Technology news

Gram Games, the Turkish company that has specialized in hit puzzle titles for smartphones and tablets, has had its games downloaded more than 75 million times. And now the company can add 2 million more downloads to that list, thanks to the launch of the Six! mobile game on iOS.
In a little more than a week, Gram Games’ free-to-play title Six! has hit a new milestone, making the company into a multi-hit survivor in the ultra-competitive $36 billion mobile game market.
Gram Games descr

We’ve seen Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s single-player gameplay and space battles in recent months, but now we have a good look at how the game will be handling multiplayer. Infinity Ward has released a new pair of trailers that highlight some of the new features of the game and how players will be able to go head-to-head with one another.
The next installment in the franchise will be set in partially space, long after Earth has been stripped of all its resources. Colonies establi

GUEST: While virtual reality has been high in the hype cycle for a couple of years now, its market impact has been relatively modest. High visibility VR headset products like Oculus and Microsoft’s HoloLens created a lot of smoke but relatively little fire. The high prices, lack of standards, and lack of compelling apps (other than a limited number of games) have hampered growth, particularly in business uses. But that may be about to change.
At the recent Intel Developer’s Forum in

GUEST: One of the most critical elements to creating a great chatbot is copywriting. The right words will keep your users engaged for hours while the wrong ones will make them want to run for the hills. Here are four tips to write scripts for your bot that make it sound more human.
1. Be simple in a complex world
No one will read what your bot has to say. At best, they will skim it and move on. You challenge is to take something complex and boil it down to a few crucial 

Earlier today, the United States and China announced that they would formally ratify the Paris Climate Agreement, a pivotal step towards reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. The announcement comes on the eve of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, after weeks of negotiations between the two countries.
In a statement, President Barack Obama noted that the entry of the two countries will "[continue] the momentum of Paris, and should give the rest of the world confidence –- whether de

Entertainment news site Variety was briefly hacked earlier today by a group called OurMine. The incident took place just a couple of months after Google CEO Sundar Pichai Quora account and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Twitter account were hacked by the same group.
The group used Variety’s email lists to send out a message to its subscribers, stating that they were "just testing your security."
Variety has since removed the post and released a statement:You may have received one or more

Infinity Ward had three years instead of the usual two to make Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. So it decided to add a Zombies co-op mode to the game, and in doing so, it took some huge creative risks.
While Infinite Warfare is a serious epic that delves into the future of military combat in space, Zombies in Spaceland goes in the complete opposite direction. It has nothing to do with Infinite Warfare, except that both share many of the same weapons. Zombies is an example of taking creative risks

Most technology out in the world is merely functional, exciting emotions only when it fails to perform routine duties. But sometimes that technology gets used for a higher purpose, such as with LG’s OLED tunnel at IFA in Berlin. Created using 216 55-inch curved display, it’s a 15-meter walkway that, ironically, stops people in their tracks. LG’s marketing isn’t hyperbolic when it calls this thing "awe-inspiring."
The OLED tunnel is a microcosm of life itself. It presents

For years, we’ve have a distinct line separating membrane keyboards from those that use mechanical switches. Now, the lunatics at Razer have said, “why not both?”
The Razer Ornata Chroma keyboard is a new $100 device that brings together elements of mechanical and membrane technologies. Razer calls it Mecha-Membrane, and the company claims it keeps only the best of both. That means you get the pleasant and smooth button-pressing action of most modern membrane keyboards as

Unlike a lot of artists, Janice Chu didn’t necessarily grow up knowing she wanted to draw things for a living. In fact, she originally went to university to study computer science, but that only lasted a semester. “There was just too much math,” she says. Eventually she switched to studying animation, and three years in she decided that what she really wanted to do was create concept art for video games. “The school didn't teach concept art,” says Chu, “so I h

I wasn't expecting to be impressed. Mechanical keyboards are great, but they're rarely practical. It feels badass to mash into a great keyboard with Cherry switches when I'm playing games, or for a brief session of pseudo typing, but when I actually want to be a productive writer I typically default back to thin, mushy laptop-style keyboards.
Razer decided to blend mechanical switches and rubber domes to make the best of both worlds, and in fact has created a frankenstein that's an absolute joy

Activision Publishing and Infinity Ward showed off the multiplayer combat for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered at the Call of Duty XP event, and we had a good hands-on session with the game.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare really set the tone for the blockbuster shooter franchise when it came out in 2007. Now the game has been faithfully recreated in high-definition for the newest consoles and high-end PCs. The remake from Raven Software, Modern Warfare Remastered, will debut as part

Apple plans to introduce one previously rumored black colorway for its expected iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, but the company also plans to offer a new glossy “piano black” shade, according to a report that cites a note from trusted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI. The information is emerging just four days before Apple officially unveils the smartphones at an event in San Francisco.
The new piano black will replace the space gray shade that Apple has offered for several years, 9to5Mac rep

