Dota 2 Give Away!

Want the chance to get a free copy of Dota 2? All you have to do is comment and leave your Steam ID and you could be in the chance to win your very own copy!

Entry into this competition is completely free and winners will be picked completely randomly, there are 5 copies of Dota 2 to give away. Good luck!

Twitter Announces Security Breach

Social media giant twitter this week has announced that there has been a security breach on their serves which could affect 250, 000 users.

In an official blog they mentioned that they noticed 'unusual access patterns' which lead to them identifying the attempts made at user information.

They said: “We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords – for approximately 250,000 users.”

This is very similar to recent attacks on the New York Times and is just one incident in a string of security breaches by very sophisticated hackers. Twitter users that have been affected have been sent emails urging them to change their passwords and it is strongly recommended that you change your password.

Alleged Xbox 720 Document Leaked

Fan made concept.

A document passing itself off as an internal Microsoft presentation about the future of Xbox has surfaced, and is stirring internet chatter with its possible hints at the future of the console. Despite turning up online over a month ago and potentially dating back to 2010, a few things mentioned that have since come to fruition -- like SmartGlass -- are earning it more attention. The proposed developments include cloud-based entertainment, native 3D, augmented reality "Fortaleza Glasses," scalable hardware -- all by 2015.

If that's too long to wait, however, the time line also indicates we'd be seeing the next generation hardware in 2013 for $299 (more precise and four-player ready Kinect 2included). The Xbox 720 package described includes such pie-in-the-sky bullet points as Blu-ray and whole-home DVR features, all from a low-power always-on box built on a "Yukon" ARM hardware platform.

Of course, even if this is legit and not just some business student's exercise, all the talk of value propositions, OEM licensing and developer profitability are proposals that could have changed. Need more reasons to be skeptical? Digital Foundry points out the extremely optimistic wattages listed and previous appearances of the illustrations included. Ponder over the full 56-page document for yourself -- taking into account the bored minds on the internet that are capable of cranking out this kind of stuff, like that infamous Nintendo Revolution video -- after the break.

Well Known Site Banned From UK Internet Providers

Almost All Internet providers were given a High court order earlier in this year that required them to block all access to the popular file sharing website Thepiratebay.se which is well known for holding huge amounts of torrents containing both original content and copyright restricted material.

Some of the providers given this order were;

• Sky
• O2
• Be Broadband
• BT
• Virgin Media
• TalkTalk
• Orange
• T-Mobile

A statement on Sky’s support page reads:

“We have invested billions of pounds in high-quality entertainment for our customers because we know how much our customers value it. It’s therefore important that companies like ours do what they can, alongside the Government and the rest of the media and technology industries, to help protect their copyright. Such protection makes sure that consumers continue to benefit from TV programmes, movies and music both now and in the future. This means taking effective action against on line piracy and copyright infringement.

So far, Sky has received court orders to block Newzbin, which it did in December 2011 and The Pirate Bay, which it did on the 30th of May.

Content owners are continuing to turn to the courts to shut-down torrent sites that show any signs of copyright infringement, And after the other popular torrent site Mininova were forced to take down all copyright content or take a huge fine it seems that content owners have finally got the better of thepiratebay restricting access from the UK.

Habbo Hotel Prepares To Allow Chat Again

The famous web based game Habbo Hotel.

Habbo Hotel the on-line game/networking site prepares  to allow its members to chat again as it continues to work to help protect members from paedophiles.


All Chat on Habbo was stopped following media stating that paedophiles used the website to groom youngsters. The owner of Habbo Sulake says they are preparing for the "Great Unmute" which will allow users to spark conversations and to pass positive feedback on the game.


Sulake boss Paul Lafontaine said media coverage was "distracting" it from securing the site.

Habbo is a gaming/social networking site in which the player has there own avatar and room in which they can decorate to their taste.

In a statement, Mr Lafontaine said the muting of chat on the site had led many of its millions of users to stage silent vigils in Habbo Hotel rooms to express their support.

The Great Unmute would let these loyal users tell Sulake which direction they wanted to see the site take and help shape the forthcoming protection systems, he said.

He added that the Channel Four investigation that led to Habbo falling silent had served as a "wake-up call" for Sulake and the industry as a whole.

"We fully intend to actively participate in finding a regulatory solution that will protect our users and ensure the long-term reputation and future of the social gaming community," he said.

Towards the end of the statement, Mr Lafontaine criticised journalists who were contacting Habbo users offering cash for stories about their poor experiences on the site.

