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Huawei is suing French critics who say it's tied to the Chinese state
Huawei is taking a more aggressive stance against critics who say it has ties to the Chinese government, according to Bloomberg and French investigative site La Lettre A. The telecom giant has filed three defamation suits in France against a French researcher, broadcast journalist and wireless network expert, all of whom made comments on different television programs. Huawei has confirmed that the claims were filed back in March.
Thor wants to help you with those 2019 health goals
You might chalk up actor Chris Hemsworth's ripped physique to perfect genetics and unlimited access to the best personal trainers in the world. However, for a price, Thor is now willing to share one of those advantages in a small way with an app called Centr. It works as a fitness and nutrition guide, giving you access to Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky, along with his personal trainer, stuntman Bobby Holland and many, many other experts. "My goal was to build a program that takes the guesswork and excuses out of training, eating and living well," he wrote on Instagram.
The Daily Grind: How do you define MMO expertise?
MMO expertise is hard to define nowadays. See, back when there were three or four titles in the genre, it was easy (if time-consuming) to style yourself as an expert. In 2013, there's a new MMO released every other week, and so it's quite challenging to keep track of them all, let alone play more than a handful at a time or know a title's mechanics inside and out. Massively's writers and livestreamers are mostly generalists, with a couple of exceptions, meaning that we play a huge variety of games at the cost of knowing everything there is to know about one or two of them. What about you, comment crew? Do you consider yourself an expert on certain titles or on the genre as a whole? How do you define MMO expertise? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Soapbox: On armchair development
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. A couple of weeks ago I penned a Soapbox that, to put it mildly, elicited passionate responses. While a few people sided with me in my belief that MMO combat is silly and sucky, the cries of the masses drowned us out with variations on "you know nothing, Jon Snow" and "go back to consoles, you inexperienced newb!" Some of the responses got me to thinking about game design in general and about game designers and their cult celebrity status in particular. When you cut through the anonymous insults and keyboard courage, most of my would-be critics were actually right about one thing: I'm not a game "developer." You know what's funny, though? That doesn't make a lick of difference when it comes to the ability to talk intelligently about games and game design.
Cellphones are dangerous / not dangerous: little tykes under the spotlight
In the rough and tumble debate surrounding the mobile phone's ability to cause cancer, both sides agree that our young ones -- indeed, some of the heaviest users -- could be at an increased risk for cellular-induced tumors. According to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the radio emissions from mobile devices penetrate much deeper into the brains of children, and in the case of little tykes ages five to eight, their noggins will absorb twice the energy of the average adult. This, combined with their developing nervous systems, has brought concern for the welfare of our youngest mobile-savvy citizens, and led to a European study of nearly 1,000 (informed?) participants. Data was gathered over a four-year period, which relied upon self-reporting methods, where youngsters were found to not talk very often, and typically sent text messages instead -- big surprise, right? While long-term risks remain unknown, the researchers conclude that "a large and immediate risk of cellphones causing brain tumors in children can be excluded." In other words: little Suzy won't begin sprouting cancer cells overnight. While you doting parents may find comfort in the latest research, you might consider stopping short of giving the mischievous rascal an unlimited voice plan. After all, gossip still spreads best at the school yard. [Image courtesy Derek Olson (flickr)]
Cellphones are dangerous / not dangerous: Danish chatterbox edition
Concerned that a decade and a half of regular cellphone will have a long-term effect on your health? Hopefully the latest study conducted by members of the World Health Organization (WHO) will put your mind at ease. The examination followed nearly 3 million Danish adults, studying links between phone use and the formation of acoustic neuromas -- non-cancerous, slow-growing brain tumors that form on the main nerve that connects the inner ear to the brain. The study concluded that people who've used a handset for 11-15 years weren't any more likely to develop a tumor than those who don't use cellphones at all, though scientists are unsure that this is a long enough period of time to determine a significant correlation (or lack thereof). Still, this comes as refreshing news two months after the WHO released a study revealing that RF waves coming from phones are "potentially carcinogenic," due to a limited link to glioma and acoustic neuroma. Of course, none of these reports can actually conclude that cellphones cause cancer -- only that the two may be correlated. So, what does this latest study really do? It legitimizes the need to conduct more studies.
Cellphones are dangerous / not dangerous: cancer experts say 'What, me worry?'
