Crave

Where's the "All of the Above" option?

(Credit: AT&T)

Before we get into the stories on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast, let's spend a moment on the magic of Lady Gaga. In this morning's pre-show, Jeff admits he's finally fallen for the incendiary pop star, and it's all because of her newest video, "Bad Romance." We all agree that the diva is definitely the most talented pop star, but the nerds inside of us have to ask: does she have to constantly pimp her Monster Heartbeat headphones in every single music video?

Out of this world?

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Wilson also shows us a "no duh" iPhone app from AT&T called "Mark the Spot." The app gives AT&T customers a chance to vocalize and report their poor service complaints. It even lets you note your current location and the frequently of the issue. Anyone else think it's ironic that you have to use AT&T's servers to access this complaint software? How are we supposed to use it if the network is struggling?

We've been patiently waiting for Space Beer to come out ever since the debut of Space Beer Guy back on Episode 109, and it's finally here! The beer made with barley grown in space is finally available for the low price of $113, which actually isn't that much when you consider the shipping fee. Unfortunately, there are only 250 boxes of the stuff available, so you might have to fight us to get your hands on a bottle.

Finally, we've received so many new theme song submissions that we've decided to play a new one every day for the rest of this week! Today's entries include two 8-bit versions from Callum and Adam and a synth-y remix from Mad Dogg. Keep listening to the rest of this week's episodes for more submissions, and thanks to all the talented folks who are taking the time to help out this podcast. We owe you all a Coke!

EPISODE 482

T-Mobile said late on Monday that it may yet be able to recover Sidekick users' information that it had previously thought was lost as part of a massive server failure by Microsoft's Danger subsidiary.

"Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible," it said.

(Credit: CNET)

Those who do suffer permanent data loss will get a $100 "customer appreciation card" good toward T-Mobile service or products, the carrier said in a statement.

"For those who fall into this category, details will be sent out in the next 14 days - there is no action needed on the part of these customers," T-Mobile said. "We however remain hopeful that for the majority of our customers, personal content can be recovered."

That marks a significant change in tone. On Saturday, the carrier and Microsoft had warned that any data not on a customer's phone at that point was likely gone forever.

Monday's business day came and went with little public comment from the companies, but apparently efforts to restore data were more fruitful.

T-Mobile did halt sales of the Sidekick as it investigated the issue.

T-Mobile continued to urge customers not to remove the battery on the device, reset the Sidekick or let it run out of power while the company works to restore its servers.

So, just what the heck happened?

That's one of many questions that Sidekick owners and the broader tech community are asking after one of the largest data failures in recent memory.

Two days after warning customers that their contacts, calendar, and other information may be gone, Microsoft and T-Mobile spent most of Monday in silent mode as they continued to work to try to recover the data from thousands of Sidekick owners.

(Credit: CNET)

Microsoft has said that the hardware failure that caused the problem took out both the primary and backup copies of the database that contained Sidekick users' information. But the question remains, why wasn't there a true independent backup of the data?

T-Mobile has said that it is exploring what to do to try to compensate customers who have lost their data, but as of 4:30 p.m. PDT on Monday had not offered a promised update on where things stood.

For those who don't have their data, there was little to do but vent on various forums and hope that the data recovery efforts bear fruit. (There may be some hope on that front, as some users did report some data re-appearing on their devices on Monday).

Still, those who do have some or all of their information on their device, might want to back that up pronto. Enthusiast site Hiptop3.com and T-Mobile itself have offered up a few ways to back up contact information, in particular.

And, because it bears repeating, T-Mobile is warning those who do have information on their device not to reset their Sidekick, take out the battery, or let the device fully run out of power.

(Credit: Screenshot by Ina Fried/CNET)

Wireless carrier T-Mobile USA has, at least temporarily, stopped selling all models of the Sidekick in the wake of a massive hardware failure that resulted in many customers losing their e-mail, contacts, and other data.

As of Sunday, all models of the Sidekick were listed as "temporarily out of stock" on T-Mobile's Web site. T-Mobile retail store workers also said on Monday that they have been instructed to halt new sales of the device as the company continues to investigate the recent problems that have plagued the handheld.

To recap, Sidekick customers started experiencing problems connecting to the data network more than a week ago. Microsoft, whose Danger subsidiary powers the Sidekick service, said it was investigating the problems.

On Saturday, Microsoft and T-Mobile posted an updated notice saying all data that was not currently on customers devices was likely lost permanently.

Microsoft and T-Mobile have not said how many of the roughly 800,000 Sidekick customers have lost data. Microsoft said a server failure impacted the main and back-up databases. One theory is that the problems cropped up as Hitachi was doing work on the storage network that manages the Sidekick data.

