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The FBI operated an 'encrypted' chat app for organized criminals
The FBI secretly ran an encrypted chat app, known as Anom, as part of a global sting operation.
Cambridge Analytica caught on tape proposing blackmail, propaganda
It has only been a few days since Facebook pulled access from Cambridge Analytica and some of its associates -- for allegedly retaining data on millions of accounts that it pulled in via a "personality" app in 2014 -- but the scrutiny around both companies continues to intensify. Today, UK's Channel 4 aired the results of an undercover investigation that shows Cambridge Analytica representatives -- including CEO Alexander Nix -- talking about how its strategies have worked in more than two hundred elections around the world, saying that employees can be disguised as researchers, and even using sex workers to entrap political opponents. In a statement, Cambridge Analytica said that "Assessing the legality and reputational risks associated with new projects is critical for us, and we routinely undertake conversations with prospective clients to try to tease out any unethical or illegal intentions. The two Cambridge Analytica executives at the meeting humoured these questions and actively encouraged the prospective client to disclose his intentions. They left with grave concerns and did not meet with him again." Said Nix, "In playing along with this line of conversation, and partly to spare our 'client' from embarrassment, we entertained a series of ludicrous hypothetical scenarios. I am aware how this looks, but it is simply not the case. I must emphatically state that Cambridge Analytica does not condone or engage in entrapment, bribes or so-called 'honeytraps', and nor does it use untrue material for any purpose."
Sting is the narrator in 'Where the Water Tastes Like Wine'
When the story trailer for Where the Water Tastes Like Wine dropped in August, it featured the voice of one of the most prolific and famous singers of the past forty years -- and no one noticed. Sting, the lead singer and bassist of the Police and a successful solo artist in his own right, voices the wolf in Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, which basically makes him the narrator of the entire game.
Australian police posed as child abusers for a dark web sting
Where do you draw the line when trying to catch child abusers? That's what authorities have to decide when they run sting operations on the dark web. When Norwegian newspaper VG investigated one of the biggest child exploitation sites on the dark web, Child's Play, they found that it had been run by Australian police for three months. The special unit out of Brisbane, dubbed Argos, had undercover detectives posting and sharing abuse materials on the site. The newspaper held off on reporting until now, a year later, to allow the police to finish its investigation.
Scientists use synthetic skin to test box jelly sting remedies
Box Jellyfish kill more people worldwide each year than sharks. That's why a team of researchers from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa are working to develop an effective first aid treatment for the jelly's deadly toxins -- and they're trying just about everything. From the popular myth of urinating on stings to vinegar/hot water immersions and commercial cures like StingNoMore, no remedy out of bounds. But how do you test these treatments without trying them on humans? You make your own synthetic skin, obviously.
Get double the Sting for pre-ordering WWE 2K15
Iconic WCW wrestler Sting was revealed as a pre-order bonus for WWE 2K15 during last night's episode of Monday Night Raw. Both Sting's blonde-haired "surfer" gimmick from the late 1980s and early 1990s as well as his black and white-painted "crow" outfit will be available to play in the game by pre-order customers. WWE 2K15 will launch October 28 in North America and October 31 internationally for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3. It's the first WWE game to debut on the next-generation systems, and also the first to be co-developed by series veterans Yukes and Visual Concepts, developer of the NBA 2K basketball series. The game's cover will feature John Cena, though it's unknown if 2K Sports will wise up and put Sting on the cover for pre-order buyers. [Image: 2K Sports]
Let your soul be your pilot to this new Awesomenauts map
Awesomenauts' patch 1.17, now available on Steam, adds two new skins and a map called Aiguillon, which is the French word for "Sting." We're not sure why a map dedicated to a great English songwriter is outfitted with a stealth orb powerup and lots of insect imagery, but -- wait. We just got it.
Lady Gaga to release album as iPhone, iPad app
Regular viewers of TUAW TV Live know what a HUGE Lady Gaga fan I am, so when I saw this story I jumped on the chance of bringing you the latest news about the "Queen of Pop." And this time news is Apple-related; instead of wearing a meat dress, Lady Gaga is releasing her next album Artpop as an iPhone and iPad app. She's not the first pop artist to go the app route. Björk released an "app album" last year, and Sting celebrated his 60th birthday with the recent release of Sting 25, an "appumentary" of the last 25 years of his career. While I know that all of you are ready to jump into the App Store and buy Artpop, you'll have to wait until the Spring of 2013. Gaga, in a post on her Little Monsters social networking site, said that the interactive album/app/art project/self-indulgence includes "chats, films for every song, extra music, content, gaga inspired games, fashion updates, magazines, and more." She left the best for last, though: Remember to pester Mom and Dad for an iPad for Christmas!
