Top CS:GO player says eSports has a doping problem

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Jul 18, 2015 4:20 AM CDT

Hearing of professional athletes taking performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) to get an edge on the competition isn't a shock anymore. However, you may be a bit more surprised to hear about PED use among eSports competitors.

Kory Friesen (a.k.a SEMPHIS), a former Cloud9 team member and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional player, recently said the entire team used Adderall. Friesen made his comments after discussing in-game communication between Cloud9 teammates (via Mohan "Launders" Govindasamy):

"The ESL comms were kind of funny in my opinion. I don't even care. We were all on Adderall. I don't even give a f**k. It was pretty obvious if you listened to the comms. People can hate it or whatever."

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Nintendo releases touching memorial address for Satoru Iwata

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Jul 18, 2015 3:27 AM CDT

The gaming world was turned upside down after it was announced Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, 55, died earlier this week. Nintendo senior managing director Genyo Takeda delivered the memorial address during Iwata's funeral, which was posted online by Polygon.

In the eulogy, Takeda spoke of Iwata's personal and professional successes, and vowed to support Iwata's legacy.

"As we gather here today for a joint funeral with Nintendo Co., Ltd. and Mr. Iwata's family, I would like to share my heartfelt condolences. President Iwata, allow me to call you Iwata-san, just as I always used to.

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Microsoft opens up streaming Xbox One games to Windows 10-powered PCs

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 18, 2015 3:20 AM CDT

Now that Microsoft is just over a week away from the launch of Windows 10, the company has just enabled game streaming from Xbox One owners to Windows 10-powered PCs and tablets. Not only that, but the company is also delivering improved features to the Xbox app on Windows 10 in the coming days.

Anyone who owns an Xbox One and a Windows 10-powered PC or tablet can play all of their games from their console on their PC, all by going to your Xbox One and then 'Settings', then 'Preferences' and then 'Allow game streaming to other devices'. Once you've done this, it will install the latest version of the Xbox app on your PC or tablet.

Once you open the Xbox app on your Windows 10 device, go to Connect and then '+Add a device', and you'll then have to select your Xbox One console. Once you have a Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller hooked up to your PC, you'll be close to being connected to your Xbox One. From here, you'll need to go to 'Home' and then 'Recently Played' to select a Xbox One game, and then select 'Play from Console' to start your streaming session. Voila; you're not playing Xbox One games on your PC!

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Fallout 4 voice acting took 2 years, 13,000 lines of dialogue

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Jul 17, 2015 11:56 PM CDT

Fallout 4 has kept voice actors Brian Delaney and Courtenay Taylor quite busy, with more than 13,000 lines of dialogue recorded over the past two years. There is a large amount of hype and gamer excitement regarding Fallout 4, and it's great to see Bethesda apparently taking things seriously.

It's an interesting addition to Fallout 4, as it's going to be fully voiced, with gamers able to choose a male or female character. It has been a logistical process for Bethesda, but will offer unique playability for gamers. Here is what game director Todd Howard recently told the Telegraph:

"We were lucky to find two great voice actors. And it's interesting because she may read things or act things differently than he does. So scenes play out differently depending on whether you are playing the game as male or female."

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ADATA releases the XPG SX930 SATA 6Gb/s gaming SSDs

Chris Smith | Storage | Jul 17, 2015 3:27 AM CDT

Designed with gaming in mind, ADATA has announced its XPG Series SX930 SATA 6Gb/s SSDs to the market. These models come complete with a DDR3 DRAM cache buffer which claims to improve "the random read/write performance up to 2 times when compared to SSDs without a DRAM cache" as seen in a recently issued press release.

Why gaming? Because load times. Boasting a sequential read speed of 560 MB/s and write speed of 460MB/s, these drives offer you fast loading times into maps and levels alongside providing the basic features of NCQ, S.M.A.R.T and Windows TRIM.

Available in sizes including 120GB, 240GB and 480GB, the SX930 series is also packaged with ADATA's "pSLC Cache Technology," said to enhance transfer speeds.

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JPay hopes to make big bucks by selling cheap tablets to prisoners

Prison corrections services company JPay has launched the JP5mini tablet, a $70 device powered by Google Android. Apps are heavily restricted and email conversations can be closely tracked by prison officials, so inmates won't have free control over Internet access.

