Topping tech headlines this weekend, Apple's iCloud suffered some downtime, leaving some iOS and Mac users without iMessage and FaceTime capabilities.
Apple did not say how many users were affected by the outage, but promised Sunday that both services would be "restored ASAP." iFans took to Twitter to lament the outage. "[I] feel like my iPhone is irrelevant now because no iMessage," said one, while another chimed in that the world would end "cause iMessage don't work."
Meanwhile, Nintendo's Wii U hit shelves Sunday, leaving customers who didn't pre-order the device scouring third-party sellers, only to encounter an expensive bill. On Amazon, prices began around $500 to $550 for a new, 32GB version of the Wii U, though a few sellers are hoping to rake in upwards of $10,000, or even $1 million. Those lucky enough to have already snagged a Wii U were in for a wait before digging into the video gaming fun. Nintendo already released the console's first major update — a 5GB addition that takes about one to four hours.
In other gaming news, U.K. gaming magazine Xbox World offered some spoilers about Microsoft's rumored new Xbox console. According to the publication, the machine may be called "Xbox," instead of "Xbox 720" or other reported titles. Other details include the possibility of Blu-ray compatibility and support for a new version of Microsoft's Kinect, among other things. Microsoft this weekend celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Xbox Live gaming network, which launched on Nov. 15, 2002.
Also making headlines this weekend:
- Teardown: iFixit Takes Apart Google's Nexus 4: Other than a lot of glue on the battery and a tough-to-replace glass cover, the LG Electronics-built Android phone has easy-to-access components.
- Analyst: Apple Roaring Back with New iPhone, iPads: Apple has dropped out of the $500 billion market cap club, but an analyst is betting new iDevices will boost sales in the holiday quarter and into 2013.
- NASA's Kepler Renews Hunt for Earth-Like Planets: The space telescope discovered more than 100 confirmed planets of three-plus years on its main mission, now set to begin an extended mission that could last through 2016.
- Apple Shutting Down Messages in OS X Lion Dec. 14: The preview's ending! Upgrade to Mountain Lion or no Messages for you.
- JFK Employee Arrested as 'Lookout' in $2M iPad Theft: A worker as New York's JFK Airport is alleged to have asked his co-workers for details about the heist.
- Microsoft Serves Up SkyDrive SDKs for Windows Phone 8, .NET: The software giant added to its file-sharing and cloud storage service toolbox client and server .NET devkits, plus an SDK for the newly released Windows Phone 8 OS.
