haven
Latest
Former Stadia chief Jade Raymond is making a new game for PlayStation
Raymond has opened an independent studio with backing from Sony.
Gorgeous RPG 'Haven' expands to Switch and PS4 on February 4th
It'll land on the Epic Games Store on the same day.
Amazon's Haven healthcare venture is reportedly disbanding
Three years after Amazon started a healthcare venture with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, the trio have decided to call it quits.
The Xbox Summer Game Fest demo event starts July 21st
You can get an early look at dozens of upcoming games.
Ecobee expands its smart home lineup with a camera and more sensors
Ecobee's smart home monitoring system can change your device settings automatically.
Edward Snowden's Haven app uses your phone to detect intruders
Forget phone calls — a new app from The Guardian Project, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and Edward Snowden aims to turn Android smartphones into tiny, unobtrusive security systems. Haven, released today in public beta, was designed to use a phone's built-in sensors to track sudden changes in the environment around it. Let's say you'd like to keep tabs on a room while you're away from it — the app can direct compatible devices to record unexpected sounds, look out for changes in ambient light, and notice if it's being picked up or tampered with. You can even prop the phone up and set up the camera for use as a motion tracker, just for good measure.
Engadget Daily: Haven's barricade-style smart lock, Nissan's electric pickup truck and more!
Need to catch up on the last 24 hours of tech news? Read on for our daily highlights, including Nissan's EV pickup truck, a heavy-duty smart lock that can withstand a battering ram, the deal with Apple's iOS 8 bugs and more.
Crowdfunding Roundup: Unbreakable smart door locks and powerful purses
Each week, TUAW provides readers with an update on new or significant crowdfunded Apple-related projects in the news. While our policy is to not go into detail on items that haven't reached at least 80 percent of their funding goal, this update is designed to give readers a heads-up on projects they might find interesting enough to back. Being a fan of both home security and smartphone-controlled locks, I was very intrigued with this week's first entry. Haven is something a bit different for a lock, replacing the standard deadbolt with a wedge that is almost impossible to budge once it's locked. They show that about the only way you're going to get in through a door locked with Haven is with an axe ... and only after a lot of work. The project is 17 percent funded with a month to go, but I think this is worthy of support. Now, I can actually say that I have seen everything. Digitsole is a campaign (and Kickstarter Staff Pick) that brings the world of connected devices to your feet. It's a "connected insole", used to warm your feet, track your distance, and count how many calories you've burned. Digitsole is funded, currently at 154 percent of goal with over a month to go. Now for a couple of game projects. First up is Paradigm, billed as a surreal adventure game set in "post apocalyptic Eastern Europe with an ugly mutant protagonist and an evil sloth antagonist." Some of the backers will actually have their likeness included in the game, and there are other benefits if you put your wallet behind this project. It's currently at 172 percent funding with 11 days to go. Our other game is an awesome role-playing game called Star Traders 2. The team behind the project says "We've mingled inspirations from genre-defining series like Firefly and Battlestar Galactica, books like Dune, and games like Mass Effect, Pirates!, and Dwarf Fortress." The primary inspiration? The original Star Traders RPG. It's 69 percent funded with only 8 days to go. Come on, gamers! And now something for our more fashionable geekettes: Everpurse, a stylish purse with a charging dock built into it. Just slide your iPhone 5 or 6 (not sure it's big enough for the 6 Plus) into the charging pocket and you'll get up to 96 hours of juice. When the purse itself needs a charge, just drop it onto a tray for wireless charging. Unfortunately, Everpurse is only 6 percent funded with a month to go in the campaign. Step it up, ladies! I like seeing projects that are over goal and just about ready to launch. That's the case with Verve2, by inXus interactive out of Irvine, CA. Verve2 is billed as "LEGOs of the future" allowing you to "Create amazing projects by plugging the world around you to your computer or internet." It comes with a pile of sensors; force, touch, pushbutton, light, turn, motion, magnet, sound, and temperature. There's also a DIY sensor! It's perfect for students or anyone who wants to futz around with stuff. It's 301 percent funded with just 4 days to go. Last this week is another educational project, this one aimed at girls to get them interested in coding. Vidcode lets girls learn programming by letting them create video effects with code. The Kickstarter campaign will let the developers create more content for Vidcode users and deliver the first real product to schools. But this project needs your help, as it's only 43 percent funded with 26 days to go. Let's push it over the top! We'll be back next Thursday for another roundup of crowdfunded projects that you can support or ignore. Many thanks again to Hal Sherman for providing some tips about new and exciting projects, and if you're aware of any other crowdfunded Apple-related projects, be sure to let us know about them through the Tip Us button at the upper right of the TUAW home page for future listing on the site.