New Gungnir screens show off battle scenes, dialogue
New screens from the upcoming strategy RPG game Gungnir show in-game battles and dialogue. The Sting-developed title will launch on June 12 for PSP.
Among Japanese developers, Sting quietly thrives
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. In late 2008, Sony released the PSP-3000, giving me the perfect excuse to finally pick one up. When I got home later that day, I did what anyone with a new system does – I started downloading demos.Yggdra Union was among that early handful of downloads. I picked it because I liked the art style, not knowing what I was getting into. I soon discovered Yggdra Union is quite the complicated strategy RPG. There are different character types, and there are cards that dictate movement and status effects, and positioning matters too. And it didn't help that I was trying to play it in its native Japanese (though I eventually relented and found an English copy).As I later discovered, Yggdra Union is the rule rather than the exception to Sting Entertainment's ... unique design sensibilities. Almost every modern Sting RPG has some sort of interesting twist on the traditional RPG formula. Riviera: The Promised Land is part dating sim and part menu-driven point-and-click adventure, for example. Knights in the Nightmare is a strategy RPG, but it also has sequences in which you must guide a tiny wisp while avoiding a hail of bullets. Rather than simply going with what works, or the cheapest alternative, Sting has traditionally been extremely experimental, and its reward has been a small but fervent fanbase.%Gallery-152941%
Understand Gungnir better with English screens
Atlus is boldly sticking to its Gungs, advancing with its plan to release the PSP strategy RPG, Gungnir, in North America on June 12.The publisher sent out the North American box art along with a fusillade of English screenshots, allowing you to read the array of stats, gauges, and tough decisions that populate every screen. If you've played any of Sting's other strategy games, then you know to expect words and numbers from all directions. We guess that's true of any strategy game in history, now that we think about it. Numbers just all over the place.%Gallery-152941%
Atlus announces Gungnir, teases another 'G' game
Did you guess Atlus's mystery SRPG to be Gungnir for PSP? Congratulations! For your excellent guessing skills, you win ... the chance to purchase Gungnir on June 12! Atlus has officially unveiled the next game in Sting's "Dept. Heaven" series, an SRPG about a small resistance group who, in addition to fighting its rebellion, must protect a magical spear and a young woman who fell from the sky. The gameplay assigns predetermined numerical time intervals to all actions, allowing players to plot their movements precisely in terms of how long each will take. It's possible to accelerate combat actions using "tactical points." Atlus isn't done teasing yet. Immediately after announcing Gungnir, it sent another email teasing the upcoming announcement of another game whose title starts with G.%Gallery-142345%
The Road to Mordor: My love-hate relationship with Legendary Items
Second to perhaps radiance, Legendary Items have become one of the most controversial, most debated, and most divisive game features in Lord of the Rings Online since their implementation in Mines of Moria. Since their inclusion, players have discussed -- loudly -- how the system could be fixed and improved, and Turbine's made a couple of attempts at refining the feature into something we can all enjoy. And yet Legendary Items remain in that category that I like to call "love-hate," where there's almost as much to love about them as there is to loathe. I've waited a long time to write this article because the timing never felt right; either I was too new to the system to speak with any authority on it or changes were "right around the corner" or I was lazy. Take your pick. Perhaps talking about this today is beating somewhat of a dead horse in the LotRO community, but I wanted to get my thoughts out why LIs haven't quite gotten to where they need to, how they've failed, where they've succeeded, and why I pray every evening for cosmetic weapons so I can get rid of that ugly glow effect.
Pink Floyd, Sting release biography apps
Just coincidentally, I decided today to pull up some Sting on Spotify and listen to some old tracks. Turns out the musician released a big box set called Sting: 25 Years a few months ago, featuring three CDs worth of his songs, both old and remastered. And just recently, to go with that set, he's also released a companion iPad app, featuring concert footage, interviews, lyrics, handwritten notes from over the years, and lots of other biographical notes and info. You can even use AirPlay to send content to your TV while using the app, so that's pretty cool. Sting performed in New York to announce the app recently, and 9to5Mac says he performed "Fragile," dedicating the song to none other than Steve Jobs. The app looks pretty comprehensive, and thanks to some corporate sponsors, it's a free download, though a big one (442 MB). Pink Floyd also has an app out -- this one's a universal build called "This Day in Pink Floyd," and as you might imagine, it offers up news, song notes, and trivia about the classic band, with new content delivered every day. There's also an exclusive music video, some special Pink Floyd wallpapers, and even a "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" ringtone. That app is $2.99. Great to see some classic musicians like this really delivering some interesting content via the App Store. Neither app has any of the musicians' actual music in it for you to listen to (though they both allow you to play music directly from your own device's library), but as an ancillary reference, both of these are really solid.
