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MySpace blames Apple and QuickTime for hacked accounts
A malicious QuickTime movie made the rounds across MySpace profiles last weekend, altering user profiles and changing links on their pages to redirect to phishing websites crafted to look like MySpace logins. The movie, CNET reports, actually capitalized on a MySpace flaw and QuickTime's legitimate support for JavaScript to craft what has been dubbed the Quickspace attack. It is also worth noting that while this movie could infect users who simply viewed a compromised page, the attack (as far as we know) only works on IE and Firefox in Windows (in other words: if you're on a Mac, you can resume your regularly scheduled MySpace obsession). Yesterday, MySpace's chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam contacted Apple to request a fix to plug the hole, even though it was a flaw of MySpace in combination with a legit feature of QuickTime that caused all the damage. Apple is reportedly working on a fix, but for now the two companies have ironed out some workarounds, such as blocking all the phishing URLs and scrubbing their network for compromised profiles.On a side note: what exactly does one gain from harvesting MySpace account logins? Wouldn't oh, say, credit card numbers be a little more productive? I know there's a lot of kids out there who bank on whether they're in some people's top 8 spaces, but I'm still having a hard time seeing how or why phishers would deal in the same currency.Thanks Daniel
Myspace invades Mario
Poor Toad. He's always getting kidnapped, plays the role as the third wheel for Mario and Peach and now no one will come to his band's shows. Luigi, after deciding to kick the crack-like habit known as MySpace, has left an empty slot in his brother Mario's Top 8. For those of you smart enough to not give in to the succubus that is MySpace, a Top 8 is a list of your dearest friends who also belong to the cult. Toad longs for that slot in an overly creepy way. Witness Toad's sad social skills after the break! [Via Go Nintendo]
iPod nano wants to be your friend
I'd heard that MySpace was the place to see and be seen for hipsters of all ages, but isn't the iPod nano a bit young to be on MySpace? Apparently not.Tyler tipped us off that while he was innocently trawling MySpace last night he noticed that iPod Green Nano was the featured profile. Didn't take long to locate Green's closest friend, iPod Pink Nano and iPod Blue Nano. Each of them has more than 1500 friends already, by the way, and with the prevalence of Podophiles rumored to be on MySpace, I'm sure that number will only grow.The iPod nano profile pages contain links to buy iPods, of course, along with a photo gallery, videos of the commercials, free iPod nano screensavers, desktop wallpapers and even MySpace profile skins. I'm not the MySpace type so I have no idea how effective this advertising model is, but I suppose it can't hurt.In trying to locate other possible Apple-sponsored profiles I replaced /pinknano at the end of the URL with /rednano. In case you were curious, the rednano URL is already taken by a young red-headed girl in FL. I wonder if Apple has tried (or would try) to buy or rent her profile from her? Thanks, Tyler!UPDATE: As of 1pm ET, the nano profile pages are now MIA from MySpace but we're not sure why. Since we're the curious types we've dropped MySpace an email to find out.UPDATE: As of 2pm ET the profile pages are back online. Go figure! Enjoy~
Online gaming to become MySpace?
Nielsen Media Research released their newest Active Gamer Study a few days ago, and according to the new stats more than 56% of the 117 million gamers in the U.S. spend at least five hours a week gaming socially in places like Xbox Live, World of Warcraft, and on WiFi platforms such as the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS. Social gaming reaches more gamers every year with the addition of new hardware and games that allow people to compete or cooperate online. Last week's episode of The Office featured Jim and his coworkers playing Call of Duty, and South Park showed us the evils of WoW, which only attests to the growing popularity of both. If you've ever doubted the popularity of social gaming, you need to read about how our very own Christopher Grant got some ass within moments of hooking up his Xbox Vision Camera.Social networking in the U.S. is currently dominated by MySpace, where more than half of its 90 million U.S. users are over the age of 35. As social gaming and networking continue to grow, their areas of influence are bound to overlap. Companies would love to sink their teeth into a demographic that uses their product for more then five hours a week, and users want an online experience that puts them in touch with with old and new friends, while pimping themselves out. Don't be surprised when your gamertag turns into your MySpace page, complete with sparkling stars, unicorns, and a Ben Kweller song that starts playing at full volume immediately upon loading.You only have a few months until My SecondLifeSpace of Warcraft Live is released worldwide by Rupert Murdoch, don't tell us you weren't warned.
