Something that Epic Games teased earlier in the week has now come true - Unreal Tournament is back, and is completely free. Unreal Tournament 2014 is a sequel to the famous first-person shooter, and is not just free-to-play, but is completely free. It is being built for PC and Mac only, with Linux support also making it in. This ain't no console dumbed down first-person shooter, folks!

Epic Games will be making money from the user-driven mod marketplace, similar to Valve's Team Fortress 2. Better yet, the game is in a very early stage, with the developer taking on fan comments and suggestions on how to make the game. Epic Games has "a small team of UT veterans that are beginning work on the project starting today," and "from the very first line of code, the very first art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open, as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers. We'll be using forums for discussion, and Twitch streams for regular updates". More details on how it'll work below:

Here's the plan:

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has voted 32-0 in approval of a modified version of the USA Freedom Act, requiring the National Security Agency (NSA) to receive approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before seizing phone records. The bill will now have to be approved by the House floor, and would help clamp down on ulk phone collection programs.

Despite political efforts to ensure the NSA - or any other U.S. government agency - is able to illegally collect data on citizens, privacy experts warn more legislation in the future will be needed.

The EFF had this to say: "The new version of the USA FREEDOM ACT is a strong first step to undoing the damage of the government's tortured interpretation of the PATRIOT ACT. The Judiciary Committee should be commended for moving the conversation on reforming the NSA's activities forward. We urge Congress to support this bill and to support additional privacy protections to address outstanding issues, whether through amendments or other legislative vehicles."

When LG first unveiled its Chromebase all-in-one Chrome OS-Based PC the tech community was set abuzz, and while many doubted that a Chrome OS desktop was worth the space it took up, more industry experts thought that the Chromebase was an excellent idea, and an indication of where the industry is going. Today LG announced that the Chromebase AIO would be arriving later this month on May 26th at Amazon, Newegg, and Tiger Direct.

"Personal computers have obviously become central to each member of the family, regardless of age, which is why it's important to have one that's easy to use," said Thomas Lee, senior vice president, LG Electronics USA. "Google's suite of programs, ability to update software and cloud-based storage allow the LG Chromebase to offer a simple, modern computing experience."

The Chromebase features a 21.5-inch full HD 1080p display, an Intel Celeron 2955U Haswell Processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of solid state storage. Google will toss in an extra 100GB of cloud storage, and 802.11 n Wi-Fi will handle network connectivity. A single USB 3.0 and single USB 2.0 port will allow for external storage, and an HDMI connector is present for video output to a HDTV. The Chromebase will retail for just $349.99

This morning Thermaltake and Tt eSPORTS released its new all aluminum Draconem mouse pad. Thermaltake says that the Draconem is a premium aluminum mousepad built for serious gamers who need an edge over the competition. The Draconem is one of the largest aluminum mousepads on the market at 300mm x 300mm and features a dual-surface design that allows for some restriction as well as a free floating uber-smooth surface when needed.

I got to spend some time with the Draconem in Las Vegas during CES 2014, and have to say that this 2mm thick mousepad was one of the most solid and smooth-feeling gaming surfaces I have ever used. The Extreme Precision surface is just a little more controlled than my current mousepad, but the Effortless Glide surface literally made the mouse feel like it was floating on air. Tt eSPORTS says the Draconem will retail for $39.99 and is available today.

EMC holds an annual trade show each year and it's turning into a big deal. Each year EMC also has an awards banquet for companies and products it deems worthy. This year, Load DynamiX won the coveted Technology Connect Partner of the Year Award.

EMC World 2014, LAS VEGAS, NV, May 7, 2014, - Load DynamiX, the leader in infrastructure performance validation, today announced that it has been awarded the EMC Technology Connect Advantage Partner of the Year Award. Presented at EMC World, Load DynamiX was only one of three partners to receive this year's inaugural award. Load DynamiX storage workload modeling software and load generation appliances help enterprise storage architects correctly rightsize their EMC storage infrastructure and align it with actual application performance requirements, ensuring that the proposed configurations can handle the projected workload.

