News

Bill Gates Nudges Past Carlos Slim to Reclaim World’s Richest Crown

Pulkit Chandna — Sat, 18 May 2013 01:32:47 +0000

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.”

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Google I/O 2013: Everything You Need to Know

Paul Lilly — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:57:46 +0000

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!

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Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog Races Over to Android

Paul Lilly — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:55:19 +0000

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

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Dell's Profits Plunge 79 Percent as PC Maker Mulls Its Future

Paul Lilly — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:02:42 +0000

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.

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LulzSec Hackers Receive Prison Sentences for Cyber Hijinks

Paul Lilly — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:31:40 +0000

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.

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Road to Redemption? EA Eliminates Unpopular Online Pass Program

Paul Lilly — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:55:57 +0000

You can almost hear a golf clap erupting from GameStop stores.

It's no secret game publishers loathe the second-hand sales market, prompting many of them to have a love-hate relationship with GameStop, the world's most popular used games retailer. But is GameStop really the frenemy that some publishers view it as? Perhaps not. Electronic Arts (EA) has come to the conclusion that its Online Pass program isn't worth pissing off its customers and has decided to reverse course, a move that's perhaps indicative that EA wasn't losing as much money to used game sales as it thought it was.

Battlefield 3, Madden NFL, and a few other titles used the Online Pass system. The way it worked is that gamers would input a code included with new games to unlock online gameplay. The single-use code wouldn't transfer to a second owner, so if you bought a game used from GameStop or anywhere else and the code was already used, you'd have to purchase another one from EA.

Well, not anymore.

"Yes, we're discontinuing Online Pass," EA senior director of corporate communications, John Reseburg, told GamesBeat in an email. "None of our new EA titles will include that feature."

Reseburg went to say that "many players didn't respond to the format," which is the primary reason why EA decided to abandon the program. It was an unpopular program among gamers to begin with, but given EA's sometimes stubborn nature and willingness to put up with criticism, it seemed unlikely the publisher would reverse course.

It looks like Kevin Garnett was right, after all.

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David Gerrold Tries Kickstarting "Star Wolf" Novels to Television

Paul Lilly — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Former Maximum PC columnist turns Kickstarter campaigner.

There are several ways you might be familiar with David Gerrold. We've had the pleasure of working with him as a former columnist for Maximum PC magazine, in which he penned technology pieces under the "Future Tense" heading. He's also a screenwriter and novelist who wrote scripts for the original Star Trek episodes, and is the author of the Star Wolf series of books, which he's now trying to port over to television with the help of Kickstarter.

Sure, this is off the beaten path of typical Maximum PC fodder, but hey, we like Gerrold, and we'd like to see him get a chance to bring his novels to television. To do that, he'll need to raise $650,000, which would fund the first episode. Every additional $500,000 beyond that would fund an additional episode, though with less than $47,000 in pledges with just 17 days to go, his Kickstarter campaign's going to need a serious kick in the pants.

Why turn to Kickstarter in the first place?

"Because the old way of doing things doesn't work any more -- and not at all for science fiction," Gerrold's Kickstarter page explains. "Star Trek, The Original Series got cancelled because NBC executives didn't understand what they had. Firefly got cancelled because Fox executives didn't understand what they had. Babylon 5 was cancelled because the network executives didn't understand what they had. Even a profitable series can be cancelled if the numbers don't work for the accountants. And anything less than three million viewers isn't considered enough."

It seems like a long shot with the limited interest at this point, but check it out and if you like what you see, toss some green at an old friend of ours.

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Still Headed for a May 23 Release

Paul Lilly — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:33:48 +0000

Rumors point to the GTX 780 launching next week.

Near the beginning of the month, news and rumor site Fudzilla reported that Nvidia was planning to launch its GeForce GTX 780 graphics card on May 23 at 6:00 AM PDT. That date is now only a week away, and so far, things are looking good. Withing naming anyone, Fudzilla says it's now heard from "multiple sources" that the May 23 launch date is accurate, at which time Nvidia's hardware partners will debut reference clocked cards.

As with most video cards these days, overclocked versions will inevitably pop up, though most of them will come out "several weeks" after the initial launch.

Reference cards are said to be using a GeForce Titan cooler quality since it's a high quality design. You may even spot overclocked cards using the same cooler, though vendors typically like to slap on their own cooling solutions, which often do a better job than reference at whisking away heat and run quieter to boot.

According to Fudzilla, the GTX 780 part based on reference specs should sell for around 500 Euros. That's about $645 USD, though PC component pricing doesn't always follow a straight currency conversion from one market to the next.