Gears of War: Judgment's Execution mode, Haven map free after launch
Gears of War: Judgment gets two pieces of free, downloadable content a few weeks after the game launches on March 19: The Haven multiplayer map and Execution mode, both scheduled to hit Xbox Live on April 2.Haven is a frozen, ancient monastery in the Azura mountains, featuring an asymmetrical, circular layout with all paths leading to the center. Lead level designer Jim Brown says "nowhere is really safe" in Haven. "It makes for especially hectic Domination games because the rings are easy to access and difficult to defend."Execution mode has players attempt to kill every member of the opposing team before time runs out, though unless hit with a one-shot-kill weapon (see: Booshka) or a follow-up execution move, enemies will enter a "Down But Not Out" state, where they will revive after a period of time. Gotta get that doubletap.Oh, and both of these pieces of DLC are sponsored by Maxim, for some reason.
Fallen Earth dev blog details Haven revamp
It's been a month or so since we've heard from the folks working on Fallen Earth. Today, that news drought ends courtesy of a dev blog by one Ninjanomics. The update is all about the changes in store for the town of Haven. Given the fact that the town is one of the more prominent features of the Northfields area, and given that it "had a confusing layout, was cruelly prohibitive to framerate, and didn't well reflect the serenity of the Lightbearers as a faction," the devs thought it was time for an extreme makeover. Ninjanomics (also known as GamersFirst's art ninja) walks us through the rebuild process and details both the stylistic and the layout changes to the town. The original design had "no logical flow to speak of," which led G1 artists to divide Haven into two sections: the town proper and a grove area. As a result, the new Haven experience is markedly smoother for weary wasteland wanderers and fans of Fallen Earth's free-to-play sandpark ambiance.
Must See HDTV (December 5th - 11th)
All you have to do is look at the calendar to know we're suddenly going to be buried under a deluge of holiday-season-specific programming. Of course, it's not all Michael Buble's Christmas Special, with unlikely sources like Syfy channel tossing in their efforts. While cable shows like Sons of Anarchy, Boss, and Boardwalk Empire wrap their seasons up, we also have a few new entries in the form of Luck, Moonshiners, and Invention USA. Check below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listings of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames. Sons of Anarchy It's been yet another explosive season for the boys of SAMCRO, and now it's coming to an end. As is standard for the show, main character Jax is finding himself caught between the law, rival gangs, and the loyalty to his mother, wife, and best friend, all pulling in different directions. We don't know if he will avenge his father's death in the season finale, or if the entire motorcycle club will end up in jail first, but you can bet we'll be watching to find out. (December 6th, FX, 10PM) Spike TV Videogame Awards 2011 We haven't been a big fan of the Spike Videogame Award's presentation in the past, but with the promise of a peek at BioWare's next project and an Advisory Council that again includes our good friend and Joystiq EIC Chris Grant voting on the winners, maybe this is the year things get turned around. Videogames and the people who make them deserve their due like any other industry, and Spike is at least making an effort to make sure that happens. One of the other tweaks for the 2011 show is a focus on augmented reality, so that's another thing to keep an eye out for during the broadcast. (December 10th, Spike, 8PM) Eureka / Warehouse 13 / Haven For some people it takes see It's A Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, or Peanuts to get in the holiday spirit, but if you're a fan science fiction shows then you'll want to know these are all checking in with special holiday episodes Tuesday night. As silly as Syfy's name change has been, these shows have at least maintained, if not increased, their level of quality and have dedicated audiences. The special episodes are dropping in sort of out of the blue so we don't know what to expect, but we'll give them a look -- check out a sneak peek embedded after the break.
