The release of Watch Dogs is just two weeks away. If you haven’t caught up on the news about the game, PlayStation has released a nine minute trailer explaining everything.
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Watch Dogs takes place in a not-too-distant-future version of Chicago. The city is monitored by tons of surveillance cameras, which you can hack and use against enemies.
The trailer shows some of the characters you’ll encounter in the game, from friends to enemies. Voice acting and character animations look great.
The video goes on to show the different modes in the game like multiplayer, mini games, and “mind-bending digital trips.” You can play as a spider tank or rampage through a hellish version of Chicago.
Watch Dogs will be available on May 27th for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Wii U.
Pirated video streaming app Popcorn Time is now available on Android. The app made a brief appearance on Google Play before it was quickly pulled down by Google for “intellectual property violation.” The app is now available to download directly from its website.
If you’re unfamiliar with Popcorn Time, the app works much like Netflix but costs nothing. That’s because the videos in Popcorn Time are pirated and streamed using BitTorrent technology. While BitTorrent is completely legal, the content it provides is stolen.
The Android app works like its desktop counterparts. Movies and TV posters are displayed in a grid for easy browsing, like Netflix. Videos take a few minutes to begin playing but the app does work, even in this beta version.
Popcorn Time brags that it’s a service that “will never be taken down” but its hard to imagine it getting away with flagrantly pirating movies and shows.
Those who want to check out the app for “research” can do so at www.time4popcorn.eu. Installing Popcorn Time for Android requires side-loading, which defeats one of Android’s security features.
It can be hard to delete things from the internet, but a European court has ruled that Google should help by removing certain search results. Could this be the beginning of giving us more control over what appears about us in Google search results?
The ruling came after Spanish Mario Costeja González had failed to get a search result about the auction of his repossessed home in 1998 removed from a newspaper or Google search results. The European court has ruled that private individuals should have the right to control what data is publicly available about them, although public figures may not be included in this.
The court ruled that in certain cases Google and other search engines, which are the main way people find data on the internet, should be responsible for de-listing links.
Control of personal data has been an issue of increasing concern for many people. Closed systems like Facebook have been very careful to make sure users are aware of how to control what they share, and to give users the ability to manage and delete things on the social network. But Google has always argued that giving people the ability to delete data amounts to censorship.
While this ruling is unlikely to have any practical effects in the short term, this could lead to companies like Google providing better tools to their users for challenging or removing personal content or data online.
Beats Music, the Spotify competitor launched earlier this year, had only 111,000 users by March this year. The details came from a leaked royalty report, and show how far the service has to go to catch its rivals.
However, this number might even be artificially high, as AT&T has been offering its users a free 90 day trial of the ‘family’ version of the service. Of the 111,000 registered accounts, just over 60,000 are family accounts, and no one knows how many of those were paid or part of the free promotion. Spotify, in contrast, has one million paid subscribers in the US alone, and 24 million active users worldwide, six million of which are subscribers in total.
The leaked report also shows that Beats Music pays less royalties than Spotify, at $0.000126 per play. Spotify pays between $0.006 and $0.0084 per play.
The leak of these details follows a weekend of intense speculation, which suggests Apple has bought the company for $3.2 billion. Some people have suggested the purchase is about Apple being behind with streaming music, but it would seem unlikely given its relatively small user base, and US only service. More likely is Apple wants to use Beats’ brand power for some reason, possibly just headphones, ot perhaps to give its rumored wearable device a boost.
The Beats Music app was updated at the start of May, and now lets you subscribe and manage your account from the app itself. An iPad version has also been introduced, with a new interface especially for tablet sized screens.
Whatever the future holds for Beats Music, Spotify, with its global reach and huge user base has little to fear if these numbers are genuine.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has been unveiled with an explosive trailer. The game’s fans have a lot to look forward to: the new game takes us all the way to the year 2052. In the midst of huge explosions and Hollywood-style action scenes, though, it’s possible you might have missed some of the details.
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Luckily for you, we’ve studied the images from the game and found a few details that might have escaped your eye. Here we’ll analyze 10 key details from the first Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare trailer to help you get the most information you can.
1. Exoskeletons in the closet
Exoskeletons play a central role in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. In real life, early versions of the motorized armor are already capable of helping wearers to handle heavy loads and movement by increasing their physical abilities.
