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EVE Evolved: Deployables in Rubicon
Last week I looked at EVE Online's upcoming Rubicon expansion, which aims to kick off CCP's long-term vision of deep space exploration with a series of new deployable structures. Until now, most structures have come in the form of modules that can only be added to starbases anchored at moons. Starbases are owned by corporations rather than individuals and require a significant financial and logistical investment to set up and maintain, putting them quite far out of reach for new players. Rubicon will fix this with a relatively inexpensive new personal Depot deployable that can be anchored anywhere in space. The mobile Depot is a small feature that was no-doubt trivial to implement, but it could have a massive impact on the shape of the EVE sandbox. The module offers a way to store your items and refit ships in the middle of hostile territory, and this is the first of a new breed of structure that will ultimately unlock deep space for exploration. This expansion will also give us a new auto-looting tractor beam structure and a Siphon Unit that actually steals resources from nearby starbases. Not much is known about these three deployables beyond the basic information already released, and there's a ton of potential for new complementary structures that could be released in the future. In this week's EVE Evolved, I examine the impact that Rubicon's two biggest deployable structures could have on the EVE sandbox and think about new structures that could be released in the future.
EVE Evolved: Everything we know about Rubicon
Back in April, EVE Online Senior Producer Andie Nordgren delivered an incredible long-term vision for the game's future that included deep space colonisation, player-built stargates, and players controlling practically everything that's currently run by NPC empires. This vision sets the tone and direction for development over the next ten expansions, each of which will introduce a small component of the overall goal. In a live interview session earlier this week, CCP revealed the first steps it will take toward space colonisation in its upcoming winter expansion. Named Rubicon, the expansion will be in players' hands on November 19th and promises to give individuals and small groups unprecedented control over the sandbox. It will let players fight over planetary customs offices in high security space, significantly buff the ability of small ships to participate in hit-and-run style warfare, and even introduce a new set of personal deployable structures that can be hidden anywhere in space. All this comes alongside two new Sisters of EVE ships, twitch livestream integration, and significant balance changes to Marauders, Interceptors, Interdictors, and Electronic Attack Frigates. In this week's EVE Evolved, I run down all of the new features and changes announced so far for EVE Online's Rubicon expansion.
iOS 7: Activation Lock secures your device in case of theft (Updated)
Find My iPhone in iOS 6 was great for locating your lost or stolen phone and for locking down your data, but it had a major flaw. A tech-savvy thief could restore the phone, remove the SIM card and walk away scot-free with your phone. Thanks to an enhancement to Find My iPhone called Activation Lock, a thief's ability to remove every trace of the previous owner from an iPhone is now limited. The stronger security offered by Activation Lock may be a deterrent for thieves looking for an easy grab-and-go sale. In fact, the deterrence improvement has drawn praise from law enforcement and encouragement from the NYPD. Activation Lock improves Find My iPhone by preventing a person from disabling Find My iPhone without knowing both the Apple ID and the account password of the original owner. The person who has the iPhone also can't restore it or reactivate it without these account credentials. They can only stare at the phone number and a custom message that asks the person with the phone to return it to its rightful owner. To use Activation Lock, you must first turn on Find My iPhone in the Settings. Open the Settings app, tap iCloud and then Find My iPhone. Make sure the slider is set to the on position (it will be green). That's all there is to activate it. The magic happens when the iPhone is lost or stolen. If your phone is missing, you can point your browser to iCloud.com and sign in with your Apple ID and password. Click on the Find My iPhone app and then wait for iCloud to find your iPhone. When the iPhone is located, you can click on it to bring up the details. There will be an option to play a sound to help find your iPhone if it is lost nearby. You can also put your iPhone in Lost Mode, which locks the phone with a passcode you supply and displays a custom message such as "I'm Stolen" or "Bring Me Home." If you want to bring out the big guns to thwart a thief, then click on "Erase iPhone." This will clear the iPhone of your data and lock it with the Lost iPhone message mentioned above. It also locks your iPhone and prevents it from being reset. To do anything with the iPhone, the thief will have to login with your iCloud credentials. You will lose your data and may not get your iPhone back, but you can take some satisfaction that the phone will be useless to the thief. One warning, if you sell your device, remember to turn off Find My iPhone so this security feature does not get in the way of the next owner. For convenience, you can just go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. That will delete all your data and turn off Find My iPhone, too. Update: Don't see Find My iPhone Activation Lock on your device? There may be a reason for that -- if a device is being supervised through Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Apple Configurator, Activation Lock will not be enabled when a user turns on Find My iPhone. According to this Apple Knowledge Base article, enabling Activation Lock on a device that was previously supervised requires placing the device in recovery mode, and then reloading iOS 7. More details are available on the Enterprise iOS site, on Apple's page about the Find My iPhone Activation Lock, and on this page about placing a device into Recovery Mode.
