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Google hires the creator of 4chan
It didn't take long for 4chan creator Chris Poole (better known as Moot) to find a new home after selling his brainchild. Google has hired Poole to take advantage of his 12 years of experience "building online communities." It's not clear exactly what he'll do. However, it wouldn't be surprising if he gives Google+ a boost, improving its recent focus on community and giving you more reasons to visit.
The only video game developer in Mississippi
Mathew Weymouth lives one hour away from the birthplace of the blues, that humid, fertile swampland known as the Mississippi Delta. He grew up along the state's southern coastline, and over the years he absorbed tales of legendary local artists including "The Mad Potter," George E. Ohr, and the painter Walter Inglis Anderson. The Delta fertilizes creativity like it spawns towering cypress trees, and Weymouth is a product of his environment. He's an artist, but with a technical twist. Weymouth is a self-taught video game developer with big plans for his local community. He wants to build a "gaming incubator" in southern Mississippi, a creative haven for the area's youth, artists, musicians, filmmakers and programmers. It's basically a high-tech neighborhood center where people can work together to create video games and other works of art. But there's one major problem with this idea: He might be the only serious video game developer in the state. "Here, it's literally just this dead zone in the middle of the United States for technology," Weymouth says.
Developers can now sell in-game items through Steam
The folks at Valve have introduced a new Steam feature called "Item Store" which, as its name implies, makes it easier for game developers to manage and sell microtransactions. Facepunch Studios has already jumped on board, creating a marketplace for its DayZ-inspired survival title Rust. It sits inside the Steam client and any items you buy are added to your inventory automatically. So what's the point? Well, this feature means indie developers no longer have to build in-game stores from scratch. They can also be used to manage user-made items -- as Eurogamer reports, developers can integrate their stores with Steam Workshops and set their own item prices. Steam handles the checkout process and promises to split the payments between Workshop authors "as appropriate." What's not clear, however, is whether the developer takes a cut on community-made items. Earlier this year Valve faced enormous backlash when it tried to introduce paid Skyrim mods -- hopefully it's learned from that mistake and really thought this initiative through.
Playdate: Putting your custom 'Super Mario Maker' levels to the test
When we asked for your Super Mario Maker levels you guys and gals responded in a big way. Don't believe us? We have a Gmail folder with over 300 responses to prove you otherwise, and more keep coming in every day. Sean and myself were absolutely floored by the creativity the Playdate community showed and honestly it was hard to narrow the field down to just 30 or so entires. Sadly we had to do just that because we only have two hours to broadcast. Did your masterpiece make the cut? Tune in starting at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific and find out as we run through nothing but community-built death traps either on this post, the Engadget Gaming homepage or Twitch.tv/joystiq if you want to join in our chat.
Reddit experiment brings you news without the community
As great as Reddit can be for discovering interesting news, it's not always ideal for newcomers -- it takes time to navigate that sea of posts, and some communities aren't so friendly. Reddit thinks it can help, though. It's launching Upvoted, an experimental news website that includes both curated stories from Reddit as well as original content... but not Reddit's community or voting. While it'll still link back to Reddit, it's really meant as an introduction for readers (and, we'd add, advertisers) that might be spooked by the occasional hostile comment on the main site. It's also meant to keep more news within the Reddit ecosystem, rather than letting other sites write about it first.
Wanted: your custom 'Super Mario Maker' levels
Something happened when we were broadcasting the Wii U's Super Mario Maker on Playdate last week. Sean Buckley and myself (and almost assuredly someone from Twitch chat) thought it'd be a great idea to play through levels that the community made, live on the internet. And guess what? That's absolutely what we want to do, but we'll need your help. For a future stream we'd love to do nothing but play custom levels created exclusively by our loyal Playdate viewers. All you need to do is take the ID code for your masterpiece and drop it in an email to EngadgetPlaydate@gmail.com. It's easy! We're playing pretty loose with the rules too. You can send us a couple of your favorites (but fewer than 30) if you're having a tough time narrowing it down to just one, and all that we ask if you not have anything lewd contained therein.
Best of Public Access Vol.9: So What'cha, What'cha Want?
by08.13.2015
Google is Alphabet now, in one of the more confusing rebrandings since Netflix thought that Qwikster would be a good idea. This week, in addition to trying to think of clever headlines about the Alphabet announcement, we heard back from the Def Con hacker conference, and electropop band Yacht ensured no one would ever see their album artwork when they released it via fax machine only... because there is nothing artists hate more than you actually looking at their work.
