Ever since the Online Game Development Conference (OGDC) started, more than a few big names have graced the event. However, it won't be known as the OGDC for much longer. Evergreen Events has announced that it will now be known as the ION Game Conference.

Want to  know more about this change? Head on over to the full article by clicking on our "read more" link below for more information.

This may be a geek burglar's dream come true: breaking into an Apple store filled to the brim with laptops and iPhones. Unidentified robbers have broken into Seattle's Apple Store at University Village, swiping all laptops that were being serviced and refurbished iPhones in the office.

The Seattle police was first alerted of the heist on 4 a.m. last Monday when the store's alarm notified them of a rear entry, but there was no indication of anything out of the ordinary. The police finally checked out the site at 8 a.m., only to find the store in disarray.

A large hole was found in the technician's room's ceiling, and 20 cubicles were emptied of laptops. Even a high-end laptop was cut loose from its cable lock.

One of the more pressing problems aside from the burglary is identity theft, since there is a plethora of customers' personal information stored in the stolen serviced laptops, including credit card information. The Apple Store employees called their customers and notified them of the theft, but they refused to comment to the Seattle P-I reporters.

If your own laptop or wallet gets stolen, you're a potential victim of identity theft as well. Don't just report it to the police; immediately alert your credit card company and place a fraud alert as well. It's better to be safe than sorry.

There's no doubt that the Apple iPhone's launch was a runaway success, and new owners of the handset couldn't be happier. But Gizmodo reports some flimsy incidents that might dampen the parade a bit.

According to the report, AT&T might be cashing in on the launch by forcing consumers to buy two accessories if they want to get the handset. This happened in two stores in Seattle, one in California, one in New York and a weird variant of the act in North Carolina.

According to sources, consumers who waited in long lines to buy the iPhone were required by shopkeepers to purchase two of the product's accessories. If they didn't, they were simply denied the privilege of trading. In the New York branch, it took a man hollering that AT&T was doing illegal stuff to get them to sell without forcing accessories.

In one Seattle store, a source reports that AT&T had 20 units in stock and declared them sold out after 10 people entered the shop. However, they did offer the remaining people that they could get them handsets through "special deals" within a couple of days if they ordered two accessories along.

Gizmodo also reports that there are sources saying that AT&T personnel were required to sell products on a given quota. Unless they perform according to the company's benchmarks, they were subject to termination.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, accessories weren't forced on buyers but accessories were placed within the package of the iPhone. This way, the store was able to charge an additional 10 percent for restocking if the box was reopened.

 

Japan may not be Microsoft's power base but give them an "A" for giving it some of their best shots. This time, the Seattle-based computer giant is banking on Edy e-money to attract gamers to its Xbox Live fold.

So why e-money? In a nutshell, Japan may be a technological trailblazer, but its citizens have never really been big credit card fans. However, one of the fastest-rising means of trade is the Edy system developed by Sony where real money is converted to electronic credits that you can use in most Japanese stores to buy just about anything you want.

Edy money can be stored in either credit cards or mobile phones. Microsoft is taking advantage of the latter because mobiles are big in the country. Essentially, Microsoft's adoption of Edy allows interested gamers to register to Xbox Live and buy Microsoft points. This, Microsoft hopes, will remove the credit card distrust barrier and encourage more people to get into Xbox Live.

What should Starbucks do if they lose four laptops containing vital information on about 600,000 current and former U. S. employees, along with no more than 80 Canadian workers and contractors? Give them a compensation package of free Starbucks for life, that's what.

Unfortunately, that's not how they run things over there, so that's but wishful thinking. What is fact is that the coffee giant indeed lost track of four laptop computers from a closet in their corporate support center over at its south Seattle headquarters. Spokesperson Valerie O'Neil explained that they have been looking for them laptops since early September, but that it is only now that they are notifying those who may be potentially affected. She says it was because "we wanted to make sure we were thorough before we notified people."

