Top 10 PS3 Games of 2012

2011 was a great year for all PlayStation lovers with the launch of some remarkable great games like Resistance 3, Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim to name a few. If you’re hoping that this year is gonna be less crowded, then you’re out of luck since this year tons of exclusives are going to be launched.  Here are some of the best games that all Gaming freaks are looking forward to in 2012.

Top 10 PS3 Games of 2012 are

#1. Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil 6 is the latest installment in the highly successful Resident Evil series. It is the first time that any Resident Evil game will span across the world, killing the zombified President onUnited Statesand venturing in the Far-East to look for answers to the latest virus outbreak. It is the most ambitious title of Capcom till date, offering the largest cast of characters.

#2. Mass Effect 3

Bioware’s finale to the gaming’s greatest series, Mass Effect 3, is a role-playing that lets you live out your wildest sci-fi fantasies, as an intergalactic ass-kicker, Commander

Shepard. Mass Effect 3 is a game that should be played by everyone that likes space and guns. Packed with gleaming visuals, routing set pieces and a complex narration, Mass Effect 3 truly lives to its title.

#3. Twisted Metal

With the original creator David Jaffe at its side, you can be sure that Twisted Metal has much to offer. It was originally created as a downloadable PSN title, this reboot of the classic vehicular combat series grew to a full retail release. You will take part in a 16-player online battle attempting to kill your enemies in new game modes. With new environments, deep customizations, co-op mode, Twisted Metal provides a criminally overlooked genre.

#4. The Darkness 2

It’s one of those rare sequels that took something great from its originals and jacks the power tenfold. In Darkness 2, as mobster kingpin, Jackie Estacado, it’s your job to send the cult leader Victor Valente packing a mixture of guns and a pair of flesh-ripping demon arms. The Darkness 2 allows you to do some of the nasty things with your enemies, like removing their entire spine through their groin.

#5. Batman – Arkham City

WithArkhamCity, Bruce Wayne returns to action. the smart action-played follow-up to Batman – Arkham Asylum. The solid foundation of the previous installment, and adding new hard-hitting attacks, bat-gadgets, detective work and an expansive playground inGotham’s slums. The criminal minds include some familiar faces like Catwoman, Joker and some new faces like Calender man, Hugo Strange and Solomon Grundy. Batman -ArkhamCityis a candidate to the prestigious “Game of the year” award.

#6. SSX

SSX has returned to PlayStation after a 7-year gap and no wonder, it’s a slick and speedy reboot for EA’s snowboarding franchise. 2012 SSX takes the players on a global tour of world’s most famous mountain peaks. Multiplayer mode is too addictive, looking towards your friends’ times, stunt scores etc. SSX truly lives to the huge popularity of the previous installments

#7. Assassin’s Creed 3

Set during the War of independence in theU.S.A., and completely away from theOld World, players take the role of the young Mohawk named Connor in the third installment of the highly popular franchise. Connor joins Assassins not for revenge like Ezio, but for the fight for justice. Assassin’s Creed 3 is a new starting point to the Assassin’s Creed franchise as it allows the players to go to the basics, with a brand new legacy.

#8. Street Fighter X Tekken

Street Fighter X Tekken is the best game that takes it into vogue once more with the best roster of fighters in the history ever. Street Fighter X Tekken is collecting praises from all over the world for its extreme game play. With cross-series punch-ups, with the sharp and chunky visuals, it provides the glossy finish to the complex combat system. Street

Fighter X Tekken takes you to a whirlwind of adrenaline rush.

#9. GTA 5

Grand Theft Auto, the name is enough to shell out the money to get your hands on it. Grand Theft Auto 5 follows the previous installments, but with a darker, more realistic tone. The game takes place in Los Santos – the City ofLost Saints. Players take a role of a crime boss attempting to become straight, only to find himself back in the underworld.

#10. UFC Undisputed 3

If you don’t enjoy the Street Fighter delights, then try out UFC undisputed 3. It provides some bone splintering violence, brutal brawling sim standing in the corner. With fully licensed roster of all your favorite UFC stars, you get a tactile control system and authentic combat; this is the only fighter worth your time. Don’t forget to watch the movie by the same name, Undisputed 3 that too is just superb.

So folks, here I’m done with sharing my list of Top 10 PS3 Games. If I messed, do let us know via comments.

300,000 Infected Computers to Go Offline Monday

As many as 300,000 PCs and Macs will drop off the Internet in about 65 hours unless their owners heed last-minute calls to scrub their machines of malware.

According to a group of security experts formed to combat DNSChanger, between a quarter-million and 300,000 computers, perhaps many more, were still infected as of July 2.

