electronic

SimCity's launch may be long remembered as a complete disaster, but in a new update, Lucy Bradshaw, General Manager of Sims creator and EA subsidiary Maxis, aimed to alleviate the sour mood by promising to fix the connectivity calamity and deliver a free game as a peace offering.

"To get us back in your good graces, we're going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio," said Bradshaw. "On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an e-mail telling them how to redeem their free game."… Read more

Can anyone put the fire out in SimCity?

Three days after launch, the SimCity drama continues to unfold as some gamers still find themselves battling busy servers, long queues, and unexpected disconnections. Gamers and the press continue to intensify scrutiny of EA's handling of the situation (and SimCity's requirement for an always-on Internet connection -- even in single player mode), which seem widely recognized as a colossal failure.… Read more

Good luck trying to move into the new SimCity.

Ever since the city management game launched on Tuesday, countless gamers have found themselves battling error messages and random disconnections that prevent them from experiencing what SimCity was supposed to deliver in the first place -- fun. In response, publisher Electronic Arts says it's working around the clock to try to fix the problems and add more servers so people can play without worry.

SimCity Senior Producer Kip Katsarelis issued the following statement to frustrated builders last night, hoping to soothe their nerves:… Read more

The FBI and other police agencies would be required to obtain search warrants before reading Americans' e-mail or tracking their mobile devices under a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives today.

It's not a new proposal: Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat whose district includes the heart of Silicon Valley, announced almost exactly the same measure last fall. But because the clock ran out without Congress acting, she's trying a second time.

"Fourth Amendment protections don't stop at the Internet," Lofgren said in a statement today. "Americans expect Constitutional protections to extend … Read more

As Sharp works to restructure and stay afloat, word has it that Samsung may come in to help. According to Bloomberg, Samsung is reportedly in talks to invest roughly 10 billion yen, or $107 million, in the ailing Japanese consumer-electronics maker.

People familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that details of the possible partnership could be announced as soon as today, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Sharp has had a rough go over the past couple of years. The electronics manufacturer saw sales drop 16 percent year-over-year to 1.1 trillion yen, or $13.7 billion, in the six … Read more

You may be able to manage your iPhone someday just by giving it a little squeeze.

A patent granted to Apple today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office details a housing for a mobile device that responds to the pressure of your touch or squeeze. Known as "Sensing capacitance changes of a housing of an electronic device," the patent uses a mobile phone as one example. But could just as easily work with portable music players, laptops, and other electronic devices.

Today's touch-screen devices already react to the tap of a finger. But Apple's … Read more

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has customized its Predator drones, originally built for overseas military operations, to carry out at-home surveillance tasks that have civil libertarians worried: identifying civilians carrying guns and tracking their cell phones, government documents show.

The documents provide more details about the surveillance capabilities of the department's unmanned Predator B drones, which are primarily used to patrol the United States' northern and southern borders but have been pressed into service on behalf of a growing number of law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the Secret Service, the Texas Rangers, and local police. … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--After a rocky start, Samsung Electronics is finally seeing the light when it comes to the tablet business.

The Korean consumer electronics giant, already the world's largest handset manufacturer, plans to double its tablet sales from a year ago, according to Y.H. Lee, executive vice president of the company's mobile unit.

That would peg its sales to about 40 million units in 2013, although Samsung's hasn't officially disclosed its full-year 2012 unit sales yet.

"We expect to be very aggressive," Lee said in an interview with CNET.

The bullish expectation further underscores … Read more

Your iPhone could one day switch to vibrate mode, adjust its own volume, and wake from sleep mode without you lifting a finger.

A patent application published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office suggests a phone or other device empowered with "situational awareness." Dubbed "Electronic device with automatic mode switching," the filing describes ways that the device can automatically perform certain tasks based on different conditions.

Filed in September 2011, the Apple patent application lays out the technology for a variety of devices, including mobile phones and media players. Using such embedded sensors, … Read more