General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

U.S. Government Requests Leniency for LulzSec Hacker Turned Informant

Posted: 26 May 2014 08:40 AM PDT

LulzSec

LulzSec hacker known as "Sabu" could be a free man this week

If the attorneys for the U.S. government get their wish, LulzSec hacker Hector Xavier Monsegur, better known as "Sabu," will not be sentenced any additional time behind bars and become a free man on Tuesday. His sentencing is scheduled for tomorrow, May 27, but thanks to his "extremely valuable and productive" time spent as an informant, Sabu may have saved himself from a lengthy prison sentence.

Citing a memo filed in a U.S. District Court this week, CNET says government attorneys are recommending a sentence of time served. Sabu spent seven months in jail in 2012 after he made unauthorized online posts, which violated his plea bargain. Should the recommendation of time served be ignored, Sabu could be sentenced up to 26 years.

Sabu previously pleaded guilty to several charges, including hacking, credit card fraud, and identity theft in 2011. After being picked up by the FBI, Sabu turned into an informant against LulzSec, sometimes even working overnight communicating with other LulzSec members. His efforts led to the arrest and conviction of eight "major co-conspirators." That includes Hammond, a person the FBI identified as the top cybercriminal in the world.

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Gigabyte, Asus Ramp Up Efforts to Steal Gaming Laptop Share from MSI

Posted: 26 May 2014 07:39 AM PDT

Aorus X7Top tier motherboard makers turn their attention to gaming laptop market

It hasn't been all that long since gaming laptops came down in price to pedestrian levels. Combine that with the fact that mobile is trendy right now and it's not hard to see why so many companies are interested in competing in the gaming laptop category. MSI has been making a name for itself with affordable (and well specified) models the past few years, but lest the company think about resting on its laurels, Asus and Gigabyte have decided to go gunning for MSI in the gaming laptop space.

MSI has been doing well selling gaming notebooks, and according to what news and rumor site Digitimes is hearing from "industry observers," rivals Asus and Gigabyte have taken notice. All three already compete in the motherboard space, and following Computex, things will heat up in the laptop market.

Gigabyte has already launched its first laptop under the Auros gaming brand it created earlier this year. It's been selling better than the company expected in the U.S. Come Computex, Gigabyte plans to launch a second generation version of its popular X7 laptop.

Meanwhile, Asus will continue to promote its Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand. Expect to see new and aggressively priced notebook models in the near future.

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Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Reportedly in Talks to Buy Los Angeles Clippers

Posted: 26 May 2014 07:18 AM PDT

Steve BallmerSteve Ballmer's next chapter may be written on an NBA basketball court

After stepping down as CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer has all the time (and all the money) in the world. What will he do with it all? Perhaps buy an NBA basketball team. Word on the web is that Steve Ballmer met with Shelly Sterling, estranged wife of Donald Sterling, to discuss buying the Los Angeles Clippers. Ballmer is one of several major figures and/or celebrities said to be interested in owning the Clippers.

In a surprise turn of events, Donald Sterling reportedly surrendered control of the Clippers to Shelly so that she could negotiate a sale of the team. Donald was recently banned from attending all NBA events and essentially ousted from the league after a recording of him making racist remarks went public.

Ballmer's net worth is an estimated $20 billion. According to TMZ, although Ballmer has stated he would keep the team in L.A. if he bought it, there's fear that he would move it to Seattle, former home of the Sonics. However, such decisions wouldn't be Ballmer's alone -- the league would have to vote on and approve such a move.

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Newegg Daily Deals: PNY XLR8 Pro 120GB SSD, Asus Maximus VI Hero Motherboard, and More!

Posted: 26 May 2014 06:31 AM PDT

PNY XLR8 Pro SSDnewegg logo

Top Deal:

If Sammy Hagar owns a PC, do you think he's piddling along with a mechanical hard drive? Not a chance! For you youngsters out there saying "Who?," the dude wrote a hit song about not being able to drive 55MPH, so you know these days he's rocking a solid state drive. You should be too, and you can do it without a rock star's salary. Have a look at today's top deal for a PNY XLR8 Pro 120GB Solid State Drive for $70 with free shipping (normally $130; additional $10 mail-in-rebate). This 2.5-inch drive puts the pedal to the medal and reads data at up to 550MB/s and writes data at up to 520MB/s.

Other Deals:

Asus VE278Q Black 27-inch 1920x1080 2ms LED Backlight LCD Monitor w/Speakers for $220 with free shipping (normally $240 - use coupon code: [EMCPEHG28])

Asus Maximus VI Hero LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $180 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code: [EMCPEHG32])

G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2x4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory for $72 with free shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code: [EMCPEHG48])

G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory for $140 with free shipping (normally $155 - use coupon code: [EMCPEHG34])

HP Launches $99 Quad-Core Android Tablet in U.S.

Posted: 25 May 2014 11:43 PM PDT

HP 7 Plus

HP 7 Plus has been available in Europe for some time now

Hewlett-Packard entered the media tablet race in mid-2011, at a time when almost every upcoming tablet was labeled a potential iPad killer. Both the $500 webOS-based TouchPad and the $1.2 billion Palm acquisition that made it possible in the first place turned out to be patent disasters. If the company has learned anything from the whole fiasco, it's perhaps the fact that people really love a good $99 tablet.

Late last year, the company launched a quartet of affordable Android tablets priced between $150 and $300. Now, the company has gone one better with the launch of a $99 tablet called the HP 7 Plus.

The HP 7 Plus packs a 7-inch IPS display (1,024 x 600), Allwinner A31 quad-core 1Ghz processor, 1 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 8 GB (eMMC) internal storage, 802.11b/g/n, and a 2,800mAh lithium-polymer battery (with up to 330 minutes battery life). The ports on this Jellybean-running 7-incher include one micro USB 2.0, a micro SD (expandable up to 32 GB), an integrated microphone and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The tablet is currently listed as being "out of stock" over at HP's online store.

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Chrome OS to Get Document Scanning Support

Posted: 25 May 2014 09:58 PM PDT

Chromebook

Will let web apps scan documents

Chromebooks didn't exactly take the world by storm when they first hit the market. Far from being an instant hit, they were widely panned for their limited functionality. They have clearly come a long way since then, though. The over 2 million Chromebooks that were shipped in 2013 are a testament to how much Chrome OS has matured since its early days, when it was probably nothing more than an overhyped browser. Now, the cloud-based OS is all set to tick another key box: document scanning support.

"Basic document scanning in ChromeOS is going through the process of an API proposal," wrote Chromium evangelist François Beaufort in a Google Plus post Friday. "It means it's getting closer and that the Chromium team loves to experiment wherever it can."

The feature will tap into the Chome OS Lorgnette scanning API to detect USB- and LAN-attached scanners, acquire single-page scans, and posit the scanned images in the default download location. According to one description of the upcoming document scanning feature, it "can be extended to use native document acquisition APIs on other platforms."

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