(Updated) This footage of what appears to be some kind of lifeform recently surfaced on youtube and is gaining fans and skeptics all around. Who could blame them? The fans are likely hoping for some kind of alien war to break out, and the skeptics all have one thing on their mind: Viral Marketing. Is this the start of the next Cloverfield movie’s campaign? Although it’s too soon to tell, here’s what we do know:

It’s supposedly “2 months old” shot through a sewer cam in North Carolina, and the most popular schools of thought are that it’s an: alien, bryozoan, or the next big viral campaign. You can view it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcKpx2DxGwY and yes, CGI has already been thoroughly ruled out.

We’ve updated our link as the original video was suddenly marked private. Perhaps too much traffic was being driven to it? We can’t imagine “too much” traffic being an issue but to each their own!

Many of you are aware of the hunger issues in Africa, but very few people ever think about it, let alone actually do anything about it. One Twitter account claims to be trying to spread this message with the use of some very straight-forward tweets; pretending to be a starving African child.

The tweets range from “hungry,” to “still hungry,” to “stomach growling. flies swarming.” and other variations (mostly) based on those. Whoever is behind the account writes in its bio, “Social commentary illuminating the startling gap between the haves and the have nots.” But honestly?  This feels a bit in poor taste to us. Maybe it’s just us, though..  With 411 followers in such a short period of existence, the starving African child is bound to generate quite a bit of commotion. What do you guys think? Clever way to inform the world, or just the internet turning another joke out?

For those of you that remember the discoloration issues that plagued the 1st gen macbooks, this story might be a little too familiar. Perhaps we should have seen it coming..  but for some reason it doesn’t look like anyone was expecting it:

Observe – the new iPhone 3GS, toasted.

The user claims that the above discoloration was caused by overheating during a period of using the GPS and 3G features of the phone. We’re not sure of the exact root of the problem, but what we can tell you about is the unattractive, brownish / pinkish discoloration on the above handset.  It vaguely reminds me of a marshmallow just before it reaches that perfect gooey temperature; but this is a PHONE. That’s a comparison that should never happen. Ever.

Either way, this isn’t living up to the standards of Apple’s pristine white electronics now, is it? What about the rest of you with new, white iPhones? Anything to report?

In terms of world-known celebrities, few can match the legacy of Michael Jackson. Love him or hate him, pretty much everyone on the planet knows him. And that caused big problems for a lot of huge websites today with the news of his passing; hell, it even stopped our office meeting (the entire building, really) flat on it’s face.

It was probably to be expected that Twitter would struggle as reportedly hundreds of thousands of tweets came in about Jackson in a very short amount of time. While I only got a couple actual Fail Whales, the site was really sucking wind for much of the hour that people were trying to get information about him. But Twitter was just one among many giants that were struggling under the weight of this news.

Various reports had TMZ, which broke the story, being down at multiple points throughout the ordeal. As a result, Perez Hilton’s hugely popular blog also momentarily failed as people rushed there to try and confirm the news. Then it was the LATimes, which had a report saying Jackson was only in a coma rather than dead, so people rushed there, and that site went down. (The LATimes eventually confirmed his passing.)

All in all this story is nothing short of heartbreaking, amongst being ill-timed and many other things..  all we can say is that our hearts go out to the Jackson family, friends, and fans everywhere around the world.

This is probably SquareSoft’s – errr, Square-Enix’s – 19th variant of its legendary role-playing game, Final Fantasy VII. A household title to all old-school gamers, it’s no wonder this game was downloaded over 100,000 times in just two weeks on PlayStation’s Network. Although Sony is no stranger to releasing revamped versions of old games, (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, to name a few) the re-release of this particular Final Fantasy title has definitely taken the cake – becoming the fastest selling PS1 download in PSN history. A brief look at SquareSoft’s – I mean, Square-Enix’s history – will point to unsurprisingly similar trends:

1997 – Final Fantasy VII Original Playstation release

1998- Final Fantasy VII PC re-release of original title

2004 – Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII Japanese mobile phone release

2005 – Last Order: Final Fantasy VII animated short-film release

2005 – Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children animated movie release

2006 – Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII Playstation 2 release

2007 – Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII release for PSP

2009 – Final Fantasy VII: Re-release (AGAIN) on Sony’s Playstation Network

Who would have known this game would be such a hit to gamers (old and new) over a decade later? One can only imagine the type of revenue a “proper” remake of this game would make. Although rumors of a completely remodeled version of Final Fantasy VII have been circulating for years, we have yet to see the real thing.

