Just as we knew it would, MSI has formally announced pricing for its newfangled GX70 and GX60 gaming laptops — the world’s first machines to ship with AMD’s Richland A10-5750M (2.5GHz – 3.5GHz) within. The 17.3-inch GX70 offers up a 1,920 x 1,080 native display resolution, AMD’s Radeon HD 8970M on the graphics front, a 750GB hard drive, 8GB of DDR3 memory, a Blu-ray Disc drive, Bluetooth 4.0 and Killer’s E2200 networking technology. You’ll also get a SDXC card slot, HDMI 1.4 socket, 720p webcam, a 9-cell battery — likely good for about 89 seconds of use — a backlit keyboard and a frame that’s 2.17-inches thick and 8.6 pounds. If none of that frightens you, you can plan on parting ways with $ 1,399.99 to call one your own. The (slightly) more petite GX60 boasts a 15.6-inch panel (still 1080p, though), a 7.7 pound frame and a $ 1,299.99 price tag. Otherwise, the specifications are essentially identical from its big brother, and both should be shipping any moment now.
Filed under: Laptops
Source: MSI
Microsoft is about to unveil the next Xbox home gaming console, and they’re broadcasting the entire event live for all to watch. There will be thrills! Spills! Chills! Maybe some actual hardware, unlike at Sony’s PlayStation 4 reveal. Check it out above, or if you’re in an environment where you can’t listen in, or just prefer glorious words written by Greg Kumparak to these newfangled moving pictures, 
The Ouya is making its way out to backers even now (though my shipping notification still hasn’t arrived. Grrr.) and judging by early impressions, it’s no silver bullet to take down behemoths like Sony and Microsoft. The $ 99, Android powered console still isn’t fully formed exactly, but it’s doubtful that between now and June 25 it’ll take on giant-killer proportions. Likewise the recently-announced BlueStacks Android gaming console, which features a subscription-based pricing model, probably won’t alone topple the giants.
Even though the Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey state legislatures just passed laws that pave the way for online gambling in the U.S., Zynga is not going to be the first to get in on it. Given how terrible the economics of running a blog are, TechCrunch has been exploring new revenue streams. They may include, but are not limited to, premium Justin Timberlake-filters on blog posts, Path 3.0-like stickers for Livefyre comments and a new sponsored section about Scientology-related hardware startups. What has been most promising, however, are virtual currencies and real-money gaming. If the hope of real-money gaming has boosted Zynga’s shares by about 15 percent in the last six months, imagine what it can do for AOL’s stock. In that vein, we’re launching a new series of slots and social betting games that let you put real money on the startups you think will get ahead. Think of it as an even easier way to bypass SEC regulations around being an accredited investor. Why bother with the $ 1,000 minimums of Funders Club or deal with AngelList or SecondMarket, when you can just straight-up gamble your seed capital? Yes, the game on top of this post really works. Seriously, click the spin button. There are real prizes in this, including a ticket to TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco (which is worth $ 1,795). The Tesla Roadster, I’m afraid, is virtual though. But if you do get three Alexias in a row, she could write you a poem and if you get three Anthony Has in a row, he could sing you his infamous rendition of the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.” over Skype. For every three-in-a-row match that readers get, we’ll collect their contact information for a drawing. And one person randomly selected from each pool will win the prize. Special thanks to real-money gaming platform Betable and Murka, a social gaming studio for putting this working game together in literally a week.
When you step off the elevator into Kixeye’s new downtown San Francisco office, a guy in military fatigues has you sign an NDA. After you do (I didn’t), a receptionist with a lot of piercings takes your name, while The White Panda’s “Foolish Monsters” blares in the background. Kixeye has whale harpoons stapled to its office walls, bad oil paintings (see left), ceiling-to-floor drawings of fire-breathing dragons and jacked unicorns, a 3-D printer of questionable purpose and little desire to answer to anyone else. All while remaining profitable, the midcore social gaming company has quintupled its headcount over the last year to more than 450 employees. The company says it has “several” times the $ 19 million in capital they raised stowed away in the bank. Too expensive for acquirers and still too small and unproven for public markets, privately-held gaming companies like Kixeye are chugging along profitably and doing things their own way. “We don’t talk about exit scenarios here. The employees are not here for that,” said Brandon Barber, who is Kixeye’s chief marketing officer. “Most people are here because they love making games and that’s what they want to do. Focusing on that stuff at this point in our trajectory is super distracting.” (If you want to know what Kixeye really thinks of everyone else in the industry, watch this video.) Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, other privately-held gaming companies such as Finland’s Rovio and Supercell, the U.K.’s King and Germany’s Wooga are also growing profitable businesses. Buyers Beware That feeling is mutual on the buyers’ side too. Warner Bros said last week that it would be opening a gaming studio in San Francisco. In other words, it is choosing to build, not buy. “Every time we looked at a company that was really interesting, we found that the price tag was more money than we thought was reasonable to pay,” said Greg Ballard, who is Warner Bros. senior vice president of digital games. Similarly, EA is holding off after some big ticket deals in the last few years to buy Seattle’s PopCap for up to $ 1.3 billion. “With regards to a large acquisition, we’re probably OK for the time being,” said Nick Earl, who oversees most of EA’s free-to-play games as a senior vice president there. “If the right deal presents itself, we would make that deal. But we’re not actively seeking it.” He said his arm of
It may be the case that real-money gambling is inching its way to reality in the U.S., much as it has in the rest of the world, but if so it’s a phenomenally boring story. It’s hard to get excited about a sector that only ever sells the same few game types over and over, and it leads me to wonder when will real innovation ever really make its mark in this space. There’s more to life than slots.
Nvidia only recently introduced its Tegra 4i processor, which pairs Tegra 4 power with integrated LTE — an Nvidia first for mobile chips — into a single system-on-a-chip. The company is now showing off the processor in action on in-house developed reference smartphone hardware called the Phoenix, which is actually present as a working model at MWC in Spain, as you can see in the video above.
What I’m about to say is undoubtedly going to piss some of you off. And that’s fine. Because in a few years, I’ll be right and you’ll look silly.
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