Software & Gaming

I worry about my brother, he is 21 and addicted to gaming. He spends all of his spare time playing games online with friends and distant strangers. Getting him outside of his house can be difficult at times, and I always wondered – is it ‘medically' possible to be totally …

One of the most useful services online, Dropbox have admitted they were hacked. Some account names and passwords have been stolen in the process. Some users flagged that they were receiving spam associated with only the DropBox account. The company looked into the problems and found that some usernames and …

Square Enix has announced its intentions to support the Ouya console at launch, making the iPad and and DS version of Final Fantasy III available on the android powered home console at its debut. Currently still running through its Kickstarter campaign, the Ouya device is now approaching six times its …

We don't like Microsoft 8, and since I published my last article, I have spend some time with Ubuntu – on my road to leaving Microsoft behind. It is going to take me some time to get to grips with Linux, but I really have had my fill of Microsoft …

Ubisoft's online service, uPlay, has had a real vulnerability exposed, that can be used to view customer files and information. While it was initially thought that this was a deliberate backdoor hidden by programmers of the service, it seems more likely now that it is an unintentional vulnerability. IT “experts” …

Microsoft have confirmed that their new Surface tablet will be launched on the same day as Windows 8, October 8th. They said “The next version of our operating system, Windows 8, will be generally available on October 26, 2012. At that time, we will begin selling the Surface, a series …

US video game retailer GameStop and owner of the Impulse digital download platform, has said that it is currently mulling over the idea of allowing the resale of digital games. “It’s very interesting,” said GameStop CEO Paul Rains while speaking with GameSpot. “There are some technologies out there in Europe, …

It seems that Microsoft can't stay out of the headlines recently …. but for all the wrong reasons. With Windows 8 and their Surface tablet just around the corner, we have to ask the question. Do they really know what they are doing? Before I go any further, I need …

Gabe Newell, the famous figurehead of Valve, creators of iconic games such as Half Life and Left4Dead has spoken to VentureBeat. He wants to support Linux and has very strong feelings about Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft won't be happy, thats for sure. He spoke to Venturebeat and …

Zynga, the maker of online games have experienced a huge drop in share value, showing that they rely on Facebook dramatically. Their shares tanked by 40% yesterday as Facebook made changes to their system to address ‘spamming concerns'. Zynga's older games got hit hard and the company said the unexpected …

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has teamed up with Birmingham City University to offer students there the chance to win an academic scholarship that will lead to them having half of their fees paid to attend Gamer Camp Pro – a master's degree programme with gaming as its focus – as …

The UK government is being called out by a privacy charity, which is threatening legal action unless the MPs explain why they are shipping surveillance equipment and technology to repressive regimes in Iran, Egypt and Syria. Privacy International is the name of the group spearheading this campaign and it is …

Apple have announced that OS X 10.8, or Mountain Lion, will be released on the Mac App Store. The software upgrade is a very reasonable $19.99/£13.99, which is a complete contradiction to the high prices that Microsoft charge for their operating systems. The new operating system will bring a raft …

A controversial ‘SkyNet' three strikes law against internet piracy in New Zealand came into force on the 1st September 2011 which has halved online piracy according to the Record Industry Association of New Zealand. From August to September 2011 when the new law took effect, the number of times the …

Consumer rights group in both Germany and South Korea look set to take Blizzard to court over its handling of the Diablo III launch. The European legal threat is being spearheaded by the Federation of Consumer Organisations – reports PCgames –  and it wants to force the publishing giant to …

Ten years ago, Bob Feldstein was busy taking the lead on a deal with Microsoft that would lead to the Xbox 360 console being launched with ATi technology inside. Now he's made the move across to nVidia. KitGuru dances in front of a Kinect controller and ponders the nature of …

In the second bird related story of the day, a brand new app has been launched which lets smartphone users send data to each other via a ‘digital birdsong'.  At present it's only available to iOS users but an Android version should be available sometime in the future. The app …

While some birds spend ages singing complex tunes, sparrow tend to tweet. The animal can take in a whole load of sensory inputs and reply back with a simple, direct message. Google is looking to take on this attribute with the purchase of Sparrow. KitGuru buys a pack of budgie …

Microsoft are launching Windows 8 on October 26th this year. Steve Sinofsky, the Windows OS chief unveiled the date at the Microsoft annual sales meeting. To add weight, Microsoft updated a blog post with the information. Having tried the operating system I do remain completely unimpressed, particularly with the Metro …

For those tech readers who don’t always get time to check out our game related content at Kitguru gaming – here is a round up of content published in the last week. “New Console by Award-Winning Industrial Designer – Hailed as the ‘Best Designer Outside of Apple'” Yves Béhar – …

Blizzard has announced in a forum post that in order to curb bot farming, it will be reintroducing limits on gameplay in Diablo III, namely how many games a player can create within a certain period of time. While the idea is to prevent people from using automated bots to …

Valve have been working hard on getting STEAM ported to Ubuntu. They have also placed focus on Left 4 Dead 2 as a first, ‘showcase' title for the platform. The popular software company talked about this recently on their blog. Phoronix were the first to break the story back in …

The largest internet service providers in the United Kingdom were ordered at the end of April to bloc access to the Pirate Bay file sharing website. The BBC filed a report today which highlights that the action has had little effect on file sharing. Not really a shock to us …

Feeling the serious threat that Netflix poses to its movie business in the UK, BSKYB is set to launch a new service called Now TV tomorrow, 17th July, offering movies on the PC, Mac and some Android devices. Day one, the service will offer 600 films and access to 11 …

Do you own a 3D television? Do you find that it transforms your movie experience? If so, it would appear that you are one of the minority. Studios and production companies had hoped that 3D would have shaken the market by now, but sales figures indicate that not many of …

The auctions for the original World of Warcraft server blades have now been completed, with Blizzard raking in an impressive $300,000 (£212,000) from the sale. Beginning in October last year, Blizzard has been trickling the blade's onto auction site eBay, with all proceeds going to the St. Jude Children's Research …

Hackers have posted 450,000 user names and passwords online, stolen from Yahoo Voice, according to the Guardian newspaper. Similar attacks have taken place against other online services, including Android forums and Formspring. Users are being advised to change their passwords to protect the accounts as soon as possible. The Yahoo …

Two new screenshots for GTA V have appeared online as part of a Rockstar QnA session with fans. These aren't fakes either, but full blown official images released by Rockstar itself – and they look very pretty indeed. The question that prompted the release was “why don't you give us more …

Despite a European court ruling last week, that validated the resale of games from a digital download platform, Valve has announced that it plans to make no changes to its current setup on Steam – squashing the hopes of those looking to make a quick buck on their old game …

For those tech readers who don’t always get time to check out our game related content at Kitguru gaming – here is a round up of content published in the last week. “Analyzing Video Games on the Basis of Film and Literary Criticism (Part 1 of 2)” This post tackles …