In the world of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, exoskeletons are common and the main character will be equipped with one throughout the solo campaign.
After each successful mission, the player will receive experience points that will increase and improve their armor’s special abilities:
Ultrafast escape to take shelter
Super jumps
Magnetic gloves to climb over smooth surfaces
Invisibility with optical camouflage
Ultrafast speed (time deceleration)
Although nothing has been officially leaked about other Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare modes, it’s likely that some of these powers will also be part of the multiplayer game following the example of Riley, the war dog introduced in Call of Duty: Ghosts.
2. On the shoulders of Atlas
The Atlas organization will be the main antagonist in the single player campaign of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Originally, this group didn’t have the paramilitary force we can see in the first images of the game.
In the world of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Atlas initially plays the role of a new kind of philanthropic organization: thanks to its unlimited private funds (see #3) and independence from the state, Atlas can intervene in large scale humanitarian disasters with a speed and efficiency that is out of the reach of traditional NGOs.
3. Jonathan Irons, a man of steel
Jonathan Irons is the founder of Atlas. Played by Kevin Spacey, this billionaire with an iron fist doesn’t hide his ambitions to control the United States. He plays a manipulative character that reminds us of the formidable Frank Underwood from the House of Cards series, which also stars this Oscar-winning actor.
4. Fog over San Francisco
Yep, you’ve seen what you think you’ve seen. One of the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare missions will take place in San Francisco. If we believe what we can see in the trailer, this is a civil war between the Atlas troops and the regular army that will tear America apart.
In any case, it seems like Jonathan Irons’ actions will lead to the outright destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the most emblematic monuments in the United States.
5. Cold-blooded murder(s)
Once again, controversy seems to surround the new Call of Duty series. The first images from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare seem to show the cold-blooded execution of a civilian (probably one of the journalists who is seen talking to Jonathan Irons in the trailer).
And for the icing on the cake, a character dressed in clothes that seem similar to the traditional attire of West African Muslims, witnesses the scene. Is he the next on the assassin’s list?
6. Hover bikes…on rails?
As we can see, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will have scenes that involve driving or flying a hover bike. A small disappointment though: analysis of the trailer reveals that the scripted sequences will probably take place in the corridors that the series has used previously.
What, you think Call of Duty is being a little extreme with the sci-fi stuff? Then you’ll be interested to know that the the prototype for real hover bikes is currently under development!
7. Grenades for everyone
In Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare it will be possible to change the detonation mode of non-lethal grenades before tossing them. A loud explosion or detection of enemies and threats, it’ll be up to you to choose. The second mode will provide you with a considerable tactical advantage by revealing the position of enemies through walls.
8. Welcome to Nigeria
Lagos is currently the most populous city in Nigeria.The ‘Keep Lagos Clean’ billboards that can be seen in the trailer tell us that one or more missions of the single-player campaign will take place on the African continent.
9. Enough with the caterpillars, let’s have spiders instead
1, 2, 3, 4 … Yes, 4 legs! In addition to drones and half-man, half-robot soldiers, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare players will have to deal with revolutionary tanks. With their all-terrain legs, armor and heavy weapons, these armored vehicles are more dangerous than ever, and could prove particularly treacherous.
And as crazy as it sounds, the U.S. military is already interested in very similar quadruped devices. We’ve told you before, the future is now!
10. Railgun! Did you say railgun?
If you pay attention you can catch a glimpse of a firing sequence from a turret that seriously resembles a railgun. This technology, currently being tested by the U.S. Navy, uses electromagnetic force to propel projectiles that reach the staggering speed of Mach 10 (approximately 114oo ft/s).
After this article, the first trailer for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare should hold no more secrets. Although one last mystery makes me wonder. How do you explain the line that cuts through the letters A, L, U and T in the in the Call of Duty logo?
Aesthetic choice or hidden meaning?
Is it simply a designer’s aesthetic choice – the cuts are placed symmetrically on either side of the center of the logo – or is there some kind of hidden meaning? For now, we just don’t know.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be released on November 4, 2014 for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to share your theories in the comments!
