linkedin | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Wed, 10 May 2023 09:44:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png linkedin | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Fallout 76 co-development studio working on original AAA UE5 project https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/mustafa-mahmoud/fallout-76-co-development-studio-working-on-original-aaa-ue5-project/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/mustafa-mahmoud/fallout-76-co-development-studio-working-on-original-aaa-ue5-project/#respond Tue, 09 May 2023 08:30:00 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=614339 Sperasoft Studios is a Silicon Valley-based co-development studio, having worked on all manner of major releases – including but not limited to Fallout 76; The Outer Worlds; Dead Space (2023); and Star Wars the Old Republic to name a few. Now, the team seems to be working on their own AAA 3rd-person action-RPG using Unreal …

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Sperasoft Studios is a Silicon Valley-based co-development studio, having worked on all manner of major releases – including but not limited to Fallout 76; The Outer Worlds; Dead Space (2023); and Star Wars the Old Republic to name a few. Now, the team seems to be working on their own AAA 3rd-person action-RPG using Unreal Engine 5.

As discovered by Twitter user ‘Timur222’, Sperasoft Studios’ Technical Game Director Andrew K listed on their LinkedIn that they are currently working on an “unannounced AAA third-person Action-RPG” adding that the game is being developed using Epic Games’ latest and greatest Unreal Engine 5.

While not the first game to be developed wholly by Sperasoft Studios, it does seem to be their biggest yet. As mentioned, the team have in the past worked on a number of new and original IPs, however none of them could be described as AAA, with the list of titles including the relatively unknown ‘True Russian Hunt’ and ‘Wheels of Destruction’.

It is always interesting to see studios making the big jump from indie experiences to massive AAA titles. Hopefully whatever the team is working on, they are taking their learnings from the dozens of titles co-developed over the years. We will have to wait and see.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the few details shared so far? What would you like to see this game be? Which studio do you think made the transition to AAA development the best? Let us know down below.

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Microsoft to spend $26 billion on LinkedIn buyout https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/microsoft-to-spend-26-billion-on-linkedin-buyout/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/microsoft-to-spend-26-billion-on-linkedin-buyout/#comments Tue, 14 Jun 2016 11:26:47 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=295996 Microsoft has announced that it will be buying up business-focused social network Linkedin, for a whopping $26.2 (£18.5) billion. This will be Microsoft's biggest ever acquisition in the history of the company and is even more noteworthy because it will be purchased entirely with cash, no stock will change hands. LinkedIn currently has over 430 million …

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Microsoft has announced that it will be buying up business-focused social network Linkedin, for a whopping $26.2 (£18.5) billion. This will be Microsoft's biggest ever acquisition in the history of the company and is even more noteworthy because it will be purchased entirely with cash, no stock will change hands.

LinkedIn currently has over 430 million members, each using the service to find jobs, make business connections or publish content. What Microsoft plans to do with the network beyond its current aims has yet to be announced, though in the above video Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that during discussions between the two companies, it became clear there was a lot they could do together.

Nadella also said he thought LinkedIn would be a good fit for Microsoft's business software packages like Office, helping bring businesses and professionals together to encourage collaboration – which has been a major focus of Microsoft with recent software releases.

linkedin

Source: Wikimedia

While the future of LinkedIn is up in the air though, its recent past hasn't been so optimistic. As The Guardian reports, its shares dropped by over 40 per cent in February this year, dropping over $11 billion from its global value. Perhaps Microsoft smelled blood in the water and decided to go in for the kill.

The purchase certainly helped out LinkedIn's financial situation. While the owners may walk away with a lot of their own money from this deal, LinkedIn share holders will be pleased too, as the news sent stock soaring almost 200 per cent.

The deal has been approved by both boards, so is likely to be finalised before the end of the year, though as with any major merger/buyout, there are some hurdles that must be crossed first.

KitGuru Says: It will be interesting to see how Microsoft makes use of LinkedIn. Perhaps it could be used to find freelancers to help with specific documents within Office? How do you think the collaboration will work out?

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LinkedIn denies accusations of hacking user accounts https://www.kitguru.net/channel/liam-stanway/linkedin-denies-accusations-of-hacking-user-accounts/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/liam-stanway/linkedin-denies-accusations-of-hacking-user-accounts/#respond Mon, 23 Sep 2013 12:08:11 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=153923 Responding to a class action lawsuit, the business oriented networking site LinkedIn, has denied a number of claims that it hacked email accounts belonging to system users, declaring the accusations as baseless. According to a blogpost by Blake Lawit, senior director of litigation at LinkedIn, the accusations being levied against the firm are simply “not …

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Responding to a class action lawsuit, the business oriented networking site LinkedIn, has denied a number of claims that it hacked email accounts belonging to system users, declaring the accusations as baseless.

According to a blogpost by Blake Lawit, senior director of litigation at LinkedIn, the accusations being levied against the firm are simply “not true”.

“As you may have read recently, a class action lawsuit was filed against LinkedIn last week. The lawsuit alleges that we ‘break into' the email accounts of our members who choose to upload their email address books to Linkedin.”

“Quite simply, this is not true, and with so much misinformation out there, we wanted to clear up a few things for our members.”

LinkedIn

Trustworthy or not?

A report that surfaced on Bloomberg brought the allegations to light, citing users that complained the company sent in the region of 200 messages to people through the website. The situation then went on to be come a class action lawsuit as more people filed against LinkedIn, although Lawit tried to assuage people's fears in his blogpost.

“We do not access your email account without your permission. Claims that we ‘hack' or ‘break into' members' accounts are false,” he said.

“We never deceive you by ‘pretending to be you' in order to access your email account. We never send messages or invitations to join Linkedin on your behalf to anyone unless you have given us permission to do so.”

Lawit has also brushed off many press reports on the matter as misleading, promising LinkedIn members that the company has the best interests for both the website and the users in mind.

KitGuru Says: Something smells a bit fishy about this, but I'm not sure what.

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Exclusive interview with Biostar’s Head of European Sales https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jules/exclusive-interview-with-biostars-head-of-european-sales/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jules/exclusive-interview-with-biostars-head-of-european-sales/#respond Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:16:32 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=122275 It's hard to know why a young chap who grew up near the German border with Holland would end up speaking Mandarin Chinese and running European sales for a major motherboard manufacturer, but that's exactly what Martin Thyssen has ended up doing. KitGuru was fortunate enough to catch up with Martin and ask him about …

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It's hard to know why a young chap who grew up near the German border with Holland would end up speaking Mandarin Chinese and running European sales for a major motherboard manufacturer, but that's exactly what Martin Thyssen has ended up doing. KitGuru was fortunate enough to catch up with Martin and ask him about Biostar. Pretzels, white beer and sausage anyone?

Founded in 1986, Biostar started life as a purely-mainboard focused manufacturing company. Under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Mingyi Wang, the company has managed to do well in a very tough/competitive market – adding nVidia and AMD graphics cards to its product line up.

In 1999, the company was floated on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and it has a number of interesting ‘firsts' under its belt – including a claim to being the first company to allow end users to modify video card voltages and frequencies. We believe that youngsters call it ‘overclocking'.

Biostar has 5 major offices across the globe. Alongside its HQ in Sindian City (Taiwan), the USA is run out of California (West Coast) and Miami (East Coast) with another office for Latin America. APAC (Asia Pacific) is run from China and Europe from the Netherlands.

Able to find his home town with his eyes shut, Martin Thyssen can sell you Biostar mainboards in English, German & Chinese. Cool.

.

We kicked off with a straight question for Martin, it looks like Biostar has been quiet for a while – what's new?

“We just recently launched the ‘Hi-Fi' series of motherboards”, said Martin. “Which is a combination of Biostar exclusive hardware & software that features the very best in audio quality and performance”.

