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Apple hiring new product security managers
Last week, a CNET report kicked off the wild tale of a lost iPhone 5. This baffling story tracked the phone from a bar to an apartment in San Francisco. It even included a controversial search conducted by Apple security employees with the San Francisco police department. Though this is an entertaining tale for the technophile, there may be more going on behind the scenes at Apple. On Thursday, when these reports of the lost iPhone 5 were circulating, Apple posted two job listings for product security managers. According to the job listings spotted by PC Magazine, the new hires "will be responsible for overseeing the protection of, and managing risks to, Apple's unreleased products and related intellectual property." From the description, it appears that Apple wants to make sure they don't lose track of the iPhone 6 like they did with the iPhone 4 and (supposedly) the iPhone 5.
Apple loses another prototype iPhone - maybe not (Updated)
Update 2: SF Weekly kept digging, all the way to the man who claims "investigators" stormed his house and searched his stuff. SF Weekly obtained a phone number, one for a man who appeared on LinkedIn (before the page was pulled) as an Apple "senior investigator." When SF Weekly called the man, who had 103 connections on LinkedIn just before his page was removed, he confirmed he worked at Apple but offered nothing else. SF Weekly will continue to investigate, but considering the circumstances the SFPD has indicated it wants to know just what the heck is going on. To us, it sounds like a hoax, and Beatweek Magazine suggests the bar where the iPhone prototype was supposedly lost could be at the center of it. Update: According to SF Weekly, the San Francisco Police Department has no record of this investigation. CNET reports that an Apple employee lost a prototype of an unreleased iPhone in a San Francisco-area bar. No, you haven't fallen through a wormhole and woken up in 2010 -- it happened again. The prototype was reportedly lost in July, and Apple's efforts to recover the device have not succeeded thus far. Rather than immediately remote-wiping the phone as it did with the iPhone 4 prototype last year, Apple used the Find My iPhone feature and co-ordinated with San Francisco police to trace the phone to a home in San Fran's Bernal Heights area. The homeowner gave police permission to search his house, but the device was not recovered. Supposedly the prototype has already been sold on Craigslist for US$200, a paltry sum compared to the $5000 a certain "gadget blog" (CNET's words) paid for the iPhone 4 prototype last year. No other details on the device are available, but considering the firestorm that erupted in 2010, it's unlikely that any "gadget blog" would have the stones to buy the device even if it was offered to them. We're not judging here, but doesn't it seem like bars, pubs, watering holes, and all other forms of alcohol-serving establishments ought to be off-limits to prototype testers from now on?
Android's Plan B app: an editorial love story
Plan A, we suspect, is not losing your phone. Plan C is biting the bullet and buying a new one. Plan B, on the other hand, is an Android app that helps you locate a missing handset even if you don't have it installed when you misplace the device. Sounds too good to be true, right? Turns out the thing actually works, something an Ars Technica writer discovered the hard way, after his phone slipped out his pocket during a cab ride from the airport. What follows is a wild mobile goose chase -- one, thankfully, with a happy ending. Get the full story in the source link below.
Google preps Android for its corporate interview, adds new encryption and security measures
With over 300,000 devices activated per day, Android's clearly firing on all cylinders from a consumer standpoint, but much like the famed Cheez-It wheel, some would argue that the OS isn't quite mature enough for unabashed enterprise use. Being a corporation itself, El Goog's obviously been toiling around the clock to change that, and it's taking three major strides today. An updated version of its Google Apps Device Policy enables employees to secure a lost or stolen Android 2.2+ device by locating it on a map, ringing the device, and resetting the device PIN or password remotely via the new My Devices website. Furthermore, Apps admins now have an option in the control panel to "Encrypt Data on Device," which will now include requiring encrypted storage on Android 3.0 tablets. Finally, Google Apps Lookup is acting as a type of internal blackbook, allowing users to easily sift through colleagues and contact them through one form or another. So... hired?
Google restores Gmail access to one-third of affected users
If you've been following the seemingly-massive Gmail outage, you'll know that it's actually not as massive as it sounds. Google's revised its estimate again to say that only "0.02% of Google Mail users" -- roughly about 38,000 by our calculations -- were affected by the issue in total, claims that a full third of them have already had access restored, and expects the issue "to be resolved for everyone within 12 hours." As to the fate of years worth of email, Google reps wouldn't say, but promised us that engineers are working "as quickly as possible" to see the data restored as well. Keep hanging on, folks.
