Software & Gaming

With the official launch of Windows 8 just a couple of weeks away (26th October), Microsoft is understandably gearing up for a giant advertising campaign to get the upgrade juices flowing. However this is no ordinary promotion, with Forbes reporting it as to be costing the software giant somewhere between …

The offices of KitGuru are regularly assailed with all manner of emails, brochures, presentations, videos and an assortment of other attention-grabbing ways to tell us that one company or other is doing well and launching something popular. While we can't say with 100% certainty that it is always the best …

If you put Pokemon in the context of the real world, it would be a horribly cruel place to live: capturing animals and forcing them to fight till they pass out. Of course thankfully we can differentiate that it's a game and that just because Pikachu can take a few …

After a strict diet, the new Opera Mobile 12.1 for Android is ready to show off its sleek new binary in the Google Play store. Despite being tailor made for four different chipsets, ARM v5 and v7, MIPS and X86, the Opera Mobile 12.1 browser remains sleek and slender since …

While we're used to seeing Hollywood depict hacking and computer access as some sort of 3D world to be explored, whether it's in Tron, or Jurassic Park, those seemingly ridiculous scenarios might actually be closer to computer security of the future than we might think. Traditionally, security officials spend their time looking …

Being a gamer might not affect your actual skillset as far as being a politician goes, but it certainly seems to be giving ammunition to the opponents of one US democratic candidate. Colleen Lachowicz, who is trying to be elected as a member of the senate, is being attacked for …

The BBC is planning to enter the music streaming game, with a free to play service similar to iPlayer. Known as Playlister, the service won't offer exactly the same thing as Spotify and its contemporaries, but will stream hundreds of thousands of BBC recordings from the network's TV and radio …

After details were revealed by Radu Dragusin over at IEEElog.com a few days ago that passwords and user details for some 100,000 members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers had been made publicly available on the company's FTP server for at least a month, the organisation has now …

Sony Computer Entertainment Australia will be cracking open the Champagne today as they have announced their Playstation 3 console has outsold all competing products to take the top spot in the first half of the year. NPD Australia data shows that the Playstation 3 is top spot in Q1/Q2 2012. …

With the latest of serious bugs in IE going unfixed for a couple of days now, Germany's government has taken the surprising move to urge its citizens to stop using the long standing browser, amid fears over its security. Considering the flaw can affect all versions of the browser, it …

Sony have unveiled the new super slim Playstation 3, just in time as Nintendo focus on their Wii U gaming machine. We heard talk about this new machine earlier in the year and it has finally been shown at a press conference. We managed to get hold of a picture …

A Microsoft investigation has discovered that malware is being installed by criminals on to brand new machines in China, before they even leave the factory. It also found that in most cases, the PCs were shipping with counterfeit versions of Windows. While some might roll their eyes at this story, …

Nvidia has released an update for its graphics card drivers, bringing the latest WHQL certified release to 306.23. It brings with it quite an extensive list of updates, with a focus on getting ready for the release of both Borderlands 2 and the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of …

Having slated the release of the Wii U in its native Japan for the 8th of December just yesterday, Nintendo was expected to announce a closer-to-Christmas date for the rest of the world. However those fears have proved false, with Nintendo announcing today that its next-generation console would land in …

A new site set to begin operation for the first time on 26th September, Indie Game Stand, will offer a single Indie game every four days, with users able to pay whatever they want for it. Clearly taking inspiration from the likes of HumbleBundle, but making things a little more …

We reported yesterday that an Anonymous source had claimed responsibility for the raft of websites taken down in an ‘attack' on GoDaddy.com. The company issued a statement claiming that the problem was based on corrupted router tables, not ‘external influences'. GoDaddy interim CEO Scott Wagner, wrote a small announcement which …

Millions of websites hosted by Godaddy.com were taken down yesterday for a couple of hours before the services started to come back online in the afternoon. A hacker who was apparently associated with the Anonymous group took responsibility on Twitter.com. Another Twitter account associated with the group has disputed the …

Valve is set to launch its latest expansive project today: Steam Big Picture. Designed to offer a decent Steam experience on your lounge TV – controlled via Xbox controller – Big Picture could end up having a very interesting impact on the industry. For one, while Valve has made it …

It is hard to believe that when Valve initially launched their STEAM platform many analysts felt it wouldn't last. Fast forward 10 years and it is now one of the strongest gaming platforms, worldwide. Valve are said to be valued at $2.5 billion today. STEAM is actually so powerful now, …

Although there might be some division in the KitGuru camp, there is a definite feeling among some of us that Windows 8 is going to completely miss the mark for desktop/laptop users. News from our sources inside Microsoft, however, says that we need not fear for our interface just yet. …

One of the most important cornerstones of the UK economy is the concept that, no matter how dramatic and outrageous an advert is, the claims made must be decent, legal, honest and true. Paraphrasing Elvis, you can knock us down and stamp in our face – but don't tell porkies …

At least that's the message Miriam Bellard of No Reply Games got, when she received a notice that her company's game ‘Seduce Me,' had been kicked off of the Greenlight voting platform for breaking terms and conditions. Considering the only real two T&Cs that could get you removed were for …

Farmville was one of the most successful ‘casual' games of all time and the company behind it, Zynga are focusing on the follow up – the aptly titled ‘Farmville 2'. The San Francisco based company released the new game this week and it is set to deliver a more ‘graphically …

Despite it having been just over a week since Blizzard introduced what was expected to be a monumental time sink, Paragon Levels, one player known as Alkaizer has already almost hit the maximum. He currently sits at Paragon Level 97 – and considering he's done that in a week, expect it …

The FBI are denying claims that well known hacking group AntiSec took 12 million Apple IDs from the laptop of a federal agent. AntiSec said they took 12.36 million ID's from the laptop and they were making some of the details public so they could draw attention to the activities …

According to a new McAfee report, Malware attacks are at their highest in 4 years. Mobile devices feature high on the list. McAfee, now owned by Intel issued their quarterly Threats Report and it points out that there is a 1.5 million increase in malware since Q1 this year, a …

BBC followers are now able to watch their favourite tv shows while traveling thanks to a new adjustment to the iPlayer software. Programs can now be downloaded from the iPlayer to smartphones and tablets, for the first time. From today, license fee payers can download media from the iPlayer video …

While Guild Wars 2 might have been selling extremely well, with players knocking up impressive levelling sprints, it's not without its problems. A few days ago we noted the issue with mispriced items, but now ArenaNet is having to deal with hackers. In quite an ingenious scheme, a few nefarious …

While Valve's Greenlight service – where users vote on what games they want added to the digital distribution platform – has only been live for about 24 hours, the Half Life developer has already begun banning swathes of users for submitting fake games to the service. While Greenlight should be …

Whenever a new operating system launches from Microsoft, the company gives those who bought close to the launch date a chance to upgrade to the new operating system for cheap/free. With Windows 8, it looks like that window might shut around Valentine's Day. KitGuru wonders if Windows 8 users will …