It seems like across the board people are into the way The Night Of ended. I'm right there with everyone — without spoiling much, the way it ends up focusing more on the evils of the justice and prison systems makes it a far more interesting show than it would have been as just a standard crime drama.But there's one thing that's been bugging me about the series, and I wonder if it would have made the show's intentionally unsatisfying ending feel more satisfyingly unsatisfying. The ser

I thought I knew where I stood in the great battle of red versus blue, favoring CSKA Sofia over Levski, Trojans over Greeks, and the Chicago Bulls over everyone else. But Huawei has shaken my confidence with its two new hues for the P9. Both are identical to the original brushed aluminum Android handset, but one is now a deep dark burgundy and the other is a light and shimmery blue.
The blue P9 is subtle, as if it’s the regular gray aluminum with an icy blush of steely blue. The red P9, on

Apple joined Twitter back in 2011, but it left its account inactive until yesterday morning. Apple's Twitter account lit up with a new avatar, background photo, and verified status, ahead of the company's iPhone event next week. Apple kept its account clear of Tweets for most of Friday, until a promoted tweet started appearing later in the day referencing the event next week. However, the tweet didn't appear on Apple's timeline, and the company still has 0 tweets.
It's a move that means App

GoPro might have accidentally given us a sneak peak of its Karma drone. The company announced earlier this week that it would be unveiling the anticipated aircraft for the first time later this month. A preview on several of the company’s European websites contain a thumbnail of what appears to be the anticipated aircraft.
GoPro will be holding an event on September 19th to show off the drone (and potentially its Hero5 camera). The image on its French, Italian, Spanish and G

The first time filmmaker Jon Favreau tried virtual reality, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. "I came here and one of the things they showed me was TheBlu, which was very overwhelming to me," he says. We’re talking in the offices of Wevr, the Venice, California-based studio that developed that experience — one that sends users to a sunken ship in the murky ocean depths. "I'm not a roller-coaster guy, so the intensity was a bit much for me. It took me three tries to get t

When it comes to choosing from the many virtual private network (VPN) options on the market, Hotspot Shield Elite VPN is the clear winner. You can join over 400 million downloads of Hotspot Shield’s premium network security, anonymity and access, with a lifetime subscription to Hotspot Shield Elite VPN for just $49.99 from TNW Deals. Hotspot Shield Elite works by routing your activity through private servers, safeguarding your sensitive data from hackers and snooping eyes. You’ll ge

Microsoft has been hammering Chrome's battery performance in recent months, but Google is starting to hit back with updates to its browser. Chrome 53 has been released to the stable channel this week, and it brings CPU and GPU power consumption enhancements for video playback, alongside "big" performance and power improvements overall. We'll have to test them fully in battery tests, but it's encouraging to finally see Google making some solid efforts to improve its laptop battery consumptio

I have always assumed – which of course makes me an ass – that my chosen career path as a writer was safe from our robot overlords. I also didn’t think that the robot overlords would want my job anyways – which of course makes me a double ass –given that most journalists these days are jobless bloggers living on hustle, who like myself have three to four other jobs to make ends meet, in my case: Two tech jobs, director of a non-profit, wrestling coach, and increasi

One of the most interesting bits of tech at IFA this year has been the digital notepad feature of Lenovo's Yoga Book. Slip a pad of paper onto the touch panel, start drawing with Lenovo's pen (using real ink!), and your analog scribbles will be immediately digitized on screen, courtesy of technology developed by Wacom. But you don't need to buy a Yoga Book to get this feature — you can get it from Wacom, directly, for less.
Wacom's new Bamboo Slate and Bamboo Folio notepads offer

Apple is pulling a Samsung by using ‘dark’ tweets to remind Twitter users about its upcoming event. Much like Samsung did back in February, Apple is responding to messages through paid Twitter advertising (or this trick) — a move that keeps the tweet from appearing on its own timeline. If you retweet this tweet — which doesn’t exist, apparently… September 7 at 10 a.m. PTWatch the event on https://t.co/yLa2e4Xr2R.RT for a reminder on event day. #AppleEvent pi

Telltale Games' The Walking Dead adaptation is delivering more of its compelling interactive narrative this November with "A New Frontier," the third season in the series. The plot, having jumped a few years, now features one of the protagonists from season one, Clementine, as a teenager alongside a second playable character named Javier. You can expect more of series' signature moral decision-making, which often involves doing something unspeakable to avoid being consumed alive by zombies.

Although Samsung moved quickly to stop shipments of its Galaxy Note 7 amid reports the batteries could catch fire or explode, federal officials expressed concern Friday that the company opted not to follow traditional procedures.Typically, recalls in the US that involve safety issues are handled in conjunction with a federal agency known as the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.Instead, Samsung has launched its own global program to replace the phablet, following reports that a battery issue