Anti-piracy adverts have always been a bit of a laughing stock, whether it was that giant, sweating blacksmith or the comically awful links in “you wouldn't steal a car,” but sometimes they're bad for other reasons, like being totally hypocritical. That's the situation the Business Software Alliance finds itself in today, as its …
Read More »Ourscreen is Kickstarter for cinema screenings
While film-going is obviously still a very popular pastime for people, with ever increasing ticket prices, continued fleecing for food and drink and the massive improvement in home entertainment over the past few years, it feels like the experience is dying. The general thinking is that it either needs to …
Read More »New Zealanders split on Kim Dotcom extradition
With Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's extradition trial finally looks like it's going to take place in a couple of months' time, there's been talk in New Zealand of whether or not justice minister Judith Collins should step in and block the extradition. However in a poll of New Zealand citizens, …
Read More »Energy drink gaming binge leads to kidney failure
14 year old teenager Henrik Dahl was playing Call of Duty with some friends at his school's LAN party, when all of a sudden he collapsed, passed out and slipped into a coma. Reaching the hospital, he was found to be suffering with kidney failure and though he soon came …
Read More »Mt.Gox finds 200,000 of its missing bitcoins
Japanese bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, has recently found 200,000 of its 850,000 missing bitcoins in an old un-used wallet from 2011. The wallet is currently worth around $116 million USD, which amounts to £70 million. The firm is still missing 650,000 coins though and has still yet to explain where …
Read More »Ablecom launches DS-520 advanced digital signage device
The market for digital signage is already huge and looks set to grow at a phenomenal rate over the next 10 years. Into this fast moving market, Taiwanese based Ablecom UK is launching a brand new range of systems that it hope will win market share. KitGuru takes a walk …
Read More »Kim Dotcom denied access to extradition data
Kim Dotcom has been battling his extradition since January 2012. While the trial has yet to take place, having been put off several times (and now set for July this year) he's spent a lot of time and energy merely trying to get a look at the evidence arraigned against …
Read More »Intel remains committed to 450mm wafers, but there will be a delay
Early last year Intel Corp. demonstrated the world’s first fully-patterned 450mm wafers and in mid-2013 started to construct D1X module 2 fab, which is supposed to act as a primary development facility for virtually all of Intel’s 450mm initiatives. It was expected that commercial production of chips on 450mm wafers …
Read More »The power and value of logos
Ever wondered how much of a company is its brand? Beyond the customer service, the experience, even the products themselves, brands sell. Just look at some of the most iconic companies in the world, they all have a brand that separates them from everything else. It's a style, an image …
Read More »Google refuses to delist full-movie Youtube link sites
Google has been pretty active in combating piracy on Youtube for some time now and even threw a massive finger to a lot of its hardest working contributors when it introduced the completely uncaring Content ID system which allowed trolls to strip ownership and revenue from videos with a single …
Read More »Ex-Microsoft employee arrested for leaking company secrets
Alex Kibkalo, an ex Microsoft employee has been arrested on suspicion of stealing trade secrets and then leaking them to the public before release. According to Seattle PI, Kibkalo began leaking Windows code as well as the company's internal system used to combat piracy in the summer of 2012 after …
Read More »MPs out of touch with porn crackdown report
Despite David Cameron getting his way on recent ISP level filtering, British politicians are looking to tighten the law and controls even more, demanding that every site featuring “harmful adult content,” implement an age verification system or face blocking in a similar style to sites involved in piracy. This comes …
Read More »Still no tax breaks for UK game devs
It seems like British game developers are never going to get the support they've long been promised by the British government, as once again a budget has been produced for the coming year, George Osbourne has held up that fruity little red briefcase and made almost no mention of tax …
Read More »Exclusive Interview with Richard Huddy from Intel at GDC
When Lisa Graff, Intel VP for the Desktop Client Platforms Group, recently told KitGuru about her plans for 2014/2015, the focus was clearly on reinventing the desktop. As KitGuru reported a while back, there will be a resurgence on desktop for Intel going forward, which we believe will peak around …
Read More »Hewlett-Packard to launch its first 3D printers in coming months
Although Hewlett-Packard is the world’s largest maker of printers, it has not so far launched a single 3D printer due to various reasons, the main of which is low adoption of the technology in general. However, chief executive of the company, Meg Whitman, announced on Wednesday that the first 3D …