Since the device is designed to be used by prison inmates, it looks like JPay took a few additional precautions in regards to physical design and software.

The JP5mini is made from clear, polycarbonate plastic that prevents contraband from being easily spread through the prison facility. The OS has a secure boot loader, which will make it difficult for unauthorized operating systems and other software from being installed.

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BREAKING: CaseLabs apologizes to Thermaltake for stealing accusations

Chris Smith | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Jul 17, 2015 1:06 AM CDT

Computex 2015 was an interesting time in the case, cooler and power supply scene. This was not only due to some amazing releases by numerous companies, but because of accusations by CaseLabs and some technology media websites towards Thermaltake for allegedly 'stealing' design ideas.

In breaking news, Thermaltake has issued a press release today which included a formal apology letter from CaseLabs, signed by president James Keating and vice president Kevin Keating. This documentation apologized for public attacks against Thermaltake and its North American marketing manager, Shannon Robb, further stating that the accusations that Thermaltake "acted as an Asian business with poor character and integrity" were unjust.

Also enclosed was a letter from CaseLabs to Legit Reviews. This letter outlined that Kevin Keating's statement of Thermaltake helping "taint the industry with rip-off products" was ill advised and a public retraction of the statement was included. This document went on to request that Legit Reviews should remove the news post in which quotes Kevin Keating's words immediately.

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Windows 10 can be ordered on a USB flash drive for an easy install

Anthony Garreffa | Software & Apps | Jul 16, 2015 7:27 PM CDT

Microsoft has reached the release to manufacturing (RTM) build of Windows 10, with its official release on July 29 right around the corner, but how will you be buying the new operating system? On a disc? Upgrading from your old installation, or on a USB flash drive?

Windows 10 can be pre-ordered on a USB flash drive on Amazon, but these drives won't be shipping until August 16. This date can change at anytime, so you could receive it earlier than that. Windows 10 Home is $119.99, while Windows 10 Professional will set you back an additional $80, for a total of $199.99.

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Microsoft says the first HoloLens isn't for gamers

With gamers across the world excited for the endless possibilities of Microsoft's upcoming HoloLens wearable, it looks like the first iteration of HoloLens won't be aimed at gamers, and instead it will be targeted towards developers and enterprise scenarios.

Microsoft says the first HoloLens isn't for gamers

The news comes directly from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, during his recent interview with ZDNet, where he said that HoloLens will be "more about developers and enterprise scenarios". Nadella's statement on HoloLens rides directly from his demo on the wearable at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, where the CEO focused its concentration of HoloLens on tools like Autodesk and Maya.

Even with the big push of Minecraft on HoloLens at E3 2015 last month, the company isn't pushing HoloLens onto gamers anytime soon. Nadella added: "What we can uniquely do is bridge consumer to enterprise. That's in our DNA. I want every technology of ours to seek that out. In the HoloLens case, when I look at the interest, it's amazing how many are in hospitals, healthcare, retail. That's where I'm seeing the interest and we'll definitely go after it". He continued: "I wanted a hit game even for the new medium of mixed reality. And we will have that. Gaming will always be a scenario and there will be other entertainment broadly. But, with the V.1 of HoloLens, I want us to push a lot more of the enterprise usage".

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Intel posts $13.2 billion in revenue for Q2 2015

Chris Smith | Business, Financial & Legal | Jul 16, 2015 6:27 AM CDT

Boasting revenues of $13.2 billion, an operating income of $2.9 billion, a net income of $2.7 billion and an EPS of 55 cents, Intel posted up impressive Q2 2015 results. These figures show what Intel CEO Brian Krzanich claims to be a "transformation of our business as growth in data center, memory and IoT accounted for more than 70 percent of our operating profit."

Naming the PC market as "challenging," Krzanich further explained that "the launches of Skylake, Microsoft's Windows 10 and new OEM systems will bring excitement to client computing in the second half of 2015." As for further reports, Intel generated around $3.4 billion in cash from operations, it paid dividends of $1.1 billion and used $697 million in order to repurchase 22 million shares of stock.

Looking forward to the third quarter, Intel expects to see a revenue of $14.3 billion, plus or minus $500 million. They also expect to spend $4.9 billion on R&D and MG&A combined.

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