Today Apple announced its Q3 results for the period ending June 2014, and sales of the iPhone once again dominate revenue and earnings for the company.

Revenue for the quarter came in at $37.4B – a 6% increase year-over-year, and a down sequentially from the previous quarter.

Net profit was $7.7B for the quarter which is up 11.6% from the same period last year, and earnings per share came in at $1.28, also up over last year’s $1.07. Gross margin was up as well at 39.4% compared to 36.9% in Q3 2013.

Apple Q3 2014 Financial Results (GAAP)   Q3'2014 Q2'2014 Q3'2013 Revenue (in Billions USD) $37.432 $45.646 $35.323 Operating Income (in Billions USD) $10.282 $13.593 $9.201 Gross Margin (in Billions USD) $14.735 $17.947 $13.024 Net Income (in Billions USD) $7.748 $10.223 $6.900 Margins 39.4% 39.3% 36.9% Earnings per Share (in USD) $1.28 $1.66 $1.07

Once again, the iPhone is the dominate force for Apple right now, accounting for $19.75B in revenue for this quarter with 35.203 million iPhones sold. The device numbers and revenue are both down over last quarter, but sales are up 13% year-over-year with revenue close behind at a 9% gain. Apple doesn’t break down numbers for each model, but using some math we can see the revenue per unit sold at $561 which is a great number.

Software, Services, and App/Music store sales came in at $4.485B for the quarter which is down 2% compared to last quarter but up 12% year-over-year.

Mac sales were up again with 4.4 million Macs sold which accounted for $5.5B in revenue. Sales were up 18% and revenue was up 13% compared to Q3 2013, with an increase in sales of 7% over last quarter with revenue remaining flat.

iPad sales have definitely slowed, with the second quarter in a row of decline. Total sales were 13.2 million units for a revenue of $5.9B, but the device sales are down both year-over-year (9%) and sequentially (19%).

Unsurprisingly, iPod sales continued their decline with 2.9 million devices sold – down 36% year-over-year. Revenue for the iPod was $442M which was down 40% from Q3 2013. Somewhat surprising was that iPod sales ticked up 6% from last quarter, but revenues declined 4%.

Finally, accessories now account for about three times the revenue of the once ubiquitous iPod, with revenue for the quarter of $1.3 billion which is up 12% over last year’s numbers.

Apple Q2 2014 Revenue by Product (billions)   Q3'2014 Q2'2014 Q3'2013 Revenue for current quarter iPhone $19.751 $26.064 $18.154 52.8% iPad $5.889 $7.610 $6.374 15.7% Mac $5.540 $5.519 $4.893 14.8% iPod $0.442 $0.461 $0.733 1.2% iTunes/Software/Services $4.485 $4.573 $3.990 12% Accessories $1.325 $1.419 $1.179 3.5%

During this quarter, Apple performed a 7-1 stock split, and returned $8 billion to shareholders through dividends and the share repurchase program. Apple will pay a dividend of $0.47 per share on August 14 for this quarter’s results.

Analysts were hoping for 36 to 38 million iPhones to be sold this quarter, with sales missing that mark. iPad sales were also lower than expected. With the new iPhone likely not being released until Q1 of fiscal year 2015, outlook for the next quarter is also lower. With the new iPhone not expected until late in  Fiscal Year Q4 (ending September), revenues are not expected to be bumped from new iPhone sales much until Q1 2015 results are available in January 2015. Revenue outlook for the next quarter is $37 to $40 billion.

Apple Q3 2014 Device Sales (thousands)   Q3'2014 Q2'2014 Q3'2013 iPhone 35,203 43,719 31,241 iPad 13,276 16,350 14,617 Mac 4,413 4,136 3,754 iPod 2,926 2,761 4,569

While sales were still strong for the iPhone, the iPad has now declined in numbers for the second straight quarter. Mac sales were up a healthy 18% year-over-year which means the Mac is almost back to being the number two revenue stream for Apple. We seem to have hit some maturity in the tablet market, and upgrade cycles aren’t quite as quick as they are in the smartphone space. The waiting game is now on for new product announcements from Apple to keep the sales strong.

