Trouble with Gmail? Your account might be locked

So all day I’ve been having trouble getting into Gmail from my desktop client (Mail.app) as well as from my iPhone.  Sure, Gmail, has the occasional hiccup, but all day?  I decided to try and track down some service status info, and from what I could tell things were just fine.

After doing a quick search on a new search engine called unurthme, I finally hit upon something that might help: my Gmail account might be locked.

Why would an account be locked?  Really not sure, I didn’t to anything out of the ordinary so your guess is as good as mine.  What I do know, though, is that if your account is locked there’s no indication of it, you just get either a connection error or a rejected password error.

If you ever run into this sort of situation yourself, try going here from the computer you are having trouble from and see if it does the trick, worked great for me:

https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha

(Disclosure: I am the co-founder of unurthme.com, but even if I wasn’t I’d still use it.  Unurthme kicks butt.)

Where in the world are the new blog posts?

In the better late than never category, it hit me the other night after having dinner with some good friends that I should probably post something about why this blog suddenly stopped getting updates.

About a year ago I started working full time on a software development project in evenings and weekends. Combine that with my full time day job and I’m left with very little time for anything else, and as a result this blog suffered.

I wouldn’t call this blog dead, more on hold for a while. Thanks for stopping by and look for regular content updates to resume again in the next few months.

Asus ships Eee Box with virus

Oops. Looks like the new Asus Eee Box mini desktop PC is shipping with a virus on the hard drive which Symantec identifies as the W32/Usbalex worm.

Asus isn’t hiding from the issue and admits that the Eee Box as in fact shipped with a virus but only models sold in Japan.

No word yet on how the virus may have gotten there to begin with.

[Via PC Advisor]

AMD splitting into two companies

Back in August new AMD CEO Dirk Meyer said that the company was “just months away” from spinning off its manufacturing and fabrication business into its own company and this morning it’s official.

The new company, temporarily named the Foundry Company, will be free to manufacture independently for other companies while AMD focuses on chip design.

AMD retains 44% ownership in the Foundry Company and each will assume $1.2 billion of AMD’s debt.

Also announced was that Abu Dhabi-based Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) would inject at least $6 billion into the two companies, mostly to finance a new chip factory in Saratoga, New York, as well as to upgrade one of the Foundry Company’s existing plants in Dresden, Germany.

The investment will give ATIC a majority stake in the Foundry Company with 55.6 percent of its shares.

[Via Electronista and New York Times]

eBay to layoff 10 percent of workforce

eBay has announced that it will be laying off 10% of their workforce and that while they do expect to hit their third quarter forecast it will be at the low end.

The cutbacks means about 1,000 employees and several hundred temporary workers will be out of a job.

[Via Reuters]

Play with T-Mobile G1 right now thanks to emulator site

You won’t be able to actually go hands-on with the new G1 until October 22nd, but thanks to a new website by T-Mobile you won’t have to wait that long to start playing with it’s Google Android-based operating system.

Just head on over to the G1 site here and select “Emulator” and you’ll be presented with a [mostly] fully functioning virtual G1 (some screens aren’t working but there’s enough that is to give you a pretty decent idea what it will be like to use the G1.

[Via Engadget]

T-Mobile sells out of Android-based G1

The highly anticipated HTC G1 phone on T-Mobile, the first Google Android-based handset to go on sale, won’t be available until October 22nd but has already apparently sold out.

According to T-Mobile even after tripling production on the G1 there were so many pre-sales for the device that it has sold out. You can still order it but you won’t be able to get it right at launch.

Given the great anticipation and the heavy pre-sale demand for the T-Mobile G1 with Google, we nearly tripled the number of phones initially available for delivery on our Oct. 22 launch date, and have sold through them all. However, to accommodate additional T-Mobile customers who want to pre-order a device, they now have the opportunity to place a pre-order through Oct. 21, for delivery at a later date. Also, people can still pre-register on the T-Mobile G1 Web site to be notified prior to launch where they can purchase the device beginning Oct. 22.

For more info on the G1 check out T-Mobile’s dedicated site here.

[Via Gizmodo]

Apple stock falls 10% on bogus report of Steve Jobs heart attack

Someone on CNN’s iReport.com, a site where users post unfiltered news as “citizen journalists”, posted a story that Apple chief Steve Jobs had suffered a massive heart attack and had been hospitalized.

Right after the post hit Apple’s stock price fell nearly 10%, forcing Apple to respond saying that it was not true and Jobs has not been hospitalized.

The story has since been pulled from iReport and Apple shares are back to almost the same level as before the “news” hit.

[Via Computerworld]

Nokia officially announces 5800 XpressMusic, aka ‘Tube’

At a press even today, cell phone giant Nokia officially announced the 5800 XpressMusic, formerly referred to as the ‘Tube’.

The 5800 is a touchscreen phone running the latest version of Nokia’s Symbian operating system, S60 5th Edition (or S60 Touch) and will include:

• Support for Quad-band GSM with 850/1900 WCDMA, Quad-band GSM with 900/2100 and Quad-band GSM with no 3G
• 3.2 inch touchscreen display, 640 x 360 with tactile feedback
• 3.2 megapixel camera with Zeiss optics, able to record video at 30fps
• 1320 mAh battery
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• Stereo speakers
• Proximity sensor
• Available in black, red and blue

Sounds pretty solid but was hoping for a little more.

Look for it to be available later this year for without Nokia’s Comes with Music service for just under $400, then a version that includes Comes with Music will be coming sometime next year.

Check out a few videos of it in action here.

[Via BGR and Engadget]

Star Wars fashion by Marc Ecko

I can’t imagine when I would ever actually wear any of these but they are pretty cool–meet the Star Wars Collect by Marc Ecko, a series of Star Wars-themed hoodies and t-shirts by Marc Ecko with an urban edge.

The collect includes Storm Trooper and Boba Fett hoodies, a Death Star explosion t-shirt and several designs with prices ranging from $24 to $98.

For more info check them out at shopecko.com.

[Via Gizmodo]