US prosecutors praise Apple's iOS 7 Activation Lock, urge users to update
Prosecutors in New York and San Francisco have given Apple's new iOS 7 software some high praise, all thanks to a simple security measure. District Attorney George Gascón (SF) and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (NY), both part of the "Secure Our Smartphones Coalition," are "strongly urging" smartphone owners to apply the company's latest update because it now includes the Activation Lock feature by default, prompting users to set a passcode the first time they use iOS 7. Once enabled, the security feature stops thieves from reactivating a stolen phone and will require the original owner's Apple ID and password to unlock a device, even after it's been wiped. Although it's relatively minor tweak, the attorneys believe it could help to reduce mobile-related crime -- in fact they're pressuring Google, Microsoft and Samsung to do something similar (although hopefully not too similar).
Stolen car with child inside tracked and found by Find My iPhone
By now we've heard several stories about how Find My iPhone has allowed someone to recover a stolen iPhone, iPad or Mac. Today, that story gets a new twist because the app was instrumental in helping police track down a stolen car with a 5-year-old child inside. As reported by ABC, a father's SUV was stolen in Houston last night when he ran into a store to quickly pick something up. When he came back out of the, his SUV was gone -- along with his 5-year-old who was in the back seat. That would normally be enough to make anyone panic, but the quick-thinking father realized that his iPhone was also in the car, and as he still had his iPad on him, he opened up the Find My iPhone app to track the vehicle. The father called the police and used the app to relay the vehicle's location and route. As Lt. Wayne Schultz from the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office told ABC News: "The father had an iPad that he'd taken in with him and he utilized that iPad with the iPhone that was in the car and was able to track it. And the information was provided from our deputies to our dispatch, that was able to be communicated through the Harris County Sheriff's Office dispatch also and they were able to get information out to the troops in the field to where we could disseminate information in almost a real-time environment to put it out to guys who were looking for the vehicle with the child in it." Fifteen minutes after the car was stolen, police stopped it, arrested the suspect and the child was found unharmed in the back seat. [via 9to5Mac]
HTC's ex-lead designer may have leaked info to China's Chengdu government
The latest development on the recent HTC saga reveals that Thomas Chien, the arrested ex-VP of Product Design, was possibly lured by the Chengdu municipal government to set up a phone company in China. According to Taiwan's Next Magazine (pictured above by sister publication Apple Daily), Chien flew to Chengdu several times in the first half of this year, which got HTC suspicious since it doesn't have any direct business there. The alleged offer was that if Chien left HTC with some of the technology plus some money, then the municipal government would -- through another company it set up -- take care of the remaining costs for opening the factory, production and marketing. Previous reports say while still at HTC, the ex-exec had e-mailed some confidential Sense 6.0 files to external contacts, but there's no confirmation on whether those people are linked to the Chengdu government.
