Futuremark Game Studio have just confirmed the release date and pricing for the PC and iPad versions of their upcoming orbital tower defense game, Unstoppable Gorg. In case you've forgotten what Futuremark's Unstoppable Gorg is all about, check out the gameplay trailer below.

Futuermark also announced that there is a previously unannounced version coming out, appearing on Apple Mac-based systems. On top of the newly announced Mac version, Unstoppable Gorg will be released on PC, XBLA, and the iPad. Futuremark Game Studio also announced today that Unstoppable Gorg will be released as a Steam Play title, which will let users buy it just once and play it on both the Mac and PC.

RELEASE DATES, PLATFORMS AND PRICES

Windows PC and Apple Mac

To be released on Steam Thursday January 19, 2012

$9.99 (Steam Play - buy once, play on either PC or Mac)

Apple iPad

To be released on the App Store Thursday January 19, 2012

$4.99

Xbox LIVE Arcade

To be released in the first half of 2012.

Price TBA

CES 2012 - This little bit of news had to wait till I arrived back at home since I don't carry a scanner with me on my work trips. In our meeting Patriot didn't mention the new additions but they were included in the product catalog we were issued. The Patriot Wildfire leap to the the top of our performance charts in our reviews and it was one of the finest drives of 2011. The Wildfire products also included all of the accessories we like to get with our SSDs and included a solid warranty.

First up is the Wildfire PRO model. The specs of this one are similar to the already reviewed Wildfire other than the user capacity. Patriot has changed the user capacity back to the previous overprovisioning rate found on early SandForce SF-1200 based products, 100GB, 200GB and 400GB. That leaves a lot of space for background tasks and that means these would work really, really well in RAID.

Click the link for the Wildfire SE.

Entourage fan? If not, the title means nothing to you. YouTube it! Big news, SOPA has been stalled everyone, stalled! It was stalled due to a lack of 'consensus'. A lack of consensus with something so big going through Congress. Who would've thought!

The backlash from the Internet community with sites like Reddit against it, and the boycotting of companies that supported it like GoDaddy, have helped to force the pathetic bill to be stalled. On Saturday, the House Oversight Chariman, Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) was promised by Majority Leader, Eric Cantor (R-Va.) that the House won't vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) unless there is a consensus on the bill.

Issa said in a statement:

While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House. Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote.

Ah, torrents. You used to be cool before everyone dived onto you, years ago, but as they have become mainstream, the target has been made. Torrents used to not be mainstream, and thus, the websites hosting them were pretty safe. Now I hear grandmas discussing how their son/daughter/friend/grandson "downloaded X or Y movie/TV show from 'the torrents'".

The Pirate Bay is one of the largest torrent-hosting sites on the Internet, and in a month from now, thepiratebay.org will remove all torrent files from its site, in favor for magnet links. This new move is what The Pirate Bay calls a "new future" in file sharing, consisting of true peer-to-peer sharing without the use of trackers.

TPB has already switched over to the underlying technology that runs alongside magnet links, with Distributed Hash Table (DHT) and Peer Exchange (PEX). TPB have been using magnet links with torrent files for a while now, without letting any of its users know.

Last week at CES, ASUS showed off a new monitor designed for professional artists and photographers, the ASUS VA278Q. The VA278Q is a 27-inch, sporting an LED backlight, IPS-based panel, a native resolution of 2560x1440 pixels, and 178/178-degree viewing angles.

ASUS' widescreen includes a "Smart Contrast Ratio" of 80,000,000:1, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort connectivity, a stand enabling tilt, pivot, swivel, and height adjustments. This is something most monitors don't have, which is something professional users crave for.

Splendid Video Intelligence Technology also provides six pre-set modes which are Theater, Scenery, Gaming, Night View, sRGB, and Standard, these "optimize colors and image fidelity for onscreen content". No information on pricing or availability of the VA278Q.

