Daily Roundup: Surface 3 and Alcatel OneTouch Watch reviews and more!
In today's Daily Roundup, find out what we think about Microsoft's latest laptop / tablet hybrid, the Surface 3. You can also read our review of the Alcatel OneTouch Watch and see a high definition video of SpaceX's attempt at landing a rocket on its drone barge.
Surface 3 review: Finally, a cheap Surface you'd actually want
Once again, the third time's the charm for Microsoft's Surface lineup - for the most part. Last year's Surface Pro 3 was the software giant's most compelling implementation yet of its hybrid laptop/tablet concept. Now we have the Surface 3, the third entry in its cheaper Surface lineup. And while it may look similar to its predecessors, it's actually a completely different beast. It's a $499 Surface tablet that can actually run all of the Windows programs you're used to, not just Windows 8 apps.
Alcatel OneTouch Watch review: No beginner's luck here
The Alcatel OneTouch name doesn't exactly conjure up images of premium, fashion-forward devices, but that hasn't stopped the company from dreaming big with its first smartwatch. To add steam to the Alcatel OneTouch Watch hype train, the company's design brass went as far as telling our own Richard Lai that the company's gunning to be the Zara of the wearable world. Not a style guru? Essentially, Alcatel's been trying to cook up a fashion-forward smartwatch without a price tag that'll make your wallet groan.
Here's video of SpaceX's rocket landing, and the explosion
Yesterday SpaceX made another unsuccessful try at landing a Falcon 9 first stage on a barge in the ocean, but the fuzzy Vine clip posted cut off right before things got exciting. Today, the company posted a longer, higher res video. Now, you can see exactly what happens when one of those 200-foot tall rockets misses the mark.
The beautiful cyberpunk game that turned two brothers into developers
Tim and Adrien Soret, brothers from Paris, were quietly developing a Studio Ghibli-inspired dark fantasy game when the Cyberpunk Jam digitally rolled into town in early 2014. They took a break from their existing development schedule to build a completely new experience, a pixelated, neon-infused, sci-fi homage to some of their favorite childhood titles - Another World, Flashback and Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee.
Huawei's flagship P8 smartphone is all about the fancy camera
Huawei's come a long way since it shook its ODM label and started making devices for consumers, too. It's now the fourth biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world, and in the past year, we've seen the company unveil new phones big and small, as well as new wearables including an Android Wear smartwatch. Aside from a few special-edition variants, though, the Ascend P7 has remained Huawei's flagship product for almost a year, so it's high time for a successor to take that mantle.
Mario Kart 8's super-fast 200cc class almost made me puke
It could've been the latent heatstroke setting in from the three days I spent tut-tutting millennials under my breath at Coachella, or the five coffees I'd drunk to sustain some form of consciousness. But when I finished playing a demo of the new 200cc level in Mario Kart 8 with some folks from Nintendo on Monday, my eyes felt looser in their sockets and a barely containable feeling of nausea lingered in my gut for about an hour.
Chess champ's high-tech cheating scheme involved an iPod touch
Georgian chess champion Gaioz Nigalidze has been kicked out and banned from the Dubai Open Chess Tournament after he was caught cheating. What exactly did he do, you ask? Well, he got help from a chess app running on an iPod touch. His opponent, Armenian grandmaster Tigran Petrosian, grew suspicious as Nigalidze literally ran to the toilet a few times (remember, a match can go on for hours) and visited the same cubicle.
