Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Simmer down folks — everything is going to be a-okay. Yes, ’tis true — Microsoft has indeed scheduled for Xbox Live service maintenance and Zune service tweakage to take place at the exact same time this coming Monday, but it’s probably not worth losing your mind over. In fact, Major Nelson goes out of his way to affirm that “when [Xbox Live] service returns, you will not have any new features and you will not have the new Xbox experience update.” Point being, your Zune Social, Zune.net forums, all of the Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live services will be offline for up to 24 hours (48 hours for the Zune suite) starting at 12:01 PST on September 29th, but don’t expect a Zunephone to pop out of your now-forgotten HD DVD add-on when things come back on. Or you can, but we’d be prepared for unprecedented disappointment.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - Xbox Live down time
Read - Zune services down time

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Apple’s Push-like MobileMe launch has been such a debacle that they’re now in damage control mode. As a result, some poor soul has been tasked by Steve Jobs to post status updates “every other day or so.” The first update is already revealing:

• Last Friday, 1% of MobileMe subscribers were affected by a “serious problem” with one of Apple’s mail servers
• Limited web access has been restored to those accounts but full access won’t be sorted until next week
• Of these 1%, Apple admits to losing “approximately 10%” of the messages received between July 16 and July 18

For the rest of you MobileMe subscribers, Apple has added server capacity, tuned the software to scale better, and fixed over 70 bugs to date. So the question is, how’s MobileMe working for you?

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Filed under: Cellphones

At first, we figured our Instinct here at Engadget HQ had just woken up on the wrong side of the bed, but we’re now receiving a flood of tips from individuals nationwide having the same issues. Put simply, it seems that certain data services are thoroughly borked, with our Weather app being unable to refresh for at least the past 18 hours (some are reporting even longer). Additionally, we’re hearing that folks are having to manually refresh their email and deal with all sorts of error messages when attempting to use any of the data services. So, what gives? Are you having data-related issues with your Instinct? C’mon Sprint, this is your best-selling EV-DO device of all time — it’d be nice to have it working for the weekend. Oh, and great job showing all those angered iPhone 3G users that your network doesn’t have issues, too.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Cellphones

It’s hard for us to be sure about this stuff for sure in the early stages, but since last night we’ve gotten a flood of reports from readers that BlackBerry services are down on T-Mobile and possibly also Bell Mobility (if not other providers). What’s the story, are you having any trouble? Shout it out in comments — if you are, do us all a solid and leave your location and provider. Even if it’s just an isolated outage, you know you desperately need to get your act together when Palm, of all companies, is taking potshots.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We’ve heard that there was indeed a planned outage scheduled for last night, but it was due to end 6 hours ago. And curiously we continue to get feedback that services are still down.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Having some BlackBerry troubles? You’re not alone, we’ve been receiving some sporadic tips on the subject, and some forum users have reported outage trouble as well, though for other users it seems just fine. Let us know how your service is doing. Or don’t — this might be just the chance you were looking for to ditch work email and get a start on that spring tan. We won’t tell a soul.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

As with RIM’s April 2007 outage, the latest downtime has been officially blamed on a flawed software upgrade. According to RIM, the millions left without email can lift their kinked neck and point a crippled digit at an “internal data routing system within the BlackBerry service infrastructure that had been recently upgraded.” This upgrade, like the one in 2007, was meant to boost capacity and speed message routing. Right, the same issue which RIM assured us had been resolved last April.

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’ve been receiving a steady stream of tips from users around the country today reporting that that AT&T, which supposedly just got back up from some apparent sporadic outages spread across the nation, was (is?) back down again today. We haven’t seen or heard much, and have yet to confirm whether things ever even fully came back up at all, but what say you? Still experiencing issues? We’ll let you know what we hear back from AT&T — as you may have heard, we had them build a Batline to Ralph’s office for just such an occasion.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Gaming

We can’t say that we’re shocked to hear this — you know, considering just how long those Xbox Live holiday blues went on — but Microsoft is indeed being slapped with a class action lawsuit over the aforementioned outages. Reportedly, a trio of angered Texans are alleging that Microsoft didn’t abide by its own contract when network issues disallowed a good chunk of Live users from getting their fix over the past few weeks. According to the complaint, MSFT understood that the time of year would lead to increased activity, yet “failed to provide adequate access and service to Xbox Live and its subscribers.” Of course, we’re betting the Redmond-based lawyers point out that clause about not guaranteeing any minimum level of service, but who knows, maybe we’ll all end up with two shiny new Arcade titles.

