General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Google Planning To Launch NFC Payments With Google Wallet Starting Tomorrow

Posted: 18 Sep 2011 06:52 PM PDT

Google WalletGoogle promised to release its new Google Wallet smartphone payment system before the end of the summer, and according to leaked documentation being sent around to Sprint employees, they will hit their self-imposed deadline with full 3 days to spare. According to a memo obtained by TechCrunch, Google Wallet will officially become available tomorrow, but only for Sprint customers using the NFC enabled Nexus S 4G.

The timing of the announcement lines up neatly with the start of the NFC World Congress which kicks off tomorrow in the French Riviera. Google isn't listed as attending the event, but their primary payment partner MasterCard is, and will likely to spill the remaining details during their keynote. 

Even with the launch of Google Wallet and NFC enabled devices, it's unlikely Nexus S 4G customers will find many uses for the feature just yet. Retailers don't want to invest in hardware to accept NFC because so few people have them, and so the cycle continues.  Verizon customers who are interested in hopping on the bandwagon likely won't have to wait long to join the party. NFC is expected to be included on the Nexus prime coming to the carrier sometime next month. 

leaked document

(Image Credit: TechCrunch)

HP Plans To Sell Remaining Touchpad’s To Themselves

Posted: 18 Sep 2011 06:24 PM PDT

TouchpadHP announced several weeks ago that it would receive a final batch of Touchpad's before finally ramping down operations, but with an estimated build cost of over $300 each, many wondered why they would even bother. Even if they had certain volume commitments to the fabrication companies, by the time HP boxes and ships these off to retailers, they would be even further in the hole. So why did HP do a final run of Touchpad's you ask? Looks like they plan to blow them out to employees.

HP's plans to sell of the tablets internally came via a leaked employee email, but unfortunately, didn't reveal what the PC giant would do if it had any remaining units following the employee offering. Sales to staff are expected to begin on September 28th, so if you're still hoping to get your hands on a dead end tablet, keep your eyes on hp.com over the next few weeks.

Rumor: Is Microsoft Taking Another Look At Yahoo?

Posted: 18 Sep 2011 11:43 AM PDT

YahooUnnamed sources from Business Insider are determined to keep the Microsoft / Yahoo merger rumors alive, and according to contacts close to Microsoft's MSN portal, consolidation is "definitely" in the air once again. When it comes to broad reaching content farms, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL pretty much have the market locked up at this point, and Yahoo's recent troubles have almost certainly made them a more tempting target.

According to SAI's source who asked to remain anonymous because "getting fired sucks", "Yahoo is a lot more interesting" than AOL. The recent and very public ousting of CEO Carol Bartz was an embarrassing move by the company's board, and shareholders that have seen their investments squandered over the past several years are no doubt jonesing for anything that would convince them there is light at the end of the tunnel.

As for Microsoft, winning the battle for people's homepages might not sound like a big deal for most enthusiasts, but believe it or not it could make a huge different in the war on search. "It's not every day that you watch both of your competitors blow themselves up. It's like watching a train wreck."

"The portal space is challenged. Facebook is just absorbing more and more minutes – usage. That's having an effect on portals. The time shifting toward mobile is another factor weighing on portals. The problems AOL and Yahoo have are exacerbated by management."

Intel Announces Multi-Core Has Gone Mainstream

Posted: 18 Sep 2011 10:29 AM PDT

Multi-CoreIf you're a PC hipster who loves his quad core CPU we have bad news for you, Intel has officially declared that multi-core processors have gone mainstream. The announcement was made by Intel's chief technology officer Justin Rattner, to a captive audience at their annual Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco last week.

According to Rattner the end result of so much excess computing horsepower will be that the future of computing will be accelerated. "Since 2006 Intel and the IA developer community have worked in partnership to realize the potential of multi- and many-core computing, with accelerating impact beyond high-performance computing to solving a wide range of real-world computing problems on clients and servers," Rattner said during his Day 3 keynote. "What we have demonstrated today only scratches the surface of what will be possible with many-core and extreme scale computing systems in the future." 

We can only hope that this announcement will prompt developers to take a closer look at software development in the future, and put an even greater emphasis on making them multi-core aware. 

Battlefield 3 Team Releases an Xbox Gameplay Trailer Along With PC Comparison

Posted: 18 Sep 2011 10:01 AM PDT

Battlefield 3DICE has been pretty vocal about its support for the PC as a platform, and has proudly shown off code for its Windows version of Battlefield 3 whenever possible. This PC centric approach has led many to question why the console version is such a secret, and just how much visual definition will be sacrificed for users without proper PC gaming hardware. If you count yourself among the curious, wonder no longer my friends. DICE has not only released footage of the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3, but they were kind enough to post snippets of gameplay that was revealed recently in a PC trailer.

After taking a look at both videos side by side I was actually somewhat surprised. The PC version looks better, no contest, but it wasn't as dramatic as I had expected. When you consider that Sandy Bridge integrated graphics are quickly approaching the processing power of an Xbox 360 GPU, I wasn't expecting much from 6 year old console hardware. It's also worth noting however that the cloak of the night might be hiding more visual blemishes that would be more obvious in daytime missions, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Of course graphics are only one side of the story. With support for larger multiplayer matches, dedicated servers, and the inevitable mod's that are sure to follow, the PC version is the one we would recommend for anyone interested in picking this one up. 

What were your impressions of the 360 footage vs. the PC?

Xbox 360 Version

Xbox

PC Version

PC
Posted by Shri Krishna

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