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Lenovo, Best Buy Now Accepting Pre-orders for IdeaPad Yoga 11s Convertible

Paul Lilly — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:56:57 +0000

Is Yoga in your summer plans?

Lenovo first began showing off its IdeaPad Yoga 11S at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this past January, and now four months later, you can place your pre-order on Lenovo's website or through Best Buy, the latter of which will carry the hybrid laptop in stores starting June 23. Why is it called Yoga? Simply put, Lenovo's convertible bends in ways that makes our back ache just looking at it.

The Yoga 11S is an 11.6-inch Ultrabook convertible that flips and folds all the way around to function as a tablet when desired. It has a touchscreen IPS display and is of course wielding Windows 8.

"Consumers around the world loved our first Yoga for its unique flip and fold and multi-mode design," said Jay Parker, president, Lenovo, North America. "We’re continuing to develop the Yoga franchise with the new Yoga 11S, and due to Yoga’s popularity already, we’ve created a pre-sale program so customers can get their hands on one before it even hits the shelves."

It's available in "Clementine Orange" and "Silver Gray," both of which start out at $800. For that, you get an Intel Core i3 3229Y processor (1.4GHz), 4GB of DDR3-1600 RAM, 128GB solid state drive, 4-cell battery, and Windows 8. Upgrades are available, including faster processor options, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of solid state storage.

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Steam Trading Cards Reward Gamers with DLC and Game Coupons

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:47:28 +0000

The feature is currently limited to only six games

A mysterious database entry for something called the Steam Trading Card popped up in the Steam database late last week and all sorts of theories began doing the rounds on the Web. Some saw it as a harbinger of a trading game being developed by Valve, while others suspected it to be a new Steam service for facilitating the trade of in-game items.

Valve on Wednesday finally put all that speculation to rest when it officially announced Steam Trading Cards, a new service that rewards gamers for, well, gaming. In its press release, the company described the new service thus: “Released in beta today, Steam Trading Cards allows customers to earn Steam rewards for playing the games they love. Those who participate will receive game-specific trading cards that can be collected to earn rewards such as game badges, profile backgrounds, emoticons, coupons, and more.”

But how does one go about collecting these cards? To begin with, you will need to join the Steam Trading Cards beta, which is currently limited to Don't Starve, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2 and Half-Life. You can then collect up to half the card set through the actual act of playing, while the other half has to be collected from other community member.

Once you complete a card set for one of the above participating games, you can craft them into a game badge. Just like current badges, game badges are associated with your game account. According to the official Steam Trading Cards page, these badges bring with them “marketable” rewards like emoticons, profile backgrounds, and DLC/game coupons, What’s more, they can be levelled up as many as five times, allowing you to earn more items.

“All badges now have XP which contributes to your Steam Level, a summary of your badge collection,” reads the Steam Trading Cards page. “You can view someone’s Steam Level by hovering over their avatar. Leveling up earns you non-tradable items like profile showcases, extra friends list slots, and more”

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How to Download Without Installing Malware

Paul Lilly — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:57:43 +0000

A how to download PSA

When the **** did it become so damn difficult to download a program from the Internet? If you've recently tried to grab a screensaver or software utility from the web, you know exactly what we're talking about. Somewhere along the way, the simple act of downloading a program has become anything but easy, even for Internet veterans who aren't easily duped. Many download sites are now designed to test the wits of savvy users and prey on the impatient with link landmines that will blow up your browser with toolbars and other unwanted add-ons. Even worse, you could end up with a malware infection. Should you give up?...

Hell no! Downloading might not be as simple as it once was, but it's far from an impossible mission, convoluted download portals be damned. We'll show you how to wade through the sea of shady links and track down the program you're looking, but it doesn't end there. You also have to be careful when installing an application, as installers sometimes carry adware, especially ones for free programs.

Free download links are often plastered with malicious links and adware

To Click or Not to Click the Big Green Download Button?

When we posted our "20 Awesome Screensavers" article with download links to each screensaver, some readers thought we screwed the pooch and served up malware infected URLs. Rest assured we verified that every screensaver we posted was clean, but actually downloading each one can be an exercise in frustration. Let's walk through the process of downloading "The Matrix" screensaver.

The link we provided jettisons readers to where the screensaver is hosted on CNET's website. Here's what you should see when you navigate there:

CNET's download.com is a popular website so you might not think twice about clicking the Download Now button, but take a closer look.

The fine print indirectly admits to installing adware.

If you hover your mouse over the button, you'll discover CNET is using an ad-supported wrapper. Not all downloads on CNET's website use the ad-supported stub installer, but the ones that do are indentified as such (so long as you're paying attention), both on the green Download button ("CNET Installer Enabled") and via the above pop-up box.

