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There's an easy way to bet on competitive video games
Competitive gaming is big enough now in the US that it's catching ESPN's attention, so it stands to reason that you'd want a way to bet on those virtual matches, doesn't it? Ex-Microsoft manager (and Engadget Expand panelist) Rahul Sood thinks so. He just launched Unikrn, a site that makes it easy to wager on eSports. If you live in a country where the company will accept bets (currently Australia), you can plunk down real cash and win jackpots, much like you would with conventional sports betting. You could make a tidy profit betting that a low-ranked League of Legends team will defy the odds, for instance. Even if you live in the US and other nations where real bets are illegal, you can still sign up and win prizes.
Jon Fingas04.28.2015
Razer enlists Rahul Sood of VoodooPC fame as advisor to its board of directors
Rahul Sood is still keeping busy at Microsoft, but he's adding yet another role to his resume: advisor to Razer's board of directors. The VoodooPC founder says he views the gaming-focused firm as the spiritual successor to his PC outfit's previous work, and Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan effectively considers the feeling mutual. "In fact, it was his work at VoodooPC that inspired us to enter the systems business, and I believe his advice will be invaluable to us here at Razer," says Tan. In his new capacity, Sood will help guide the company with everything from product development to sales. We can only hope the collaboration leads to more Ferrari tie-ins and good advice when it comes to gaming hardware like the Razer Blade and Razer Edge.
Alexis Santos03.07.2013
CEOh no he didn't!: Rahul Sood heckles HP over strangely named Envy h8 PC
It's no secret that Rahul Sood, who now runs Microsoft's Bing Fund, feels a twinge of bitterness towards his previous employer. Having worked for HP until 2010, and having endowed it with the Envy sub-brand, he's since been forced to watch from the sidelines while the mothership floundered. But it's not the u-turns or bad investments that have jerked Sood's chain this time -- it's actually the slightly awkward (and potentially emotional) branding of a model in HP's desktop range. After seeing details of the product pop up online, he tweeted: "Thought I'd seen everything... then I saw the 'HP ENVY H8' desktop... what the heck guys? Is this code for I give up?" Tom's Hardware reached out to Sood for an explanation and got a carefully-worded response in which he implied that HP has become preoccupied with the "logo on the box" at the expense of "culture" and "community." Meanwhile, the old Pavilion h8 has somehow slipped by unnoticed.
Sharif Sakr11.30.2012
Bing Fund taking shape to help Microsoft search for the next big thing in online services
Microsoft's Online Services Division (OSD) hasn't exactly had a lot of good news to share lately, most painful being the recent $6.2 billion write-down thanks to the aQuantive acquisition, so it's turning to a higher power for its next bet. The company appears to be creating an angel incubator called the Bing Fund, which would foster startups that could "bring a wave of innovation to OSD" -- which currently includes MSN, adCenter and, of course, Bing. While the company is being slightly coy about the details of Bing Fund, hosting only the tangerine teaser shown above at BingFund.com, some digging by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley has revealed that Rahul Sood will be the chief cherub of this angel fund, stepping away from the Entertainment and Devices Division (aka the Xbox Division). Who better, we say, than the open-minded Voodoo PC founder who famously cut his chocolate birthday cake with a MacBook Air and later said: "Every executive in the PC industry should use an Apple notebook."
Tim Stevens07.09.2012
Microsoft's Rahul Sood says every PC industry exec should use a MacBook
Voodoo founder Rahul Sood has never shied from controversy -- he famously cut a cake with a MacBook Air during his tenure at HP -- and today he's expressing his love for Apple hardware from his pulpit as a Microsoft exec. "Every executive in the PC industry should use an Apple notebook," Sood tweeted today, implying that they were of higher quality than those that come with Windows by default. That certainly sounds a bit like a shot at Microsoft, but according to ConceivablyTech he may actually be pointing at his former employer HP, as a series of private status updates point to HP's unwillingness to compete at the high end of the laptop marketplace. "We could have done it - just need a few years of patience, and investment in our tooling/process," the message reportedly reads, "We really could have done it. [...] ...especially with webOS, what a combination that would have been." We're actually pretty happy with our Envy 14 -- lack of Radiance Display aside -- but we can't help wondering if it coulda been a contender with Voodoo DNA on board.
