Guardian Force UK

Oh dear today is not a happy day for PlayStation gamers worldwide.

Earlier today several news sources(that’s right I cited the Christian Science Monitor, what you gonna do about it?) began reporting that a very bad bug had crept into the old “fat” (as in, not slimline) PS3 consoles that caused some major problems when it came to connecting to the PlayStation Network, syncing trophies and generally playing games.

** UPDATE ** Apparently all is well now, Heavy Rain here I come…

Sony got around to doing an official announcement soon after and to be fair to them have been pushing Twitter and other updates out to try and keep people happy.

So what are the facts?

• Firstly this problem only effects the old fat black PS3’s and most reports have focused on the original launch ones being more of a problem.
• Yes that’s all of GF:UK!
• Upon trying to sign in to the PSN you will receive the error “An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
• Launching any game with trophy support will result in the error “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.” and even worse may remove any trophies you had earned for this game.
• The clock will reset to Jan 1, 2000
• If you try to change the clock you will get, “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
• You won’t be able to playback rental content from the PSN Store.

Basically if you have a fat black PS3, don’t turn it on for the next 24 hours.

OK so there are definitely some serious issues here with a majority of people getting this error not being able to play games at all. Especially annoying considering that Heavy Rain has just come out and Final Fantasy XIII is out in 9 days!

Negative stuff aside this is actually no where enar as bad as some people are making out. I’m no console fanboy and no matter what this is a major fuck up for Sony however comparing it to Red Ring of Death is retarded. Firstly this is expected to be a temporary issue, secondly it is unlikely to reoccur since the fault has now been identified and thirdly it is not writing the hardware off, look at the error the complete worst case is you loose a few trophies. No doubt it’s annoying but it’s hardly having to post your console back to the factory and wait a week for a new one with no fucking data on it at all.

Sony posted around 3 hours ago that they will have the issue sorted within 24 hours so take a deep breath, go to the gym, put on your PC or 360 and wait until tomorrow before getting too excited.

Oh and in case you are upset here’s the seemingly undying Hitler Internet meme done up for Sony’s latest fiasco!

As part of my job I tend to keep up on what Microsoft, Google and the other big Internet companies announce at TED. I never expected however for Microsoft to unveil something this impressive. Check out this video that demo’s the new functionality of their advanced augmented-reality maps. It’s extremely epic.

If you weren’t impressed by that you should probably stop reading now. (more…)

It’s not going to be completely negative I promise.

OK we are PC gamers but we’re not Windows fanboys, I like Apple in general and we all have iPones, iPods etc.

That being said I always feel Apple should be going that extra mile to innovate and push boundaries, they have done it before and when they go around calling themselves “innovation specialists” and “industry leaders” I am going to expect special things from them but I can’t help feeling like the guy in this video after watching the iPad presentation.

All right so it’s over the top but still made me giggle.

I strongly recommended you put the time aside to read Stephen Fry’s very informative post on this, it’s a long one but worth it, thanks for the effort on this one Mr. Fry. Alas it is time for a less cultured opinion than his on here though, namely my own.

(more…)

After experiencing it myself and googling the issue, many people are having issues with nuisance calls on the iPhone.

O2 are unable to help except put through a “change of number” request, which is a bitch to those of us that do not want to change it! Either that or Jailbreak the phone which again, most of us do not want to do.

Apple support suggests we can push for a number blocking feature to be added to a future update.

So, anyone who is looking to block a number, fill out the below and cross your fingers!

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

A directory of mobile phone numbers is being launched this week giving anyone who searches for you access to your number. You can read the story here, on the BBC News website and learn how to make your number ex directory.

It takes two minutes to do but you will need your phone with you. Worth it to stop potential cold callers.

Here is a link to the need page of their site.

Please get as many people to opt out as possible and stop these fucks selling our details.