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OnLive hits reset after being dragged down by expensive servers, confirms service will continue
OnLive has finally issued an official statement after rumors of mass layoffs first leaked out earlier today, confirming that its assets have been acquired into a newly-formed company with what it claims is "substantial" financial backing. The big news for users is that the OnLive Game and Desktop services will remain operational and continue to be supported. The release also claims a "large percentage" of OnLive staff is being hired into the new company with plans to hire more over time, while PR informs us the leadership team remains intact. Check the words straight from the source after the break. We've heard from some of the people present for the meeting where the new plan was revealed today, confirming the company is going through a process known as Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC). A faster alternative to bankruptcy that doesn't involve the courts, it allows OnLive to deal with some of the issues it was facing, most notably an oversupply of servers for the number of users it had signed up. The ABC process allows OnLive to be unshackled from the expensive server contracts and bring in a new source of venture capital. Oh and that other major cost, the employees? Not all of the information is known yet, but beyond the loss of jobs, it turns out the stock they owned was in a company that no longer exists. We're hearing their benefits will end after August, however there are offers of contracts to answer questions about important topics like "where things are," in exchange for special form stock in the new venture. Update: Joystiq has more information from a former employee, who estimated the average number of peak concurrent OnLive users at around 1,800 or so, and the amount of retained staff in the range of 20 percent. One other tidbit? The source expects OnLive to go after recent Sony acquisition Gaikai for infringement of a game streaming patent, so stay tuned.
PicPlz shutting down permanently on July 3rd, all photos to be deleted pre-fireworks
Already prepping to share oodles of horribly blurry and underexposed Independence Day photos via PicPlz? Go ahead and burst your own bubble, bub. The aforesaid photo sharing app / site has decided to throw in the towel, with a brief blurb posted on its site today describing that July 3rd will be its final day of operation. To quote: "On July 3, 2012, picplz will shut down permanently and all photos and data will be deleted. We have provided download links for existing users to save their photos. Thank you for your support of picplz and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you." Users are encouraged to login prior to that day in order to download their photos, including those ones of you shooting Instagram and Facebook Camera in the face. Violence isn't cool, but who are we judge how your grieve?
PSA: Marketplace for Windows Mobile 6.x shuts down today
Still rockin' Windows Mobile 6.x? Time to check all your apps for updates one last time. Microsoft has issued a final reminder that, beginning today, the Marketplace for 6.x devices will no longer be available. This means you won't be able to browse, buy or download apps from your phone via the service. Everything you already have will, of course, work just fine, but if you needed to reinstall something -- now is the time to do it. Unless it's available direct from third party sites, in which case you'll have a little breathing space. Still, better safe than sorry. [Thanks, nAramRay]
Pitchblack Games' Dominus abruptly shutting down
We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but sometimes it's just unavoidable. Sanya Weathers, Director of Community for Pitchblack Games' in-development sandbox title, Dominus, posted on the forums today to inform players that, effective immediately, Dominus is no more. Weathers states that the team "simply cannot deliver the game [players] deserve with the resources [the studio has]." She goes on to apologize vehemently, adding that the forum is now read-only, though the game's Facebook page will remain open long enough for players to say their last goodbyes. Sanya signs off by thanking the players for proving that "there is a market for a game like [Dominus]." She concludes, "I will miss you all, and I know we'll meet again." Here's to hoping. Best of luck to the folks over at Pitchblack; we look forward to your next endeavor.
