Often it's a pretty heated debate on the internet - "is competitive gaming a real sport?". Well, in more MLG news - they're bringing Valve's popular FPS title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to the public scene and the television via the X Games and ESPN. This comes to light after we've recently reported on MLG working behind the scenes to run the biggest Dota2 league in history.

Set for kickoff on the 23rd of January 2015, X Games Aspen will be looking for another sell-out audience - seeing eSports now added to the foray of hardcore high-adrenaline sports on offer. This partnership will see MLG.tv team up with the ESPN and ABC to bring this event to the wider audience.

Sundance DiGiovanni, Co-founder and CEO of MLG, commented that "2014 was a breakout year for eSports with the first ever MLG tournament at X Games Austin, millions watching competition on MLG.tv, and more than 71 million people competing in or watching eSports events around the globe," further adding "Our X Games debut was such a success we knew we had to continue the tradition. The MLG X Games Aspen Invitational will further elevate eSports placing our top competitors amongst the best winter athletes in the world and continues to solidify MLG.tv as the leading destination for premium eSports pro gaming."

Featuring a minimum prize pool of $475,000 alongside an offered $90,000 worth of player travel support, joinDOTA have teamed up with Major League Gaming (MLG) to build the world's largest Dota 2 league.

Coming off the back of an extremely successful 'International' held by the game developer Valve in 2014, seeing over $10m in prize money being given out to the competing teams alongside free travel and hotel arrangements, joinDOTA and MLG are trying to step up the game - offering a long-standing tournament for many teams to compete in.

Claimed to take "competitive Dota 2 to the next level," their recently issued press release states that this World Championship event follows on from the renewal of the joinDOTA league. Teams who competed in the last 'jDL Division 1' competition will be given the chance to qualify for a spot in the season finals, alongside multiple big-name entities being selected to attend.

Have you ever used ChatOn to chat to your friends? We haven't either. Samsung's unpopular messenger service has been marked for closure on the first day of February, 2015.

Unfortunately this messenger app didn't really gain traction in the wider market, which is currently heavily saturated. If you're wanting to chat to a friend there is a seemingly endless list of ways to contact them in this day and age through your mobile. Off the top of my head I can immediately rattle off: Steam, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Xfire, WhatsApp, Line - amongst many others.

Announced in 2011, Samsung were said to have big plans for ChatOn's development - setting it up for pre-installation on Samsung devices to try and push it into the market. This claimed by many to be a good move as Samsung was just gaining massive market share in the smartphone sector, however its three-year service will be coming to an end in two months time.

"I've got your back bro" exclaims Virgin Media. If you're prone to falling asleep on the couch or have had a long day at work, Virgin Media has developed a new device that will auto-record your show to a connected TiVo box when you slip off to sleep.

This wristband is named be KipstR and works in conjunction with a TIVo box, designed by 15 year old Ryan Oliver and 14 year old Jonathan Kingsley - two youngsters who were commissioned by Virgin Media to develop this 3D-printed device in their Manchester Creative Studio.

We've seeing more 3D-printed devices hit the market which is awesome to see. The way this hot piece of tech works is to utilize a pulse-oximeter to closely monitor the wearers blood flow and content of oxygen located within. When your heart slows down due to you nodding off, the KipstR will sense this and start recording your session.

Perhaps emboldened by the success of this summer's western reboot of the 'Godzilla' franchise, which itself will recieve a sequel, the original rights holder to the beast, Japanese studio Toho has its own plans to rejuvenate their franchise.

According to The Guardian, Toho is forging ahead with production of the 29th movie in the franchise, the first since the disappointing reception in 2004's 'Godzilla: Final Wars', saying "We have received lots of sincere requests from fans for him to be revived". Toho hope to have the next film out in time for Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games.

Sony Pictures originally pulled "The Interview" from theaters, bowing to terrorist threats issued by the Guardians of Peace, but is looking for different online methods to distribute the controversial movie. It's possible Sony could release the movie on the Crackle online streaming video service, as a way for interested fans to watch the movie.

"Sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed," said David Boies, Sony attorney. "How it's going to be distributed, I don't think anybody knows quite yet. But it's going to be distributed."

The entire Sony Pictures drama has taken many peculiar turns, and CEO Michael Lynton admitted the company has struggled to find streaming or video-on-demand distribution partners. However, BitTorrent is willing to help Sony Pictures share The Interview, though sharing it on Crackle could also be extremely effective - as social media will certainly help drive viewers to the movie.

President Obama has said the United States will respond "proportionately" against North Korea for its role in attacking Sony Pictures, but said the country is not engaged in a cyberwar against North Korea. Instead, the US may reintroduce North Korea to a list of countries accused of sponsoring terrorism, and will look for other methods to retaliate against the reclusive country.

"I don't think it was an act of war," Obama recently said on CNN's State of the Union. I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately, as I said. We've got very clear criteria as to what it means for a state to sponsor terrorism. And we don't make those judgments just based on the news of the day. We look systematically at what's been done and based on those facts, we'll make those determinations in the future."

There aren't many things the United States can do to attack North Korea with cyberattacks, as the US has much more to lose in an ongoing battle - and the US is more interested in trying to create generational change to help better the North Korean people, rather than directly fight with the government.

Office retailer Staples recently issued an update to a data breach investigation that took place earlier in the year, targeting its retail point-of-sale (PoS) systems. The company said 115 of its stores nationwide were targeted, with 1.16 million customers affected, providing cybercriminals potential "access to some transaction data at affected stores, including cardholder names, payment card numbers, expiration dates, and card verification codes."

Retailers remain under fire from foreign cybercriminals targeting their PoS systems - and the problem likely won't suddenly go away anytime soon. Despite Staples' data breach much smaller than Target (40 million compromised) and Home Depot (56 million compromised), shows that major problems still exist.

Apple executives have lashed out at the BBC Panorama report that revealed ongoing poor working conditions for employees at an Apple manufacturing facility in China. The report indicated employees were found to work up to 16 hours per shift, working many consecutive days, and living in harsh environments in their dormitories.

Apple CEO Tim Cook noted educational programs for workers in China, along with improving working conditions, in an open letter to Apple employees working in the UK.

"As you know, Apple is dedicated to the advancement of human rights and equality around the world. We are honest about the challenges we face and we work hard to make sure that people who make our products are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve."

After the NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun teamed up with his wife Lori to donate $1 million to non-profit charity City Year recently, the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation pushed $500,000 towards CARE in India and Napster's founder gave $24 million to Stanford for an allergy research facility - Microsoft once again put their name on this list, giving $2 million in software to NBC-supported charities.

Alongside this, the tech giant has given 200 HP Stream Windows tablets to these charities, enabling them to run Office 365 and Windows 8.1 quickly and efficiently on a 7-inch screen. Although not as impressive as $24 million in cold-hard cash, it's good to see more big-name companies get on board with charity work even if it's in the form of enabling their customers to donate through a company portal that's been established - anything is better than nothing.

Microsoft has been donating to NBC charity for the past 14 years, coining this donation as part of their "YouthSpark" program which is promoted to help 300 million youth find opportunities in education, entrepreneurship and employment worldwide.