Xbox 360's Virtua Fighter 5 to feature online play

Sega of America and Sega Europe have announced that the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Virtua Fighter 5 will indeed allow you to transfer your violent impulses to a complete stranger on the internet. Scheduled for a release in Autumn 2007, the game will feature an online two-player versus mode via Xbox Live, leader boards and several other enhancements over February's PlayStation 3 edition. That's what we jokingly refer to as a "technical knockout."
If you don't usually extract satisfaction from pugilistic polygons, you might be wondering why Virtua Fighter 5 is held in such high regard. Well, the reason is... uh, there are lot of reasons! Very good ones, in fact. "For a lot of very good reasons, Virtua Fighter 5 is regarded as the deepest and most revered fighting game available on next generation consoles", says Gary Knight, the European marketing director for Sega Europe. "Bringing Virtua Fighter 5 to the Xbox 360 will not only capture an entirely new audience, but will allow gamers to show their Virtua Fighter skills online against friends and foes."
Your Virtua Fighters: let me show you them.

Microsoft expands Xbox 360 warranty for red ring sufferers

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Microsoft stands up and takes some responsibility for what appears to be an epidemic amongst Xbox 360 owners: the dreaded Red Ring of Death! Announced today in both press release and open letter formats, Microsoft has pledged to extend the warranties to three years from date of purchase for those who suffer from RROD, and will reimburse those who already paid to have it fixed.

Seeing as how the 360 hasn't even been out for two years, that means everyone is covered. This is after they already extended the warranty from a puny 90 days to the more reasonable one year warranty that consoles are still covered under, unless they specifically suffer from the Red Ring of Death (marked by three blinking red lights).

Xbox exec Peter Moore also published an open letter to the "Xbox Community" addressing hardware failure and promising "policy changes intended to keep you in the game, worry-free." Whether or not these policy changes include actually fixing the underlying hardware issue or just improving the support after the fact is unclear, but Moore finishes saying, "If we have let any of you down in the experience you have had with your Xbox 360, we sincerely apologize. We are taking responsibility and are making these changes to ensure that every Xbox 360 owner continues to have a great experience." Classy show, Microsoft. Real classy. Let's hope this move is coupled with hardware revisions to keep your customers -- and shareholders -- happy.

'Gumtree for US' launched by eBay

 

Internet auction site eBay has launched a classified advertising website in the US - similar to its Gumtree site which has proved immensely popular in the UK.

Gumtree has proved a popular community website

Kijiji - which means "village" in Swahili - already operates in countries including Canada, China and France.

Covering 220 cities in 50 states, it is aiming to take on US listings sites such as Craigslist.

Categories for listing free adverts range from pet adoption and dating to garage sales and lost and found

EBay said that it would not be heavily advertising the site, and would instead try to drive traffic through keyword searches on engines such as Yahoo and Google.

EBay has been operating Kijiji outside the US since 2005. In the same year it bought Gumtree, which has sites for users in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore and Hong Kong as well as the UK.

EBay also owns 25% of San Francisco-based Craigslist - which gets more than 7 billion page views per month.

Ten Things You Didn't Know About the iPhone

 

It’s smaller, lighter, better-looking—and slow. What else would you like to know?

Even before it went on sale, Apple’s first foray into mobile phones was dissected, diagrammed, and deified. Tech-loving Apple fans have called it the “Jesus phone,” blogs have been launched specifically to cover it, and any bit of information about its looks, feel, and functionality has been breathlessly spread around the internet.

But Apple’s wonder gadget still has its share of secrets and surprises. Here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about the iPhone—and a few things Apple probably doesn’t want you to know.

It’s Lighter Than You Expect

Forget using the iPhone as a paperweight. Though a bit wide, the 5-by-3-inch internet-ready iPod camera phone weighs just under five ounces, about the same as the average cell phone. And the full screen up front and the lack of buttons make it look smaller than it otherwise would.

It’s Already Had a Face-lift

The prototype iPhone had a plastic screen similar most of its cell competitors. Earlier this month, Apple announced a last-minute shift to glass. This was probably the company’s way of avoiding the Nano fiasco of 2005, when customers sued Apple over that iPod model’s highly scratchable screen.

