In what can only be described as a win for humanity, the New Zealand government today passed a new Patents Bill that effectively makes patenting software illegal. In what many are calling a major victory for innovation, the bill was passed earlier this week after more than five years of debate and intensive lobbying for multinational software vendors.

New Zealand's Minister of commerce Craig Foss openly welcomed the updated Patents Bill and said that it marked a "significant step towards driving innovation in New Zealand." He went on to say: "By clarifying the definition of what can be patented, we are giving New Zealand businesses more flexibility to adapt and improve existing inventions, while continuing to protect genuine innovations,"

The bill passed by a unanimous vote and was praised by the Institute of IT Professionals. Its chief executive, Paul Matthews, had the following to say: "The patents system doesn't work for software because it is almost impossible for genuine technology companies to create new software without breaching some of the hundreds of thousands of software patents that exist, often for very obvious work... Today's historic legislation will support our innovative technology industry, and sends a clear message to the rest of the world that New Zealand won't tolerate the vexatious practice of 'patent trolls'"

EA has some hot property, there's no denying it, but going into the future they're going to be rotating its three main shooters, according to President of EA Labels, Frank Gibeau, during an interview with CVG.

These three shooters are Battlefield, Titanfall and Battlefront, but EA will be doing things a little differently from now. EA were alternating between its Battlefield and Medal of Honor franchises, but now that Medal of Honor is all but dead, the way EA are doing things will change. Back in January, EA were forced to state that it was "taking Medal of Honor out of rotation" for the forseeable future.

Gibeau told CVG: "The shooter rotation we think about now is Battlefield, Titanfall and Battlefront, and so we like those three brands going forward. We're working out how we're going to line that up because that's what you'll see from us."

Google acquiring Motorola is only being felt in the market now, with the release of the Moto X smartphone. The Moto X is assembled by Motorola at a planet in Texas, which is a nice change to most phones being made in Taiwan or China.

Most companies complain about the increased costs of manufacturing on US soil, but according to IHS, the Moto X isn't that expensive to build. This is thanks to the smartphone featuring a year-old Qualcomm applications processor, and two chips from Texas Instruments, and even with the increased manufacturing costs of building it in the US, the total build costs come in at just $221.

IHS analyst Wayne Lam says: "What Google and Motorola are trying to do is not play the game of 'bigger is better' that everyone else is playing. They are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from the pack and push the user experience in a new direction." IHS estimates that the components used in the Moto X run up at $209, while manufacturing adds $12 per unit.

Prepare yourselves for another dimension of NAND flash storage, with Samsung Electronics, Toshiba and Micron Technology all recently talking about their 3D NAND flash memory developments.

The three vendors' 3D NAND flash chips are expected to reach early stage production during 2014-2015, where we'll see a commercial release in the years to follow, according to market sources. The success of 3D NAND will of course come down to market adoption of new end products featuring the flash memory, which will dictate when it's ready to take center stage for commercial-scale production.

South Korean-based giant Samsung is said to be ahead of the pack in terms of the development of 3D NAND flash memory, with Samsung claiming it has begun mass production of 3D NAND flash for consumer electronics and enterprise applications such as embedded NAND storage and SSDs this month. The South Korean giant has a new 12-inch fab in Xian, northwestern China, which will also take care of the 3D NAND production.

Everyone loves a good tech rumor, right? More so, everyone loves a good tech rumor regarding future releases of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Today, website WinBeta has managed to beat all the odds and gain insider information on what we might expect to see in Windows 9 as well as Windows 10. Of course, with Windows 8.1 not even officially released to the public, it would be best to take everything you're about to read with a very fine grain of salt.

The leaks come from a source simply named "WZOR" that the website claims has been correct on countless Microsoft leaks in the past. The mysterious--and apparently infamous--WZOR states that Windows 9 will be more closely related to Windows 7 than it will to Windows 8, but no explicit details were given. He says that Windows 9 will continue the Aero-based desktop OS that so many of us techies missed gratefully.

"According to WZOR, Windows 9 will be similar to the desktop OS we know today. He claims that Microsoft is planning to bring the old Aero interface back, but not as we all know it. That's all he teases regarding the Aero interface, but he also claims that Windows 9 will make an appearance in a years time, much sooner than expected," reads the WinBeta article.