Demon's Souls to be taken offline on May 31
Atlus is shutting down the North American servers for Demon's Souls on May 31 at 11:59 p.m. PST. This will not affect the single-player mode, but will prevent players from leaving notes for other players, who appear as ghosts in remote games, and all other online activities.Atlus is holding two World Tendency events, which can alter the difficulty and perks awarded to players in-game, throughout May. Atlus invites all players to sign in for one final hoorah on May 31, Game Informer writes.Below is a heartfelt statement sent to Game Informer from Atlus VP of sales and marketing Tim Pivnicny:
Gowalla officially shut down, uses Facebook to check-in at SXSW 2012
SXSW attendees may remember that both Gowalla and Foursquare launched at the aforementioned conference in 2009, and during its 2012 edition, the former is formally saying goodbye. Just three months after we heard that Facebook had picked up (but two months after the shutdown was promised), Gowalla is saying its final words. Specifically: "Thank you for going out with Gowalla. It was a pleasure to journey with you around the world. Download your check-ins, photos and lists here soon."Don't cry, Gowalla -- at least you won't have to deal with any more SXSW registration lines.
Google Health's New Year's Resolution is to cease to exist, countdown begins to save your data
Back in June, Google announced that it would be 'retiring' Health effective January 1, 2012. Now, everything appears to be on-track for the shutdown, with Google sending out a final reminder to Health customers earlier today. You have until the stroke of midnight to access the service or port your data to a competitor -- after which point you'll no longer be able to view information saved to your account, though it'll remain available to download in .zip format for another year. Want to know more? Hit up the source link for the Google Health FAQ.
Zediva ordered to permanently shut down operations, pay $1.8 million to MPAA
The last time we checked in with Zediva, the DVD streaming service was reeling from a court-ordered preliminary injunction that effectively brought its operations to a halt. At the time, the California-based company was still pinning its hopes on the promise of a forthcoming appeal, but those hopes were summarily quashed on Friday, when US District Judge John Walter rendered the injunction permanent. Zediva had previously exposed an apparent loophole in US copyright law, by allowing users to stream movies from physical DVDs located in Silicon Valley. This strategy allowed the firm to offer newly released movies well before other on-demand services, but according to Judge Walter, it was also illegal. Zediva will now have to cease all operations and pay $1.8 million in damages to the MPAA. The defendant has yet to comment on the decision, but MPAA Associate General Counsel Dan Robbins seemed understandably delighted: "This result sends a strong message to those who would exploit the studios' works in violation of copyright law, on the Internet or elsewhere, and it is an important victory for the more than 2 million American men and women whose livelihoods depend on a thriving film and television industry."
The Guardian: HP shutdown of webOS division said to be 'imminent'
Could the writing have already been on the wall for webOS when former VP of worldwide developer relations Richard Kerris left HP for Nokia this week? While nothing is yet confirmed, The Guardian is now reporting that HP will indeed finally shut down its webOS division, which could affect up to 500 jobs (either through reassignment or layoffs -- we've previously heard that some layoffs had already begun). That word comes from some unnamed internal HP sources, who reportedly expect an "imminent closure," with one employee adding that "there's a 95% chance we all get laid off between now and November." For its part, HP remained noticeably mum on any news about webOS when it announced that it would hang onto its PC business this week, and its decision to use Windows 8 on tablets certainly didn't do much to inspire the webOS faithful.
Mythos Europe shutting down October 27th
European Mythos fans should say their farewells, as Frogster has announced that the game's European servers will be shutting down on October 27th. According to the official forum post, while "MYTHOS enjoyed great popularity with the launch in April and the numerous registered users ensured a good start [...] The desired long-term success unfortunately did not follow," and for that reason, the game's service is being discontinued. In order to make the game's twilight hours enjoyable for players, the dev team is sending missing quest items to all players so that they can go into the great beyond with a clean quest log. Purchases from the cash shop are no longer possible, and all servers have the maximum experience and luck buffs. Players whose accounts have been registered and active in the past three months will also be given vouchers redeemable for diamonds and/or mounts in Runes of Magic, in hopes that players will find a new home in Frogster's other popular title. For the full server shutdown details, check out the forum post over on the Mythos official site.
