"Grand Theft Auto IV" may have been the biggest-selling entertainment product of all time with $500 million in one week (besting movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"), but that doesn't mean everyone who bought the game could actually play it. Some game players with the PlayStation 3 version have encountered problems with the game freezing or the online multiplayer functions not working. A smaller number of Xbox 360 players have been complaining about the same glitches.
Take-Two Interactive, which distributes the game, said only a small percentage of players have had the problems. But the game's developer, Rockstar, already distributed a patch last week that fixes the hiccups, though not for all players.
- Vince Horiuchi
S.F. computer attack inflicts physical pain
-Vince Horiuchi
S.F. computer attack inflicts physical pain
SAN FRANCISCO - Computer attacks typically don't inflict physical pain on their victims. But in a rare example of an attack apparently motivated by malice rather than money, hackers recently bombarded the Epilepsy Foundation's Web site with hundreds of pictures and links to pages with rapidly flashing images.
The breach triggered severe migraines and near-seizure reactions in some site visitors who viewed the images. People with photosensitive epilepsy can get seizures when they're exposed to flickering images, a response also caused by some video games and cartoons.
The attack happened when hackers exploited a security hole in the foundation's publishing software that allowed them to quickly make numerous posts and overwhelm the site's support forums.
- The Associated Press
Firm disputes Sony claims on screen life
NEW YORK - A Sony TV with novel display technology that has drawn rave reviews for image quality may actually last little more than half as long as the company claims, according to a test by a private research firm.
Sony's XEL-1 is the first TV on the U.S. market that uses organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which give a bright, colorful image while keeping power consumption low. The screen diagonal is just 11 inches, making it more of a conversation piece than the center of the living room, especially considering the price - $2,499.99.
DisplaySearch ran two XEL-1 units for 1,000 hours, and measured the drop in brightness. Extrapolating from that, they found it would take 17,000 hours for a display to lose half its brightness, a standard measure of display life.
Sony says the display lasts 30,000 hours, or 10 years of typical use. Spokesman Greg Belloni said that figure is based on years of tests and the company stands by it.
- The Associated Press