Amazon's first phone isn't without its charms, but is it good enough to replace the iOS or Android stuff you already have? Andrew Cunningham

CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:["top"], collapse: true});It took other companies a long time to respond to the iPad. Early efforts like the first Samsung Galaxy Tabs, the Motorola Xoom, and Barnes & Noble's Nook Color had their fans, but compared to Apple's tablets, they all had major flaws. Amazon's first Kindle Fire had its problems too, but Amazon's name recognition and the tablet's $199 price made it one of the iPad's first semi-credible competitors. It opened the door for even better tablets at the same price point, and Android's tablet market share is largely built on the cheap tablet foundation that Amazon helped establish.

Amazon's first smartphone is taking the opposite path. It's jumping into the high-end smartphone market surprisingly late in the game. The market started showing signs of saturation, and its competitors are entrenched. At $649 unlocked for a 32GB phone ($199 with a two-year contract), it doesn't have a price advantage. It's also not being subsidized by Amazon's media storefronts or by "Special Offers"-style advertisements.

Because it's 2014, because the phone costs what it does, and because there are dozens of great phones to be had at (and well below) this price bracket, it's going to be much more difficult for users to overlook flaws or shortcomings when compared to those first Kindle Fire tablets. Amazon's phone brings unique features, like its Dynamic Perspective head tracking cameras and its Firefly scanning software, but can the phone get by on a couple of cool features if it has other problems?

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Google has begun the rollout of an update to the Google Play application on Android. At first glance the update doesn't seem to have any big changes. The sliding menu is the same, and the Play Store home page is the same as it has been for a while. Once you actually navigate to the page for an app it's very clear that this is a bigger update than a quick glance lets on. Google has redesigned the app pages with new animations and a new design to fit in with their new Material Design style.

Old Google Play on the left, new on the right.

As you can see, the new design is much different and this applies to almost every aspect of the design from the colors to the shapes to the animations. The first thing that stands out is the change in background color from grey to white. While this is a matter of personal preference, I find the white much more appealing than the grey. Google has also shifted around many parts of the application. The positions of app screenshots and the app changelog have been moved to put better focus on the actual information on the page. Apps that have a video trailer will have it prominently displayed at the top. The changes to animations are difficult to describe in photos but what can be said is that they take advantage of the idea of layers and objects in Material Design. As you scroll downward the page gradually begins to cover up the space where the trailer was as it is pushed offscreen. When selecting "read more" in the app changelog the top and bottom sections of the app are pushed offscreen and the user is greeted with a fullscreen view containing only the relevant information about the app description, changes, and developer info.

Upon scrolling down you can see that Google has increased the size of the application photos. With the video trailer moved to the top of the application there's also much more space to display screenshots which is good for developers hoping to show off their application. Google has also added more color to the application by color coding the bars that represent the ratings given by users. The overall app itself also has fewer horizontal lines separating sections which leads to a much cleaner look, particularly in the reviews section of the app page. Finally, Google has moved the share and Google+ buttons down beneath the reviews section from its previous position right underneath the app screenshots.

This update isn't quite the complete Material Design overhaul that users are excited for. That will likely come closer to the time that we see Android L released in the fall. But for now it gives good insight into where Google is headed with app design and what can be looked forward to for all of Google's apps going into the future. As with all of Google's app updates, it may take some time for the new application to reach your device.

Flickr user: TWM Labs

Polls relating to publicly controversial scientific issues often trigger a great wailing and gnashing of teeth from science advocates. When large proportions of a population seem poorly informed about evolution, climate change, or genetically modified foods, the usual response is to bemoan the state of science literacy. It can seem obvious that many people don’t understand the science of evolution, for example—or the scientific method, generally—and that opinions would change if only we could educate them.

Research has shown, unfortunately, it's not that simple. Ars has previously covered Yale Professor Dan Kahan’s research into what he calls “cultural cognition,” and the idea goes like this: public opinion on these topics is fundamentally tied to cultural identities rather than assessment of scientific evidence. In other words, rather than evaluate the science, people form opinions based on what they think people with a similar background believe.

