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GAME to host its own UK gaming tournament in stores
It's not quite Evo or The International, but today British video game retailer GAME has taken its first tentative steps into the eSports scene. The company is holding a gaming competition called "The Great UK Game Off," which will culminate in a tournament at the Insomnia gaming festival this November. Players can roll up to more than 30 stores next month and take part in six challenges based around FIFA 15, Forza Motorsport 5, Super Smash Bros, Trials HD, Mario Kart 7 and LEGO Jurassic World. The top scorers in each region will be put forward for the North and South quarter finals, with the eventual winners competing for the "ultimate champion" title and a £5,000 gift card at Insomnia.
Epic Games wants architects to make Unreal Engine more lifelike
While gaming graphics keep getting more realistic, they're still a far cry from what architects can do. That's why Unreal Engine maker Epic Games and architectural site Ronen Bekerman are marrying the two in a new competition. For the 2015 Vineyard Challenge, competitors will "interpret a modern winery setting" (of all things) in Unreal Engine 4, where they'll be judged on categories like lighting, design and interactivity. Winners will draw from "the largest cash prize in architectural visualization contest history," with a $25,000 grand prize for the group winner and a $12,500 individual award.
NASA competition pays you to design a 3D-printed habitat
If NASA is going to put humans on Mars and other distant worlds, it's going to need a place for explorers to stay -- and it wants your help building those extraterrestrial homes. The agency has launched the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, a competition to develop the best artificial housing for space exploration. The first phase of the challenge will award a $50,000 prize based on pure architectural merits, while a second will hand out two $1.1 million prizes for those who figure out how to manufacture individual components and whole shelters from "indigenous materials," such as rocky soil. NASA hopes that the winning ideas will make it possible to settle alien terrain without bringing mountains of Earth-made construction supplies. That would not only let crews pack light, but fix their own abodes if something goes wrong millions of miles from Earth. [Image credit: ESA/Foster + Partners]
Sony told off for unfair 20th Anniversary PS4 competition
To celebrate 20 years of PlayStation, Sony created 12,300 limited edition PS4 consoles and offered them to gamers all over the world. In the US, they were sold to whoever could click the buy button fast enough, but in the UK, the company took a more convoluted approach. First was the PlayStation '94 Shop in London, where 94 consoles were put aside for the low price of £19.94 (with all proceeds going to gaming charity GamesAid). Then came a partnership with GAME, which required gamers to solve riddles, click iconic PlayStation characters and enter a competition before anyone else.
Amazon hosts a robot competition to automate its warehouses
Amazon leans heavily on warehouse robots to assist workers and fulfill your orders on time, but these machines still can't pack items quickly enough to replace humans. However, the internet giant is determined to make these mechanical helpers more useful. It's holding a competition at a conference this May to see who's best at producing an autonomous robot that grabs products off shelves and stuffs them into boxes. This may sound like a relatively straightforward challenge, but it isn't -- the bots have to grab a variety of objects while breaking as little as possible, including fragile things like food.
FTC offers a $25,000 prize if you can trap robocallers
Yep, the Federal Trade Commission still hates robocalls as much as you do. The agency has launched a contest where you'll get a $25,000 top prize if you develop technology that sends illegal automated telemarketing to a honeypot system, which makes it easier to study calls and catch perpetrators. You have up until the evening of June 15th to qualify your bot trap, and the winner will be decided at a Def Con showdown on August 9th. The payout certainly isn't large, but think of this as doing the country a favor -- you may save millions from listening to Rachel from card services over and over again. [Image credit: SarahNW, Flickr]
Google's fifth Science Fair rewards teens for saving the environment
Google's Science Fair competition regularly leads to clever inventions from teens, and this year's event (the fifth ever) is giving junior pioneers an extra incentive to strive for a prize. On top of familiar rewards, including $100,000 in scholarships and trips to the Galapagos or Virgin Galactic's spaceport, there's a Community Impact Award that honors efforts tackling environmental or health issues -- kids who clean up the planet or save a life may get special recognition. Teachers will also get their due through a new Inspiring Educator award. Young creators have until May 18th to submit their finished projects to Google, and you'll hear about the winners at a finalist event starting on September 19th.
Star Wars: The Old Republic will address balance and ranked PvP for update 3.1
Star Wars: The Old Republic is launching update 3.1 in about a month, and the developers are using this patch to address some standing issues. The patch also kicks off the game's fourth ranked play season, which is scheduled to last about three months. This season will be used as the basis for some new ranked play adjustments, such as implementing a "floor" rating for picking up the lowest-tier season rewards in Season 5. The season's titles will also be class-specific based on forum feedback. Designers are also looking into balancing classes, starting with the Darkness Assassin and the Kinetic Combat Shadow, addressing issues with survivability and damage in the class. If you've been feeling squishier or less resilient or noticed oddities with abilities, you can take part in the thread yourself. Early versions of these changes have already been rolled out to the test servers for the coming update. [Thanks to Mikey Moo for the tip!]
