Weekend tech reading: Intel to sell CPU upgrades via software

Intel to offer CPU upgrades via software for selected models Intel has posted an upgrade service page on their website which indicates that Intel will again be offering upgradeable CPUs. This is not totally unheard of since Intel offered a similar service for Pentium G6951 a year ago. Back then, $50 bought you Hyper-Threading and 1MB more L3 cache, and the SKU of the CPU changed to G6952. This time Intel has expanded the lineup and the upgrade service is available for three CPUs... AnandTech

Leaked AT&T letter demolishes case for T-Mobile merger Yesterday a partially-redacted document briefly appeared on the FCC website --accidentally posted by a law firm working for AT&T on the $39 billion T-Mobile deal (somewhere there's a paralegal looking for work today). While AT&T engaged in damage control telling reporters that the document contained no new information -- our review of the doc shows that's simply not true. Broadband Reports

Mario pressured to jump to iPhone as Nintendo Wii, 3DS slump In "Super Mario 3DLand," Nintendo will make its iconic Italian plumber battle turtle-like Koopa Troopas on its 3-D player. The company instead should develop titles for Apple's iPhone, investors say. The rift highlights the dilemma President Satoru Iwata faces as consumers shun Nintendo devices to play games on iPhones, iPads and Facebook website. Bloomberg

Hands on with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive A few back reports surfaced on the internet that Valve was inviting top CSS players and select community leaders to their headquarters. The purpose of the meeting was completely unknown to everyone and speculation ran wild but we knew something important was brewing. Yesterday, August 11th, we all found out why we were here. ESEA News

Apple to eliminate printer drivers Apple has filed two patent applications that describe an approach as well as file formats and APIs to eliminate the printer driver as a requirement for users to access a printer and print documents. Software drivers have been one of the big inconveniences in mainstream computing. ConceivablyTech

Windows Security wrap-up: praise for Vista and a historic first It’s not often that you hear the words “Windows Vista” and “world-leading” in the same sentence. So security expert Chris Paget’s ringing testimonial for Windows at last week’s Black Hat conference is newsworthy. CNET’s Seth Rosenblatt covered the talk. ZDNet

DICE confirms Origin client required for all PC copies of Battlefield 3 No matter where you buy your copy of Battlefield 3, you'll have to go through Electronic Arts' new PC gaming platform, Origin, to play. DICE has confirmed Battlefield 3 will be tethered to Origin, and that includes DVD copies of the game. GameSpy

Bing beats Google on search effectiveness While Google may control the lion's share of the search market, queries made through Microsoft's Bing search engine lead users to click on a Web page at a significantly higher rate than queries made through Google, according to data released Thursday. InformationWeek

BART San Francisco cut cell services to avert protest As politicians in London debate whether or not social media services should be shut down to prevent possible crimes, an American transit company did just that. Washington Post

Cupertino.org posts more details about Apple's new 'spaceship' campus The City of Cupertino posted more details about Apple's "spaceship" campus that was first revealed in June. The project includes the following... MacRumors

Yahoo stock drop raises takeover possibility Yahoo stock has fallen so low now that a suitor could reportedly buy it and make a profit by simply selling the stakes of Asian companies it is invested in. TechFlash