General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Never Be Productive Again: The 20 Best New Browser Games

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 12:10 PM PDT

We'd like to take a moment to apologize to the nation's economists: We're sorry, fellas, for the damage we're about to do to the GDP.

That's right, it's time again for us to share our very favorite browser games—the most fun, addictive, challenging free diversions we've found online. And we're not going to waste your time with games you've played a hundred times before; these are all games from the past year, and they're the cream of the crop.

Not to disparage last year's list of HTML 5 games, or the previous year's list of 22 flash games, but we really think we've outdone ourselves this time. These are weapons-grade timewasters. So go ahead, read on—if you can afford to lose the rest of your afternoon.

Just What Is Nvidia Teasing Us With?

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 11:10 AM PDT

It's coming. Or at least Nvidia tells us it's coming. What the heck is "it?" We're not really sure. Nvidia posted those two ominous words on its Facebook page yesterday, underneath a close-up of the black Nvidia logo on what looked to be a graphics card cooler shroud. How mysterious! One source says it knows what the vague announcement portends, however.

Swedish overclocking site SweClockers.com (as translated and explained by VideoCardz.com) says that "independent sources" claim that "it" is the GeForce GTX 690, the long-rumored video card that theoretically sports two, count 'em, two of the GK104 Kepler GPUs found in the GTX 680, 4GB of GDDR5 memory, 3072 CUDA cores and a pair of 8-pin connectors. That, kiddies, would be one heck of a polygon-pumping beast.

SweClockers says that the announcement of the new card will coincide with the launch of Intel's Ivy Bridge CPUs, which are (also theoretically) launching next week -- likely on Monday. Assuming the various rumors are true, expect to spend a whoooooooole lot of money to nab a GTX 690 when it launches. Others think we could be looking at the launch of the GTX 670; some say it could be the more powerful GK110-based GTX 685, but that seems highly unlikely.

Linus Torvalds Nabs Top Tech Honor

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 10:33 AM PDT

Finland's Millennium Technology Prize is one of the largest and most prestigious awards a person in the technology field can receive; past winners include Tim Berniers-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, and a handful of really smart folks who have whipped up innovations ranging from dye-sensitized solar cells to "biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration." One of the newest members of the exclusive club is responsible for something many Maximum PC-types swear by: Linux.

Linus Torvalds will be named one of this year's Millennium Technology Prize laureates, the Linux Foundation announced today. The actual ceremony won't take place until June 13th; the $1 million pot for the main prize is presented by the President of Finland. (Others winners split roughly $300,000 between them.) A Torvalds win would be poetic, since he was born in Finland and first announced Linux while studying at the University of Helsinki -- all of which is covered in the "Story of Linux" video above.

The Linux Foundation took the opportunity to toot the operating system's horn; Linux may be an afterthought on most desktops, but according to the Foundation…

…it powers the popular Android phones and eight out of 10 financial trades; it runs Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter and other major web networks. It is the dominant OS for supercomputers, supporting nine of 10 of these major systems, and is the preferable platform for cloud computing.

The honor couldn't go to a more deserving guy. Keep your fingers crossed for Linus!

Palit, Gainward Introduce The U.S.'s First 4GB GTX 680 Graphics Cards

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 10:14 AM PDT

Judging from the comments left on various articles, a lot of you have yet to bite into the juicy GTX 680 apple. Some of you flat-out can't find one available; others have been waiting for 4GB models to start rolling out. Good news for the latter camp: today, both Palit and Gainward announced the launch of new GTX 680s with 4GB of DRAM onboard. (You still probably won't be able to find them that easily, though!)

The new Palit GeForce GTX680 JetStream 4GB comes with a triple fan design, 6-phase PWM and DrMOS technology. Even though the JetStream 2GB came with a decent core/mem overclock and the JetStream 4GB sticks to reference speeds, Palit says the memory boost helps the 4GB model to outperform its linemate by up to 12 percent in Far Cry 2.

The Gainward GeForce GTX 680 Phantom 4GB sticks to stock clock speeds, too, unlike the overclocked 2GB GTX 680 Phantom. This card's claim to fame -- aside from the 4GB of DRAM, of course -- is Gainward's proprietary dual-fan "Phantom II" cooler, which the company says is "the most silent air-cooled board in the market you can find."

Like the Palit JetStream 4GB, the Gainward GTX 680 Phantom 4GB rocks a 6-phase PWM with DrMOS tech and comes with an overclocking utility for those looking to boost those boring reference speeds.The similarities likely aren't a coincidence, as Palit owns Gainward.

Pricing? Availability? Neither company spit out details, although we're guessing these 4GB GTX 680s will cost a lot of dough and be hard to find.

Dell Planning to Pull the Plug on Alienware M11x Laptop

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 07:40 AM PDT

Dell's Alienware M11x proved it's possible to play real games on a little laptop, a concept that flies over the head of every Atom-based netbook in existence. We were so impressed with the pint-sized system's gaming prowess that we awarded it a 9/10 verdict when we reviewed the system, but that was nearly two years ago and unfortunately for fans of the M11x, Dell reportedly isn't planning to refresh it's 11-inch gamer.

That's the news The Verge heard straight from the horse's mouth (Dell), anyway. That's a shame because the M11x was truly something special and we'd love to see it upgraded with an Ivy Bridge foundation and perhaps a mobile Kepler infusion. Ultrabooks, portable as they are, can't offer the same gaming performance that a system like the M11x can.

So that's the bad news. The good news is that Dell is overhauling the M14X, M17x, and M18x for 2012, according to The Verge. All three models are being upgraded with an mSATA slot, Bluetooth 4.0, a dedicated onboard Creative Sound Blaster chip, and THX TruStudio software.