If you haven't already gotten whiplash from the ongoing cellphone-cancer debate, a freshly released scientific review might just do the trick. In the paper, published Friday, a panel of experts from Britain, Sweden and the US conducted a thorough survey of previous studies, before concluding that existing literature is "increasingly against" the theory that cellphone use causes brain tumors in adults. The researchers also questioned the biological mechanisms underpinning this hypothesis, while acknowledging some lingering uncertainties, since data on childhood tumors and longer-term research are still lacking. The results come just a few weeks after the World Health Organization released its own literature review, in which it claimed that cell phones should be considered "potentially carcinogenic." But Anthony Swerdlow, a professor at Britain's Institute of Cancer Research and leader of the most recent investigation, said his group's work doesn't necessarily contradict the WHO, since the latter was simply seeking to evaluate cancer risks according to its own "pre-set classification system" -- under which things like pickled vegetables and coffee are also considered "potentially carcinogenic." Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that the debate will die down anytime soon, though Swerdlow expects more definitive conclusions within the next few years -- assuming, of course, that all of our brains haven't turned to oatmeal by then.
BBC assembles experts to comment on Sony crisis
The fact that it's been one of the worst couple of weeks for Sony -- and its customers -- cannot be disputed. However, the future of this crisis, which started a couple of weeks ago when Sony's network was hacked and user information was stolen, is anybody's guess. As such, BBC News assembled a panel of four industry experts to comment on the situation and speculate where Sony might go from here. Richard Merrin, a PR director, said that Sony demonstrated both the worst and best ways to respond to a crisis: "In the first instance, Sony waited ten days before telling users what was happening, which is a classic error in terms of communications. It knocked consumer [confidence] and damaged Sony's reputation. But with the second incident, it has acted extremely quickly and seems to be following the four golden rules in crisis PR -- to be open, honest, transparent and fast." "In terms of PR, I think Sony can turn it around," said ComputerandVideoGames.com's Tim Ingham. "Consumers are often quickly outraged by this sort of wobble from a global corporation -- but we tend to have short memories if we're not personally damaged by a given incident." The security expert, Sophos' Graham Cluley, said this doesn't change how users should protect themselves: "People need to be more careful with their passwords and make sure that they have different passwords for different online accounts." You can read the rest of the comments at BBC News.
Apple 'experts' coming to a store near you
Along with the "Geniuses" and "Creatives" currently available at the Apple Store, there's a new type of employee that'll be wandering the store floors. Apple "Experts" are set to debut in about two weeks at retail locations around the country. The men and women selected as Experts will move up into what seems like a more elite sales position, with their jobs being not only to educate the incoming public about everything Macs can do for them, but to "create the next generation of Apple fans" -- in other words, sell as many computers as they can. 2010 should be an interesting year for Apple retail -- not only do they have that prototype store planned in Palo Alto, but they're working on growing some of their locations as well and trying to build up more "flagship" stores like New York's Fifth Avenue store and Chicago's Michigan Avenue location. Sounds good to us; visiting the Apple Store is always interesting, and if they're planning to mix it up even more, we look forward to the surprises. [via AppleInsider]
The fastest way to play Arena PvP
We've covered the topic of keyboard turners before, but Paul over on LJ has a similar distinction between control schemes -- he set up a spectrum that has clickers (or those who click all their icons with the mouse) on one end, and pressers (what he called "experts," though that's a little too biased for our tastes) on the other -- those who use the mouse to control movement only, and hit keyboard buttons to use abilities.Personally, I do a mixture of both -- some icons, especially on the top rows, are easier to reach with the mouse than on the keyboard, so I click them. But most of the lower icons are easier to just reach up and click the number buttons on the keyboard, so that's what I do with those. Still Paul isn't really interested in the ways people do it -- he's interested in what's best. In Arena, getting abilities cast and out as fast as possible is often more important than anything else, so it definitely seems like relying on the mouse for movement (and maybe even binding oft-used abilities to mouse keys) would be much faster than clicking on icons periodically. Of course, there's always the option to do both at the same time.It would be interesting for sure to see what kind of schemes and setups winning Arena teams use -- I'd imagine that they'd have to play with default interfaces, so while keybindings and macros would probably work best, they wouldn't be able to go too overboard with customization. At the highest levels, is it faster to click and press or just use the mouse for movement?