Today, Logitech announced the release a new wireless gaming mouse that boasts a massive 250 hours of continuous, lag-free use while in gaming mode. The mouse features Logitech's precision Delta Zero sensor technology, which the company says gives players the ability to dominate boss after boss. The mouse also features a non-gaming mode labeled Endurance mode, which offers users up to 1400 hours of use on a single charge.

"When I play, I don't want to think about anything other than my game and what my next move will be. When you look at the wireless gaming mice out there though, their primary flaw is the uncertainty of having to interrupt your game to replace batteries. Not anymore," said Ehtisham Rabbani, general manager of the Logitech gaming business group. "We set an outrageous goal, and we hit it. Doubling, tripling or even quadrupling the battery life of ordinary wireless gaming mice wasn't enough. We wanted to bring gamers an innovation that would change the face of wireless gaming forever. With 250 hours of battery life, the G602 does exactly that. It's time for gamers to get real science behind them so something as fundamental as a battery doesn't get in the way of winning."

Logitech says that the mouse is built around an ultra-durable standard with primary mechanical switches rated to 20 million clicks. The mouse also features 11 programmable controls that users can custom tailor to fit their gaming style using Logitech's gaming software. The Logitech G602 wireless gaming mouse will be available soon at a suggested retail price of $79.99.

We've known that BlackBerry Messenger is making its way to Android for quite some time now, and while we had hoped for an OS-wide launch sometime in July, it appears that the first Android devices to get BBM will be of Samsung origin. Earlier today, website CrackBerry spotted a teaser ad that was posted on both YouTube and Samsung's Ghana Facebook page.

Unfortunately, the YouTube video has since been removed, but the Facebook posting is still up at the time of this writing. It makes sense that the company's Ghana page would be the first to post as BlackBerry Messenger is a major form of communication in many African countries.

So what does this mean? I think we may see the app officially announced by Samsung or BlackBerry at the IDC trade show in Berlin, Germany, next week, and with a working port for Android-based Samsung devices now in existence, it is only a matter of time before BlackBerry Messenger is in the Google Play Store for all Android devices. That is, unless BlackBerry did something stupid like sign an exclusivity deal with Samsung, but then again this is BlackBerry were talking about and weirder things have happened in the past.

Today, Anker announced the release of its new Astro2 external USB battery pack. Featuring a capacity of 9000mAh, the Astro2 is capable of charging two mobile devices simultaneously meaning that you can now charge your smartphone and tablet at the same time while on the go.

Like the other devices in its second generation Astro line of external battery packs, the Astro2 is capable of detecting what device is plugged in and then adjusting the charging rate to deliver the fastest charge speed. It works on both iOS and Android devices including Apple's iPhone and iPad, as well as Samsung's Galaxy devices.

"Even with our Astro line of external batteries established as the top-selling external battery brand on Amazon, we continue to evolve and improve our product line by sticking to the basics of listening closely to our customers,"said Steven Yang, Anker Founder and Chairman. "We know people have different power needs but the same high standards for quality and design, and this Astro2 offers the same innovative design of our newest Astro3 but in a more compact package. For those who desire even greater portability, never fear - we have an even smaller addition coming for you in the near future."

Today, high-end PC case manufacturer Lian Li announced the release of the PC-A79 full-tower PC chassis to the North American market. The PC-A79 is an all aluminum chassis with a brushed exterior that provides ample cooling options while retaining the convenience of a removable motherboard tray. Lian Li says that the case is capable of supporting HPTX, E-ATX, XL-ATX, ATX, and Micro-ATX form-factor motherboards and has enough space to fit even the largest high-end video cards.

The A79 is capable of housing up to 11 hard drives, either in 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch form-factors. Nine of the drives are accommodated in the three removable drive cages in the front of the case, while two more can be placed on the bottom of the chassis using the of the two included mounting brackets. Additionally, a crafty modder could manage to mount another five to six 2.5-inch SSDs on the right side of the drive cage, which appears to be recessed the good half-inch.

Keeping things cool is a quite an easy task in the A79 as well. Each of the three drive cages up front have a dedicated fan that can be positioned at the front or rear of the drive cage. It also features a cool removable panel that allows the quick installation of a 240mm radiator, two 120mm fan locations on the removable left side panel, and a 120mm exhaust fan in the rear designed to suck out all of the hot air.