"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:

Saudi Aramco, who has the title of the world's largest oil company, has been struck by a cyber attack. The company has reported that nearly all of their workstations have been hit by malware, and the breach is said to be similar to the attack on Iranian systems back in Apri, but oil-production industrial equipment was not affected.

Saudi Aramco have said they've disconnected their entire network from the Internet as a precautionary measure, and expect a full recovery of their systems before the end of the week. The oil company hasn't said who is involved, but have insisted that the production of oil has not been altered as a result of the breach. The company said in a statement:

Crysis 3's graphics may look good, but we all know how Crysis 2 turned out, even after Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said just how important PC was to Crytek, and now we're hearing the same things, yet again. Yerli has revealed during an EA livestream that Crysis 3 will push PC gamers' rigs like the first one did.

We all know the next line, "will it run Crysis", was the first comment on most threads, reviews, and websites when a new GPU was launched, it looks like Crysis 3 could do this yet again. Yerli even comments, saying "that joke will be resurrected again with Crysis 3, I'm quite sure about that. There are brutal expectations around the PC version of Crysis 3. So this time we promise to melt down PCs."

I'm disappointed, because I feel like we've heard it all before. Crysis tells us how PC will be looked after, then releases Crysis 2 in DX9-only, with a DX11 patch afterwards. Even then, it didn't look all that great, considering how Crysis launched and virtually blew every other game engine out of the water. The original Crysis also launched in DX10, which was strange that its sequel years later, launched in DX9. This is because Crytek switched from developing for PC only, to multi-platform to cater for those juicy console sales.

Another Apple-related RumorTT post, but this time it's not about their next-gen iPhone, sales, iPad, or their TV. This post is about the Cupertino-based company's vision of a set-top box, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Apple look to want to feature a cloud-based DVR functionality, and an iPad-like interface. The features are said to be summed up into four basic details:

An iPad-like interface doesn't sound too strange, it's something I would actually totally expect. I personally think they should have an option when you buy the set-top box (or TV), if you're an owner of an iPhone, iPad or iPod (or any iOS-based device) then you should be able to download an application that would act as a remote, iRemote? Alternatively, or additionally, there should be an iOS-based touchscreen controller you should be able to purchase.

Cloud DVR? This sounds like iTunes on steroids, but would be great for customers who want a super-easy way of catching up on TV, or movies. Social features, well, considering iOS sports Twitter and Facebook deeply in iOS and OSX in the near future, with the former deeply integrated now, this should be another day-one feature of the STB. Apple still have a lot of work on the business side of things before something like this could take off.