Iconic Atari turns 40, tries to stay relevant

Posted on June 30, 2012 by admin

By BARBARA ORTUTAY

NEW YORK (AP) — A scruffy, young Steve Jobs worked at Atari before he founded Apple. “Pong,” one of the world’s first video games, was born there, as was “Centipede,” a classic from the era of quarter-guzzling arcade machines. “Call of Duty” creator Activision was started by four of Atari’s former game developers.

The iconic video game company turns 40 years old this week, much slimmer these days as it tries to stay relevant in the age of “Angry Birds” and “Words With Friends.”

But Atari’s influence on today’s video games is pervasive.
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Windows 8 fear and uncertainty kicks in

Posted on June 28, 2012 by admin

Is Windows 8 really the makings of a fiasco? True or not, get ready to hear this more and more as the Windows 8 general release approaches.

by Brooke Crothers
Windows 8 FUD is starting to hit the fan.

That would be fear, uncertainty, and doubt. As in, “I think that Windows 8 is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space.”

That was said yesterday by Gabe Newell, a former Microsoft employee and managing director of Valve Software, which makes games such as Half-Life and created the Steam gaming platform for Windows and Apple’s OS X.

Newell’s company is now moving Steam to Linux. Thus the comment, “we’re trying to make sure that Linux thrives” from Newell (in the same story linked above) before his Windows 8 critique.
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Facebook stock has highest close since May 21

Posted on June 25, 2012 by admin

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook closes at one of its highest prices since its initial public offering.

The stock rose $1.21, or 3.8 percent, to finish Friday at $33.05. It hasn’t closed above that price since May 21, the second day of trading.

The stock finished the week up 10 percent, the second straight week of increase.

Facebook is still 14 percent below its IPO price of $38 a share.

Facebook’s IPO has had a rocky ride. Its debut was delayed by trading glitches on the Nasdaq.

Investors have been concerned about its ability to increase revenue and make money from its growing mobile audience, though many analysts hold positive long-term opinions.

Facebook, along with investment banks that led the IPO, is the subject of dozens of shareholder lawsuits.

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Macbook Pro with Retina Display review

Posted on June 16, 2012 by admin

Apple ports Retina Display technology from iOS to the Mac, and the results are nothing short of spectacular

by J.R. Bookwalter

Apple again cemented its reputation as manufacturer of lust-worthy electronics with the introduction of a new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display before 5,000 jubilant developers at this year’s WWDC keynote. But is the latest model worth the extra dough, especially with several key features missing in action that pro users depend upon?

The answer depends on how deep your pockets are, with the sleek new model starting at $2199 and topping out at $3749 (before tax) including build-to-order options (faster processor, more memory, higher capacity storage). However, if you rely on CD or DVD media, Gigabit Ethernet or FireWire 800, you’ll want to budget $137 on top of that to replace features lost as a result of slimming down the notebook by 25 percent.
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E3 2012: New Samsung Cloud Gaming Smart TVs to Compete with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo Consoles

Posted on June 7, 2012 by admin

by John Gaudiosi

The company enters the video game business with a product that offers hundreds of streaming games through Gaikai cloud service.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., is showcasing its cloud-based gaming service, Samsung Cloud Gaming, at E3 2012. Samsung Cloud Gaming, developed in partnership with Gaikai, a leading cloud-based video game platform provider, will stream a mix of family-friendly and AAA video games directly to owners of 2012 Samsung LED 7000 series and up Smart TVs in the U.S. Within 12 months over 40 million TVs are expected to be able to stream console-quality hit games without needing any console or upgrades.
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Apple Tries to Stop US Sales of Samsung’s Galaxy S III

Posted on June 7, 2012 by admin

By John Ribeiro

Apple has asked a court in California for a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy S III smartphone, ahead of its U.S. launch, claiming the device infringes at least two of its patents.

Samsung said earlier this month that the Galaxy S III will be available in the U.S. starting this month from five carriers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular. The smartphone was launched in May in the U.K.
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Mark Zuckerberg sued by Facebook investors

Posted on June 5, 2012 by admin

Furious Facebook.Com investors have filed a lawsuit against founder Mark Zuckerberg, alleging he knew the business had been overvalued ahead of its flotation last month (May12).

Zuckerberg floated his social networking site on the U.S. stock market for $100 billion (£63 billion) but shares soon dropped in price, prompting complaints from many investors.

Critics allege the CEO knew the stock was overpriced and protected his own finances by selling off the organisation, according to TMZ.com.

Editors at the website report a lawsuit has now been filed against Zuckerberg, in which it’s alleged the site did not generate enough revenue from advertising to warrant selling shares at $38 (£25), and that this information was passed on by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs prior to the flotation.

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Fujitsu, Dell ‘Ivy Bridge’ ultrabooks point to hybrid HDDs

Posted on June 4, 2012 by admin

Hybrid storage systems will become common on Ivy Bridge-based ultrabooks.

by Brooke Crothers

With Fujitsu today announcing new ultrabooks based on Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processor in Japan and Dell’s XPS 14 Ivy Bridge ultrabook imminent in the U.S., it is becoming apparent that spinning hard drives are back in vogue for these slim laptops.

The 0.6-inch thick, 3-pound Fujitsu UH75/H ultrabook comes with a Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz) chip, a 14-inch display with resolutions up to 1920×1080, and a 500GB hard disk drive with a solid-state drive cache for the base model.

That last storage specification matches a similarly-configured Dell XPS 14 ultrabook model that is expected to be announced imminently. And already-announced HP Envy laptops.
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Wii U, sequels take another swing at E3

Posted on June 2, 2012 by admin

By DERRIK J. LANG

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Is the Wii U right for you?

At last year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Nintendo captured most of the spotlight by unveiling the Wii’s successor, a high-definition console called the Wii U that utilizes a tablet-like touchscreen controller. Attention alone wasn’t enough to declare a victory. Folks weren’t, well, feeling it. Critical reaction was mixed, and the Japanese gaming giant’s stock dropped.

“Nintendo has an uphill battle this year,” said Morgan Webb, co-host of the G4 gaming show “X-Play.” ”It’s really a branding problem. I think a lot of people are still confused about the Wii U. They’re going to have a hard time convincing people that this could be a better gaming experience than the iPad.”
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Avengers assemble a private screening aboard the ISS

Posted on June 2, 2012 by admin

Putting the Hulk in a pressurized container in space isn’t a bad idea at all

Michael Gray

When The Avengers filmed scenes at NASA’s Space Power Facility in Ohio, we knew we were seeing a marriage made in heaven. A favorite comic book franchise teaming up with our beloved NASA? It seemed like the best of both worlds. Now Marvel is making good on that collaboration by providing a private screening of The Avengers to the International Space Station hovering over two hundreds of miles above Earth.

Marvel will provide The Avengers to Mission Control in Houston, which NASA will then uplink to the International Space Station. “These are the types of things that help to keep the crew connected to home, which is a huge morale boost while being away for long periods of time,“ said one of NASA’s psychological support coordinators. While thoughts of all that fictional destruction might not lift spirits, Tony’s trademark jokes will certainly do so.

The current crew of the ISS is made up of six people; we can’t help but notice that’s the same number of principal heroes in the Avengers. (That’d be Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow, for those following along.) We can’t wait to hear how the crew would recast themselves as the Avengers in their own ISS version. Here’s hoping nothing delays the screening!

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