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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

As with RIM’s April 2007 outage, the latest downtime has been officially blamed on a flawed software upgrade. According to RIM, the millions left without email can lift their kinked neck and point a crippled digit at an “internal data routing system within the BlackBerry service infrastructure that had been recently upgraded.” This upgrade, like the one in 2007, was meant to boost capacity and speed message routing. Right, the same issue which RIM assured us had been resolved last April.

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Source: Thomas Ricker

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’re getting reports from all over that AT&T customers are having trouble with 3G and EDGE data. A majority of the complaints are coming from the Midwest / Chicago areas, where things seem to be down entirely, but we’ve also heard from folks as far away as Florida. Team Engadget hasn’t hit any snags in New York or Vegas where we’re currently situated, but let us know if you’re having troubles wherever you might be — and what color crayon to use for this fancy “threat level” printout we’ve got pinned to the wall.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: Paul Miller

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Filed under: Gaming

We can’t say that we’re shocked to hear this — you know, considering just how long those Xbox Live holiday blues went on — but Microsoft is indeed being slapped with a class action lawsuit over the aforementioned outages. Reportedly, a trio of angered Texans are alleging that Microsoft didn’t abide by its own contract when network issues disallowed a good chunk of Live users from getting their fix over the past few weeks. According to the complaint, MSFT understood that the time of year would lead to increased activity, yet “failed to provide adequate access and service to Xbox Live and its subscribers.” Of course, we’re betting the Redmond-based lawyers point out that clause about not guaranteeing any minimum level of service, but who knows, maybe we’ll all end up with two shiny new Arcade titles.

[Thanks, Andre and Ben]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Gaming

To all those who’ve been tipping us like crazy about Xbox Live going back down again: yeah, we heard, and we know you’re not happy. If you’re having problems (even if you’re or not!), feel free to let us know in comments. Almost two weeks of outages, yeesh.

To all those sick of hearing about Xbox Live being up and down: feel free to stop reading here, there will be another news story along in a few minutes. But do remember that Xbox Live is possibly the most widely used paid gaming service in the world, so forgive us for keeping close tabs on this story. Mwah!

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Source: Ryan Block

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Filed under: Gaming, HDTV

Not that we’d put it past Microsoft or anything, but we can already smell a rumor brewing where there is probably none regarding the long-speculated and continuously denied plans to integrate an HD DVD drive into the Xbox 360. Granted, Bill’s got to have something to talk about on stage at CES next week, but we we’re not putting much stock in the pure speculation of a fresh Seattle Times piece, which, without sources, simply holds that “Microsoft could also make a splash by announcing plans to give the Xbox 360 an internal HD-DVD drive”. Yep, they could do that which has been speculated endlessly since the HD DVD drive itself was announced in 2006 — or not. Guess we’ll find out for sure next week. Just don’t get your hopes up.

Oh, and those Xbox Live outages we’ve been covering? Rumor has it that Microsoft is going to do right by its customers and hook up Gold members with a little something — at least according to an unnamed Xbox insider. Guess we’ll see about that too one once things stabilize on the Live front.

Read - Xbox 360 to get [Via Joystiq]
Read - Live users to get a little something for the downtime? [Via Joystiq]

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Source: Ryan Block

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Filed under: Gaming

We’re well aware the first three words on the Xbox Live service status box are “up and running,” but those issues are continuing to persist, and if our flooded tip jar and the Xbox Live forums are anything to go by, they’re probably not just “intermittent”. If you’re (still) seeing issues, as always feel free to shout it out, as well as hit our poll so we can keep track of just how severe this stuff is. (So far, of those polled who’ve been trying to use Live, roughly 75% responded that they’ve been experiencing moderate to severe issues.)

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: Ryan Block

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Filed under: Gaming

Of all the weeks to have a major outage of your online gaming service, the holiday and vacation weeks of Christmas and New Years may have to be the worst — which Microsoft has learned all to well over the last ten days. We know you’ve heard plenty about it here at Engadget — but that’s really only because Xbox Live has had such a solid track record over the years, and we’re all just as surprised as you. But while it’s perfectly clear users have been seeing these issues, it’s still unclear exactly how “intermittent” those issues really are. Care to let us know how you’ve fared in our wholly unscientific poll?

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Source: Ryan Block

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Filed under: Gaming

We’re starting to think Xbox Live’s holiday strategy was modeled after Newtonian physics: what goes up must come down. Although the Live support site shows the service as being “up and running”, apparently users are still experiencing intermittent issues, sometimes more dramatic than those officially listed. We don’t know about you, but even though only some of us on we were able to get on, even they have been seeing a lot of stalling and freezing — and the unlucky ones are just completely shut out of Live. How are things going out there? Any XBL issues of which to speak?

P.S. -Microsoft, congrats on the great holiday season. You obviously sold a TON of Xbox 360s and Live service contracts. Now be a doll. Give everyone a week (or, say, a month) of free Live service for the ugliness over vacation, ok? These people paid for their service when the other guys offer it up for free.

Read - Live support site: still having problems
Read - Our post about problems from last weekend
Read - Our other post about outages on Christmas day

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Source: Ryan Block

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