General Gaming Article

---

• Bill Gates Nudges Past Carlos Slim to Reclaim World’s Richest Crown
• Logitech Z323 Review
• Google I/O 2013: Everything You Need to Know
• Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog Races Over to Android
• Dell's Profits Plunge 79 Percent as PC Maker Mulls Its Future
• Newegg Daily Deals: Altec Lansing Noise-Reducing Earbuds, ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Mobo, and More
• LulzSec Hackers Receive Prison Sentences for Cyber Hijinks

Bill Gates Nudges Past Carlos Slim to Reclaim World’s Richest Crown Posted: 17 May 2013 06:32 PM PDT Xbox 720 believed to be behind surge in Gates' wealth Despite having given away billions in charity in recent years, Microsoft founder and non-executive chairman Bill Gates is said to have dislodged Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim, also a noted philanthropist, from the top spot on the list of the world's wealthiest people. The Harvard dropout is the wealthiest man on the planet as per the Bloomberg Billionaires index, which is updated on a daily basis at 5:30 p.m. in New York. At the time of the last update, Bill Gates' net worth was valued at $72.7 billion, a shade (relatively speaking) above his nearest rival Carlos Slim's net worth of $72.1 billion. So what exactly fueled Gates' return to the top of the Bloomberg Billionaires list after a five-year hiatus? Forbes' contributor Nigam Arora, a nuclear physicist who serves as the chief investment officer at The Arora Report, ascribes this recent rise in Bill Gates' wealth to the prevailing market excitement over the upcoming launch of Microsoft's next-gen console; ever since Microsoft announced the upcoming Xbox 720 launch event, scheduled for May 22, the company's stock price and, in turn, Gates' net worth have witnessed a steady rise. In other words, where the markets are concerned, all this Xbox 720-related excitement has been able to offset the negative impact of disappointing first-quarter PC shipment numbers. But the question is: for how long? According to Arora, this "rally in Microsoft is overdone." Follow Pulkit on Google+

Logitech Z323 Review Posted: 17 May 2013 02:20 PM PDT 2.1-Channel Speaker System offer cheap thrills Logitech has built more computer speakers over the years than just about any manufacturer, and it's learned a thing or two about building decent low-cost models. Take the 2.1-channel Logitech Z323 system: We could name any number of speaker systems that sound better, but few that are priced better. The satellites tilt up to project sound at your ears. You can literally see some of the ways that Logitech hit that low price point: The satellite cabinets are made from cheap ABS plastic with permanently attached cables that plug into the subwoofer. Each satellite has dual, 2-inch, concave-dome drivers (one is mounted in the front of the cabinet and the other in the back, to deliver what Logitech describes as "360-degree sound"). So the system performs best if there's a wall behind the satellites for the sound waves to bounce off.  Each satellite also has a front-facing port. There's a volume control and power switch on the right-hand cabinet, plus one 1/8-inch headphone output and one 1/8-inch stereo input, to support a digital media player. The compact subwoofer cabinet (it measures 8.7x5.9x7.2 inches) is fabricated from the typical medium-density fiberboard. It houses a small amp and a tiny (for a sub) 4-inch down-firing dome woofer. The amp delivers six watts (RMS) to each of the satellites and 18 watts (RMS) to the subwoofer. The sub has its own volume control, along with a pair of RCA jacks that serve as a second auxiliary input for a gaming console, DVD player, or what have you (handy features in a speaker system priced this low). The Z323's favorable price/performance ratio, however, applies to games much more than music. Playing games such as Borderlands 2, we were pleased with the Z323's ability to render the sound of gunshots and explosions, and the conversations with friendly characters and the taunts of enemies alike were rendered crisp and clear (well, with the exception of those babbling psychos). When we listened to music, on the other hand, the vocals sounded weirdly detached from the rest of the band—and it didn't matter whether the singer was male or female or even what style of music was being played. We tried several singer/songwriters, including "Crossing Muddy Waters," from the John Hiatt album of the same name, Marc Cohn's "She's Becoming Gold," from The Rainy Season, and Nanci Griffith's cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Techumseh Valley," from her record Other Voices, Other Rooms (in all three cases, the tracks were ripped from CD and encoded as 16-bit, 44.1kHz FLAC files). This sonic detachment wasn't as much of a problem with instrumental selections, but that's not to say the Z323 system delivered a stellar performance. When we played Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, which the composer recently remastered for Bowers & Wilkins's Society of Sound label, the album (available in both Apple Lossless and 24-bit FLAC formats), sounded somewhat lifeless and flat compared to what we heard on more expensive speakers (including Corsair's stellar SP2500 system). But you could almost buy four Z323 setups for the cost of one SP2500, so that's to be expected. f you're working with a tight budget and need speakers primarily for gaming, Logitech has a good set in the Z323. If listening to music is your core interest, on the other hand, you should keep looking. $70, www.logitech.com

