General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Netflix Testing New Kid-Friendly UI

Posted: 12 Aug 2011 02:31 PM PDT

netflixTech-savvy parents know there is a lot of kid-friendly content on Netflix. The only problem is that many young ones lack the reading ability or manual dexterity to navigate to the shows themselves. Enter the Netflix "Just for Kids" section. This new UI is being previewed for some users already, but the company hasn't said anything about it.

The entire UI of this section is different from the rest of Netflix. Right at the top are pictures of various popular characters like Hello Kitty and Big Bird. The kids can click on one to pull up all the TV and movie content that has them in it. These pages are heavy on screenshots and short on wordy descriptions. 

There are also some suggestion specially tailored to kids on the main page. Netflix has not said what its plans are for this UI. It might be a preliminary test and we'll never see this again. Or this could be the first phase in a surprise feature rollout. 

Diabolical! 15 Great Geek Villains from Movies and TV

Posted: 12 Aug 2011 12:05 PM PDT

 Adventure. Excitement. A geek craves not these things...most of the time. While most of us are content to walk in the light, a number of our most craven geek brethern have chosen to follow a darker path, seeking power, fame and glory through any means neccesary. Plying their geeky wiles towards bending the world to their will, these nerdy neerdowells will stop at nothing to survive and thrive. To make sure you know to steer clear of such villianous vermin, we've put together a gallery of some of the worst offenders. After all, knowing is half the battle.

Update:  If you post a comment to this story with your favorite geek villian (either from this list, or one that we've missed), you are entered to win one of five Slacker Premium  3-month Subscriptions! Details here. 

Contest Friday: Win A Slacker Premium Account!

Posted: 12 Aug 2011 10:58 AM PDT

We love us some streaming music. From newer offerings like Google Music and Spotify, to web apps like Radio and everything in between, we spend a lot of time on our tunes. If you're a fellow audiophile in need, and are still using something hideous like MySpace to discover new bands, let us introduce you to Slacker.

Better, right? Want to know what's even better than that? If you go to our gallery of 15 Great Geek Villians from Movies and TV, and leave a comment with your favorite villian, either from our list or one that we've missed, you're entered to win one of five Slacker Premium 3-month Subscriptions! (Usual rules and regulations still apply and can be found in the fine print below). Good luck!

 

slacker pre

 

Rules

MaximumPC contest rules: Anyone who posts a comment listing their favorite geek villain on the 15 Great Geek Villains from Movies and TV article will be entered to win one of five Slacker Premium 3-month Subscriptions - one entry per accepted comment. Prizes will be awarded by random drawing. Submissions will be accepted until Monday the 15th of August at 06:00 PM PST. By entering this contest, you agree that Future US, Inc. may use your name, likeness, website, and submission for promotional purposes without further payment. Employees of Sponsor, its respective parent, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, and agents, and foregoing employees¹ household or immediate family members (defined as parent, spouse, child, sibling, or grandparent) are NOT eligible to enter Contest. All prizes will be awarded, and no minimum number of entries is required. Prizes won by minors will be awarded to their parents or legal guardians. Future US, Inc. is not responsible for damages or expenses the winners might incur as a result of this contest or the receipt of a prize, and winners are responsible for income taxes based on the value of the prize received. A list of winners may also be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope toFuture US, Inc. c/o MaximumPC Contest, 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. This contest is limited to residents of the United States. No purchase necessary; void in Arizona, Maryland, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and where prohibited by law.

Firefox 8 To Stop Unauthorized Add-ons In Their Tracks

Posted: 12 Aug 2011 10:29 AM PDT

If's there's one thing we hate, it's Brussels sprouts. If there's two things we hate, it's Brussels sprouts and sneaky programs that automatically install add-ons into our Internet browsers. Turns out we're not the only ones. Those pesky unapproved add-ons have been a thorn in the side of Mozilla, who shoulders the blame when the invaders cause crashes and browser lagging. When Firefox 8 rolls around, unauthorized add-ons will be a thing of the past: the browser won't allow installations without the express permission of users.

"If Firefox starts and finds that another program has installed an add-on, Firefox will disable the add-on until the user has explicitly opted in to the addition," Mozilla add-on manager Justin Scott wrote on the organization's Add-ons blog. "Users that want the functionality provided by a third-party-installed add-on can easily allow the installation, while users who don't can cancel or ignore the prompt."

