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E3 2024 and 2025 aren't canceled (yet)
An LA commission said the in-person shows were done, but the ESA says otherwise.
Lego adds Luigi and collaborative play to its Super Mario World line
You're not just getting a brother, you're getting two-player Lego Mario levels.
Steam improves support for game streaming through GeForce Now
Steam's Cloud Play service is back on the agenda.
Petcube's Bites 2 and Play 2 are smart speakers in disguise
Unsurprisingly, most smart-home gadgets are fairly human-centric. But what about all the furbags that live with us? Don't they deserve a little slice of the connected dream? Petcube certainly thinks so. The company has two pet-camera products, the Bites and the Play. The former lets you sling treats at your cat or dog, while the latter has a laser allowing you to "play" with them remotely. Both models have just been refreshed, with a few interesting upgrades: a wider camera view (180 degrees, up from 138) and Alexa baked in. They're available starting today.
Netflix is turning Broadway's 'Boys in the Band' into a film
Netflix doesn't have much in the way of theater productions on its streaming platform, with Bruce Springsteen's one-man Broadway show perhaps being the most notable. However, the service is drawing from the stage for an upcoming movie, as it's set to adapt the play The Boys in the Band.
Honor's affordable gaming phone is designed for 'PUBG'
Honor, a spin-off brand from Huawei, makes decent middleweight smartphones that are often, well, kind-of unremarkable. This time is different. Honor is going after a specific smartphone audience: The mobile gamer -- especially if you're into PUBG Mobile. The Honor Play was officially unveiled at IFA today, and all the major features are aggressively aimed at gamers. While there are no plans for a US release, the Play is priced keenly enough, at 329 euros (roughly $380) that, heck, some mobile gamers might even bite.
The latest Philips Hue lighting kits bring color to your walls
Signify's Philips Hue lights can certainly be used to illuminate your walls, but they're not usually meant for it. Even LightStrips are intended more as accents than room-defining centerpieces. That's where the company's latest kits might come to the rescue. The Hue Play (below) and Hue Signe (above) are expressly designed to bounce colored light off your walls and provide floor-to-ceiling ambiance. The Play is a compact, upward-facing bar that can give your TV viewing sessions a glow without the glare of a bulb souring the experience, while the Signe is a vertical fixture that's built to blend in with your furnishings without taking up a massive footprint.
Oculus is bringing live VR theater to your face
When you think about it, VR is ideal for the theatrical world: you'll always have the best seats in the house, and you can interact with the play without stepping on a stage. And now, Oculus wants to take advantage of that creative freedom. In an interview with CNET, the company's Yelena Rachitsky revealed that the company is working on an immersive theater format where VR lets you interact with live actors. The concept isn't strictly new (there have been VR performances before), but Oculus' approach would maintain that interactivity without being limited to performances that happen in one place.
Google cracks down on apps with shady lock screen ads
Following years of complaints by users, Google is cracking down on Android apps that show shady ads on your lock screen, according to a new developer policy spotted by Android Police. That includes very popular ones like ES File Explorer, which has over 100 million downloads to date. They often force annoying, obtrusive and even spyware ads to pop up for games, iffy anti-virus tools and other dreck.
Fender Play doesn't judge -- it just teaches you guitar
If you ask Ethan Kaplan, chief product officer of digital at Fender, about the death of the electric guitar, he gets a bit incredulous. And it's easy to understand why. As he's quick to point out, "for some reason, there's still a guitar on every stage." But while he's adamant his company and the industry is perfectly healthy, it's clear some of the cultural cachet of the guitar has dried up. Fender is hoping to turn the tides.
The first livestreamed Broadway show is happening June 30th
There have been theatre and opera performances streamed live over the internet before, but until now the famous Broadway stages have been off limits. That will change June 30th, when BroadwayHD streams She Loves Me to customers not in a movie theater, but at home or on the go. The Roundabout Theater Company production features familiar names from TV like Zachary Levi and Jane Krakowski, and will be available both live and afterwards via video on-demand. BroadwayHD has been streaming replays since late last year, and has apps available for both the new Apple TV and Roku (PC and mobile viewers will need to watch on their web browser.)
Google Play warns you when apps contain ads
Google rolled out a new labelling scheme to its Play store on Thursday that prominently indicates that an app contains advertisements of any kind. It's the same sort of warning label you see for apps that contain in-game purchases and applies to every category in the store. Presumably, the neophyte Podcast section will be exempt from the new labelling rules.
