General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Rumor: OCZ's On The Selling Block, With Seagate or Micron Looking To Buy

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 11:10 AM PDT

Here's an interesting tidbit for those Maximum PC readers who were wondering why the two biggest players in mechanical hard drives have yet to seriously jump into the SSD waters: OCZ's shares are currently spiking after insider rumors claimed that Seagate and Micron are considering buying out the company.

Seagate is said to be the most likely buyout candidate. Fudzilla was the first to report that OCZ may be on the market; Reuters ran with the story and got FBN Securities analyst Shebly Seyrafi to pony up the following tasty tidbit:

"I'm hearing the same rumors ... I can only say that after the last quarter, when OCZ's cash situation became more challenging, they would be more willing to enter into a deal."

Bloomberg reports that OCZ's quarterly results were towards the lower end of the company's previous estimates, partly because of cash flow woes and other issues stemming from the supply chain. At times, OCZ was rumored to be simply unable to afford to build SSDs as quickly as consumers were willing to buy them. Seagate's massive pull and mountains of cash could help prevent those types of problems going into the future, while the benefits OCZ would bring to SeaGate (or anyone else, for that matter) is fairly obvious.

The current stock market price tag for OCZ is hovering around $375 million after the rumor-fueled spike in share prices. Fudzilla expects Seagate to offer much more than for the company. It also says OCZ will continue to operate as a separate brand or company if purchased.

Do you think that a Seagate acquisition of OCZ would help both companies, or would there be unintended consequences for one party or the other?

SOPA Blackout Leaders Launch The Internet Defense League

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 10:38 AM PDT

Critics say that the collective interwebz can never again generate as much political pressure as it did in the days leading up to the SOPA/PIPA votes. A new organization scoffs at the idea and promises to sound a warning alarm whenever the open Internet is threatened. The idea behind The Internet Defense League sounds lofty, but the group already has many of the major forces behind the blackout on board and ready to spring to action.

The idea is simple: websites that sign up to join the Internet Defense League will be sent a snippet of code to publish whenever a new threat endangers the Internet. If the website owner decides to publish the code, the warning message is broadcast on his or her website. Done!

"Think of it like the internet's Emergency Broadcast System, or its bat signal!" the IDL's website proudly proclaims. In fact, the group plans on shining bright bat signal-esque spotlights in the sky in five cities across the globe Thursday night to celebrate the organization's launch -- a move timed to coincide with the release of the new Batman movie. Of course, since this is the Internet we're talking about, the IDL will be lighting up the sky with CAT signals, not bat signals.

The EFF, Wordpress, Mozilla, Reddit, the Cheezburger Network,  AccessNow, TechDirt, Grooveshark, Fark, Tor, Free Press, TorrentFreak, Public Knowledge, Open Congress, BoingBoing and plenty more are already on board, so the IDL ideal already has a wide reach. You can read the full list of participants here.

The only thing left to see is the effectiveness of the Internet Defense League. Will they save the warning call for truly important legislation or deaden Netizens' caring with daily "Boy who cried wolf"-type alerts? Do you think the IDF will be effective -- or even needed?

SilentMaxx Offers A Silent, Passively Cooled Sandy Bridge-E Gaming PC With Discrete Graphics

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 10:14 AM PDT

What's even cooler than rocking a powerful Sandy Bridge-E rig supplemented with discrete graphics? Rocking a powerful Sandy Bridge-E rig that's supplemented by discrete graphics and runs completely silent thanks to gargantuan passive coolers. Sound crazy? It is, but the PC builders at Germany's SilentMaxx are offering just that in silent system built around the company's crazy TwinBlock passive cooler, which chills out 100W TDP CPUs with the help of ten copper heatpipes and two utterly massive heat sinks.

The base version of the Fanless I-850 Gamer PC costs the equivalent of $1,569 and includes a 3.6 GHz Core i7-3820, 8GB of DDR3-1600 RAM, Gigabyte X79-UD3 mobo, a passively cooled Radeon HD 7770, and a hard drive silencer that doubles as a heatsink. Thinking that graphics card is a bit weaksauce for a Sandy Bridge-E build? You're right, but fear not: SilentMaxx offers a ton of customization options, maxing out with passively cooled GTX 580, GTX 670 or Radeon 7970 offerings, 32GB of RAM, a pair of 512GB SSDs and a 3.3GHz Core i7-3960X. Be warned: the cost doesn't include shipping, which could be a hefty bill if you're bringing it over to the U.S.

That seems like a lot of firepower with a lot of heat generation, but SilentMaxx claims the aforementioned monster TwinBlock cooler, passive GPU cooling and custom-designed ventilation-friendly tower should keep things quiet and cool enough. The company even puts its money where its mouth is with a 24 month, no-questions-asked warranty.

Props to Olivier at Fanless Tech for bringing our attention to this passively cooled powerhouse.