Spiffy, huh? The usefulness doesn't stop there: the first time you boot up Firefox 8, the browser will prompt you with a list of all of your add-ons, and helpfully inform you which of them were installed without your permission. The ones you've installed in-browser will be enabled automatically, while the rogue add-ons will be disabled unless you specifically tell Firefox to enable them.

Expect Firefox 8 to hit the webs on November 8, keeping in line with Mozilla's new rapid-release schedule for the browser.

Are Notebook Manufacturers Unhappy With The Ultrabook's $1000 Price Tag?

Posted: 12 Aug 2011 10:11 AM PDT

Intel's pumped about its Ultrabook concept. How pumped? So pumped that earlier this week, the company created a $300 million fund to help spur on the development of the powerful, low weight, long lasting laptops. The companies that are actually making the Ultrabooks, though, are apparently a little less enthused. You see, Intel wants companies to sell Ultrabooks for less than $1,000 – probably to make them competitive with the MacBook Air. That number's making a few manufacturers shift uneasily in their seats.

Computer makers estimate they'll need to spend $700 on materials alone for an 11.6-inch Ultrabook, DigiTimes reported today. At $1,000 retail, that doesn't leave much meat on the bone after other costs, like marketing and distribution, are factored in. DigiTimes' (as always) anonymous sources said that the magic $1k number would be much easier to swallow if Intel would sell Ultrabook-bound CPUs to OEMs at a greater discount. The same unnamed sources say some notebook makers want Intel to hand out a $100 marketing subsidy for each Ultrabook sold.

While these rumors align with some others that we've heard recently, it's always good to take anonymous sources with a grain of salt, especially when the same DigiTimes article says that Asus, Acer and Lenovo all plan on releasing sub-$1,000 Ultrabooks by the end of the year.

IBM Sets TPC-C Benchmark Record for x86 Servers

Posted: 12 Aug 2011 09:59 AM PDT

It was 30 years ago to the day when IBM released it's first personal computer, the IBM PC 5150. Two days ago, an IBM executive essentially declared the PC a fossil, saying he recently made the switch to a tablet as his primary computer (good luck with that). And today? IBM made a splash in the server sector by announcing it just recorded the highest TPC-C benchmark score ever achieved for an x86 server.

IBM scored three million transactions per minute using a single rack non-clustered IBM System x running DB2, the same system it set a record with eight months ago. The system features four Intel Xeon E7 8870 processors running at 2.4GHz with 30MB of shared L3 cache per processor, 3TB of memory, and eXFlash enterprise multi-level cell (MLC) SSD storage.

"Leveraging significant investments in x86 technology, IBM continues to push the envelop in terms of innovation, scalability and performance," said Alex Yost, vice president, IBM System x and BladeCenter systems. "At the end of the day, it's about the customer, about delivering highly scalable, cost-effective, energy-efficient solutions that help clients differentiate themselves in their chosen markets."

IBM's record breaking benchmark score ranks 5th overall on TPC-C Top 10 results for non-clustered systems. IBM couldn't resist taking a potshot at Hewlett Packard claiming this feat extends the system's performance advantage over a comparable HP machine by up to 66 percent.

AMD May Bundle Liquid Cooling Solution with FX Processors

Posted: 12 Aug 2011 08:49 AM PDT

Stock CPU coolers have their place, like in Aunt Mabel's machine or the spare parts bin. If you're planning to overclock the snot out of your system, a third party cooler should be high on your shopping list, lest you taunt the god of instability with high temps. There's another solution -- you could purchase a processor that's pre-packaged with a high-end cooler, only AMD and Intel haven't been real keen on going quite so far to encourage overclocking. That might change with Bulldozer.

Citing "a source with knowledge of the company's plans," XBitLabs says AMD is seriously considering selling its boxed FX series processors with a liquid cooling solution (LCS) bundled in. It's a move that would make its FX silicon more overclockable, while also upping the chip maker's street cred among power users, provided the LCS doesn't suck.

The source says AMD would bundle the cooler with its top-tier eight-core processors, though it's unclear if the LCS would come with both of AMD's eight-core FX processors or just the flagship model. And it's not just AMD. According to XBitLabs, Intel is also considering an LCS bundle, though details are unknown.