CCP reveals World of Darkness details to bloodthirsty fans
Details about CCP's World of Darkness are popping out of White Wolf's The Grand Masquerade in New Orleans this weekend, and they're definitely worth draining for every last sweet drop of... information. While the game is still in pre-production -- and as such, nothing is set in stone -- the devs weren't hesitant to dish out a lot of the ideas and features that they hope will make this the best vampire MMO to date. It's CCP's desire to emulate LARPing (live-action roleplaying) as much as possible with World of Darkness, with plenty of metaplots running inside the game and without. Players will begin as a mortal human who can make the choice to become a kindred (vampire) or stay mortal for the duration of their characters' lives. There's a very real danger that characters might experience "final death" -- permadeath -- if they take too many risks. If you get in over your head, you can retreat to your character's Haven for safety. The entire game will take place at night and on one server, and CCP is definitely aiming it toward the hardcore set. Nudity, gore, and insanity effects are all par for the course. If players push outside of the acceptable boundaries too often, they'll lose "humanity" points and could become flagged for constant attack by other players and NPCs. Play your cards right and you may become the prince of the city. The game will change over time with dynamic events, and CCP promises that there will be real consequences for player decisions. Look for our World of Darkness interview with CCP coming later this week. [Thanks Pilgrim for the tip!]
The Tattered Notebook: Mask of the betrayer
You know, there's something decidedly ironic about playing a rat in an MMORPG, particularly in a themepark grinder like EverQuest II (and before anyone burns me at the stake, it's a good themepark grinder, I'm positively in love with it). The parallels are almost too perfect. Rats chase cheese and players chase digital carrots, running around a pre-defined maze with numerous boundaries, roadblocks, and invisible walls just like your average lab rodent. Luckily EQII camouflages these minor irritations better than most games, even on fairly grinderific content like the city betrayal quest series. Yes, I've returned to playing my ratonga after a week of cheating on him with a shiny new shadowknight, and I've finally managed to move his furry little butt away from the abusive stylings of Freeport to a comfy little four-room rat hole off the side streets of South Qeynos. Turn the page for more on his journey and thumb through his gallery below. %Gallery-98135%
The Pirate Bay eying Sealand to escape digital persecution
While Sweden (and Russia, to name a few) has long been a country of choice when it came to hosting less-than-upstanding websites, the head honchos around the globe looking out for their precious content have somehow reached The Pirate Bay, and now the popular torrent tracking site is eying the micronation of Sealand as a safe haven for its dubious hosting needs. Sealand, which is loosely claimed as a principality, features its own flag, coat of arms, currency, stamps, passports, and most importantly, a quasi-coat of armor from any nation's laws. Although the background of 5,920-square foot man-made installation off the shore of Suffolk, England is quite remarkable, TPB sees its two massive columns as a perfect place for future hosting duties. Formerly the home of HavenCo, an off-shore hosting company that housed gambling sites, money transferring liaisons, and any other operation looking for internet freedom, Sealand could be a potential sanctuary from the claws of the RIAA, MPAA, and other content "owners." Although a principality can't legally (saywha?) be "sold," the family in possession of it recently began accepting offers "upwards of eight figures" for a transfer of ownership after (quite literally) holding down the fort since 1967, and while we highly doubt a fundraiser can scrape up that kind of loot anytime soon, nor do we believe it'd stop the barrage of content guardians, we must say the location looks like an excellent place to just get away from it all (including lawyers) -- if only for awhile.[Thanks, iamsoinsane, photo courtesy Kim Gilmour]
