THQ files for bankruptcy protection

Game publisher THQ has made it known through a press release that they have filed for protection against bankruptcy, and it will be selling off its studios and games in development. Furthermore, THQ has secured backers from Clearlake Capital Group, that has put forth about $60 mil. They have also managed to get financing from Wells Fargo to the tune of $37.5 million.

While THQ will invariably go through some changes, the company assured that customers will not be affected by this transition, nor will it lay-off any staff. THQ’s top management has assured that they will continue to develop and publish games, with Jason Rubin calling the situation “a new start for our company.”

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Apple may be moving chip production to US

AppleInsider has dipped into its source of informants that four states in US are all wooing to get a chipmaker to set up shop in their territory. The chipmaker has been identified simply as Azalea, and the states of New York, California, Texas and Oregon are all competing to host its fab operations.

The same website has also picked up on rumors that the company behind the name Azalea may be Taiwan Semiconductor. TSMC has been rumored to take chip manufacturing for Apple, over from Samsung.

Source: AppleInsider Photo: PCper.com

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Facebook cashing in on to-be-mums by selling info to advertisers

Social networking giant Facebook is reportedly minting off money from pregnant women by selling access to private information about their due dates and the gender of their unborn babies to advertisers. Women who pass on the happy news of their pregnancy to loved ones on the site can be bombarded with promotions for baby clothes, nappies, prams, and toys as a result of the policy. The move has now been condemned by parenting experts who warn it could make expectant mothers feel as though they are being ‘cyber-stalked’ by big business, the Daily Mail reports.

According to the paper, it has also fuelled concerns over Facebook’s willingness to exploit the private information of its one billion users to make a profit. The US social networking site set up a ‘Life Events’ section on users’ pages in the summer of last year to allow them to tell friends about major news, which allows to announce details of their pregnancy, including predicted due date and – based on scans – the gender, the paper said. However, it has been learnt that the firm has secretly changed this policy and is selling access to information posted by expectant mothers on the Life Events section to advertisers. This is potentially lucrative for Facebook, which was floated on Wall Street last year and is looking for ways to cash in on the treasure trove of personal information it holds, the paper added. The founder of the Netmums.com website for parents said many people would be alarmed by the development. “While many women willingly give away personal details about their pregnancies to marketing firms, they do this knowingly and usually in return for free product samples or discount vouchers,” said Siobhan Freegard. Facebook, however, has denied selling personal information directly to advertisers. -ANI Photo: Thinkstock/Gettyimages

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RIM records first-ever decline in subscriber base after losing over million users

Troubled Canadian mobile maker Research In Motion (RIM) has lost over a million subscribers in the last quarter, the first drop in user base in the firm’s history. It comes despite RIM posting better than expected revenues of 2.7 billion dollars, sending its shares soaring more than 7 percent. RIM’s first-ever decline in its subscriber base comes with just a month remaining before the crucial launch of the new BB10 smartphone line. RIM reported a loss of 114 million dollars or 22 cents a share, excluding one-time items, in contrast to analysts’ average, who had forecast a loss of 35 cents a share, Fox News reports.

According to the report, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company hopes to reinvent itself and revive its fortunes with the BlackBerry 10. It also reported a surprise net profit in its fiscal third-quarter, reflecting a one-time tax gain from restructuring of its international operations. In the period ended December 1, RIM reported net income of 9 million dollars, or 2 cents a share. That compared with a year-ago profit of 265 million dollars, or 51 cents, the report said. The decline in its subscriber base is a disconcerting marker in the history of RIM, which virtually invented the concept of on-the-go email. In recent years, RIM''s user base has grown, even as the BlackBerry lost ground in North America and Europe, boosted by gains in emerging markets, the report added. -ANI

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HP launches Envy X2 hybrid, Envy Touchsmart Ultrabook 4 and Envy 23 AIO in India

HP recently launched its new Windows 8 based products in the Indian market and they include the Envy X2 hybrid, Envy Touchsmart Ultrabook 4 and Envy 23 AIO.

Both of its Envy X2 hybrid as well as the Envy Touchsmart Ultrabook 4 will be priced at Rs. 59,990 and will be available in January. The Envy 23 All-In-One PC is already out in the market and this device is priced at Rs. 71,990.

The HP Envy X2 hybrid is powered by an 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Atom processor, it has 2GB of RAM and a 11.6-inch display with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. It also includes built-in 64GB eMMC NAND storage with a SDHC card slot in the keyboard dock and microSD card slot in the tablet. It has a HDMI port, two USB ports, 8 megapixel rear camera and 1080p front facing camera. The device has 14 hours of battery life with the keyboard dock.

The HP Envy Touchsmart Ultrabook 4 is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor clocked at 1.7GHz. It also includes 4GB of RAM, 500GB HDD and a 32GB SSD for faster boot up. It includes the on-board Intel HD 4000 GPU, 14-inch display, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB port, a HDMI port and a 720p capable front facing camera.

Finally, the HP Envy 23 All-In-One is also powered by an Intel Core i5 processor which is clocked at 2.9GHz. It has 4GB of RAM, a 1TB HDD, 2USB 3.0 ports, 4YSB 2.0 ports and a HDMI out port. It sports a 23-inch display with a 1920x1080 pixels resolution and it is equipped by a NVIDIA GT 630M GPU with 2GB dedicated graphics memory.

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Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent dismissed by US Patent Office

Apple’s patent on pinching to zoom, a key issue in its battle against Samsung, has reportedly been declared ‘invalid’ by the US Patent Office, who claim that the patent should never have been granted. The rejection comes as a blow to Apple’s 1 billion dollar lawsuit against rival Samsung, and is the second such occurrence in just a few months. The ‘pinch to zoom’ feature is one of six patents that Samsung was found to have infringed earlier this year, and formed a key feature of Apple’s iPhone as well as all subsequent smartphones, The Telegraph reports.

According to the paper, the feature allows users to zoom in and out of almost anything on a smartphone screen simply by moving two fingers together or apart. Apple's claims were rejected on the grounds that prior patents covered the inventions. The US Patent Office ruling was revealed in court documents filed by Samsung in San Jose, where the two technology giants are battling over the patent infringement claims, the paper said. Apple, however, is likely to appeal the ruling so the patent is still technically in force, the paper added. Earlier, the US Patent Office also threw out Apple’s “bounce” feature, also known as “rubber-banding”, which governs the visual effect to indicate when a user has hit the bottom of a web page, the paper concluded. -ANI

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ASUS release mobo for AMD 760G chipset

ASUS has released a motherboard for AMD processors that are designed to work with the 760G chipset. Priced at Rs.3,350, the M5A78L-M/USB3 motherboard has 4 DIMMs to support 16GB of DDR3 RAM, factory-clocked at 1333MHz, and can be overclocked to run at 2000Mhz. For graphics, the motherboard has an ATI Radeon 3000 processor with an HDMI-out option. For good measure, ASUS has also thrown in a couple of USB3.0 ports, alongside its own licks to power distribution and BIOS technology.

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WD release 7mm thick hard-drive for laptops

Western Digital has released a slimmed-down model of 2.5-inch hard drives that are small enough to fit inside a regular sized laptop and an ultrabook, using the standard 9.5mm slot. Western Digital is calling this range WD Blue, which has been designed to shocks up to 400G. The 500 GB model (WD5000LPVT) is selling for Rs.3,600; whereas the 320 GB model (WD3200LPVT) is going for Rs.3,150

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