Nvidia Socks It to Wall Street, Q2 Revenue Beats Expectations

Posted: 12 Aug 2011 08:17 AM PDT

Investors are reacting to Nvidia's financial report for its second quarter of its fiscal year 2012, and doing so in a good way. Shares of Nvidia stock rose by as much as double digits today after Nvidia reported a 5.7 percent bump in revenue over last quarter, which rose from $962 million to $1.02 billion. Even more impressive is the year-over-year comparison, in which Nvidia's revenue is up over 25 percent.

"We grew solidly this quarter," said Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia president and chief executive officer. "Consumer demand for notebooks powered by our GeForce GPU, with its unique Optimus technology, resulted in record revenue for these products."

Never one to mince words, the outspoken CEO was clear that "The future of computing is mobile and visual," and for that, Nvidia is banking on its Tegra platform. That also happens to be the one area investors were able to criticize.

"We wonder when Tegra finally catches a wave and delivers the robust growth investors had been waiting for," brokerage firm Evercore Partners wrote in a note to investors, according to Reuters. Evercore downgraded Nvidia's stock target from $12 to $11 and said it was "surprsing" to see Nvidia not making a bigger deal of Tegra's future.

Nvidia did, however, note that its partners launched six new Tegra-powered "superphones" in Q2, up from two in Q1, as well as four new tablets.

Amended SEC Filing Values Zynga at $11 Billion

Posted: 12 Aug 2011 07:51 AM PDT

There's big bucks in farming (Farmville), whacking the competition (Mafia Wars), exploring the wild west (Frontierville), raising pets and dressing them up (Petville), exploring islands (Treasure Isle), and, well, hopefully by now you get the idea. Zynga's various 'villes and other social games have turned the San Francisco game company into a multi-billion juggernaut, according to an amended SEC filing, CNet reports.

Citing an S-1 registration filed yesterday, CNet says Zynga now reckons it's worth $11.15 billion, a number that should help justify the game maker attempting to raise a $1 billion IPO. What's more, Zynga stated it has a revolving line of credit through Morgan Stanley good for up to $1 billion. Those are all big numbers, and as it stands, everything pretty much hinges on Facebook staying relevant.

"We are the world's largest social game developer with 232 million average monthly active users in 166 countries," the filing said. "Current, substantially all of our revenue is generated from players accessing our games via the Facebook platform."

There's probably little reason for Zynga to worry about its game world crashing down. The biggest threat to Facebook is Google+, and that's still by invite only. What's more, Google has begun rolling out casual games to users, and we fully expect Zynga to make an appearance.

Image Credits: Zynga and flickr (Tracy O)

What Does Facebook Want with Your Phone Number?

Posted: 12 Aug 2011 07:29 AM PDT

There are obvious reasons you don't go scribbling your phone number on restroom walls or handing out your digits willy nilly. In theory, only the people you care to talk with should have your number. If that's the case, are you worred about Facebook harvesting your contact information? The social networking site has come under fire for collecting not just your phone number, but also numbers stored in your phone.

Fox News says there's a statement making the rounds on Facebook warning users of what's going on with their phone details and contacts list. The fear is that Facebook is gathering these numbers even if you've never given the site permission to do so. Don't believe it, says Facebook.

"Rumors claiming that your phone contacts are visible to everyone on Facebook are false. Our Contacts list, formerly called Phonebook, has existed for a long time," Facebook posted on its website. "The phone numbers listed there were either added by your friends themselves and made visible to you, or you have previously synced your phone contacts with Facebook. Just like on your phone, only you can see these numbers."

You can view what has some privacy advocates up in arms by clicking Account in the upper right corner, Edit Friends, and then Contacts in the left-hand pane. Facebook describes it as being "like a phonebook that only you can see," and at least one security researcher says it's to your benefit to sync information from your phone so you can easily find friends and connect with them. At the same time, there's some concern with Facebook having access to all that data.

"In some ways, Facebook is attempting to be very helpful," Don Debolt, director of threat research for Total Defense, told Fox News. "But how exactly they are using this information isn't exactly clear. We don't know how our data is being used, we don't know how our data is being monetized."

If nothing else, Debolt says this should serve as a "wake-up call" for parents of teenagers who use the service and own a mobile phone.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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