[Thanks, Andre and Ben]

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Filed under: Gaming

The obvious answer as to why Xbox Live has been up and down (but mostly down) over the last couple of weeks is, of course, that the service has undergone a massive distributed denial of service attack. (Feel free to blame the illusory Sony / Nintendo fanboys, if you must.) Naturally, we’re already starting to see some of those rumors catch hold, in no small part due to the fact that while GM of Xbox Live Marc Whitten did offer a free game for peoples’ trouble in his public memo a few hours ago, he didn’t speak to the cause of the outages. We did, however, get some conclusive inside information from a trusted source, and confidently relay to curious Live users that the issues were not at all related to a malicious attack. Yeah, we know, it tones down the drama quite a bit (and actually makes the Xbox team look a little worse than if they were attacked), but the speculation that the service was out due to a two week long internet assault? The stuff of myth.

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Filed under: Gaming

Looks like Microsoft is going to do the right thing: as anticipated, Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten states in a letter to customers that, as recompense for nearly two weeks of outages, the group is offering up a full, free Xbox Live Arcade title free of charge. Sounds like it won’t be until the next couple of weeks before the offer is active, but it will indeed apply to “all” Xbox Live members, and assuming it’s for games worth more than 200 Microsoft points, it will be net positive for Gold users who lost about $1.64 worth of Live service over the last twelve days. Well done Microsoft, we think most will consider the stinging pain eased. Memo posted after the break.

Update: Confirmed, it’s Gold AND Silver members. If you have an Xbox Live account, Microsoft just gave you a free game.

Continue reading Microsoft hooks up Xbox Live subs with free Arcade title

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Filed under: Gaming

To all those who’ve been tipping us like crazy about Xbox Live going back down again: yeah, we heard, and we know you’re not happy. If you’re having problems (or even if you’re not), feel free to let us know in comments. Almost two weeks of outages, yeesh.

To all those sick of hearing about Xbox Live being up and down: feel free to stop reading here, there will be another news story along in a few minutes. But do remember that Xbox Live is possibly the most widely used paid gaming service in the world, so forgive us for keeping close tabs on this story. Mwah!

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Filed under: Gaming, HDTV

Not that we’d put it past Microsoft or anything, but we can already smell a rumor brewing where there is probably none regarding the long-speculated and continuously denied plans to integrate an HD DVD drive into the Xbox 360. Granted, Bill’s got to have something to talk about on stage at CES next week, but we we’re not putting much stock in the pure speculation of a fresh Seattle Times piece, which, without sources, simply holds that “Microsoft could also make a splash by announcing plans to give the Xbox 360 an internal HD-DVD drive”. Yep, they could do that which has been speculated endlessly since the HD DVD drive itself was announced in 2006 — or not. Guess we’ll find out for sure next week. Just don’t get your hopes up.

Oh, and those Xbox Live outages we’ve been covering? Rumor has it that Microsoft is going to do right by its customers and hook up Gold members with a little something — at least according to an unnamed Xbox insider. Guess we’ll see about that too one once things stabilize on the Live front.

Read - Xbox 360 to get [Via Joystiq]
Read - Live users to get a little something for the downtime? [Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: Gaming

We’re well aware the first three words on the Xbox Live service status box are “up and running,” but those issues are continuing to persist, and if our flooded tip jar and the Xbox Live forums are anything to go by, they’re probably not just “intermittent”. If you’re (still) seeing issues, as always feel free to shout it out, as well as hit our poll so we can keep track of just how severe this stuff is. (So far, of those polled who’ve been trying to use Live, roughly 75% responded that they’ve been experiencing moderate to severe issues.)

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Gaming

Of all the weeks to have a major outage of your online gaming service, the holiday and vacation weeks of Christmas and New Years may have to be the worst — which Microsoft has learned all to well over the last ten days. We know you’ve heard plenty about it here at Engadget — but that’s really only because Xbox Live has had such a solid track record over the years, and we’re all just as surprised as you. But while it’s perfectly clear users have been seeing these issues, it’s still unclear exactly how “intermittent” those issues really are. Care to let us know how you’ve fared in our wholly unscientific poll?

