removal
Latest
Windows 10 update removes Flash and prevents it from being reinstalled
Microsoft has released an optional Catalog update that removes Adobe Flash from Windows 10 and prevents it from being reinstalled, paving the way for the eventual death of the app in 2021.
Facebook bug marked legitimate coronavirus info as spam
Facebook was quick to say that it would fight coronavirus misinformation, but yesterday, one tool appeared to go haywire. Users reported that Facebook was marking posts with legitimate information and articles about the coronavirus as spam. According to The Verge, Facebook has resolved the issue and restored the posts that were incorrectly removed, but this is a serious glitch at a time when so many people are looking for accurate information on the coronavirus and COVID-19.
Facebook reveals the AI tool it used to ban 6.6 billion fake accounts
Today, Facebook unveiled a machine learning tool that, in the last year, has removed more than six billion fake accounts. That's in addition to the millions of new fake accounts that Facebook blocks from being created daily. According to Facebook, the tool has been in production for two years and it's one of the most advanced methods Facebook has for fighting bogus accounts.
Thanks to Google, Shutterstock can stop automated watermark removal
Stock photos have watermarks to make sure that you don't use them without paying for them. Removing them used to take some Photoshop know-how, but Google found a way to remove them automatically. The team also explained how to counteract the strategy with slightly varied watermarks. According to The Next Web, stock photo purveyor Shutterstock has now reverse engineered and implemented the process to prevent automated watermark removal.
Google got some 'right to be forgotten' decisions wrong, says UK
It's been almost a year since the European Union ruled in favour of the "right to be forgotten," giving anyone permission to request that specific links be removed from Google's search results. Since then, the company has dealt with over 250,000 applications from the public (and rejected 59 percent of them). Now, the BBC reports that the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is talking to Google about 48 cases it believes were ruled incorrectly. It's a small number, but one that highlights the difficulties that Google faces with interpreting the EU's ruling and judging individual requests.
After Burner Climax faces XBLA/PSN delisting this month
This month is your last chance to pick up Sega's arcade-ported shoot-'em-up After Burner Climax on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Digital storefront monitor lifelower reports that the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network versions of After Burner Climax will be permanently delisted on December 24. Buyers will be able to redownload purchased copies of After Burner Climax at a later date, but once the game is delisted, it can no longer be bought or added to a user's software library. Sega Nerds speculates that expired licensing agreements between Sega and the manufacturers of the real-world aircraft featured in After Burner Climax are to blame for the game's forthcoming removal. A similar issue resulted in the deletion of Sega's Ferrari-licensed racer OutRun Online Arcade from digital storefronts in 2011. Starting next year, if you want to legally play After Burner Climax and don't already own a digital copy, you'll need to track down an original arcade machine. Here's a tip: The GameWorks across the street from the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle hosts a pair of Climax cabinets, so you might want to make plans to visit the next time you're in town for PAX Prime. [Image: Sega]
Kmart joins Target in taking GTA 5 off Australian store shelves
Kmart became the second major Australian retailer to remove Grand Theft Auto 5 from sale following a 45,000 strong online petition. In a statement provided to Kotaku, a spokesperson for the department store chain said it plans to take the game off store shelves "immediately." "Following a significant review of all content in Grand Theft Auto games Kmart has taken the decision to remove this product immediately," reads the statement. "Kmart apologizes for not being closer to the content of this game."
Early Access game The Stomping Land pulled from Steam
Early Access multiplayer survival game The Stomping Land has been pulled from Steam after a month-long period of silence from its developers and no sign of promised updates. Priced at $24.99 when it was available, The Stomping Land challenged players to survive in a harsh island wilderness under constant threat of attacks from roaming dinosaurs. After announcing a shift to Unreal Engine 4, The Stomping Land creator SuperCrit issued no further updates or commentary regarding the game's development status, leading more than 3,000 players to petition for refunds. Steam's Subscriber Agreement notes that Valve is under no obligation to refund its customers for Early Access game purchases, and refund requests from The Stomping Land players have been denied. The Stomping Land earned over $100,000 in Kickstarter pledges following a successful funding campaign last year, and recent backer comments indicate that physical reward orders remain unfulfilled. [Image: SuperCrit]
BurgerTime World Tour discounted ahead of delisting on April 30
Publisher MonkeyPaw Games is hosting a last-chance sale on BurgerTime: World Tour this month, discounting the game to just $5 before it disappears from digital storefronts forever on April 30. Starting today, amateur burger chefs can pick up the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and WiiWare versions of the remade arcade classic for $4.99. Alas, even Peter Pepper himself is not immune from the harsh reality of expired licensing agreements, which MonkeyPaw cites as the culprit behind the game's delisting at the end of the month. Speculation from an anonymous source suggests that Peter Pepper was forced to close up shop by area health inspectors, who objected to his unsanitary burger-stomping ways. Pepper declined to comment when questioned regarding his cooking methods, claiming that the delisting is part of a conspiracy devised by giant sausages and human-sized eggs. [Image: MonkeyPaw Games]
