Every Single Article Written by N - All 1343
Google’s “X Phone” Becomes “Regular Phone”
Well, hopefully it’s still stock
Boy Genius Reports is sending out word today that, based on some notes from a Chinese analyst, the rumored Google X-developed Motorola phone that’s due to be announced this month at Google I/O will not move stars, save Leonardo DiCaprio’s character from Titanic, or even have stock Android. No, it’ll just be a regular phone with a big battery. That might still be cool, right?
21st Century Fox Joins The Future, Embraces Awful New Logo
Appropriate for Cable TV, but not a big corporation.
It’s been nearly twelve years since the century turned over (yes, I’m one of those people) and I was extremely curious why 20th Century Fox wasn’t terribly interested in updating their brand. They still aren’t changing it, but in the split of its parent company (News Corporation), the new entertainment-themed corporate entity containing 20th Century Fox will be branded 21st Century Fox. Are you following me?
Precursor Games Says Denis Dyack And Silicon Knights Weren’t Malicious
There are other reasons why Silicon Knights went down the tubes, apparently.
As it turns out, Denis Dyack didn’t become a kind of hellspawn after Eternal Darkness, ruining Too Human, siphoning funds away from X-Men Destiny (which was awful) to work on an Eternal Darkness 2 demo to pitch to publishers (that was also awful) and running the company straight into the ground. That’s the narrative that a massive, scathing expose from Kotaku last year painted of Dyack and the Canadian developer, but according to Sean Thompson, the technical director over at Precusor Games, which is now trying to crowdfund an Eternal Darkness 2 of sorts, that’s simply not true.
An Android User Buys An iPad Mini For Games; Impressions From A First-Time iOS Owner
Yes, I have a pink smart cover. You can tell it’s my iPad because Shodan is in the background.
I bought a Nexus 7 nearly a year ago to, perhaps unconsciously, prove the point that you could sell a good tablet at $200. Amazon’s efforts to dip below the $499.99 entry barrier for the iPad with the Kindle Fire were critically lukewarm, even if people bought a number of the things. I didn’t even really need a tablet, but it finally got me out of hauling out my Chromebook or new laptop while I sat in bed, waiting to fall asleep. It’s the perfect nightstand device. Of course, since I’ve been doing the FleshEatingZipper thing for real, I felt a little left behind in the mobile gaming scene, so I finally bit my lip and picked up my first iOS device, a 16GB iPad Mini. So how does it feel to be on the other side? More and less, more or less.
Google Timelapse Is The Coolest Thing You’ll See Today
Columbia glacier in 1984 (left) and 2012 (right)
A lot’s changed since I was born in the Year Of Orwell. Primarily, I grew up and become a cool guy. While that was happening, the world was shifting and moving at such a massive scale that it’s been hard to grasp. Until today, that is. Google unveiled Timelapse, a feature mined from decades of satellite information gleaned from the United States Geological Survey that shows the world changing before your eyes.
U Mad? Windows 8 Isn’t The Flop People Want It To Be
Doom and gloom? Not so much.
It’s not really a surprise to me that people want to see Microsoft with a huge wad of egg on its face for merely suggesting that Windows 8 should exist. Microsoft is the old guard now; aside from Xbox, their products feel outmoded. Their late Zune and their current Bing exempify how their ‘second to bat, first to lead’ charge isn’t working so well anymore. But let’s not fall for the rhetoric: Windows 8 is doing pretty well, far from being the perceived disaster of Windows Vista.
‘Minecraft’ Meets Oculus Rift With This New VR Mod
Hoo boy!
Let’s take my favorite future peripheral with my favorite game of the past decade and put them together, shall we? Make matches? The marriage of these two is something I dream of. To build a world and then wander around in it as if you were really there. Minecraft already does terrible things to my time when I’m in the mood and I can’t imagine things getting any better when Mojang decides to induct this into their game proper.
Ferrari Chairman Says They Won’t Build Electric, I Guess I’m Stuck Waiting
The Ferrari LaFerrari isn’t only a redundant name for an expensive, beautiful car, it’s an expensive, beautiful car.
Okay, you got me: the subject line is a joke. You may be able to afford one of these curvaceous trademark-red motor vehicles, but a Ferrari is way out of my league. You know what’s out of Ferrari’s league? Building electric vehicles while Luca di Montezemolo is their Chairman. It’s just out, way out.
Klout Adds “Experts”; It’s Like Quora, But Weirder
It’s all about the questions. Answering them all!
If you’re still scratching your head, wondering what the point of Klout is, amen!, we’re in the same boat. By plugging in your identity from various networks, Klout gives you a “Score” based on your contributions. If you plug in your Facebook and have no friends, you won’t see much of a bump compared to someone who has a lot of friends and is constantly getting likes and attention. If your score is high enough, you’re even eligible for sponsor-provided Perks because you’re obviously that cool talking about whatever. How does the Score even work? I don’t know, no one knows. Does it even mean anything? No one knows!
So today I get an e-mail to try out their new Experts feature. It’s… well, interesting.
80,000 People Apply For One-Way Trip To Mars, Including A Valve Programmer
Lots of people submitted applications in hopes of being one of the lucky few first Martians.
When MarsOne announced they would be vetting a crew of astronauts from applicants from around the world for a one-way trip to the red planet, did you jot out your first speech since high school and fire up that webcam? Well, nearly 80,000 people did, far short of the expected 1 million, but still an impressive number when you consider that 80,000 individuals uploaded applicants to their web site, all pretty happy with the prospect of a trip to Mars from which there is no return.
