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ESRB accidentally releases email addresses of Real ID complainants
In an ironic turn of events this evening, it appears that the Entertainment Software Ratings Board has revealed the entire list of email addresses belonging to people who appealed to the ESA's rating group over Blizzard's recently proposed and then retracted Real ID implementation. According to our World of Warcraft-focused sister site WoW.com, the ESRB issued a response letter to the nearly 1,000 folks who had emailed with complaints about Blizzard's decision -- unfortunately, it seems that rather than hide everyone's email addresses, someone hit "reply all." We've dropped the letter itself beyond the break, which, as WoW.com points out, concludes with a statement espousing the ESRB's "Privacy Online" program. Whoops! All that said, mistakes will happen from time to time. Unlike Blizzard, however, the ESRB can't simply take this back.
MacBook Pro i7 in a 'command' performance
This isn't the first keyboard assembly snafu we've seen and it certainly won't be the last. But once again it's time to point and laugh at Apple after its new Core i7-equipped MacBook Pro was accidentally fitted with three command keys in Japan. Funny, knowing Steve Jobs you'd think he'd opt for more ctrl.
The Daily Grind: What's the worst in-game mistake you've ever made?
We've all been there, right at that moment. You know the one -- when you miss-click, when you aren't paying full attention, when you say something you shouldn't, when you turn right instead of left. Suddenly, your eyes widen, stomach drops and mouth goes dry. You've made a terrible, terrible mistake. And we want to know all about it! So let's engage in a bit of virtual therapy today and get our worst in-game mistakes off our chests (sorry, no "It was a mistake to sign up for such-and-such MMO" comments needed). Trudge up memories that you thought were long forgotten, and share with the group what horrific misjudgment you've made in the past. Did you accidentally sell an incredibly rare piece of loot to a vendor? Did you delete the wrong character on the selection screen? Did you go /afk just a little too long and come back to find that you just wiped your entire raid? What in-game mistake made you stand up, slap your forehead and shout "D'OH!" loud enough for the neighborhood to hear?
The iPad romance is over for Jeff Jarvis
You've lusted after something for months. You've imagined it in your daily routine, showing it off to your friends (with appropriate oohs-aahs and jealous looks directed your way) and feel like once you've obtained this item that your life is complete, you have obtained the Holy Grail, and you couldn't possibly want for anything more. Then you wake up the next morning after that purchase, roll over in bed to gaze upon your beloved tech, then realize that you've made a huge mistake. This is what happened to media blogger Jeff Jarvis and his iPad. "After having slept with her (Ms. iPad), I am having morning-after regrets. Sweet and cute but shallow and vapid," Jarvis tweeted to his nearly 40,000 followers on Sunday. Business Insider reports today that Jarvis is planning to return his iPad and has spoken with several other people who also plan to return theirs. If that's you, you've got 14 days since purchase to do so, and you'll be charged a 10% restocking fee as well.
PSA: Print some not-terrible Heavy Rain box art
How far would you go ... to have better box art for Heavy Rain? Thankfully, you won't have to go much farther than a color printer. The "wet t-shirt" Heavy Rain box art shipped to North American retailers today can now be replaced by the much classier -- and far more representative -- European box art. Make sure you use high quality paper and ink. "I'd recommend printing it on an 11 x 17 and cutting along the lines so it fits just right," SCEA's Cristian Cardona advises. If you haven't picked up Heavy Rain yet, you may want to check out our review. Then, check out a new trailer after the break.
GPS leads couple into Oregon wilderness, snow and lack of common sense keep them there 3 days
So you're cruising along, in your GPS-equipped SUV, taking your dear wife back home to Reno. The trusty onscreen guide instructs you to "turn right" and you follow its typically reliable instructions. At what point in the next three days of plowing deeper and deeper into snow-covered Oregon do you start suspecting that maybe something is amiss? Alright, so this isn't quite on par with others driving buses into low-clearance tunnels, dipping their cars into rivers, or jamming heavy load trucks into unsuitably tight farm lanes. But we don't discriminate here, all instances of idiotic GPS dependency deserve their moment in the sun, so here's to Mr. John Rhoads and his tastefully named wife, Mrs. Starry Bush-Rhoads, who are now safe and sound after their phone pinged out its coordinates to emergency services when it began losing signal.
