Posted 11/07/09 at 02:26:28 AM by Nathan Grayson

Well, we now have absolute proof that at least one member of the PC gaming community wasn’t living in the hornets’ nest Infinity Ward stepped on when it announced that Modern Warfare 2 won’t support dedicated servers. Unfortunately, that one person is none other than id Software’s John Carmack.

“It’s not cast in stone yet, but at this point no, we don’t think [RAGE] will have dedicated servers,” Carmack told Variety’s Cut Scene blog. “The great thing is we won’t have to be a pioneer on that. We’ll see how it works out for everyone else.”

If it’s any consolation, RAGE is primarily a single-player game. But then, knowing id, we imagine that the game’s multiplayer component will still be better than most.

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?

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Posted 11/07/09 at 01:49:18 AM by Nathan Grayson

Warhammer Online’s making an offer you can’t refuse. And that’s not because you’ll be sleeping with either a) the fishes or b) a horse head if you turn it down. (At least, we don’t think so…) No, the offer’s allure stems from the fact that it’s completely free! And unending! How can you say “no” to that?

Ok, so there is a bit of a catch. While Warhammer Online’s free trial may have done away with that “10 days” nonsense, your character still goes back on the shelf once he/she reaches level ten.  Also – presumably to prevent spam accounts – sending mail and selling items on the auction house is prohibited.

On the bright side, though, most of the game is streamed after you’ve bitten off an initial 1 GB chunk of data, so getting up and running is quick and simple. Almost as quick and simple as upgrading to a paid account!

Yeah, Mythic, was that good? Did we sell it well enough? Sure, we take check—Hey! Is that microphone still on?!

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Posted 11/06/09 at 09:05:57 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Facebook is the king of social networking with more users than any other web 2.0 site. With all those users, it’s also an attractive place for scammers that want access to lots of eyeballs. After a few embarrassments, Facebook is promising to take a stronger stance against deceptive advertising.
 
Facebook has gotten a bit of a black eye in the press lately after some companies using the platform were accused of scamming users. These scams often come in the form of special offers and surveys within games. Facebook’s Nick Giano wrote in a blog post that the site was aware of the problem and was actively working on it.

Users of the site also encountered a rise in stimulus scam ads earlier in the year; Facebook notes that they were quickly removed from the site. Hopefully this new wave of scams can be dealt with in the same manner. Facebook claims that over 100 developer applications have already been removed or “brought into compliance" so far. Have you noticed any fishy behavior on Facebook?

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Posted 11/06/09 at 08:27:58 PM by Ryan Whitwam

It looks like you can expect Skype to continue functioning as normal. A settlement has finally been reached with the parties, including eBay and Skype founders, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. The legal battle started when eBay agreed to sell a 65% stake in Skype to Silver Lake Partners on September 1st. The founders sued, claiming that eBay was engaging in copyright infringement. As it turns out, eBay never actually owned the core technology behind Skype, called Global Index.

According to the settlement, Zennström and Friis, will join the investor group that is purchasing Skype. They will contribute software from their new venture, Joltid. In return, they will receive a 14% stake in Skype. When the sale is completed, eBay will be paid a cool $1.9 billion. Though, this is much less than the original purchase price for Skype. Though, the online auction house will also retain 30% of Skype.

Getting all the technology under one roof again should settle the issue of Skype’s intellectual property once and for all. Do you use Skype on a regular basis? Were you worried about its future?

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Posted 11/06/09 at 07:47:14 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Color us a little confused by this one. Sony has been showing off a surface computer of sorts. The system was constructed with Atracsys and utilizes a camera to track the locations of your fingers, meaning you don’t have to physically touch anything. For some reason, it’s being shown off on a table top… that you touch.

Sony/ Atracsys also showed how the camera system can track facial movements and even calculate mood. The point seems to be that you could interact with a computer without actually touching it. This would be invaluable in an operating room, for example, where sterility must be maintained. Sort of like Natal on the Xbox, apparently. Despite what they’re saying the camera tracking is capable of, Sony is making it look like a glorified Microsoft Surface. Check out the story link above to see the demo video.

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Posted 11/06/09 at 06:46:00 PM by Ryan Whitwam

PC vendors were hoping that the launch of the much anticipated Windows 7 would result in a sales boost. The first reports from those vendors, however, are not painting a very rosy picture. Most vendors report only modest increases in sales.

We know that sales of standalone upgrade licenses for Windows 7 were very good at launch, but it seems not many people went out to get a new PC. Vendors are not expecting sales to pick up in 2009. This may be due, in part, to the fact that Vista users can easily upgrade their existing hardware to the lighter weight Windows 7.

Some notebook manufacturers produced extra units running Windows 7 in anticipation of high demand. With demand ending up weaker than expected, these PCs end up discounted. Expect PC prices to continue to slide. Good for us, not so much for the manufacturers and vendors.

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Posted 11/06/09 at 06:23:03 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Samsung has announced a new breakthrough that could lead to  mobile devices with greater storage space than before. The company says it has developed a new multi-chip memory package that is 40% thinner and lighter than a normal memory package. The 0.6mm-thick package is said to contain eight 30-nanometer NAND Flash chips.

The new package owes its lean figure to a “bare” die that is just half as thick as a conventional die. The ultra-thin package contains a “bare” die that is only 15 micrometers thick. This is quite an achievement on Samsung’s part as it has managed to overcome “the conventional technology limits of a chip's resistance to external pressure when under 30um in height.” Chips based on this new technology seem tailor-made for SSDs and mobile devices.

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Posted 11/06/09 at 06:06:14 PM by Ryan Whitwam

It’s no secret that Nvidia and Intel are having a dispute over chipset licenses. Now it seems like Nvidia is getting a little fed up with the whole situation. On a new Nvidia website called “Intel’s Insides”, you’ll find a series of editorial style cartoons with some sharp criticisms of chip maker Intel.

The cartoons take aim mostly at Intel’s legal woes, which have gotten that much more severe with new US federal action this week. The US case is related to the same scandal that ended with Intel receiving massive fines in the EU. Intel is accused of bribing OEMs to keep them from using rival AMD’s chips. It all makes for some good cartoon fodder.

Editorial cartoonist Steve Lait creates the cartoons for Nvidia. The site explains that the series “is intended to be a parody of events occurring within the semiconductor sector, with particular focus on its largest and most commented-upon competitor." In all honesty, the cartoons aren’t that funny. But really, how amusing can the nuances of the semiconductor world be?

Image from "Intel's insides"

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