DNSChanger hijacked users' clicks by modifying their computers' domain name system (DNS) settings to send URL requests to the criminals' own servers, a tactic that shunted victims to hacker-created sites that resembled real domains.

At one point, as many as 4 million PCs and Macs were infected with the malware, which earned its makers $14 million, U.S. federal authorities have said.

Infected machines will lose their link to the Internet at 12:01 a.m. ET Monday, July 9, when replacement DNS servers go dark.

The servers, which have been maintained under a federal court order by Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), the non-profit group that maintains the popular BIND DNS open-source software, were deployed last year after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized more than 100 command-and-control (C&C) systems during the take-down of the hacker gang responsible for DNSChanger.

The FBI's "Operation Ghost Click" ended with arrests of six Estonian men -- a seventh, a Russian, remains at large -- the C&C seizures, and the substitution of the replacement servers. Without the substitutes, DNSChanger-infected systems would have been immediately knocked off the Internet.

Originally, the stand-in servers were to be turned off March 8, but a federal judge extended the deadline to July 9.

It's not just consumer PCs and Macs -- DNSChanger was equal-opportunity malware -- that remain infected, but also corporate computers and systems at government agencies, said Tacoma, Wash.-based Internet Identity (IID), which has been monitoring cleanup efforts.

Last week, IID said that its scans showed 12% of Fortune 500 firms, or about one out of every eight, harbored DNSChanger-compromised computers or routers. And two out of 55 scanned U.S. government departments or agencies -- or 3.6% -- also had failed to scrub all their PCs and Macs.

The newest numbers were down from earlier scans by IID. In March, for example, the company pegged the Fortune 500 DNSChanger infection rate at 19% and the government agency rate at 9%.

In January, both groups' rate was an amazing 50%.

But there are still tens of thousands of laggards who have not cleaned their computers, even after a months-long effort by the DNSChanger Working Group (DCWG), a volunteer organization of security professionals and companies.

"We're all struggling with this," said Rod Rasmussen, chief technology officer of IID and a member of the DCWG. "There are a lot of people who just haven't gotten the word."

The cleanup, Rasmussen said, has been the tough part of the DNSChanger takedown.

"There was a lot of planning done for the initial takedown, the arrests, the swapping of servers, but there wasn't as much for after the take-down," said Rasmussen. "How do we clean things up? Victim remediation is a challenge for our industry. Everyone wants to do it, but how do you pay for it?"

The DCWG worked extensively with ISPs (Internet service providers) to help them alert customers with infected computers -- identified by their being shuttled through the replacement servers -- and advise them on removing the malware. The group also reached out to enterprises, government agencies and other organizations to offer the same assistance.

At times, that worked.

"Some ISPs have been very draconian," said Rasmussen, citing providers that repeatedly called, emailed or phoned members with infected computers. "Some worked hard at a fair amount of expense."

Others instead prepared for the support calls they expect to field starting Monday when startled customers realize they can't get online. "They're staffing up for [Monday], they know that they're going to get [a large number of calls]."

For those that have done nothing, Monday will be rough, Rasmussen predicted. "For some ISPs, this may be a real flap," he said.

But the project was sometimes frustrating.

One company, which Rasmussen would not name, had cleaned all its machines of DNSChanger, but was repeatedly re-infected. Finally, the firm discovered that laptops connecting to its public Wi-Fi network were spreading the malware, and even narrowed the list of suspects to the media because the timing of the re-infections coincided with press events the corporation held on its campus.

Even so, the effort has been worthwhile, not simply to ameliorate the impact, but as a learning experience for future such takedowns, or of "sinkholing" botnets in general.

"What we need in the future is a real-time alerting capability," said Rasmussen, and described a system that would immediately notify a user if his or her computer had been shunted to a substitute server. The idea was discussed by the DCWG, but never implemented because it would have required much more hardware and support than was available.

"Someone has to support this volunteer effort," said Rasmussen, who didn't have an answer for where that support, whether financial or other resources, would come from.

Two of the Internet biggest companies have also pitched with their own anti-DNSChanger campaigns.

In late May, Google began warning infected users with a bannered message at the top of the company's search results page. Several days later, Facebook kicked off a similar alert for its members.

Users have access to several free tools that identify infected computers, including several that just debuted under the DCWG's auspices. In the U.S., for example, users can steer to the dns-ok.uswebsite. Other detection sites are listed on the DCWG's domain.

The DCWG's website also has links to free tools that remove the malware.

But perhaps the loss of the Web is the only wake-up call some users will hear, Rasmussen said.