Broadband claims another: France Telecom putting the kibosh on Minitel
'Tis a sad, sad day for fans of all things retro. In a developed nation dominated by high-speed connections, near-ubiquitous 3G and sub-$€300 computers, it's more than a little astounding that the Minitel is just now being axed by France Télécom. Originally, the aforesaid machine was ordered by the French government in the 1970s "as part of an initiative to get people to share information and, eventually, reduce the consumption of paper." In a bid to rapidly increase adoption, the terminals -- complete with a monochrome screen and bantam keyboard -- were actually doled out to denizens free of charge, with access billed on a per-minute basis. It obviously required a phone line, and things were kept understandably simple; users rarely did more than shop for train tickets, check the occasional bank account and peruse the phone directory. Astonishingly, France's precursor to the internet still raked in €30 million in revenue last year, but the time has finally come to push existing users onto more sophisticated solutions. As of June 30, 2012, "the Minitel will die." 'Course, the service itself will be the only thing shuttered -- those memories are bound to last a lifetime.
Zune Originals shut down, humans revert to being average and uncreative
Hard to believe that Microsoft's been offering consumers the ability to customize their Zune purchases for the better part of four years now, but as they say, all unbelievable things must one day face reality. Er, something to that effect. Without so much as a heads-up, the designers in Redmond have apparently decided to shutter the Zune Originals storefront. As of this weekend, no new orders for highly personalized Zunes are being taken, with interested Earthlings encouraged to throw creativity to the wind and opt for a mass produced alternative within Best Buy or Walmart. So, you're looking at two tidbits of import: if you placed your Originals order at 5PM PT on July 1st, you likely have quite the coveted device headed your way, and if you ever needed evidence that Microsoft was making WP7 its next Zune, well... you're welcome. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Google 'retires' Health and PowerMeter, lets you save your vitals through 2012
Remember that Withings blood pressure monitor for iOS that we went hands-on with last week? It integrated with Google Health. The search giant's health management portal also paired with dozens of other services (a heaping handful can be seen in the image above) to aggregate and track all of your data, and share it with family members, friends, and doctors. The service didn't have the widespread impact that Google expected, however, so it's taking Health offline after the clock strikes midnight on January 1, 2012. You'll have another year to download your info, or send it directly to competing services. Also on the chopping block is PowerMeter, a free energy monitoring tool that pairs with smart power meters and other energy monitoring devices to help users better understand consumption habits and ultimately reduce costs. That project will get the boot from Mountain View on September 16th, but you'll be able to log in to your account to download a CSV file. We imagine Health and PowerMeter are already plotting their trip down south, to get in a few thousand rounds of golf with Video Store at Pebble Beach. Perhaps to be joined by Buzz and Wave, in the not-so-distant future?
Nokia closing its UK online storefront by month's end
It doesn't take four years of business school before realizing that a shopkeeper must sell sufficient inventory to keep afloat. With this in mind, we must sadly declare that Nokia will close its UK online storefront at the end of the month -- a harsh revelation for pre-order loving Brits. The news was announced today in a brief message to affiliates, and later confirmed with a representative stating to TechRadar, "We are planning to close the current UK online store to simplify our channel structure and focus our resources on our key trade customers." Keeping a stiff upper lip, this untimely ending follows Nokia's reduced sales projections and similar closures in France, Spain and Netherlands, and leaves its remaining e-stores to hope for a better fate.
Symbian Foundation axing websites on December 17th, source repositories available 'upon request'
We'd heard that the Symbian Foundation would undergo some drastic changes as it transitions to a licensing body, and here's number one -- every official Symbian website will be shuttered on the 17th of next month. That goes for every page from symbian.org down to the Symbian Twitter and Facebook feeds, and the source code itself will be shelved. If you want access to any of it, even the databases of user-generated bug reports, you'll have to ask the Foundation for a hard copy and pay a nominal media and shipping fee after January 31st. We're trying to reach Symbian right now to figure out the full repercussions of this move, but assuming Nokia's promise to keep Symbian open-source still rings true, you might want to start stashing away the repositories and setting up mirrors before the Foundation drops off the face of the web -- and perhaps the Symbian crowdsource community, too.
