This week, GLaDOS goes to the big screen, Dell goes with the big boys and Gabe Newell goes off the deep end.
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
With over ten years of audio engineering experience, Nick's addition to PLuGHiTz Corporation is best served when he is behind the mixing board every Sunday night to produce the audio side of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Piltch Point and PLuGHiTz Live Night Cap. While mixing live every week, his previous radio show hosting experience gives him the ability to co-host as well, giving each show a unique flare with his slightly off-center, yet still realistic take on all things tech. An integral part of the show, you can find Nick always enveloped in coming up with new (and sometimes crazy) ideas and content for the show and you can always expect the most direct opinion on the stories that he feels need to be shared with the world. During the few hours where Nick isn't sleeping or working on ways to improve the company, he spends his free time going to hockey and football games and playing the latest titles on Xbox 360. Email him for his gamertag and add him today for a fun escape from the normal monotony and annoyance that the Xbox LIVE gaming community can sometimes be!
Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.
Dell seems to have recognized the disaster that was their Streak line of tablets. Even though the five-inch model was a perfect introduction to a phone-tablet hybrid, having outdated Android software - let alone Android as a whole - left the devices fighting to gain market share from launch. Newer operating systems were available on older, less expensive devices, and it seems that Dell didn't seem to mind lagging behind. At least, until this week. After discontinuing the Streak tablets during holiday season last year, Dell's vice chairman, Jeff Clarke, made an announcement we've been expecting to hear for a while. Clarke officially went on record at Dell's World Conference in Austin to say that the company is parting ways with Android completely on its phones and tablets.
Gabe Newell, Valve's co-founder and managing director, has officially taken one too many medications. Either that, or he's finally snapped. I say this because he's been on a bit of a tear lately. First, Valve accidentally leaked some news about a rumored Steam Box, which is unusual for them, only for Gabe to turn around and deny it all. Then, Gabe said plainly that there would be no announcements at E3, only for the company to announce Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Since it happened the day before E3 officially started, we'll chalk that one up to a technicality. Lastly, he flat-out bashed the Windows 8 operating system during the Consumer Preview for being so different from Windows 7 that everything that was developed in the past five years would be time wasted. As an aside, earlier today I played Garry's Mod, Star Trek Online and Team Fortress 2 all on my upgraded Windows 8 Pro PC, via Steam, without any issues. Well, this week, he finally went overboard as Valve announced the nonexistant Steam Box, but also said that a PC is what everyone wants in their living room and it would take over consoles for both gaming and entertainment. Mr. Newell, I believe the Xbox 360 would first like to talk with you on being the center for all family gaming and entertainment, and they have NPD numbers to prove it.
Just last week, we saw the end of the last batch of apps that were added to the Xbox 360. Naturally, that means it's time to announce a new lineup of media partners and content that will be added to the platform. It was announced that Xbox Live will feature 40 new global entertainment partners, including some that have already showed up on consoles everywhere.
It appears that the worlds of nerd fandom and moviegoer have come together in the best way possible. This week, a trailer, screenshots and artwork was released for Pacific Rim, Warner Bros. new movie directed by Guillermo del Toro. Here's the synopsis for those who don't haven't heard about this movie yet.