Google I/O 2013: Everything You Need to Know Posted: 17 May 2013 11:57 AM PDT Google music streaming service, Gmail improvements, and Galaxy S4 to come with stock Android Jelly Bean 4.2 If you weren't one of the 6 million people who tuned in to YouTube to watch the Google I/O 2013 keynote on Wednesday, don't sweat it, you've come to the right place for an extensive recap of all the big announcements. Some of it you may have already read about here on Maximum PC, such as Google partnering with Samsung to offer a totally clean version of the Galaxy S4 complete with an unlocked bootloader or the introduction of an All Access music service, but we also have some new stuff to share. Technically the event is still going on -- it's a three-day event -- and while the news keeps pouring in, a lot of what's now being revealed are product statistics and minor software updates, like Heat Maps and Symbols being added to the Google Maps API -- not exactly 'knock-your-socks-off' news. There's plenty of interesting tidbits to share, however, so let's get started! Android's Ascension From humble beginnings as an operating system that was originally developed for digital cameras, Android over the past decade has grown into the most popular mobile OS in the world. Just how popular is the open source platform? Google revealed rather early in its opening keynote that Android is now installed on 900 million devices. "There are over 7 billion people on this planet, so we have a long way to go and we think the journey is just getting started," Google's Sundar Pichai quipped on stage. What's interesting about Android's dominance in mobile is that it's only scratched the surface of available users. While Pichai may have been semi-joking about getting Android devices into the hands of 7 billion people, Android's penetration in most territories around the world is less than 10 percent, albeit "growing very, very fast." Underscoring Android's popularity is the number of app downloads to date, which Google pegs at 48 billion. To put that number into perspective, consider that it's just 2 billion shy of Apple, which recently announced 50 billion iOS app downloads. In just the last month alone, Android users have installed 2.5 billion apps. Beyond bragging rights, all these numbers translate into revenue for developers, who have been paid more money in the last four months than in all of last year. The revenue per user is up 2.5x what it was a year ago. Not too shabby. Google announced a bunch of new APIs for Android developers as part of a robust update to its Google Play services, including three new Android location-based tools. They are: A low-power location mode that uses less than 1 percent of battery life per hour. Geofenching: Lets you define virtual fences around geographic areas, which are triggered when a user enters or exits any of them. Developers can have 100 simultaneous geofences active per app. Activity Recognition: Uses accelerometer data to determine whether a user is walking, cycling, or riding without tapping into the battery-sucking GPS. Another new API is one that allows for cross-platform single sign-ons with Google+. The benefit for users is that they don't have to sign into apps separately on different devices, so if you open an app using your Google+ account, you're logged in whether you fire it up on the web, on your smartphone, or with your Android tablet. Leveling Up Google Play You'll notice some changes to Google Play over the course of the next few weeks. Google's putting a much bigger focus on movie, music, and book recommendations based on the content you consume and what items prompt your friends to mash the +1 button. Google Play will also do a better job adapting to whichever device you're using. The same content will be available whether you're viewing Google Play on your notebook's browser or your tablet, but it will be presented differently on each to take advantage of the different form factors. Google Gets Into Streaming Music Okay, enough with the APIs, backend infrastructure, and UI enhancements, let's get to the fun stuff. One of the big announcements Google made was its new All Access streaming music service. This is the next logical step in the evolution of Google's foray into music, which began with it offering an online locker for users to upload 20,000 songs of their own that could then be streamed to multiple devices. After that, Google launched a music store, and now this. For a monthly fee (normally $9.99, though if you sign up by June 30, it's $7.99), you can tap into Google's catalog of millions of songs, but it's more than just that. There are curated playlists by Google's expert music editors and 22 top level genres to sift through, with more to drill into. Best of all, you can immediately start playing anything you see in All Access, as nothing is grayed out. There's quite a bit of fine grain control, too. Anything you listen to can be turned into a radio station. If you're curious about what the unseen DJ has picked out, you can take a look at the playlist and swipe away any songs you don't want to hear, You can also rearrange the order of songs in your queue. All Access offers the same features across multiple devices. It's available now with a 30-day free trial. Samsung Galaxy S4 as You've Always Wanted It (Unlocked) The other big reveal is the one we talked about at the beginning. Coming soon to Google Play is a special version of Samsung's Galaxy S4 device. Unlike the one that's currently available, this one will ship with an unlocked bootloader. it will also feature a squeaky clean version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, delivering the same software experience that Google ships on its Nexus devices. Like the Nexus line, this version of the Galaxy S4 will receive Android upgrades "promptly" with every system platform update, which means no more waiting around for weeks and months for your device maker