Game Group goes into administration

Video game retailer, Game Group, has gone into administration

Read Freaking Computer News earlier blog post about Game Groups possible closure.

Administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said 2,104 employees would be made redundant this week, with the immediate closure of 277 stores in the UK and Ireland. The remaining 333 stores will stay open as the administrators search for a buyer for the business.

PwC said that the retailer had suffered from high fixed costs and an ambitious international expansion. Its business has been hit by competition from online-only retailers.

Mike Jervis one of the administrators said “Our priority is to continue trading the business as normal while we continue to pursue a sale, the recent job losses are regrettable, but will place the company in a stronger position while we explore opportunities to conclude a sale. My team and I will be doing all we can to help the affected employees at this difficult time.”

Game employs 385 staff at its headquarters in Basingstoke in Hampshire, and about 5,100 in its stores in the UK and Ireland. Abroad and around the world Game employs 5,000 staff.

Game Group said “This decision to enter administration is taken after careful consideration and ceaseless interrogation of every possible alternative.”

The stores operate under the Game brand, as well as Gamestation. The company asked for its shares to be suspended last Wednesday and announced it was planning to call in administrators. It followed confirmation that some suppliers had stopped doing business with the retailer.

small business targeted for hacking

Christopher Porter tells PCWorld “SMBs don’t know how defenseless there websites or computer servers have become, especially to automated and industrialized attack methodologies by organized crime,” Mr  Porter, a principal with the Verizon RISK Team, is the author of a new report from Verizon on security risk.

Mr porteralso said “Hackers scan the Internet, looking for remote access services, and then try the default credentials. Once they gain access, they automatically install keyloggers to collect password information as it’s typed in, then they send the information it out via e-mail or by uploading it to an FTP server or a web site. They aggregate the data and sell it on the black market.”

“Hackers could use the keylogger to figure out how access and drain a small business’ bank account, but more commonly, Porter said, they’ll target point-of-sale systems, as four Romanians did recently. That kind of attack is increasing, because they’re low-risk and low-cost attacks for organized crime.

Because they’re geographically widespread, it’s hard for any one police department to follow up. But if small businesses are increasingly vulnerable, Porter characterized the tactics they should employ in response as quite simple.”

If you have a point-of-sale system, make sure to change the password from the default it came with. Porter says “The problem is that when small businesses think about their POS system, they worry about whether it’s going to be available when they sell the shirt or charge for the burger, they’re not worried about confidentiality. They’re worried about margins.”

Verizon’s Fifth Annual Data Breach Report

The fifth-annual Verizon 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report, produced in conjunction with the United States Secret Service, the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit, the Australian Federal Police, the Irish Reporting & Information Security Service, and the London Metropolitan Police’s cybercrime unit, reveals seventy-nine percent of attacks represented in the report were opportunistic.

Of all the attacks the report studied, it found 96 percent were not difficult to achieve and 97 percent were avoidable, “without the need for organizations to resort to difficult or expensive countermeasures.

Nintendo Gamecube

If you have an Android phone or tablet, you should know that there are always great, useful applications
and very fun games available for download. More and more titles are being released all the time from
many game makers.

SEGA rose to popularity in the 1990s, and they continue to turn out great titles, many of which are
coming to mobile platforms. One such title is their new Super Monkey Ball 2. This title is available for
both Android and iOS, and it may be just the game for you to try today.

What is it?

One of the newest SEGA titles to be available in the Google Play Store, Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura
Edition features fun with rolling monkeys.

Created from the popular Super Monkey Ball series originally
created for Nintendo’s Game Cube in 2001, this game was first released early in March for the Android
platform.

Gameplay allows a player to guide one of four cute monkeys throughout the game. There are 125 stages with different themes, challenging players across six different worlds. A game feared for players of ages, this game is also priced for those of all budgets at only $.99, but the price may end up increasing with time.

Gameplay

As mentioned, Super Monkey Ball features six different worlds with 125 stages. There are also four
additional mini games. Player can pick a cute monkey avatar to play with.

An addictive, simple game, it is essentially a marble puzzle game. Using basic tilting gameplay, players
control the floor to move around the monkeys inside little balls. This tilting gameplay makes it easier
and more fun than ever for players using their smartphone or tablet.