LocoRoco gets emo, joins MySpace
MySpace is the biggest site on the internet. Home to tons of emotionally unstable teenagers that have nothing better to do than refresh their Friends list constantly, MySpace is the perfect place for stalkers and advertisers to go to reach such a lucrative audience. Sony has created a page dedicated to Loco Roco to "spread the joy" and make it a less dark, depressing, emo place. So far, it looks like it's working: the blobs have over 6,000 friends so far! Will you add these blubbers to your friends list? I know I will. Check it out, if only for the free ringtone and other goodies offered on the site. If the site makes you happy enough, maybe you won't go into that dark corner in the bathroom writing poetry about how much life sucks.
Get your social network on with Spyder
Spyder is an interesting concept: an app that leverages the APIs of allows you interact with and manage social networks from within the power of the Mac OS X environment. If you're a chronic social networker, Spyder might (eventually) allow you to speed up your obsessive profile checks so you have a better chance at getting outside for once. The reason I say 'eventually,' however, is because Spyder isn't without its shortcomings.First and foremost is the fact that the language at Spyder's site makes it sound like it will (eventually) work with more than one network, but for now, it only shakes hands with MySpace. While it allows users to manage more than one account (for example: if you run a band or an org in addition to a personal account), it doesn't let you do much more than browse friends and their friends, send messages and leave comments. No blogging, no iPhoto integration for picture posting, no vlogging, etc. While these missing features (hopefully) might arrive in a future version, there is still the glaring problem of price: Spyder is $40. Now I'm not really a fan of MySpace (though yes, I succumbed to peer pressure and opened an account in the hopes of silencing my friends), but $40 sounds way, way too high of a price for the minimal convenience it offers above going directly to the site itself. I could see $10, maybe $15, but $20 and above for Spyder - in its current state of minimal, MySpace-only features - is just too much to ask. I think the developer would get a lot more attention if he/she offered the app at a discounted price during its present feature-maturing state, while simultaneously promoting what features are coming, and how the price will increase through development (commercialism 101: people love a sale, and they love to know what they can get for their money in the near future). I've seen other developers have success with this open promotion and development method, and Spyder could really capitalize on this due to the relative cornering of its particular market; I've never seen another (potentially) full-fledged social networking app like this.Long story short: Spyder is a great idea and it has a lot of potential, but I can easily see its price knocking it off many potential customers' wishlists. It will be interesting to see how Spyder evolves in the future.[Update: readers have noted in the comments that MySpace, for some mind-boggling reason, doesn't have an API, while others like Facebook, Flickr and Upcoming do, making it much easier for 3rd parties to make apps like this. My gut reaction as to why Spyder stuck with MySpace for its launch is probably because of its massive popularity.]
The Sony mylo's first street review
While the Sony mylo isn't really meant for your lap (we envision it as more of a dual-handed device -- or, erm, "dual-core," if you will), Laptop nonetheless decided to take 'er for a spin -- one of the first in-the-wild reviews that we've seen since our recent unboxing. The verdict? It's a cute little curvaceous piece of hardware that does what it advertises -- you can surf the web, Skype, IM, and play back media from it all with ease (they even claim it plays back WMA "secure", i.e. PlaysForSure, which we somehow highly doubt). But the mylo isn't the be-all Sidekick killer that Sony would surely like it to be. The magazine described the keyboard as too small and cramped for their liking and added that the mylo didn't handle all web pages perfectly (specifically the image-heavy MySpace, whose denizens Sony is aiming at) on its 2.4-inch display. This led us to wonder if we'll start seeing mylo-friendly webpages in the near future, but nevertheless, we still think Engadget looks best on the biggest screen in your house.