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Filed under: Gaming

It’s been ten days since we started tracking The Great Xbox Live Outage of Late 2007 — ten days that the team at Microsoft has spent working 24/7, apparently unable to quash the issues affecting untold thousands (or millions) of users. Things were supposedly looking better until earlier today when they apparently got worse again, resulting in Xbox Live’s service status box making a decisive turn towards the apology side of the spectrum. Granted, the whole thing may seem a little gratuitous at this point, especially considering that the issues are still tagged as intermittent — but at least our informal polling at Engadget HQ has improved, with some of us even able to get on and play a game (slow and sticky though it may be).

We suggest everyone get a little extra drunk tonight on behalf of all those at the Xbox NOC who will be ringing in the new year sitting at terminals so we can have our precious Live service back.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Gaming

Since Microsoft knew you were tired of having your holiday break marred by the annoyingly frequent news of Xbox Live outages, they’ve decided to redefine the verbage, newspeak style. Apparently the term “Status: Up and running” has now been expanded to include a laundry list of “intermittent issue” caveats some users might be experiencing, including but not limited to trouble with: “Tournaments, Storage Downloads, Gamer Tile, Statistics through Arbitration, Match Making, and Messaging.” If you’re hoping to play Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4 online (you rebel, you) you’re most likely even more out of luck. There are also far-reaching problems that trace back to Windows Live IDs, so there’s a decent chance that your Zune account is on the fritz at the moment as well. But don’t worry, it’s all up and running.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Gaming

We’re starting to think Xbox Live’s holiday strategy was modeled after Newtonian physics: what goes up must come down. Although the Live support site shows the service as being “up and running”, apparently users are still experiencing intermittent issues, sometimes more dramatic than those officially listed. We don’t know about you, but even though only some of us on we were able to get on, even they have been seeing a lot of stalling and freezing — and the unlucky ones are just completely shut out of Live. How are things going out there? Any XBL issues of which to speak?

P.S. -Microsoft, congrats on the great holiday season. You obviously sold a TON of Xbox 360s and Live service contracts. Now be a doll. Give everyone a week (or, say, a month) of free Live service for the ugliness over vacation, ok? These people paid for their service when the other guys offer it up for free.

Read - Live support site: still having problems
Read - Our post about problems from last weekend
Read - Our other post about outages on Christmas day

Update: Our broham Major Nelson says the Live engineers have identified a fix for the issues and things are on their way to being back on the up and up. Hopefully this time for good!

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Filed under: Gaming

We hear a lot of people are having problems with Xbox Live today (we’re not, for the record), but if you’re feeling a bit sheepish about giving the gift of a 360 + Live service to a loved one, just imagine how Microsoft must feel. The service — which we’d like to remind everyone is paid, unlike the competition’s — has been up and down since Christmas weekend. And it’s not some surprise that there would be an influx of users today, nor is it any mystery to Microsoft how many Live accounts and Xboxes were sold over the past couple of weeks — which is precisely why this kind of thing is so annoying. Thankfully, it seems to be a bit less widespread than last weekend’s outage. Feel free to shout it out in comments.

[Thanks, Peter]

Read - Xbox Live status
Read - Outage on Xbox Live Forums (again)

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Filed under: Gaming

Hard to say whether it’s caused or correlated, but just about everyone with an Xbox is probably tying to get online today in order to avoid spending that precious, invaluable quality time with their amazing, loving fam — problem is Xbox Live has been down for friggin hours, and doesn’t seem any closer to getting back online. Anyone able to get on? Or are you still having issues? Shout it out in comments, we feel your pain.

Read - Xbox Live status
Read - Outage on Xbox Live Forums

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Filed under: Cellphones

While reports are slow to come in so far, Blogging Stocks is now reporting that RIM may possibly have yet another outage on its hands, with at least some BlackBerry users in New York and Washington apparently getting nothing but a “data connection refused” error when they try to check their email. If it turns out to be of any size, this particular outage would be only the latest in a recent spate RIM has suffered — and not even the first in the past month. As always, if you’re experiencing some problems of your own, feel free to sound off in comments, preferably with details on your location, carrier, etc.

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