Downloading and installing looks so simple and easy but it's often anything but.

If you choose to proceed, you'll be presented with several attempts like the one shown above to install third-party software in addition to The Matrix screensaver. Simply click the Decline button to skip these offers one-by-one rather than mashing the oh-so-inviting Accept button. If you learned anything at all from mythology, it's that you should avoid being tempted by Sirens, and download sites serve up plenty of them.

Do you really want to install random third party apps?

Some screens are a little trickier than others and offer only two options:

Full Installation (Recommended)
Custom Installation (Advanced User)

When you encounter one of these screens, check the Custom Installation radio button and then deselect any checkboxes asking if you want to install toolbars or other cruft.

The legitimate download button is often the hardest one to find.

If this seems like an unnecessarily long path to the end, that's because it is. Instead of jumping through CNET's third-party hoops, an easier way to grab The Matrix (and similar downloads) is to click on the direct download situated just below the download button. Easy cheesy, right?

This particular link has SEVEN download buttons. Which one is the legitimate one?

Lest anyone think we're picking on CNET, it's actually not that bad compared to plenty of other download sites that make things much harder than they need to be. It's certainly not uncommon to see adware/malware masquerading as legitimate download links. Some are worse than others. In the screenshot above, there are no less than seven links with the words "download" or "driver," but only one of them actually links to the file we're looking for. How can you tell? Once again, hover your mouse over each button/link and see where it points to. If it's a DoubleClick ad or anything similar, then move on to the next one. In this case, the second download button with a right-facing arrow directs us to a URL with the words "ARCHOS-101-XS-Tablet-Firmware-412-Download" contained within. That's the one we're looking for.

Scan for Malware

Virustotal.com is a great tool for sussing out malware

Once you've finally found and downloaded the file you're looking for, be sure to scan it for malware, especially if you grabbed it from a site you've never heard of. Use any on-demand scanners you have installed (such as a daily AV program and/or Malewarebytes), and also upload the file to VirusTotal, a free cloud-based service that analyzes suspicious files and URLs for dirty code.

Using Virustotal is extremely easy, especially with a browser extension

If you're a Firefox user, we highly recommend installing VTzilla, an official VirusTotal browser extension. The extension adds a toolbar to Firefox, which you can disable if you prefer, as well as a right-click context menu entry to scan hyperlinks with VirusTotal before visiting the site in question.

For further virus protection measures, check out our in-depth virus protection guide. Do you know of any safe downloading tips? Have a downloading horror story to tell? Share them with us and other Maximum PC readers by posting in the comments section below!

Double Fine Studios Featured in This Week's Humble Bundle

Chris Zele — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:22:20 +0000

$1 donation lets you snag some of developer's best games

The Humble Bundle is back after being on hiatus for a month. For you frugal gamers out there, you can donate $1 or more and receive a collection of titles from Double Fine Studios, the developer behind Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, and Stacking, this time around.

By donating $1 or more you’ll receive Steam keys for Costume Quest, Psychonauts, and Stacking. If you donate more than $8.26 (the current average), you’ll also receive Brutal Legend along with a few prototype games too. Donate $35 or more you’ll receive Double Fine’s upcoming game Broken Age. The highest tier is if you donate over $70 which will grant you a limited edition T-Shirt.

The Humble Bundle supports the developers who put their games on the service. You can also choose where your donation goes whether that be to Double Fine or charity (Child's Play Charity and/or the American Red Cross).

I Won a $3K Gaming Rig from Maximum PC

Josh Norem — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:15:05 +0000

Five questions with the winner of our Maingear/AMD giveaway

Last month we gave away a righteous rig (equipped with a i7-3770K CPU, two AMD Radeon HD 7970s in crossfire, and 8GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum RAM in a sleek Maingear F131 chassis) courtesy of AMD and Maingear on our Facebook page, and a enthusiastic gentleman named Sean Pisto from Canadia was the lucky recipient of the prize. We asked him to share with us whether or not he thought he was going to win, what his old gaming PC was running, and what it was like to take it out of the box for the first time. The Q&A is posted below!

1. How old are you, where do you live, and how long have you been a Maximum PC reader?

I am 22, and I live on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. I've been reading and following Maximum PC for quite a few years. It started with me buying an issue every time I was on a ferry, and grew from there.

2. What are the specs of your current system?

The PC I had when I entered the contest featured the following:
Processor - Intel Core i5-3570K
Motherboard - ASUS P8Z77-V
RAM - 16GB Mushkin Enhanced Redline Frostbyte
Video Card - EVGA GeForce GTX 470
Case - Cooler Master HAF 922
Power Supply - Corsair 850TX

3. Did you think you had a chance of winning?

Not in the slightest. I enter tons of contests and the pattern is I forget about it after a few days and never hear anything again.

