by Brooke Crothers January 18, 2011

The clock is now ticking for consumers to file claims against Nvidia for defective graphics processors. As a result of a class action settlement, consumers were allowed to begin filing their claims related to the cost of repairing laptops that contained the defective chips on Thursday and have until March 14 to file a claim. But this settlement shouldn't be confused with a series of large payouts by Nvidia to PC makers dating back to July 2008. Nvidia's problems began back in 2007, as CNET has reported, when defective Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) began showing up in laptops from Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell–among others. Nvidia responded for the first time officially in July 2008. At that time, Nvidia took a charge of $196 million. The company took additional charges over the next two years, which, in total, were close to half a billion dollars. No small part of this money has been allocated for PC makers (also referred to as original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs) that, over the last few years, have been making repairs to laptops from Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell. Most laptops affected are older models shipped in 2008. 

Read more here –>cnet.com

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By Mike Sharkey Jan 13, 2011

Huh. For years I assumed life was the most precious commodity in the universe. Turns out it's elf pussy. Thank the folks at D-Dub Software for dropping knowledge in the announcement for their new erotic fantasy game that puts a porn spin on World of Warcraft and Starcraft, Bonecraft. After bringing gems like BoneTown and BoneTown's Tiger Woods Affair Tour 2010 to market, D-Dub announced today Bonecraft is now in development and set for launch sometime this year. What types of adult-themed shenanigans will players take part in? The specifics are unclear, but the you've-got-to-read-it-to-believe-it synopsis from D-Dub should paint a pretty clear picture: Somewhere, in some galaxy, a peaceful land of orcs and elves is about to be torn apart. A mighty spacecraft hurtles through the sky, filled with invaders from a planet far away. They call themselves the Good Ol' Boys, but the elves fear nothing good will come of their visit. These drunken space marines are about to discover that the planet harbors the most precious commodity in the universe: elf pussy.

Read more here –>gamespy.com
Official website here –>bonecraft.net

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By Phil Hippensteel January 18, 2011

For Google to eliminate support for H.264 in Chrome in favor of the WebM codec is a shortsighted decision. WebM will likely catch on eventually, and the ITU H.264 licensing criteria are vague at best and suggest that large companies with multinational footprints (read: Google) may be required to pay hefty fees. But widen your gaze beyond streamed video, such as YouTube, and videoconferencing, and the next big area of technology expansion comes into focus. Web video and video from service providers are converging at a rapid pace. Consumers are subscribing to Netflix not to get the latest DVDs in snail mail, but to stream, on an unlimited basis, to their favorite devices–a reality reflected in Netflix's recent price structure changes. The device of choice may be a tablet or smartphone on the road, but at home, it’s often going to be a Web-enabled TV. And that spells problems for the WebM codec. Imagine that you're ready to watch the latest installment of your favorite sitcom. You turn on the TV, browse to your favorites folder, click, wait a few seconds and see, "Video format unrecognized." The problem is that the video was encoded in WebM for play out by Chrome or an application supplied by a Google partner. That partner may be Adobe, but it's not going to be Microsoft. And if the manufacturer of your TV or set-top box decodes the video for viewing, there’s even less of a chance that it will support the WebM format. 

Read more here –>informationweek.com

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By Joe Wilcox January 18, 2011

I'm not doing cartwheels over the new HTML5 logo, which reminds me of a superhero badge. It's bold, masculine and sort of orange, which will appeal how to the majority of web users? But the logo is a great idea, and it's big splash promotion — some of that from Microsoft — is exactly what the standard-in-progress needs right now. Today in a blog post, Jean Paoli, Microsoft's general manager of interoperability, writes: "The logo links back to W3C, the place for authoritative information on HTML5, including specs and test cases. It's time to tell the world that HTML5 is ready to be adopted." There's a strange appropriateness to Microsoft promoting the logo's use. It's what the company did in the late 1990s to promote Internet Explorer. During the so-called browser wars between Microsoft and Netscape, each side adopted proprietary tags not necessarily supported in the other's browser. Microsoft encouraged websites supporting Internet Explorer to put up an IE logo/badge — to be proud, to proclaim their support. As a marketing mechanism, the logo branding was brilliant and quite uncommon. 

Read more here –>betanews.com

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By CNN January 18th, 2011

He's not telling us exactly why or for how long, but Steve Jobs announced Monday he will be taking a leave of absence from his duties as Apple's Chief Executive to focus on his health. What Jobs has told us, though, is who will replace him during his leave. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook will be the man to fill in for the tech legend. Many are worried about Apple's future without Jobs at the helm but Cook has been in this position before; Cook filled in for Jobs during two prior leaves of absence. Those past absences came with Jobs' battle with pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant and many presume Jobs' current absence is related to his prior health problems. T.J. Holmes talks to Leander Kahney, Editor and Publisher of CultofMac.com and Author of "Inside Steve's Brain", about what the future holds for Apple in light of Monday's announcement. 

Read more here –>news.blogs.cnn.com

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Be among the first to see how the failed cops and robbers MMO has been transformed.
By Mike Sharkey Jan 11, 2011

GamersFirst is reloading failed cops and robbers MMO All Points Bulletin as a free-to-play title, and the studio is almost ready to give APB: Reloaded a test run. Want in on the closed beta? Inquire within. On the official APB: Reloaded blog GamersFirst CTO and COO Bjorn Book-Larsson said the company is looking for 6,000 to 8,000 qualified PC gamers to run the game through its paces sometime in February. "As part of this process it's critical we gather data on as many diverse machines and systems as possible," Book-Larsson wrote. "Thus we need to get as many normal, common, uncommon, unusual, strange, weird and just plain odd system configurations into the beta as possible." To register for the beta, submit your email address here in the "stay up to date" box, and create a GamersFirst account (preferably with the same email address). Roughly two weeks before the closed beta begins sometime in February, GamersFirst will send an email to all those who registered that will include a link to activate the beta request. Registrants will then be required to provide information about their rigs, themselves, and their background as gamers. 

Read more here –>gamespy.com

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By CEO Daily Brief Jan. 11, 2011

CEO Dirk Meyer has resigned from his position at Advanced Micro Devices, with The New York Times reporting that he was “pushed out.” The move comes just when the company seemed to be making progress in a turnaround, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. There was not a clear reason for Meyer’s exit, with the company calling Meyer’s exit a “mutual agreement” with the Board of Directors. In a company statement, AMD Chairman Bruce Claflin said that "Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives. … However, the Board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time. This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns. We believe a change in leadership at this time will accelerate the company's ability to accomplish these objectives." The Times reported that the move was puzzling, with the suggestion that Meyer was not creating revenue quickly enough. Stacy Rasgon, an analyst at Bernstein Research, told The Times, “The timing is extremely odd, and it’s only going to fuel uncertainty in the stock.” Unless there is more to the story, the suddenness of the departure as well as its unclear underlying reasons raises questions. Why was the CEO selected as the victim? The company is predicting that revenue for the fourth quarter will be about $1.65 billion. 

Read more here –>chiefexecutive.net

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