BGR Daily Breaking Stories

Daily Headlines THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015

One of the hackers allegedly behind the PSN and Xbox Live attacks has been arrested For millions of gamers around the world, Christmas was ruined last week when hackers from a group called “Lizard Squad” crippled the online gaming networks tied to Xbox and PlayStation consoles. The attacks rendered the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live completely unusable by hammering them with Internet traffic in an attack called a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The hackers behind the attacks bragged about them online and even on the news, but all of that arrogance may have come at a price for at least one alleged Lizard Squad member, who has reportedly been arrested.  MORE → This drag race video shows how much Tesla’s cars have improved in just 2 years What’s particularly amazing about Tesla’s electric cars is how much they’ve improved in such a short period of time. If you want proof of this, then check out this video posted by DragTimes that shows a drag race between Tesla’s Model S P85 and its more recent Model S P85D.  MORE → Motorola celebrates the new year with a new, even better version of the Moto X Motorola has quietly made a new version of the Moto X available to buyers interested in getting one of the best Android handsets of 2014. In addition to the existing 16GB and 32GB models of the unlocked Moto X Pure Edition, which might not be suitable for some users when it comes to available built-in storage, Motorola is also now selling a 64GB model, which happens to exclusively available on its website.  MORE → Kim Jong-un’s nightmare: South Korean man plans to airdrop DVDs of The Interview North Korea’s seeming victory over James Franco and Seth Rogen’s hit comedy was very short-lived. Not only has the film become a sensation after being released online but now The Associated Press, via USA Today, reports that an activist in South Korea plans to airdrop DVDs of The Interview into North Korea in the hopes that North Koreans will get a chance to see the film for themselves.  MORE → Xbox One SDK reportedly leaked by hackers in order to ‘end 2014 with a bang’ As if the massive DDoS attack from Lizard Squad wasn’t enough of a disastrous end to the year for Sony and Microsoft, a new group called H4LT has apparently leaked the Xbox One software development kit on to Twitter. According to H4LT, this is the first step to bringing homebrew to the Xbox One.  MORE → Comcast rings in the New Year by jacking up modem rental fees again We've mentioned this before but there's really no good reason to rent your modem from your cable company. This is especially true if your cable company is Comcast, which has traditionally charged more for modem rentals than any other major cable company. Ars Technica reports that the Pride of Phila...  MORE → Turn any watch into a smartwatch with the Kairos T-band So you’re not impressed with the current slate of Android Wear smartwatches and you don’t think the Apple Watch is going to do anything to change your mind. You might be willing to put something intelligent on your wrist, but you don’t want to replace your watch with some dorky gadget. You need to check out the Kairos T-band.  MORE → A surprising winner emerges from the Sony hack: BlackBerry There aren’t many winners in the Sony hack but one of them might be BlackBerry. The New York Times reports that once Sony realized the massive scope of the hack, it was forced to dig up “a handful of old BlackBerrys, located in a storage room in the Thalberg basement” and give them to key executives. The reason Sony did this is because BlackBerry still has an unmatched reputation for security and their devices were the only way Sony could be sure their high-level executives’ communications remained confidential.  MORE → Here’s your chance to play Halo 5 even if you don’t own an Xbox One Microsoft hasn’t had any trouble selling the Xbox One since the temporary price drop went into effect, but if you still need some convincing, maybe a play session with Halo 5: Guardians will do the trick. This Saturday, January 3rd, a demo for Halo 5 will be playable at over 50 Best Buy locations between the hours of 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.  MORE → T-Mobile’s outspoken CEO says Apple’s Watch will put wearables on the map Many people expect Apple to reshape the various businesses it decides to enter, much as it did with the iPod, iPhone and iPad in previous years. The company already showed it can still do that with Apple Pay, a mobile payments solution that’s already more popular than anything available in the U.S. before it, while at the same time helping the entire industry get more attention from potential customers. The same thing is expected of Apple’s first wearable device, the Apple Watch, which already appears to have at least one high-profile fan: T-Mobile CEO John Legere.  MORE →

To view in your browser, click here.