GTA 4 -LOSTAND DAMNED HITS XBOX 360 -LOST AND DAMNED REVIEW AND GAMEPLAY

Is it Old wine in a new bottle? Or is it an old car with a new paint?Or is it a superb mod with a new character and biking glory? - We at Technosquare take a look at this Xbox 360 exclusive expansion for Grand Theft Auto 4 -Lost And Damned.

The Lost and Damned focusses on a brand-new protagonist (biker Johnny Klebbitz) and that it would add plenty of content in the form of new music, rides, weapons, and characters - 54 songs, 20 vehicles and 6 weapons along with additional solo and multiplayer modes to be precise.

Johnny, the comparatively cool second in command of the gang, The Lost, has spent some time healing the wounds of prior gang wars. The peace is short-lived though, as Billy Grey, the id-driven president of The Lost, returns from a stint at the Alderney State Correctional Facility. To reassert his dominance and send a message to any potential usurpers, Billy bashes a few heads and rekindles trouble for The Lost. Unlike Niko Bellic who is a new comer to America like a fish out of water who has to find new work,unkock safe houses etc,Johnny is a long time resident of the concrete jungle and has all the weapons,safe houses and connections right from the beginning of the game.The safe houses now will be places where you will interact with your fellow biker bros,play cards and do arm wrestling.The game creates the oneness of the biker fraternity by encouraging you to protect your bros and the more longer they are alive the better they'll get and the more help youll get -but if one of them die,theyll be replaced with another with zero credentials.

The Lost and Damned expansion is certainly much more than horse armor or a few extra added missions. Apart from the usual missions provided by the game characters,side missions include bike races and gang wars ,the latter being a biker death match scenario.The new Multiplayer elements help to extend the life of the game-bike races (complete with bats) , and a fantastic 1-on-1 mode called Chopper vs Chopper session to name a few. There are several other modes, usually motorcycle club-themed, but if you’ve played a ton of GTA 4 multiplayer already, you probably won’t find the rest of the modes all that fresh.

Rockstar claims this Xbox 360-exclusive addition features the same attention to detail and production values as the original Grand Theft Auto IV.The Lost and Damned, it's clear the expansion will feature the same mature narrative, great voice work, and action-packed mayhem of GTAIV. It's especially rewarding to see the intertwining stories of Johnny and Niko play out.

Watch The Video Review

SECOND GOOGLE PHONE -HTC MAGIC UNVEILED

After google phone was unveiled for the first time last september,which was a T-Mobile exclisive productcalled the G1 ,a new phone based on Google's operating system Android has been unveiled by Vodafone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.The new Google phone besides showing off its touchscreen HTC Magic, will feature a 3.2 Megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, and GPS, but no slide-out keyboard.

The Magic will feature new Android firmware, known as "Cupcake", with changes based on G1 user suggestions and will go on sale to Vodafone customers in the UK, Germany, Spain and France, and non-exclusively in Italy.Android phone users will be able to access the Android Market, a storefront for applications that already boasts 800 offerings.

Speaking at the product launch, Vodafone and HTC representatives stressed that the ethos in producing the Magic was on form as well as function, and that the thinness and "feel in the hand" had been an important consideration.

According to Patrick Chomet, global director of terminals for Vodafone Group"We are paying particular attention to style and design; I'm practically obsessed with it. We are extremely careful not to produce products for a niche of geeks, but bring out a proper mass-market consumer device with a lot of attention to design and functionality.This is the thinnest, nicest Android-powered device on the market."

Pricing will be done locally in each territory and Vodafone has opened pre-registration the device.The HTC Magic has a proprietary headphone jack, and so will not accept many standard headphones.The device comes pre-loaded with Google applications, such as Maps, Mail, Search and You Tube. Apart from promising several launches by HTC like Congress,Magic seems to be the only one that has been confirmed a launch as of now.

MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES REWARD FOR FINDING THE CULPRIT BEHIND THE DOWNADUP/CONFICKER VIRUS

Microsoft has announced a reward of $250,000 (£172,000) to find out who is behind the notorious Downadup/Conficker virus.Since it started circulating in October 2008 the Conficker worm has managed to infect millions of computers worldwide.
Do you remember the Sasser worm that created chaos in the year 2003? Microsoft then created its reward programme with $5m (£3.4m) in funding to help law enforcement agencies bring computer virus and worm authors to justice. In 2005 Microsoft paid out $250,000 (£171,000) to two individuals who helped identify the creator of the notorious Sasser worm. The author was arrested and sentenced by the German authorities.But the sheer pricing of this reward says about the danger about Conficker.

The software giant is offering the cash reward because it views the Conficker worm as a criminal attack.According to George Stathakopulos of Microsoft "the company was not prepared to sit back and let this kind of activity go unchecked.Our message is very clear - whoever wrote this caused significant pain to our customers and we are sending a message that we will do everything we can to help with your arrest," said Mr Stathakopulos.Arbor Networks said as many as 12 million computers could be affected globally by Conficker/Downadup since it began prowling the web looking for vulnerable machines to infect in October.

We at Technosquare have previously revealed about the waht and how of conficker virus which can be seen in this link http://technosquare.blogspot.com/2009/01/conficker-virus-threat-for-wndows-vista.html

Although Downadup is widespread its creators have yet to activate its payload to steal data or launch other attacks.It has caused costly headaches for network administrators dealing with users locked out of their accounts when the worm correctly guesses a password.While Microsoft says it does not know the intention of the worm's creator, it wants to ensure it does not wreak any more havoc.Keeping your antivirus software updated and frequent windows patching like KB958644 is the only option available as of now.

Microsoft has also partnered with security companies, domain name providers, academia, internet companies such as AOL and others on a co-ordinated global response to the worm. Also included is the US Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security."The best way to defeat potential botnets like Conficker/Downadup is by the security and Domain Name System communities working together," said Greg Rattray, chief internet security adviser at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).

But the real nail in the coffin is although rewards of over $250,000 were offered to find the culprits behind the Blaster, MyDoom and Sobig worms the perpetraitors are yet to be arrested!