Read More »EU defends net neutrality and kills off roaming charges
Hot off the back of helping to improve the privacy of European citizens, the EU parliament has just voted in favour of improving net neutrality across the entire region too, making it much harder for internet providers to throttle or block services from competitors. It's also called for an end …
Read More »Edward Snowden appears at TED via demolition man robot
TED talks are known for making us think about issues in a different or deeper way and bringing ideas to the fore, but rarely are they something we've already been talking about for almost a year. However that's what happened yesterday with a TED talk in Vancouver, when out from …
Read More »Oculus not part part of VR tech alliance
Despite being the founder of modern virtual reality developments and the rekindler of ever childhood fantasy gamers have had for decades, Oculus isn't part of the recently announced Immersive Tech Alliance which is made up of other firms hoping to push the envelope for VR tech and games. “We were a …
Read More »Indiegogo campaign launched for the first 3D, 360 degree camera
A crowd funding campaign has been launched on Indiegogo to bring out the world's first 3D, 360 degree camera, which can be used to film video for virtual reality headsets to make you feel like “you are at the centre of the action”. The campaign is aiming for $25,000 in …
Read More »Dotcom: you can’t fix piracy with a slegehammer
Kim Dotcom made headlines again last week with the news that Popcorn Time, the real end game for online movie piracy, was taken down from his Mega file locker service. According to his own statements, he had no idea about it until after the fact and we still don't know …
Read More »Console makers catching on to VR trend
Though you could argue that Nintendo has been well ahead of the curve with the creation of the 3Ds (technically a secondary, 3D display), Sony has always shown the most interest in the future of virtual reality technology – second of course to Oculus itself. In-fact at GDC this week, …
Read More »Xbox CPO jumps ship
Microsoft's chief product officer for Xbox, Marc Whitten, has left the company after a near 15 year stint in which he helped build the Xbox brand, create its bustling Xbox Live platform and of course helped sell each of the successive platform's systems. Now he's moving on to Sonos, the …
Read More »Google Chromecast set to launch in the UK
In July of last year, Google revealed the Chromecast, a tiny little dongle capable of bringing streaming and screen mirroring features to any TV with an HDMI port for a measly $30. Now, three quarters of a year later, the Chromecast is due to arrive here in the UK according …
Read More »Win Gadget Show Live tickets with Synology
If you've always wanted to go to the Gadget Show Live, meet the team, see the latest releases of games, hardware and assorted tech but never made it before, now's your chance to make it there for a lot less, as Synology is giving away tickets. But you'll have to …
Read More »British government wants to sanitise the web
The British government and specifically it's glorious leader, David Cameron, have shown quite a penchant for internet censorship, whether it's the insistent DNS block orders being handed out by the High Court like it's giving away free drink coupons, or Cameron's personal infatuation with porn (filtering). However it's pushing us …
Read More »Get ready for Valve’s F2P documentary with a pre-load
Pre-loading of games before launch makes total sense, you're going to have people clamouring to download it and you don't want to get caught up with all the riff-raff do you? But a movie? Is it going to get the same frenzied download treatment? Whether it will or not though …
Read More »Video tour of the MSI Nightblade at CeBIT 2014
Reading an extensive, in-depth review of MSI's latest gaming bare bones rig, Nightblade, is a great way to familiarise yourself with the specification and performance characteristics. But if you really want to get a handle on whether this is the right rig for you, why not get MSI's tech guru, …
Read More »The real story behind Twin Galaxies
Twin Galaxies, the company that not only founded the concept of video game score keeping, but played a starring role in documentaries like King of Kong and Chasing Ghosts, has been in limbo for a while now. It changed hands a couple of times after the founder, Walter Day, sold …
Read More »Dotcom’s Internet Party shows modern politics at work
One of the biggest criticisms of politicians, long standing political parties and all that goes along with them, is that they're antiquated. Often in practices but even more so in their ways of thinking, which is why it's interesting to watch Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and his recently launched Internet …
Read More »Mediacom presents new slimline smartphones at CeBIT 2014
Unless you are a disciple of Samsung or Apple, buying a new smartphone is a tricky business. You want all of the features but, ideally, not so much of the price tag. The chaps at Mediacom believe they have a plan. KitGuru captures their thoughts. Smartphones took ages to gain …
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