"Everyone always wants to be the fast ships at first. And then they die." These are the dour words of the developer watching over my shoulder as I played Dreadnought, a spaceship combat game, last week. He was right. I died almost immediately, picked out of the sky by a much larger ship as I battered ineffectively against its armor. Here's the easiest way to describe Dreadnought—the way it was described to me, and presumably the way it was described to everyone at PAX, and it's the first thing you think of when you play the game. Remember that scene in
Several high-profile websites—including Kickstarter, Etsy, Reddit, Mozilla and Meetup—will display spinning-wheel icons next Wednesday in an attempt to show visitors the Internet slow lanes they say will appear if the U.S. Federal Communications Commission doesn’t pass strong net neutrality regulations. The symbolic Internet slowdown will include the dreaded site-loading spinning icon to symbolize what net neutrality advocates believe the Web could look like without strong rules. Participating sites, which won’t really slow down their load times, will encourage visitors to call or email U.S. policymakers in support of net neutrality rules. Without strong net neutrality rules, the Internet could be divided into slow and fast lanes, many net neutrality advocates say. Earlier this year, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed new net neutrality rules that would allow broadband providers to engage in “commercially reasonable” traffic management, and many net neutrality advocates suggested his rules would lead to a slower Internet for many websites.
Motorola shows off several could've-been smartwatches—many nothing like the Moto 360 that just went on sale.
The software update will hit a range of devices in the coming months, Google said
The big electronics show in Berlin is a smorgasbord of gadgets. Here are some of the highlights.
If you want to see where your old electronics go to die, take a trip to Guiyu. For two decades, PCs, phones and other electronics have been shipped to this town on the southeast coast of China, where locals in thousands of small workshops pull them apart with buzz saws and pliers to extract the valuable components inside. By all accounts, it’s a toxic nightmare. Historically, the recycling has been done with little regard for health or safety, and toxic substances routinely leak into the air and water. No wonder it’s been called one of the most poisonous towns on earth. But things may finally be changing. I spent two days in Guiyu last week, and while the smell of shredded metal still hangs in the air, efforts are underway to clean the place up. Some of the most dangerous activities, like using acid to burn metals from circuit boards, are being moved to an industrial park to the north.
When you’re competing for the attention of almost a quarter of a million visitors, it helps to have a gimmick or two. The big names of the consumer electronics industry know this and each year at Germany’s IFA electronics show, they try to outdo each other with the latest and greatest technology they have. Five years ago, it was all about 3D TV, then OLED TVs with their brilliant images and vibrant colors took the limelight a year later. In 2012 the big thing was 4K television, with screens boasting four times the resolution of today’s high-def sets, and last year was all about curved televisions. At IFA 2014, taking place this week in Berlin, the future has arrived again and this time it’s bendable.
With PAX over, the year's gaming convention cycle is also basically done. All that's left to look forward to is the Tokyo Game Show, and that's typically not a very news-heavy show these days. But with conventions out of the way, it's time for everybody's favorite part of the year: The fall release window! And what's not to love, with news this week that Total War: Rome II will get a free update, Grand Theft Auto V still exists on the PC, and...2k scanned NBA dance teams into its basketball game? I haven't played much Total War: Rome II since its less-than-stellar launch last year. It was buggy, it was broken, and it just wasn't the Rome successor we were all hoping for.
A group of hackers known for past cyberespionage attacks against the U.S. Defense Industrial Base, as well as companies from the electronics and engineering sectors, has recently started using a backdoor program to target Mac OS X systems. “The backdoor code was ported to OS X from a Windows backdoor that has been used extensively in targeted attacks over the past several years, having been updated many times in the process,” security researchers from FireEye said Thursday in a The malicious program is dubbed XSLCmd and is capable of opening a reverse shell, listing and transferring files and installing additional malware on an infected computer. The OS X variant can also log keystrokes and capture screen shots, the FireEye researchers said.
Chrome 37 brings the more refined look of Android L to any Android device.
Rarely does Intel stumble in the microprocessor market, and the first chips of the “Broadwell” generation, the Core M, deliver improvements across the board: better CPU and graphics performance, longer battery life, and the promise of new, thin, fanless PCs. But Intel did stumble, thanks to an
An interesting question is circulating online kicked off by Microsoft watcher But there might be more to it this time around. Could Microsoft be getting ready to dump all its various numbering and naming schemes and just say that all of its products are running Windows?
Professional networking site LinkedIn is rolling out new features that allow users to easily manage authenticated sessions across multiple devices and better understand what caused security-related changes on their accounts. The site has added Users often access their accounts from devices they don’t own, even though this is not a good security practice. Those devices can be a friend’s mobile phone or a public computer in a library. Unless they hit the sign out button when they’re done, an active session can remain open on that device allowing other users to later access their accounts.
Ist bald Schluss mit Enthauptungsvideos auf sozialen Netzwerken? Facebook, Twitter und Youtube wollen künftig nicht mehr zur Verbreitung von Terrorismus-Propaganda beitragen.
Zahlreiche 20-Minuten-Leser wollten heute eine PS4 gewinnen. Die letzte Chance dazu bietet sich dieses Wochenende. Die sechste Runde endet am Sonntag um 18 Uhr.
Am 9. September erscheint eines der meisterwarteten Games des Jahres. 20 Minuten hat sich mit einem Mitglied des Entwicklerteams unterhalten.
Auf der Elektronikmesse IFA in Berlin zeigen zahlreiche Hersteller ihre neusten Smartwatches. Mit der Gear S kommt ein erstes Modell mit integrierter SIM-Karte.
Die Internationale Funkausstellung ist die grösste Elektronikmesse überhaupt: Im Live-Ticker erfahren Sie, welche Highlights die Hersteller aus aller Welt mit nach Berlin bringen.
Nach dem Nacktfoto-Skandal hat Apple weitere Vorkehrungen gegen Hackerattacken angekündigt. Kunden sollen künftig ein E-Mail erhalten, sobald jemand versucht, ihr Passwort zu ändern.
Mit Remote-Play lassen sich PS4-Titel auf Z3-Smartphones zocken. Doch viele Gamer könnten mit der neuen Funktion wortwörtlich am Ziel vorbei schiessen.
Nach grosser Kritik am Vorgänger besinnt sich «Risen 3» wieder auf alte Tugenden; jedoch auch auf ein paar Ecken und Kanten!
Der Internetkonzern muss Eltern Geld zurückerstatten, deren Kinder bei Apps aus dem Online-Laden Google Play auf unbeaufsichtigte Einkaufstour gegangen waren.
Knapp zehn Monate nach dem US-Start bringt Microsoft die Xbox One in 29 weiteren Ländern offiziell auf den Markt. Auch in der Schweiz.
Neu können Kunden von UPC Cablecom für 29 Franken pro Monat 1000 Minuten telefonieren und 1000 SMS verschicken. Ende Jahr soll zudem der mobile Festnetzanschluss folgen.
Nach der Hacker-Attacke gegen 100 Promi-Damen kriegt Apple die ganze Wut ab. Dabei waren die Nacktfotos nicht nur in der iCloud gespeichert. Hier die neuesten Spekulationen.
Am Mittwochabend waren die Seiten des Online-Netzwerks während rund 20 Minuten nicht aufrufbar. Betroffen waren rund 1,3 Milliarden Nutzer.
Zusammen mit Oculus hat Samsung mit dem Gear VR ein eigenes Virtual-Headset entwickelt, das sich für Games und Filme eignet. Als Quelle für Inhalte dient das neue Galaxy Note 4.