Remaining optimistic (or probably just on a caffeine-high), she further says, "We have no reason to believe those laptops are in the hands of someone who wants to misuse them..We just want to make every effort to protect our partners." The data from two of the missing laptops contain names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and is about three years old (since prior December 2003).

Notifying those whose information are in the laptops, Starbucks urged them to be on alert for any suspicious activity in their accounts. Add to that, they also promised free credit protection services to enable them with the tracking down of their accounts. Starbucks is now "reinforcing its corporate policies and updating procedures on protecting the personal information of its employees to prevent such data loss from happening again".

I'll take that to go.

Mood swings are inevitable. Some days, you feel like you can do no wrong and you breeze through life like you own it,and everything's meant for you. But then, there also are days that you feel so out of it, you don't even want to get out of bed because you know there's some impending doom just waiting for your feet to touch the floor before it explodes.

Most have theorized that the weather has a lot to do with how your disposition goes. It does make sense. After all, people more commonly associate their feelings with the weather. If it's sunny, you're supposed to at least feel positive. Cloudy days are tagged with humdrum days, while rainy days are for those days when you feel as if your life is crashing down. But actually, seasonal mood variations are not really dependent on temperature, but rather, on daylight.

The mood swings that we experience can also be identified as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. Well, isn't that appropriate? According to studies, most SAD sufferers experience normal mental health throughout most of the year, but experience depressive symptoms in the winter. And as it is believed to be daylight-related, a co-relation is therefore found as to why SAD is prevalent even in mid-latitude places with mild winters, such as Seattle.

Here's where it gets interesting. To cater to this disorder, a patent has been requested for a mobile phone, which would include light panels for treating SAD. The patent, US 2006/0183516, calls for a phone to be fitted with a number of light panels on the face of the phone, in turn delivering "light therapy" to the user's face when the phone is in use. The idea was derived from the "light boxes" treatment used for SAD, which uses a bright light at a dose of 10,000 lux for 30-60 minutes daily.

A supposed additional benefit of this technology is that if the LEDs are set to emit light at a wavelength of 370-450 nanometers, it could also have a beneficial impact on acne. Imagine, your cellphone acts not only as your carry-on shrink, but also your dermatologist! Talk about hitting two birds with one stone...er..phone!

If this pushes through, we just might be able to say that happy days really are here again.

AC Transit is about to roll out a free Wi-Fi scheme on all buses travelling within the San Francisco bay area, becoming the first public bus system in Northern California, and one in a handful that offer a free Bus-Fi system. It is predicted that free internet access via public buses will encourage more people to use public transport, as Aram Boyd, senior marketing representative for AC Transit said "folks will be able to surf to work and back."

So when can you expect this free Wi-Fi to start? Testing is scheduled to begin as early as next week, with the goal to have a full Bus-Fi service running by mid-fall, Boyd said. A few local transit agencies either already provide Wi-Fi service or are planning for it, including Caltrain, the Altamont Commuter Express and some ferries. It is already available on public buses in Seattle, Riverside in Southern California, Cincinnati, Tampa and Cedar Rapids. The above logo may coming to a bus near you this fall.

The 4th annual Mobile Game Conference will take place on July 13-14, 2006 in Seattle. Only a limited number of passes are available for working media, so if you don't want to lose a spot, head on over to Game Initiative's website to register.

A list of speakers have already been mentioned in this article with the addition of:

• Chris Early, Studio Manager, Microsoft Casual Games Group
• Mitch Lasky, Senior, Vice President, EA Mobile
• Kosei Ito, Vice President and Producer of Mobile Products, Square Enix North America
• Trip Hawkins, Chairman & CEO, Digital Chocolate
  

And I guess being in the American Idol era, there will also be a contest for game developers, indie game developers and publishers to present their nights-and-weekend designs in front of a panel of mobile games executives who can bring them to market. The winning presenters, will have 5 minutes to pitch their game to a select panel of judges like Kris Davis, Games Product Marketing Manger (Sprint), Andrew Stein, Sr. Product Manager (Cingular) and Paul Nakayama, Sr. Director, Content Programming (Amp'd Mobile).