The best of Public Access Vol.7: online security and Android frustrations
Microsoft set the world on fire this week with the release of Windows 10 as a free download for existing Windows users. And in our review of the OS, we found that Edge, Windows 10's new web browser, is a sleek and speedy onramp to the information superhighway. Simply upgrading to the latest and greatest software doesn't make you impervious to harm on the internet, however, so last week we asked you to share how you stay secure online. Caroline Leopold doles out some handy tips for password management and stresses the importance of HTTPS. Meanwhile, Jess James has a bone to pick with Google's all-encompassing power over Android, and Bob Summerwill thinks we could all be more efficient at our jobs if we eliminated synchronous operations from the workplace and embraced asynchronous communication instead.
The best of Public Access Vol. 6: Apple Watch edition
It's unlikely we'll get the real dirt on Apple Watch sales anytime soon, but that hasn't stopped analysts, journalists and basically anyone with a pulse from speculating about the wearable's potential success or failure. In the leadup to Apple's latest earnings report, we heard news of declining adoption rates from Fast Company and developer disinterest from The New York Times. Since everyone seems to be watching the Watch, we asked you to weigh in on the future of the wrist-worn category and you delivered. Brandon Côté envisioned a wearable future that mirrors Ender's Game while Carl Zetie suggested that it's a largely a product category without a problem to solve.
The best of Public Access Vol. 5: Paying tribute to a gaming giant
It is with great sadness that the world mourns a man responsible for many treasured gaming memories. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, who died Saturday, had a history with the company that pre-dated even Mario. In honor of Mr. Iwata and Nintendo's cultural impact, we're turning to the Public Access community for your tributes to the consoles, controllers and games that Iwata and co. made possible. On a lighter, still nostalgic note, y'all continue to excite our inner-childhood geeks with reflections on your early human-machine interactions. These rememberings and an explainer on drone journalism make up the best Public Access entries of the week that was. It's all available for you after the break, so dig in. P.S. The homepage is coming soon! in the meantime you can check out the latest from Public Access right here. Not a member? Apply, and keep the weird alive.
The best of Public Access Vol. 4: Mac Powerbooks, Microsoft Bob and more
The past week on Public Access has seen y'all looking both forward and back in tech history. Englishman and US resident Jess James explained how he would change the course of history (and the outcome of the US revolutionary war) with a big screen TV and some Monty Python. Meanwhile, Miné Salkin wrote of being smitten with the Macintosh PowerBook 100 as a child, and Joe Duncan explained the difficulties of selling the Tandy Video Information System in the early '90s. Lachlan Harris bridged the old and new, making the case that Microsoft's Bob software (from 1995) never actually left us and the DNA of that helping friendly program remains a part of Windows 10. And, Oded Lilos told us why speech recognition and voice assistants -- despite the sizable part they'll play in our computing future -- won't be replacing keyboards anytime soon. P.S. The homepage is coming soon! in the meantime you can check out the latest from Public Access right here. Not a member? Apply, and keep the weird alive.
The best of Public Access Vol. 3: the Atari ST, virtues of HD Audio and more
You can learn a lot from someone's personal gadget arsenal, whether at home or on the road. This past week on Public Access gave us a glimpse of your technological inclinations and taught us quite a bit. Miné Salkin's at-home gear is all about enabling multimedia storytelling and journalism, and constitutes a pretty impressive setup for creating and editing 4K video. Alexander Hohenthaner shared the gear he packs in his bag to get through his daily grind. It's not all about now, however. Nostalgia's a powerful thing, and Jess James gave us a heavy dose with fond memories of his first PC, the Atari ST. Meanwhile, Chris Carroll waxed poetic on how filming family get togethers has brought about some peculiar behavior from his relatives. P.S. The homepage is coming soon! in the meantime you can check out the latest from Public Access right here. Not a member? Apply, and keep the weird alive.
The best of Public Access Vol. 2: Robot friends, flaming Macs and more
Last week, you took us to the dark side of customer support with your worst IT nightmares, and at least a couple of your stories felt like the opening scenes of a Sci-Fi thriller. Carl Zetie took us back to the days of minicomputer, into a medical lab where he was surrounded by radioactive material, and Ed Zitron recounted his mysterious experience with a combustible MacBook. In a more emotional, if not less dramatic retelling, Brandon Côté shared his robotic aspirations as a child suffering from anxiety. P.S. The homepage is coming soon! in the meantime you can check out the latest from Public Access right here. Not a member? Apply, and keep the weird alive.
