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Microsoft's Messenger service will survive despite the upcoming death of the Live Messenger client.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that it would retire its Live Messenger client on March 15, forcing users to move to Skype for their IM needs. Since buying Skype in 2011, Microsoft has continually tweaked the VoIP service, which now supports Microsoft account logins and integrates with Outlook.

But the Messenger service that supports Live Messenger isn't going away, at least not anytime soon, according to blog site ArsTechnica.

Messenger uses two network protocols that allow third parties applications to tap into its service. … Read more

Wharfedale is an 80-year-old speaker company, not to mention one of the oldest names in British audio. They make high-end and affordable speakers with prices starting at around $300 a pair. I recently checked out the Wharfedale Diamond 10.5 towers; their curvy cabinets cut a nice figure in the sound room at the In Living Stereo store in NYC. I listened to a few LPs on the stunning new Rega RP8 turntable. The tower speakers sell for $950 a pair.

The Diamond 10.5 is a three-way design with a 6.5-inch woofer, a 2-inch dome midrange, and a … Read more

2012 was another year that kept me glued to my iPhone and iPad, checking out the latest batch of iOS games and other apps. So which ones proved to be among my favorites? In alphabetical order...

Angry Birds Star Wars My wife and I love to play Angry Birds, and the Star Wars edition is a great take on the familiar franchise. This app could've easily taken a turn to the dark side. But Rovio knew just how to pair its birds and piggies with the classic Star Wars characters and settings that fans know and love. The challenging … Read more

Xbox Live members affected by a recent outage of the Cloud Saved Games feature will be treated to an additional month of membership on the house.

Xbox Live's Cloud Saved Games lets members store their saved games online so they can play them on a different console and pick up where they left off. An outage that hit Xbox Live on Friday also took the Saved Game feature offline, according to gaming blog site Joystiq.

Microsoft apparently spent most of the weekend trying to resolve the problem. And as of early Monday, all issues had been fixed, Microsoft spokesman … Read more

Electronic Arts has once again announced that a wide array of its games will soon no longer be playable online.

The company has updated its Online Service Updates page to announce that Madden NFL 11 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii will lose its online playability on January 11. FIFA Soccer 11, NBA Live 10, and NHL 11 are among the other titles that will no longer be playable.

EA has several times in the past removed online services for older titles. In a statement posted to its Web site, the game publisher said that the decision to … Read more

Live Mesh fans, the day many of you feared has come: Microsoft is acknowledging its plans to "retire" its Live Mesh PC-sync service on February 13, 2013.

"(W)e're starting to communicate with the remaining Mesh users and provide a set of instructions on how to keep their files in sync and alternative options for some of the features they're still using," said the Redmondians in a December 13 post on the "Inside SkyDrive" blog.

Microsoft introduced Live Mesh back in 2008 with much fanfare. The original plans for Live Mesh were … Read more

In its continuing effort to prove that the Xbox 360 is more than just a game console, Microsoft has announced more than 40 new apps for Xbox Live that it expects to launch between now and next spring.

In all, the company announced 43 new apps for various regions around the world. The goal is to keep Xbox 360 owners entertained and engaged.

Xbox marketing and strategy chief Yusuf Mehdi told the Los Angeles Times in March that the typical household spends 84 hours each month using Xbox Live to play games and access content. More than half of that … Read more

Groupon, the company that made daily deals popular for consumers, has had a tough tumble. After finally going public late last year, the company faced massive competition, slowed growth in revenue and a decimated stock in 2012. In its early days, Groupon was a tech superstar, charging along on a mission to become the fastest-growing company in history. But as the months passed, the company was plagued by slumping stock, a shareholder lawsuit and the rumored unrest from employees trying to leave the company.

Much of the blame has fallen on the shoulders of CEO Andrew Mason, who once had … Read more

Why spend thousands on a tank when you can have dozens of exotic fish on your gadget? Fish Live gives you an interactive fish tank that you can clean, feed, or just watch swim. It gives constant notifications, which it wants to push to your status bar, but can offer you loads of addicting fun.

You start the game with a crystal clear tank and enough money to fill it with several different species of fish. The game's cute animations will look really exceptional on tablets and phones with hi-res screens, and all the controls are obvious to find. … Read more