If you haven't gotten enough button-mashing goodness of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, of if you just don't feel like shelling out the $60 for the brand new game, just get on your PlayStation 3 (sorry Xboxers) and sign into the PlayStation Network, where you will be able to purchase it for the astoundingly low price of $7.49, a %50 savings.

Capcom is also offering Lost Planet 2 on the Xbox Live Games On Demand service for $19.99, and though it's an entertaining game, it's nowhere near as solid as the greatest fighting game that existed until its sequel recently showed up in stores. Also, a simple Google search will probably reveal that a store near you probably has it for $12. This is somewhat reminiscent of Nintendo's mundane download announcement, but hey, at least we generally get one good grab.

Once again, sorry Xboxers. But if the urge to play Halo all the time hadn't stopped you from buying a PS3, you could be playing the predecessor that inspired the game that has so many flashing lights that Capcom is legally obligated to warn people.

iPhone owner? Enjoy someone knowing your every move? When you go to work, when you get home, where you go for holidays, everything is recorded and saved onto that previous fruit-logo covered phone of yours. iPhones have been keeping a recording of everywhere you've been since June of 2010. The data is stored on your iPhone (or 3G-powered iPad) and computer, which is then accessible to anyone who gets their hands on it.

Google's Android-powered smartphones do the same thing but it's an opt-in choice. When starting up a fresh Android device, you're prompted to agree to the following "Allow Google's location service to collect anonymous data. Collection will occur even when no applications are running."

Mobile providers obviously collect this data in the case of an emergency or police investigation, they could then track your movements or provide proof that you were at the scene of a crime from GPS data. But, most people don't want this information just being recorded while your phone is in your pocket next to your junk, or junkette for female readers!

G.Skill has today announced that we'll be seeing a PC3-18400 RipJaws-X kit that carries a whopping default clock speed of 2300MHz DDR. This is achieved with a 9-11-9-28-2T @ 1.65v setup. Below, though, we can see in the screen shot G.Skill have actually managed to achieve 2303MHz DDR at 9-11-9-28-1T using the same voltage.

What makes the kit really stand out is the fact that it's an 8GB one versus 4GB, which is what we tend to see from these really high-end kits. Coming as no surprise the kit will be a limited edition and that's no doubt due to the fact it's such a high speed. Unlike the 2133MHz DDR kit, overclocking will be slightly more involved due to 2300MHz DDR not being a natively supported speed on the Intel P67 platform.

To achieve the default clock G.Skill tell us you'll need an ASUS Maximum IV Extreme or P8P67 Deluxe along with a CPU that's capable of achieving a 107.9 BCLK. While the first requirement won't be an issue for high-end users, a high BCLK achieving CPU comes down to luck of the draw.

Valve's Portal 2 is a smash hit, scoring virtually 100-percent in all reviews. There's not much to say about the game unless you haven't heard of it - if you're one of these people, there are some steps you require right now. Stop what you're doing, open Steam (and if you don't have it, GET IT), find Portal 2, purchase. This is all you need to do to enjoy happiness.

As for reviews, I've provided a bunch of links below:

Techland - 10/10

Earlier this week, NYC-based GPS interactive augmented reality game startup GoldRun raised $1.1 Million this week in angel funding. GoldRun was fortunate enough (literally) to have participants like Ed Mathias of The Carlyle Group, financier Jon Ledecky, Founding Partner of United Talent Agency Jeremy Zimmer, Former Chairman and CEO of Sunglass Hut Jim Hauslein, and CEO of Venturehouse Group Mark Ein (Mathias and Zimmer will join the board of directors). GoldRun is looking to use the funding to develop new features for both users and clients to offer more AR interactions within their application. They will also invest in supporting sales and deployment activities in both the US and other, international markets. Even more exciting, we'll see GoldRun hosted gaming sometime in the near future.

For those of you unfamiliar with the application, GoldRun uses geo-data to run augmented reality experiences on the iPhone , and they recently launched a campaign with a sentimentally confused billboard near the Holland Tunnel in New York City, which we reported earlier this week. Founder and CEO Vivian Rosenthal commented:

This could well be the future folks, reprogrammable chips. Startup company, Tabula, is trying to create the hardware equivalent of software - a chip that over time, can have hardware improvements without completely replacing the device. If a programmable chip like this makes it to the market, it would replace the current mantra of replacing the entire device when a new, faster device comes out.

The idea isn't new, field programmable gate array (FPGA) is a similar technology which is used in some finished devices or prototypes before production begins. But right now FPGA chips are large as they require all the space for the reprogrammable circuitry. This of course makes them slow and expensive.

Tabula hopesto change this and their technology is vastly different - they've solved this issue by allowing the chip to mimic the way a stacked, 3D chip might function. Tabula explains this like a person stepping into an elevator that doesn't move up or down. If the doors close the floor outside is (very) quickly rearranged to look like a different floor - when the doors open a person inside the elevator would think they have traveled to a different floor - but they have not moved at all. This improves speed because the person doesn't actually physically move.

