General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Hello, Robotic Overlords: Intel's Making Tech That Learns And Adapts To Your Habits

Posted: 24 May 2012 12:41 PM PDT

When web surfers aren't busy calling each other Nazis on forums, they're often cracking jokes about greeting their future robotic overlords with open arms. It won't be funny forever; the groundwork for our eventual demise is already being laid by the best minds in the land. IBM announced that it had created prototype cognitive chips modeled after the human brain almost a year ago, and today, Reuters reported that Intel is launching a research project in Israel dedicated to creating smart tech that can learn the habits of its users. (That way, SkyNet will know the best time to strike.)

Until that dark day, the machine learning tech being developed by the Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Computational Intelligence (with help from Technion and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem) will work to serve man by helping him remember his car keys. No, seriously -- that was the example Intel used. If the smart tech's owner has a habit of leaving his keys in his house, Intel wants devices to learn to to remember where the keys are located and eventually even remind its owner to snag 'em on the way out the door. Intel expects its smart devices to become available in 2014 or 2015.

"All of these devices will come to know us as individuals, will very much tailor themselves to us," Intel CTO Justin Rattner told reporters. Actually, that sounds pretty decent when Rattner puts things that way… but then the president of Intel's Israeli arm, Moody Eden, added this terrifying tidbit:

"Within five years all of the human senses will be in computers and in 10 years we will have more transistors in one chip than neurons in the human brain."

Great, teach the robots to learn our ways, then give them human senses, then make them smarter than us. Just which side are you working for, Intel? Maybe the apocalypse will roll out of Jerusalem after all.

Diablo III Shatters PC Sales Records, Server Woes Postpone Real-Money Auction House Launch

Posted: 24 May 2012 11:04 AM PDT

Would-be demon slays ran into a big problem during Diablo III's opening week; nasty errors and server issues forced many first-day buyers into involuntarily sheathing their swords. The congestion highlighted concerns about the game's always-on DRM, but it turns out there was a good reason for the bad server woes: Blizzard claims Diablo III is the fastest selling game in PC history. Wait! Isn't PC gaming supposed to be dead?

Over 3.5 million PC gamers bought Diablo III within 24 hours of the game's launch, Blizzard said in a press release. Another 1.2 million World of Warcraft joined the party, too, bringing the total number of day one gamers -- many of whom were mere attempted gamers -- to a whopping 4.7 million.

That number jumped to 6.3 million players by the end of the first week of sales, though Blizzard is quick to point out that those figures "do not include players in Korean Internet game rooms, where Diablo III has become the top-played game, achieving a record share of more than 39% as of May 22."

Amazon.com's John Love says Diablo III shattered records for the online retailer, too. "Not only did Diablo III break the record for most preordered PC game of all-time on Amazon.com, but it also shattered the record for best day-one sales for any PC game ever on Amazon.com."

Speaking of Diablo III, if you're one of the aforementioned millions of players, you might want to swing over to the Diablo 3 forums, where the game devs just outlined past hotfixes, impending patches and account security concerns. Buried deep in the wall o' words in a brief announcement about the contentious real-money auction house; given the server issues, Blizzard isn't sure when the auction house will launch, but they know for a fact it won't be in May.

You know what we think about Diablo III. What're your impressions so far?

Corsair Shutters IPO, Launches New Force Series 3 SSD Upgrade Kit

Posted: 24 May 2012 10:14 AM PDT

Think you're having a productive Thursday? You've got nothing on the memory makers over at Corsair. It's barely past lunch time on the east coast and the company has already announced plans to drop its plans for a $78 million IPO thanks to "weak equity market conditions," and while the bigwigs were busy doing that, Corsair somehow squeezed in the time to launch its new Force Series 3 SSD notebook upgrade kits. Meanwhile, I'm barely through my second cup of coffee.

Corsair's been toying with the idea of going public for a while; in fact, the company even went so far as to file an S-1 with the SEC a year ago. This morning, Corsair said it was pulling back from the IPO and remaining a private company, at least for now.

"Corsair's board of directors has decided to postpone its IPO due to weak equity market conditions. Our business is growing, and is generating increasing profitability and cash flow. We have decided that we will re-launch when equity market conditions are more favorable," Andy Paul, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Corsair said. "While we do intend to expand our capital base through public capital markets, our existing capital structure and balance sheet provides sufficient capital to enable continued investment in our brand strength, products and people."

That continued investment in products reared its head quickly with the announcement of the Force Series 3 SSD notebook upgrade kits, which are obviously built around Corsair's Force Series 3 SSDs. The kits are designed to make transitioning to a new drive easy thanks to a handy-dandy bundled USB-to-SATA cable that connects the SSD to your laptop, letting you swap over files before you make the physical switch. It comes with software to help you move over your OS and system/app data, too.

The upgrade kits are available now and cost $140 for a 120GB model or $260 for a 260GB model. That's not too outrageous a premium over the SSDs alone; a bare 120GB Force Series 3 SSD will set you back the same $140 on Newegg, but that drops down to $120 after a mail-in rebate.

You can learn more about the upgrade kit on the Corsair blog.