EA CFO: Microsoft is catching up to Sony
Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen believes Microsoft is "catching up" to Sony in the current-gen console battle. Jorgensen said during a talk at the UBS Global Technology Conference in Sausalito, California yesterday that "Sony has jumped out to a lead with a great console and I think a great pricing strategy" with the PS4. Shipments for Sony's latest home console reached 13.5 million consoles as of late October, whereas Microsoft reported that shipments of Xbox One consoles hit 10 million globally last week. Jorgensen saw the Xbox One's $50 price cut for the holidays as a tactic by Microsoft that "will continue to pull the consumer into the new consoles." The EA executive estimated that combined sales for the two systems will top 25 million consoles following the holidays. [Image: Microsoft]
NASA challenges you to design experiments for Mars and beyond
Want to play a significant role in NASA's space exploration efforts without spending years in training? You now have a better chance of making your mark. NASA has launched Solve, a site that makes it easy to find all the agency's public competitions and crowdsourced projects. You'll mostly see previously announced efforts there right now, but the inaugural offering is definitely worth a look -- the $20,000 Mars Balance Mass Challenge asks you to design an experiment or technology payload that will double as ballast on future Martian explorers. You'll have until November 21st to submit your brainstorms, and you'll find out if your work is Mars-bound sometime in mid-January.
Online ticket companies could soon face the music over expensive booking fees
Nothing beats going to watch your favourite singer or band play live. UK ticket companies know this, so they've been penalising by charging exorbitant booking and delivery fees for years. That practice could soon be brought firmly into the spotlight, however, thanks to consumer pressure group Which?. The Guardian reports that the charity has given online ticket companies until Wednesday to explain the reasons behind their high mark-ups, which, on average, add 18 percent to face-value ticket prices, or it'll refer the evidence it's been collecting on them to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority. It's highly likely the sellers will choose to remain silent in the face of criticism, but we may finally understand why these so-called fulfilment fees, transaction fees and service charges are appearing when we buy tickets online.
TUAW Giveaway: Win one of three sets of RHA MA750i in-ear headphones
We've teamed up with Glasgow-based in-ear manufacturer, RHA, to giveaway three sets of its premium MA750i, iOS compatible in-ear headphones, each worth US$129.95. I reviewed the MA750i headphones last year and was really impressed with their overall quality and performance. In fact, they've become my go-to headphones when I'm out and about using my iPhone to listen to music. Read the review here to find out more about them. Here are the rules and how to enter: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button. The entry must be made before July 2, 2014 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time. You may enter only once. Three winners will be selected and will receive one set of RHA MA750i in-ear headphones each. Click Here for complete Official Rules. Loading...
Facebook pokes the EU to help push through its WhatsApp purchase
Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp is a done deal in the US, but in Europe, it still has a few more hoops to jump through. In a bid to move things along, the Wall Street Journal reports that the social networking giant is taking the unusual step of actively seeking an investigation into the deal by the European Commission. As it stands, the company will be probed by regulators across Europe, but if the Commission gets involved, Facebook would no longer need to gain approval from each European member state. That could possibly push the deal through a little bit faster. Facebook's decision to go direct likely stems from opposition it currently faces from European carriers, which are worried that the social network would dominate the text and photo messaging market (read: kill SMS revenues). For the Commission to get involved, Facebook needs proof that it's already under review in at least three EU countries. It isn't clear if that's the case, but if it is, a Facebook-owned WhatsApp would likely become a reality a lot sooner than is currently expected.