Poll: What's the worst mistake HD channels make?
We've discussed it again and again, the ills done by so-called HD channels against perfectly good content, whether it's passing off SD as high definition with Fox Widescreen, vomit-inducing stretching on TNT & TBS or the inexcusable cropping, zooming and pan & scanning of movies broadcast on AMC and HBO. But which one is the worst? Let your voice be heard, and if we forgot anything drop us a line in the comments.%Poll-33001%
Taiwan 'orders' Dell to honor $15 monitor mishap (updated)
It's not exactly all that uncommon for Dell to misprice an item on its website and, if you're lucky, it might even honor it. But it looks like the stakes have just been raised considerably in Taiwan, where the company recently listed a 19-inch monitor for NT$500 (or about $15US) and promptly received more than 26,000 orders for close to 140,000 of the monitors. Now, ordinarily, Dell would simply send out a polite email explaining their mistake and call it a day, but Taiwanese regulators have now stepped in and ordered suggested that Dell honors the misprice after receiving a couple of hundred complaints. For its part, Dell simply says that it plans to "compensate the buyers for the mistake," although it's not clear if that means it'll actually be sending out the monitors -- which, incidentally, would add up to more than $20 million at their full list price.Update: Engadget Chinese tells us that the Taiwanese government has suggested to Dell that it compensates consumers fairly and will assist in legal action against Dell if they don't. Also, the $15 price applies only to the first monitor purchased with discounts applied to subsequent units for those who made multiple-monitor purchases.Update 2: Dell has agreed to issue a NT$1000 (about $30) coupon for every monitor purchased including those made through multiple purchase orders. That sound more than reasonable to us.[Via The Raw Feed]
Mass Effect pops up early on XBL Games on Demand service
It appears as though Microsoft's plans for an August launch of its Games on Demand service is popping up a bit early. Why just this morning, we spotted a listing for the already confirmed Mass Effect (sporting its snazzy new Platinum Hits packaging) in our Xbox.com Marketplace RSS feed. Unsurprisingly, the listing has been removed from the website itself, though RSS feeds won't allow for editing after something has been published.As 360sync.com rightfully points out, game manuals will be provided virtually through the Xbox.com Marketplace website according to the listing, so you've got that going for ya (which is nice). We're not sure when these puppies are showin' up on XBL for sure, but from the looks of things, we'd say sooner rather than later. For a video tour of the upcoming Games on Demand service, hit the break.[Via 360sync]
Oops! 1 vs 100 US beta news shelved at zero hour
If you decided to sit comfortably next to your computer tonight, with a nice glass of wine waiting on 1 vs 100 US Beta information, go to bed. According to the 1 vs 100 Twitter account (verified as official by Major Nelson and in an email from Microsoft PR), the promise of news regarding a US beta for the Xbox Live Primetime game has been put on hold.A tweet earlier today doled out the bad news: "A few more things need to be in place before we can share the good news w/you." While the update promises news on the horizon for US players, as of now, the 1 vs 100 beta is reserved solely for those lucky Canadians.When asked for comment, the nearest American available, editor Alexander Sliwinski said, "Apparently free health care isn't enough for you people."
Breakfast Topic: What is WoW's biggest mistake?