A reliable source has leaked evidence of upcoming Microsoft products. Most interesting are Windows 9, Windows 365, Office 2015 and Windows 8.1 Update 2. The information comes from a screenshot, although its origins are unclear.
Rumors of Windows 365 have been around for a while. It’s possible that Microsoft is taking the idea of subscription based Office 365 and bringing it to Windows. It would be a free version of the operating system, with limited functions that could be expanded if you pay for a subscription. As with Office 365, the advantage of a subscription means you always have the latest versions, and it’s likely you can use it on multiple devices.
The leak comes from Faikee, who also suggests that Windows 9 will be a free update for Windows 8.1 users. While this is unsubstantiated, it’s a policy already used by Apple, and would certainly be popular. If Microsoft wants to speed up its development of Windows, it would alienate users by asking them to pay for new versions every couple of years.
One of the biggest criticisms about Google Hangouts was the removal of the status indicator. While today’s update for Gmail doesn’t bring back the status feature, it does make it easier to see which friends are available to chat. Previously, friends who were able to chat were underlined with a thin green line. With today’s update, the line is replaced by a more obvious green bubble. Moods are new to Gmail, allowing you to set one of eighty emojis as your status. This is a fun way to let your friends know what type of mood you’re in, similar to Skype. Unfortunately there’s no way to set text as your mood. The update is rolling out today to all Gmail users. If you’re not using Hangouts in Gmail yet, you can enable it by clicking on your profile picture above your chat list and then try the new Hangouts.
Last month, we saw some leaked screenshots of a dramatic Gmail redesign for Android that brought pinning and snoozing features. Today, we have more evidence that this dramatic Gmail redesign is coming to the web as well.
Geek.com was invited to test the new Gmail interface for the web and has released screenshots showing its many changes. The colorful theme we saw in the leaked Android version makes its way onto the web as well the same pinning and snoozing features.
There’s a new side navigation menu with sections for your snoozed and archived emails as well as your inbox. Gmail’s current category inbox resides in the menu as well with sections for Travel, Purchases, Social, Promos, and more.
At the top of Gmail for the web is a large search box and a pinned email toggle. Click on the pin to quickly see which emails you pinned. The feature works as a replacement for “stars” in the current version of Gmail.
Google Hangouts is also integrated into the experimental version of Gmail. There’s now a dedicated Hangouts button at the top right of the screen. Chats can be minimized or resized to make it easier to multitask.
There’s no word if or when we’ll see these changes in Gmail on the web. Many people rely on Gmail and Google has to be careful not to disrupt people’s workflows with radical changes.
Two iconic games from Valve have come to Android, for NVIDIA SHIELD owners that is. The SHIELD is a portable gaming console that plays Android games as well as streaming PC games when paired up with an NVIDIA graphics card.
Half-Life 2 is almost ten years old and it’s surprising the game didn’t come to Android sooner. Since it’s a first-person shooter, the game requires precise controls so it makes sense for it to debut on the SHIELD.
The original Portal is also pretty old, debuting seven years ago. The game received a ton of accolades when it debuted for its inventive puzzles and hilarious writing. Our own game’s editor, Jonathan Riggall gave it a 9/10.
SHIELD owners will most likely have played these two games already but allowing gamers to take them on the go is a first. Hopefully Valve will bring Portal and Half-Life 2 to other Android devices in the future.
If you have an NVIDIA SHIELD, you can pick up both games for $9.99 each in the Google Play Store.
Twitter is rolling out a new feature where you can mute a person you’re following. Instead of unfollowing someone altogether, you can now mute them and spare their feelings.
Muting someone gets rid of all their tweets, retweets, and push notifications from appearing. They can still interact with your tweets but you won’t see notifications of this activity. Muted users can still send you direct messages since you’re still following each other.
The mute function is rolling out in the coming weeks to the Android and iOS apps as well as Twitter.com. To mute someone, tap on the “more” button and then “Mute @username.” You will be able to do the same on a person’s profile page.
Moods are new to Gmail, allowing you to set one of eighty emojis as your status. This is a fun way to let your friends know what type of mood you’re in, similar to Skype. Unfortunately there’s no way to set text as your mood. The update is rolling out today to all Gmail users. If you’re not using Hangouts in Gmail yet, you can enable it by clicking on your profile picture above your chat list and then try the new Hangouts.