"Petty attempts to generate more bad news are distracting us from the job at hand," he said.

Steve Jobs Memorabilia Sold At Auction

The Apple 1 Computer sold as a motherboard.

There were only around 200 Apple 1's ever made and were priced at $666.66 (£426) and were sold as hand built fully assembled circuit boards made by Apples co-founder Steve Wozniak, who later said that he chose that price "because it was just an easier way to type".

There are very few Apple 1's believed to still be in existence and the one that was sold at auction was one of the very few left that still worked and was sold for a whopping $374,500(£240,929) which was more then double the estimated sale price.

Sotheby's said there was a battle between two parties for the item which also included the original manuals. A set of bids was executed by the auctioneer on behalf of an absentee collector, but a telephone bidder proved more persistent and eventually clinched the sale.

A memo written by Steve Jobs when he was working at Atari sold for $27,500 at the same event in New York which was almost double the estimated $15,000 sale price.

The Atari memo was written in 1974 and consists of 4 hand written pages of a the late Steve Jobs' thoughts on how to improve the company's arcade football game World Cup. Steve Jobs was 19 at the time and in the memo gave drawings and diagrams of how the game could have been improved to make it more fun to play.

The notes are stamped with Mr Jobs' Los Altos home address and a Buddhist mantra - "gate gate paragate parasangate bodhi svahdl".

It translates as: "Going, going, going on beyond, always going on beyond, always

becoming Buddha."

Sotheby's said there had been "at least three bidders" for the item.

The high sums are the latest confirmation of demand for memorabilia connected to Steve Jobs, who died last October.

Apple's founding papers, featuring Mr Jobs' signature, sold at auction in December for close to $1.6m.

Apple's New iOS 6 Jailbroken Within 24 Hours

iOS booth at the WWDC.

That's right everyone, Apple announced their new iOS this week at WWDC. It was supposed to hold new features like Apples new 3D mapping functionalities.


However after no more then 24 hours, a member of the iPhone dev blog has already released a jailbreak for the brand new IOS6. MuscleNerd, part of the iPhone Dev Blog team, showed off the jailbreak on his Twitter, stating, "Here's ioreg of my tethered-JB ipt4g 6.0: http://is.gd/1qOwvW ..MANY things including Cydia are broken, don't expect beta JB for a while!"


To be fair I think that Ashe managed to crack the new iOS in under 24 hours that he should be given some lee way on the fact that it doesn't include cydia. But good news for iPhone 3GS owners as this jailbreak gives hope to re introduce the gps functionality of their phones as baseband 06.15 removed the ability for 3GS users to use their GPS, so the GPS fix of downgrading from BB 06.15 will no longer be necessary.

Next Version Of The 3DS Announced

The extremely popular 3DS.

Despite being just over a year old, Nintendo has announced that they are working on a successor for the 3DS.

Although offering little other than a tantalising glimpse into the futuristic plans of the gaming giant, Nintendo’s famed Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed the Japanese tech giant is already putting into motion ideas to follow on from its 3DS handheld.

"What we're thinking about right now is probably going to be for a future generation of handheld," Miyamoto said when questioned on recent rumours of an upcoming Nintendo 3DS XL release with a second analogue Circle Pad inbuilt

Although the console was originally swamped with health risks and motion sickness problems Miyamoto seems to have confidence that the competition of handheld consoles has just started with the statement: "I really feel like I'm satisfied with the 3DS hardware as it is. I feel like it's the best for this generation."

Apple Launches Spy Planes

In May Apple dropped Google for their mapping service, they handed the reigns over to Swedish 3D mapping service called C3 which Apple obtained in 2011.

The rumoured design of the plane.

Previously, Apple had bought mapping software companies Placebase and Poly9, prompting rumours of a new map application to rival products by Google, Microsoft and Nokia.

To kick off Apples venture into the mapping business Apple has deployed a fleet of airplanes equipped with military-grade cameras to help it create ultra-detailed 3D maps for iOS devices.The cameras are reportedly using technology developed “from declassified missile targeting methods”, and are capable of displaying objects as small as four inches and mapping vertical walls.

The move by Apple was made after Google announced that they were planning to create 3d maps of large metropolitan citiesand make them available on Android devices. To combat Googles move C3 describes its technology as a combination of automated software and advanced algorithms, which enables it to “rapidly assemble extremely precise 3D models, and seamlessly integrate them with traditional 2D maps, satellite images, street-level photography and user-generated images”. According to the Daily Mail, one C3 executive described it as “Google on steroids.

