Hasta La Gadget!

As eagerly as Google has gone through routing acrobatics to minimize the Chinese government’s ability to censor and spy on its its services, it’s still at the mercy of the Great Firewall. The company might have just run head-first into the bricks as of Friday. As confirmed by some of our own staff, all of Google’s services stopped working in China for at least the better part of a day despite the search firm verifying that everything was in good working order. Officials haven’t confirmed that anything was afoot, but it’s easy to raise the specter of possible censorship given local political maneuvering. The once-a-decade Communist Party Congress began on Thursday, and the establishment may have wanted to cut off a relatively unfiltered line of communication for dissidents during a transition of power. We’re hearing that access may have ameliorated in at least parts of the country, which would be a pleasant surprise — not that a sudden improvement in service will cheer up those who know they still face a backlog.

Update: As SlashGear notes, Computerworld / IDG has reported that Google’s services were up and running in country again after about 12 hours of being inaccessible. Official details on the blocking are still slim as ever (and will likely remain as such) about the happenings, but you can click through the links above for more in the meantime.

Filed under: Networking, Internet, Google

Google services grind to a halt in China, political transition suspected as the culprit (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Nov 2012 00:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple may have a lot of iMessage users, but it has also had its share of teething troubles as the chat service (and iCloud) grows. That’s certainly been true this month: Apple has confirmed that, for the second time in a week, iMessage is down for at least some users. There’s a real chance those conversations won’t go through unless it’s between iPhone users that can try SMS. More pressing for anyone in the UK is a wider iTunes outage, as we’ve heard multiple reports of the app and media repository being inaccessible in the country no matter what device they use. We’ve reached out to Apple and will update if there’s an explanation or a repair schedule for either outage. For now, we’d suggest that iMessage lovers communicate through social networks and passive-aggressive word choices in Letterpress.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: And no sooner than we post than Apple has iMessage back up and running. Let us know through tips if you’re still having iMessage or iTunes UK trouble, however.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet, Mobile, Apple

Apple iMessage sees second outage in a week, iTunes UK follows suit (update: back up, in theory) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A network outage that leaves folks without data for a few hours is one thing, but some Sprint problems today are causing some bigger issues than usual in one part of the US. Alaska Airlines is reporting flight delays at several airports, including Portland International Airport, as a result of the outage that is says began at 7:30AM Pacific time when a fiber cable was cut in Wisconsin. The AP is further reporting that Alaska Airlines President and CEO Brad Tilden says the airline expects to have a full resolution by 5PM local time, and that it may have a partial solution by noon. The reports that we’ve received from Sprint users also suggest that the outage is largely confined to the Northwest.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We’ve gotten an official statement from a Sprint spokesperson on the matter, confirming that two separate fiber cuts have disrupted service in parts of Oregon, Washington and Northern California. The complete statement is as follows:

Some Sprint customers in parts of Oregon, Washington and Northern California are experiencing a disruption in data and voice services. This is the result of two separate fiber cuts on Sprint’s network in the northwestern and midwestern U.S. Sprint network technicians are working to repair these cuts and re-route network traffic so service can be restored as soon as possible.

Update 2: Alaska Airlines says its flights are now running close to normal. Travelers, rejoice!

Filed under: Networking, Mobile

Sprint network outage leads to flight delays with Alaska Airlines originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s instant messaging service, iMessage, was said to have experienced outage issues worldwide instead of it being a local occurrence, and it certainly contradicts the “All Clear” condition on its iCloud status website. The service outage is not a long and sustained one, but rather, one that happens sporadically. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: AT&T’s CEO thinks iMessage and Skype are disruptive business models, Verizon explains recent outages,

GoDaddy looks to be having a rough one today. Users are complaining of issues with sites and email addresses tied to the popular and oft-controversial domain registrar. For the moment, GoDaddy’s own site appears to be working just fine, though the company has acknowledge its woes via Twitter, noting, “we’re aware of the trouble people are having with our site. We’re working on it.” According to TechCrunch, the outage has affected “millions of sites.”

Update: The company still hasn’t commented on the source of the outage, but a tweet indicates “most customer hosted sites back online…no customer data compromised” Meanwhile, Wired notes GoDaddy has switched from self hosting DNS servers to those of its competitor, VeriSign.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading GoDaddy acknowledges issues with sites, is ‘working on it’ (Update: DNS switched to VeriSign, ‘most’ customers back online)

GoDaddy acknowledges issues with sites, is ‘working on it’ (Update: DNS switched to VeriSign, ‘most’ customers back online) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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