Google's 3-year-old Map Maker project, as of today, allows users to create points of interest in the United States and edit them as they see fit. Well, pending Google's eventual (and not guaranteed) approval. Why the three year wait? Evidently Google began its editing program in smaller areas of the world that necessitated detailed maps, experimenting to see if their infrastructure could cope with what would be, and will be, an extremely persistent and massive amount of traffic once it would be implemented in the US. With the potential of millions of unique views a day, someone has to ensure that thousands of Clownfart Daycare Centers don't just start popping up all over the bible belt (and that's giving most Americans the benefit of the doubt).

The editing process is pretty straightforward: anybody with a Google account can sign in, add a map POI with all of the corresponding information, and even draw a structure or addition to an existing point. For example, if someone were to make a large change to their house, like adding a wing or a helipad or something, you could draw that in. Google has made it so that edits are approved or denied and added to Google Maps (including Street View) within seconds- a pretty impressive feature considering the amount of editing requests that will start pouring in.

I'm sure people will complain about censorship at some point, but c'mon: do you really want Google Maps to be Yelp'd to death? Or 4chan'd into oblivion? There's a time and place for unimpeded internet speech, and it sure as hell shouldn't be a phallic drawing obscuring my train route in the morning. Check out Google's intro video for this new feature:

We all love the idea of using an SSD to replace our hard drives but there are just situations where it's just too expensive, like say in a server. Let's imagine that we can speed up our servers and make our hard drives seem as fast as if we'd replace them all with SSDs. Let's take a look at a hybrid array of HDDs and SSDs specifically the demo we saw put on by Adaptec MaxIQ at IDF Beijing 2011.

The increased speed and performance are achieved by automatic storage acceleration, which is facilitated using MaxIQ SSD Caching. The storage controller is in a unique position to monitor storage traffic and make decisions regarding "hot" data areas that can be copied to SSDs, automatically and dramatically increasing the speed of any system. Analysis of traffic patterns is made and copies frequently-read "hot" data are made to the SSD cache pool. This automatically increases performance without adding any management issues. The data in the SSD cache pool is simply a copy of the hot data residing on the HDD, eliminating many of the data migration concerns that get involved in placement algorithms.

This is the basic overview of what is explained in depth by Neil Cameron field engineer at Adaptec PMC, it's a very interesting interview in which I felt I learned a lot... and trust me when I say that SSD caching isn't usually something that I would cover, unless it was REALLY interesting!!

Telstra have revamped their website in yet another move to get customers to deal online with them more. The move might work as the site is much less text-heavy now and feels slightly less bloated.

Gerd Schenkel, executive director of Telstra Digital says:

A screenshot of the new Task Manager for Windows 8 has been leaked from Windows 8 build 7850. The new Task Manager is obviously not fully functional at this early stage in the Windows 8 game but we can still tell from the leaked screenshot that is is far different to the previous Task Managers in Windows 7, Vista and XP.

There are now three tabs: Programs, Startup and Users (compared to current Task Managers which are made up of Applications, Processes, Performance and Networking). This is probably set to change but for now it's great to see Microsoft changing up the Task Manager with a new fresh look.

Microsoft has also decided to categorize Programs into Windows System-Critical Programs, Background Programs and Applications. This will obviously make it easier to find the task that a user wishes to kill. Also included is an Advanced Task Manager that allows users to see more information about running processes and services, again this will most likely change but it's good to see Microsoft tweaking under the hood.

Hey hey hey, remember when I was just talking about how amazing the SNES was? Well instead of waiting on Nintendo to ponderously release amazing retro games amidst a sea of irrelevance, why not just check out Hyperkin's SupaBoy instead?

It looks like an SNES controller! And it plays SNES games! If you're going to start whining about the 3.5" screen, you probably didn't read the part about how it has Video Out and controller ports for actual SNES controllers. Yeah that's right, you can play any SNES game (that you own or can find) on your flatscreen or, you know, anywhere else you take the SupaBoy with you. It's coming out Summer of 2011, so stay tuned for more information.

Check out the press release for more info.

In case any of you forgot, the Beta for Gears of War 3 is available next Monday, and all you have to do is to use Gamestop to pre-order this bad-ass game you want to play anyway (pending you have an Xbox 360- otherwise you're kinda out of luck). If you were smart enough to grab the Epic edition of Bulletstorm (kinda redudndant, that game is pretty epic as is), you got access to the Beta today! Congratulations for loving hardcore FPS's.

Here's a video of some of the Beta, which begins April 27 and lasts until May 15, brought to you by Canada's Console Creatures:

Also, after the break, a list of all the awesome stuff that comes with it from the Gears of War 3 blog.

Munich-based Augmented Reality Solutions firm metaio GmbH and Vuzix of Rochester, NY have announced a development and marketing partnership to collaborate on identifying and delivering improved and enhanced solutions for their customers. Roman Hasenbeck, Director of Business Development for metaio San Francisco, commented:

If you're new to the Augmented Reality industry you probably don't realize the significance of this last statement. AR exists chiefly on two different platforms at the moment: web-contained and mobile. You may have seen examples and use cases in marketing promotions, such as those by Hallmark or Home Depot, that launch from the webcam of your desktop or laptop. Otherwise, AR lives in your phone, in the form of reality browsers like Layar or metaio's junaio application. Take a moment and consider the Yelp application's "monocle" function, and imagine you could perceive something like that through your sunglasses. That is the kind of thing that Vuzix wants to do. Together, metaio and Vuzix hope to address common AR implementations in advertising, entertainment, on-site and factory floor training and education, and pretty much anything else!

