warnings
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Facebook places warnings, disables auto-play for violent videos
Facebook now restricts extreme and violent content in feeds by posting warnings and preventing minors from seeing certain videos. The social net has never permitted material that may "glorify violence," but generally allowed news and documentary images depicting executions and other brutality in the interests of free speech. However, following pressure from advisers, it elected to roll out warnings for such videos and disable the usual auto-play option. One of the first videos to get one was the violent execution of a policeman who responded to calls at the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo.
Nest issues recall for 440,000 smoke detectors... sort of
The Nest Protect is hailed as the smoke detector of the future, with Wi-Fi connectivity, a connected app for your iPhone or iPad, and fancy features like being able to silence the device with a wave. Unfortunately, that last feature isn't so smart after all, as the company learned back in April when it issued a warning about the Nest Wave functionality and its potential to silence a crucial alarm erroneously. Now, the company is taking the formal step of issuing a recall. The recall, in this case, doesn't necessarily mean you'll need to tear your pricey smoke sniffer off the wall, since Nest Protect smoke alarms that are connected via Wi-Fi have already received an update to disable the feature entirely. For those who have taken their device offline, Nest advises you to reconnect the gadget to your Nest account in order to receive the update. Anyone who is unable to update their Nest Protect, for whatever reason, are encouraged to discontinue use of the device entirely and the company will provide a full refund. Nest says they are working on a fix for the Nest Wave feature and will roll it out to existing devices whenever it's ready. In the meantime, Nest has taken the extra step of halting sales of the Protect until a fix is developed.
TUAW: About those Google warnings
Apparently some of our pages have been showing up with Google warnings. We believe this is tied to one of our site ads, which we have already removed from our system. Our technical staff is looking into the matter and we hope to have this resolved as soon as possible. In the mean time, thanks everyone who gave us a heads up.
US Homeland Security Department planning to use Facebook, Twitter for terrorism alerts
It looks like we finally know what the US Department of Homeland Security plans to use instead of the now infamous color-coded terrorism alert system. According to a draft document obtained by the Associated Press, the department's new system will simply have two levels of alerts -- "elevated" and "imminent" -- and it seems those warnings will even be published online using Facebook and Twitter "when appropriate." There's no word as to exactly how those alerts will be published, however, or any indication that the two companies have actually committed to aiding the department in any way, for that matter. We should know more soon enough, though -- the new system is expected to be in place by April 27th.
FCC set to approve rules compelling carriers to alert you when you're about to go over your limit
Politicians do love themselves a sharp and emotive turn of phrase, of which few are as good as "bill shock." That's the term the FCC has used to sum up all those instances when you've had unexpected surcharges on your monthly wireless bill, caused by unknowingly going outside the bounds of your geographical coverage or monthly allowance. Seeing this issue as something it could help alleviate, the Commission set up a Consumer Task Force back in May in an effort to seek out solutions, and now it has returned with perhaps the most obvious one: getting your network operator to shoot out a voice or text message warning you when you're about to incur costs outside of your normal plan. That's basically what AT&T already does with iPad owners approaching their monthly data limits, which the federales see as a good practice that should be extended across all carriers. We can see no good reason why it shouldn't.
Dev team releases PwnageTool 3.1.5 to jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 firmware
Jailbreakers ahoy! Yesterday brought the release of the Dev Team's pwnage tool for jailbreaking and unlocking iPhones equipped with the new 3.1.3 firmware. As usual, though, there are a few catches: first, if you don't need to update to 3.1.3, the dev team says you shouldn't bother anyway -- it doesn't do much that the old versions of the firmware doesn't, so if you don't need to upgrade, just leave your jailbreak as is. 3G and 3GS users especially should be leery of this one, since if a mistake is made, there's a chance you could upgrade your firmware and then not be able to unlock it again. They also have all sorts of other warnings and exceptions on their blog post. As they say, don't download and run those files without seriously thinking about what you're doing with your iPhone. If, after all of that thinking, you decide it is time to crack open your iPhone with the 3.1.3 firmware, the jailbreak will put together a custom 3.1.3 IPSW for you to restore back on to your iPhone -- here's a quick how-to to start with. Good luck, and be careful out there! [via Engadget]
Today's hottest gaming video: Wii Warnings!!!
Today's hottest game video is from the GameVideos.com "Funny" category, and is presented newsreel style with Wii warnings from the manual and extremely colorful language. This bears repeating so here we go again -- language-wise, this video ain't even close to being safe for work. Where else are you going to hear the Wii called an asshat? Probably not many places except right here at Joystiq.Check out the NSFW video after the jump, and be sure to be careful around your Wii.
iPod Shuffle wins battle with knife-wielding owner
Not that we should really have to remind you of such things, but trying to fix your own gadgets by bludgeoning them with a knife is not only ineffective, it can also result in you swearing and screaming in pain after the capacitor you impaled blows up in your face.[Thanks, Dave Z.]