Indie dev Radiangames faces multiplatform delisting over trademark dispute
Indie developer Radiangames (Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville) has been forced to remove one of its games from multiple online storefronts in the wake of a recent trademark dispute from an online games publisher. The disputed title is Crossfire, a retro-styled shoot-'em-up originally released for the Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) service in 2010. Following the release of an XBLIG sequel, the series later made its way to PC and iOS devices under the name Super Crossfire. Developer Luke Schneider researched the title before releasing his game, but didn't notice that online games publisher G4Box launched the similarly-titled free-to-play military FPS Cross Fire for PC platforms in 2009. After recently announcing Cross Fire 2, G4Box filed a trademark dispute against Schneider's game, resulting in its upcoming removal from all available platforms. "[Super Crossfire] barely makes any money these days, and I'm not spending thousands of dollars to try to fight the issue when I just want to make games," Schneider explains. "I can't say too many bad things about someone who's enforcing the trademark according to the law, though I do think it's completely obvious Super Crossfire is not an attempt in any way to infringe on their trademark, and I also don't think there's any confusion over the two games (arcade shooter vs. online F2P FPS)." Schneider's game has already been removed from iTunes, and will be delisted from Desura, GamersGate, and XBLIG this Friday. Schneider has considered renaming the game for a future PC re-release, and is currently polling fans for suggestions. [Image: Radiangames]
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 delisted from Xbox Live
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has officially disappeared from Xbox Live. The news doesn't come as a surprise, given that the final date to purchase DLC on the platform announced by Capcom is today. The game is still available on PSN for Vita, along with its collection of DLC, but there's no available download for the PS3 version of the game. Conversely, the other game set for delisting, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, is still available on Xbox Live but is nowhere to be found on PSN. It's unknown just how long the game will still be available on Microsoft's service. It arrived on XBLA in late July 2009 and is priced at $14.99.
Mark Kern removed as CEO of Red 5 Studios [Updated]
According to a recent report from Gamefront, Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern has been terminated by the company's board of directors, effective immediately. Vice President of Development James Macauly has apparently sent an email to all employees informing them of the change in leadership, with this latest dismissal coming in the wake of several previous layoffs at the Firefall studio. No official statement has been issued to the public by the company at this time. An anonymous source within the company has also spoken out against Kern in The Escapist, claiming that the CEO was frequently absent and arrived sporadically to hand down arbitrary decisions. How true these statements are cannot be confirmed, although the company does hold a low rating for employee satisfaction overall. We'll have more on the situation if and when a statement is issued regarding Kern's continued employment or lack thereof. [Update: Red 5 Producer Matt DeWald has issued a formal statement on the now-confirmed rumors: "As of Thursday, December 19th, Mark Kern is no longer the Chief Executive Officer of Red 5 Studios. Mark founded Red 5 Studios in 2006 to provide exceptional game entertainment along with a world-class team of developers working on the MMO Shooter, Firefall. Red 5 Vice President of Development, James Macauley, will be moving into the role of acting CEO. The team at Red 5 continues work on Firefall and looks forward to all that we have to offer in 2014."]
Yoshi's Cookie being yanked from Wii's Virtual Console this week
Nintendo's 1993 NES puzzler Yoshi's Cookie will be delisted from the Wii's Virtual Console service on October 18, after which it will no longer be available for purchase or redownload. Though it stars Nintendo's franchise characters, Yoshi's Cookie was developed by Bullet Proof Software, the studio who brought Tetris to the Game Boy in 1989. It's likely that an expired license is the cause of the removal; several games have been removed from the Virtual Console service in recent years due to licensing issues, including Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Irem's R-Type, and the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Currently, the Wii does not offer a way for users to recover delisted digital titles after loss or deletion. Yoshi's Cookie was removed from the Virtual Console service in Europe and Japan on October 11.
Darksiders 2 disappearing from Wii U eShop in Europe March 31
For reasons currently unknown, Darksiders 2 will be removed from Europe's Wii U eShop on March 31. A message displayed on the shop notes that it will be available for re-download only for those who have purchased the game, and otherwise unavailable digitally. We suspect the reason has something to do with the implosion of publisher THQ.We've checked in with both Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe for more information – Europe for specific reasoning, and America to see if Darksiders 2's eShop life is nearing its expiration date here as well.