MySpace challenges (?) iTunes with indie music store
MySpace has joined the recent crowd of iTunes wanna-be's. MySpace announced Friday that before the end of 2006 it will give unsigned, independent bands a place to sell their music. Musicians will be able to sell tunes on their own MySpace pages and on fan pages. And here's the best news--the MP3's sold at MySpace will not be shackled by DRM and will work on the iPod and other music players. Prices will be set by the individual bands, who will pay a "small" distribution fee to MySpace.MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe told Reuters: "The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there. Everyone we've spoken to definitely wants an alternative to iTunes and the iPod. MySpace could be that alternative." Whether a MySpace music store is a real threat to iTunes Music Store is anybody's guess, but I'd say it's unlikely. On the one hand, independent, unsigned artists, no matter how good they are, are not direct competition for established musicians who have the backing of the powerful music industry. And iTMS is so entrenched as the place to go for music downloads that it will be hard to unseat.On the other hand, in its favor, MySpace has a huge potential customer base for indie music. It's been ranked as the #1 most visited site on the Web and is wildly popular with teens, who are a great market for undiscovered bands. It will have lots of music to offer from three million independent bands. MySpace differs from other iTunes challengers, like Microsoft Zune, and the newly announced Samsung music subscription service, because its offerings won't be locked up by DRM, and MySpace is not controlled by the recording industry (although it is backed by powerful parent company News Corporation).Should Apple be watching its back? What do you think?
Xbox 360 wins the MySpace war. So what?
With the news that MySpace drove more traffic to online retailers last week than did MSN search, nobody can deny this MySpace monster anymore, least of all game companies who hope to reach the MySpace generation. And yet it seems that Nintendo (Wii MySpace page, 3672 friends) and Sony (PS3 MySpace page, 494 friends) have been slow to embrace the phenomenon, sporting anemic MySpace pages (and anemic friend counts to match). This is compared to the Xbox 360's relatively robust MySpace presence (68680 friends). Nintendo's weak (hard to guess, not obvious) MySpace URL also indicates that Nintendo registered their MySpace domain as an afterthought. Indeed, the first comment on the official Wii space is mid August, 2006, while the unofficial space at myspace.com/NintendoWii appeared 3.5 months earlier. When your fans are beating you to the punch by 3.5 months, there's a problem. Sony's MySpace presence comes in dead last. Chances are, the Sony MySpace page isn't even official. With less than three months to launch, it doesn't look like Sony intends to build a proper MySpace presence at all. In sum, the lack of Wii and PlayStation presence in the most powerful online community indicates marketing departments frozen in place even as audiences migrate away from traditional channels.
MySpace video contest: How Wii Play [Update 2]
Nintendo appears to be reaching out to the emo youth demographic, as a new video contest has emerged on the mega-popular MySpace website. A large social networking tool for creepy internet stalkers students and adults alike, MySpace is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every day...a good place to advertise, yeah? The contest, entitled "How Wii Play", is simple enough: create a video showing how you might use the Wiimote in your various everyday endeavors. The prize? Eight DS Lites for those hilarious enough to win the judges' hearts. You must have a MySpace account to enter, and you'll be graded on humor, originality, and creativity. Feel free to send your submissions to us as well; if we like them, we'll post them on the main page for our readers to enjoy.[Update 1: Since strikethrough humor has gone the way of knock-knock jokes, we have reduced the count by exactly one.][Update 2: We should note that it appears Nintendo themselves are not the official sponsors of this contest. MySpace just loves Nintendo, we guess.]
