The maker of the popular online fantasy game “EverQuest II” has reversed its long-standing ban on selling virtual characters and items for real money.
Sony Online Entertainment Inc. will open an official auction site, Station Exchange, in June to compete with eBay and other sites where players can pay cash to buy better virtual swords, armor or other items instead of earning them through hours of play.
Sony Online said its internal service would be safer and more secure than third-party auction sites. Sony will facilitate trade between players, but won’t sell items directly.
In the past, Sony Online has occasionally suspended the accounts of players caught trading items for money. But it now believes the overall market for trading and selling virtual goods could be as high as $800 million annually, with “EverQuest” and “EverQuest II” accounting for about 20 percent of those sales.
AOL takes harder line on scams: America Online Inc. is stepping up efforts to fight e-mail “phishing” scams by more aggressively blocking Web sites that masquerade as legitimate financial institutions requesting passwords and account information.
To identify fraudulent sites on a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week basis, AOL is teaming with Cyota Inc., a company that provides online security for financial institutions.
EarthLink Inc. also blocks phishing sites for its customers, but the blocking is done through software given to users and updated automatically. Users can override a block should there be a mistake or a legitimate reason to visit such a site.
AOL, however, is blocking such sites on its end and won’t offer an override.
British cybermusic magazine launches U.S. edition: The seemingly endless list of software platforms, plug-ins, synthesizers and assorted accouterments available to modern music producers is enough to make even the most wired musician’s head spin.
It’s also enough to prompt the publishers of Future Music magazine to bring the British glossy to the United States.
The cover story in the American edition’s premiere issue, which hit newsstands this week, explains how to create a “mash-up,” or a digital blending of two or more existing songs. The magazine includes a behind-the-scenes look at how rapper Jay-Z and the rock band Linkin Park created their mash-up album, “Collision Course.”
Future Network USA, the U.S. unit of British magazine publisher Future Plc., will publish the magazine 10 times a year.
New car gadget: Besides automatically calling an ambulance when an air bag opens, Toyota’s new wireless system for cars can play thousands of karaoke tunes and send a mobile phone message when a car door is left unlocked.
In many ways, G-Book Alpha is similar to other wireless services offered by other automakers, such as OnStar by General Motors Corp. But unlike those of rivals, the system uses a telecommunications device contained in the car, rather than a mobile phone, to let operators know the car’s location.
The new system also comes with on-demand car audio from which drivers can purchase music, with subscription to prerecorded sing-along tunes an option.
The system also will monitor your car for possible theft, conduct restaurant searches and give you the quickest routes to requested destinations.
Toyota Motor Corp. declined to say whether a similar system will be offered overseas.
The system is free for a year after buying a new Toyota car. After that, costs start at $110 a year.
French use search technology: The French government is going beyond the usual leaflets as it pushes for approval of a referendum on the EU constitution: It’s employing cutting-edge search technology.
France’s official Web site on the EU constitution has begun using “clustering” search software from U.S. company Vivisimo Inc. to help explain the document’s 448 articles. The software seeks to divide texts into meaningful themes using statistical and linguistic analysis.
The product of 17 months of horse-trading by a 102-member convention, the constitution sets out Europe’s defining principles, objectives and a bill of rights, topped with a restatement of existing EU treaty obligations accumulated over half a century.
Even Vivisimo’s Velocity search engine suite had trouble digesting the EU constitution, said Jerome Pesenti, the company’s French co-founder and chief scientist.
From Herald news services
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