mystery

Google Street View's German launch has truly been like no other.

Germany is not like Brazil, where Street View seemed to unearth more dead bodies on sidewalks than can be seen in the whole repertoire of "Law and Order."

For Germany's bodies are alive with mystery. And no mystery can surely be greater than the one that appeared and has, at least temporarily, disappeared at Zwerchgasse 39 in Mannheim, Germany.

The image, which was captured by the German newspaper Der Spiegel, offers a story. The only question is: What story?

It seems to show a naked … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission scored a major political win today as it announced a $25 million settlement with Verizon Wireless over so-called mystery charges.

While critics complain that the FCC has been dragging its feet on issues such as Net neutrality, the agency announced that it has not only forced Verizon Wireless to refund more than $50 million to consumers for overcharging them, but it has also gotten the nation's largest cell phone operator to pay another $25 million to the U.S. Treasury as a penalty.

The payment is the largest in FCC history and the settlement concludes the agency's 10-month investigation … Read more

Verizon Wireless said Sunday that it plans to refund consumers it wrongly charged for data usage, but the company still faces scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission, which has been investigating Verizon's practices.

On Sunday Verizon released a statement admitting that it had been charging 15 million of its wireless subscribers for data services they didn't intend to use. Verizon has estimated that the total charges, which took place over the past two years, amount to $50 million.

The FCC has been investigating Verizon's mystery data fees for the past 10 months, the agency said in a … Read more

Those who design Google's little Doodles seem to be cerebral types. They try to eschew the mundane for something of a more intellectual flavor. This surely describes the latest--and one of the most charming--in the Doodle gallery.

Perhaps you might have not noted it in your calendar, but today would have been Agatha Christie's 120th birthday. The celebrated British mystery writer made little old ladies seem like the wisest people in the world when she created the Miss Marple series.

And by giving birth to Hercule Poirot, she made Belgium seem like a place that could solve every … Read more

Visa, one of the world's largest credit card companies, is taking aim at "scam" marketing practices that were quietly used by some of the Internet's largest retailers in recent years.

Retailers will no longer be able to allow third parties to charge a customer's card without the card owner re-entering credit card information, Visa said Tuesday. This is Visa's response to one of the biggest scandals to rock online retailing in years.

Last year, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation launched an investigation after learning that thousands of consumers had … Read more

Pulling another page from Apple's playbook, Microsoft has sent out a cryptic invitation to lure reporters to an upcoming event, while offering almost no clue as to what will be introduced.

In this case, Microsoft has invited select reporters to an event on April 12 in San Francisco. Engadget appears to be first along the mail truck route from Redmond, Wash., so for now you will have to go there to see pictures of said invitation.

Microsoft is declining to comment, though I'd bet it has something to do with the mobile front. One possibility is the introduction … Read more

Mystery P.I. -- The New York Fortune is a seek-and-find game in which you play Private Eye and help the family of an eccentric billionaire find his will by seeking clues throughout the landscape of New York City. As you find hidden items and decipher puzzles, you get closer to solving the mystery.

The game's instructions are helpful and easy to understand. New York City is rendered cartoon style in this scenario. Players seek clues in familiar Gotham landmarks, such as Central Park and Times Square. Each scene is jumbled and cluttered with items that are part of … Read more

Masters of Mystery: Crime of Fashion demo follows rookie detective Carrie Chase as she tries to solve the murder of a fashion designer in New York City. In each scene of the game, players help Detective Chase find items that will help solve the crime. This game is a fresh new take on games that feature a classic seek-and-find motif.

The game's interface is well designed and resembles comics and graphic novels. As you begin, Detective Chase's boss instructs her on how and where to begin. The game starts in Chase's new office, which its former occupant … Read more

Wizard's Pen is a high-quality puzzle game in which users must identify objects by viewing bits and pieces of images and completing other visual puzzles. The professional graphics and variety of puzzle types make this game highly entertaining.

Wizard's Pen is published by SpinTop, a division of PopCap, which never fails to impress us with its games. The premise of the game is that a wizard has disappeared, and users must solve a variety of puzzles to find out what happened. The main component of the game is a puzzle in which users click on a blank page … Read more