T-Mobile has promised an update for customers sometime Monday. For now, the carrier has advised customers not to reset their devices, remove the battery, or let them run out of power, as doing so could result in losing whatever data they do have.

Microsoft acquired Danger last year, saying it hoped to use its service architecture more broadly in its mobile strategy. The software maker has been working on a project code-named Pink that was to be essentially the future of the Sidekick. The company had not planned for any more versions of the current Java OS-based Sidekick.

Update, 12:30 p.m. PT: T-Mobile confirmed that "Sidekick sales are temporarily on hold." A company representative told CNET News in an e-mail that the company doesn't have an exact number of customers who lost data but that "we believe it is a minority of customers."

Although there are reports that customers are being let out of their wireless contracts and being offered discounts on other T-Mobile phones, the company is officially offering only one month of Sidekick data service. "We are also considering additional measures for those who have lost their content to help reinforce how valuable they are as T-Mobile customers," the representative said.

As for why there weren't better backup mechanisms in place, T-Mobile referred that question to Microsoft.

Update, 2 p.m. PT: Even though T-Mobile has said it has temporarily halted sales of the Sidekick, retailers in New York were still selling the device Monday. At three different locations on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, sales representatives said the Sidekicks were still available, but they were warning any potential customers that mobile Web and e-mail services might not work until the server problem is resolved. They said the phone and the accompanying text-messaging service have not been affected, so customers buying a new Sidekick would be able to make calls, as well as send and receive SMS messages.

In an e-mail to retail sales managers dated October 10, T-Mobile instructed managers on how to deal with Sidekick customers. The message informed them that some personal information backed up by the Microsoft/Danger servers had been lost. This information included pictures, contacts, e-mails, text messages, calendar entries, and to-do lists.

"Our teams continue to work around the clock in hopes of discovering a means for a network recovery solution. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low," the e-mail stated.

Sales representatives were told to direct customers with questions to T-Mobile Forums on its Web site for details and to get updated information.

As part of its "action steps," sales reps were also directed to tell customers not to reset their devices by removing the battery or letting their battery drain completely.

Sidekick's LX, the newest model

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After suffering through a weeklong outage, T-Mobile Sidekick users got even worse news on Saturday, when the company advised them that any data not on their phone was likely gone forever due to a hardware failure.

Since then, Sidekick owners have been sharing their stories with me via e-mail. Here are some of those tales. Feel free to add your own in the comments section or e-mail me (ina dot fried at cnet dot com)

Bram Weiser, a sign language interpreter and computer specialist in New York, wrote on Monday:

Since the outage occurred on October 1st, I've not been able to receive (or, I presume, send) email to/from my Sidekick. (All along, though, I've had phone and text message capability.)

On Monday, October 5th, roughly 100 emails seemed to suddenly appear, leading me to think that the outage was FINALLY over, days(!) after it started. However, while I got notification of those new emails (e.g., italicized, boldface sender & subject line information), the actual bodies of those emails was painfully slow in arriving, if they were ever going to do so.

I THOUGHT I saw an advisory at tmobile.com not to try a "hard" reset as an attempt to retrieve data and/or "kickstart" (my word) my Sidekick, so I steered clear of that. So, thinking I saw it written that way (note: I later realized it didn't say "hard," but puzzlingly advised against ANY reset at all), I tried powering my Sidekick on and off, albeit to no avail, and then tried a "soft" reset in good faith by clicking the pinhole on the body of the device. In more "normal" circumstances (read: just about any other time in the years that I've owned a Sidekick and paid for service through T-Mobile), this would usually bring the device back to life with its information intact, because, as we now know, it would download it from the T-Mobile (read: Microsoft/Danger) servers after connecting to the network. Not this time, though...

After doing all of that, and letting my Sidekick power up again, I, as did many thousands of other users, suddenly lost saved emails, device settings in ALL applications, bookmarks for the Web Browser, my entire Address Book (188 or so entries, although three recent entries did reappear later), and all of the nearly 1,000 entries (past, present and future) for my Calendar. To date, all of these remain lost, though I CAN surf the Internet on my own, as well as define settings, add contacts to my Address Book, send/receive instant messages and, I presume, add Calendar entries on my own as well, though I've not tried much of that yet as I await the safe return of my data.

You're absolutely right when you ask how, for instance, a company like Microsoft/Danger (Microsoft!) didn't have sufficient backups of its servers in place, be they daily, weekly or whatever. This is beyond belief in this day and age!

People need to know about this and not give Microsoft a free pass. For us to be without important data that we paid for the privilege of entrusting to Microsoft/Danger for safekeeping only to have this happen 1-1/2 weeks ago, and continuing to this day, to potentially lose it all permanently(!), and (for now at least) to get a credit of only(!) one month's data service (honestly, is that REALLY satisfactory to anyone?!) boggles the mind.