Review

Super Monkey Ball 2 is enjoyable, but it faces a common critique. Gaming reviewers find it suspect that this edition of the popular Monkey Ball franchise takes place in Japan and features Asian styling. Many games, including Angry Birds, have recently hit the market with Asian-inspired elements and plenty of cherry blossoms, and this has led many critics to think that this Asian style is caused by a lack of creativity from game creators who have just run out of ideas.

Even though the current trend in gaming is to make games more Asian, Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura
Edition seems to do a good job of it. It manages to make the game seem more Japan-like than other
games. Additionally, the massive amount of good content that this game offers has managed to make it a pretty solid release.

A fun game that many have reported as being a bit addicting, players will find that it is easy to use.
Players of all ages should be able to get a handle on using the tilt controls relatively quickly. Despite being simple, this game is still challenging for players of all levels.

Buy

This game is available for Android and iOS devices. Some features are tablet only, but even on your
Android smartphone, this is a very enjoyable title. For Android users, this title can be purchased
exclusively at the Google Play Store. Presently the game is only 99 cents, but this is expected to be a
promotional price. To score this great game at a low price, buy it now; the price is expected to rise to
somewhere around the $3.00 mark sometime soon.

Game Group

Last week, Game confirmed that a number of suppliers were refusing to do business with the company, the Game group said in a statement

“The value of the company had been eroded, and had made the decision following talks with its lenders and a potential third party provider of finance. The board now considers itself to be unable to assess the business’s financial position, and is of the opinion that there is no equity value left in the group.

“Therefore the company has requested that the listing of its securities on the Main Market of London Stock Exchange plc be suspended from trading with effect from 07:30 today.”

Game Group owns 600 shops in the UK, employing around 6,000 staff; these shops include Game as well as Gamestation retailers.

On the 12th March the Game Group admitted that talks with stock suppliers had broken down, this followed earlier bad news when EA announced that it would no longer provide Game with stock, meaning the retailer could not sell the hugely popular Mass Effect 3.

March 14th, Game Group announced that it was in talks with a buyer to agree a rescue package. The buyer was believed to be the owner of electrical retail chain Comet, and there was further speculation that Walmart was also interested, but negotiations broke down on Friday.

Everything Everywhere possible 4G rollout

The UK’s 4G mobile service may launch later this year, according Ofcom.

The regulator says it has received an application by Everything Everywhere to use its existing spectrum to offer the higher-speed service, they do not believe the move by the owner of the Orange and T-Mobile networks would distort competition. It has given other parties four weeks to submit their views about the proposed change.

Ofcom had previously warned that next generation 4G services would not be rolled out until 2013/1.4 Everything Everywhere plans to jump ahead by varying its 1800MHz spectrum licenses to allow the use of LTE (long term evolution) and Wimax technologies.

An Everything Everywhere spokeswoman quoted “It’s very important that the UK does not get left behind in the building of a new infrastructure for the digital economy, we welcome today’s notice of 1800MHz licence variation from Ofcom, as it suggests Ofcom’s willingness to encourage the early deployment of 4G LTE.”

James Barford, mobile telecoms analyst at Enders Analysis, said “Compatible 4G handsets are only just coming onto the market, so many of the firm’s user base will be unlikely to take advantage of the faster mobile broadband speeds straightaway,” he told the BBC. However, it is great marketing to be able to launch early, it certainly sounds good.”

Vodafone said that it might challenge the move, a spokewoman quoted “It comes as a surprise that the regulator is now considering giving the largest player in the market permission to use its existing spectrum for 4G services before the rules for the auction have even been concluded or it has divested spectrum as required by the European Commission, we seriously doubt that consumers best interests will be served by giving one company a significant head start before any of its competitors have a clear path to 4G.”

Toshiba Glasses free 3D TV

The unit is 55 inches in size and has a price tag of around £7,000.  This new TV works similar to some digital cameras, it can recognise and follow faces. So when you move, it adjusts its picture to suit, it then directs different images to the left and right eyes. This creates the illusion that the image is 3D.

This isn’t the world’s first spec-free, or glasses free 3D TV.

Two were launched at an electronics show in Japan in October 2010 but had much smaller screens at only 12 inches and 20 inches. These early models saw problems with picture quality if viewed at an angle.