Gmail accidentally resetting accounts, years of correspondence vanish into the cloud? (update)
If you've got a working Gmail account, you might want to back it up every so often -- as many as 500,000 Gmail users lost access to their inboxes this morn, and some of them are reporting (via Twitter and support forums) that years worth of messages, attachments and Google Chat logs had vanished by the time they were finally able to log on. While we haven't experienced the issue personally, we're hearing that the bug effectively reset some accounts, treating their owners as new users complete with welcome messages. For its part, Google says that the issue "affects less than .29% of the Google Mail userbase," engineers are working to fix the issue right now, and that missing messages will be restored as soon as possible. We'll soon see if this is a momentary setback... or a lengthy wakeup call. Update: No fix yet, but Google's revised its estimate as to how many users might have been affected by the issue -- "less than 0.08%" -- which means we're probably looking at closer to 150,000 individuals, rather than 500,000. We're assuming that the revised estimate means that the initial count wasn't precise, and not that customers are ditching Gmail in droves. Update 2: Google's provided promising but terribly vague guidance on when the situation will be resolved: "Google Mail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change." Update 3: One-third of users have now had their account access restored, according to Google. Read all about it here. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Swiss van driver gets stuck up a 'glorified goat track,' blames GPS
It's reassuring to know that while some things may change dramatically, others will and do stay the same. Overreliance on GPS is one of those highly consistent trends, as exhibited most recently by one Robert Ziegler, a full-time van driver and part-time goat track explorer. The unfortunate gent found himself growing increasingly uncomfortable with the directional instructions his satnav unit was handing out, but his hope was that "each little turn would get [him] back to the main road." Eventually, after having its fun, the GPS guide told Robert to turn around, but by that point he wasn't in a position to do anything other than call the local rescue services, who kindly airlifted him and his van back to more hospitable terrain. See a picture of the van's delivery to ground level after the break. [Thanks, r3loaded]
How To: Add contact information to your Mac's login screen
If you believe in the kindness of strangers, this tip might be for you. Most laptop users fear that their computer will be lost or stolen. Assuming that the right sort of person finds your laptop, however, they might be willing to return it to its rightful owner, if they knew how to contact you. It is possible to add a short message to the login screen of your Mac. The easiest way to do that is by using Onyx; click on the Parameters tab, and then type your message into the area shown above. I suggest including your name, phone number, and whatever else you think increases your chances of getting it back. This won't help if a thief has ripped off your MacBook while you weren't looking, but it just might help if you accidentally leave it in a cab and someone trustworthy gets in next. Hey, it could happen! Note that "certain special characters" includes ( ), so if you want to include a phone number, I suggest using a format such as xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Lost: The Complete Collection / Season Six Blu-ray review roundup
Compressing six seasons of twists and turns into one $280 set ($195 on Amazon) surely wasn't easy but ABC and Disney have somehow managed to bring Lost home one more time with a 36-disc package for the all-in-one shot, and a Sixth Season standalone for those just looking to complete their set. After checking out a number of reviews, there's no doubt that the picture and audio quality on this release are top notch, if you, like us, were drawn in by the beautiful scenery and surroundings you'll get the best look possible here, a noticeable upgrade over the original broadcasts, along with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. TheHDRoom notes the complete collection also includes D-BOX Motion Code on each disc, while the Complete Collection packaging hides secrets including an episode guide, game of Senet, UV light and more for the fans. One nice extra is Disney's SeasonPlay feature, which Home Theater Forum mentions will keep track of which episodes you've already watched, and make a bookmark where you leave off. The Sixth Season has its own extras, including a new BD-Live connected Masters Program for Lost University attendees, New Man in Charge epilogue, commentaries and half hour featurette on the making of Lost's final season. Whether you found the series fantastic, infuriating or just skipped the whole phenomenon altogether, if you're not already mid-way through a Lost viewing party take a look at some of the reviews to see what you've been missing, or check out a few bonus clips embedded after the break..