Toshiba Launches AT300 Tablet with Tegra 3, Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted: 24 May 2012 06:41 AM PDT

Tosbhia today officially trotted out its AT300 tablet with a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor tucked inside and Google's Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) running the show. The AT300 features a 10.1-inch LED-backlit touchscreen display with a 1280x800 resolution and Gorilla Glass, 1GB of RAM, and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, upgradeable via a full size SD card slot.

Budding paparazzi will appreciate the 5MP camera with LED flash on the back and 2MP front-facing camera. Connectivity consists of 802.11g/b/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, micro USB and HDMI ports, and a combo audio output / mic input port.

The AT300 sports a pair of 1W stereo speakers with SRS audio and up to 10 hours of battery life with 100 percent video playback, or up to 12 hours of normal usage. It measures 260.6mm x 178.9mm x 8.95mm and weighs 590g.

Toshiba said the AT300 will be available in the U.K. in the second quarter for £329 (16GB) and £379 (32GB). A 3G model will come out in the third quarter.

Image Credit: Toshiba

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Lian Li Envisions Smartphone /Tablet Users Going Gaga for Three New Ultra Compact PC Cases

Posted: 24 May 2012 06:14 AM PDT

Apparently owning a smartphone or tablet means you're predisposed to favoring ultra-compact computer cases over mid-towers or those hulking full-tower hunks of aluminum and steel. Just ask Lian Li, which today introduced a trio of pint-sized brushed aluminum cases "for smartphone and tablet" wielding folk looking to build "personal data storage hubs for all your mobile devices." Interesting pitch, no?

First up is the PC-Q02 with a minimalistic and quiet design. It measures 5.86 x 9.06 x 7.87 inches (WxHxD) and supports mini-ITX motherboards. The case doesn't come with any fans, instead relying on vent holes on the side and rear panels to maximize natural air flow. Features include a single 5.25-inch drive bay, support for one 3.5-inch and two 2.5-inch HDD/SSDs, two USB 3.0 ports, and an included 300W power supply.

Second up to bat is the PC-Q03, a tiny fanless chassis with enhanced graphics capabilities. It's essentially the same as the PC-Q02, only slightly larger at 7.83 x 9.64 x 8.26 inches (WxHxD), which allows it to accommodate graphics cards up to 7.08 inches in length. It also has HD audio ports on the front panel.

Finally, Lian Li unveiled its PC-Q16, a mini-tower chassis that measures 7.83 x 6.29 x 11.41 inches (WxHxD). This one is built for storage junkies and can hold a single 3.5-inch HDD and up to three 2.5-inch HDD/SSDs, though it doesn't come with a 5.25-inch drive bay, which rules out an internal optical drive. Like the PC-Q02, this one ships with a 300W power supply.

All three cases will be available in the U.S. and Canada at the end of May for $150 (PC-Q02 and PC-Q03) and $160 (PC-Q16).

Image Credit: Lian Li

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Hewlett-Packard Reports $1.6 Billion Profit, Gets Ready to Print 27,000 Pink Slips

Posted: 24 May 2012 05:52 AM PDT

Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday announced financial results for its second fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2012, noting net revenue of $37.7 billion, a big number, though down 3 percent year-over-year. The Palo Alto company raked in a $1.6 billion (with a 'B') profit in its second fiscal quarter and returned $601 million in cash to stockholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases, which is far better than what 8 percent of its workforce will receive -- pink slips -- as part of a multi-year restructuring effort.

In a separate announcement, HP outlined a multi-year plan that it expects to generate annualized savings of $3 billion to $3.5 billion by the end of 2014. Getting there, however, requires axing 27,000 employees, which accounted for 8 percent of HP's total workforce as of October 31, 2011. Those who receive a pink slip will be offered an early retirement program.

In addition to headcount reductions, HP plans to cut costs through supply chain optimizations, SKU and platform rationalization, go-to-market strategy simplification, and business process improvements, HP said.

"These initiatives build upon our recent organizational realignment, and will further streamline our operations, improve our processes, and remove complexity from our business," said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. "While some of these actions are difficult because they involve the loss of jobs, they are necessary to improve execution and to fund the long term health of the company. We are setting HP on a path to extend our global leadership and deliver the greatest value to customers and shareholders."

HP said it plans to record a pre-tax charge of about $1.7 billion in fiscal 2012 related to its restructuring effort.

Image Credit: HP

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Original RickRoll Video Returns to YouTube After 24-Hour Copyright Hiatus

Posted: 24 May 2012 05:33 AM PDT

Strange things happen on the Internet all the time. The art of RickRolling was -- and for some, still is -- one of them, whereby for a short period of time it became vogue to trick people into visiting Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" video on YouTube. Even more strange than RickRolling becoming a thing is the fact that AVG Technologies managed to convince YouTube to pull the popular video yesterday.

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by AVG Technologies. Sorry about that," a message read at the destination for the original Rick Astley video.

Torrent Freak first reported the copyright takedown notice yesterday, which is odd not only because the video has been around for five years and amassed over 61 million hits, but also because AVG Technologies, makers of well known antivirus software, made the copyright claim.

Just another strange day on the Internet, though in this case, the original video is now back online. Oddly enough, Torrent Freak says this isn't the first time YouTube has yanked the 1980s hit offline, claiming it was also pulled in 2010 for -- you guessed it -- copyright reasons.

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