That shouldn’t come as a shock, especially given the well-known political or religious divides apparent for climate change and evolution.

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In Norway, where the days can be 20 hours long in the summer, fasting during Ramadan is a particular challenge.

Michelle Phan, a very popular YouTube user, demonstrates the stretchiness of hair ties. Michelle Phan

Popular YouTube user Michelle Phan is being sued for alleged copyright infringement on songs she has used in her videos, according to reports from the BBC. Ultra Records claims that Phan has used 50 of its songs in her YouTube posts and on her website illegally despite one of the label's own artists objecting to the legal action.

Phan's YouTube channel centers around using and buying makeup, and her videos are often backed by upbeat music with the artist credited in the video's description. Artists whom Phan has used in her videos include Kaskade, deadmau5, and Calvin Harris.

Kaskade spoke out on Twitter about the lawsuit, condemning Ultra for pursuing Phan for copyright infringement. "Copyright law is a dinosaur, ill-suited for the landscape of today’s media," he wrote. "We can’t love (& won’t buy) music we haven’t heard." If it's exposure artists are looking for, Phan's audience isn't a bad target. She boasts over six million subscribers and videos that consistently crack a million views each.

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Colombian football star James Rodriguez hugged a fan who invaded the pitch as he was presented as a new player for Real Madrid.

This afternoon Microsoft held an earnings call to announce the results of their fourth quarter for fiscal year 2014.

Strong growth in Microsoft’s cloud offerings offset a loss by the recently acquired Nokia Devices and Services to contribute to an overall GAAP revenue of $23.4B, up 18% from Q4 2013, and up 15% from Q3 2014. Gross Margin came in at $15.8B which is 67.5%, with an operating income of $6.5B and net income of $4.6B for the quarter. Operating income was up over Q4 2014, but net income was down due to an additional $785M set aside for income taxes. Diluted earnings per share was $0.55, which missed analysts’ expectations of $0.60. For the quarter, $3.4B was returned to shareholders which was a 17% increase from last year.

Microsoft Q4 2014 Financial Results (GAAP)   Q4'2014 Q3'2014 Q4'2013 Revenue (in Billions USD) $23.382 $20.403 $19.896 Operating Income (in Billions USD) $6.482 $6.974 $6.073 Gross Margin (in Billions USD) $15.787 $14.462 $14.294 Net Income (in Billions USD) $4.612 $5.660 $4.965 Margins 67.5% 70.8% 71.8% Earnings per Share (in USD) $0.55 $0.68 $0.59

The Devices and Consumer lines came in with good results for the quarter, with the caveat that Q4 2013 included the $900M write down of Surface RT inventory which skews the results somewhat.

Devices and Consumer Licensing contributed $4.7B to the overall revenues and $4.4B to Gross Margin with both values being higher both sequentially and year-over-year. Windows OEM revenue was up 3% with a split of an 11% increase in Pro revenue combined with non-Pro revenue being down 9%. The non-Pro decrease can likely be at least somewhat attributed to offering Windows free for certain devices now. Office Consumer revenue was up 21% compared to Q4 2013, and Windows Phone revenue was up 95% due to no longer having to pay for the commercial agreement with Nokia.

As for consumer hardware, revenue was up 23% from Q4 2013 at $1.44B but down from the $1.97B last quarter, and Gross Margins increased 103% year-over-year to $0.02B which is also down from $0.26B last quarter. The large increase in Gross Margin is attributed to the Surface RT right off last fiscal year and Microsoft also took a hit for not shipping a new form factor this quarter which is likely the rumored Surface Mini, which didn’t ship as expected with the Surface Pro 3. Overall Surface revenue was $409 million for the quarter. Xbox sold 1.1 million consoles this quarter, and had a 14% increase in revenue driven by increased console revenue. The new segment to Devices and Consumer hardware is the Phone Hardware, which contributed $1.99 billion in revenue but the new Nokia division came in at a $692M loss. Microsoft reported sales of 5.8 million Lumia Smartphones, and 30.3 million other phones.