Blu-ray releases on August 24th 2010
The picture above says it all, but we'll say it anyways; this week marks the release of the greatest TV show of all time on Blu-ray. Of course that is just an opinion, but one thing that can't be argued is that Lost was very popular and it would have to be for ABC to believe that someone would pay $200 for all six seasons and some toys. We can't wait to relive it all over again on Blu-ray ourselves, but at that price we'll have to wait for it to show up on Amazon's bargain collection. Lost: The Complete Collection (ABC) Lost: The Complete Sixth Season (ABC) $5 a Day (Image) 2:22 (Inception) Abandoned (Anchor Bay) Ajami (Kino) The Back-up Plan (Sony) The Square (Sony) City Island (Anchor Bay) Death Note Collection (Viz) Dorian Gray (E1) The Great Rift (BBC) The Long Good Friday (Image) Time Bandits (Image) Mona Lisa (Image) Withnail and I (Image) Machine Gun McCain (Blue) Nature: Extraordinary Animals: Africa (Questar) Nature: Extraordinary Animals: Bears & Wolves (Questar) Scenic National Parks: Alaska & Hawaii (Questar) Scenic National Parks: Great Train Rides (Questar) Shogun Assassin (E1) The Simpsons: The Thirteenth Season (Fox) Survival of the Dead (Magnolia) The Universe: Our Solar System (A&E)
WRUP: Better to have gamed and lost
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the Massively team and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" (Otherwise known as: WRUP!) Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game -- and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too! This week has been crazy hectic -- both in the MMO world and in general. We've seen the news that Earth Eternal is likely heading for shutdown, listened to a lot of unhappy people talking about Star Wars: The Old Republic's space being on-rails, seen a handful of the ArenaNet team jump ship to Undead Labs, and more. Of course, all of this was eclipsed by the insane story of the week about an EVE Online player who had loaded 74 PLEX into his Kestrel, and was summarily podded by two pirates in Jita. While the pirate pair didn't get to keep those 74 PLEX, they do get bragging rights for the pod heard 'round the world -- at least until someone does something crazier, anyway. Inspired by that news story, we decided to ask the team what the biggest thing they've ever lost was in an MMO. Join us behind the break for not only what we're playing, but what we've lost over the course of gaming. Be sure to leave a comment and let us know about your biggest in-game loss too!
Lost's bonus episode, New Man in Charge, preview clip (video)
Lost addicts craving a taste before diving back in with the full series and season 6 DVD/Blu-ray boxed sets later this month can check out a clip of the bonus episode, New Man in Charge, embedded after the break. Word is the full length version is already floating around the interwebs, but if you're trying to hold out until August 24, maybe just this little bump of Ben Linus will help you get by.
Lost's Apple II up for auction
The Apple II computer from the hit show Lost was one of the things that unfortunately wasn't really answered as the series ended. I get that the Dharma Initiative was trying to contain a leak from the source, probably because of Jughead going off, but what was up with that scene of Michael supposedly chatting with Walt? How did Walt get to a computer, and why didn't a chat ever come up any other time? I'm sure there are theories running around out there, but I don't think the show ever provided a reasonable explanation for that one. Maybe you can film your own, though -- the actual Apple II plus from those scenes is being auctioned off later next month in Los Angeles by a group called Profiles in History. If you submit the winning bid, you'll not only get the computer from the set of the show, but also an Apple III monitor to go with it, and a Disc II floppy drive, along with a printout stating "system failure" from the show's big crash of Oceanic 815. The auction page doesn't say if it still works or not (which could be a good thing -- do you really want to punch the numbers in every 108 minutes?), or what the starting bid might be. But it would be cool to own both a piece of Apple history and an object from The Island, wherever that is. [via MacStories]
The Swan Station's Apple-II Plus and other Lost gadgets on the auction block this month
We don't want to spoil anything, but ABC's Lost is over and done with -- sorry, but it's really time to move on. Still can't let go? Apologize to your pocketbook and book a ticket to Santa Monica for the end of August for the official show auction. Literally hundreds of outfits and props are being sold off, including numerous gadgets from its six-year-run. Naomi's Iridium 9500 satellite phone with a then-futuristic UI? Suggested starting price is between $200 and $300. Brainwashing LED goggles? Also up for grabs -- although not functioning. Our favorite item has to be the Swan Station computer used to type the Numbers every 108 minutes, an Apple-II Plus system with an Apple III monitor, apparently re-used later for scenes in the Pearl Station. That'll set you back at least $1,000, but we'd be surprised if that price didn't skyrocket. We've gone ahead and made a gallery of the gadgets, but feel free to hit up the source if you want to see what else is going on sale. Not in the auction: the identity of those who shot at the canoe in Season 5's "The Little Prince." Seriously, would it have been so hard to tie that in somewhere? Sigh. %Gallery-98181% [Thanks, Michael T. and Walt... my Son]