Actual gold stolen from virtual gold farmer results in ugly court battle
In Australia, where gold farming is perfectly legal (and income from such must even be filed on your tax return), Katrina Fincham had managed to earn $75,000 by farming and selling gold in World of Warcraft. As we know from farming our own gold, grinding for in-game cash takes time and effort, and Fincham was running her operation like a business -- which we're guessing takes most if not all of the fun out of things. But when she decided to turn her newly made loot into actual gold bullion, her nest egg became a problem. While on vacation, her house was robbed and the safe containing the gold taken -- and her insurance company has refused to pay up, claiming that she was trying to swindle them by converting the cash into gold so it could be stolen. The legal battle is ongoing, but Fincham has already had to sell her house in order to pay court costs associated with fighting the insurance company. And in a final terrible twist of fate, it turns out it was an inside job: her boyfriend helped arrange the theft. While we have no love for farmers, it's hard not to feel sorry about this: Fincham wasn't hacking or exploiting the game and had done nothing legally wrong, but farming gold has led to her financial ruin anyway. Yikes. [Via GamePolitics]
SF, NY prosecutors launching 'Save our Smartphones' anti-theft initiative today
The Attorney General of New York and District Attorney of San Francisco are teaming up with police and government groups to cut down on smartphone-related muggings. George Gascón (SF) and Eric Schneiderman (NY) will announce "Save our Smartphones" at a summit in New York later today, after meeting with representatives from Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft. The scheme aims to introduce a universal "kill switch," similar to iOS 7's Activation Lock, that'll render stolen phones worthless across all makes and models -- preventing this sort of thing from becoming a hazard of modern living.
Recent Apple thefts include high-speed NYC chase, Colorado storefront smash-and-grab
Apple devices keep their value, which makes them an attractive target for thieves. Two recent stories highlight how both individuals and Apple stores are vulnerable to theft. One report involves a movie-like high-speed chase, while the other one features a well-timed smash-and-grab heist. The New York Times has a fascinating story about a thief who stole an iPhone from an unsuspecting lady waiting on a corner. He snatched the iPhone from her hand and took off into the crowded streets of Flushing, Queens. She called police who tracked the culprit using Find My iPhone. They hunted him down by car and by foot, finally locating him on a subway car. The thief was identified when the police placed a call to the stolen device and it rang in his back pocket. In a completely different type of theft, employees at an Apple store in Colorado Springs, Colo., were surprised when they arrived for work on Sunday morning. Instead of a typical opening, the employees were greeted with shattered glass and a store that had been turned upside down by thieves. The photo below was supplied by TUAW reader Dan Mosqueda, who also tipped us about this latest smash-and-grab incident. It shows the front of the store boarded up with black-painted plywood. According to a report by KKTV-11, robbers drove their car into the glass front of the Apple store and made off with an undisclosed amount of electronics. An employee at a nearby store observed the aftermath of the theft and said, "It seems like this was very calculated because they obviously knew when to come here, when the security would not be around." The police are reviewing the surveillance video for information on the car and people involved in this crime.
Daily Update for May 6, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Call of Duty-free: PR managers sentenced for siphoning thousands
Everything in moderation, dear. The Daily Mail reports Activision UK public relations executive Kathryn Kirton has admitted to stealing £18,963 ($29,000). Her co-defendant, Jamie Kaye, who worked for third-party firm Frank PR, admitted to taking £5,000 ($7,600). The thefts occurred back in 2011 using money intended for promoting the Call of Duty franchise.For her part, Kirton used the money for a romantic £2,000 two-night stay at a luxury countryside estate, a £1,500 engagement party and spent £9,437 in "one of three shopping sprees." It appears things started falling apart when Kirton, using the Frank PR corporate card for one of the sprees, had Kaye bill Activision for it as Modern Warfare 2 launch expense. Kaye admitted using the money to send his family on a £3,500 family vacation to Florida. He also stole six iPads.Both pleaded guilty to one count of fraud. The judge sentenced Kirton to 18 months, but suspended it due to the "devastating effect" it would have on her young son. Kirton's marriage is reportedly on the rocks and the stress of the past two years caused her two-year-old son to be born prematurely because of the strain of the investigation. Kaye was sentenced to nine months, but that was suspended for 12 months. He's been ordered to 80 hours of community service.Earlier this year, former Gamestop VP of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Chris Olivera was sentenced to 51 months in US federal prison after he plead guilty to embezzling over $1.7 million.Seriously, folks, the accountants will catch up with you eventually. Well, you know, unless they're in on it.
