There's a juicy rumor making the rounds, but it is being reported by the New York Post, and not by some vague blog. But, it looks like KKR and Providence Equity Partners have been in discussions with EA, with the talks at "very early stages".

We've seen EA's share prices drop 37% this year, but the rumors have spiked their stock prices by close to 5.5% ,or 72 cents, seeing them hit $13.81 thanks to the talks. EA's market cap sits at around $4 billion with one source saying they would be willing to cut a deal if it were at $20 per share.

One of the weirder things going on with EA, is that they've been slowly buying back stock from investors, which could be a preemptive move if they were considering putting up a 'for sale' sign. EA hasn't only been watching their share prices tank, they've not been able to make success in the market lately. This comes down to gamers not willing to part their hard-earned cash for a new game at the current $60-or-so pricing, instead, they're jumping on mobile and casual games which can be played for free.

Weekend news ahoy! ASUS have taken to their Facebook page to notify users of their Transformer Pad TF300 that they should expect quite the over-the-air (OTA) update. The update in question is to the OS itself, upgrading it to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

It has seemingly come out of nowhere, as we didn't really hear much from ASUS before this. But, you can't really complain about an upgrade to Google's latest and greatest mobile OS. ASUS said on their Facebook page:

The Oatmeal, a popular web comic site, seems to be drawing on its success in dealing with that 9gag lawyer. In that campaign, he raised over $200,000 for charity, more than 10 times what the lawyer was demanding from him. This campaign appears to be a similar idea, using his audience to spread the message far and wide.

And it appears to be working. In under 48 hours since the campaign went live, The Oatmeal's IndieGoGo campaign has raised more than $500,000 towards its goal of $850,000. The money is being raised to purchase the land where Nikola Tesla's laboratory, which was supposed to provide free power to the masses, was constructed.

Once the land is built, it will be cleaned up and a museum will be built on top. The Oatmeal is not actually the one behind this plan. Instead, they are just helping raise funds for the 501(c)3 charity Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe. The charity has received a matching grant from the state of New York of up to $850,000.

"With less than two months until Dishonored's release, we want players to prepare their weapons of revenge. No, I'm not talking about our website, I'm talking about the rig PC players intend to play the game on." -Bethesda Blog. What they're really saying is they want to make sure your computer can play the game so that you'll buy it!

The game comes with some fairly demanding specifications--minimum NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 / ATI Radeon HD 5850 for the GPU--so it's nice that Bethesda is giving users a chance to upgrade their rigs before the game officially launches. Ironically, the only difference between minimum and recommended specifications for the GPU come in the form of memory.

Minimum Spec:

Lithium Ion batteries are the best battery technology we currently have in mass production. It's used in everything from laptop computers to hybrid car batteries. Despite this wide spread use, it still has some major drawbacks. The biggest one that comes to mind is the fact that they take so darn long to charge.

Well, that could all be about to change. New research has shown that a modification in the way Lithium Ion batteries are constructed could reduce the charging time from hours to minutes. Current batteries charge from the outside in. This means the center part of the battery isn't receiving any current until the end of charging.

By putting "a dense network of conductors throughout the electrodes of the battery," researchers were able to charge the entire battery at once. This resulted in charging times that were 30 to 120 times faster than a standard Lithium Ion cell. The only issue is that filling the battery with conductors lowers the capacity or increases the size, albeit only slightly.

While Microsoft Surface may not retail at the rumored $199, Lenovo's David Schmoock has provided a bit more information about pricing for Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT devices at launch. Speaking to Bloomberg, he said new devices based upon Windows RT (ARM tablets) will cost $200-300 less than those using Windows 8 (x86 tablets).

"RT will play in consumer and retail at very aggressive price points," said David Schmoock, head of Lenovo's North America operations. "It will do well but it's going to be more of a consumer price point play to begin with," he said. Windows 8 tablets are going to cost $600-$700, he said, a price that is slightly cheaper than most current Ultrabooks.

Using these two pieces of information, we can deduce that Windows RT tablets will debut at somewhere around $300-$500, likely closer to the $300 number than the $500 number, though it could be $500 if the lower and higher numbers are chosen, respectively. $300 is close to the rumored $199 and still beats the current iPad 3. It could have trouble, however, competing with the latest round of $199 Android tablets released recently.

ASRock makes quality motherboards that are often priced with budget boards. The latest edition to the ASRock lineup has been exclusively designed by Nick Shih, a leading overclocker. The board is designed for the high-end enthusiast market, and is "full to the brim with features" and is sure to perform beautifully.

"My vision for the OC Formula Brand is to allow overclockers to smash the overclocking limits effortlessly." said Nick Shih, OC Mater of ASRock. "Z77 OC Formula is just the one you've always expected. I live for challenges and welcome OC rockers to take my OC crown!"

James Lee, V.P. of ASRock Sales and Marketing:

Apple and Google are probably rolling in piles and piles of cash right now, thanks to their ever-so-popular and cash-generating iTunes and Play Stores, respectively. But, portable game console makers (among other things) Sony and Nintendo aren't too happy with Android and iOS devices, as they're more than powerful enough to play high-quality games these days.

Considering that high-end tablets such as Apple's iPad, ASUS' Transformer range, or Samsung's Galaxy range, are more powerful than most of Sony or Nintendo's portable gaming systems, I don't see the complaint. Stay stagnant, and this is what happens. Fortune reports from the latest research of Flurry Analytics, which shows that Android and iOS-based devices accounting for 58% of all mobile gaming revenue in the US.

This left Sony's PlayStation Vita and Nintendo's 3DS for just 36% of the mobile gaming revenue in the US. If we rewind the clock back to 2009, Nintendo were enjoying 70% of that, all to themselves. How times have changed. Are you surprised? I'm not. This is why I've been so heavy-hearted on the next-gen consoles. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have to hit the ball out of the park, hardware-wise, to stay current and on top of things against the onslaught of tablets and mobile devices.

It was only back in April that we reported that Apple were investing heavily into an Oregon-based datacenter, putting up $250 million for the site. Well, now it seems that the Cupertino-based company has filed their plans with the city of Prineville, where its goal has been revealed for the datacenter.

The Oregon datacenter is to take up 500,000 square feet of datacenter space, which is around the same as Apple's Maiden, North Carolina facility. The Associated Press reports:

We all know that zombies are all the rage these days, where first-person shooter games seem to feature the brain-eating, vicious creatures in droves. The latest to bring zombies to the genre is Valve with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

CS:GO launches next week, and in collaboration with a mod team over at Plaguefest.com, Valve have released a zombie modification for CS:GO that will be made available alongside the FPS' launch, specifically for PC, on August 21. A blog post over on the official Counter-Strike site has said: