PS Move Precise Enough to Control StarCraft

Sony has said the company's newly launched PlayStation Move peripheral is precise enough to play StarCraft on the PC
Last week at GDC, Sony introduced Move and in a number of demos showed off just how Move worked. Among the little tidbits revealed during the demos by PlayStation researcher, Anton Mikhailov, and platform research manager, David Coombes, was that the peripheral uses just 2MB of system memory.

Kotaku reports that while demoing just how precise and accurately the Move can capture movements, Mikhailov said that they've been able to use the PlayStation 3 add-on as a device to control the PC version of StarCraft.

Do you think the precision of Move will be an important selling point for the device or do you think more people will buy it for casual gaming?

Kingston 2400MHz DDR3 'World's Fastest Memory'

That thing got a Hemi?

Kingston today announced it has developed what it claims is the fastest Intel-certified memory in the world. How fast, you ask? 2400 MHz.

Kingston's speedy HyperX dual-channel DDR3 memory kit (given the charming model name KHX2400C9D3T1K2/4GX) has Intel' XMP certification on the Core i7 platform.

Those who like to tweak their memory will like to know that the 2400 MHz kit runs at 9-11-9-27-2 timings at 1.65 volts as tested on several P55-based systems including the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P motherboard.

The 2400 MHz kits will be available sometime in the second quarter.

Google's Plans to Leave China are 99.9% Certain

Google's plans to pull out of China are said to be nearly 100 percent certain.

Not too long ago, Google threatened to shut down Google.cn and walk out of China. The threat was a response to a mid-December hack originating from China as well as an anti-censorship protest. On Friday, the Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Li Yizhong, told reporters in no uncertain terms, "If you don't respect Chinese laws, you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and the consequences will be on you."

Today, the Financial Times reports that the Google's decision to leave China is all but made. Citing a source familiar with the situation. FT reports that censorship talks with the Chinese government have reached an apparent impasse. The source went on to say that while a decision could be made very soon, the company is likely to take some time to follow through with the plan as it seeks an orderly closure and takes steps to protect local employees from retaliation by the authorities.

However, Google may not leave China altogether. Though the company could be closing Google.cn, the search giant is looking at other solutions to the problem so it can maintain a presence in the country. Among these is the possibility of handing over a majority stake or even the entire business to a local player.

Microsoft Loses Second Word Appeal, Owes $240M

Microsoft has lost its second appeal against a ruling that called for the software giant to fork out nearly a quarter of a billion in damages for patent infringement.

Late last year, after a lengthy legal battle, Microsoft was ordered to alter word and pay Canadian-based company, i4i, $240 million in damages. Microsoft was found guilty of infringing upon XML-related patents owned by i4i but Redmond appealed the decision calling it a "miscarriage of justice." In December, this appeal was denied and Microsoft filed another.

The second appeal has now been denied and the BBC reports that this time, the judges spelled things out for Microsoft, detailing the decision was made in the first place. The judges say there's evidence to suggest that Microsoft knew about the i4i infringements before it turned up in Office. Indeed, court documents released after the initial verdict was announced echo their thoughts.

Soon after the verdict was made public in August, court documents revealed that not only did Microsoft know about the infringement, the company hoped to render i4i's product obsolete with newer versions of Office.

In an email to a colleague, Martin Sawicki, a member of Microsoft's XML for Word development team said they had met with the i4i team.

"We saw [i4i's products] some time ago and met its creators. Word 11 will make it obsolete," said Sawicki. "It looks great for XP though," he added.

According to the BBC, Microsoft is waiting on word from the other appeal court judges who will decide if Redmond has grounds for a wider review of the case. If they decide that Microsoft does not have grounds for a review, the company can take its appeal to the Supreme Court.

Samsung: Our 3D Blu-ray Player Does Work

Samsung's 3D Blu-ray player passed certification despite previous reports of incompatibility.

Yesterday Samsung sent over an email in response toour article about its current 3D Blu-ray players not working. The story centered on 3D Blu-ray movies functioning incorrectly on the players--movies that were ready for mass production and have not yet hit the market.

Supposedly the Blu-ray players were incompatible because they were shipped before the final certification specs were released by the Blu-ray Disc Association. The previous report also stated that the players were on sale at Best Buy, and that Samsung may need to recall the stock while providing a firmware upgrade plan for current customers.

However Thursday a Samsung representative clarified the picture. The Samsung BD-C6900 is the only device in question, and the rep assured us that the player has indeed passed all tests "based on the Blu-ray 3D test specification of the BDA issued to date." This means that the BD-C6900 has officially obtained Blu-ray 3D certification, and it may be that the Blu-ray movies used to unofficially test the player were incorrect.

"Samsung is fully committed to upholding all technology standards issued by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), said Samsung in an official statement. "The Samsung Blu-ray player (BD-C6900) has passed all tests based on Blu-ray 3D test specification of BDA issued to date, and has officially obtained Blu-ray 3D certification at the authorized Testing Center. Samsung products that were shipped to the US prior to receiving final certification are 100% certified and do not require any modifications to play Blu-ray 3D discs."

Strangely enough, the Samsung BD-C6900 is nowhere to be found on Best Buy's website, however the new BD-C5500 and BD-C6500 are available to purchase... both without 3D capabilities but feature Internet and Wi-Fi connectivity.