I have to say that I'm enjoying the game now more than ever. There are a lot of things that keep me occupied, "ez-mode" notwithstanding. I think it works, and I don't feel like I have to make such a huge commitment to the game just to feel like I've accomplished anything. Patch 3.1 looks like it's shaping up to be an awesome content patch, and my guild is excited to take a crack at Ulduar and see how far and how fast we can go.That said, not everything's perfect. I haven't played Arenas in quite a while, and apparently a lot of people haven't been queuing up, either. I do enjoy all the Battlegrounds, and I definitely try to get my daily (or several times daily) dose of Wintergrasp. But Wintergrasp still lags like a poor version of a Ray Harryhausen movie. As much as Blizzard has gotten a lot of things right in Wrath, I'm sure a lot of people feel that they've gotten things wrong, too. In fact, some of the things I like might be the exact same things some people don't like. So far, what do you think is WoW's biggest mistake? Do you think opening up raiding to more people was bad? I know a lot of you will yell 'Arenas' at the top of their cyberspatial lungs. Were Death Knights a mistake? Frankly, I can't think of anything truly egregious -- I'm having a lot of fun like I mentioned -- but maybe some of you feel otherwise. Where has Blizzard taken a misstep? What direction do you think is wrong or would be wrong for the game?
Tesco's 349 Mini 10 actually a 349 Mini 9
Can you say "oops?" That so-called Mini 10, which curiously emerged at Tesco before anywhere else, is actually not a Mini 10. As the story goes, folks across the pond who plunked down £349 for their very own 10-inch Dell netbook have started receiving shipments only to find a perfectly average Mini 9 within. Furthermore, Tesco's Mini 10 order page is now completely nonexistent, further signaling that a serious mishap occurred somewhere along the line. Hate to burst your bubble, but if you ordered one of these pups from this vendor, you should probably expect to hit the return to sender option and eagerly await a refund.[Via PortableMonkey, thanks Peter]
Midnight Club: LA DLC mistakenly released, could cause issues
Early yesterday morning a few eager Midnight Club: LA fans were excited to find a bouquet of free DLC on the Xbox Live Marketplace, ripe for the virtual picking. However, Microsoft warns the content was accidentally released during a test and keeping the DLC on your system could cause numerous issues with achievements and saved game files. "You may have had the chance to download it while it was up there. If you did and if it's sitting on your hard drive you should delete it," Xbox EMEA community manager Graeme Boyd wrote on his blog. "It was being tested when it was mistakenly put live and therefore it may not work properly, the Achievements won't register and could cause you problems with your Midnight Club: LA game saves." Before you cry, "Microsoft is trying to swindle me out of getting free DLC," remember, the planned Midnight Club: LA DLC is supposed to be free when it launches. Unless you're brave enough to hinder your progress through the streets of Los Angeles, you may want to wait until the content is officially released; which should be soon enough. [Thanks, Firecatman. Via Wired]
Ghostcrawler: Wrath's difficulty is where we want it
One of the biggest concerns we've heard from players since the expansion launched is that everything is too easy -- not only did the hardcore raiders burn down the PvE endgame content in a matter of days, but upgrades aren't really what they used to be, and anyone with some solid gear that blow through most of the instances without too much trouble. Which begs the question: is Wrath too easy?No, according to our buddy Ghostcrawler. He says that Blizzard's goal this time around was to avoid the Karazhan mistake from the last expansion, where players butted their heads up against tougher content in the early endgame. GC says that Blizzard certainly knows how to make tougher content, but they'd rather everyone got a turn this time around.The only question I have left is why they didn't include it all in the same release -- Blizzard seems to be saying that harder content is on the way, but wouldn't it be more prudent to have both easy and hard content in at the same time? As a casual player, I'm thrilled to hear that the endgame is easier -- I'll get to see more of it. But we've got two versions of each endgame instance now -- do they both have to be easy enough to conquer in a few days?
Issues with the realm first achievements
Apparently there have been some mistakes made in the realm-first achievements being given out. You've probably seen these (Blizzard apparently broadcasts them across the realms) -- when someone hits level 80 or finishes a profession first, they attain a feat of strength achievement. They don't get the original titles, but they do get credit for getting their first.But on a few realms, Blizzard ended up giving some of the awards to multiple players, resulting in the ingame mail you see above. We're not sure if it's because they all hit within a certain time period, or whether Blizzard's servers weren't working correctly, but as you can see, they say the issue is fixed for now. If you did rush to be the first on a server, you can be satisfied that you're the only one.Thanks, Penny!
