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T-Mobile hacker gets slap on the wrist
What better deterrent to breaking into T-Mobile's customer database, than a year of being forced to sit at home with nothing to do but screw around on the 'puter? We can't imagine, and apparently neither could U.S. District Judge George King, sentencing 23 year old Nicholas Lee Jacobsen to a whopping 365 days of home detention for the 2004 crime in which several hundred names and Social Security numbers were swiped (not to mention the Sidekick contents of a Secret Service agent, of all people). To be fair, the hoodlum was also ordered to pay T-Mobile ten grand -- and we have to believe the feds are doing what they can to keep Mr. Jacobsen away from technology for the time being -- but we wouldn't have minded seeing some hard time involved.
Track your PSP if it ever gets stolen
You walk into your office, and everyone's glaring at you. They're jealous of that PSP you have tucked away in your pants. And you know that Tom, from the Copy Room, is probably waiting for the right moment to snatch your system away. Well Tom, you're not going to get away with it! A homebrewer named Bawls has updated his PSP "anti-theft" tool, ATPSP. When Tom tries to steal that PSP, ATPSP will send you an e-mail with Tom's dirty little IP address every time the stolen system is connected via USB. With this information, you can bother the police to give a royal beating to Tom, because they care a lot about what happens to your video game machine.If you couldn't tell, I can't say that I think this tool will be useful at all. Firstly, it seems doubtful that a stolen PSP will be connected via USB so easily. Secondly, it's highly unlikely that an IP address will reveal much info. Thirdly, no one will bother to follow through on your loss. But, if you're really paranoid, go ahead and give it a download-- it works on all PSPs, regardless of firmware version. A better solution would be to trick that evil Tom into stealing your bootleg PSP ripoff.
Hellgate: London source code lifted?
Gamers With Jobs Press Pass passed along their scoop that the source code for Flagship Studios upcoming spiritual Diablo sequel, Hellgate: London, has been hacked right out of their network, like meat from the bone. Ex-Blizzard developer, and co-founder of Flagship Studios, Bill Roper stated "that while they have heard the same rumors they cannot confirm or deny that any code has been lifted from their servers." Can't he check? We'll wait ...... anyways, according to Press Pass' sources -- sources we can only imagine exist in the shadowy, illicit corners of the internet that our library filters won't let us anywhere near -- "the virtual break-in was conducted by a Chinese individual who is currently attempting to sell the code from a personal website." See, shadowy contraband getting pushed on the black markets of the internet ... it reads like a hackneyed beach thriller, but nerdier and not mass-marketable.Let's hope the team at Flagship doesn't follow the historical antecedent that Valve set when the source code for Half Life 2 was stolen in 2003: the already delayed title suffered another year of delays before being released in the fall of 2004. Then again, that delay ended with the release of a fantastic game, so we'll take that back. Half Life 2 is fine company to be in, delay or not. [Thanks, Shawn]
All's well that ends well for stolen Sidekick
Not long ago we reported that Evan Guttman's pal had lost her Sidekick, which somehow mysteriously wound up in the hands of a girl in Corona, Queens, who used the stolen device only to find her self-portraits showing up all over the internets. Well, all's well that ends well for Ivanna, the woman to whom the Sidekick originally belonged. After braving threats from the Sidekick swiper's brother, an MP, and basically outing the family to the general public for not simply returning the phone (which resulted in limited harassment, and Engadget editors TPing their home), Evan and Ivanna turned the identified parties into the police, resulting in the arrest of Sasha Gomez, the young lady pictured right, on charges of possession of stolen property in the fifth degree. Now, we're not sure anyone should really have been arrested for grabbing an ownerless Sidekick out of a taxi and keeping it for your own -- we think some community service might do the trick -- but let it be known to all you would-be criminals out there: stealing phones isn't just bad, it's bad for you.
Rumor: DS Lites go missing in Hong Kong
Those Black DS Lites are pretty hot. Well, now they are, anyway, as $2.32 million U.S. dollars worth of portable gaming goodness was apparently stolen from a cargo container in Hong Kong. Expected to hit the black market (the puns are just naturally built into this story), officials are offering over $125,000 U.S. dollars for some information. So, if a watertight cargo container full of Nintendo products washes up on your private beach, or something, please let someone know. There are some European gamers waiting to get their Mario on.[via Joystiq]
Swiped Sidekick's new owner pays the price
Now where have we heard this story before? Person gets cellphone that doesn't belong to them, starts snapping pics of themselves all around town without knowing that said photos are being uploaded to the internet, and is then surreptitiously monitored and eventually made a spectacle of by the phone's previous owner? Well, guess what, little girl -- that Sidekick II you so want so desperately just landed your face on Engadget Mobile. Sweet, sweet justice -- as if she reads this site anyway. Well, maybe she does, because her and her family are now severely busted as this story climbs all up and over the internets.P.S. You really should head over to the stolen Sidekick site. The former owner's been corresponding with this girl's brother, and the results are, well, priceless.P.P.S. -Anyone else wondering if she feels like she's having a Paris Hilton moment?[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
"Undercover" software helps recover your stolen MacBook
So you coughed up some dough for that iAlertU program to protect your MacBook, but wouldn't you know it, your laptop got jacked anyway by a clever thief who simply removed the battery before taking off. Luckily for you, all is not lost, at least not if you'd installed another program called Undercover on your machine, which not only sends out an IP-address-containing SOS if it's reported stolen, but actually uses your machine's built-in iSight to snap a photo of the perp before simulating a screen failure that makes the Mac unusable. Every six minutes, Undercover pings a database maintained by developer Orbicule to check if the machine it's installed on has been stolen; a positive reply from the server initiates a sequence of events that hopefully ends with law enforcement officials breaking down the door of the nefarious Macjacker's pad and recovering your beloved notebook. In case the crook was smart enough to never reconnect to the Internet after the heist, however, you'll still need to file an insurance claim and head down to the old Apple store -- looks like they still haven't found a software solution that beats the trusty Kensington Lock.
Does a Stolen iPod Warrant a Pat Down?
Jay Allen at Blogging Baby asks if it's ethical to round up a group of sixth graders after a teacher had an iPod stolen at a middle school in Texas.Sure, an iPod is worth quite a bit, but Jay Allen posits that patting down middle school students is not the best example to set. Go voice your opinion about whether or not your favorite little white (or black) music player warrants a round-up-and-search.