How long will FFVII’s legacy continue? The hell if I knew. I’d just like to see Bahamut ZERO in HD. Oh and…Tifa, too.

Ever glance at your phone to find that battery in the dreaded RED ZONE? You’ve still got a million and one things to do; messages to send, emails to check, calls to make, and what’s worse – a very important call to receive from your employer, client, physician, or even that girl/stud you met at the Bodega last night. Well, Nokia (the same makers that brought you the original pixel-friendly SNAKE game to accompany your brick-sized phone) is developing a technology to make traditionally charged cellphones a figment of the past. How, you say? Using ambient radio radiation to presumably charge your cellphone’s battery.

The Nokia Research Center, or NRC for short, has already devised and implemented a prototype that converts ambient electromagnetic radio waves into reusable battery energy. The excess radiation – usually discharged from Wi-Fi transmitters, cell-phone antennas, and TV/Radio masts – could potentially contribute to the electrical energy a mobile cellphone would need to last you through the day, charging when powered off while being comfortably nestled in the convenience of your pocket. Right now, it looks like the NRC’s prototype can only harvest about 3 to 5 milliwatts, but aim to reach the 50 milliwatt mark (the amount needed necessary to slowly recharge a battery) within the next 3-4 years. With the things my iPhone can do already, this seems hardly unbelievable. Just going to have to wait until Nokia releases it, and Apple takes the same technology and makes it about 100 times better by putting the letter “i” in front of it.

What does this mean for the future of cellphones? It probably means you’ll never be able to say “Sorry! Never got your call  my phone died, lol…” ever again. Well, I suppose it wouldn’t matter for some people, because I’ve probably used that excuse about a million times already, so it won’t take 3-4 years, 50 milliwatts of ambient electromagnetic energy, and the NRC to stump me from saying that anyway.

..and we’re here to guide you through the process as easily and painlessly as possible.  Earlier today, there was a “guide” posted on several sites which more or less directed you to wipe your phone beforehand.  Guess what?  You don’t need to do any of that to Jailbreak and you never will!

Now for starters, there are a few pre-emptive steps to take:

Step One
Create a folder on your desktop (or wherever you’d like it to be).  This will be the folder we use for our redsn0w files, etc.  You can name yours anything you’d like; to keep things simple here we’re naming ours Pwnage.

Download RedSn0wfrom here or here and place it in the Pwnage folder.  Next, download the latest 3.0 firmware from below and place it in the same folder.

3.0.0 (2G): iPhone1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw
3.0.0 (3G): iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw

Extract the RedSn0w zip file to the Pwnage folder.  You should now have a similar looking folder with the same contents as the one pictured below:

Step Two

Now that we’ve got everything where we want it, go ahead and launch redsnw0w.exe from the Pwnage folder that you created in step one.

Step Three Once RedSn0w opens, click the Browse button

Step Four
Select the firmware ipsw that we placed in the Pwnage folder, then click Open

Step Five
Once the firmware has been verified, click the Next button to continue.

Step Six
Make sure Cydia is selected and click the Next button.

Step Seven
Please plug your iPhone into the computer and make sure its OFF before clicking the Next button

Step Eight
redsn0w will now guide you through the steps to get into DFU mode.  Don’t worry if you don’t nail this down with split-second precision; there is some room for error and if you completely mess up, redsn0w will simply take you back to this step for another try.

Hold down both the Home button and the Power button for 10 seconds.

Release the Power button and continue holding the Home button until redsn0w detects the device.

Step Nine
Your iPhone will now reboot

Step Ten
redsn0w will then begin uploading the new RAM Disk.

Step Eleven
Once this is complete, you will be notified that redsn0w is done.  Click the Finish button.
When your iPhone finishes rebooting (5 minutes or so), it will be jailbroken with Cydia on the SpringBoard.  Enjoy!

We will continue to keep everyone up to date on future jailbreak methods, improvements, etc. so stick around!