NIDA Online shutting down tomorrow
In what must be one of the fastest closures we've heard about, it would appear that GameKiss has decided to shut down their "action MMO" Nida Online tomorrow -- just short of 8 months after it launched into open beta. While they don't give specifics as to precisely why they've opted to shut down the game, MMOCrunch is citing financial issues as the reason that GameKiss has decided on this course of action. In either case, while it's never good to see any MMO community lose its home, we suspect that Nida Online players will likely bounce back. After all, there are a great many other free-to-play games with solid populations to choose from -- and a new one launching (seemingly) every other day.
Spellborn dropping out of the Japanese market
The somewhat European inspired fantasy MMO The Chronicles of Spellborn is shutting down its Japanese service, causing a stir of worry and discussion about the title's future in other territories within the community at large. To make matters worse, the one person who could've cleared up any confusion, TheHistorian, is no longer with publisher Acclaim as community manager for the game. Given that he was the sole link between the community and developers, it's no wonder people are feeling a bit unsettled by the whole affair. While the closure of The Chronicles of Spellborn Japan isn't a good thing, it doesn't necessarily spell out a dark future for the title. A business deal could've gone sour, or perhaps the audience in Japan just wasn't strong enough to maintain the title. Just in cast something does happen, however, we'll be keeping an eye out for any further development.
Psystar's lawyer: Psystar not done yet
Last night on the Talkcast, we talked about the big news last week that Psystar seemed to be down for the count, and the consensus was that we'd heard the last of them. But not so fast: their lawyer now says that they're not calling it quits just yet. The company that has gotten pummeled by Apple for selling Mac clones apparently "does not intend to shut down permanently," according to K. A. D. Camera of legal firm Camera & Sibley. According to him, they're still working on selling their Rebel EFI product (also currently entangled in legal problems), and they're planning on pushing forward on their antitrust case against Apple (which has already been thrown out once). We're not sure where they'll get the money for all of this legal action after already being ordered to give a couple million dollars to Apple, but maybe those 768 computers they sold made more than we thought. There is one bright point in all of this: while Rebel EFI is still listed as out of stock on their website, they are selling official Psystar t-shirts for $15 which they say will also include a Rebel EFI authorization code later on and now those appear to be gone too! I don't know about you (and I don't really want to give these guys any credit card information), but one of those shirts would look great sitting under my tree later this week. If this whole installing-OS X-on-unauthorized-hardware-in-violation-of-Apple's-EULA thing doesn't work out for Psystar, maybe they can have a second life as a merch vendor.
ZFS open source project abruptly shuts down, Snow Leopard weeps icy tears
The on-again / off-again love affair between Apple and ZFS seems to be all but over, with a brief but potent message on the Mac OS Forge project site stating the following: "The ZFS project has been discontinued. The mailing list and repository will also be removed shortly." If you'll recall, the implementation of the ZFS file system within Snow Leopard server was so close to happening that Apple actually published it as a feature of the forthcoming OS back in June of 2008. Now, however, all hope has presumably been lost. We'd bother explaining the rumors behind why all of this has suddenly crumbled, but honestly, will knowing the reasons really help the pain? No, no it won't. [Via TUAW]
Poll: Has iPhone OS 3.1 screwed up your phone?
It's pretty much as reliable as the sun: a new iPhone OS update generally leads to at least a handful of issues. But iPhone OS 3.1, which was made available on September 9th, seems worse than most. We've seen tip after tip pour in, and we've watched Apple's support forums grow increasingly ugly with irate iPhone users dealing with horrid battery life, random shut downs and the occasional screen freeze. A few of our own have also experienced some of these quirks, though others have escaped without a scratch. So, we're putting it to you all -- has the latest iPhone update borked your handset? If so, in what way? %Poll-34495%