Sean Hollister03.01.2011
Rahul Sood joins Microsoft as GM for System Experience in the Interactive Entertainment Business
Yes, it's a big old mouthful of a job title, and no, we've no idea what exactly it entails either. Rahul Sood, the originator of the Voodoo gaming PC line, has just announced he has joined up with Microsoft to perform the ill-specified role of general manager for system experience in the Interactive Entertainment division. We imagine that's an intentionally loose definition, intended to give Rahul the wide remit of influence and operation that he enjoyed with his previous employer, HP. He's already had a few choice words to dish on the topic of Xbox versus PC gaming, so it'll be most intriguing to see where and how his energies are utilized as things move forward. Most intriguing indeed.
Vlad Savov12.21.2010
Rahul Sood leaving HP
HP acquired VoodooPC and its founder Rahul Sood in 2006, and it's been a wild ride ever since. The ever out-spoken Rahul has brought a lot of "Voodoo DNA" to HP products, most notably the Envy line, but also witnessed the slow fade of the actual Voodoo brand. He also went on a lot of extreme cycling trips in-between all the product teases and wild statements. Rahul isn't saying exactly why he's leaving HP, but he has penned a substantial blog post detailing some of Voodoo's history and thanking a whole bunch of people and companies. As for his time with HP: "We merged, we invented, we kicked ass, and we had fun, but then things got a little complicated." What he means by "complicated" is unclear, but whatever Rahul is moving on to next (he says he "can't wait to be directly involved in a product pipeline again," for what it's worth), we're sure he'll do it with his trademark flair for the dramatic that we've come to know and love.
Paul Miller11.15.2010
Rahul Sood sees an awesome, but distant future for webOS devices
Rahul Sood, founder of Voodoo PC and current innovation tzar at HP, has some good and some bad news for us. On the one hand, the way he sees webOS development from the inside of the HP Palm coupling makes Rahul believe that "everyone will want in once the presentation of hardware is in front of them," but then on the other, far less happy hand, he urges us to abandon hope of seeing that happen soon. We can't know for sure what his definition of "soon" might be, but it does suggest webOS 2.0 will likely be a pure software drop later this year, to be followed by HPalm finally unveiling the hot new gear sometime in 2011. Although that's basically what we were expecting anyway, we can't help but wonder why it's taking so long to churn out some new devices -- it's not like they're being made out of unobtainium... or are they, Rahul? Update: Rahul has clarified his tweet in a blog post, assuring us that we'll see an entire new portfolio of webOS devices -- replete with new form factors -- take shape over the next 12 months. That, he says, means neither tomorrow nor 364 days from now. HPalm's unification challenges are many and the roadmap remains fluid.
Vlad Savov09.14.2010
HP's Rahul Sood says Microsoft killed Xbox vs PC online gaming due to keyboard-mouse superiority
Once upon a time in 2007, there was a little-known game called Shadowrun, that let gamers on both Xbox 360 and PC destroy one another for sport. Such is the environment that Microsoft facilitated, but alas, it wasn't for long, as the moment Shadowrun flopped the cross-platform feature was dropped, though it resurfaced once or twice in third-party titles as the years shot by. Outspoken HP exec Rahul Sood (of Voodoo fame) spins a slightly more complex yarn, however: he says Microsoft killed the project when it found that "mediocre" PC gamers could wipe the floors with the very best players on Xbox. Now, we're not confirming his story, and there are plenty of other possible explanations if you follow the money, of course, but we can't help but feel a hint of admiration for the longevity of gaming mouse and keyboard. Here's hoping we can all leave our predilections at the door as developers pit Android vs. iPhone.
