Tech Kritik - Part 4

The cost of connectivity: why maintaining cell towers is one of America’s most dangerous jobs

cell 1020

When U.S. cell carriers tout their latest and greatest data networks, promising blazing-fast data speeds and increased coverage, they typically don’t mention the actual, physical labor involved in upgrading a cellular network. Blissfully abstract bandwidth numbers make it easy to forget where such high-speed connectivity comes from: namely, workers climbing towers hundreds of feet in the air and refitting them with new equipment.

A joint investigation by Frontline and ProPublica takes a look at those tower climbers – and why theirs is one of the most dangerous jobs in America. Between 2003 and 2011, 50 climbers were killed at cell sites around the country; many died in preventable falls, despite long-standing Occupational Safety and…

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May 22, 2012 0 comments Read More

PSN Tuesday: Sorcery, Doctor Who

Sorcery arrives on PSN today, allowing players to turn their PlayStation Moves into magic wands that only work within their televisions. It’s joined by Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, about a man who wields a sonic screwdriver, which is basically a magic wand powered by pseudoscience, and Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, about people who can toss magic projectiles sans wand.

Both PSOne Classics (Alone in the Dark New Nightmare) and PS2 classics (Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain) are available on PS3 today, along with a mess of old Sega games.

Meanwhile, on Vita, Table Top Tanks provides AR tank battles.

Joystiq PSN Tuesday: Sorcery, Doctor Who originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 May 2012 17:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Joystiq

May 22, 2012 0 comments Read More

Amazon Appstore now allows Android users to Test Drive apps

The Amazon Appstore was updated on Monday to include the company’s popular Test Drive feature on Android devices. The retail giant previously allowed users to test apps using desktop browsers prior to purchasing them, but now trials can be tested on devices. “Today we begin the beta rollout of Test Drive on Android phones,” Amazon said. “Now customers can instantly try apps on their phone — where a majority of app purchases take place — without downloading or installing anything.” The Test Drive feature is currently available on more than 5,000 apps and is compatible with select Android handsets, however Amazon promises the feature will be rolled out to “many more” devices in the coming months.

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BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech

May 22, 2012 0 comments Read More

The Cable Show: racing ahead to fight the future

Cable Show 2012

The 2012 Cable Show’s opening session felt the opening of a political campaign, and in some ways, that’s exactly what it was — full of talk about innovation, change, and meeting the people’s needs, the whole event is designed to rally the industry around the future of cable in a vastly changing media landscape. But beneath the acknowledgement of the rapid changes underway and cable’s need to evolve along with them was a strong defense of providers and networks continuing to do business exactly as they have done for the last four decades or so.

Michael Powell, former FCC chairman and current president and CEO of the host National Cable & Telecommunications Association, laid things out in his remarks that opened the show, saying that…

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May 22, 2012 0 comments Read More

Max Payne 3 ships 3 million units, PC launch pushed worldwide June 1

Max Payne 3 has shipped 3 million units since hitting shelves last week, publisher Take-Two Interactive revealed in its FY 2012 financial report.

Take-Two also announced Max Payne 3 is now scheduled with an international PC release date of June 1. Rockstar initially planned to launch Max Payne 3 for North American PCs on Tuesday, May 29, but has pushed that back to meet the standard European launch day of Friday that week. All’s fair in love and gritty, noir-style war.

Joystiq Max Payne 3 ships 3 million units, PC launch pushed worldwide June 1 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 May 2012 16:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 22, 2012 0 comments Read More

‘Anonymous’ hackers release 1.7GB of stolen DOJ data

Hackers associated with well known hacker-activist group “Anonymous Operations” have released a massive cache of data they say was obtained when they hacked a website belonging to the United States Department of Justice. “Today we are releasing 1.7GB of data that used to belong to the United States Bureau of Justice, until now,” Anonymous wrote in a statement on its website. The hackers claim the file contains emails as well as “the entire database dump” from the DOJ website.

“We do not stand for any government or parties, we stand for freedom of people, freedom of speech and freedom of information,” the hackers wrote. ”We are releasing data to spread information, to allow the people to be heard and to know the corruption in their government. We are releasing it to end the corruption that exists, and truly make those who are being oppressed free.”

The Justice Department confirmed the breach in a statement given to ZDNet. “The department is looking into the unauthorized access of a website server operated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that contained data from their public website,” a DOJ spokesperson said. “The Bureau of Justice Statistics website has remained operational throughout this time. The department’s main website, justice.gov, was not affected.”

The 1.7GB file containing data Anonymous says it obtained during the DOJ breach is available for download as a torrent.

BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech

May 22, 2012 0 comments Read More

The Verge Mobile Podcast, live at 4:30PM ET / 9:30PM BST!

Mobile Podcast Throwback

In the mobile industry, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The manufacturers who make phones and the consumers who buy them.

These are their stories.

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May 22, 2012 0 comments Read More

Dungeon Hearts was made in the back of Devolver Digital’s bus, out early 2013

Devolver Digital has teamed up with Cube Roots to publish the indie puzzle RPG Dungeon Hearts on PC, Mac and mobile in early 2013. Before any of you smart alecks ask: No, it’s not a mashup of Dungeon Defenders and Kingdom Hearts.

Dungeon Hearts features a “nostalgic” blend of classic RPG elements and match-three puzzle mechanics for a “wholly unique experience,” Devolver promises. It has 99 character levels and 16 unique environments, and players will use the matching game to perform powerful attacks in the game’s mystical world.

At GDC in February, Cube Roots founder Chris Pavia got on a bus with Devolver Digital’s Fork Parker as part of the Pitch Fork Parker Project. Pavia pitched Dungeon Hearts, left the bus, and by the end of the night his game was signed.

“The original pitch was for Dungeon Hearts to be a medieval brothel simulator,” Parker said. “I recommended we shift development toward the puzzle/RPG hybrid because medieval brothel simulators just don’t sell anymore.”

Gallery: Dungeon Hearts

Joystiq Dungeon Hearts was made in the back of Devolver Digital’s bus, out early 2013 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 May 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 22, 2012 0 comments Read More

Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S III preorders now live in the U.S.

Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S III smartphone won’t be available in the United States until this summer, but the unlocked international version of the phone is now available for preorder from Amazon in both blue and white. The phone costs $ 799.99 and it will not support Verizon Wireless or AT&T’s 4G LTE networks, instead relying on AT&T’s HSPA+ network or slower GSM networks for service. The device will feature Samsung’s quad-core Exynos processor, however, which will likely be replaced by a dual-core Snapdragon S4 chipset once the smartphone launches stateside. Unlocked Galaxy S III preorders will be delivered on June 1st according to Amazon, but most users will likely want to wait for subsidized local versions, which will most likely arrive on all four major carriers later this year.

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BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech

May 22, 2012 0 comments Read More

Nokia removes Skype from Marketplace on Lumia 610, blames poor user experience

Gallery Photo: Nokia Lumia 610 hands-on photos

Only weeks after saying Skype “worked well” on the Lumia 610, Nokia Hong Kong announced today that it has decided to remove Skype from the Windows Phone Marketplace on the device, because the app’s experience doesn’t live up to the company’s expectations. The likeliest culprit seems to be the 256MB of RAM inside the Lumia 610 — the Skype app listing says it requires 512MB of memory. Nokia Hong Kong released an official statement on the matter, as reported by welovewp.hk:

Nokia attaches great importance to the launch of products and services to bring the user experience, so even if the Skype Windows Phone version on the Nokia Lumia 610 does, but after intensive testing, we found the user experience does not guarantee to Nokia and Skype…

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May 22, 2012 0 comments Read More

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