Chinese man steals iPhone from bicyclist using chopsticks
A talented thief is making headlines in China after he pickpocketed an iPhone from an unsuspecting bicyclist. What makes the theft newsworthy is his method of stealing -- some careful moves and a single pair of chopsticks. Photos of the theft hit the Internet in China and show a man in a suit coat and jeans running alongside a group of bikes. The "suit man" then reaches out with a pair of chopsticks and lifts a phone delicately out of a cyclist's pocket. A final photo shows him walking away with his prize, which appears to be an iPhone or an iPhone clone. Pressured by the circulating news reports, the thief, surnamed Wang, contacted a local journalist, who recorded his story and accompanied him when he turned himself into police. According to the report in the ShanghaiIst, Wang turned to stealing because he was struggling to raise his 12-year-old child alone. [Via Kotaku]
Thieves rob Vancouver Apple Store with bear spray
In the US, thieves drop from rooftops and smash cars through storefronts in order to rob an Apple Store. In Canada, they use bear spray. According to a report in the Toronto Sun, three suspects entered the Apple Store in Vancouver's Oakridge Centre and sprayed the store with bear-strength pepper spray before grabbing an unknown quantity of Apple devices. About 40 people were in the store during the heist. Five people were treated for exposure to bear spray which is some pretty nasty stuff.
Apple, NYPD working together to locate stolen iPhones, iPads
The New York Post is reporting that the New York Police Department has assigned a team of cops to work with Apple on facilitating the return of stolen iOS devices. The move is in response to widespread theft of popular iPhones and wireless-enabled iPads in the city. The policemen work with the victims or wireless carriers to determine what the IMEI (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity) number of the device is, and then pass that information on to Apple. The company then responds to the NYPD with the current location of the device. Since the IMEI is part of a device's firmware, even stolen devices that have been activated on another wireless carrier's network can be tracked. Since WiFi-only devices do not have an IMEI, they cannot be located through this method. According to the Post article, a number of arrests have been made and devices have been recovered from as far away as the Dominican Republic. Many devices are bought second-hand by people unaware that they were stolen. Police have the right to confiscate those devices and return them to the original owners. The wireless industry will have its own database of stolen smartphones and tablets in late 2013 and is expected to provide automatic blacklisting of those devices. Until that database is implemented, New York residents can rely on the NYPD and Apple partnership. TUAW readers can easily keep track of their device IMEI by tapping on Settings > General > About, taking a screenshot of the display by holding down the Home button and then pressing the sleep/wake button, and then either printing that screenshot or uploading it to a cloud service like Evernote.
AMD accuses former staff of giving 100,000 secret documents to NVIDIA
AMD is suing four ex-employees for allegedly taking thousands of confidential documents with them when they left the company and went to work for NVIDIA. A complaint filed to the District Court of Massachusetts reveals that AMD's former VP of Strategic Development Robert Feldstein, who was instrumental in designing graphics chips for early Xbox 360 consoles and the Wii, is among the defendants. He's accused of playing a role in the electronic transfer of over 100,000 files containing "trade secret materials relating to developing technology." AMD claims it has "forensically-recovered data" to show that external storage devices were used in the days prior to Feldstein's departure, and also that he and another senior exec, Richard Hagen, actively recruited the two other defendants to join them at NVIDIA, in violation of agreements they had signed. Of course, this is just AMD's side of the story. The company told us in a statement that it intends to "aggressively protect" its trade secrets through this litigation, so the rest will just have to play out in court.
