Today, the day after the ‘blackout’ day to protest SOPA/PIPA, federal prosecutors have shutdown the worlds largest file sharing site: Megaupload. The founder and a few employees are being charged with violating privacy laws. According to the indictment put against them, they owe $500 million in revenue that was lost in software/entertainment piracy. Many people used this site, including myself, for legitimate reasons and it is a shame to see them go. Sites like these will continue to shut down under SOPA/PIPA if they were to pass through Congress. Yesterday’s ‘blackout’ day proved to be a huge success and we can only hope that it helps Congress the terrible things this bill will do to the internet and our freedom.
What are your thoughts on the Megaupload ordeal? Please post in the comments below.
Once again, EA is making a big mistake. As some of you may know, EA is trying to compete with other digital gaming platforms such as Valve’s Steam and GameStop’s Pulse network. Their platform, Origin, is still in beta and is not on par with any of the other digital gaming platforms. Now, you may be asking: What’s the problem? Well, during their last few game releases, most notably Battlefield 3, EA required Origin to play on the PC platform. EA recently stated that it will require Origin for their next big game release, Mass Effect 3. I know this is going to prevent a lot of people from getting Mass Effect 3, at least on the PC platform, because consumers do not want Origin shoved down their throats. If EA were to give players the option to use Origin, it wouldn’t be half as bad.
That being said, do you think it is a good idea for EA to be so controlling with their Origin platform or am I being way to sensitive about this? Please post your response in the comments below.
This year will mark the release of the third iteration of Apple’s iPad and the sixth iteration of their iPhone. Every new release of these products have improved something for the better in these devices. However, one thing the iPhone has lacked since the iPhone 4 and the iPad since its inception is 4G support. Now, many of us geeks can agree that 4G technology is not at the level it should be at this point. If you watch TV, you primarily see AT&T and Verizon battling it out while Sprint just sits back and watches. The two biggest cell companies, both of which support the iPhone and iPad, are shoving 4G down the consumers throats when the speed of it is no faster than 3G. Granted, all three of those cell companies have improved upon their 4G networks over the past few years.
A few days ago, I was reading that Verizon was going to start only accepting smartphones with 4G support in the near future. That being said, wouldn’t you think the next iPhone and iPad will have 4G support? It is about that time that they make the upgrade and it would be a terrible loss for Apple and Verizon as well if the next of these devices aren’t on the network.
What do you think about 4G technology overall? Please post in the comments below.
Imagine a time where magic and the constant fear of dragons is always prevalent. That is the extraordinary world of Skyrim. Due to the horrific civil war and the recent comeback of dragons, there is a cry for a hero to help bring Skyrim out of the darkness. Skyrim not only offers one of the best story lines I have ever seen in a game, but it is also filled with hundreds of side quests that may or may not turn you into a vampire and require you to kill your best friend’s wife. It also offers many improved features over the previous Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion. These improvements include, but are not limited to, dual-wielding, and smithing of weapons. This RPG allows you to be whoever you want, from a human to a vampire or even a werewolf. So, the real question is: “Who are you?”
As most of you might know, the US Congress is trying to pass a bill that could change the internet in ways I would rather not think about. That being said, we never have and will never support SOPA (“Stop Online Piracy Act”). Earlier this week, we moved our domain from GoDaddy. We are now registered with Nternic, who is a reseller of Dotster and they strongly oppose SOPA as well. We encourage anyone who loves the internet and technology as we do to make a stance against this bill.
Together we can all prevent this horrible bill from being passed.
The Byte of Tek Team
I have been a big fan of Minecraft since I began playing in June of 2010. It has definitely grown since then, especially the company behind it: Mojang. Since then, Minecraft was officially released out of Alpha and Beta, Scrolls was announced and Cobalt was announced and released in Alpha as their first third-party game. However, in a recent interview with Edge magazine, CEO Carl Manneh announced that Mojang will be releasing (or at least announcing) three new games in 2012. Two of those might be announced before June. We already know about one of those games, currently called Minitale, that Notch is working on himself. For those of you who haven’t heard, during the last Ludum Dare competition, Notch made a game called Minicraft in 48 hours. The game got such a large response, so Notch continued working on it and gave it a new name. So, this is definitely going to be one of those games. No one knows for sure, probably not even Notch, what this game might end up being but I am sure excited to see what it can become. The other two projects are under a non-disclosure agreement with other companies, so no details can be posted until all companies agree on it.
So, with that being said, what kind of game would like to see come out of Mojang? As of now, I’m more excited to begin playing Scrolls. Please post your response in the comments below.
As CES 2012 kicks off today, the main focus this year seems to be about TV’s and ultrabooks. The highlight in this post is today’s introduction of Dell’s first ultrabook: the XPS 13. At the starting configuration, it hosts an Intel Core i3 Processor, 4 GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, Intel HD3000 Integrated Graphics Card. You will be able to upgrade to a Core i5 or i7 Processor and a 256GB SSD. It has a 13″ display with a 1366×768 resolution. It weighs just under 3lbs. and is between 6-18mm thick. It also has a backlit keyboard.
As for a release date, it is due in February at a starting price of $999. We are also hearing that the ultrabook will launch with Intel’s Sandy Bridge Processor, but will be later available with Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge processor.
I’ve never been fond of using laptops as primary computers, but I am impressed with the kind of power this ultrabook can put out. It’s unfortunate that it only has an integrated Intel Graphics Card, but I still see potential in devices like these. Dell has definitely made a name for themselves with the XPS brand, and I look forward to see how this laptop sells.
What are your thoughts on the XPS 13? Please post them in the comments below.
Update (2/17/12): For more information, here is a link a Dell Team member sent us to learn more about the XPS 13.
(Photo Courtesy of CNET)
Today is the official start for CES 2012 in Las Vegas, but last night a few companies got a head start in announcing some new tech for the coming year. The one announcement that caught my eye was Panasonic’s new 20″ IPS LCD display. The difference between this monitor than any other monitor is that it has a 4K x 2K resolution (that’s 3840 x 2160 !!!). It uses IPS Pro technology, which offers a very nice high quality display. It is also the thinnest monitor of its kind at 3.5mm. Aside from being a gorgeous display, it has a total of 8.29 million pixels and a pixel density of 216 ppi.
I think it is great that we are going to start seeing displays at a higher resolution than 1080p. Don’t get me wrong, 1080p is great, but there are some people out there who want more. What I am interested in seeing is if Panasonic can put this kind of display on a laptop. If they can pull that off, we will most probably see ‘retina display’ laptops not just from Apple, but from other companies as well.
What do you think about this kind of technology? Is it ready to go on the market or is it too early? Please post your thoughts in the comments below.
Today, the day after the ‘blackout’ day to protest SOPA/PIPA, federal prosecutors have shutdown the worlds largest file sharing site: Megaupload. The founder and a few employees are being charged with violating privacy laws. According to the indictment put against them, they owe $500 million in revenue that was lost in software/entertainment piracy. Many people used this site, including myself, for legitimate reasons and it is a shame to see them go. Sites like these will continue to shut down under SOPA/PIPA if they were to pass through Congress. Yesterday’s ‘blackout’ day proved to be a huge success and we can only hope that it helps Congress the terrible things this bill will do to the internet and our freedom.
