Software & Gaming

The UK government is being called out by a privacy charity, which is threatening legal action unless the MPs explain why they are shipping surveillance equipment and technology to repressive regimes in Iran, Egypt and Syria. Privacy International is the name of the group spearheading this campaign and it is …

Apple have announced that OS X 10.8, or Mountain Lion, will be released on the Mac App Store. The software upgrade is a very reasonable $19.99/£13.99, which is a complete contradiction to the high prices that Microsoft charge for their operating systems. The new operating system will bring a raft …

A controversial ‘SkyNet’ three strikes law against internet piracy in New Zealand came into force on the 1st September 2011 which has halved online piracy according to the Record Industry Association of New Zealand. From August to September 2011 when the new law took effect, the number of times the …

Consumer rights group in both Germany and South Korea look set to take Blizzard to court over its handling of the Diablo III launch. The European legal threat is being spearheaded by the Federation of Consumer Organisations – reports PCgames –  and it wants to force the publishing giant to …

Ten years ago, Bob Feldstein was busy taking the lead on a deal with Microsoft that would lead to the Xbox 360 console being launched with ATi technology inside. Now he’s made the move across to nVidia. KitGuru dances in front of a Kinect controller and ponders the nature of …

In the second bird related story of the day, a brand new app has been launched which lets smartphone users send data to each other via a ‘digital birdsong’.  At present it’s only available to iOS users but an Android version should be available sometime in the future. The app …

While some birds spend ages singing complex tunes, sparrow tend to tweet. The animal can take in a whole load of sensory inputs and reply back with a simple, direct message. Google is looking to take on this attribute with the purchase of Sparrow. KitGuru buys a pack of budgie …

Microsoft are launching Windows 8 on October 26th this year. Steve Sinofsky, the Windows OS chief unveiled the date at the Microsoft annual sales meeting. To add weight, Microsoft updated a blog post with the information. Having tried the operating system I do remain completely unimpressed, particularly with the Metro …

For those tech readers who don’t always get time to check out our game related content at Kitguru gaming – here is a round up of content published in the last week. “New Console by Award-Winning Industrial Designer – Hailed as the ‘Best Designer Outside of Apple'” Yves Béhar – …

Blizzard has announced in a forum post that in order to curb bot farming, it will be reintroducing limits on gameplay in Diablo III, namely how many games a player can create within a certain period of time. While the idea is to prevent people from using automated bots to …

Valve have been working hard on getting STEAM ported to Ubuntu. They have also placed focus on Left 4 Dead 2 as a first, ‘showcase’ title for the platform. The popular software company talked about this recently on their blog. Phoronix were the first to break the story back in …

The largest internet service providers in the United Kingdom were ordered at the end of April to bloc access to the Pirate Bay file sharing website. The BBC filed a report today which highlights that the action has had little effect on file sharing. Not really a shock to us …

Feeling the serious threat that Netflix poses to its movie business in the UK, BSKYB is set to launch a new service called Now TV tomorrow, 17th July, offering movies on the PC, Mac and some Android devices. Day one, the service will offer 600 films and access to 11 …

Do you own a 3D television? Do you find that it transforms your movie experience? If so, it would appear that you are one of the minority. Studios and production companies had hoped that 3D would have shaken the market by now, but sales figures indicate that not many of …

The auctions for the original World of Warcraft server blades have now been completed, with Blizzard raking in an impressive $300,000 (£212,000) from the sale. Beginning in October last year, Blizzard has been trickling the blade’s onto auction site eBay, with all proceeds going to the St. Jude Children’s Research …

Hackers have posted 450,000 user names and passwords online, stolen from Yahoo Voice, according to the Guardian newspaper. Similar attacks have taken place against other online services, including Android forums and Formspring. Users are being advised to change their passwords to protect the accounts as soon as possible. The Yahoo …

Two new screenshots for GTA V have appeared online as part of a Rockstar QnA session with fans. These aren’t fakes either, but full blown official images released by Rockstar itself – and they look very pretty indeed. The question that prompted the release was “why don’t you give us more …

Despite a European court ruling last week, that validated the resale of games from a digital download platform, Valve has announced that it plans to make no changes to its current setup on Steam – squashing the hopes of those looking to make a quick buck on their old game …

For those tech readers who don’t always get time to check out our game related content at Kitguru gaming – here is a round up of content published in the last week. “Analyzing Video Games on the Basis of Film and Literary Criticism (Part 1 of 2)” This post tackles …

Are you an avid games collector? Have you spent a lot of your salary in the last couple of years chasing many of the classic game titles for last generation consoles? Then this story will appeal to you. A rather wealthy ebayer decided to list his collection online, and it …

The Pan European Game Information (PEGI) system of classifying games is set to come into effect on the 30th of July, after years of delays. Currently the UK uses a mixture of the traditional British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rating – but only if it contains mature content – …

If you have been reading Kitguru in the last week you will already be aware that the FBI were removing their safety net, exposing a DNS change left by malware on users systems. Initial concerns had assumed that almost a quarter of a million people could be affected, but the …

If you can read this today then you are likely to be safe from the DNS Changer malware which has reportedly infected thousands of computers. We reported last week that week that 277,000 people may be struggling to get online today. This malware has been active since 2007, and it …

For those tech readers who don’t always get time to check out our game related content at Kitguru gaming – here is a round up of content published in the last week. “Revised Wish List for Girls: Video Games #1, Dolls #2” Statistics will sometimes surprise you.  After all, how …

Reports from the FBI say that over a quarter of a million users could lose internet access on Monday. The FBI are taking down a ‘safety net’ which is protecting these people from a malicious piece of code infecting their systems. The FBI say that 64,000 Windows machines are infected …

Internet meme and creepypasta regular Slender Man, has become the antagonist of a new game simply titled Slender. Currently in development by Parsec Productions, the game involves the player making their way through a forest at night, discovering several outbuildings and vehicles, often which have a post-it note attached too …

Square Enix, the company that has so frequently denied having anything to do with a remake or re-release of its most beloved of games, Final Fantasy VII, has now confirmed its plans to make a new PC version of the game available. This echos what was said on a now …

News for the new Xbox and Playstation are heating up. It would appear that Sony have been working on the Playstation 4 for a few years now, if employees dates are accurate. Sony have remained tight lipped about the Playstation 3 replacement, however one of their staff members spotted a …

Microsoft have been buying some domain names, stirring interest amongst publications who are determined the find out the name of the upcoming Xbox 360 replacement. For a while Xbox 720 and Durango have been thrown about as a potential name for the next generation console, however journalists are now pondering …

Rape. Beyond the brutal act, simply the word itself is expressive and emotion invoking; though it has multiple connotations in today’s world. It can describe a horrific sexual assault, or even that someone has logged into a Facebook account and made the user seem to say something foolish. It can …