Tag: Sony

Apple not in the pesticide business … yet

This time it isn’t an employee falling off a roof or out of a window. This time, it’s pesticide.

Foxconn, the world’s largest manufacturer of electronics, is responsible for assembling the Xbox 360, the PS3, the Wii, the iPhone and more. Another thing it’s famous for: the death of its employees by suicide, along with “alleged” pressuring by industry giants regarding their products.

After 250 workers at the company’s Chennai, India plant were hospitalized, Foxconn had no choice but to shut the facility down. Workers experienced what has been described as “sensations of giddiness and nausea”. According to Foxconn, this “may have been caused by the routine spraying of pesticide at the production facility.” Whoops.

Out of the 250 hospitalized workers, 28 are still in the hospital. The plant is responsible for mobile phone parts.

For Bryan McBournie, it might be more prudent to exclaim, “Where Is Your Clean Air Now?”

Guess what you don’t need?

No one likes a jerk. Now, I’m not talking about a Denis Leary or Martin Lawrence type of jerk, but more of a “someone stole the teacher’s favorite ruler, so now everyone has to pay” type of jerk. Of course, no one hates these types of jerks more than Sony or the MPAA.

And so, they decided to display their feelings toward the town of Coshocton, Ohio. One individual made the choice to download a movie via the municipal WiFi connection. While such actions normally carry an incredibly hefty fine, but figuring out the exact person is a bit of a problem, given the “municipal” nature of the WiFi connection.

So, obviously, the only right course of action, per the MPAA, is to have the WiFi connection terminated.

It’s easy to jump to hyperbolic conclusions in situations like these, but it’s also just too easy to imagine that the MPAA is run by Kefka.

If at first you don’t succeed …

… then garner pity by attempting it again. And again.

Erik Estavillo is back, and this time, he means it! Not content with getting his ludicrous case thrown out of court, Estavillo has decided to appeal the decision, determined to make Sony pay for the mental anguish that a PSN ban allegedly inflicted on him.

Not only will Estavillo appeal the original case, he has also filed a new civil claim against Sony, demanding $108,000 compensation. This is quite a significant boost to his original claim, which “only” asked for $55,000. Estavillo claims that Sony’s banning caused him “pain and suffering” and violated his rights to free speech. He also alleges that he had money invested in his PSN account, which amounts to theft on the part of Sony.

And he’s still representing himself.

The pirate life be a turbulent one

Yar! It be hard out there for a pirate!

Joining former Grokster exec Wayne Rosso, Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde is abandoning the BitTorrent site he co-founded.

In a blog post (truly a most demonic contraption attached to a witch’s teet), Sunde stated:

“I have decided to not be the spokes person for The Pirate Bay anymore. The reasons are many but most importantly it takes too much of my time. I want to build something new and I want to focus my energy in a different direction. I have projects waiting to be finished, a book is waiting to be finalized and many more books are waiting to be read.”

Oh sure, ye be ready to have plenty o’ fun, but when the sharks be a-comin’ for ya, you decide to turn tail and escape on the only deck-boat available? You not be a pirate, but a landlubber through and through! In fact, what you should do is take a lesson from Matthew Crippen.

Crippen, a student at California State University, be facing 10 years in prison for modding multiple consoles, not to hide treasure and booty, but to play modded games. At only 27 and a student, the 10 years in prison might be the social equivalent of the hangman’s noose for that lad. Yar! Perhaps he should’ve used a bit less book smarts and bit more sea smarts and modded himself a boat to sail away to Secret Pirate Island!

Sigh. Clearly, there be far too many constabularies after simple privateers such as us.

Free speech costs around 55 grand

A San Jose gamer banned for his behavior in playing Resistance wants $55,000 from Sony and a judge to tell their mods to stop banning people. Removing the ability for mods to go “STFU” is an interesting case of role reversal.

Erik Estavillo, in a complaint filed July 6, also alleges that Sony Computer Entertainment’s comprehensive ban of him from the PlayStation Network constitutes theft, in the form of deprived access to prepaid PSN currency. The pain and suffering bit comes from Estavillo’s agoraphobia, which is fear of crowds and/or open spaces-so this is, he says, his only safe way to interact with others. And, naturally, he’s kvetching about his First Amendment rights, too.

He wants $55,000 in punitive damages and an injunction against all further banning.

It seems Estavillo’s representing himself. Yeah, couldn’t have spotted that one coming, either.

In further news, SG would like to announce their new clairvoyance service. Our first prediction: not a legal win for Estavillo.

