Spore already Cracked, Torrented

Spore Screenshot

Who would have thunk it? Even though the game’s North American release date is still some 4 days off, Pirates of the High Internets have already gotten their measly hands on Spore and are evolving creatures as we speak! That’s right, Spore has been cracked and uploaded on a variety of BitTorrent trackers.

I quick search shows that every major tracker has taken it up and there seem to be dozens of torrents for this. All, of course, trace their roots to the masterful crack team RELOADED. There are thousands of peers and seeds on, so it looks like a lot of people want a shot at Spore before release date.

The torrents are clocking in at 3.39 GB. According to rumours, the leak itself came from some Australian retail stores selling the game way before release time, and then it hits the Internet for the world to enjoy. I’m guessing there won’t be any multiplayer or Internet connectivity in it, like the cracked version of that Spore Creature Creator.

Of course, without Internet connectivity, the game is pretty much poop. Still, that rarely stops pirates, arr!

Pandora Internet Radio to Fall; Grooveshark to Rise?

Pandora

I remember first going to Pandora. The site asked me to enter some of my favourite artists. I did. And then it told me that it will play other artists similar to the one I entered. “Excellent!” I utter. I expected a chat room where someone will search up artists. But nope. It was all automated. It was amazing.

It wasn’t perfect, and Last.fm was larger and more attractive, but Pandora was unique. It was the most accurate when it came to recommendations, because of the Music Genome Project, while Last.fm relied on users’ listening habits. But it did not last. As royalties for Internet radio were on the rise, Pandora had to cut access to foreign visitors.

That left me cut out, although I do remember accessing the site once without a proxy and using it for some 20 minutes before expiring my song quota. Could never replicate that moment, but what the hell, it was cool. I really sympathised with Pandora, partly because of the polite apology letter they left for foreign visitors.

Looks like it’s finally time for Pandora to hang up its boots once and for all. SoundExchange is putting on some draconian fees for Internet radio, which is going to hurt Pandora like hell. Royalties have been projected to reach 2.91 cents per listener at 2010. Pandora and others are attempting to petition SoundExchange, but we all know how petitions work.

If it ends up unsuccessful, Pandora will have to pay a whopping 70% of their projected 2008 revenue. Tim Westergren, owner of Pandora says that the minute such an event occurs, Pandora may have to shut shop, which isn’t very surprising. Will this be the demise of free, dynamic Internet radio?

Meanwhile, a new contender has come up to rise the ranks of Internet music. Grooveshark appears to be a brand new site similar to Pandora and Last.fm in that it is a music recommendation system. It appears to be undergoing maintenance right now, so I can’t check it out, but the guys at Mashable seem to have really liked it, so take a look.

TheWB.com Is 100% New Media Friendly

I love it when a company is proactive in being New Media friendly. Give users your content whenever and where ever is so pleasing.

TheWB.com is aiming for just that. Going public Aug 27, TheWB.com features older WB shows along with new original web series. Not only will this content be available on TheWB.com – it will also be on Dailymotion, Joost, Sling Media, TiVo and Veoh Networks! They already have a Facebook application that allows users to share The WB content.

Continue reading “TheWB.com Is 100% New Media Friendly”

Star Trek Online Coverage

The game that was flip flopping all over the place, apparently is actually being made. Yeah and it doesn’t look that bad either!

I honestly can’t wait. The game takes place 30 years after Nemesis. You get to work your way up to Captain. You get to control your character across planets, go aboard your ship, and then fly it around space.

Create your own race or go with a race we’ve already seen (Humans, Vulcans, and everyone else). Customize your ships and characters. At launch you can be part of Star Fleet or the Klingon Empire. Combat, exploration, tactical actions are all here.

The graphics look solid for an MMO.

Still no news on when it will be released. Below is the video conference held by the developer Cryptic Studios at the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas.


Star Trek Online Las Vegas Webcast from Cryptic Studios on Vimeo.

PWN or Die

From the makers of FunnyorDie.com, comes their latest spin-off PWNorDie.com. What’s great about this video site is that it’s geared towards techies at large and of course fanboys are welcome! They’ve already got tons of video game companies putting content up there. They also have Chris Pirillo, Fatal1ty, and yours truly StuffWeLike.

Know you, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. The only thing that’s annoying about the site is the low video resolution. Why would any hardcore gamer want to watch trailers that aren’t in high definition?

YouTube Auto Plays ALL User’s Channel Videos

[Update: Ok seemed like a glitch. Only Partner accounts have the auto-play feature.]

I don’t know if this is a glitch or if YouTube is keeping this feature. Previously only YouTube Partner videos auto-played, but now all user channels auto-play.

YouTube has been under scrutuny for how it measures views. Auto-plays used to count as a view, but now that every channel has auto-play enabled, I would imagine that auto-plays no longer count as a view.

I was pretty pissed off when I went to my channel and saw the video auto-play. At first I thought I had become a Partner. Nope.

Now anytime I visit my channel I’ll have to hear myself. How annoying.