Author: Ultra Slacker

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The Backify.com Debacle.

UPDATE 2:
Backify’s response:

LiveDrive Account Closures
As all Backify members know now, LiveDrive has closed all the accounts. We would like to clear the situation up with our customers.

As many of you know, you were unable to change/reset your password for the last 10 days or so. This was due to an error in the LiveDrive API. We made multiple contacts with LiveDrive through email and phone to get this sorted out. Their tech support kept us saying that their “dev team” is working on it. But the “dev team” could not sort out the issue in 10 days.

Apart from this, their payment system failed on November 8. What that means is, we could not create any more new accounts, because their payment system kept declining all of our credit cards. Again, we contacted LiveDrive multiple times, but they could not sort out the issue in over 7 days.

We contacted them again yesterday and protested with strong words about the delay in providing a solution to our problems. We asked them to either resolve the issues, or to close our account and refund us. They responded today by terminating our reseller account and all the accounts we have created.

As for the email they sent to our customers, we assure you that you do not have to worry about your credit cards being used fraudulently. We did not store your credit card numbers in our system. And about the payments that you have already made, we will refund all of them over the next few business days. You do not need to file any disputes or chargebacks with PayPal or your bank.

Screen shot here.

UPDATE 1:
Backify.com was a reseller of Livedrive.com.

Backup accounts are free
As a Livedrive reseller, Backup accounts are free! For just the fixed monthly fee of $59.95 per month you can create as many Livedrive Backup accounts as you’d like, with no charge per account. Livedrive Backup accounts make a fantastic value-add to any of your existing services.

On October 14th, 2011 Tom’s Hardware reported “Backify Offers 512 GB Free Online Backup Storage” and linked on Hacker News.

——-

I received two emails, one from Backify.com and one from Livedrive.com.

The email from Backify.com:

Dear <insert name here>,

First of all, we would like to thank you for using Backify. We hope you really liked our service and enjoyed using it.

We regret to inform you that we can not provide free backup services anymore. All free Backify accounts will be closed on November 22, 2011.

In order to prevent your account from deletion, please login into your account and update your Billing Details.

Update Billing Details
Once again, we thank you for using Backify. Please update your billing details before November 22, 2011 to continue using the service.

Thanks,
Backify Team

Billing details? You mean Credit Card, etc? I thought it was free? I’m glad I didn’t provide any billing details.

The email from Livedrive.com:

Dear <insert name here>

We are writing to you regarding BACKIFY.COM who you recently created an online backup account with.

BACKIFY.COM was a reseller of Livedrive (http://www.livedrive.com). Livedrive provided the technology and service behind the product offered to you by BACKIFY.COM.

We are writing to inform you that BACKIFY.COM is no longer a Livedrive reseller and the services that they purchased from our company on your behalf have been terminated. If you are using a service provided by BACKIFY.COM and powered by Livedrive then this service will now have stopped working.

We would also like to advise you that we have received a number of complaints about BACKIFY.COM from their customers and from industry organizations. We would like to advise you not to provide any credit card information to BACKIFY.COM. If you have provided credit card information to BACKIFY.COM then we would suggest contacting your card provider and informing them that your card may be used fraudulently. If BACKIFY.COM have charged your card for services not provided you should contact your card provider and ask them to initiate a chargeback procedure.

Please note that this advisory is being sent to you in good faith because we feel you should be informed that BACKIFY.COM is no longer a Livedrive reseller and of the complaints we have become aware of. No contract exists between yourself and Livedrive and we are not able to assist further in any dispute you may have with BACKIFY.COM.

If you have installed the online backup software provided by BACKIFY.COM we highly recommend you uninstall it from your computer by following the steps below:

On Windows:
Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel and select Add/Remove Programs (or ‘Programs and settings’), select Livedrive and select uninstall.

On Mac:
Go to Finder > Applications and delete the Livedrive application.

Please note that any data you backed up using BACKIFY.COM cannot be retrieved and we recommend you establish an alternative backup service immediately.

Livedrive does provide a very similar online backup service to the one provided by BACKIFY.COM and you can read more details and, if you wish, signup for a trial on our website at http://www.livedrive.com. Please note however that we do not provide a free service as BACKIFY.COM did.

Other online backup vendors you may wish to consider include:
Carbonite.com
iDrive.com
Mozy.com

We are sorry for the inconvenience this situation may have caused you.

Kind Regards

Livedrive Limited

I’m going to emphasize the following:

We would also like to advise you that we have received a number of complaints about BACKIFY.COM from their customers and from industry organizations. We would like to advise you not to provide any credit card information to BACKIFY.COM. If you have provided credit card information to BACKIFY.COM then we would suggest contacting your card provider and informing them that your card may be used fraudulently. If BACKIFY.COM have charged your card for services not provided you should contact your card provider and ask them to initiate a chargeback procedure.

That 512 GB of free online backup is too good to be true. It seems that Backify.com business model has been exposed.

