A joint raid carried out by Trading Standards and the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has led to the apprehension of a man accused of video game piracy offenses. A sting operation had been carried out, in which participants visited the unnamed Staffordshire man to have an Xbox console chipped, and to purchase [...]
Archive of posts filed under the AfterDawn category.
SanDisk shows faster SSDs at CES
SanDisk Corp. has shown off speedy solid-state hard drives at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The company’s new G3 series of SSDs will go on sale later this year with capacities of 60GB, 120GB and 240GB, with the 240GB model costing $499. The SSDs are designed specifically for notebooks, as replacements [...]
Windows 7 beta downloads halted temporarily
Microsoft began offering downloads of a Windows 7 Beta early on Friday as had been promised by CEO Steve Ballmer in his pre-show keynote. However, it didn’t take long for demand to overwhelm Microsoft’s servers, forcing the company to halt the Beta downloads until more servers are added to deal with overwhelming traffic. “We are [...]
Nokia stopped production of N810 WiMax
The world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has ended the production of its only WiMax device. It’s another nail in the coffin for WiMax in the battle against the more widely adopted Long-Term Evolution (LTE). “We have ramped down the N810 WiMax Edition tablet. It has reached the end of its lifecycle,” said a Nokia [...]
Giganews has competition
According to Slyck, the newsgroup server Astraweb has increased its retention to 270 days, hopping over Giganews on its way to being the newsgroup provider with the longest retention.
“Astraweb is pleased to announce that we have just completed an infrastructure upgrade to increase our retention and improve our network. Our retention is currently growing towards 270 days from 160 days.”
When the provider will actually hit 270 is still in question though, and whether Giganews will respond is kind is a more important question. On Christmas, Giganews confided they were in the midst of a massive upgrade themselves and that new retention times would be “well beyond 240 days.”
Giganews currently costs $30 USD a month while Astraweb only cost $15.
PlayStation 2 still the most played console
According to year-end figures provided by Nielsen, it appears that the Sony PlayStation 2 remains the most played video game console, by far. In fact, in terms of “overall usage minutes”, the PS2 accounted for just under 32 percent of the total.
Following in the list was the Microsoft Xbox 360 at 17.2 percent and the Nintendo Wii at 13.4 percent. The PlayStation 3 improved to 7.3 percent but somewhat surprisingly, lost to the original Xbox, which managed 9.7 percent of the total.
The PS2′s lead diminished significantly from 2007′s 42 percent of the total, but understandably so considering Sony has moved all their efforts to the next-gen PS3.
Year-on-year, the PS3 jumped from 2.5 percent to 7.3 percent of the total, the Wii jumped from 5.5 percent to 13.4 percent of the total, and the 360 jumped from 12 percent to 17 percent, all at the expense of the aging set of the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube.
CD sales fell 20 percent in 2008
According to Nielsen SoundScan year-end figures, CD sales fell 20 percent for the year 2008, while digital sales grew 27 percent. Physical CDs still remain the most profitable media for recorded music, and account for 85 percent of overall album sales. Over 1 billion digital tracks were sold in 2008, while 362.6 million physical CDs [...]
Sentences passed down on ‘world’s biggest’ software pirates
11 pirates, considered the “world’s biggest” software pirates, have been sentenced to jail time today by the Futian People’s Court in Shenzhen, China.
The group were ‘ringleaders’ in a counterfeiting syndicate that specialized in ‘high-quality’ fake Microsoft software. It is estimated that the pirates manufactured over $2 billion USD worth of counterfeits.
The sentences, the longest ever for intellectual property crimes in China, ranged from 1 year to 6.5.
The counterfeits were found in 36 separate countries on five continents and were produced in at least 11 languages.
The Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) was responsible for tracking down the pirates and the bureau claims “tens of thousands” of buyers verified the software was fake using Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage.
9 -inch screen iPod Touch coming?
The “sources” have seen the prototypes and Apple is currently in talks with OEMs in Asia over mass production.
One of the sources says Apple has been experimenting with large form media devices for at least a year but concerns were that it would not sell well. Now however, with the App Store in full swing and iTunes selling movies at a fast clip, a large screen media device should sell well, especially branded by Apple.
There was no word on pricing but expect it to be around $500 USD at launch, if this rumor is true.