Now other manufacturers will be keen to enter the spec-free battle, with Sony displaying two impressive prototypes at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

Xbox 720

Epic Games vice president Mark Rein spoke to Computer Video Games about the next generation of consoles such as the Xbox 720 and Sony PS4 might not be using the latest technology.

Mark Rein said “Don’t worry. We are absolutely every day pushing platform holders, this is why we did Samaritan and why we’re doing a really high-end demo in the room here. We really are pushing these guys, because if they don’t, Apple will go right past them. The only way they’re going to go away is if they don’t stay true to what they are. The console gaming experience is about delivering something that’s way out past the bleeding edge and subsidising it through the software royalty model, just like Apple does with the phones. It’s not that much different.”

With the rumour mill hotting up about the Nintendo Wii U and the Xbox 720 all eyes will be turned to both consoles with the hope that they’ll be able to provide something we’ve never seen before. Other rumours indicate that the next Xbox will pack graphics based on AMD’s 6670 chip, which would bring support for DirectX11, multi-display and 3D. But this would be very disappointing for many gamers who are hoping for a truly next-gen console.

When the new Xbox is scheduled for release in 2013 AMD will have already released its entire lineup of HD 8000 series graphics chips, meaning the GPU component of the Xbox chip (code-named Oban) would be at the very least two entire generations behind.

More rumours have floated about stating that the graphics portion of the Xbox chip would be based on the current HD 7000 series of graphics chips which in turn are being used in AMD’s next generation of APUs, code-named Trinity.

The new Apple iPad

In our report about the new ipad, we mentioned it may be shceduled for March delivery, now it has almost arrived!

The new iPad will soon be launching, brief specification includes: Retina display, a 5-megapixel camera (with the same optics sensor from the iPhone 4S) and 1080p video recording.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing said “It has text sharper than a newspaper. Photos will look incredible. Fonts look amazing, it has the best mobile display that has ever shipped.”

The iPad has a resolution of 2,048 by 1,536 pixels. The tablet is also powered by a new A5X chip with improved graphics performance. Chief executive Tim Cook claimed to have “redefined once again the category Apple created”.

The new iPad also features a 5 megapixel camera sensor. It will be able to run on 4G LTE networks where the service is available and can act as a wi-fi hotspot for other devices if carriers allow the function.

It is 9.4mm deep, slightly thicker than the 8.8mm profile of the iPad 2. The basic 16GB model with only wi-fi will cost £399 and the top of the range 64GB model with wi-fi and 4G will cost £659.

Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller said the tablet has the same 10-hour estimated battery life as the previous model using only wi-fi. That limit shortens by an hour when using 4G.

It is due to go on sale on 16 March in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Japan.

Experts argue over the likelihood of a tablet computer replacing desktop or laptop, a recent survey from Staples Advantage, shows that a clear majority of tablet users believe that tablets will end up replacing their more traditional PC Computers. Sales of the slim tablets are expected to soar from 55 million this year to more than 208 million in 2014, with users citing portability as a key benefit.

Ed Ludwigson, vice president and general manager for Staples Technology Solutions said “Tablets make it easy for employees to keep information with them and utilize business apps, no matter where they go. For employers, the benefit is having a more productive workforce that’s always connected to what’s happening at the office.” More than 200 business users of tablet computers took part in the research.

Tranquil PC Riley Server

Over the last five years, Manchester’s Tranquil PC has been right at the forefront of home server hardware development with a range of increasingly good looking custom chassis. Their latest effort, the Tranquil PC Riley Server is unconventional in the fact that it splits system and storage across two devices.

Thahe server has a good specification, comprising an Intel Core i3-2100T Processor two hard drives (SSD and standard hard drives available as options), 4GB RAM alongside two USB 3.0,  two USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit LAN,  three eSATA ports and AV connections including HDMI, DVI and Audio.

It is the perfect specification for a 2012-era home server and runs at around 23W (with a single hard drive, bump up 10W or so with a second), so doesn’t chew a lot of power.

A four drive Riley Storage Unit is also available in a range of configurations (from diskless through to 8TB in 4 x 2TB configuration)

Performance

The Riley Server is one of the most powerful home servers, you can build a faster, higher capacity server yourself but Tranquil PC’s cocktail of the latest generation Intel Core i3 processor, 4 GB RAM and a 60 GB Intel SSD is very strong indeed, topping almost all of our small server benchmarks.