave it up to you-- as much as I disagree, these could be proof that Blizzard has an expansion alpha up and running. Anyone else spot any other weirdness that could rule these out as fakes?Thanks, Dan!
Transmission 0.7 beta reviewed by Torrentfreak
The market for Mac torrent clients has been expanding quite a bit recently, and Torrentfreak has a nice review of a new beta version of Transmission, a long-standing favorite of many a Mac torrenter. While the review rounds up many of the nice new features, I'll give you the cliff notes for the slackers in the crowd: "Transmission 0.7 Beta is by far the fastest, most light-weight and one of the most appealing BitTorrent clients for the Mac."Diving further in, some of Transmission's new features seem to be inspired by Xtorrent, a new beta client from Dave Watanabe (of NewsFire fame). Of these new features, notables include time-of-day based speed limits (i.e. - slow down my torrent downloads while I'm at my desk at work from 9-5), as well as a Watch Folder with automatic cleanup of your torrent files (again, very Xtorrent inspired). The idea is: most Mac browsers by default download all files to the desktop, but that might not be where torrent users want to keep their downloads as well. This Watch Folder allows Transmission to automatically snag any torrent files you download to the desktop, move them to a user-specified folder and begin the torrent download. Ah, software automation - it's a beautiful thing.Check out the rest of Torrentfreak's review, as plenty more is packed under the hood of this new beta.[via digg]
The Background Downloader in Action
Today's release of patch 1.11 was the first chance we had to see how the new background downloader application would help us on patch day. The full patch file ended up being about 150MB, but for me, the background downloader had previously snagged 127MB of that, making the patch download fairly quick and painless. Of course patch day itself wasn't completely painless - the servers came up a few hours later than anticipated and the login server was sluggish when things first started coming online, but over-all the patching process seemed to go fairly smoothly. Did anyone have any negative experiences with the patch downloading process today?
All About the Background Downloader
If you happened to attempt to multi-task while playing Warcraft today, you may have noticed the Blizzard Background Downloader running, downloading a file with an unusually generic name of "wow-patch." So was some kind of patch released today? Well... no. However, there's an official post explaining exactly what is happening here. Before the background downloader was implemented, on patch day millions of people would be attempting to grab the patch at the same time - and my experience with this has been entirely negative. With the background downloader, whenever you log on to play, you'll be checking for updated files and start downloading them (very slowly - as to not interrupt your play-time). So as Blizzard finalizes parts of the next patch, the downloader is already grabbing them, which means that come patch day, you should already have most of the patch, making getting patched up quick and painless. I guess we'll wait and see how well it works in the end...!