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Kindle Fire: USB Mode.

Kindle Fire supports USB mode for transferring files between the Kindle Fire and computer. Kindle Fire supports the following file types:

  • Documents: AZW, AZW1, TXT, MOBI (unprotected), PRC, DOC
  • Audio supported within Music: AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1 (AAC+), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+), AMR-NB (.3gp), AMR-WB (.3gp), MP3, MIDI, Ogg Vorbis (.ogg), PCM/WAVE (.wav)
  • Images: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP
  • Video: H.263 (.3gp, .mp4), H264 AVC (.3gp, .mp4), MPEG 4 SP/ASP (.3gp), VP8 (.webm)

Kindle Fire does not support EPUB format.

Based on a few tests, transferring 1.33 GB worth of files through USB took an average of 6 minutes.

 

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We did start the Kindle Fire.

The first thing you would notice that Amazon ships the Kindle Fire in a “frustration free” packaging; it doesn’t require any sharp objects to open. Inside the box there’s the Kindle Fire and the micro-USB charger.

Just like any Amazon Kindle purchased directly through Amazon.com, the Kindle Fire is automatically registered to the account the unit purchased with. Before anything else started, Kindle Fire automatically downloads Kindle Software Update Version 6.1. The software update includes E-mail client.

After a good 5 minutes, the Kindle Fire restarts and is ready to use.

Two notable things for now.

One, Adobe Flash Player 10.3 ships with Kindle Fire.

Two, Netflix is available at Amazon Appstore for Android.

There are a lot more to explore in Kindle Fire, I’ll get to that later.

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Kindle Fire: The Arrival.

It’s been a busy day for myself and the delivery companies. Kindle Fire finally arrived at my doorstep, so to speak.

I have yet to open the package since dinner is a priority right now. I’ll be back in an hour or so to open the package.

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Amazon ships Kindle Fire for Tuesday delivery.

Amazon ships Kindle Fire preorders to customers for Tuesday November 15th, 2011 delivery.

Kindle Fire gets mixed reviews, but we are reserving judgement until we got our units.

Amazon Kindle Fire is available for $199 at Amazon.com.

 

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iTunes Match, a $24.99 Question.

Apple finally launches iTunes Match two weeks after the “late October” date as mentioned in the “Let’s talk iPhone” event. iTunes Match costs $24.99 annually in the US.

How does iTunes Match work?
Well, iTunes scans the music in your iTunes library and matches them to the ones available in the iTunes Store. iTunes also uploads “unmatched” audio tracks (not just songs, but any audio tracks) from your iTunes Library into your iCloud account.

What you need to know about iTunes Match:

  • iTunes Match is limited to 25,000 songs.
  • iTunes Store purchases made with the same Apple ID being used for iTunes Match do not count towards the 25,000 song limit.
  • Songs containing DRM (Digital Rights Management) will not be matched or uploaded to iCloud unless your computer is authorized for playback of that content

You can find a lot of articles about iTunes Match including the one from Apple Support. Some of you want to know the answer to the $24.99 question. Is iTunes Match worth it?

First, it costs $24.99 for one year. That’s pretty cheap.

Second, once I had iTunes Match I found it to be really convenient. I can easily access my song library on my computers, iPhone and iPad. Well, my HP TouchPad, Android phone and tablet have to take a backseat since they are not supported.

Third, I still purchased CD. Over the years, I ripped the CD’s into AAC and MP3 in various quality. Once I had them matched, I get a music library with consistent encoding quality. That is great considering I had a lot of 128kbps MP3 tracks.

The answer is simple, if you can spare $24.99 a year then you should have no problem trying out iTunes Match.

Remember that iTunes doesn’t have those obscured live bootleg tracks you love so much. iTunes will upload them and it might take some times depending on your internet upload speed.

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South Park: Season 15 Episode 14 – “The Poor Kid”

South Park: Season 15 Episode 14 – “The Poor Kid”
With their parents in jail, Kenny and his brother and sister find themselves in the foster care system. Cartman is sincerely disturbed when Kenny is taken away. He doesn’t know who to rip on for being the poorest kid in school anymore.
Original Air Date: 2011-11-16

Watch “A History Channel Thanksgiving” stream on South Park Studios starting Wednesday November 16th, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. until Tuesday November 22nd, 2011.

You can search for “South Park S15E14“, but you will not find any leaks before the episode aired.

Preview “The Poor Kid” here. (“Don’t Take My Babies!” – Kenny’s parents are arrested.)

“The Poor Kid” Press Release

References:

  • Pabst Blue Ribbon
  • Diablo (T-shirt on one of the character.)
  • Penn State Gazette
  • Penn State University
  • Joe Paterno
  • Agnostic
  • Dr. Pepper
  • Mysterion
  • “Don’t try, do!”
  • Greeley, Colorado

This is the Season Finale for South Park Season 15.

South Park related images are courtesy of South Park Studios.