Turn on the grill, turn up Springsteen's This is your gaming news update for the week of June 30. Fox loves BioShock Infinite, Lindsay Lohan sues Grand Theft Auto for making her relevant again, and Atari's serving up breakfast food at Denny's. If you, by chance, watched Fox News this week you might've spotted a familiar looking logo—somebody in the graphics department clearly played a lot of BioShock Infinite.
Samsung Electronics has asked a court in California to hold invalid claims of two Apple patents in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that tightened standards for patentability. A jury ordered Samsung in May to pay Apple about $119 million for infringing the iPhone maker’s patents. The two patents whose validity Samsung is now challenging had figured in the trial. Some Samsung devices were
Evidence mounts that an Apple smartwatch is coming. Just don't expect it to be labeled "Swiss made."
Airlines have seen almost no increase in the use of smartphones, tablets, and laptops among passengers since the Federal Aviation Administration ruled in October that they are now allowed to do so during takeoff and landing. But that's likely to change over time.
Independence Day may be largely an outdoor affair, but your PC or Surface can still play a role in planning your day. If you’re running Windows 8.1 on a tablet or traditional PC, the Windows Store has a number of apps that can help you prepare for your day. Accuweather for Windows 8.1. You need to know just how hot it’s going to get during the barbecue, or if rain is threatening your city’s fireworks display. A Metro-ified weather app is a must-have.
As much of the workforce in the United States coasts through the rest of the day looking forward to an extended weekend to grill hot dogs and drink beer—I mean, celebrate the nation’s independence—Microsoft released its advance notification for next week’s Patch Tuesday. The six security bulletins include two ranked Critical, three Important, and one listed merely as Moderate. Six security bulletins is fewer than usual—with 106 security bulletins in 2013, the average has been just under nine security bulletins per month. But it’s still enough to keep IT admins busy. One of the two Critical security bulletins is related to Internet Explorer. It is most likely a new cumulative update patch. Ross Barrett, senior manager of security engineering at
Video, music and books are still important, but partnerships are the way forward for Samsung
Google has informed several U.K. media which of their news articles it is hiding in search results shown to European Union users as a consequence of a recent EU court ruling that gives people the “right to be forgotten” by search engines under certain circumstances. The Guardian, the BBC and the Daily Mail
Google has blocked access to a sensitive email that was sent by mistake to the Gmail account of an unknown person, according to Goldman Sachs, on whose behalf the email was sent. Now it wants Google to delete the email. The financial services company sought a court order to block access to the email, a spokeswoman for the company wrote in an email Thursday. The order was granted and Google complied. “Google has also told us the email account in question had not been accessed from the time that email was sent and Google blocked it,” she added. Goldman Sachs is now trying to get the mail permanently deleted. Google, which operates Gmail, appears willing to cooperate with Goldman Sachs so long as its cooperation is pursuant to a court order, according to a Goldman Sachs court filing.
Google did a little cleaning and rearranging with Android L's Wi-Fi menu, and threw in a few new features in as well.
If you’re looking for secure storage with lots of capacity for your home or workplace, Apricorn’s Aegis Padlock DT is a good place to start the search. This 3.5-inch external hard drive is relatively affordable—for the secure storage market, that is. It’s FIPS 140-2 certified and can be administered via an on-board keypad. That makes it more versatile than solutions that rely on client software for encryption and access. Apricorn’s drives are available with either 128- or 256-bit AES encryption. The 128-bit version is available in capacities from 1- to 3TB, while the 256-bit version can be purchased in quantities from 1- to 6TB. If you’re considering the $849 6TB model, make sure you really need that much storage on one device: You can double up on 4TB drives for less money (they’re $389 each). This review covers the 256-bit, 2TB model ($229).
Google Now is smart, but it still needs a little help sometimes.