and wireless carrier to get on the ball with the latest version of Android. Speaking of which, it will work on both AT&T and T-Mobile. That's the good news. And the bad? Well, it's going to cost a whopping $649 when it becomes available starting June 26. Chrome Dominates the Web As far as Google is concerned, the various versions of Chrome collectively add up to the most used browser on the planet. It's added 300 million active users in the past 12 months, giving it a userbase that's now over 750 million strong, and climbing. Many of those new users are accessing Chrome on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. If those numbers are even remotely accurate, it's easy to see why Google is sticking with its Chromebook platform, which runs the company's Chrome OS. Providing further incentive to push Chromebooks onto the masses is data from Amazon that shows the $249 Samsung Chromebook as being the No. 1 selling laptop for 199 consecutive days. "It's an ecosystem play and we have many more partners joining our journey," Google Senior Vice President Sundar Pinchai added. Click the next page to see why you might want to start using Google+ Redesigning Google+ Get ready for a different Google+ experience than the one you're currently used to, assuming you're using the service. To take advantage of widescreen displays and to address the flatness of feeds, Google+ will be switching to a multi-column card design. This will make your feed more visually appealing, and on the backend, Google+ will optionally have the ability to automatically add hashtags. What for? If you spy the Eiffel Tower above, you'll notice there's no mention of what it is. However, Google knows, and if you click the card, it will present related information. Here's a short demo: Related to Google+, Google introduced Google+ Hangouts for mobile devices during its event. It's a standalone app with a heavy focus on conversations, and it's available on Android, Chrome, Gmail, and iOS. It will keep a history of long-running conversations, though you can turn off the history and/or delete entries you're rather keep private. Like everything else, there's an emphasis on making Hangouts visually appealing. There might be pictures and videos scattered throughout your long-running conversation, and according to Google, it just "feels alive." Subtle animations show when people join and where they're reading, so that it feels like you're all in the same room together. And of course it's all synced, so if you swipe something away on iOS, it's also gone on your other devices. Finally, Google is making an effort to make photos less labor and time-intensive by making its data center your darkroom. In other words, the cloud will handle some of the time sucking tasks that are related to cleaning up photos. It starts with backups, something Google already offers, only now it's giving you 15GB of free unified cloud storage, which you can allocate however you want between Gmail, Drive, and Google+ Photos. Much more interesting, however, is Google's Highlight feature. If you think about the number of photos you're likely to take on vacation, it quickly becomes a daunting task when you get back home and discover there are hundreds, if not thousands of snapshots to sift through and edit. What ends up happening is you tuck them into a folder telling yourself you'll come back and power through them when you have more time, but that time never comes. Google proposes it can pick out the best pictures of the bunch for you. Sounds too good to be true, right? Time will tell, but it sounds promising. It's not just a crapshoot wherein Google hopes to get lucky, there's some intelligent sifting going on. For example, Google won't highlight blurry photos, and if it detects duplicate images, it will pick no more than one of them. It also looks for poorly exposed photos and narrows down photos based on other factors, such as whether or not there are people in the picture and if they're smiling. It will even attempt to detect family members, giving those photos a social boost. A little less interesting is Google's auto-enhance feature, as we've found similar tools to be of limited value. However, Google promises dramatic results using tonal distribution, skin softening, noise reduction, white balancing, red eye removal, and a whole bunch more. Better Looking Google Maps Google Maps rocks, that's something most of us can agree on. If you liked it before, you're going to love the new version, which Google rebuilt from "the ground up." Upon logging into Google Maps, restaurants and other places you frequently visit will be highlighted. You can also see more of the map by shoving aside and hiding the sidebar menus. There are Info Cards that provide details about different businesses and locales, some of which even show photos of the establishment you're looking up. Send Money Through Gmail Lastly, Google announced that it's folding Google Wallet into Gmail. Now you can send money to family and friends through Gmail, even if the recipients don't have a Gmail address. It's free to send money if you link your bank account to Google Wallet, or if you're using your Google Wallet balance. In Gmail, just click the dollar sign icon to attach money to your message, and then send away. Some of you will see this feature now, others will see it over the coming months. If you wanted to check out the entire Google I/O 2013 Keynote, check out the video below. That wraps up the more interesting highlights of Google I/O 2013. Were you impressed or disappointed by Google's event? Let us know in the comments below! Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog Races Over to Android Posted: 17 May 2013 09:55 AM PDT Speedy blue hedgehog teams with a little green robot. Sonic the Hedgehog is potentially gaining access to a whole new audience and generation of gamers who never got to experience the fast and fun ride on the Genesis. How so? Sega today pointed its iconic game character in the direction of Google Play and told him to keep running until he got there, which he did today. Available now on Google Play, the game costs $2.99 and gives fans a new look at Sonic's world on Android. It's been optimized with widescreen support and exclusive features for mobile phones. The new update also allows gamers to unlock other familiar characters, including Tails and Knuckles, marking the first time they've been playable on mobile, Sega says. Prefer iOS? Sega has you covered, as well. Although Sonic the Hedgehog was already available on iOS, the new content will be offered as a free update. Sonic the Hedgehog on Google Play Sonic the Hedgehog on iOS Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Dell's Profits Plunge 79 Percent as PC Maker Mulls Its Future Posted: 17 May 2013 09:02 AM PDT Dude, who's getting Dell? Dell's future is as uncertain as it's ever been, and not just because the PC market is in a slump as consumers flock to mobile devices. The other major unknown is whether Dell will ultimately accept Michael Dell's proposed $24.4 billion buyout offer and go private, or if the board will be swayed by Carl Icahn's alternate deal that would keep the company public. As all this unfolds, Dell (the company) is seeing its profits get sucked into a vortex of uncertainty. The PC maker reported revenue of $14.1 billion for its fiscal 2013 first quarter, down 2 percent from the previous year. What's even more alarming, however, is that its profits are down 79 percent to $130 million. In the same quarter a year ago, Dell's profits totaled $635 million. As expected, Dell put on its positive face when announcing the results. "We made progress in building our enterprise solutions capabilities in the first quarter and are confident in our strategy to be the leading provider of end-to-end scalable solutions," said Brian Gladden, Dell chief financial officer. "In addition, we have taken actions to improve our competitive position in key areas of the business, especially in end-user computing, and it has affected profitability. We'll also continue to make important investments to support our strategy and drive long-term profitability." The world's No. 3 PC maker saw its end-user computer sales slide 9 percent to $8.9 billion. Dell's Enterprise division picked up some of the slack with revenue climbing 10 percent to $3.1 billion. Dell Services also saw some growth, increasing 2 percent to $2.1 billion. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Altec Lansing Noise-Reducing Earbuds, ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Mobo, and More Posted: 17 May 2013 07:50 AM PDT Top Deal: Whether you're into Gangstagrass or prefer to rock out to Led Zepplin, it's easy to march to the beat of your own drum with today's top deal, which is for a pair of Altec Lansing MZX2071S Noise-Reducing In-Ear Stereo Headphones for $10 with free shipping (normally $50). There's a sliding cable adjuster and SnugFit earbuds to help block out exterior noise. Other Deals: XFX GeForce 210 512MB 32-bit DDR3 Video Card for $25 with free shipping (normally $35 - use coupon code:[EMCXRWP28]; additional $15 mail-in rebate) Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5 TB 3.5" Internal Hard Drive for $65 with free shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code:[EMCXRWP22])  Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory for $100 with free shipping  (normally $125 - use coupon code:[EMCXRWP46]) ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Professional LGA 1155 ATX Intel Motherboard for $150 with free shipping (normally $210)

LulzSec Hackers Receive Prison Sentences for Cyber Hijinks Posted: 17 May 2013 07:31 AM PDT They did the crimes, now they'll do the time. It's not always true that crime doesn't pay, because if that's the way it was, there would be a lot less people breaking the law. The problem for criminals is that payback's a bitch if you get caught, as did several LulzSec (Lulz Security) members who fessed up to hacking various companies and organizations, such as Sony, 20th Century Fox, Nintendo, and even the CIA, to name just a few of their targets. Following a trial overseas, three of the individuals received prison sentences on Thursday in London, ITPRO reports. Ryan "DDoS King" Clearly, 21, Ryan "kayla" Ackroyd, 26, and Jake "Topiary" Davis, 20, were sentenced to 32 months, 30 months, and 20 months behind bars, respectively. Mustafa "tflow" Al-Bassam, 18, was handed a 20-month suspended sentence. LulzSec wreaked quite a bit of havoc during the high point of the organization's hacking spree. "In essence they were the worst sort of vandal, acting without care of cost or harm to those they affected, whether this was to cause a company to fold and so costing people their jobs, or to put at threat the thousands of innocent internet users whose logins and passwords they made public," said Detective Superintendent Charlie McMurdie, head of the British Police Central e-Crime Unit. "Today's convictions should serve as a deterrent to others who use the Internet to commit cyber attacks." All four individuals had previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to do an unauthorized act to impair the operation of a computer or computers. It could have been worse, however, as they ducked charges of conspiracy to perform distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against Westboro Baptist Church, Sony, Bethesda, Eve Online, the CIA, and a few other organizations. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610