4. What did you think when you first received contact from us?

I was trying to remember what I entered. I finally Googled it expecting it to be a mousepad or something, and couldn't believe my eyes when I found the contest page again and saw it was for a $3,000 gaming system. Then my brain ran through the number of ways this could be a hoax, a joke, or a scam. Finally the truth set in and I got a wee bit excited.

5. What was the unboxing like, and what is the system like now that it’s up and running?

I knew it was supposed to come late on the Monday, so I sat in the front room of my house and frantically looked out the window every time I heard a vehicle. When it finally arrived I immediately took it out of the box and just stared at it in awe for a while. Finally I took the picture (above) and started setting it up.
So far it runs like a top. It's nice being able to crank up every setting in games without having to even worry about performance. On top of that it’s significantly smaller (and prettier) than my old PC, which will be awesome for LAN's. All in all, I can’t thank Maximum PC enough. This was truly unreal.

If you want to be notified about future contests, giveaways, and other generally cool stuff be sure to be a Fan of our Facebook page. The next giveaway is coming up soon, and without spoiling the surprise, well, we’ll just say that for the lucky winner it’ll be like a Dream come true.

Google I/O Part 1: $9.99/Month Streaming Music, Unlocked Galaxy S4

Paul Lilly — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:44:44 +0000

Plenty happening at Google I/O.

Google I/O kicked off this morning and is still going on at the time of this writing, but rather than make you wait for a roundup of the highlights, we thought we'd pass along some of the more interesting developments that have already occurred. One of the biggest ones is the introduction of a streaming music service, as previously rumored, to go up against the likes of Pandora, Spotify, Slacker, and eventually Apple, to name a few.

The search giant's All Access music service runs $9.99 per month, though you can sign up for a 30-day free trial before jumping in with your wallet. There is an incentive for being an early adopter -- sign up by June 30th and you'll only pay $7.99 per month.

In addition to streaming songs you've already purchased, which is a trick you can already do with Google, the All Access service also allows you to tap into millions of tracks you don't own.

Similar to Pandora, Google will provide personalized listening recommendations, including playlists curated by Google's music editors. No songs will be greyed out -- if you see it, you can play it. You can also turn songs into radio stations and peek at the related playlist. Notice a song on your station's playlist you don't like? Swipe it away! You can even rearrange songs, giving you unprecedented control in the streaming music space. Or as Google puts it, it's radio without rules.

All Access is available immediately in the U.S. and will roll out to other parts of the world shortly.

Moving along, the other big announcement thus far is that of an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S4 handset. This particular version of the S4 will be available from Google Play. It's built by Samsung, but is running a clean version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean "with the same software experience" that Google ships on its Nexus devices. This version works with both AT&T and T-Mobile, has 4G LTE support, is equipped with 16GB of internal storage, has an unlocked bootloader, will receive Android updates "promptly" as they're made available, and will be available for $649 starting June 26 (an eerie silence from an otherwise energetic crowd emanated after the price was disclosed, followed by scattered nervous laughter).

So, what do you think about the All Access music service and unlocked Galaxy S4? Post your thoughts in the comments section below!

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AMD Levels Up Never Settle Reloaded Bundle

Paul Lilly — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

You asked, AMD listened.

Two questions AMD tells us it's always getting asked by customers in regards to its sweet Never Settle game bundles are, "Can you add more games?" and "Why do I have to choose between Crysis 3 or Tomb Raider?" Lucky for you, these questions haven't fallen on deaf ears, as AMD is adding bonus games to its Never Settle Reloaded program as part of a limited-time offer.

It's officially called "Level Up with Never Settle Reloaded," but who cares about the title. What you really want to know is what kind of gaming loot AMD is bundling with its graphics cards, and we have the skinny. Short and sweet, AMD's updated promotion adds Tomb Raider to the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, HD 7970, HD 7950, and HD 7790 graphics cards, and Crysis 3 to the Radeon HD 7870 graphics card.

Here's a tidy breakdown of the updated promotion (Level Up games bolded):

Radeon HD 7970 and 7950: Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Radeon HD7870 GHz Edition: Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Radeon HD 7790: Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

The Level Up promotion goes into effect immediately at participating retailers and is valid "while supplies last." In addition, AMD is still giving away games as part of its regular Never Settle bundle. They include:

Radeon HD 7990: Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Hitman: Absolution, Sleeping Dogs, Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Radeon HD 7850: Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Radeon HD 7770: Far Cry 3, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

So, who plans on upgrading?

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