It Isn’t on the Fastest Network

The iPhone is limited to AT&T’s EDGE system, which is a second generation cell-phone network. The fastest system is 3G, or third generation. It isn’t clear why Apple chose the slower system, but probably the iPhone’s sophisticated equipment was easier to implement on the older network. Jobs has promised that future iPhones will use 3G.

Apple Has a Patent on Your Fingers

LG’s new Prada Phone, the iPhone’s closest rival, also uses advanced touchscreen technology, but it doesn’t have Apple’s patented two-finger touching. The iPhone is the only device that allows you to stretch, shrink, and move items with your index finger and thumb.

The iPhone Is Only for Humans

According to experts, the Apple touchscreen recognizes only human skin. Curious cats, slobbery dogs, or even people using a stylus won’t be detected by the iPhone. Finicky users afraid of getting the glass screen dirty are out of luck.

You Can’t Get All the Flash You Want

The iPhone surfs the Web and plays iTunes videos, but its limited Flash animation capability means that the video on most websites, including the New York Times and Billboard, isn’t watchable. But at least YouTube changed its format last month to ensure compatibility with the iPhone.

Google Maps Won’t Find You If You’re Lost

Google Maps works beautifully on the iPhone, but you still need to enter a starting address—the phone’s not equipped with G.P.S., which could pinpoint your location automatically. The next generation of iPhones is expected to correct this mistake.

You Can Make It Your Own

For months, journalists, analysts, and evildoers were trying to figure out what would fill the blank menu square shown in early iPhone screen shots. Turns out, it’s up to you. Apple allows you to customize the menu with downloadable options that can be used to track stocks, check weather, or, likely in the future, give airport flight data.

Your Contacts May Be Stuck

Apple claims that the iPhone can import your current digital Rolodex from a computer, but it hasn’t mentioned whether the contacts in your iPhone can be transferred back to your machine—or to the next phone you purchase. Apple also hasn’t said if the SIM card, the little chip that retains cell-phone data, will be removable.

New iPhones Are Coming in a Year

The next generation of iPhones will be here sooner than you think. In January, Jobs himself said that a 3G, high-speed-network version of the iPhone would be coming in the near future. Knowing Apple, this probably means nine months.

Everything in the known universe about iPhone Magic

Online auction for security bugs

Many hi-tech criminals covet loopholes in Windows software

Security researchers who find holes in software can now sell their findings to the highest bidder.

An online auction house has been created to bring together those who find the loopholes with the companies that can do something about them.

It aims to close the gap between the small number of bugs investigated and the huge number thought to exist.

By rewarding researchers, the auction house aims to prevent flaws getting in to the hands of hi-tech criminals.

Hard cash

Many malicious and criminal hackers rely on loopholes in widely used software, usually Windows, to get access to the valuable information on users PCs.

There is known to be a ready market for these vulnerabilities on the digital underground and significant sums of money can be made by selling them.

In early 2006 anti-virus firm Kaspersky Labs revealed that Russian hackers had been selling the Windows WMF vulnerability for $4000 .

The loophole was offered for sale weeks before it was widely known about and long before Microsoft moved to close it.

Many criminal groups prefer to use vulnerabilities for their own ends to steal information or hijack computers rather than have any and every malicious hacker using them.

The independent auction house, called WabiSabiLabi, aims to staunch the flow of vulnerabilities to the underground by giving security researchers a legitimate marketplace for what they find.

"Our intention is that the marketplace facility on WSLabi will enable security researchers to get a fair price for their findings and ensure that they will no longer be forced to give them away for free or sell them to cyber-criminals," said Herman Zampariolo, head of the auction site.

He added that it could tempt many researchers to report findings they would otherwise keep quiet about. In this way it hopes to ensure many more vulnerabilities get reported.

"Very few of them are able or willing to report it to the 'right' people due to the fear of being exploited," said Mr Zampariolo.

Once a vulnerability is reported, WSLabi will confirm it is real and that it can be exploited. After this it will be placed on the auction site where it can be sold to the highest bidder or sold to just one firm.

WSLabi said it would ensure that all those who buy the vulnerabilities were legitimate.

The first vulnerabilities posted to WSLabi are selling for between 500  and 2000  euros.

Many other companies, such as iDefense and Tipping Point, run schemes that give cash rewards to security researchers who find serious loopholes in widely used software.

The Mozilla Foundation, which oversees development of the Firefox browser amongst other things, gives a t-shirt and a $500  bug bounty to anyone finding a critical vulnerability in its software.