Podcasts are showing up in Google Play Music for some users
Yesterday, HBO's Bill Simmons tipped the arrival of podcasts in Google Play Music this month, and the launch appears to be close at hand. In fact, Android Police reports that podcasts are showing up inside the app for a few users. Google revealed its plans to bring the episodic audio content to its app back in October, but there was no word on a launch date or how they would work with the existing software. Thanks to an apparent server issue during the test phase, we now have a pretty good idea of what to expect.
'Resident Evil' the play is better than I expected
The first Resident Evil games were my favorites. With comically bad dialogue like the now infamous "Jill sandwich" meme, tension built on scare tactics, gore and the thrill of a shotgun blast, simpler was better, or at least more fun. As soon as the franchise started to take itself too seriously, I stopped paying attention. So when Capcom decided to make the video game horror franchise into a stage play, I feared it'd either steer straight into closed-space melodrama (i.e., actors trapped in a room; one has a dark secret) or that it'd simply have little to no relevance to Resident Evil. So, with trepidation, I went to see Biohazard: The Stage (the series' title here in Japan) when it opened for a limited one-week run right before Halloween. Was I going to be bored to tears? Despite an unnecessarily fashionable Tyrant and a severe lack of blood, I was hooked for all two-and-a-half hours of it. And that even included a pop-dance interlude.
Google's redesigned Play store starts rolling out
After being teased last week by Google engineer Kirill Grouchnikov, the redesigned Play store has apparently started showing up on some Android devices. Android Central says the new mobile shop for apps, books, music, movies and more, which features a simplified tab-based interface, hit one of its smartphones last night. We checked ours to no avail, so you shouldn't freak out if it's not on yours either. Now that it's out there for certain people, it won't be too long before everyone can begin using it. Patience is a virtue.
Sonos app hints at new speaker with gesture control
Keeping your new product secret until launch is a tricky business. Especially when you want to co-launch an update to your mobile app with renders and guides for said new product. A beta version of the Sonos app popped up online, and was promptly unpacked, and sifted through over at Zatznotfunny -- revealing images of a speaker not in the current Sonos range. The renders offer no sense of scale, so it's hard to say if the device could be something like a Play:6, or whether one of the (now years old) existing products is getting a facelift -- but there's definitely a sleeker, more modern design language going on. Perhaps most interesting, is that the renders hint at swipe/gesture control in lieu of buttons. Always (and literally) a nice touch. Right now that's all we have to go on, but we like what we see.
Google's bringing sponsored app placements to the Play Store
Google is about to allow software companies to promote their apps on the Android Play Store, a space that was previously off-limits for advertising. That means alongside regular search results, you'll soon see apps from companies with the biggest marketing budgets. The search giant has pitched it as a way to "provide consumers new ways to discover apps that they otherwise might have missed" while letting vendors raise the profile of apps that'd normally get buried. As the WSJ put it, however, the new tactic is also a way for Google to sell more advertising in the face of slowing sales.
Amazon's Android app has quietly been removed from Google Play
When Amazon updated its primary Android app with an "Apps & Games" section, it was a milestone in third-party distribution: Finally, you could access Amazon's library of applications without sidestepping Google Play. It didn't last long -- Amazon's app store mysteriously disappeared from Google Play this week. Well sort of. The URL for the Amazon app's product page is still active, but it's no longer searchable from within Google Play. Why the sudden return to the status quo? It's exactly what you'd expect: Google didn't like facing competition from within its own app store.
Performances from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre are available online
If you don't have the cash or time to visit the recreated Globe Theatre and see Shakespeare's plays performed in a near-original setting, you'll at least have access to the next best thing. The playhouse has just launched Globe Player, a store that lets you pay to watch full Shakespearean performances anywhere in the world. You can rent videos for a week (typically £4, or about $6) if you're content to stream through the web; if you just have to keep that copy of Twelfth Night for posterity, buying the video (£8/$13) gives you a download that you can transfer to many modern devices. While the catalog is still thin at present (what, no Titus Andronicus?), there are quite a few classics to get you started. This won't compare to the full experience of seeing two hours' traffic on the stage, but it should do a good job of bringing those Elizabethan era verses to life.
Google Play officially extends return window to two hours
While Google already had been offering an extended two-hour window for app and game returns, the outfit has officially acknowledged the change. Before the switch, Android users had 15 minutes to decide whether or not they wanted to keep software they'd just purchased. From the title's page in Google Play, options for Open and Refund are displayed during the 120-minute period following the initial download. Once that time is up though, you're saddled with it for good as Refund is replaced the Uninstall button. Don't expect to get multiple refunds for the same app, either. Once you've received your funds back, if you choose to splurge for the same selection again, you can't return it a second time.