A few in the DCWG lobbied to stick to the original March 8 deadline and against an extension, believing that only a "tough love" approach would work, said Rasmussen.

"Some people haven't been paying attention to the messages," he said. "It's not a lot, but they're very reticent to do anything."

Apple Siri Versus Google Jelly Bean: Voice Search Showdown

Google Jelly Bean on a Galaxy Nexus bests Apple's Siri on iOS in our mobile voice search face-off.

By Armando Rodriguez and Liviu Oprescu, PCWorld    Jul 3, 2012 7:10 am

One of the big enhancements in the Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) operating system update that Google announced on June 27 is improved voice recognition in search. You can now ask your Android phone questions in a natural way--meaning you no longer have to sound like a robot to get answers.

We wondered which service is better at answering questions: Android's Voice Search or Apple's much-touted Siri. To test the services, we assembled a list of 17 questions or commands, and asked them of a Galaxy Nexus running Jelly Bean and an iPhone 4S running iOS 5.

A quick disclaimer: Apple has greatly improved Siri in iOS 6, but we weren't able to get our hands on the beta to test it. And the version of Jelly Bean we received from the Google I/O developer conference was not the final version, which will come to phones in mid-July.

Our results? Siri and the new voice recognition software in Jelly Bean each have their fair share of pros and cons. In the end, Android came out ahead on 8 of the 17 questions and commands we posed.

Here's a breakdown of how well each phone handled each question or task.

Question 1: "Where Is the Empire State Building?"

Siri seemed to have trouble understanding this question, while Jelly Bean produced a map that gave us the address of the Empire State Building in New York. For now, Android has the upper hand when it comes to locating famous buildings.

Winner: Android Jelly Bean

Question 2: "Will I Need an Umbrella on Sunday?"

The first few times we asked this question, Siri gave us directions to the nearest department stores. We believe that it may have been trying to point us to places that sold umbrellas, rather than answering our weather question.

When Siri finally realized that we were asking about the weather, it informed us that it could not predict what the weather would be on Sunday, and showed us a graphic displaying the local weather forecast for the next five days. Android told us that we wouldn't need an umbrella on Sunday, and also produced a five-day forecast.

Winner: Android Jelly Bean

Question 3: "Show Me Pictures of Mount Rushmore"

Android automatically brought up a small grid of images, while Siri asked if we wanted to perform a Web search. Siri finally showed us what we had asked for, but it required an extra step.

Winner: Android Jelly Bean

Question 4: "Where Can I Get a Taco Around Here?"

Siri, which pulls its results from Yelp, brought up 20 restaurants in the area that had tacos on the menu. Android presented a map of places that served tacos, but only one establishment was nearby; the rest were spread throughout the city. We have to hand it to Siri on this one, due to the number of results and owing to how close they were to our approximate location.

Winner: Apple Siri

Question 5: "What's the Capital of Canada?"

Both phones came up with an answer, but Android was faster at fetching a result.

Winner: Android Jelly Bean

Question 6: "Get Me Directions to the California Academy of Sciences"

As with the Empire State Building question, Android immediately brought up a map with the location of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and started opening Google Maps to give us directions.

Siri found two entries for the California Academy of Sciences, and required us to select the correct entry before proceeding to give us directions.

Winner: Android Jelly Bean

Question 7: "How Old Is Stan Lee?"

Both Siri and Android gave us an answer, but Google showed us a picture of Marvel's Stan Lee and read the answer to us.

Winner: Android Jelly Bean

Question 8: "Who Was the Number One Pick in the NBA Draft Last Year?"

Neither Siri nor Android had an answer to this question, and both defaulted to performing a Google search instead.

How to Maintain Your Android Phone

Android phones can become slow and clunky with age, but these tips can help get your phone running like new again.

By Armando Rodriguez, PCWorld    Jun 27, 2012 6:30 am

Your Android phone is a powerful computer. But like any other computer, it won't run at its best without proper care and maintenance. If you've ever owned an Android phone, you probably noticed that it became slower after a few months of use than it was when you first brought it home from the store. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, and in this article I'll explain how to get your Android smartphone back into tip-top shape. You can accomplish a lot of what I'll be recommending here by performing a simple factory reset; but if you take that approach, you'll lose your data and have to reconfigure your phone. So instead, grab your Android phone and follow these steps to get it running like new again.

