Category: iTech

‘Ndrangheta boss Manfredi has been caught by the Italian police. In a weird twist of events that continues to demonstrate the naiveté of a certain generation when using networking sites, Manfredi was snatched by the mobile squad of Crotone after it was discovered that he was a frequent user of Facebook using the nickname “Scarface”.

It’s a plot worthy of a Guy Ritchie movie – complete with the all too ironic nickname and circumstances of arrest. Meanwhile Facebook does not seem to be able to keep out of the news Europe-wide whether in good or in bad. Recently, the Facebook Killer saga in the UK prompted the networking site to issue the following statement:

Facebook issued a statement after Chapman was sentenced saying it urged people not to meet anyone they had been contacted by online unless they knew who they were, “as there are unscrupulous people in the world with malevolent agendas”. It said there were a variety of measures people could use to protect themselves from unwanted contact and that Facebook strongly encouraged their use.

The Facebook Killer story also led to British child protection authorities lobbying Facebook and other social networking sites to install a one-click button which would allow children to get immediate police help if they suspect they’re at risk. Other networking sites like BEBO immediately complied though Facebook remained reluctant about installing this system.

Last night I finally found time to try out the latest hit from PS3 – “Heavy Rain”. I figured a good half hour to see the intro and get used to the controls would do before settling down to watch “Into the Storm” a snapshot of Winston Churchill’s life during WWII. The PS3 started playing up immediately and I dismissed the wrong clock signal to having unplugged it at some point this week for some rewiring work. Playstation Network was unavailable and – mysteriously for a newly purchased game – I seemed to require the download of a mega-update of 236MB. It was a mega-update because of the speed of the wifi connection (misery) and not because of the size of the file. The download took over an hour to get to 72% before conveniently displaying an error message that “Download could not be completed”.

Trying to bypass the download and directly playing “Heavy Rain” also resulted in a new error message – apparently the Trophy Room could not be reached. Each error message was accompanied with a mystical number: 8001050F. When I finally decided to google the error message I discovered that the fault was not restricted to Chez Moi but was apparently the result of a global bug that has attacked the “fat” version of PS3- or in consumerist capitalist affluential terms : “older versions”. It turns out that the PS3 network had been afflected by the bug since Feb 28th and no fix was available until last night. It was the first time that I had fallen victim of a global bug (unless I count the influenza virus of course) but it felt weird and helpless. I was amazed at the reactivity of the net.

Global news networks were slow on the take while blogs – particularly specialised ones – had not only reported the bug but had also begun  various discussions such as the utility of having a gamebox that is constantly connected. The online lore has it that previously in the days of MS-DOS everyone with a bit of knowhow could tackle bugs in their own way on their PC. Nowadays the complete experience provided by gaming machines comes with the obligation to depend on those tecchies in Japan if something happens.

Thankfully, the workers at SONY Japan have announced that the bug has been fixed.

Google Nexus has gone through its teething process on the market. Reviews have not been so good for the phone that has been dubbed the G-Phone. The complaints range from the relatively superficial – why doesn’t G-Phone retail in shops? – to the serious – who is the customer’s reference? The latter complaint is the result of Google not being the direct manufacturer of the phone (HTC is) and also of the fact that the distribution of the phone also introduces a network provider intermediary (Verizon in the US). So who do you call if you have a query? Apparently customers have been faced with the much hated ping ponging of responsibilities – never a winner with the frustrated emptor.

What has made the news is the bad news about customer service and packaging. Is the g-phone doomed to relative failure (compared to the success of the iPhone) simply for the bad choices of the Google marketing team? No big complaints have been registered in the reviewing media with regard to the actual software and hardware (there are early issues such as reception in some US areas – but to be fair iPhone had these too). Will we have to wait a little longer before getting the final verdict in the iPhone vs gPhone wars?
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Finally, for those who have been asking, my review of the Sony Ebook reader will have to wait a little longer as the delivery service takes its time with the package from Germany. It should be here any day soon though.