Wrath splash screen appears on the Launcher
Eagle-eyed readers noticed that Blizzard is prepping a new version of the launcher for the Wrath of the Lich King launch -- a quick update showed up just this afternoon in the launcher software, and afterwards, when starting up, the program flashes the blank screen above, with the Lich King logo, before it then covers it up again with the current iTunes promotion splash screen.This means nothing for certain, of course -- Blizzard is either changing the launcher software and the way the splash screen works completely (and putting the new version live behind the current version), or they're just working on an update for when the game does launch later this year. There's a possibility that this was a mistake, and that the screen was sent live too early, but it doesn't appear to have any affect on the actual program or the game itself -- everything else starts up just fine, with no issues at all. Just like the icy logo around the official site, Blizzard too is getting ready for Wrath.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Rumors of Steve Jobs' death greatly exaggerated
You have to figure that major news outlets keep obituaries on hand for all kinds of public figures and celebrities -- still, you can't help feeling a bit of a chill upon learning that notice of Steve Jobs' death mistakingly hit the wires yesterday afternoon. A slip-up at news outlet Bloomberg caused the lengthy obituary to roll across a number of screens before being pulled -- but not before a Gawker tipster was able to send off a copy to the gossip site. Under normal circumstances, this would probably come off as a random gaffe with minimal impact, but given recent reactions / over reactions concerning Jobs' health (thanks in no small part to his appearance at WWDC, pictured above), this comes off as a rotten-timed moment in journalistic and technical butterfingerism. We can only hope this didn't send too many investors into a tailspin -- we'd hate to see any War of the Worlds moments caused by something so silly.[Via CNET]
Transgaming to use SecuROM for Cider games
As if Mac gaming needed more problems getting off the ground. Transgaming has proudly announced that in the future, their games will include Sony's SecuROM digital rights management software. They don't mention which games will be getting the extremely restrictive DRM (that some folks have compared to malware), but we're guessing all of them, which means the Mac version of Spore will be on that list, as well as those upcoming Ubisoft titles, and anything else produced with the Cider technology.Bummer. Why is it a bummer? Because all the evidence we can see actually shows that DRM hurts sales. While Transgaming is obviously proud of this decision, claiming that SecuROM will help them prevent piracy and unauthorized copying, most of the evidence shows that piracy will happen in spite of, and sometimes even because of restrictive DRM setups like Sony's. Transgaming is making a serious mistake here -- they want to protect their games, which is fine. But choosing DRM, especially SecuROM, as a way to do it is a mistake. It'll cause more problems for the company and their users before it prevents piracy in the way they think it will.[via IMG]
Blizz accidentally puts DK description on classes page
Ooh, someone on the Blizzard web team is going to get in trouble. I took the above screenshot straight from the official Classes page, and obviously it wasn't ready to be published quite yet (click for a slightly bigger version). But can we actually glean anything new from the Death Knight text? (The "Find out more about death knights" link returns to a 404, so no help there.) No. There is absolutely no new information here. There are some obvious mistakes though: Type: should probably be "Tank and melee DPS" or some such (so should Warriors, come to think of it). Available weapons: as far as we know, DKs won't be able to use daggers, fist weapons, staves, or polearms. I guess that may have changed, but I'm just not seeing "rune staff." Standard Bars: no mention of runes or runic power. And it's pretty amusing that they clearly made the Death Knight section by copying and editing the Warrior section (which is how these inaccuracies crept in there). Anyway, I take this as a sign that development on Wrath is moving forward and the beta is approaching (after all, the alpha is over). [Thanks to Fennrahn and Iggo]
Apple accidentally ships MobileMe to .Mac customers
Apparently someone at Apple HQ got a little trigger happy on shipments of MobileMe. According to reports, the company mistakenly mailed boxes of the all-syncing, ever-loving software to at least a couple of current .Mac users ahead of schedule. When Apple was alerted to the gaffe, the user was told that a courier would be by to pick it up the next day. One question: why would you tell Apple?