Google wants your help making cheaper, tinier solar power systems
Solar panels have become cheaper and more efficient in recent years, but you can't say the same for the big, costly inverters turning their energy into usable electricity. Google isn't happy with this lack of progress, so it's about to launch the Little Box Challenge, an open competition to build a tiny (and consequently cheaper) solar power inverter. The search giant is promising $1 million to whoever cracks the problem, although it warns that this won't be easy; don't expect to reach a breakthrough in your basement. If someone does produce this miniscule power box, though, it could lead to eco-friendly energy in places where it's currently unaffordable or otherwise impractical -- whether it's a remote village or your own rooftop. [Image credit: Getty Images]
Gran Turismo 6 GT Academy competition begins next week
Sony will launch its sixth annual GT Academy event next week, giving superior Gran Turismo 6 players the chance to put their skills to the test on a real-world racetrack. As in previous years, GT Academy players compete to enroll in a three-month driver development program, with global champions earning a spot on Nissan's NISMO race team. Judges in Europe, North America, and Germany will each pick a single winning driver to enter the program, and this year marks the first time GT Academy qualifying events are available to players in Canada. GT Academy online qualifying events will begin in-game on April 21. [Image: Sony]
Audi competition aims to unlock the potential of connected cars
We've all heard about how connected and self-driving cars from Google, BMW and others are going to change our lives, but how? Audi wants to find out with its Urban Future Award, a four-city, multidisciplinary competition. Each team has a different quest, but all center around the ways that connected cars -- like Audi's "Piloted Driving" model -- can make city transportation better. For example, a Boston group will see if vehicles can take up less space using self-parking features, while in Seoul, researchers will help connected commuters socialize over in-dash displays. The Berlin team will bridge private and public transit for more efficient commuting and, finally, Mexico City's crew will crowdsource traffic data to reduce the city's notorious congestion. Audi will update each project regularly in its blog, with the best plan taking a $140,000 prize.
Xprize wants to fund a TED Talk given by artificial intelligence, and you can help
Xprize is known for its ambition. The outfit, with the help of some big name (and deep pocketed) partners, has launched initiatives to spur Star Trek-like tricorder development and even get private industry to land a rover on the moon. But now, it's teaming up with TED, that forum for big ideas, to do something a little different. The two companies have just announced an Xprize for Artificial Intelligence and here's the hook: they want the AI to conduct its own TED Talk with no human assist. Mind. Blown. None of this is actually set in stone though and, in fact, the partners are looking to you -- yes, you -- for help in deciding how this all goes down. Xprize is hosting a dedicated subsite so that readers (excuse us, big thinkers!) like you can pitch in with ideas on what the AI TED Talk format should be, how long it should run, what topic will be chosen and so on and so forth. You'll even get to help determine what type of AI makes the grade: will it be a walking robot, a rollie or a disembodied voice? It's up to you to pitch in and figure it out. Because, hey, if you can't actually help build the AI, setting it up for stage fright is the next best thing.
Lightning Returns, bearing prizes for fan art competition winners
Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy series character designer Tetsuya Nomura has chosen three grand prize finalists for a fan art competition. The competition was organized by Square Enix and DeviantArt to celebrate the recent release of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13, and was the first time Nomura, who designed Final Fantasy 13 heroine Lightning, has acted has a judge. The winners, in no particular order, are Marga Donaire, Nicolas Barge and Randis Albion - or KarmaLizzard, ArisT0te and randis, as they're respectively known on DeviantArt. The three winners will receive an original sketch from Nomura, $1,000, a keychain, a shirt, a custom Xbox 360 and controller, and the complete Final Fantasy 13 trilogy. Each winner will also be the header image at the top of DeviantArt for a day. More than 4,000 creations were entered in the competition, which garnered more than 1.5 million views. We've included a smaller resolution of Donaire's piece, "Wilhelmina" at the top of this article, but you can see the full-resolution image, along with the other two winners, by checking out the gallery below. You can also check out the official DeviantArt contest page to see the rest of the entries. [Image: Marga Donaire]
IBM wants to put the power of Watson in your smartphone
Watson, IBM's Jeopardy-conquering super computer, has set its sites on mobile apps. Not long ago, the recently created Watson Business Group announced that would offer APIs to developers to create cloud-based apps built around cognitive computing. Now IBM is launching a competition to lure mobile app creators to its new platform. Over the next three months the company will be taking submissions that leverage Watson's unique capabilities like deep data analysis and natural language processing to put impossibly powerful tools to the palm of your hand. IBM is hoping for apps that "change the way consumers and businesses interact with data on their mobile devices." It's an ambitious goal, but considering the way Watson spanked Ken Jennings, it seems something that is well within its reach. The machine has already changed the way we view computers and artificial intelligence, not only by winning Jeopardy, but by making cancer treatment decisions and attending college. Now it wants to make your smartphone smarter than you could ever hope to be.
Samsung Galaxy S5 vs. the competition: the battle of Android flagships has new contenders
Samsung has just outed its shiny new Galaxy S5 at Mobile World Congress, but you may be curious how it stacks up against flagships from other outfits. Well folks, we've lined it up side-by-side with the Sony Xperia Z2, LG G Pro 2 and HTC One on the other side of the break. While the GS5 and Xperia Z2 appear to be neck and neck, it may come down to those standout features to see which handset gets the edge. Of course, a new HTC flagship is on the way next month, so we'll have to take stock all over again once the details are revealed. If you're anxious to see how the GS5 matches up with your current daily driver, you can add in that model and tally the numbers with our Compare tool.
