Internet Cafés Declared 'Illegal Businesses' in Ohio

Ohio House Bill 7 was passed by the Ohio State Senate on Wednesday, effectively closing down all Internet Cafes in the state and putting an estimated 6-8K employee out of work. The main concern was not so much the Internet as it was with sweepstakes games which financed the stores.

"In our office we always believed these places were illegal. Now we're armed with a court decision which makes this crystal clear," DeWine told reporters at the time.

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Proposed Law: Reprogramming Cellphone IDs a Crime

A proposed law dealing with changing the identification number on a cell phone would make the act a criminal offense punishable by five years in jail. The bill was introduced by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and is aimed at deterring the high instance of cell phone theft, which in many areas is responsible for 50% of all reported crime.

The Mobile Device Theft Deterrence Act of 2013 makes changing the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number in a phone a crime. The IMEI number is a unique identification number in every cellphone and is exchanged when a mobile phone signs on to a mobile network.

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Lenovo 1Q13 Net Profits Soar

While other PC manufactures are languishing in poor sales numbers for the first quarter of 2013, Lenovo has seen a rise of 90% on the year’s sales. PC sales for the majority of the major manufacturers have been dismal this year to say the least. Some blame the downturn on the economy; some blame the rise of tablets and some blame the lukewarm reception to Windows 8. None of that seems to have mattered to Lenovo who had to be the one who skewed the bell curve for the rest of the industry.

Of first-quarter consolidated revenues, US$4.2 billion, or 53.8%, came from notebook sales and US$2.4 billion, or 30.8%, from desktops, Lenovo indicated.

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Dish Secures $9 Billion Financing for Sprint Bid

Dish Network has regrouped and put together a new consortium of financial backers to pursue the purchase of Sprint Nextel Corp. The offer to purchase Sprint is reported to be worth $25.5 Billion. Dish is competing with Japan’s Softbank Corp. who put in a bid to purchase a major portion of Sprint last October.

The Sprint acquisition, should it go through, is expected to generate positive synergies for both the companies in terms of countering stiff competition from market leaders like AT&T Inc. (T) and Verizon Communication Inc. (VZ), which dominate nearly 35% of the U.S. market.

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How the Smartphone Killed the Three-Day Weekend

If you are old enough, you might remember the promise of a shorter workweek as the decades passed, but something remarkable happened: the digital age snuck up on all of us and changed the dynamics. The problem manifests itself most vividly when you finally get some time to yourself like this Memorial Day weekend. The doctor’s advice for your three day respite from work: turn off your devices, unplug and simply relax.

There's a long list of horribles associated with our new, always-on-digital lives: You are dumber. You are more stressed. You are losing sleep, and more depressed.

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Microsoft Puts a Windows 8 Key on Its Latest Mice

Microsoft is playing catch up with Windows 8 users still tethered to their PC using a mouse. To make navigation just a bit simpler for those underprivileged mouse users, Microsoft has put a Windows key button on all new editions of its mice for easier navigation.

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Get your Geek On: Today Is Geek Pride Day!

Today is a good day for all closet geeks and nerds to come out and celebrate and it’s especially a good day since it’s Saturday and the possible embarrassment factor is kept to a minimum outside of the office. So take some time away from your computer and celebrate your special day with 25 suggestions from Mashable, by getting your Geek on.

Chosen for the anniversary of the first Star Wars film release in 1977, Geek Pride Day originated in Spain in 2006, where it was called "Día del Orgullo Friki." Yep, should you tire of the term "geek," you may refer to yourself as a "frik" (pronounced like "freak"). We'll take it.

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Try Defiance Free, Buy It Cheap This Weekend

We’ve all seen the TV show on the SyFy Channel, so you have a pretty good idea what the game is all about and this weekend, you can find out even more. Today and Sunday you can try the game out free of charge and if you like it, you can pick up the game at a substantial reduction from Steam.