Sean Hollister07.25.2010Voodoo's Rahul Sood emerges from hiding, gives us all the low-down
For years now, Voodoo PC's fearless leader (that'd be Rahul Sood) barely went a month without teasing this or that, or better yet, introducing the new hotness. In terms of cutting-edge design, these guys were at the front of the class. And then came the HP tie-in, along with the worry that the Voodoo name (and "DNA") would eventually be swallowed whole. After dishing out a smattering of VoodooDNA machines under the HP label, Rahul and his company went radio silent. In fact, we haven't heard a peep from Mr. Sood for nine whole months, and we really began to wonder what was going on when HP issued the new Envy 13 and Envy 15 with nary an official hint of Voodoo's fingerprints.Now, at long last, Rahul has emerged from hiding, and he's got a story to tell. In short, Voodoo is still alive and well, but it's certainly not the same company that shocked the world with its ENVY m:790 laptop in late 2004. In fact, Rahul's been working on some pretty unorthodox projects, ranging from healthcare (okay?) to futuristic stuff for HP's Innovation Program Office. In a lengthy letter to the world, he explains that the initial push to get Voodoo completely underneath HP's wings was done in order to give Voodoo access to global partners, and in turn, to ship its products to every corner of the world. When speaking about the Envy 13 / 15, he proclaims that HP's own laptop team simply lifted ideas from Voodoo prototypes and designed them internally; the truth is that Voodoo didn't design either machine, it only influenced them. The removal of the "VoodooDNA" tagline -- according to Rahul -- has to do with "the overall design language, the target market, and the fact that [Voodoo] wasn't directly involved in the design." In the end, Sood admits that there's still a chance you'll see another Voodoo-branded machine in your lifetime, but he also confesses that it has transitioned from a desktop and laptop company to "something beyond." He also makes clear that he hasn't forgotten about his promise to change the future of desktop gaming, and that new products from HP will continue to boast Voodoo's fingerprints. Typical Rahul -- it just wouldn't be a formal conclusion without a tease or two, now would it?
Darren Murph09.17.2009
HP Envy 13 exhumed lacking Voodoo DNA
It's been months since we've heard a peep from Voodoo or its swaggering founder, Rahul Sood. Now it seems that one of the changes headed to the Voodoo brand is no branding at all judging by the pics of this purported Envy 13 from parent company HP -- it steals both the name and size-indicative numbering from the Voodoo Envy 133 without a hint to its heritage. The 13.1-inch laptop is said to run Windows 7 on an Intel chipset. Visually we can see a pair of USB jacks, HDMI, and trackpad that looks to be packing some special sauce. A peak at Sood's Twitter account calls Tuesday "D Day" with the promise of "new product coming out in September/October (ish)," that will make you, "the envy of all your friends." In other words, we expect to learn more tomorrow. Backside pic after the break, more over at notebook italia.Read -- notebook italia Read -- Tuesday is D Day Read -- New product September/October(ish)
Thomas Ricker09.14.2009
HP officially launches Firebird with Voodoo DNA
We figured it was destined for a CES release, and HP has confirmed that today's the day. The hotly anticipated Firebird with Voodoo DNA has been properly introduced to the world, and within it will come an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU, twin NVIDIA GeForce 9800S graphics cards in an SLI configuration, hot-swappable 320GB hard drives (two of 'em) and an advanced thermal management system to keep things cool, calm, collected and quiet. As we'd heard, the rig will be available starting on January 9th for as little as $1,799 directly from Voodoo, while those too frightened to hand over their credit card information online can hold tight 'til it hits select retailers (read: Best Buy, most likely) on February 1st. Have a look at Rahul Sood and team gloating ad nauseum over this thing just after the break.%Gallery-40673%[Via DesktopReview]
Darren Murph01.06.2009
Voodoo's Rahul Sood continues to tease new product, calls it "forward-thinking"
Oh Rahul, why must you tease us so? Over a month after you referenced that "some other thing," we're still left to wonder what exactly "that thing" is. In a recent video response (posted after the break) to a question surrounding the HP Blackbird 002 gaming PC, Voodoo's founder closes things out by informing viewers that a product "way ahead of its time" is sitting just behind him, but he confesses that he can't show it off just yet. Of course, he also threw in the "forward-thinking" buzzword and assured us that the industry would "absolutely embrace" it, but as of now, there's simply nothing there to wrap our retinas around besides that smile. The game's growing tired, Mr. Sood.
Darren Murph10.29.2008
Customized Voodoo Envy 133: a sin worthy of death
Anyone else feeling the rapid palpitations of desire is their cold, pawne-shopped hearts? You're looking at a pre-production, Scuderia-red Voodoo Envy 133 with "Rahul Sood's Racing Edition" engraved underneath. Mind you, this level of customization isn't just limited to Voodoo/HP execs. Both the Omen desktop and Envy 133 will launch with "extensive personalization options" for even the lowest of the lowly cubical monkeys.[Thanks, Muhri]
Thomas Ricker06.25.2008HP exec cuts birthday cake with MacBook Air
Those that know Rahul Sood, founder of Voodoo PC and CTO of HP's global gaming business, might not be so surprised to hear he used a working MacBook Air to cut his thick, rich, chocolatey birthday cake. While wearing an HP shirt. And then posted it to his site. Good luck, Rahul -- we're totally sure the Apple fanboys of the world are going to give you a pass on this one.
