Month: January 2016

T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere has spent much of today defending the carrier's controversial "Binge On" program, and he didn't hold much back when answering his critics.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has criticized T-Mobile for throttling video streams down to 480p, asked him on Twitter whether T-Mobile is altering the video streams or just limiting their bandwidth.

Legere responded in a video:

Thanks to today's announcement, future English-language copies of Settlers of Catan will probably have that giant "M" for Mayfair removed or changed to reflect Asmodee's acquisition. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

The modern board game renaissance can trace many of its origins to the nation of Germany—whose annual Spiel des Jahres awards are arguably as big there as the Oscars are in the United States—but one major tabletop gaming producer has begun an aggressive push to get France in the conversation.

In addition to putting out critically acclaimed games of its own, French game producer Asmodee has been on a game and company acquisition tear for the past two years. On Thursday, the company pulled off its biggest acquisition yet: the English-language rights to the German board gaming sensation that is Catan. A press release from Asmodee North America clarified that the deal with current publisher Mayfair Games will transfer "publishing, commercial, and brand rights" for all English-language Catan products to Asmodee—and specifically, its new Catan Studio, Inc. imprint, headed by former Mayfair CEO Peter Fenlon—after an undefined "transitional period." (Asmodee did not publicly publish its press release, but Mayfair posted its own similar one shortly afterward.)

This follows Asmodee's acquisition of major North American game publishers Days of Wonder and Fantasy Flight in 2014, along with the Spot-It! casual games series in 2015, meaning one company now controls the rights to critical darlings Ticket to Ride, Dixit, Citadels, Talisman, Small World, 7 Wonders, and the monster that is Catan's ever-expanding presence in English-speaking countries. In Catan terms, that means the company is pretty much steeped in a figurative surplus of wood, sheep, ore, brick, and grain.

Governor Brown Visits Aliso Canyon. (credit: Governor's Office of Emergency Services)

On Wednesday evening, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County in connection with a massive natural gas leak that’s ongoing at a Southern California Gas Company storage facility. The leak, which began on October 23, has been spewing methane into the air at a rate of tens of thousands of kilograms (PDF) per hour.

Governor Brown’s declaration of a state of emergency requires that SoCal Gas and other gas storage facility operators throughout California start conducting daily inspections of well heads and implement infrared imaging technology to detect leaks. Facility operators will have to monitor the wells for mechanical integrity, gas pressure, and safety on an ongoing basis.

The emergency declaration doesn’t earmark any state funds to help fund a cleanup, but it orders the California Public Utilities Commission to "ensure that Southern California Gas Company covers costs related to the natural gas leak and its response, while protecting ratepayers.”

(credit: Alper Çuğun)

On Tuesday, a federal judge rejected a proposed class-action lawsuit targeting Apple's extended service plan. US District Judge William Orrick shot down (PDF) all five of the plaintiff's legal theories and also had scathing words for the Texas lawyer who filed the suit.

English v. Apple was originally filed in 2013 in Galveston, Texas, and the case was later transferred to California. The three named plaintiffs, Patricia Adkins, Jennifer Galindo, and Fabrienne English, all said that Apple's AppleCare extended service plans amounted to a "fraudulent and unlawful scheme" because the company sometimes uses refurbished iPhones as replacement units.

But none of the plaintiffs were disgruntled consumers who went looking for a lawyer after getting bad service. Galindo was a paralegal for Renee Kennedy, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit, and Adkins had also worked for Kennedy in the past. Kennedy gave them both "monetary gifts to thank them for their excellent work," and both women used those "gifts" to buy AppleCare Plus, referred to as "AC+" in court papers.