Dell's also upping the gaming ante with new GeForce 600 series and Radeon HD 7000 series discrete GPUs, and if you opt for the 18.4-inch M18x model, you can optionally configure it with two GeForce GTX 675M GPUs in SLI or two Radeon HD 7979M GPUs in CrossFire.

Could Facebook Really Be Worth Upwards of $75 Billion?

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 07:10 AM PDT

When Mark Zuckerberg made the move to acquire Instagram for $1 billion -- Facebook's largest acquisition ever, and one that Zuckerberg negotiated almost entirely on his own without involving his board of directors, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal -- he may have tipped his hand and revealed how much the world's largest social playground is worth. That figure? At least $75 billion, if you can believe it.

Citing "people briefed on the negotiations who did not want to be identified because the discussions were private," Mercury News claims the Instagram deal included a 30 percent cash payment and the remaining 70 percent in stock, which would value Facebook at more than $75 billion.

As crazy as that sounds, Facebook is likely to trade at a higher market value when it goes public, presumably on May 17, 2012, according TechCrunch's "multiple sources close to the company." Those unidentified sources believe Facebook will ultimately be valued at around $100 billion, a figure they came up with based on the level of trading in secondary markets where shares have been trading for as much as $40.

To put that $100 billion valuation in perspective, it's the equivalent to winning the recent record breaking $656 million Mega Millions jackpot, by yourself, more than 152 times over, before taxes.

Maurus Gaming Mouse by Genius Hitches a Ride to U.S. Shores

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 06:29 AM PDT

Even though the company has been around for nearly three decades, Genius isn't as well known in the U.S. as, say, Logitech, Razer, and other competing peripheral makers. That may change if Genius keeps pushing its products overseas as it's been doing in recent months. The newest peripheral to touch down in the States is the Maurus, a GX Gaming Series rodent aimed squarely at FPS players.

The Maurus is a programmable five-button mouse with an adjustable DPI that ranges from 450 to 3,500. Using the company's Scorpion UI, you can setup as many as 21 macros and store them in the Maurus' onboard memory so they're not lost when plugging the mouse into another PC. Other features include 20G acceleration, 1ms response time, 1.8 meter cable, and a metal weight to enhance the hand grip.

Exactly when the Maurus will be available and for how much are a couple of details Genius neglected to mention.

Image Credit: Genius

Verizon Firing on All Cylinders, First Quarter Revenue Tops $28 Billion

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 06:09 AM PDT

Verizon had it going on in the first quarter of 2012. Solid performance in both wireless and wireline business segments led to a consolidated double-digit percentage growth in year-over-year quarterly earnings results, a 4.6 percent leap in year-over-year quarterly revenue growth to $28.2 billion, and $6 billion in cash flow from operating activities, up $922 million compared with the same quarter in 2011.

Big Red posted a 7.7 percent year-over-year increase in wireless service revenues and 8.9 percent in retail service revenues, which were helped in large part by 734,000 retail subscriber additions, of which 501,000 were postpaid customers. Verizon claims it's now home to 93 million total retail customers and 88 million postpaid subscribers.

"Verizon delivered double-digit earnings growth and strong cash flow this quarter," said Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO. "We built momentum coming out of 2011, and our results show that we continue to execute in the key growth areas of our business. Verizon Wireless produced both great growth and great margins, and we produced another strong quarter of FiOS growth. We are confident we will improve Wireline margins for the full year. Our repositioning of Verizon Enterprise Solutions has better aligned our strengths in high-growth markets, and we expect our enterprise business to contribute even more to overall Wireline revenue growth and profitability over time."

What's particularly remarkable about all this is that Verizon is gaining ground even as the wireless market nears saturation, as Bloomberg reports.

"Margins improved as the iPhone sales tailed off," Joe Bonner, an analyst at Argus Research Group, told Bloomberg. "This might be good news for the rest of the sector, especially AT&T."

Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., raked in $15.4 billion in wireless service revenue in the first quarter of 2012 and $6.6 billion in data revenues, the latter of which is up $1.1 billion (or 21.1 percent) year-over-year. It's not just the iPhone, either. Verizon rolled out five new 4G LTE devices just in the first quarter, including the Droid 4 and Droid Razr Maxx by Motorola, the Spectrum and Lucid by LG, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7. Apple's new iPad also made a debut.

Image Credit: icanhascheezburger.com

Report: 32 Windows 8 Tablets to Launch in 2012

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 05:38 AM PDT

Apple spawned the media tablet market with the launch of the original iPad a couple of years back. Two iPad updates and countless Android tablets later, its viselike grip over the tablet market remains intact. To add insult to injury for its rivals, market research firm IDC recently predicted that it could take until 2015 for Android tablets to overtake the iPad in terms of market share. Well, not so fast. For all we know, Windows 8 and not Android could eventually end up upsetting Apple's apple cart. Hit the jump for more.

According to Digitimes' Taiwan-based ODM friends, that's the plan as far as Microsoft and Intel are concerned. Both the companies are said to be working closely with first-tier vendors currently developing Windows 8 tablets, which they hope will be able make a serious dent in the tablet market at the iPad's expense.

These sources claim that the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asustek Computer and Toshiba are readying as many as 32 Windows 8 tablet PCs for launch later this year. Among these, the sources further claim, will be sub-$300 tablets from Lenovo. These entry-level models will take on Android tablets, while those priced above $300 will challenge the iPad. As per Digitimes' unnamed friends, Intel sees Lenovo playing a key role in Windows 8's quest for tablet market share due to its strong position in the Chinese tablet market.

If true, that's a lot of Windows tablets. However, it's not clear from the report whether or not this figure also includes ARM-based tablets.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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