Thieves steal 7,000 Wiis from a warehouse in Seattle [Update]
In the dead of night between Saturday and Sunday, thieves stole 7,000 Wiis from a Seattle Air Cargo warehouse, Seattle PI reported.The thieves made off with 7,000 consoles, two 53-foot trailers and a box van from the warehouse, for an estimated haul of $2 million. The King County Sheriff's Office is looking into the theft. Not to say that we're professionally trained investigators here, but we would suggest officers keep an eye on Ebay. That's what we would do, at least.Update: The consoles were, in fact, Wii Us, an officer told Kotaku. Our source at the Seattle PI and ABC News reported that the stolen consoles were Wiis, and Kotaku was not one of our original sources. Thank you for the kind tips, lovely, wonderful commenters.
Gadget reseller Gazelle works to deter thieves
Thieves who steal iPhones and iPads are going to have a harder time getting rid of their stolen hardware thanks to a new partnership between Gazelle and CheckMEND. According to VentureBeat, Gazelle will soon scan all its trade-in devices against CheckMEND, a service that compiles information on stolen devices from the FBI, police, wireless carriers and others. If a trade-in item shows up in the database as lost or stolen, Gazelle will refuse to pay for the device and return it to the sender. CheckMEND is a new service offered by UK company Recipero. Launched in the UK, the CheckMEND service recently expanded to the US. The company claims it is the "US's largest consumer electronics background reports service." Gazelle is the first US trade-in service to use the service.
Apple files anti-theft patent that uses accelerometers to detect theft-like movement
What kind of movement does a theft entail? Apple's in the process of figuring that out, today filing a patent application for a, "acceleration-based theft detection system for portable electronic devices." Apple pickers: you've just been put on watch. According to the patent filing, said device would activate an alarm of some form after determining, "whether a theft condition is present." It'll apparently figure that out based on the accelerometer built into many of Apple's mobile devices -- the same thing that figures out which way you're holding your phone. Beyond just the hardware, said theft protection system would work in concert with software to determine if the movement matches a pre-determined "profile characteristic of theft." Of course, Apple's not the only one worried about mobile device theft, as Google already patented just such a device pertaining to its Project Glass concept. But the you'd have to be pretty brazen to steal the glasses off of someone's face without "accidentally" socking them in the eye.
EVE Evolved: Top ten ganks, scams, heists and events
It's been called "boring," "confusing," and "the world's biggest spreadsheet," but every now and then a story emerges from sci-fi MMO EVE Online and grabs the gaming world's attention. Tales of massive thefts, colossal battles, high-value kills, record-breaking scams, political dirty deals, and controversial player-run events never fail to grip us. Perhaps it's the fact that these events have such huge impacts in the EVE sandbox that captures our imaginations, or maybe we just want to watch with morbid curiosity as a virtual society self-destructs. Whether it's innocent interest in quirky stories or a secret sense of schadenfreude that keeps us glued to EVE's most illicit events, the game continues to deliver them with startling regularity. Most scams, thefts, and high-profile battles will never make the news, instead becoming another forgotten part of EVE's history or just a story for a few friends to reminisce about. But those stories that do reach the news always draw in a huge audience that wouldn't play EVE in a million years but can't get enough of its engrossing stories. In this week's EVE Evolved, I run down a list of ten incredible EVE kills, scams, heists, and sandbox events that have made it into the news over the years.
Over 60 Barnes & Noble locations victims of PIN pad tampering, customer data at risk
Book retailer Barnes & Noble this morning revealed that 63 of its stores have been victims of PIN pad tampering, following an internal investigation of "every PIN pad in every store" (just under 700 locations). B&N calls the tampering, "a sophisticated criminal effort to steal credit card information, debit card information, and debit card PIN numbers," and warns customers who may have swiped their cards at affected locations to alter debit card PINs as a precaution, as well as to keep an eye on credit card statements for false charges. B&N specifically note that its company database hasn't been breached, and purchases made through the B&N website, its Nook e-reader, and the Nook mobile apps are unaffected. According to the company, the PIN pads were implanted with "bugs" that allowed the recording of credit card numbers and PINs. To be extra safe, B&N disconnected all of its PIN pads on September 14 and is only allowing credit card purchases directly through cash registers. For a full list of affected stores, head past the break.
