outage

Microsoft on Monday apologized for the length of time it is taking to restore missing data to T-Mobile Sidekicks. The company said it expects to begin restoring data this week, but added that bringing back all data will take longer than that.

In a note on its Web site, Microsoft said that the reason for the delay is that the company wants to make sure that it doesn't risk messing up data as it restores information to users' phones.

"The Danger/Microsoft team is continuing to work around the clock on the data restoration proces," Microsoft said. &… Read more

At Storage Networking World in Phoenix this week, there was a buzz in the hallways and over breakfast tables about the T-Mobile Sidekick outage that was due, according to Microsoft, to "a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up." And why not? There are about 800 enterprise-level storage administrators here. The backup process is squarely in their space as is data recovery and data integrity. Some of their colleagues and some vendors represented on the show floor were at Sidekick ground zero pulling data from the wreckage.

SNW attendees knew that there … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.-- Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg admitted in a talk here on Thursday evening that the company's response to a database outage that knocked out approximately 150,000 user accounts was "too slow."

"It's a very small percentage of our users, but it's a lot of people," Sandberg said of the affected users. "We want them to be able to (access Facebook) every day. We resolved it in about a week and a half. I think that was too slow."

Numerous Facebook users began complaining early this month … Read more

Although Microsoft has said it expects to recover most if not all lost data for Sidekick users, T-Mobile said on Thursday that new sales of the product remain on hold.

The carrier declined to say when--or if--Sidekick sales would resume.

"We're pleased that Microsoft/Danger is continuing to make progress," T-Mobile vice president David Beigie said in a statement to CNET News. "T-Mobile's sole focus remains on helping Sidekick customers recover from this disruption."

Service for the device has been impaired for going on two weeks. Last Saturday, Microsoft, whose Danger subsidiary powers the … Read more

T-Mobile's Sidekick recent outage caused problems for almost all subscribers, but the deaf community got hit particularly hard. CNET News reporter Ina Fried explains why. Plus, Amazon is rolling out same day delivery in select cities, and some Polaroid instant cameras will make a comeback. All this and more on Thursday's CNET News Daily Podcast.

Today's stories:

Reports: Google to launch online bookstore

AT&T to FCC: Rules must apply to Google too

Where the clean-tech jobs are

Amazon offers same-day delivery to select cities

Nokia hit by $832 million loss in third quarter

Deaf users sound off on Sidekick outage… Read more

When the T-Mobile Sidekick started having data problems two weeks ago, it was a big pain for nearly all of the company's roughly 800,000 subscribers. But it became particularly rough for the many deaf people who have been among the Sidekick's most loyal fan base.

"It was severely limiting and made me very dependent on others," Carla McCraw, a Web designer from San Antonio, Texas, said in an e-mail interview. "This loss of independence was very stressful on me."

McCraw said she relies on her Sidekick to manage everyday tasks, from keeping up … Read more

Microsoft said Thursday that it believes it has recovered most of the Sidekick data that it initially feared might have been permanently lost.

"We are pleased to report that we have recovered most, if not all, customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage," corporate vice president Roz Ho said in a letter to customers."We plan to begin restoring users' personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan. We will then continue to work around the clock to … Read more

It was only a matter of time, but the T-Mobile Sidekick issue has now spilled over to the courthouse.

A number of lawsuits have been filed, including two filed in federal court in Northern California on Wednesday that allege both negligence and false claims on the part of Microsoft and T-Mobile.

The suits come amid a massive outage of the service that powers the Sidekick, which has hampered data service since early this month and left many users without access to their calendars, address books, and other information. At one point, Microsoft and T-Mobile indicated that any data not yet … Read more

Technically, we can't blame the loss of Sidekick users' data on a failure of either the concept or the technology of "cloud computing." But Microsoft's clear bungling of basic information management practices (apparently, there were backups--but they didn't work) does cast a pall over not just Microsoft but the cloud concept entirely.

Microsoft, as one of the giant infrastructure technology companies that's saying through its product offerings that data is safe in the "cloud," has a responsibility not just to its customers but to the growth of cloud computing overall to keep … Read more