Strong Growth at PayPal Fuels eBay's Second Quarter Surge

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 09:10 AM PDT

Auction site eBay is rolling in riches as its online business continues to boom. Revenue for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012 spiked 23 percent year-over-year to $3.4 billion, eBay said. Second quarter income on a non-GAAP basis reached $730 million, up 16 percent compared to one year ago, while GAAP income hit $692 million. PayPal is a big reason why eBay is doing so well these days.

By acquiring PayPal, eBay is able to double-dip its commissions from auction sales by sellers who accept the online payment service. PayPal now has over 113 million active registered users, which is 13 percent more than it had last year. The end result is that PayPal revenue is skyrocketing, jumping 26 percent compared to last year, "driven primarily by increased penetration on eBay," the auction site stated in its Q2 report.

Going forward, eBay sees big potential in tapping into the mobile market.

"Mobile continues to be a game changer. We now expect eBay and PayPal mobile to each transact $10 billion in volume in 2012 -- that's more than double 2011, a staggering surge in mobile shopping and payments on devices that did not exist just a few short years ago," eBay said.

For the full year, eBay expects to close out 2012 with anywhere from $13.8 billion to $14.1 billion in net revenue.

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

 

Eating Crow: U.K. Judge Orders Apple to Say Samsung Didn't Copy iPad

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 08:02 AM PDT

Nobody likes to eat crow, but what do you do when a judge in a court of law hands you plate full of it and orders you to shove it down your gullet? The answer to that question is forthcoming. Apple, which has been on a crusade to bury Samsung for allegedly copying the look and feel of its iPad and iPhone devices, was ordered by a U.K. judge to flip the script and take out ads stating Samsung is innocent.

Judge Colin Birss ordered Apple to post a message on its website for six months saying Samsung's Galaxy Tab doesn't copy the iPad's design, according to a Bloomberg report. On top of that, Apple is ordered to post the same notice in newspapers and magazines. As you can imagine, Apple isn't happy with the decision.

Richard Hacon, one of the lawyers representing Apple, said it's the same as having to post an advertisement for the competition. "No company likes to refer to a rival on its website," Hacon added.

Birss is the same judge that previously said Samsung's Galaxy Tab devices are "not as cool" as Apple's iPad, and therefore the two aren't likely to be confused with each other.

Image Credit: Flickr (foxypar4)

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

 

Security Gurus Knock Out Grum Botnet, Curtail Spam by 18 Percent

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 07:06 AM PDT

If your junk mail folder seems smaller as of late, there's good reason for that. Computer security experts collaborated to take down Grum, the world's third largest botnet, which they say was serving up 18 percent of spam around the globe by way of 18 billion spam messages every 24 hours. A few more victories like that and it may become easier to buy fake Rolex the old fashioned by -- by seedy looking individuals wearing trench coats.

Security firm FireEye has been preaching about the importance of focusing on known command control (CnC) servers, and that strategy seems to be paying off. Shutting down Grum took a concerted effort from multiple agencies, as it maintained CnC servers in three different locales. It started by neutralizing Grum in the Netherlands and Panama, after which new servers popped up in Russia and Ukraine.

FireEye Malware Intelligence Lab researcher Atif Mushtaq kept at it, tracing Grum's whereabouts and alerting the proper people. His efforts paid off, and as of Wednesday morning, "all six new servers in Ukraine and the original Russian server [along with the Dutch server] were dead," Mushtaq stated in a blog post.

It's probably only a matter of time before Grum (or something similar) rears its ugly head again, but it's not as simple as creating a new server. According to Mushtaq, the cyber criminals responsible for Grum would have to build an entirely new botnet and infect hundreds of thousands of machines for a repeat performance.

Image Credit: Flickr user SeeMidTN.com

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

 

Waiting for Windows 8? Mark Your Calendars for October 26th

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 06:05 AM PDT

Well, it's official folks. Microsoft is shipping Windows 8 to the general public on October 26, just five days prior to Halloween and just over three years since the launch of Windows 7 on October 22, 2009. The Redmond outfit previously said Windows 8 would release to manufacturers (RTM) in August and to the general public sometime in late October, the latter of which is when customers will be able to buy new hardware with the touch-friendly OS pre-installed, or upgrade existing systems or (build new ones) using off-the-shelf (or downloadable) copies.

Microsoft's Communications Manager, Brandon LeBlanc, posted the release date on the official Windows Team Blog, confirming reports that Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows and Windows Live Division, made the announcement at Microsoft's annual sales meeting.

There's a lot at stake for Microsoft and the PC industry as a whole with the launch of Windows 8, which is heavily geared towards touch-screen computing. For consumers, it's a potential low cost gamble, at least for those who take advantage of Microsoft's $40 upgrade offer announced earlier in July.

Image Credit: Microsoft

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

 
Posted by Shri Krishna

Total Pageviews

statcounter

View My Stats