The final piece of the consumer division is D&C Other, which includes Office 365 Consumer, Resale, Windows Store, Xbox Live, Bing, and a few other offerings. Revenue for this segment was up $20% year-over-year at $1.88B, but down from the $1.95B in Q3. Gross Margins were also up 21% from last fiscal at $0.45B. Microsoft added an additional 1 million new subscribers to Office 365 Home and Personal, which now totals 5.6 million subscribers. Bing advertising revenue was up 40% due to higher revenue per search, higher search volume, and an expiration of payments to Yahoo from last year. Bing search share is now at 19.2% in the US, up 130 basis points from the same time a year ago.

The commercial side is where Microsoft makes the majority of its revenue, and this quarter is no different with overall revenue coming in at $13.48B for the quarter which is an increase of 11% year-over-year. Gross Margin was also up 10% at $10.99B for the quarter. Commercial is broken down into Commercial Licensing and Commercial Other, with the former being up 6% to $11.22B in revenue and the latter up 44% to $2.26B. Commercial Licensing includes revenue for on premise offerings such as Server 2012, SQL Server, and System Center, while the Other segment is for cloud offerings and services which grey 147% from the same period last year.

Microsoft Q4 2014 Segment Overview (in Billions USD)   Q4'2014 Q3'2014 Q4'2013 Percentage for quarter D&C Licensing Revenue $4.69 $4.38 $4.29 20.1% D&C Licensing Gross Margin $4.41 $3.91 $3.88 27.9% D&C Hardware Revenue $1.44 $1.97 $1.17 6.2% D&C Hardware Gross Margin $0.02 $0.26 -$0.65 0.1% D&C Other Revenue $1.88 $1.95 $1.56 8.0% D&C Other Gross Margin $0.45 $0.54 $0.37 2.9% Phone Hardware Revenue $1.99 NA NA 8.5% Phone Hardware Gross Margin $0.054 NA NA 0.3% Commercial Licensing Revenue $11.22 $10.32 $10.58 48.0% Commercial Other Revenue $2.26 $1.90 $1.57 9.7% Commercial Gross Margin $10.99 $9.91 $10.00 69.6%

So what can we learn from this quarter? Clearly Microsoft is well positioned going forward to continue its play in the enterprise, with cloud services in particular being a strong point. No other cloud provider has the product offerings which can compete for the hybrid cloud model of on premise servers running alongside cloud offerings, and they are leveraging this strength to make substantial gains in this sector. As for the consumer offerings, we now see why such drastic action was taken last week with the downsizing of the Nokia division in particular, which lost almost $700 million this quarter. A lot of the job cuts were aimed at manufacturing, and those will likely be aimed towards locations that created the non-Lumia smartphones. Earnings for the quarter were right in line or slightly over the projected results provided last quarter, assuming the Nokia earnings and loss are excluded because they were not a part of Microsoft when the projections were made. Microsoft as a company has traditionally been used to the high margin software business, and the recent push to be a hardware manufacturer has shown that this is a low margin, high risk playground with all of the major losses being in hardware. With a new CEO at the helm for the full FY 2015, we’ll have to see what his vision and patience are for the hardware segment.

A defendant accused of illegally downloading porn on BitTorrent argued it was like having a pirated CD slipped in his bag on the way out of the store. The judge didn't buy it. zen Sutherland

Porn studio Malibu Media files more copyright lawsuits than anyone else in the US since the fall of Prenda Law; hundreds of suits against "John Doe" defendants have been filed in just the last few months. Nearly all of those cases settle before the case is decided on the merits.

However, in a rare development yesterday, a Malibu lawsuit proceeded to a judgment—and it was a slam dunk for the porn studio. In a terse five-page order (PDF), US District Judge Robert Jonker tore apart defendant Don Bui's arguments that using BitTorrent and the site Kickass Torrents to get porn files didn't violate Malibu's copyright.

In the case, the defendant admitted he had 57 unauthorized copies of Malibu Media movies on his hard drive and had used BitTorrent technology to get them. Bui tried to shift the blame to the Kickass Torrents website, but it didn't work. He also tried to distinguish the technology he used from earlier technologies found to violate copyright laws, like Grokster. That didn't sway Jonker, who wrote:

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Lyse Doucet reports on the hardship of life in Gaza and the importance of Rafah Crossing, on the Gaza Egypt border.