The technology has received quite a large amount of criticism from citizens to privacy campaigners to the tabloids. The daily mail described it as 'being able to record you sunbathing' however they have already been released in over 20 cities including London however they have raised privacy concerns.

Nick Pickles, director of the Big Brother Watch privacy campaign group, told the Sunday Times the new Apple technology was more invasive than Street View because it would "take us over the garden fence.

Virgin Media Launches Free WiFi On The London Underground

On June 7th Virgin Media has started to install free WiFi hotspots in over 80 of London's underground stations ready for London 2012 Olympics with Warren Street and Kings Cross being the first on the list.

This scheme should be finished by the end of the year seeing over 120 stations fitted with the option of accessing the world wide web for free.

Sign up is fairly simple and only requires an email address, the good news is that by the end of the weekend the Victoria line should be up and running giving its riders access to the Internet.

Latest TFL updates, daily TimeOut recommendations, exclusive Spotify playlists and trailers from MyMovies.net are all part of the service and will remain free for the foreseeable future

However by the end of the summer Virgin media will be changing to a 'pay as you go' sim on a top-up basis. Virgin Media and other mobile networks will probably be holding 'packages' very similar to a phone contract.

Although the Internet not being available in the tunnels as so to restrict access to the stations it is still a huge step forward for the worlds oldest underground train lines and should deem very helpful for the Olympics and those who will be travelling all the time on the tubes and those stuck in the massive crowds on July the 27th when the Olympics start.

Mayor – and regular ‘Have I Got News For You’ host – Boris Johnson describes the Internet update to the world’s oldest underground train network as ‘critical’ and a ‘tremendous benefit’.

For a full list of stations adapting the new Wi-Fi system click here

New iPhone 5 Specs Leaked

A prototype design of the iPhone5.

New info on the iPhone 5 has been recently leaked around the Internet. A video on YouTube shows some of the features of the upcoming iPhone design. From the video you can see that the iPhone appears to be  longer than the previous generations of iPhone.

ETradeSupply’s video appears to confirm rumours that the upcoming Apple handset will sport a uni-body aluminium crust, as well as a 4-inch screen

That's right guys, that means that the new iPhone should have a whole 4 inches of armoured glass, rumours are that apple is trying to compensate for their android competitors such as the new Samsung galaxy S3 which has a massive 4.8 inch screen. From this video you can also see that the headphone socket has been moved from the top of the phone to the bottom, much like the iPods.

Something scary is that in the video it appears that the dock connector is much smaller then the existing models, which may mean that we will have to ditch our existing accessories for the new iPhone, or it could mean that this is a very early prototype and so the measurements are not quite accurate

OR

It could mean that this video is completely fake and was used to increase the publishers popularity, but what's the fun in that? Watch the video and see for yourself.

Video link here

Other speculating rumours are:

As expected we’ve seen a strong batch of iPhone 5 rumours circulate around the web, although Apple is keeping hush about everything until the blower’s official launch date.

The next generation Apple iPhone is expected to land in late 2012, rumours suggest.

Macotakar, the Japanese Apple blog, has received word from a reliable batch of sources (or so we’re told) who claim that the Californian company will be releasing its iPhone 4S follow-up in either September or October this year.

If true, it would coincide with last year’s launch of the iPhone 4S.

Following the launch of the new iPad back in March, rumour has it the iPhone 5 could be called the ‘new iPhone’, keeping it in line with its next generation tablet.

In terms of specs, we could possibly be seeing a gorgeous 4-inch screen on the rumoured device, along with a metal back.

“The new iPhone will indeed be longer and thinner than the iPhone 4 and 4S,” iLounge editor Jeremy Horwitz said.

“Approximate measurements are 125mm by 58.5mm by 7.4mm—a 10mm jump in height, nearly 2mm reduction in thickness, and virtually identical width.”

New Iriver Blank - Sound Donut Review

O-shaped speakers are apparently in fashion these days. Iriver is about to release its Sound Donut over in the U.S.

The sleek sexy looking Iriver speaker 'donut'.

The speaker comes in two colours, a black or chocolate colour and a mostly cream colour like vanilla

Iriver says the Sound Donut offers premium sound quality and vivid 3D sound. I hope it does because the preliminary list price is a tad expensive at $129.99. But we'll see what the street price is when it hits the U.S. market.