New Hexyz Force trailer is old school
Do you love banging guitar riffs and PS1-quality MIDI music? We do too! This new Hexyz Force trailer takes a page from the '90s with its energetic, JRPG battle music playing in the background. The video highlights the two stories of Atlus' upcoming adventure game, while showcasing some of the animated cutscenes you can expect in the game. It's an incredible tribute to gaming of yesteryear.
Hexyz Force summons classic JRPG gameplay in new trailer
It's been a while since an old school JRPG has made its way to the PSP. Thankfully, Atlus is readying a new game to scratch that level grinding itch. Developed by Yggdra Union's Sting, this video has every trope you'd expect from a RPG developed in the 32 bit era. From dialog portraits to magic spells cast in turn-based battles, this video will transport you to a long-lost era of gaming. Hexyz Force is coming out on UMD on May 25th.%Gallery-89142%
Qisda's ultra high-res QCM-330 smartphone and more surface ahead of iF awards
The iF Design Awards won't officially be handed out until the big ceremony at CeBIT next month, but some of the winners have now already been announced, and they include a few surprises. One of those is this new Qisda QCM-330 smartphone, which is said to be Android-based, and packs a 4-inch, 1,280 x 1,024 screen (supposedly, although the actual resolution will likely differ given the aspect ratio), WiFi and HSDPA connectivity, a 3 megapixel camera, and an accelerometer, among other, as yet unnamed specs. It's joined by the LG GD880 we previously spotted in the wild, along with a slew of phones headed for Vodafone, including the Compass slider, and the Krystal (pictured after the break), which apparently packs displays on both sides and some augmented reality-type features (like on the fly translation of newspapers). Rounding out the lot are the decidedly more ordinary Vodafone Sting, Shilpa, Quincy and, our personal favorite, the Larry. Hit up the link below for a closer look at those.
Knights in the Nightmare heading to PSP
According to Siliconera, the latest issue of Famitsu brought great news to the loyal fans of Sting-developed strategy-RPGs: Knights in the Nightmare, a former DS exclusive, will soon be ported to the PSP. New features for the port include an animated opening title sequence and some much-needed tutorial missions. There's no official release date or word of an US localization for the title just yet -- we contacted Atlus to try and discern these details, but received a "No Comment" in return. We're as excited by this news as anyone else -- but all that multitasking in the game was pretty difficult to keep track of on two screens. The thought of trying to manage Knights' utterly perplexing combat system on a single screen is downright terrifying.
Atlus uses the Hexyz Force on PSP
Atlus sure does love the PSP, announcing two games for Sony's handheld in just as many days. Hexyz Force is a new RPG from Sting, creator of Riviera: The Promised Land and Yggdra Union. This classically-styled JRPG features two different adventures, each about (what else?) the end of the world. Atlus promises each adventure will take about 25 hours, totaling 50 hours of dungeon crawling and grinding for RPG fans. PSP owners are all too familiar with the lengthy load times for many of the system's RPGs. Thankfully, Atlus is promising "virtually no load times" for Hexyz Force. Like a console JRPG, the game will also feature twenty minutes of anime cutscenes. The UMD version is scheduled for release on May 25th, while a PSN version should follow shortly thereafter. Check out a video preview after the break.
Yggdra Unison trailer: welcome back to Dept. Heaven
Atlus released a trailer for the latest game in Sting's Dept. Heaven series, Yggdra Unison. The most notable, and weird, aspect of the trailer? The seemingly random number-writing. Rather than relating to the amount of damage your characters dish out, it's an odd holdout from the game's first life on mobile phones. Basically, each of your units is marked with a number, and on the phone version, you'd type that number to trigger that unit's part of the Unison Attack. For the DS version, the keypad is gone, but the numbers are still there. Of course, it has a long way to go before it can out-odd Knights in the Nightmare, a game in which you, as a ghost, take control of your units by possessing them.
