Hasta La Gadget!

World of Warcraft accounts, and like many other online gaming accounts, are susceptible to hacks. This can happen either by players choosing bad passwords, or clicking on bad links which have been disguised to look like official links from Blizzard or a developer. Well the good news for those who have ever been hacked, justice has been somewhat served over in China where a group of ten men have been sentenced to prison for up to two years for hacking over 11,000 World of Warcraft accounts.

The team of hackers were led by two men, Chen and Zhu, who would hack World of Warcraft accounts and then extract all the gold and items found in each character, and then sell the rest on auction for $3, making it ideal for gamers looking to save time leveling up a high level character. By the time they were caught, Chen and Zhu reportedly managed to rake in around $10,800. While Chen was fined $8,000, his partners in crime were fined $1,000 each, while all of them received 2 years of prison each.

Hacking has been an issue with World of Warcraft and Blizzard has warned in the past that by purchasing gold, you could be encouraging hackers to hack accounts to steal the gold in which they then sell back to you. Granted it is possible that the gold is being farmed without hacking, but sometimes it is done through the use of bots which also goes against Blizzard’s ToS.

World Of Warcraft Hackers In China Sentenced To 2 Years In Prison original content from Ubergizmo.

Want to commit a crime without actually doing it? That’s pretty much what PKPKT is looking to achieve. The game, despite for iPhones in mind, lets gamers “steal” from one another through the use of Bluetooth. The concept is similar to pickpocketing, hence the name PKPKT, where you will be able to “steal” money and items from nearby players who have the game and who might have left their Bluetooth on. Once the stealing has been successfully completed, gamers will be able to chat to one another through the same Bluetooth connection.

The good news for those worried about privacy is that the identities of the gamers are hidden, so you won’t be able to tell which phone stole from you. According to Jeremy Schoenherr, the game’s designer, “All that data lives nowhere except the two devices involved […] The app exchanges no personal information (there’s no link to Facebook, Twitter, etc.) so users can feel safe playing the game.” Schoenherr is also looking for ways to evolve and expand the game to make it more enjoyable long term.

As it stands PKPKT is a free download via the iTunes App Store, so if you’d like to put your iPhone’s Bluetooth to use, this is a pretty innovative game worth checking out. In the meantime you can get an idea of how it works in the video above.

PKPKT Is A Bluetooth Game That Lets You Pickpocket From Bluetooth Phones original content from Ubergizmo.

Headphone splitters are incredibly handy for sharing music, especially during travel where parents might give their kids an iPad or a laptop to share amongst themselves to keep them entertained during the trip. Unfortunately sharing a pair of headphones might not necessarily be ideal, especially since one person might enjoy their music/movies at deafening volumes, while the other might prefer theirs at a more sensible level. Or it could be that one person’s definition of loud is different from the other person’s.

Well this is where Splitter comes in. Not only does Splitter work as the name has implied, but it will also come with individual volume controls, meaning that both listeners will be able to adjust the volume from their earphones to their satisfaction, allowing them to enjoy their music and movies at the volume level that they are comfortable with. Splitter with connect to your device’s headphone jack via the 3.5mm port and will feature an additional two 3.5mm ports for plugging in headphones. Priced at $10, Splitter can be yours via Wicked Audio’s website.

Splitter Is A Headphone Splitter That Comes With Individual Volume Controls original content from Ubergizmo.

There is a patent consortium known as Rockstar whose name is rather appropriate given that it consists of companies such as Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Sony, and Ericsson. We have seen how they have tried to sue Google and other companies in the past over alleged patent infringements and it looks like Google is having none of it. The company has recently filed a declaratory judgment complaint where they are asking a San Jose court to rule that their company does not infringe on any of the seven patents that Rockstar claims that it does. According to the complaint, Google states, “Rockstar’s litigation campaign has placed a cloud on Google’s Android platform; threatened Google’s business and relationships with its customers and partners; as well as its sales of Nexus-branded Android devices.”

In the past we have seen how companies such as Apple and Microsoft go after Android manufacturers individually, and for the most part despite the whole “Mac versus PC” debate, Apple and Microsoft have never really had too much legal trouble with one another, although with the Rockstar patent group and the combined patents that they own, we expect that they could give other tech companies a whole lot of trouble and grief. It does seem a tad anti-competitive in nature but what do you guys think? Will the Rockstar group prevail, or will Google be able to beat them back?

Google Files Complaint Over Rockstar Consortium original content from Ubergizmo.

The animated image enthusiasts at Giphy have dreamed up a cute way to spend the next five minutes of your life. Take a moment to decorate your very own kitschy GIFmas tree.

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