Hasta La Gadget!

We’re sure that most of you guys are familiar with the hacking ground, Anonymous, by now. Now it seems that as part of the group’s 5^th of November protest, they claim to have hacked PayPal’s servers and managed to get their hands on 28,000 customer account passwords and leaked it online. Safe to say the amount of chaos that will ensue if these passwords fall into the wrong hands will be tremendous. The group has posted the list of emails, passwords, names and even telephone numbers, so you can head on over to the list and check to see if your sensitive information is there.

However according to PayPal’s head of PR, they claim to be investigating the alleged hack, but so far they have stated that they are unable to validate any evidence that there has been a security breach which we can only take to be a good thing. In any case if you think it’s prudent, perhaps you might want to change your password just to be on the safe side.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: PayPal hands over 1,000 Anonymous IP addresses to the FBI, GoDaddy says internal network issues responsible for crash,

There’s plenty of excitement surrounding the release of Windows 8 here at Build. The general consensus around the operating system, however, holds that the key to the OS’s success is all about the apps, and CEO Steve Ballmer had no shortage of news on that front. The green-polo-shirted exec made mention of an official tweet from Twitter, noting the service’s development plans for a Windows 8 app coming “in the months ahead.” Also on the slate is Dropbox — the popular storage service has an app “coming soon,” according to Microsoft’s own official blog. ESPN got a little face time at the event, showing off an app that’ll deliver news, scores and video to Windows 8 users. Paypal, meanwhile, took the opportunity to talk up an API that’ll bring its commerce services to Windows Store apps. More info on the new apps can be found in the source link below.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Microsoft talks up Dropbox, Twitter, ESPN and PayPal for Window 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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eBay posted its financial results for quarter 3 2012 today, and it looks the company had a good quarter across the board. Total revenue for the quarter came in at $3.4 billion, which is a 15% increase year-over-year. Despite that significant climb, Forbes points out that revenue was slightly below the $3.41 billion analysts were expecting, but still, missing the mark by $10 million when revenue was in the billions isn’t too bad.

Adjusted net income landed at $718 million, equaling out to 55 cents per share – actually slightly better than the 54 cents per share analysts projected. That’s also a 14% increase year-over-year, which is something for eBay to smile about. Non-adjusted net income was at $597 million or 45 cents per share, which indicates a 22% increase over the same period last year.

PayPal isn’t looking too bad coming out of quarter 3 either, posting a 14% gain year-over-year gain in its number of active accounts, which was at 117.4 million as of September 30. eBay managed to pull in a cool $1.367 billion in revenue from PayPal in its third quarter, so we’re going to go ahead and assume that the company is happy with that 23% revenue jump year-over-year. Looking forward, the company has some pretty big expectations for both quarter 4 and the year overall.

Specifically speaking, eBay expects to take in a bit more in quarter 4, projecting net revenues between $3.85 billion and $4 billion, which would put adjusted earnings per share at 66 cents to 69 cents. eBay is expecting increased revenues for quarter 4 because of the holiday shopping season, so hitting that mark certainly isn’t out of the question. For all of 2012, eBay is expecting to pull in $13.95 billion to $14.1 billion and an adjusted earnings per share of $2.32 – $2.35. That definitely isn’t bad, and you can bet we’ll be watching to see if the company can meet its own expectations.

eBay Q3 2012 earnings show solid year-over-year gains is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Allow me to explain how two discussions started off in very similar ways, and ended… shall we say, differently. This is me, attempting to muster any sort of pleasantness in my voice at some ungodly hour of the morning on a Google Voice connection from Dubai back to the US:

“Hey! I’m having to cut a trip short due to an emergency back home. I actually purchased a trip protection plan when I checked out online — would it be possible to provide a refund for this flight now that I need to cancel it?”

From here, I was told that this was too vague. That I would need medical proof of an injury or illness, and that if it were a pre-existing condition — something like reoccurring cancer — that simply wouldn’t do. Oh, and if it’s a home emergency, you’ll need proof from your home insurance company that your abode is “uninhabitable.”

“So… I’m basically hosed here? This trip protection plan doesn’t really protect very much, does it?”

“… Do you want to file the claim?”

“No. That’s okay. Thanks for your time.”

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Continue reading The extremes of technology customer service: how common sense and empathy create unmatched loyalty

Filed under: Misc

The extremes of technology customer service: how common sense and empathy create unmatched loyalty originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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eBay’s money-exchanging service has brought its payments platform to Windows Phone 7.5 handsets. PayPal’s new app lets you send and request cash and check your account details (hopefully while laughing maniacally at your own affluence). A “local” feature will also direct you toward vendors who accept the standard, just remember that NFC supporting handsets don’t get here for another few weeks.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile

PayPal arrives on Windows Phone devices running version 7.5 or higher originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Sep 2012 13:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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