Tag Archives: Digital Trends

Video Gaming

The Crew Didn't Start Development as an Xbox One or PS4 Title

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Ubisoft announced its upcoming massively mutliplayer arcade racer The Crew back in May, and despite its obvious intentions for a next-gen console release, it turns out work on the title began some time ago. During an interview with Digital Trends, creative director Julian Gerighty says production on the game actually began four years ago, but the development team quickly realized waiting for the power of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 just made sense.

“It happened about a year and a half ago, where we realized we can push this a little bit further, we can push the personalization of the world, the non-procedural nature of the world, a little bit further if we do it on Xbox One and PS4,” said Gerighty. “So our Miami is radically different from our New York, which is normal but it takes a lot of work to get it to that level of quality. And that’s only possible on this next-generation.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is Google Finally About to Get Serious About Messaging?

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By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

Headless Drive Through Prank

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For a company that’s been trying to focus more lately, Google‘s current amalgam of various messaging services is in dire need of some unification. The search giant has a plethora of different offerings geared toward mobile and desktop messaging, and none of them have made major impacts on the market.

Google Talk is a desktop platform for chatting and video calls. Google Voice offers free SMS texting, but requires using a separate number. Google Plus Hangouts are meant for group video chats, and Google Plus Messenger is geared toward messaging on the go. That’s a lot of services that are needlessly distinct, since a unified service would have greater brand strength.

This is nothing new; Google product manager Nikhyl Singhal conceded last summer that the company has “done an incredibly poor job servicing [its] users here,” noting that Big G was planning to merge the services. The name of the unified service has been rumored to be Google Babel, which is expected to be a cross-platform chat service available on Android, Apple iOS, Chrome, Google Plus, and Gmail.

Last week, a Digital Trends report suggested that Google was in talks to acquire popular cross-platform messaging app WhatsApp for upwards of $1 billion. The search giant and the mobile start-up have been at the negotiating table for a little over a month, with the latter still trying to fetch more.

Source: WhatsApp.

WhatsApp has promptly taken off as an SMS alternative, since the service uses existing phone numbers, supports numerous different operating system platforms, and uses existing data plans in lieu of SMS plans. For $0.99 and no ads or in-app purchases, that’s quite a value proposition that wireless carriers are none too happy about, and why the app is the No. 2 paid app in Apple’s App Store currently.

Apple’s iMessage has also taken off in popularity, in part because of its tight integration with iDevices so there are no extra steps required by users. On the last conference call, CEO Tim Cook mentioned that the company now sends 2 billion iMessages per day. iMessage also ties into Apple’s desktop platform, offering another layer of convenience. On the video chatting front, Apple also has FaceTime.

Facebook has also been beefing up its mobile messaging capabilities. Not only does it offer texts and media, but the social network even just added free voice calling to its iOS Messenger app, using the phone’s data connection. Facebook just wants to be the sole communications medium between you and your friends, even if it doesn’t monetize messaging directly.

Apple, Google, and Facebook are all vying for messaging domination, much to the chagrin of wireless carriers. It’s about time for Google to finally get serious.

As one of the most dominant Internet companies ever, Google has made a habit of driving strong returns for its shareholders. However, like many other web companies, it’s also struggling to adapt to an increasingly mobile …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Automobiles

Report: Why using Google Maps for driving directions is illegal in California

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By Jonathon Ramsey

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Back in January of 2012, Steven Spriggs was cited for using a cellphone while driving in California, violating the state’s Vehicle Code Section 23123 that makes it illegal for someone to drive “while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking, and is used in that manner while driving.” In this case, though, while Spriggs did have the phone in his hands, he was using it to check directions on Google Maps, not make a phone a call or send a text.

Spriggs appealed the citation, but according to Digital Trends, Judge Kent Hamlin of the Fresno County Superior Court has ruled against him. Hamlin’s eight-page decision asserted that the law prohibiting drivers from using their hands to operate their cellphones to make calls and send texts didn’t mean they could manually operate their phones for some other purpose, like getting directions; Hamlin reasoned that the law‘s intent was to prevent all manual operation of the cellphone to curb distracted driving.

Hamlin felt this even though Sprigg argued that when the original law specified voice calls, it was felt necessary to append the law to add texting to its purview. Using that example, if the law didn’t specify the other operations it covered, then it shouldn’t apply to those other operations. Hamlin’s decision countered that there was no legislative history that demonstrated the bill’s original supporters didn’t want texting covered by the law originally, and that since the purpose of the “plain language” of the law is to eliminate the distraction of manually using one’s phone while driving, that any such use is automatically covered.

Why using Google Maps for driving directions is illegal in California originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Computers

Top Gadgets at CES: A roundup of what the web liked best

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This year’s Consumer Electronics Show is drawing to a close and most tech sites are handing out opinions and awards about which gadgets were the best in show for 2013.

Among the big hits were Panasonic’s 4K tablet, the massive Samsung 110-inch Ultra HD TV, Kingston’s 1TB thumb drive, and the Fitbit Flex wearable fitness band.

Based on the raves on CNET, CNN, Digital Trends, Gizmodo, IGN, Laptop Mag, and other sites tracking the CES action, here’s a look at the top five gadgets that stood out from the pack for many tech gear critics.

Tablet for gamers: Razer Edge

Game gear maker Razer wowed the crowds at CES with the Edge, a 10-inch Windows 8 tablet geared for gamers packed with 4GB of RAM, an Intel Core i5 processor, a 65GB SSD, and an Nvidia GT640M LE GPU.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld