Monthly Archives: June 2013

Apple Offers iTunes Credits to Parents after Litigation

Apple, application, Legal, ,

Apple LogoThere are so many apps out there that are intended to attract children. It is easy to see why parents are hesitant to let their children go ahead and buy whatever apps they like – especially if those apps allow for in-game purchases (using real money). What if your child does it without your permission?

A class-action lawsuit was filed in 2011 against Apple by 5 parents. The parents were upset because their children were able to purchase and download apps from Apple’s online store on the parent’s accounts without the parent’s knowledge or permission.

Earlier this year, Apple agreed to a settlement of this class-action lawsuit. It will end up costing Apple around $100 million. Apple has agreed to provide around 23 million affected customers with a $5.00 iTunes store credit.

Have your kids been downloading things from Apple that you didn’t give them permission to? You might want to read over the details of the settlement to see if you are eligible.

The settlement is specifically about apps or in-app purchases of game currency that were purchased by a minor without the parent’s knowledge or permission in the 45 days prior to May 2, 2013. If you qualify, you must file an online claim by January 13, 2014.

The settlement is only including qualified apps This means all apps from the App Store in the games category with an age rating of 4+, 9+, or 12+ that offer in-app purchases of consumable game currency.

Google Music

google, MP3, Music, paywall, service, , , , ,

Once a pon a time a number of years ago I went through a period of several years where I spent a fair amount of money on compact discs. Those days are long gone and have been for some time.

It’s probably just my age showing more than anything, but in recent years I lost interest in finding new music. I stopped listening to the radio the better part of ten years ago. When I did listen to music, it was to the old stuff.

To my surprise, I’ve become more interested in listening again. There’s a genre of music I paid scant attention to in the past called “electronic” that has caught my ear in the past couple of months. Mind you, not enough to start shelling out money for CD’s or even MP3’s, but these days that isn’t necessary. The “electronic” category of music is not for everyone. It is created with synthesizers and some of the sounds are very aggressive; some people would consider them noise. To my surprise, I’m really enjoying listening to this stuff — not enough to buy the music outright, but enough to pay to have access.

Google Music is currently offering a 30 day free trial. The price after the free trial is $7.99 per month if you lock it in by subscribing before the June 30 expiration date. The regular subscription price is $10 dollars per month.

I subscribed to the free offer, and so far I like it. I searched for the names of some of the electronic artists such as Hardwell and Armin van Buuren. I was easily able to figure out how to start the “radio” feature, which is initiated from a particular song. Once tracks started playing, I gave many of them a “thumbs up” if I really liked them and a few tracks a “thumbs down” if I didn’t like them. Google Music seems to do a great job of figuring out what I like over time.

Google Music claims to offer access to millions of tracks. A few experimental searches seems to indicate that they do offer a broad selection of both new and back catalog tracks.

You can download any track to your device by adding it to your library. I didn’t read the terms of service, but I’m sure once you cancel any downloaded music will go away once you stop paying the rent.

Renting access to music is actually a great idea if you want to casually listen, but don’t want to spend a fortune doing it.

Sony Will Fix Your Brick

Gaming, Sony, ,

bigstock-single-red-brick-isolated-on-w-42513223Sony recently released an update to the PlayStation 3 that didn’t work as intended. The software update was version 4.45. Some gamers quickly discovered that it bricked their console.

They reported the problem on the PlayStation Community Forums. Several people said that after they updated to 4.45, their PlayStation 3 wouldn’t go to the screen that would let them play. It was stuck.

They also found that they could not shut down the PlayStation 3 by pressing the power button. Unplugging the console didn’t solve the problem either. It was still stuck after being plugged back in.

If this happened to your PlayStation 3, fear not. Sony is aware of the problem. They are working on fixing your brick. They posted the following information about it on the PlayStation Community Forums:

We have identified the issue related to the PlayStation 3 software update (version 4.45) that impacted a small number of PS3 systems earlier this week. A new PS3 system software update is planned to be released on June 27 that resolves the issue. Thank you for your patience and understanding and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Image: stock photo single red brick isolated on white background by BigStock.

Wimbledon comes to YouTube

verizon, YouTube,

It is the biggest time of the year for tennis fans, as the annual Wimbledon tournament has rolled around once again. This year the showcase of the sport can be watched, not only if pay the money and fly to England, not only on your TV, but also right on you computer — or a set top box with the right app.

Google, through its YouTube subsidiary, has announced that users will be able to “catch the key moments of the tennis, interviews, behind the scenes and press conferences throughout the Wimbledon fortnight. You can also relive all the glory days of Wimbledon’s golden moments, such as one of the greatest matches ever played”.

youtube wimbledon

The action kicks off this Monday, June 24th, and will be free for customers. To pull this of, the video service partnered with Rolex to sponsor the coverage. Catch the action at http://www.youtube.com/user/Wimbledon.

Facebook Admits 6 Million Users Affected by Bug

Facebook, Privacy,

FacebookFacebook made an announcement on the Facebook Security page that a bug has affected approximately 6 million Facebook users. This bug allowed user’s email and/or phone number to be accessed by people who “either had some contact information about that person or some connection to them”. From the Facebook post:

We’ve concluded that approximately 6 million Facebook users had email addresses or telephone numbers shared. There were other email addresses or telephone numbers included in the downloads, but they were not connected to any Facebook users or even names of individuals. For almost all of the email addresses or telephone numbers impacted, each individual email address or telephone number was only included in a download once or twice. This means, in almost all cases, an email address or telephone number was only exposed to one person. Additionally, no other types of personal information or financial information were included and only people on Facebook – not developers or advertisers – have access to the DYI tool.

The “DYI” tool is the “Download Your Information” tool. The short answer about what happened is that people were using it to download an archive of their own Facebook account. When they did this, “they may have been provided with additional email address or telephone numbers for their contacts or people with whom they have some connection”.

Facebook says it confirmed the bug, then immediately disabled the DYI tool. They turned it back on after fixing the bug. According to Reuters, the data leaks from this bug began in 2012 and were a “year long data breach”.

First Trailer for Jobs – The Story of Steve Jobs and Apple

Apple, Film, , , ,

The first trailer for the anticipated Steve Jobs movie came out today. What they call the “Original Visionary”, the trailer shows Apple from inception to death.

Simply titled “Jobs”, this is a quick two minute look at Apple’s history. Although some people have mentioned it is not entirely correct on the facts. Even Steve Wozniak said in an interview it was “awful and atrocious”. He noted that was not the way he worked with Steve at the beginning.

A better potrayal of Steve Jobs is in the TNT movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley”, which was released 14 years ago yesterday.

Jobs is getting a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes. Jobs stars Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad, with Matthew Modine as John Sculley. Jobs hits theaters August 16th.

Sonic fans rejoice — Sega drops the price

Android, Gaming, mobile

Mobile game fans have reason to be happy today, as nostalgic game maker Sega has good news for all of its Sonic the Hedgehog fans. The game has been around a number of years, having begun life on the console market. Now it has found a new home as a mobile game and new generations have discovered it, while Sega continue to update and add new episodes.

Now the game maker has announced a sale on all version, including the latest ones, through the Google Play store. Prices have been dropped to $0.99 for a limited time.

sonic

Games Included:

No word on exactly how long this deal will last, but if you are a fan of the game, or would like to try it out for the first time, then now is the time to strike.