I don't know how this can be found offensive, maybe it should be taken the other way: as a tribute. Steve Jobs was such a huge influence on society itself through the gadgets he saw released, that he makes it into one of the most iconic TV shows in history: The Simpsons.

In this weeks episode, titled "Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson", Homer is being interviewed on TV, where along the bottom, the news ticker reads "Steve Jobs unveils iGhost".

In this episode, Homer becomes a Glenn Beck type, after Bart uploads a video of him having an Alec Baldwin-ish aeroplane meltdown moment. During an interview on Fox News, the news ticker flows and shows up some funny, but fake headlines: "Europe puts Greece on eBay", "Congress postpones end of world to 2013", "Satan tweets support for Santorum", and the big one, "Steve Jobs unveils iGHOST".

Do you think they took it too far? Or some people just can't take a joke?

Vodafone have started 2012 off with an app release of "My Vodafone" for iOS and Android-based devices. The app lets you monitor your monthly data usage, so you don't go over your data cap and get hit with excess usage charges.

Post-paid (12-, 24-month, or month-to-month) Vodafone customers with a My Vodafone username and password get access to the full suite of functionality in the application. Pre-paid customers can download the app, but to access your account services on pre-paid, the app will link you directly to the mobile version of My Vodafone, where you can log-in.

The app features are:

• View your account usage

• View your recent bills & payments

• Check your account details

• Find your nearest store

• View network updates in your area

• Contact Vodafone

• Join the conversation in the Vodafone Community

We still don't have pictures or video of Osama bin Laden, but hey, it's OK to dump pictures of another countries Nuclear facility, right? Well, its now known the length of North Korea's progress in building a [gasp] weapon of mass destruction. You know, the ones we still haven't found in the War on Terror after trillions of dollars spent and countless thousand killed and millions displaced.

North Korea has actually done quite a bit of work, but not as much as NK's official claims state. There are various photos dated between June of 2009 and November of last year, which show North Korea's enrichment facility and light water reactors. You can see in these photos that the two aforementioned bits of the puzzle have almost reached completion. Once that's done, it's time to have its internals placed inside. The speed at which North Korea's reached this point, has analysts concerned. Below is a quote from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:

Was the seismic analysis of the reactor site sufficiently rigorous? Did the regulatory authorities have the skills and independence required to license this reactor in such a short time period? And do Yongbyon [the construction site] specialists have sufficient experience with the very demanding materials requirements for the internal reactor components, including the pressure vessel, steam generator, piping and fuel-cladding materials?

Last Friday, a group of purportedly Gazan hackers defaced Israel's Fire and Rescue Services website. They didn't just do any old hack, but added a "death to Israel" message on the website and a tweaked picture of Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, where they superimposed foot prints over his face.

Ayalon is the public official responsible for a strongly worded statement denouncing hacking, likening it to terrorism and threatening (bad move) that:

Israel has active capabilities for striking at those who are trying to harm it, and no agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action.

Now, I'm sure you can imagine that the hackers were not happy with Ayalon's choice of words. The statement was made as a response to a cyber attack against Israel where hackers claimed to have taken 400,000 "Zionist" credit cards, including addresses, names and Israeli ID numbers (like Social Security). It has been reported that at least several thousand of those credit card numbers were verified as legitimate cards.

Diablo 3 hitting the consoles has been a rumor for quite a while now, and unfortunately, that rumor is now fact. Blizzard admitted last year that they were experimenting with a console version of Diablo 3, but according to a tweet from a Blizzard community manager, Diablo 3 on consoles is all but confirmed.

A fan on Twitter asked "can you confirm or deny Diablo 3 coming to consoles?" with community manager "Bashiok" responding with "Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo 3 console project". No more details or specifics were unveiled.

Now that news, I don't mind. As long as the game isn't like all other multi-platform releases where the PC controls suffer because of the slow movement of console controllers, and the slow response time of TVs, etc. But when Blizzard first revealed they were looking at bringing RPGs to consoles, director Jay Wilson actually said the game felt better in some ways with a controller, as opposed to a mouse and keyboard.