Not asking permission and getting sued: still in fashion

The UK’s Change4Life campaign — which links playing video games with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer — could draw fire from Sony for using a PlayStation-like controller in their print ad. Legal fire, that is, which — as we all know — is the third hottest fire that’s possible (behind orphanage arson fire and burning Benjamins in front of a hobo fire).

CHUNG-CHUNG.

The magazine ad in question features a young boy obviously not enjoying himself while holding a dual analog wireless controller, similar to that used with the PlayStation 3 and its predecessor. The print warns that even healthy-looking inactive children risk cancer, diabetes, and heart disease once they reach adulthood. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is currently considering legal action against the ad creators.

CHUNG-CHUNG.

Now, having an active lifestyle? Top notch. Alluding that playing video games is a direct cause of not having an active lifestyle? Not as top notch. Using an ad that essentially equates their product with killing kids? Get ’em, Sony.

This is why you’re paying increased prices

Yankee Stadium will make its public debut on April 16, when the Yanks are scheduled to face the Cleveland Indians. However, we’ve got a pretty good idea what we’ll be seeing the first time we cross the threshold of Baseball’s Cathedral 2.0 — Sony devices and branding, as far as the eye can see.

Well, those of you that can actually afford to go to the game, that is.

Sony Electronics and the Pinstripers announced Thursday of last week that they’d signed an agreement designating Sony the official consumer electronics manufacturer of the Yankees. What’s this mean? Well, Sony gets a prominent advertisement on the right-field wall (as well as a number of diorama ads in the concourse), and the new stadium gets over 550 Bravia and LCD HD televisions for the high-roller suites, and a PS3 gaming area in the park’s “Strike Zone.” Oh, also, the Yanks’ new mascot is Polygon Man. That’s a fair trade-off, right? Sure, if you’re into decadence.

Oh Coca-Cola bottle, you’re our only hope!

First it was some European nations. Then Japan. And now? The US is expected to be next. The sky is falling!

Japan is in a recession, it would seem. Who would’ve guessed? The BBC confirms that the global economic climate has slowed down the demand for Japanese exports.

“The downtrend in the economy will continue for the time being as global growth slows,” said Japanese Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano. “We need to bear in mind that economic conditions could worsen further as the US and European financial crisis deepens, worries of economic downturn heighten and stock and foreign exchange markets make big swings.”

What’s really the kicker is that Japan was going through its longest period of economic growth until the suka hit the sub-prime fan last year. Coincidentally enough, just about everything is seemingly cyclical for Japan. Tommy Lee Jones doing commercials, transforming robots as sentient smashy robots, Grand Theft Auto, and now, recessions, as they already experienced one about 7 years ago. The last recession they went through was mostly self-inflicted, but this time around the world’s consumers are messing things up everywhere. And for Japan, most of the issue lies with decreased demand of their products.

When asked how to fix this crisis, our very Bryan Schools gave this sage bit of advice:

Sony–BUY IT.

Take it from Snee: Wii’s days are numbered

Now that Sony’s Blu-Ray has defeated Toshiba’s HD-DVD format, there is no reason not to buy a Playstation 3.  The Nintendo Wii has coasted on novelty, but its failures as a serious gaming platform will be no match for a PS3 market.

Don’t get me wrong: the Wii is pretty cool. I own one, but I still ignore most of my real world responsibilities with my computer. The ability to throw my wiimote through my LCD screen doesn’t make up for its shortcomings. Besides, I can already do that with my remote control.

Continue reading Take it from Snee: Wii’s days are numbered

12 year old thinks he’s hot stuff, burns crotch

Sony may not exactly make the safest products for those in America that might need … “more emergency care attention” than others. While it would seem that urinating on an active console would not be a good idea, as one guy found out (looking for said story, but if anyone wants to help out, please do), it would also seem that putting the Sony PSP, the portable gaming device known for heating problems, into your pants would be a bad thing. Who would’ve guessed?

A Warner Middle School student was in band class while his PSP was stowed away in his pants pocket. Later, around 8:30 a.m., Farmington Hills firefighters were called to the school, as the seventh grader’s pants miraculously spontaneously caught on fire due to the PSP overheating.

What a band geek! He’s not going to live this indignity down for a while. I mean, first of all, he gets his pants caught on fire because of video game unit, not something cool like cigarettes, but not only from the sounds of it, he was using a third party battery pack. He’s not even using the official product? Double lame band geek hall of shame for him!

I wonder if the kid is a red head?