Satya Nadella and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop in a photo-op. View Liveblog2014-07-22T16:30:00-05:00

Last week, Microsoft announced that it would be making the largest set of staff cuts in the company’s history, axing as many as 18,000 jobs over the next fiscal year. This week, CEO Satya Nadella will be delivering Microsoft’s fourth-quarter earnings results, and according to his corporate-speak-filled layoff e-mail, Nadella will take the opportunity to "share further specifics on where we [Microsoft] are focusing our innovation investments."

This likely means elaboration on both the specific nature of the cuts (which Microsoft EVP and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop discussed at length in his own e-mail last week) and some details on where and how Microsoft plans to expend effort to improve itself. There will also likely be a barrage of questions from analysts wanting to know about how the cuts will affect Microsoft’s business strategy, since Nadella’s e-mail contained language indicating that he wanted to (among other things) flatten the organization’s notoriously thick management layer cake.

Shares of MSFT actually jumped a few points when trading commenced after the layoff announcements on the morning of July 17; revenues are expected to be up from last fiscal year’s fourth quarter, and analyst expectations are that Microsoft’s Q414 performance will come in at about $0.60 per share, down from $0.66 last year.

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Apple has set another quarterly record for iPhone sales, despite the fact that the iPhone 5S is due for replacement relatively soon. Jacqui Cheng

It's been another quiet, by-the-books quarter for Apple, which has yet to release any major updates to any of its products so far in this calendar year. For the third quarter of 2014, the company projected it would maintain profit margins between 37 and 38 percent on revenues between $36 and $38 billion, and it met the revenue estimates with profits of $7.7 billion on revenue of $37.4 billion. Revenue is about six percent higher and profit is 11.6 percent higher than Q3 of 2013, in which the company earned $6.9 billion of profit on $35.3 billion of revenue.

The company's gross margin was considerably higher than the estimate, at 39.4 percent compared to 36.9 percent a year ago, an increase of 6.8 percent.

iPhone and Mac sales were both up over the year-ago quarter—Apple sold 35.2 million iPhones (compared to 31.24 million) and 4.41 million Macs (compared to 3.75 million) this quarter, despite the fact that most of its products are either mid-cycle or nearing the end of their refresh cycles. The delay of Intel's next-generation Broadwell CPUs has kept Apple from making more than minor tweaks to its Mac lineup this year.

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EA

The busy holiday gaming season, set to get its start in earnest during a packed October this year, is looking a little less packed today. That's because EA has announced that two of its biggest titles have slipped from planned October release dates to give the developers more time to finish up their work.

The bigger of the two delays is the spin-off shooter franchise Battlefield: Hardline, which has been pushed from October 21 to an unspecified date in "early 2015." According to a blog post announcing the move, that delay comes after a post-E3 beta for the game seemingly failed to live up to player expectations.

"We’ve been pouring over the data and feedback [from the beta], and have already been putting a lot of it right into the game and sharing it directly with you," DICE VP and Group GM Karl Magnus Troedsson wrote in the blog post. "This feedback also spurred us to start thinking about other possibilities and ways we could push Hardline innovation further and make the game even better. The more we thought about these ideas, the more we knew we had to get them into the game you will all be playing. However, there was only one problem. We would need more time. Time that we didn’t have if we decided to move forward with launching in just a couple of months."

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Apple's newly split stock price has been on the rise lately. Let's see if this quarter's earnings make it move one way or the other. Andrew Cunningham View Liveblog2014-07-22T16:00:00-05:00

Apple will be announcing its Q3 2014 financial results on Tuesday, July 22 at 5pm Eastern time (2pm Pacific), and the standard earnings call with press and analysts will follow shortly afterward. As we usually do, we'll be following along with the call to liveblog and provide charts and other contextual information—Apple rarely makes major announcements on these calls, but it does give more information on how particular Apple products are doing both in the US and other markets.