Clear the Cache

Android phone maintenance: Clearing the cache.Have an app that's always crashing? Rather than force-closing or uninstalling it, try clearing its cache. This simple step will help resolve most of the issues that troublesome apps may be experiencing--and it won't create new problems, as forcing the app to shut down might. To clear an application's cache, open the Settings menu on your phone and click Applications. Then select Manage Applications and tap the app that's been having problems. Don't worry--all of your data and settings will remain intact; you're just getting rid of temporary files that may be causing difficulties.

Uninstall Apps

Check your app drawer for apps you don't use or need.Even though it's my job to love apps (and I do love them), improperly written ones can cause all sorts of trouble for your Android phone. Built-in problems can range from storing critical data as a plain-text file in your memory card to sullying your notification bar with constant updates that can't be disabled.

Consider the official Facebook app: Opening it automatically turns on your GPS, in case you want to upload a photo or create a status update that shares your current location. That's fine and dandy, except that the app periodically forgets to turn off your phone's GPS once it's done using it, wasting precious battery power and leaving you scrambling for the nearest outlet. Even apps you aren't intentionally using may be running processes in the background that waste resources for no good reason.

Unfortunately, task killers are generally ineffective at combating this problem, so your only practical option is to open your app drawer and uninstall apps that you don't regularly use. Doing so will open up space on your phone for more music, videos, and pictures, and it will help reduce the number of apps that are running in the background.

Clean Out Your Memory Card

Cleaning out your SD Card may not boost your phone's performance, but it makes sense to remove any old or unused files that are just taking up space on the card. To identify the biggest hogs on your memory card, I recommend installing DiskUsage. This app shows you which files on your phone are taking up the most room, though you'll have to plug your phone into a computer or use a file browsing app (such as Astro) to delete the unneeded files.DiskUsage shows you what's on your SD Card.

You should do this whenever you uninstall applications, largely because some apps leave folders of data behind when they're uninstalled. If your phone is rooted, you can download the SD Maid appto automatically clear out old junk files. SD Maid also lets you freeze or remove any bloatware that came preinstalled on your smartphone--so you can finally get rid of the annoying Blockbuster app that continually asks you for updates.

Root Your Phone

If you don't mind voiding your warranty, rooting can breathe new life into an ancient Android phone. We've described how to root your Android phone countless times in the past, so you can refer to one of those guides when you're ready to walk through the actual process. A rooted phone gives you complete control over your Android device: You can remove unwanted bloatware, install root-only applications, and even load custom ROMs that change the look and feel of Android on your phone.

Another benefit of rooting is that you no longer have to depend on your carrier for Android updates. While everyone else is waiting for their phone to receive Android 4.0, you can probably find a ROM for your phone that will give you a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich a few weeks or months before the update officially appears.

Rooting isn't without its hazards, however, and a serious mistake can render your phone unusable. In my opinion, though, the benefits are worth the risks, especially if you have an older Android phone; it's definitely an option you should consider if you aren't satisfied with your current Android situation.

VLC Player Beta Lands on Android

VLC, the free media player popular for its capability to play most media formats, is now available for Android phones. You can get VLC for Android beta as a free download on Google Play, although you should wait for the final version if you’re not a power user.

The player supports most media file types.

The prospect of VLC for Android is much less exciting than the brief appearance of a version for iPhones back in 2010 (which was pulled a couple of months later). iPhone users have a very limited choice of media formats they can play natively on their devices, but for Android, apps like BS Player, Dice, or MX Player do the job well already.

Nevertheless, VLC for Android is a welcome addition to the market -- as long as you keep in mind it’s a beta. This means the current version runs only on phones with ARMv7 CPUs with NEON support (no luck for entry-level Android phone owners). The programmers list on Google Play a number of features now unfinished but which will appear in the final release, such as the basic user interface, performance, and some audio issues.

If you have one of the supported phones, then VLC for Android beta will give you access to your entire video and media library on the phone, with full search capabilities, including support for network streams, and subtitles (embedded and external) -- which is especially handy if you like watching foreign films.

Hardware decoding works with a limited set of hardware, which means some phones will experience stuttery video. Two devices currently support hardware acceleration on MKV video at 720p: the HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy S III, with the Galaxy Nexus and S II able to manage 720p video as well.

VLC for Android supports embedded and separate file subtitles, but you need hardware acceleration support for smooth playback.

Video decoding hardware acceleration is not enabled by default, so you will have to enable it from the preferences pane if your device is supported, which should give you smooth video playback with no decoding artifacts. You can also use the included widget for audio controls, which displays cover art and gives you access to the media library.