Ryan Block06.01.2008
Joystiq hands-on: HP's mscape
HP showed off several of its gaming research and development projects at a recent San Francisco media event. The company said that many of these technologies had been in progress before the VoodooPC acquisition, but Rahul Sood and other VoodooPC leaders were able to see the gaming applications of previous research.I spent some time trying mscape ("mediascape") and discussing the project with some of its engineers. This gaming platform -- which isn't meant to compete with a hardware-and-software solution like the DS or PSP -- has already been used in the real world, unlike most of the in-progress projects demonstrated.Mscape sits on a PocketPC or other device, presenting an augmented reality game space. Other game designers and companies have tried to bridge the virtual world and the real world, with games that are played on devices by moving around outside. But HP's muscle may eventually help push these new experiences to mainstream gamers.
Zack Stern04.07.2007
HP wants to bridge PCs and consoles behind the scenes
HP described how its consumption of VoodooPC has impacted both companies at a media event this week. Shane Robison, an HP VP, said that one of the biggest effects is that HP now has "Voodoo DNA" pumping through its hallways, we think like a virus affecting a host. Should the injection become a problem, HP may someday page Dr. Mario to sort things out; Rahul Sood, CTO of the HP gaming group and founder of VoodooPC, repeatedly said that HP wants to complement consoles and not be a competitor.HP, however, offered few specific plans to bring PCs and consoles closer together from a gamer's perspective. Instead, the company showed a series of game technology demos that may someday be licensed to console makers, generating more income from its annual $3.5 billion research and development budget. One of those projects, mscape, has been called a handheld challenger in other stories, but HP executives told us that it's a platform that runs on certain PocketPCs and other devices; HP doesn't plan to ship an all-in-one hardware-and-software version of the augmented reality gaming tool.HP will continue pushing its computers to gamers, keeping the VoodooPC brand at the top of its price/performance tier, while introducing a new line of PCs that fits between the gap between that ultra-high end and HP's standard machines.
Zack Stern04.06.2007
HP reveals GPS-infused, Wii-inspired handheld tech
"We want to get kids off the couch," Rahul Sood, chief technology officer of HP's gaming division, said during a presentation on their new Mscape technology. Their handheld technology takes advantage of GPS navigation and accelerometers, similar to the ones found in Nintendo Wii. The basic premise is to allow players to actively play in real environments, such as a park. CNET's Tom Krazit explains: "The early concept involves a handheld and a series of small sensors that a game organizer could lay out around a city or park. Those sensors would trigger certain events in the game, like a bonus level or an attack by the bad guys, based on a small demonstration of the concept here."While HP will most likely avoid actually manufacturing a console to compete against Sony and Nintendo, the technology is certainly intriguing. Will Sony or Nintendo's next portable feature this inspiring Mscape tech? Or will a new portable from Microsoft or Dell take advantage of it?
Andrew Yoon04.05.2007
HP NOT launching new PC brand this year
We were at an HP gaming event today, presented by Rahul Sood (former CEO of Voodoo, before HP bought 'em). Rahul wanted to let the world know what HP had all their peoples working on, since not much has changed around Voodoo's business since the acquisition. The answer? HP's launching a new high-to-mid tier PC brand in 2007, which will sit beneath the Voodoo brand and above HP brand in terms of price / performance. They didn't go into much more detail than that, but it's obvious HP thinks the PC gaming space will continue to be a money-maker. Let's just hope they don't resurrect, say, Packard Bell in that slot, or some other flagging PC business. We think it's about time for some fresh blood up in here, don't you?Update: It took a hella long time to trickle down to us, but HP isn't, in fact, launching a new PC brand this year. According to Sood, "We don't plan to, nor have we considered, bringing on a fourth [brand]." That's certainly not the impression we got from his presentation; what the mystery yellow block in the diagram above (which we mocked up to recreate the slide he showed) actually happens to be is still anyone's guess.
Ryan Block04.04.2007