Apple's third fiscal quarter runs from the beginning of April to the end of June, and while WWDC was full of new software announcements, those updates (and the new hardware that will accompany them) won't actually be available until the fall, late in Q4 2014 or early in Q1 2015. Beyond a new, slightly cheaper iMac and a security lock for the Mac Pro, we just haven't gotten many new gadgets lately, and the majority of Apple's money is made by selling hardware. That said, Apple's products tend to sell well even when they're in the middle of a refresh cycle. One stat in particular to keep an eye on: will iPad sales continue to be down as they were last quarter, or will they bounce back up? Analysts believe that tablet sales are beginning to level off, and the iPad's sales numbers will be a major data point in that discussion.

Apple's guidance for the quarter predicted revenue between $36 billion and $38 billion with profit margins between 37 and 38 percent. Other predictions for this quarter can be found in the Q2 2014 announcement.

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Relatives of soldiers killed in Israel in the on-going fighting with Palestinians have spoken to the BBC as the UN secretary-general calls for an end to the conflict.

The wrecked Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia will be towed to its home port Genoa, where it will then be scrapped.

Sarah Braun

A YouTube video featuring a controversial San Francisco lawyer who has been representing landlords in eviction procedures appears to have been newly restored on Tuesday after being made unavailable for a week.

The lawyer, Daniel Bornstein, filed a seemingly spurious copyright infringement claim under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Many have noted (including Ars founder Ken Fisher a decade ago) that the DMCA’s notice-and-takedown provision practically encourages an overzealous response from those who claim copyright ownership.

The two-minute video depicts Bornstein at a January 2014 seminar in which he is speaking to local landlords but is interrupted by protesters angry at the rise in San Francisco evictions. Many such evictions have been blamed on rising rents, which have in turn been blamed on the huge influx of cash from high-paid tech jobs. (Just last week, the median home sales price in San Francisco topped $1 million for the first time.)

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Today the latest Humble Bundle has gone on sale and it offers a good selection of games from the Square Enix library including all the entries in the Deus Ex franchise, titles in the Hitman series, and a variety of other titles that they have published over the years. At the usual "pay what you want" tier ($1 pledged or more is required for Steam keys) there's the following selection of games.

• Thief Gold (92% PC, 10/1999): An expanded version of Thief: The Dark Project which is a stealth game where the player takes control of a master thief who must complete objectives without being detected.
• Daikatana (N/A PC, 04/2000): A first person shooter game which takes place across different time periods and locations.
• Mini Ninjas (74% PC, 09/2009): A third person action adventure game where players control one of six playable characters, each with different items and abilities.
• Anachronox (77% PC, 06/2001): A third person role playing game where the player assumes the role of a private investigator who stumbles upon a mystery that threatens the fate of the universe.
• Hitman: Codename 47 (73% PC, 11/2000): A stealth game where players take the role of a trained hitman tasked with assassinating criminal masterminds involved in experiments that had been performed on the character.
• Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (87% PC, 09/2002): A sequel to Hitman: Codename 47 where the player again takes the role of Agent 47 and must complete missions involving the assassination of various targets.

By beating the average price which at the time of writing is at $6.63 and trending upward, a selection of more recent titles is unlocked. It's worth noting that this pricing bracket includes two games in the Deus Ex series, albeit the lesser praised of the four Deus Ex titles. More titles are expected to be added to the list below in the coming days.

• Deus Ex: Invisible War (80% PC, 12/2003): A first person shooter which is a direct sequel to the original Deus Ex which combines elements of RPG and FPS games and puts the player in a technologically advanced world filled with conspiracy .
• Deus Ex: The Fall (46% PC, 69% iOS, 07/2013): A title which originally launched on iOS and was later brought to Android and PC. It continues the story of the Deus Ex: Icarus Effect novel and features similar gameplay elements to Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Hitman Absolution (79% PC, 11/2012): The most recent entry in the Hitman franchise. Features similar gameplay to the previous games while continuing the main character's story.
• Nosgoth Veteran Pack (N/A PC, 2014): A booster pack for an upcoming free-to-play action game that is currently in Early Acess status on steam.
• Battlestations: Midway (76% PC, 01/2007): An action game that lets the player control various air, sea, and underwater vehicles as part of naval battles during World War II.