It's an interesting phrase to use, Hi-Fi. Especially by a German, considering how much influence Martin's people had on its definition. The Deutsches Institut für Normung [German Institute for Standards] defined ‘Hi-Fi' in 1966 under the standard DIN45500. It is meant to be ‘the best audio possible’. Nice.

You have just launched a new range of boards targeting gamers, is this a dip in the water or are you going to continue with this?
“We have a dedicated R&D team focused on nothing else but the gamer market”, he said. “We wish to bring users a product that not only has excellent overclocking capabilities, but also provides a truely high quality experience in both visual and sound”.

Talk is cheap. The proof is in the testing. When KitGuru Labs took a close look at the Biostar TZ77XE4 back in April last year, we were pleasantly surprised. What was the focus when designing this board?
Martin told us, “The Intel Z77 series chipset was a big focus for every motherboard manufacturer. We knew it would be competitive, so we pushed hard to create the best design possible. From a purely technical standpoint, the TZ77XE4 uses supreme power design and 100% solid caps to achieve the best overclocking performance. We also optimised performance for CrossFire, SLI and Virtu”.

So what else is new for the gaming motherboard market?

“Well Biostar Puro will be important”, said Martin. “It heralds a new age in audio experience and its goal is to make your PC into a professional media and entertainment centre. Decades of producing a huge array of mainboards has given us a unique insight into the minds of our customers. We know that our Puro Hi-Fi technology will be perfect for both the HTPC and gaming markets”.

“Whatever a user does with a PC, superior audio quality will make a difference”, he explained. “Biostar Puro is something that will positively affect everyone who chooses one of our Hi-Fi enabled mainboards”.

Interestingly, this Hi-Fi technology is also available on low-end mainboards like the company's new FM2 boards.

We keep hearing this expression, ‘Hi-Fi', but what does it mean with Puro?  Can you be specific?

The Puro Hi-Fi technology includes several features, such as high sampling rate, ground-isolation circuit, independent audio power design, built-in amplifier and user-friendly audio software – all of which combine to create a completely different audio experience” said Martin.

He continued, “All the Hi-Fi series motherboards are also equipped with special components to ensure the best possible audio quality consistency – to maintain signal integrity and reduce loss. Through these approaches, audio enthusiasts can experience a variety of digital content, while you, on the other hand can enjoy your favourite music in a professional and affordable way”.

Has the project come to an end we wondered?

“Not at all!”, said Martin. “We have been working hard on Hi-Fi 2 technologies for Windows 8”.

What about the future of the company in Europe?  We haven't seen much activity recently – especially when you consider that Biostar revenues have peaked up around $300 million.

“That will change”, he explained. “Biostar is a global manufacturer, sensitive to trading conditions in each region. In recent times, we have focused more on emerging markets, where growth was stronger. We have enjoyed huge success in China, India and other South East Asia markets. Now we're ready to increase sales in 2013 – and part of that increase will come from traditional Western Markets”.

Given Biostar's experience with embedded systems – and the push from Intel and AMD into this market – maybe we'll see more growth from Biostar in 2013 from the kind of systems that power the world around us, unobtrusively.

Biostar claims that all of these stickers combine to deliver better audio on a Hi-Fi mainboard that you would get from a traditional valve amp. Bold statement.Will be interesting to see how many more stickers are needed for Hi-Fi 2.

KitGuru says: We thank Martin for taking the time to speak exclusively with KitGuru. The few boards we've seen from Biostar so far have all been really interesting. Hopefully the Hi-Fi 2 boards will continue that tradition.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

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LinkedIn CEO says people don’t have time for Google+ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/simon/linkedin-ceo-says-people-dont-have-time-for-google/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/simon/linkedin-ceo-says-people-dont-have-time-for-google/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 08:24:20 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=53588 LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner has said that he doesn't think that people will have the free time to use Google+. Weiner was on stage at the Churchill Club last night and AllThingD's Kara Swisher asked him some questions based around social networking. The San Francisco Chronicle was on hand to report. He said “Nobody has …

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LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner has said that he doesn't think that people will have the free time to use Google+.