Defiance is an interesting experiment in content crossing over between a persistent online game and the scripted world of a television show. This could be the wave of the future. Microsoft announced similar crossover projects in their Xbox One reveal.

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Largest Ever Lego Build On Display in NYC

We all know geeks love their Lego toys, the bigger and more complex the build, the better. So naturally someone just had to build a massive Star Wars X-Wing fighter out of almost 5.5 Million Lego bricks, weighing in at an incredible 23 tons. We have a video and some close-up pictures for you to check out.

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Atari Plans to Auction Off Game Assets in July

Atari will be selling off all of its game assets at a scheduled four day auction in July. The auction is expected to net a minimum of a little over $22 Million. Atari filed for bankruptcy in January and as such, the auction still has to be approved by the courts on June 11th.

It’s clear now that the original intention to sell the company as a whole and keep it operating isn’t going to happen. Instead, there’s a chance some of its best known games will get a new lease of life, but under the guidance of a new publisher.

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Apple Removes Download Options from Quicktime Trailers Website

If you have tried to download a trailer from the Quicktime website lately and wondered why it wasn't possible, Apple has discontinued the option. Without announcing the upcoming action, Apple began phasing out the downloading options as of May 22nd.

So, while older trailers can still be downloaded from the site, Apple appears to be removing downloads from older trailers as newer trailers are added, slowly phasing out the availability of trailer downloads altogether.

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Main U.S. Weather Satellite Fails

Just in time for the start of what has been predicted as a very active hurricane season for the East Coast, the weather satellite positioned to give accurate tracking information and imaging has gone dark. A backup satellite has been activated, but does not have the view range of the failed satellite due to its particular geostationary orbit.

The satellite fleets that meteorologists use to monitor severe weather and generate forecasts are aging. Replacements are scheduled to launch beginning in 2015, but between now and then there is growing concern "that we are going to end up with gaps in our coverage"

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Google Planning To Build Its Own Wireless Network

Google is planning to build its own wireless network in Southeast Asia and Africa in areas that are totally without Internet access, utilizing frequencies presently reserved for TV networks. Google plans to use a variety of technologies to accomplish its plans including, but not limited to, satellite-based networks and blimps creating high altitude transmission platforms.

Connecting more people to the Web world-wide creates more potential users of its Web-search engine and other services such as YouTube and its Google Play media and app store. More than half of the world's population doesn't use the Web, particularly in developing nations, researchers say.

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Sony Announces the PS4 Release Date

Following on the heels of Microsoft’s rollout of the Xbox One, Sony gave the Xbox a few days to bask in its announcement glory before resuming the competition. On Friday Sony announced it is confirming prior rumors that the PS4 will be on store shelves in time for Christmas shopping season.

A full page advert in UK newspaper the Metro reveals that the PS4 will be coming to the UK this year, and hints that the games console will see a full worldwide release before 2013 is up.

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[H]ard|OCP Week in Reviews

Today is Friday and you know what that means! It is time once again for the [H]ard|OCP Week in Reviews! For anyone that might have missed them, we like to take a quick look back on the hardware evaluations and articles we posted earlier in the week. We kicked the week off with our evaluation of the PowerColor Radeon HD 7790 TurboDuo, followed by our IN WIN G7 mid-tower case review. Finally, we wrapped things up with our NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 video card evaluation.

[H]ardware Round-Up II

Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD 500GB

Hardware.Info has published a review of the Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD 500GB today. For comparison purposes, you can see our evaluation here.

The Seagate Laptop Thin SSHD 500GB is a 2.5-inch hard disk with an integrated 8 GB of SSD cache. It costs an average of $86, which is more than a conventional 2.5-inch 500 GB hard disk, but only the fraction of a what a 512 GB SSD would cost.

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GameStop Stock Closes Week Down 19%

If you didn't like the vague answers Microsoft gave on the way the Xbox One is going to handle used game sales, imagine how GameStop feels right now.

GameStop's stock concluded the trading week down 19 percent, attributable to continuing investor concerns over Xbox One's used games market solution. The most volatile decline occurred after a report out of the UK this morning claimed GameStop's margins in the pre-owned market would be affected by others taking a cut.