"We are pleased to recognize Load DynamiX as an outstanding Technology Connect Advantage Partner of the Year," said Don Lamburn, Director, EMC Technology Connect Program, EMC Corporation. "We look forward to working with Load DynamiX as they play an important role in helping customers validate their infrastructure on their journey to the 3rd platform."

As NASA and other space programs ramp up Mars research, the U.S. space agency is interested in creating a plant-growth experiment in mid-2020. As part of the Mars Plant Experiment (MPX) project, it could be an important step towards potential manned missions and colonization endeavors.

"In order to do a long-term, sustainable base on Mars, you would want to be able to establish that plants can at least grow on Mars," said Heather Smith, MPX deputy principal investigator, in a statement. "This would be the first step in that... we just send the seeds there and watch them grow."

MPX would focus more on being a self-contained project, rather than trying to plant seeds in the Martian dirt. The rover would provide water and researchers will check back within 15 days to see if the greenhouse project is successful.

This morning Huawei launched its next-gen flagship smartphone in Paris, France, and TweakTown's Johannes Knapp was at the event to check out the device in person. The new Ascend P7 is a high-end class Android-based smartphone that features a 5-inch 1920x1080 resolution screen, a 1.8GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. 4G LTE connectivity is on hand as well as a 13-megapixel read facing camera with an 8-megapixel front imager for selfies.

"Huawei's relentless commitment to developing premium quality smartphones over the past three years has paid off. We are now ranked number three globally in terms of smartphone shipments, and our brand recognition is growing steadily in key regions such as China and Western Europe," said, Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group (BG). "Today, the launch of Huawei Ascend P7 once again challenges existing industry standards by redefining smartphone design, camera experience, and connectivity, to provide people with an unprecedented mobile experience."

After learning he's the target of a $32 million lawsuit from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), accused pirate Steven Messina says he suffers from mental illness and can't afford the significant civil lawsuit. The parent company of the UFC, Zuffa, is now seeking $150,000 for every act of infringement, $110,000 for using UFC content without permission, and $60,000 for intercepting UFC content, plus legal fees.

The UFC says Messina made money from the pirated streams, though he refutes the accusation: "Most of the time I barely had enough to cover an event's cost after donations and would use my own money saved from medication and doctors. In total, I've probably made no more in a year than $450-$550 in donations. But that just helped me pay for a few months of medical expenses, as well as maybe four or five fight cards. I always ended up paying out of my own pocket though, as I've had money from my previous job saved in my checking account."

Zuffa will continue to fight against organized piracy that streams its events, especially pay-per-view fight cards, and is currently interested in targeting websites that host the events. Regardless of what happens from this outcome, there are numerous ways to illegally stream content.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is cracking down on Internet bloggers in his country, forcing them to register with a national media office. The new "bloggers law" forces bloggers to follow the same laws as larger media publications - and any blog with more than 3,000 readers must register, including traditional blogs and microblogs.

Bloggers in Russia also are no longer allowed to remain anonymous, and all published blogs must include contact information. This new law is designed to help clamp down on criticism against the government. The new law goes into effect on August 1.

"Like previous reforms, this bill's sole aim is to increase control over online content," according a statement from Reporters Without Borders. "At a time when independent media are facing an unprecedented offensive, this is likely to reduce the space for free debate even further. The long list of new prohibitions offers many new possibilities for censoring bloggers when most problems could be solved under existing legislation."

The overall number of Microsoft Windows vulnerabilities has increased 12.6 percent year-over-year, according to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR), covering July to December 2013. During Q3 2013, 5.8 of every 1,000 Windows computers reportedly suffered from malware infection - and jumped to a whopping 17 computers per 1,000 during Q4.

However, severe Windows vulnerabilities reportedly declined 70 percent between 2010 and 2013 - as Microsoft continues to increase security - but the sophistication of current threats are giving computer security companies fits. Cybercriminals are using social engineering to get users to click on malicious links, or install malware bundled with legitimate software, the report also indicates.

Malware authors are finding a great market, in which they can launch mass attacks for a low price and little risk of being prosecuted. To make matters worse, next-generation malware is able to easily circumvent anti-virus software that traditionally kept PCs more secure.