Intel may have not given us an exact launch day for their new IVY Bridge desktop and mobile processors that will implement 22 nanometer technology, but at least we have it narrowed down to the week. Intel has plans to launch their new processors somewhere between the dates of April 1-7.

For those of you out there who may have on-the-go scanning needs, or even if you are looking for a streamlined solution to those big and bulky scanners, the Doxie Go + WiFi by Apparent may be the right choice for you. The Doxie scanner works by wirelessly sending all scanned images, or documents to the cloud which is then pushed right to you Mac, PC, iOS device, or Evernote account.

It can be incredibly easy to both overestimate and underestimate the famed difficulty of Dark Souls and its spiritual successor Demon’s Souls.  Rather than fitting nicely on the usual scale Dark Souls aims for a different sort of challenge altogether.  The truth is that action RPG fans have become accustomed to loose and silly combat that tends to boil down to flailing away at enemies with a lightning sword until someone dies.  In such encounters character stats tend to decide the victor while difficulty merely refers to the damage output and toughness of the world’s hostile creatures.  A boss is considered to be “hard” when it kills you quickly or is difficult to take down even if it behaves in exactly the same way as your previous dozen adversaries.

Paramount is now offering digital versions of UltraViolet-based movies with the unveiling of a new service named Paramount Movies. The new service will allow users to stream physical or digital movies they have purchased by storing it on a digital locker in the cloud. The streaming will of be available for iOS devices with no support for other mobile operating systems as of yet. The current content catalog of movies from Paramount Movies includes 60 titles at $19.99 a pop for HD movies and $12.99 for Standard definition (SD) films.

Audiobooks.com, will be providing the first unlimited audio book service that operates in the cloud. The service will cost $24.95 per month and will be available to use on iPhones, iPads, Android devices, and PCs. The company will operate this service on a proprietary technology called “cloudmark sync,” that will sync users bookmarks across any device they have Audiobooks.com running on. There is an option to browse their catalog of content before you sign up for a membership if you would like to make sure your membership is worth the cost.

Microsoft Points, shortened to MSP, were used as currency to buy Microsoft Software. It was implemented for users of Xbox Live. As Microsoft and the gaming community and hardware are expanding into a more casual open media front there are rumors that Microsoft plans to get rid of the current system of having to buy Microsoft Points to buy software and other items from its online store/marketplace.

The Stop Online Piracy Act has been sunk “until there is a wider agreement on a solution” said Congressman Lamar Smith, who introduced the act last October. This comes after the worldwide response with the Internet Blackout, the takedown of Megaupload, and a retaliatory strike by Anonymous. In addition, the Protect Intellectual Property Act vote has been postponed.

Brought to you by TekGoblin
Recorded: 1/20/2012

Starring: Keith Ballard, Andrew Wilson
Guest Starring: Ana

This week Keith, Andrew and Ana talk about the Darkness 2 and Kindgom of Amalur Demos along with some horrible childhood stories that explain why we are who we’ve become.

— Link Dump —

Star Wars: The Old Republic Playthrough

Real Star Wars Holocron

Darkness 2 Demo

Kingdom of Amalur Demo

Podcast (dualstix-podcast): Play in new window | Download (331.1MB)

In what looks like a move made in response to what happened to Megaupload and its executives, FileSonic has disabled the file sharing abilities that users have come to expect from this service. Megaupload is a file-sharing service that was shut down this past Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI on charges of online piracy among others. Both free and paying users are affected by this change in services and policy and now users can only access content they have saved and uploaded on the FileSonic website themselves. It looks like FileSonic has become cautious of its own possible future brush with the US Feds. If this becomes a trend with other major file-sharing companies, than maybe SOPA and PIPA are not even needed to hinder the internet and that scares us.

Research In Motion (RIM) has finally made a monumental change in the leadership of their company with co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie both stepping down from their positions. The position of CEO will now be filled by existing RIM Chief Operating Officer (COO), Thorsten Heins. We have to say that RIM does not fall short when it comes to CEOs with unique names. This move comes not long after both Lazaridis and Balsillie gave up their roles as co-Chairs of the RIM Board of Directors in favor of a singular replacement. We had a feeling with their chairman of the board roles given up that both men would one day be replaced as co-CEOs, but we had no idea it would be this soon. RIM has navigated a tumultuous 2011 and is not looking that good for 2012 as of yet, but this shakeup may impress investors, analysts, and the media.