You Have a Friend Request From C'Thun
Well, you knew it had to happen. As soon as Blizzard made their entrance into that bastion of social networking and terrible design, Myspace.com, it was just plain expected that they'd have some company.And sure enough, in among World of Warcraft's 58,000 plus friends, there are a few familiar faces. Did you know you could be friends with Edwin Van Cleef, a "swinger" who's frustrated that all people want from him is the Cruel Barb? And of course if he's on Myspace, then so is Mr. Smite (who gets comments from someone who wants him to "stop stunning me!"), Jin'do the Hexxer, and High Inquisitor Whitemaine (who says "Hi there! <3" to all her friends). Even Raggy and Vael are in on the Myspace action-- Raggy likes some good tunes, but Vael likes Linkin Park. Go figure. I always saw him as more of a Slayer type.And if you're looking for expansion news, Myspace won't disappoint there either. What better way to learn about Tyrande Whisperwind and Arthas himself than befriending them and subscribing to their blogs? Like OMG, thx 4 the add, Lich King!
MySpace members entitled to contract-free Helio
You have to give these guys a lot of credit for trying some unusual angles in an effort to gain footing. Appealing directly to its MySpace demographic, Helio is now offering to waive the nearly universal concept of a 2-year contract for new subscribers. Not bad; to MySpace members that take their social networking seriously, Helio probably seemed like a pretty hot concept already, and we can guess that this should be enough to push over a handful of those folks sitting on the fence.[Thanks, Rom]
Adium's icon designer on its past, present and future
You might not know who Adam Betts is, but you've probably seen, or at least heard of, some of his work which includes the icon of a pretty famous Mac OS X chat client: Adium. The animated, quacking duck icon has made a bit of a name for itself, and Phill Ryu (of MacThemes and Widget Machine fame) decided to sit down with Adam Betts and quack ecstatic about the icon's past, present and future. Check it out for Adam's take on everything from Apple's icon guidelines (believe it or not, they have them) to whether Adiumy the Duck will get his own MySpace profile.[via diggdot.us]
Auction 66 could shake up wireless industry, benefit consumers
BusinessWeek writer Olga Kharif paints an interesting portrait of the potential state of the wireless industry following the government's unprecedented sale of spectrum this summer, called Auction 66, which could see a number of new players enter the voice and data market in the not-too-distant future. Following several years of industry consolidation, highlighted by Cingular picking up AT&T and Sprint grabbing Nextel, we could soon see companies that have traditionally delivered content in other fashions -- Time Warner, MySpace-owner News Corp., or Clearwire -- offer services that compete directly with the four major carriers. Several players, including Intel-backed Clearwire, Google-backed Earthlink, and a venture between Time Warner Cable, Sprint-Nextel, Comcast, Cox, and Advance/Newhouse Communications have already expressed interest in bidding for a slice of spectrum, while other bidders, which could include a Bill Gates- and Paul Allen-backed contender, will be revealed sometime next month. Unless the established carriers snatch up all the available spectrum, which is highly unlikely, fresh blood in the industry should bode well for consumers, who will likely benefit from lower prices, more services to choose from, and less restrictions on their bandwidth usage.
Cingular to help MySpace bands create, sell ringtones
All those MySpace groups who don't end up winning Verizon's "Calling All Bands" contest will still have a wireless carrier-sponsored shot at stardom thanks to a new service called Cingular Mobile Music Studio that will turn their songs into ringtones available for purchase from the band's MySpace page. Any MySpace-accredited artist or band whose songs consist of original material may submit one track to project manager InfoSpace for consideration, and if deemed appropriate, it will be transformed into a 30-second downloadable ringtone. Artists will get 25% of the $2.50 that each 'tone will cost, and receive their cut as a check in the mail every quarter as long as revenues for that period exceed $100. This is the second major partnership between Cingular and MySpace, with the carrier's subscribers already able to receive text alerts when someone leaves a comment on their page, and one of several pushes the social networking site has made into the mobile space.[Via Seattle Times]
MySpace and gaming: the power of social networks
The social world of MySpace seems a far cry from gaming, but as games become more socially focused, the two are converging--Alice, at Wonderland, muses on a MMO that would combine the social power of MySpace with MMO dynamics. A lot of the emerging social technologies on the Web--from social bookmarking to photo sharing--could easily translate into a game world, and as a commenter on Alice's post points out, Second Life already achieves some of the same goals as the MySpace network.With games and MySpace intertwining in new and unusual ways, perhaps MyMMOG isn't as far off as it sounds.