Finally, paying more than $14.99 unlocks the whole selection of titles including some very recent ones like Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut and Just Cause 2. The original Deus Ex: Game of the Year edition is also included which rounds off the Deus Ex games for anyone who wishes to pick up the entire series in this bundle. The full list of games in the $14.99 tier is laid out below.

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut (91% PC, 08/2011): A prequel to the original Deus Ex. Combines elements of FPS and RPG games allowing the player to modify themselves with various mechanical augmentations and to perform various side quests in addition to the main story. The director's cut includes the Deus Ex: Missing Link DLC which was originally released after the original game.
• Just Cause 2 (84% PC, 03/2010): An open world action-adventure game that lets the player complete objectives in various different ways with an array of weapons and vehicles along with the ability to reach great vertical heights using grappling hooks and parachutes.
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (82% PC, 08/2010): A platform adventure game where the character must use various weapons and skills to solve puzzles and traverse levels.
• Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition (90% PC, 06/2000): A game which combines various elements of action, stealth, FPS, and RPG games. The player progresses through the game while upgrading their character's nano augmentations and uncovering various conspiracies involving groups like the Illuminati and Majestic 12.
• Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (66% PC, 08/2010): A third person shooter game where the player takes control of two criminals trying to keep alive after an arms deal goes wrong.

While it's not the most incredible Humble Bundle that has ever been put out, the Square Enix bundle offers a solid collection of games. Personally I believe that just picking up the entire Deus Ex series is well worth the $14.99 and everything on top like Just Cause 2 and Hitman: Absolution is just an added bonus. The Humble Square Enix Bundle will run for the next two weeks and payments can be split between Square Enix, the GamesAid and Make-A-Wish charities, and Humble Bundle, Inc. to help them continue to run these game bundles.

Greetings, Arsians! Our partners at LogicBuy are back with even more deals. Have you upgraded to 4k yet? The top deal this week is a 28-inch 4K Dell monitor for just $399.99. That's $300 off the MSRP! There are a few options this week from Dell, and the company just started taking Bitcoin. So if you've got some lying around, make the most of them by hitting up these deals.

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HDTV and home theater

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Back at CES earlier this year, I had visited Quantenna and covered the announcement of their QSR1000 4x4 802.11ac MIMO chipset. It was announced that the Asus RT-AC87U would be the first QSR1000 enabled router to hit retail. Despite the announcement at CES, no availability date or price was announced.

Things are getting together now, and Asus and Quantenna have announced that the RT-AC87U is all set to ship (Best Buy actually has it for purchase right now). The router will retail for $270, an admittedly steep price, but one that should be seen in context with the Broadcom-XStream enabled Netgear R8000 that is shipping for $300. The router also seems to be a bit lacking in the I/O front, with only one USB 2.0 port apparently. [ Update: Some readers have mentioned that a USB 3.0 port is hidden beneath a flap in the front. ] That said, it is like that most of the power users who are going to purchase this already have a dedicated NAS device (and don't need USB 3.0 or eSATA ports in their routers).

Gallery: Asus RT-AC87 AC2400 802.11ac Wave 2 Router

The RT-AC87U is a bit more future-proof with respect to Wi-Fi standards, thanks to it being the first shipping 802.11ac Wave 2 router. As part of the Wave 2 features, we get four spatial streams and support for MU-MIMO (we do need clients supporting it to get the full benefits). One of the most obvious benefits of going to Wave 2 is the 160 MHz-wide channel support, but, that is not part of the Quantenna QSR1000 chipset that is being used in the Asus RT-AC87U.

Obviously, technology moves at a rapid pace, and one can always wait for the next big thing. There is also talk online of Netgear releasing a Wave 2 router (Nighthawk X4) soon (the FCC details are already out), but official details are scarce. In effect, if readers are interested in hopping on to the Wave 2 bandwagon, the Asus RT-AC87U will be the first opportunity.