Jeff McGaha, an electrical engineer in Indianapolis wrote that his wife has a Sidekick, was without access to the data network for four to five days, and has now lost all of her contacts:

She's dropping the Sidekick now, something she was on the fence about for a long time. T-Mobile is lucky we're staying with them. They can thank Google and Motorola for that. The Cliq is going to see bigger sales because of this sidekick outage. Long live Android.

Most of them don't look like this today.

(Credit: CNET)

It looks as though the current Sidekick outage is turning into a bigger mess for T-Mobile. The company has just published an apology to Sidekick users who've been without many important services for a few days--and says that because of a server error at Danger (a Microsoft subsidiary), affected users might not get their data back at all.

This is terrible news for some Sidekick users out there and is also one of the largest fails in cloud computing in recent memory. T-Mobile has already offered affected users a free month of service, but that was a few days ago when it seemed the problem was on its way to being resolved. Now, some users are looking at not having their data restored at all. Those whose data hasn't already been recovered will likely have to rebuild their contact lists, calendars, to-dos, and other personal content themselves.

The problem is that many users didn't back up that data. A friend of mine never backed up her Sidekick LX because Danger's server-side infrastructure made it redundant--or so she thought.

T-Mobile says they'll issue another update on Monday, October 12, which will communicate the current status of the repair.

One important point T-Mobile is communicating to affected users is not to power off your device. On its Web site, T-Mobile warns, "We continue to advise customers to NOT reset their device by removing the battery or letting their battery drain completely, as any personal content that currently resides on your device will be lost." Good luck on Monday.

Visitors to the Xbox Live support page were offered the following message Wednesday.

(Credit: CNET News)

An unplanned outage hit Microsoft's Xbox Live service starting Tuesday night, leaving online gamers unable to connect.

The outage started at 8:48 p.m. PDT Tuesday, according to Microsoft. It followed an earlier scheduled maintenance to both the Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live services that ran through the night Sunday and into Monday.

Microsoft said the outage was due to an unexpected issue following the maintenance work. Visitors to Microsoft's Xbox Live support page have been offered the following status update.

"Users will not be able to connect or log into Xbox Live," Microsoft said. "We are aware of the problem and working to resolve the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

At least for me, the Zune service appears to be working fine. I'll have more details on the Xbox outage once I get more from Microsoft.

Update, 3:05 PT: Microsoft said Wednesday afternoon that the service is back up. "Up and running," Microsoft said. "Users may experience intermittent issues posting TrueSkill statistics on Halo3. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

A Microsoft representative said that outages, at least intermittent ones, lasted until 1 p.m. PT (initially they said 2:30). Microsoft declined to offer any further information on the cause of the outage.

Amid the shaky launch of the iPhone 3G, Apple's new MobileMe service--a juiced-up revamp of its .Mac offering--also took a blow. Apple has consequently opted to entitle eligible members to 30 days free as a we're-sorry gift.

.Mac accounts had been scheduled to "migrate" to MobileMe last Wednesday evening, but instead produced an outage in which neither service was available. New subscribers, meanwhile, had experienced issues signing up.

"The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was a lot rockier than we had hoped," a details page from Apple explained. The offer isn't for everyone: only .Mac members whose accounts were active on July 9, and MobileMe members who registered before 7:00 p.m. PDT on Tuesday (i.e., amid the activation chaos) are given the 30 free days.

It's automatically added to eligible accounts, Apple's site explained.

Updated 1:55 p.m. PDT with DirecTV's response.

DirecTV apparently had big trouble delivering ESPN2's coverage Tuesday morning of the season opener between the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A's, who are playing the game in Tokyo.

The number of reader comments to a 6:29 a.m. blog post about the outage by Amalie Benjamin, who covers the Red Sox for The Boston Globe, soared past 120 within a couple hours after the transmission failure began. The fans, naturally, are calling for congressional hearings on the matter.

While the problem seemed to have been remedied by 10 a.m. East Coast time, we were still waiting to hear from DirecTV about what exactly might have been the problem. It's probably no small comfort to Sox fans, though, that the team won 6-5 on a Manny Ramirez two-run double in the 10th.

DirecTV's response
In an e-mail, DirecTV's director of public relations, Robert Mercer, offered the company's apologies for the inconvenience, saying it was the result of "temporary technical difficulties" that did not affect the majority of channels and that have since been corrected.

In the case of the Red Sox game, any customers who have NESN or ESPN2 in HD were able to see the entire game. For customers who watch NESN in Standard Definition (SD), we were able to bring the channel back at the top of the seventh inning. For customers who watch ESPN2 in SD the channel came back on later, after the game was over.

Replays on both ESPN2 and NESN were planned for Tuesday afternoon Eastern time.