Welcome to Public Access: Community storytelling at its weirdest
Before YouTube, before Twitter, before Lil Bub and The Dress, there was the localized meme generator known as public-access television. As an alternative to commercial broadcasting, public access gave voice to local communities, fostering often bizarre, sometimes thought-provoking outpourings of DIY creativity. It's in the spirit of that great social melting pot that Engadget invites you to embark on a new journey in community storytelling. With the launch of Public Access, we're giving you the tools to publish your opinions, experiences and discussions alongside those of Engadget's editors and some of tech's brightest minds. This is your chance to have your voice heard by millions of humans like you, and maybe...
Steam hands developers the power to ban cheaters
Cheating in multiplayer games isn't big or clever, but people still think they can successfully get away with it. That's a problem for the folks at Valve, who are constantly trying to ensure that Steam is a nice place to play. It's one of the reasons that the company has now revealed that it'll hand the power to police users straight to the developers behind each game on the service. Now, rather than Valve staff racing to deal with each incident, the teams that made the title can rule on what they consider to be fair and unfair practices.
Scientists can build an early-warning system for trolls
Almost every website with comments suffers from trolls, people who like to spout obnoxious and irrational gibberish just to offend others. Since you can't just ask people to behave like human beings, a lot of time and effort is spent monitoring and policing this idiocy. Thankfully, the internet's long national nightmare may now be at an end after researchers from Stanford and Cornell developed an early warning system for trolls. After conducting a study that examined close to 40 million comments, it was found that trolls can be algorithmically identified before they've written 10 posts.
Yahoo Screen supports Chromecast, but only for 'Community'
If you needed one more way to watch Community now that it's on Yahoo instead of NBC, the Yahoo Screen app on Android (but not iOS) has "basic Chromecast support." You could get the show (already on its fourth streaming episode) to connect with Google's dongle by mirroring it from a laptop or mobile device before, but with a direct connection it should be easier to use and have better quality. Should is the key word -- as some reviews in Google Play noted and we experienced ourselves, there are some bugs present. Update (4/3): Yahoo has pushed an update to the app to fix the restart issue, grab the new version here.
What's on your HDTV: 'Community', 'Bloodline', 'Empire' season finale
March Madness indeed. While the NCAA kicks off its yearly (and ethically dubious) basketball tournaments (get the schedules for NCAA and NIT here), we're welcoming Community back on Yahoo. Besides season six of the goings-on at Greendale -- here's how to watch -- Netflix has its first season of its new series Bloodline, starring Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights, and coming from the team that brought you Damages -- and once you're through with that, Mad Men season seven is coming on Sunday. Fox's Empire wraps up its first season this week, along with finales from Glee, Girls, The Musketeers, Looking and Nightwatch. Troop Beverly Hills makes its long-awaited (by me) debut on Blu-ray to go along with Top Five, My Girl, Halo: Nightfall and Annie. Last but not least, gamers can choose from the Battlefield Hardline spin-off and a few remasterings with Devil May Cry Definitive Edition, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Jamestown+ and Bladestorm: Nightmare. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Yahoo explains how you'll watch 'Community' season six
We're just days away from the debut of the new season of Community, but the move from NBC to Yahoo changes some things. In the US, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia you'll be able to watch on Yahoo Screen via PC, or apps (US only) on Apple TV, Roku and Xbox 360. So far broadcasters have also been announced for the UK (SET) and Australia (Stan), but there's no word on other countries. Of course, if you're at SXSW, Yahoo will be premiering the first episode a couple of days early on Saturday night. If there's still any confusion -- or if you're just getting ready for Seinfeld -- check after the break for the Community trailer, and a quick how-to from Gillian Jacobs (trust us, she doesn't Britta it) ahead of the premiere March 17th.
Here's the trailer for season six of 'Community' on Yahoo Screen
Community will get its 13-episode sixth season (and eventually, maybe a movie?) on Yahoo Screen October 19th March 17th, and now we have the first trailer. It looks like the gang are up to their usual Dan Harmon-written schemes, but it's still missing something without Troy, Shirley and Pierce. Fortunately the rest of the cast is in their usual places, and the trailer even makes light of some of the missing members. Overall, Greendale doesn't seem any worse for wear after jumping to the internet, er, Age of Yahoo, so we guess that $2 million per episode budget is holding up. Our only question now: will we see Yahoo Screen apps for a few more connected TV devices by the time the show debuts?