Engadget HD Podcast 195: LOST edition - 05.25.2010
If you hung around for the live show, you know our podcast lasted nearly as long as the six seasons of Lost, so we've decided to break it up into two parts. Hopefully everything stays in order, so anyone craving more Lost talk and theories (featuring Engadget Classic editor and Lost fan Ross Miller) can press play and go back to the island one more time. Looking for our usual weekly chat? Check out #194 for plenty of Google TV talk and other news.Get the podcast[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).[RSS - AAC] Enhanced feed, subscribe to this with iTunes.[RSS - MP3] Add the Engadget HD Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator[Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace[MP3] Download the show (MP3).Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh, Richard LawlerSpecial Guest: Ross MillerProducer: Trent WolbeProgram Poll: Lost ends this weekend, are you ready?LISTEN (MP3)LISTEN (AAC)LISTEN (OGG)
Two 'Lost' tracks coming soon to Rock Band Network
Harmonix knows that you and your crew of Losties will be looking for something to do on Tuesday nights now that there's no more Lost to watch, and has stepped in to help. Now you'll be able to turn those watch parties into Rock Band parties, as you play along to two songs featured in the show. G4 reports that, in the near future, the Rock Band Network will play host to both "You All Everybody," the hit song from Charlie Pace's band Drive Shaft, and "Dharma Lady," by '70s band and frequent hidden reference Geronimo Jackson. The Rock Band Network status means it'll be released on Xbox 360 first, and then possibly brought to Wii and PS3 later. It's probably a bad idea to use this music to try to introduce someone to the show. These songs are hilarious as in-jokes, but on their own, they're ... well, still hilarious, but not in a good way. [Image: Lostpedia]
The Daily Grind: It only ends once
"It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress." After six long years, it's finally over. You've reached the end of it all. Most of the characters are dead, you're sick to death of the setting, and the lore retcons make you weep. But you don't even care anymore. You're tired of the whole ordeal. You don't want to think or talk about it. You don't want closure -- you just want an ending, any ending. You just "need it to be over." Am I talking about LOST or an MMO? Yes. TV shows -- even more than movies -- have a lot more in common with MMOs than you might think. A lot of them get canceled before they even start. Plenty of terrible ones last far longer than they deserve. And the ones that do make it to an "endgame" without being abruptly and unceremoniously canceled are nearly always a disappointment, somehow, even if you loved them along the way. No matter how amazing and revolutionary they are, there's always something you wish they'd done differently to make that experience perfect. And sometimes, you're just happy they're over -- so you can go on to the next big thing and feel that excitement and wonder all over again. So, as we say aloha to the LOST phenomenon, let's consider how it relates to MMO endings. What do you think were the best and worst MMO endings, inside the game and out? Did you quit the game, or did the game quit you? Did it end in triumph, tragedy, or blessed relief? [Note: Spoilers are possible in this comment thread.]
Poll: Lost ends this weekend, are you ready?
It's been a long, strange road, but we're finally nearing the end. The series finale of Lost airs at 9 p.m. tomorrow (there's a "newly enhanced" version of the pilot airing tonight at 8, and a two hour event before the finale tomorrow at 7 p.m.) and we just want to know who is still on board. There's been Easter Eggs, time travel, more plot twists than we can count and ultimately many differing opinions on the quality of recent episodes, but we'll be in front of the TV tomorrow night (seriously, DVRing beyond a few minutes isn't really an option given the inevitability of spoilers.) Will you? Musical treat embedded after the break for true fans. %Poll-46931%
Series finale of Lost is headed overseas faster than usual
Good news for anyone watching Lost outside the US who doesn't already chase down new episodes on torrents, newsgroups, Rapidshare or wherever else, for the final episode several countries will see it aired at the same time as the West Coast broadcast here, while a total of 59 countries will watch within 24-48 hours. Disney Media Networks is crediting the shortened window to the show's great appeal (and the fact people may be killed over revealing spoilers before it airs locally) which will bring it to UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, and Turkey in the (no subtitles) simulcast. Check after the break for the other broadcasters on an accelerated schedule.
New SOCOM 4 screens released, Operations Commander detailed
Operation Commander Cullen Gray has been through a lot. In his 36 years, he's seen military action the world over, been field-trained with various Special Operations units, worked with NATO and now he's about to star in a popular war-based video game franchise. SOCOM 4 has the fictional Cullen Gray acting as an addled operation commander who "will pursue success at all costs." The EU PlayStation blog has a rundown of Gray's entire dossier and a handful of new images (seen in the gallery below). And if you're wondering who it is that he resembles while you're browsing the images, it's obviously Lost's Matthew Fox. WE HAVE TO GO BACK, CULLEN! %Gallery-92173%