CDs Are Not Forever: The Truth About CD/DVD Longevity, Mold & Rot‏

The digital age has revolutionized the way we handle information. Never before could humankind record and store so much information and in such diversity. While the amount of data has increased exponentially, the predicted life span of the storage media hardly exceeds the lifetime of a human. For humans who love to collect and leave a legacy to their descendants, as well as human kind who so much depends on information, this poses a huge challenge.

Optical discs have been commercially available since the 1980s. After merely 30 years, a solid amount of information has been collected on what causes CDs and DVDs to break and much progress has been made in the development of material that will last longer. While estimations predict a life time of up to 200 years for optical discs, we can never be sure when they are really going to break. However, by being aware of what determines the life span of optical discs and what causes them to break, you can make choices and significantly increase the survival time of your stored data.

Let's examine this case in detail...

What Determines The Life Span Of Different Optical Discs?

To understand what limits the life span of optical discs, let's look at how they are built-up. What all optical discs have in common is the presence of three key layers:

• coating layer that protects the reflective layer.
• shiny layer that reflects the laser.
• polycarbonate disc layer that stores the data.

In addition, a label is applied above the coating layer and re-writable discs contain a dye layer between the reflective and protective layers.

One factor that determines the maximum life span of an optical disc is the type of reflective layer. Other factors include the overall quality of the raw material and manufacturing and most importantly the way the medium is treated by the user. The handling of an optical disc probably has the most significant impact on its longevity, hence we will re-visit this theme in a moment.

It is hard to predict exactly how long an optical disc will last since it depends on so many different factors. Nevertheless, estimations are floating around that predict a life span of up to 200 years for recorded CD-Rs and Blu-Ray discs. The shortest life span with 5-10 years is predicted for unrecorded CD-Rs and CD-RWs, followed by recorded DVD-RWs with up to 30 years. Recorded CD-RWs and DVD-Rs have a predicted lifetime of 20-100 years. In other words, you should not rely on any of these media for lifelong storage of your precious data, as they are likely to fail sooner rather than later.

How Do CDs or DVDs Rot?

As mentioned above, different types of optical discs contain different layers and particularly the reflective layer is subsceptible to damage. Standard compact discs typically have a reflective layer made from aluminum. When exposed to air, aluminum oxidizes, which naturally happens around the edges of the CD. However, degradation of the reflective layer is not the only cause of disc rot.

The causes of disc rot are manifold and can include one of the following:

• oxidation or corrosion of reflective layer
• physical damage to disc surfaces or edges
• galvanic reaction between layers and coatings
• chemical reactions with contaminants
• ultra-violet light damage
• breaking down of disc materials, e.g. de-bonding of adhesives between layers

Interestingly, while most types of disc rot are caused by inappropriate use and/or storage, there is one in particular, i.e. CD bronzing, which is caused by a fault in manufacturing.

How Can I Check Whether My Optical Discs Are OK?

You can do a simple visual check. If you see light shining through tiny little holes when you hold a disc against light, then the reflective layer has started to disintegrate. Also check your CDs for discoloring, especially around the edges. See whether the different layers are still tightly together or have started to de-laminate. Finally, you can try to copy the optical discs to a hard drive or scan them for data integrity using different software, e.g. CDCheck or dvddisaster.

How Can I Increase The Lifetime Of My CDs & DVDs?

There are many ways you can increase the likelihood that your CDs and DVDs will last you a long time. Here is a selection of the most important ones:

• Choose a high quality medium from a good brand.
• If you want to maximize CD longevity, go for gold as a reflective layer.
• Treat your CDs and DVDs with care, i.e. hold them by the outer edges or the hole in the center, don't touch the surface, avoid scratches, and keep dirt from the disc.
• Keep them in a dry, dark, and cool place since humidity, sunlight, high temperatures, and pollutants can damage the different layers.
• Store them in jewel cases rather than paper slips.
• Use non solvent-based felt-tip permanent markers, suitable for writing on CD or DVD labels.
• Rewrite your rewritable discs as little as possible.
• Choose slow writing speeds to reduce errors and increase quality.

What Can I Do When My Disc Won't Read?

A disc that can no longer be read by your player or shows errors is not necessarily a lost case. Here area few tips for what you can do to:

• Make sure you didn't accidentally insert the CD or DVD upside down.
• Carefully clean the bottom layer with alcohol to remove grease from fingerprints and dust.
• Try to read the CD or DVD in a different player. Chances are that the laser in your player is faulty or that a different player can still read your CD or DVD.

Conclusion

Always have a backup of your data and check all our backups regularly to make sure none of the copies have broken in the meantime, regardless of whether you store your data on a CD, DVD, or hard drive.

What kind of data do you store on optical discs and how do you back up software, music, or movies you buy on a physical disc?