The “Break it Down” Blog
Tag Archive | "shenanigans"
EA Busted for Misleading Ads
While most hardcore gamers probably recognize that Wii games’ graphics are not as high quality as the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. However, the average consumer is probably not aware of that. So, when EA decided to use Xbox 360 graphics in their ads for Wii versions of their games Advertising Standards Authority caught them [...]
Continue reading...Microsoft Will Never Understand Usability – Vista Device Driver Security Example
Monday, November 17, 2008
We took our first look at Microsoft’s inbility to create something genuinely useful and a minature review of Vista when we evaluated Windows Vista Backup at the beginning of the year. The premise of that article being that by evaluating a single program, and all the usability/functionality flaws it had, you got an impression of [...]
Continue reading...Want That Game Early? Try 7-11
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
So, you want to get your hands on the next big name title early? Last week maybe it was Gears of War 2 or now it is World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King? You might want to try your local 7-11. Yes, the place with the Slurpees. Most 7-11s now carry a few [...]
Continue reading...Selling Mislabelled Sushi is Common – Bait and Switch
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Kevin Mahaffey sent in a 1-off but damn interesting find by New York high school students Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss: 25% of sushi you buy is not what you ordered (it’s usually something cheaper). The NYT covered the story in which the girls got 60 different samples of sushi from around New York, then using [...]
Continue reading...D-Link DIR-655 Updated Firmware Hijacks Your DNS
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
D-Link, in an attempt to ship a new security service in their routers (Secure Spot) has inadvertently included behavior in their v1.21 firmware update for the D-Link DIR-655 that more or less hijacks your DNS requests and redirects you to a software subscription page (for the Secure Spot service). The idea behind Secure Spot is to [...]
Continue reading...BBC’s Secret “TV Detector” Vans Not So Secret… Sorta
Monday, November 3, 2008
Did you know you have to pay a licensing fee when you buy a TV in the UK and that money is used to subsidize the cost of running the BBC? Yea… I didn’t either. Well your gut reaction might be “who cares, how can they possibly police that?” As fate would have it, Chris Hunkele [...]
Continue reading...Xbox Live Experience Will Drive 1100% Marked-Up Xbox HDD Sales
Saturday, November 1, 2008
With the giant Fall update of the Xbox Live Dashboard (nicknamed ‘Xbox Live Experience‘ at this point) looming, some folks with early access are starting to look at the new features coming in that update. To recap the hotness that is the “Xbox Live Experience” update, it’s more or less every major feature you’ve ever wanted [...]
Continue reading...Guitar Hero: World Tour Compatible with Rock Band Instruments
Monday, October 27, 2008
… but that won’t stop Activision (Guitar Hero publishers) from acting like children. Apparently the wording on the Rock Band games is essentially “compatible with most music game controllers”, while Activisions position is “Activision expressly prohibits the use of non-Guitar Hero controllers”… but they are still compatible. So these franchises agreed to make their devices compatible [...]
Continue reading...$700 Billion Bailout Is Not For Loans, It’s to Encourage Bank Mergers
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Remember that $700 billion bail-out that was forced down Congress’s throat with fear of military law being declared in the US if it wasn’t signed? Remember how we said that everything taking place during that time (and now) maps perfectly to the market crash of the 1930s? And how we mentioned that the long-term fallout from [...]
Continue reading...Facebook: “Android sucks, it doesn’t matter”
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
TechCrunch reports that the lack of an Android Facebook app in the Android Market Place is not a mistake and you probably don’t want to hold your breath waiting. Apparently the bad blood between Google and Facebook started when Facebook chose Microsoft as it’s advertising partner; in and of itself, not that bad of a move. [...]
Continue reading...Technicolor Employee Responsible for Gears of War 2 and Fable 2 Leaks
Monday, October 20, 2008
As it turns out one of the ways that games get leaked early to the intertron like Gears of War 2, Fable 2 and that cursed early release of Fallout 3 to BitTorrent networks is by having employees on the inside of the disk-pressing process stealing them. NEWS FLASH: Local blogger attempts to become BFFs with [...]
Continue reading...TSA Employee Caught Selling $200k of Stolen Items on eBay
Monday, October 20, 2008
It was reported that a Newark Airport TSA agent, Pythias Brown, was caught selling $200,000 worth of stolen personal items from people’s luggage on eBay (seller profile). These weren’t confiscated items that Brown was seller on eBay, these were items like digital cameras, laptops, GPS devices and more that he stole out of bags behind [...]
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Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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