I've been posting quite a bit about Battlefield 3 lately but there's two reasons behind this. One, DICE/EA are pushing out new content showing off various pieces of the game every week or so and secondly the game just looks absolutely fabulous. Mind-blowing. Orgasmic. And finally, we have a 12 minute video to get all excited over.

The above video shows off the three Fault Line Gameplay videos and there's a bit of extras in-between and at the end. The videos are just amazing and are really setting Battlefield 3 up to be one of the best-looking FPS games ever. This is all thanks to Frostbite 2.0 and the fact that DICE are developing BF3 for the PC first and then scaling down - which sounds like a few of the keyboard-warrior attempts I've personally said on various forums and TweakTown-based news bits and editorials.

A developer who is making a game on PC first and scaling down for consoles instead of making the game for the low-powered majority and trying to scale up (which never works) to the super-powered PC gamers. Look at the result: Battlefield 3 versus any other game on the market now.

Eleven defendants, including the founders of online gambling sites PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker are the subject of a United States Department of Justice indictment, unsealed today. The indictment charges the defendants with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses. Authorities in New York also issued restraining orders against more than 75 bank accounts, and seized five different internet domain names. Damn, that's cold.

Evidently, Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara has charged Isai Scheinberg and Raymond Bitar, founders of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, respectively, and nine other defendants with fraudulently scheming to thwart a 2006 antigaming litigation that prevents US banks from processing online poker payments. Bharara said in a statement:

If only you got to kill the entire cast of the third movie. Damn, that was brutal. Film production house The Weinstein Company as promised, is making mobile games based on current films. In this case, we get a mobile game to get us excited for the release of fourth installment in the Scream franchise, originally started by Wes Craven back in the 90's. We got some screen shots from the mobile game, available on iOS, which looks to be pretty cool.

The movie starts playing tonight, April 15th! What's your favorite scary movie?

If any of you have been playing the button mashing extravaganza that is Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, you may have noticed some strange things. That is to say, strange things other than the crazy assortment of flashing lights, colors, and the fact that you manage to pull off all sorts of combos and super moves without ever really knowing how.

Is your Ryu floating randomly? Snapping out Zero momentarily disabling your characters? Is your opponent's Captain America randomly performing combos on you? And my personal favorite, is your opponent's Amaterasu carrying out frustratingly infinite combos? I'd actually love to see the look on the person's face on the receiving end of that.

If you're like most MvC 3 players, you probably haven't noticed and/or just assumed that your button mashing had come together in some sort of harmonius wonder, but all of the above are bugs, and are in no circumstances supposed to be happening. In a blog post today, Capcom announced that they've fixed all of these problems and more.

In a blog post today, Spotify announced they would be making some big changes to its advertisement-funded free music streaming service, and not necessarily the good kind.

- New Spotify users will be able to enjoy our unrivalled free service as it is today for the first 6 months.

- As of May 1st, any user who signed up to the free service on or before November 1st 2010 will be able to play each track for free up to a total of 5 times. Users who signed up after the beginning of November will see these changes applied 6 months after the time they set up their Spotify account.

Mionix have unveiled their first mechanical keyboard to the market today, the gaming-orientated "Zibal 60". The board sports some sexy looking Cherry MX Black switches, which have a linear (non-tactile) travel, require about 60 grams of force to actuate and are typically favored among FPS gamers.

The Zibal 60 has "rage-proof durability" which is thanks to its 1.6mm-thick steel frame - obviously this is added at the FPS market as it's full of rage at times (myself included). The Zibal 60 features green multi-level backlighting that can illuminate the entire board or just the cluster of WASD keys. The spec sheet lists support for up to six simultaneous key presses (6KRO) via USB. On the top right of the keyboard is an I/O hub with two full-speed USB2.0 ports and audio/mic jacks.

Pricing starts at US$150, but the board won't ship until June.

Pictures of the NBN Network Termination Unit or "NBN Box" have surfaced and are now causing people to raise questions on how it works. The NBN Box is not a replacement unit for your current wired or wireless router which plugs into your telephone wall socket and gives you access to the Internet. The NBN box is actually a replacement for the wall socket that will provide users with six sockets - two dedicated to voice services, four dedicated to data services such as the Internet.

This way, your telephone will plug into one of the voice sockets and your router will plug into one of the data sockets. Each data socket can provide a single and distinct service of the fibre network into your home or business. The NBN Box is not a switch - as each and every socket is completely independent of each other.

Six different ports, this is looking good. For example a business might run a line into one of the voice ports for a normal telephone service, a second line for the fax while using a single data line for the internet service. Better yet, each of these services might come from different providers, with the telephone, fax and internet services coming from different providers.