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ITC Says Microsoft Did Not Violate Google Patent

Google says it is evaluating its options after the International Trade Commission ruled that Microsoft did not violate one of the search giant's patents.

Microsoft Corp won a round in a complex patent war on Thursday when the International Trade Commission said the company's popular Xbox entertainment system did not violate a patent owned by Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility.

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[H] + Process Engineers + Plasma = Fun!

Today's random [H] sighting is brought to you by [H] forum member FaRKle0079. How in the world did he do that? I'll let him explain the process:

The [H] is made of oxide. Originally, the wafer was all oxide and was going to be discarded after I used it for a test. Instead, I decided to have a little fun and thinned the oxide down to about 450nm to get the reddish color. I then masked the [H] off and etched the non-masked oxide down to the bare silicon. The tool I used to do this is one of my company's newest plasma etch chambers (unreleased).

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Mark Rein Responds To "Consoles Better Than PCs"

This is definitely Quote of the Day. The best part? This is coming from a guy that makes console games.

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Company Hacked? Hack Them Back!

Here an interesting question. If your company is hacked, should you be able to hack the hackers to get your stuff back?

The 100-page report, released this week, stops just short of recommending that the U.S. allow businesses to actively retrieve stolen information from within an intruder's network and to disable or destroy it without any limitations.

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Signs The Girl You Met On The Internet Is Fake

I have a fool proof way to tell if the women I meet on the internet are fake. If she shows any interest in me....*ding*ding*ding*.

Scam dating profiles are more likely to say they are Catholic; from Nigeria, the Ukraine or the Philippines; widowed and have a doctoral degree—among other characteristics, according to new data compiled by the dating website SeekingArrangement.com. Romance scammers tug at the heartstrings or stroke the ego to get dating site users to send them money.

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IP Addresses Don’t Positively Identify Infringers

Hasn't anyone told this ISP that these people don't care if the IP address identifies the right person, they just need a person to sue.

A law firm hoping to secure the identities of Internet users who allegedly shared copyright material without permission is likely to find itself in a sticky situation today. The firm has reportedly approached ISPs in Australia with demands that they hand over subscribers’ details, but according to their own published literature the company has little faith in IP address-based evidence.

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Gaming [H]eadlines

Galaxy - HardOCP - TigerDirect GTX 780 Community Event Winners!

The Galaxy - HardOCP - TigerDirect GTX 780 Community Event was a huge success! There was lots of swag being given away, there were discounts galore on Galaxy graphics cards and a pair of Galaxy GTX 780 cards were given away as the icing on the cake! So, without further delay, I want to introduce you to Blake, Michael and Twyla, the winners of the two Galaxy GeForce GTX 780s:

Lots of people also took advantage of the 10% discount on all Galaxy video cards to buy brand new Galaxy GeForce GTX 780s. It looks like a great time was had by all!

Microsoft Aims To Sell 1B Xbox One Consoles

Microsoft wants to sell a billion Xbox One consoles over its lifetime? Lets see, one billion divided by ten years, twelve months in a year, that would be....wait....what?!?

"Every generation, as you’ve probably heard, has grown approximately 30%. So this generation is about 300 million units. Most industry experts think the next generation will get upwards of about 400 million units. That’s if it’s a game console, over the next decade. "We think you can go broader than a game console, that’s our aim, and you can go from 400 million to potentially upwards of a billion units. That’s how we’re thinking of the Xbox opportunity as we go forward."

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Fractal Design Node 605 Silent HTPC Case

If you are building a new HTPC, you might want to head on over to Legit Reviews and check out this Fractal Design Node 605 review.

Fractal Design really did a great job with the Node 605. The face of the case is a beautiful black aluminum design, which also has a way to keep the front I/O ports hidden in style. The whole HTPC concept may be questionable by some, but others (like myself) see the value and luxury behind it.

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[H]ardware Round-Up