The Mog Log: I won't miss you when you're gone
If you needed any more reminders that the end is coming to this version of Final Fantasy XIV, Naoki Yoshida kindly provided several during his time at Gamescom 2012 this week, and they weren't subtle ones, either. He didn't come out and say, "Enjoy the game now because it might not be here next month," but there were definitely some implications. The shutdown before the resurrection is coming soon. There's some worry inherent in that change. I've talked about that before. But there are also a lot of parts of the game that I am not going to miss in the slightest. There are changes coming that I welcome with open arms, elements of the game that will be gutted and removed that I will bid farewell without regret. Some of these elements are things I've never liked. Some of them are actually systems I've been fond of in the past but I won't miss once they're gone. But all of them appear to be going the way of the dodo -- or at least they should -- and I'm not going to weep any tears when they shuffle off.
Facebook starts really, truly deleting removed photos
For those who haven't kept track, Facebook has had a years-long history of only maybe-sort-of-more-or-less purging our photos: they could be removed from a profile, but they would sometimes float around the site's content delivery networks for months or years, just waiting for a prospective employer to spot those embarrassing frosh week snapshots by accident. As Ars Technica discovered through experiments and official remarks, that problem should now be solved. In the wake of a months-long photo storage system migration and an updated deletion policy, Facebook now won't let removed photos sit for more than 30 days in the content network stream before they're scrubbed once and for all. The improved reaction time isn't as rapid as for a service like Instagram, where photos vanish almost immediately, but it might be a lifesaver for privacy advocates -- or just anyone who's ever worn a lampshade on their head in a moment of insobriety.
Apple rejects iBook with links to Amazon's store
This is just one specific case out of the many, many organizations and individuals publishing content on Apple's iBookstore, but it's an interesting call by Apple nevertheless. Seth Godin tried to publish a book of his through Apple's iBooks, but the content was rejected by Apple's system. Not because it was offensive in some way, but simply because it contained links to Amazon's booksore. These weren't even links to Godin's books -- they were simply links to reference books, but because they went out to a competing service, Apple pulled the plug. Before anyone starts yelling about censorship, keep in mind that this is Apple's playground, and it can take its ball home whenever it wants, no matter how inane the reason. But this reason seems particularly inane -- Apple can't really be worried about one link in a ebook promoting a competitor's sales, right? Not to mention that the book in question was a hardcover copy, and unless I'm mistaken, wasn't even sold on Apple's iBooks store anyway. Apple's staked a claim to be at the center of technology and creativity, and of course it's done plenty to cement a spot for itself there. But education and information are a key part of creativity, and if Apple is openly choosing to shut down certain purchases on its stores just for the petty reason of trying to keep one or two sales away from a (sort of) competitor, that's a mistake. [via AppAdvice]
Google Voice pulled from App Store following iOS 5 crash
What once was there now is gone. Earlier today, Google Voice was just two clicks away in the iOS App Store. Now, all that remains is a page cache (at the source link below) and versions of the app that were already installed on iPhones and iPod touches. Vincent Paquet, Senior Product Manager for Google Voice confirmed that the app had been pulled, explaining "our last update of this week had a bug that caused the app to crash at sign in. We removed it so it did not affect additional users until the fix gets published." We've been using the most recent version -- 1.3.0.1771 -- on an iPhone 4 running iOS 5 without issue, but recent reviews cite the reported crashing, so it's definitely affecting at least some users. We don't have an ETA for when you can expect the app to return, so if you don't already have it installed, you'll need to hang tight for the time being. The service should function normally otherwise, assuming your phone number has already been registered, though you won't be able to begin new text threads or make outgoing calls using your Google Voice number.
Galaxy Tab 7.7 disappears from IFA floor, not a trace left behind
Just two days after Samsung unveiled its Honeycomb-sporting Galaxy Tab 7.7, the slate (along with all traces of its existence) has vanished from the IFA floor. All demo models have been yanked from Sammy's booth, branding has disappeared, and even the large poster touting the slate has been covered up. The Korean company hasn't been entirely forthcoming about the reason behind the removal, but a spokesperson did tell SlashGear that the move was voluntary. Given that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is already barred from sale in Germany (and some 7.7 units on display bore a sticker informing handlers it would also not make it to retail in Deutschland), speculation has led many to link the vanishing act to the ongoing legal battle with Apple. For now though, all we have to go on is Samsung's confirmation that the tablet has been pulled, accompanied by a refusal to comment further.
Amazon axes copied content, duplicate Kindle Store ebooks get the boot
If we take a can of Spam and call it "Engadget's precooked pork meat product," you'll still know it's the same mystery meat you ate for lunch, right? Under the idea of "private label rights," authors can do just that: sell their works to others who can rebrand and resell them. This week, Amazon cracked down on duplicate ebooks in its Kindle Store, pulling titles because they "diminish the experience for customers." One copycat who got the smack down called it a "kick in the pants" when his 22 titles got yanked. He did, however, admit he had the swift one coming. Aping authors can expect more book banning Kung Fu as Amazon continues to rid itself of "undifferentiated or barely differentiated versions of e-books." Hi-yah!
