Tag: idiocy
Is Gillette really marketing a gamer's razor?
If you spend your spare time perusing Gillette’s website, as I’m sure you do, you might notice that the company seems to be marketing a new razor specifically for gamers. The whole idea confuses me greatly.
Firstly, are they trying to say that gamers don’t shave much? If so, they’re not going to have much need of a razor. If that’s not the case, then I can only assume it’s all some massive misguided marketing idea. Let’s hope it’s not.
If you’re a gamer, would you buy a “Gamer’s razor”? Personally, I’ve always been more of an electric shaver kind of guy. Let us know your shaving preferences in the comments.
Gillette Fusion Gamer (via @the_b)
Cause of mystery Zune shutdown revealed
If you’re a Zune 30 owner – okay, chances are you’re not, but it’s interesting anyway – then you might have noticed that your Zune took a day’s holiday on 31st December. Microsoft has now issued an official response to the problem.
Turns out that the people who thought it might be something to do with the leap year were correct. The internal clock driver couldn’t work out the fact that there were 366 days in this year. The solution? Wait. Come midnight, US west coast time, all the Zune 30s started working perfectly again.
I can confirm that mine’s certainly back to normal. If you’re still having trouble, then try letting the device run out its battery, then charging it again and turning it on. It should then be fine. If not, drop us a line in the comments below.
30gb zune issues – official update (via comments on our original post)
Related posts: Zunes worldwide hit by mystery crash | New Zunephone Rumours
Mobile Internet Explorer 6 not available as an upgrade
The problem with massive companies like Microsoft is that while some bits of the company can be doing great, forward-thinking stuff, other bits of the company can spectacularly drop the ball.
That’s what’s happened at Microsoft over the weekend. On Friday, Microsoft announced sweeping changes to Windows Live. Today we find out that Mobile IE6 won’t be available as a download – you have to upgrade your handset to get it.
It’s a ridiculous, idiotic move from Microsoft that’s only going to annoy and frustrate its users, who’ll turn to piracy to get the software they want on their handset. Microsoft says, in explanation:
Belgium outlaws game rentals
It’s amazing how far countries are prepared to bend over backwards to prop up the ailing entertainment industry business model which simply doesn’t work any more. Here’s the latest – Belgium has outlawed video game rentals, because they were making too much of a dent in games sales.
From December 1, no Belgians will be able to rent any video games. Unless they live near the border, I suppose, and the border has a videogame rental store on it. The Belgian Entertainment Association has won a big victory against its customers here, which is a shame – it won’t make people buy more games – it’ll just send them straight to the Pirate Bay.
Belgian Entertainment Association (via Kotaku)
Related posts: Microsoft ordered to ‘cease and desist’ over Belgian newspaper content | Sony adds online movies and TV rental to PlayStation 3
NOISE GATE: Lala launches idiotic "web song" concept
After the joy (and surprising popularity) of Spotify the other day, my palm is firmly back on my face thanks to Lala and their launch of “web songs” – cut price music that’s locked up tighter than a… actually I probably shouldn’t pursue that simile any further.
Lala is offering music for 10 cents a track. “Great!”, you cry. But wait a sec. The only way they’ve got the record labels to agree is to limit you to only listening to that song in your browser. You’re essentially paying 10 cents for something that you can get for free on Spotify, Last.FM, MySpace, or even YouTube, for god’s sake. As the unnamed head of a digital music service once said, “you want the world’s best on-demand music service? Go to YouTube and close your eyes…”
Spore fans threatened with game ban over DRM discussion
The company vs consumer battle between EA and its customers is really starting to kick off. The debate centres on the DRM slathered all over Spore – the new game from Will Wright, creator of The Sims. The digital rights management system that EA built into the game has led fans to plaster Amazon with bad reviews, and even create protest species within the game…
SlotMusic – albums on SD cards from SanDisk
Here’s the latest novelty music format to come from a technology company desperate to get a piece of Apple pie. Albums on MicroSD cards, from SanDisk. SanDisk, who have second place in the MP3 player market with 11% market share, reckon that the way to get consumers to re-engage with buying music is to provide it to them in a mostly useless format…
UPDATED: iTunes 8 causing crashes for Vista users
If you’re a Vista user and you haven’t updated to iTunes 8 yet, it might be worth holding off a little longer. There are isolated reports across the internet that it’s causing blue screens of death when you plug an iPod or an iPhone into your PC. Downgrading to iTunes 7.7 seems to solve the problems, but not without other issues…