Weiner was on stage at the Churchill Club last night and AllThingD's Kara Swisher asked him some questions based around social networking. The San Francisco Chronicle was on hand to report.

He said “Nobody has any free time. Unlike social platforms and TV, which can coexist, you don't see people using Twitter while they're using Facebook, or using Facebook while they're using LinkedIn.”

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner talks to reporters during the Reuters Technology Summit in San Francisco, California May 17, 2010. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

He said that the current system worked well, as people use Facebook for family and friends, LinkedIn for work oriented contacts and Twitter to broadcast thoughts and events to an audience.

He added “you introduce google+, where am I going to spend that next minute or hour of my discretionary time? I have no more time.”

Kitguru says: Are you running out of time to meet all your social networking demands? Have you had enough?

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LinkedIn valued at $4.25bn https://www.kitguru.net/channel/slyvia/linkedin-valued-at-4-25bn/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/slyvia/linkedin-valued-at-4-25bn/#respond Thu, 19 May 2011 07:30:09 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=45762 LinkedIn sold shares on Wednesday, and the valuation of the business was $4.25bn (£2.63 bn). They sold 7.84 million shares at $45 each which raised a total of $352.8m. Investors see the potential for the professional networking site to link companies with customers and job seekers. The company shares are expected to begin trading on …

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LinkedIn sold shares on Wednesday, and the valuation of the business was $4.25bn (£2.63 bn). They sold 7.84 million shares at $45 each which raised a total of $352.8m. Investors see the potential for the professional networking site to link companies with customers and job seekers.

The company shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today. LinkedIn raised the expected price range of their IPO by 30 percent to $42 to $45 per share from $32 to $35. This strong investor demand bodes well for other social networking organisations which are expected to go public in the coming months, such as Groupon, Twitter and Facebook.

Paypal started in the house of co founder Reid Hoffman and now it is valued at $4.25 bn. Facebook which has been valued at $70 bn is expected to go public in April 2012. Groupon are also valued between $15bn and $20 bn.

LinkedIn has a slightly different business model because it makes more money through offline sales rather than through online advertising or Internet services. Last year 56 percent of LinkedIn's net revenue came from field sales with 44 percent generated from online sales. They have grown in size from a modest 4,500 members in 2003 to a whopping 103 million members this year.

KitGuru says: Another success story …

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LinkedIn sued for leaking user data to advertisers https://www.kitguru.net/channel/slyvia/linkedin-sued-for-leaking-user-data-to-advertisers/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/slyvia/linkedin-sued-for-leaking-user-data-to-advertisers/#respond Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:55:24 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=40791 Business social networking site Linkedin has been sued for violating users privacy, in a suit filed with a Californian court. The site is accused of handing advertisers information about their users. San Francisco resident Kevin Low is furious, claiming that Linkedin gave ad networks his information that allowed them to follow him around the internet …

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Business social networking site Linkedin has been sued for violating users privacy, in a suit filed with a Californian court.

The site is accused of handing advertisers information about their users. San Francisco resident Kevin Low is furious, claiming that Linkedin gave ad networks his information that allowed them to follow him around the internet with tracking cookies.

Low Lawyer's state in the suit “Had he been given the choice, Mr. Low would not have disclosed his personally identifiable browsing history to third parties. Mr. Low was embarrassed and humiliated by the disclosure of his personally identifiable browsing history.”

Low is seeking a class action status for his suit, which would allow other users to join in the legal battle. A Linkedin spokesperson said that the company would defend themselves ‘vigorously' and said the suit has no merit.

Low is claiming that referrer headers sent to advertising networks and others by Linkedin include a unique identifier that is used in conjunction with a persistent LinkedIn cookie. He says this violates U.S. Federal wiretap laws as well as local California state laws. His name can be found out due to this information, which is a breach of LinkedIn's own privacy policy.

KitGuru says: Will be interesting to find out how much, if any, information has been given to advertisers.

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