Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Nuketown 2025 pre-order bonus map playlist removed

Daniel Perez | Gaming | Nov 19, 2012 5:01 PM CST

One of the biggest selling points for Black Ops 2 fans to pre-order their game, aside from playing the latest and great Call of Duty game, had to have been the return of one of the most popular multiplayer maps in Call of Duty: Black Ops, Nuketown 2025. The pre-order bonus had its own playlist where players could play Nuketown to their heart's content with other Nuketown fans, but it looks like the plug has been pulled on the map's dedicated playlist as it no longer is available to play through matchmaking.

Confirmation of the playlist's removal came from the Twitter account of Treyarch's game design director, David Vonderhaar.

Double XP weekend is official over. That means Nuketown 2025 / 24-7 is as well. I know. RIGHT?

Continue reading: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Nuketown 2025 pre-order bonus map playlist removed (full post)

RumorTT: Apple OS X 10.9 to be named 'Lynx', last iteration of OS X

Trace Hagan | Software & Apps | Nov 19, 2012 4:30 PM CST

Rumor has it that the next version of Apple's Mac OS X, 10.9 to be exact, will be called Lynx. The OS X line of operating systems have been named after big cats and Apple is running out of big cats to name the operating system versions after. The current version of Mac OS X is called Mountain Lion. Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Lion have already been used.

That leaves really only two choices, out of the trademarked big cats that Apple got way back in 2003. The two unused trademarked big cats are "Lynx" and "Cougar." Here's the kicker: a cougar is just another name for Mountain Lion, so Apple would likely not use that name. This leaves the final name as Lynx.

Furthermore, a report has surfaced that Apple's internal papers say they are working on finalizing the name and that it will be Lynx. Of course, this is the part that should be taken with a grain of sand as it relies on "reliable sources" and other decidedly flaky sources. But, it does have some logic behind it.

Continue reading: RumorTT: Apple OS X 10.9 to be named 'Lynx', last iteration of OS X (full post)

The start button could possibly come back to Windows 8, would make many people happy

Trace Hagan | Software & Apps | Nov 19, 2012 3:32 PM CST

Steven Sinofsky is out. Steve Ballmer personally fired Sinofsky, who was head of Microsoft's Windows division. He was the principle proponent and driving force behind the decision to remove the start button from Windows 8. He detailed his reasoning of why users should be forced to drop it cold-turkey.

But now that he is out, could the Windows Start Menu make a come back? Some factors point to yes. Stardock, makers of Start8, has distributed tens of thousands of free trials of Start8, a program which brings back a Windows 7-style Start Menu. Kris Kwilas, Stardocks vice president of technology:

We were having some success with word of mouth before the Windows 8 release, and since the release, the floodgates have been opened, and the demand is surprising even us. It tells me that early adopters of Windows 8 feel there's something missing -- a comfort factor for how they want to use their PCs, vs. how Microsoft has decided for them how they should use their computers.

Continue reading: The start button could possibly come back to Windows 8, would make many people happy (full post)

Apple shares jump over 6% today after getting hammered for several weeks

Trace Hagan | Business, Financial & Legal | Nov 19, 2012 2:27 PM CST

Apple's (AAPL) stock has jumped by over 6 percent today, bringing it's value up to $561.45 per share. This increase is in stark contrast to the past few weeks in which Apple stock had been in a near-continual state of decline and shed over 20 percent of its per-share value. The decline started shortly after the iPhone 5 announcement.

The value of the stock is still not close to the $700+ value it had reached two months ago, but it's better off than it had been. Stock prices have recovered due to strong sales of mobile devices in China, fresh rumors of a new iPhone 5 successor that is scheduled to be released in the summer of 2013, and Apple having the full catalog of AC/DC music on iTunes.

Several analysts still expect Apple stock to continue to increase, with most pegging the price around $760 in the next 12 months. One analyst, Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets, expects Apple to reach $1,111 a share in that same time period. He released a note saying the recent selling of Apple stock was "insanely insane."

Continue reading: Apple shares jump over 6% today after getting hammered for several weeks (full post)

Intel's CEO Paul Otellini retiring in May, board has six months to find replacement

Trace Hagan | Business, Financial & Legal | Nov 19, 2012 1:27 PM CST

Over Intel's long history of 45 years, they have had just five CEOs. Paul Otellini has led the company for eight years now, but he has been involved in with the company for nearly 40 years, a long time by any measure. He has announced plans to retire in May of 2013, which gives the board of directors 6 months to find a suitable replacement.

"I've been privileged to lead one of the world's greatest companies," Otellini said. "After almost four decades with the company and eight years as CEO, it's time to move on and transfer Intel's helm to a new generation of leadership."

There are many qualified candidates, both inside the company and outside. A new candidate would likely be someone with a focus on mobile as that seems to be where all of the market is heading. Otellini is seen as the driving force behind reinventing the PC market with Intel's current focus on Ultrabooks, but it's not quite a cell phone or tablet.

