As reported on The Verge. By Andrew Webster An M.C. Escher-inspired video game for your iPad I just spent 10 minutes rotating a floating castle in the sky while soft piano music tinkled in the background. This particular structure is surrounded by a series of disconnected staircases. When I turn it just right, they connect in ways that don’t quite make sense, but let me proceed through the level anyways. I can see the sun about…
As reported on TechCrunch. by Greg Kumparak It’s that time of year again, friends. The day when “up” becomes “down”, lies become truth, dogs become people, and when the Internet becomes a liiiittle bit unbearable for a day or so. It’s April Fools’ Day! Yay. As is something of a tradition around these parts, we’re keeping a big running list of the best (/worst?) of today’s gags from around the vast Internets. Check back throughout the day for the…
As reported on TechCrunch. by Natasha Lomas Google has released a video (embedded below) showing a glimpse of what’s going on behind the scenes at Project Ara, one of the hardware shunkworks projects coming out of its Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP). The ATAP group is also working on a 3D mapping handset which Google showed off in February, called Project Tango. Project Ara is the codename for the modular phone concept that Motorola was working on, and which Google retained when it sold the…
As reported on Engadget. BY TIMOTHY J. SEPPALA Microsoft’s version of Office for iPad has apparently been a rousing success. So much so, that the company’s taken to Twitter to boast that the productivity suite has topped 12 million downloads. In a week. As the Seattle Times points out, though, Redmond hasn’t said how many Office 365 subscriptions (which are required to create and edit documents) have been sold alongside the free, document-view-only downloads. We reached out to Microsoft for clarification, and, well, weren’t given much. A spokesperson told us…
As reported on Engadget. BY MAT SMITH Graphene. It was going to reinvigorate the electronics industry. Better than silicon, flexible yet more durable than steel and with high heat conduction, it all sounded like The Dream for thinner components and wearables.. but it kinda faded away. Well, it’s back, according to Samsung. In a partnership with Sungkyunkwan University, it reckons it’s solved the tricky issue of manufacturing “large area, single crystal wafer scale graphene,” or simply: big,…
As reported on The Verge. By Rich McCormick Two years after Greenpeace slammed Apple for using “dirty energy” to power its cloud data, the environmental group has praised the company for its usage of renewable energy in maintaining its datacenters, calling it “the most innovative and most aggressive” firm in Silicon Valley in terms of using clean power. Apple’s datacenters scored 100 percent in Greenpeace’s clean energy index, with none of their energy coming from coal, nuclear, or natural gas…
As reported on The Verge. By Valentina Palladino Even with Captain America: The Winter Soldier hitting theaters, Scarlett Johansson isn’t taking a break. In the movie Lucy, written and directed by acclaimed French filmmaker Luc Besson, Johansson plays a woman working as a drug mule for the mob. But when some of the drugs she’s carrying start to leak into her system, she turns into a “metahuman” with telekinetic powers and the ability to absorb intelligence instantly. The first trailer promises…
As reported on TechCrunch. by Greg Kumparak An email comes in. It’s important. Not like, oh-god-drop-everything-or-we’ll-all-die important, but it’s something you should probably answer. But you’ve got stuff to do right now, so you don’t. “I’ll answer this tomorrow,” you tell yourself. By tomorrow, the email has dropped down to the bottom of your inbox, replaced by 100 way less important things. You’d still answer it… if you hadn’t totally forgotten about it. It happens…
As reported on Engadget. BY SEAN BUCKLEY Remember that Halo film that wasn’t happening? Microsoft representatives have confirmedthat the old rumors are true: a Halo feature is in the works, and it’s being produced byRidley Scott (Blade Runner, Alien, Prometheus, Call of Duty Elite: Friday Night Fights). Unfortunately, the confirmation is intentionally vague, offering no other information save for the project’s director (Battlestar Galactica’s Sergio Mimica-Gezzan) and a promise that it won’t overlap with Spielberg’s TV series. It’s described as a “digital feature…
As reported on Engadget. BY JON FINGAS Penultimate is supposed to mimic a notebook on your iPad, so it only makes sense that the app’s interface should mirror the pen-and-paper experience as much as possible. Right? Evernote thinks so, as it has released a Penultimate update that gets closer to the real thing. You can swipe from off-screen to turn pages, and you can set a color for every pen width; effectively, you now have a collection of favorite…