Continue reading: Intel's CEO Paul Otellini retiring in May, board has six months to find replacement (full post)

Wii U reportedly bricking after failed attempt to update

Daniel Perez | Gaming | Nov 19, 2012 11:03 AM CST

It's been nearly 36 hours since Nintendo's Wii U launched, which means users are bound to report issues as soon as they happen via social networks like Twitter and Facebook. One such complaint that is currently making the rounds is the extremely high possibility of Wii U owners bricking their console.

When new Wii U owners connect their console for the first time, they're going to be met with a rather large 5GB update, which enables the Wii U's online functionality, that can take nearly an hour to complete depending on your connection.

Users who have mistakingly interrupted the update process through a number of possibilities such as their power or Internet going down during the update, have been met with a "bricked" console, meaning it's completely unusable. As of now, it isn't known just how widespread this issue is as Nintendo has yet to comment on it, but seeing how users will need to have a constant stream of energy and Internet flowing into their Wii U could translate into a disaster this holiday season if a user decides to hook up their console during a storm.

Continue reading: Wii U reportedly bricking after failed attempt to update (full post)

Wii U charges $.50 for minors to access Nintendo Network

Daniel Perez | Gaming | Nov 19, 2012 9:26 AM CST

Since the dawn of the Internet, many have attempted to save minors from experiencing the beast that is the world wide web. Age-gates are used for a number of video game websites as well as other adult material on the web that vary from asking "Are you over 18?" to something a tad more thought provoking like requesting the user's birthdate. Nintendo's Wii U has introduced its own age-gate of sorts for minors who would like access to the Nintendo Network at the cost of their guardians.

When a user registers their account to be connected to the Nintendo Network, they'll be asked if they're over 18 years old. If they are, the user can just continue on and finish the sign-up process without thinking twice of their honor of being an adult.

If a minor creates their profile and registers for the Nintendo Network, they'll be asked to obtain the approval of their parent or guardian by having the amount of $.50 charged to the adult's credit card.

Continue reading: Wii U charges $.50 for minors to access Nintendo Network (full post)

Xbox 720 rumors point at Kinect 2.0, Blu-ray, DVR functionality

With the Nintendo Wii U launching yesterday, the eighth generation of video game consoles has officially begun. Rumors over the past year have speculated both Microsoft and Sony will unveil their next-generation consoles at E3 2013. But some new rumors for the next Xbox surfaced over the weekend that offer an interesting look into Microsoft's gaming future if they turn out to be true.

It's been two years since Microsoft introduced the Kinect, which is why the company is planning to introduce a new and improved Kinect 2.0 when the next Xbox is unveiled. Kinect 2.0 will improve on the original Kinect's technology as it'll be more accurate, able to track four players at one time, better voice recognition and stereo imaging.

A Blu-ray drive will also be available in the next Xbox, which is certainly a reason to be excited about seeing as one of the biggest mistakes Microsoft made with the Xbox 360 is sticking to a DVD-format for its discs.

Continue reading: Xbox 720 rumors point at Kinect 2.0, Blu-ray, DVR functionality (full post)

Nintendo Wii U gets teardown treatment

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Nov 19, 2012 6:39 AM CST

Anand himself has grabbed out his tool belt, and ripped Nintendo's latest, just released, next-gen console, the Wii U, and gave it a teardown treatment. The Wii U isn't too hard to open up and begin looking inside, according to Anand.

The included Wii U optical drive uses a custom format, offering 25GB of storage on-disc. Max sequential read speeds are actually pretty good compared to current-gen consoles, at 22MB/sec. There's two separate 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi controllers, one for the usual Internet connectivity, one for the Miracast display streaming between the Wii U and the GamePad display.

There's some Samsung eMMC included, and Toshiba NAND on the back of the board. Four 4Gb (512MB) Hynix DDR3-1600 devices are baked inside, with the memory shared between the CPU and GPU. We should have around 12.8GB/sec of peak memory bandwidth in the Wii U. Comparing this to the 5.6GB/sec available on the Wii, and we're looking at just over double the internal bandwidth - which isn't too bad at all.

Continue reading: Nintendo Wii U gets teardown treatment (full post)

Cisco acquires Meraki for $1.2 billion

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Nov 19, 2012 5:35 AM CST

With rumors floating around that cloud-managed network infrastructure company, Meraki, were about to announce their IPO, networking giant Cisco has swooped in and acquired the company for $1.2 billion in cash.

Cisco have said that they plan to use the freshly acquired Meraki's technology to "cloudify" its network management products. Cisco will turn the company into a new Cloud Networking Group. Meraki's CEO, Sanjit Biswas released a memo to employees, announcing the acquisition:

Hi everyone,

Continue reading: Cisco acquires Meraki for $1.2 billion (full post)