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Google News and Weather joins the modern age with Now-like cards
The stock Android faithful have been peering at the same UI inside its News and Weather app for quite some time, but today there's a welcome update. Folks carrying the unskinned version of Google's OS are now privy to Now's card-based organization for recent headlines with the weather forecast for the current location situated up top. You can toggle that meteorology widget off and on, or set it to stay with a locale of your choosing or track conditions in multiple places. Swipe through sections with ease, and as you might expect, those handy home screen widgets got a refresh of their own to match. The update seems to be rolling out to compatible devices now, so if you can't snag it yet, sit tight 'cause it's on the way.
The Nexus Telegraph: Habits that WildStar should keep
Last time around in this column, I talked about the stuff that WildStar desperately needs to get out of its system, and quickly. I'm pleased with it. With the scaling-back of the update pace and some changes that I expect to be coming, I'm hopeful on that front. (Incidentally, if someone has a link to an actual promise of monthly updates from Carbine Studios, pass that along, since I don't think anyone ever actually promised it so much as just wound up doing it.) So why am I still playing the game? Because it's got a lot to recommend it despite those failings. These are not bad habits that the game needs to kick but things that the development team should arguably double down on. They're arguably the best parts about the game and certain what makes it stand out the most. So in direct counterpoint to last week's article, here are the things that WildStar should keep doing.
The Nexus Telegraph: Addictions that WildStar must kick
Matt Daniel is a friend of mine. (Yes, despite my claims at the end of some poorly considered features we did together.) He's also a spectacularly bright guy with a clear picture of what games do well and what they do poorly. So when he and I wind up chatting about WildStar and noting the exact same problems, I take this stuff to heart. And there are a couple of underlying issues that the game would do well to address sooner rather than later. I've talked about issues that the game has before, but a lot of those issues are really symptoms, not the core issues. I enjoy the game a lot, and I think it has a lot to recommend it, but there are some nagging fundamental issues, just certain ways of viewing the game and the community. As we approach the all-important three-month mark, it's time to start thinking about those issues, about what they represent, and perhaps most importantly about how those issues can be addressed.
Google Workshop will reportedly wrap your Nexus 5 with custom cases
Let's face it: options for outfitting the Nexus line with covers and cases have been rather limited (and pricey) coming directly from Mountain View. That could be about to change though, as Android Police reports that a new option could offer a major boost in custom accessories. The so-called Google Workshop will allow you to create your own case for the Nexus 5 based on either a location map or an uploaded photo of your choice. A live wallpaper is said to accompany that latter option too, so you can keep a consistent theme for every customizable spot on that handset. Right now, it appears that the fifth Nexus phone is the only device privy to the treatment, so we'll have to wait and see if that popular 7-inch tablet gets its own new digs. Unfortunately, there's no indication as to when the Workshop will go live inside Google Play or how much the cases will cost.
Google's next Nexus device is reportedly a super-sized phablet
Don't get too excited, but rumors are starting to break regarding Google's sixth Nexus phone: an oversized handset codenamed "Shamu." According to Android Police, the device is rumored to be a 5.9-inch handset made by Motorola -- leveraging Google's tradition of naming Nexus devices after sea creatures as a clever way to hint at the phone's size. Supposedly, this device will surface in November with a fingerprint scanner. Sadly, there isn't a lot of evidence floating around for this one: just a Google error report and a bit of good faith.
The Nexus Telegraph: Another WildStar patch approaches!
I honestly expected the second patch for WildStar to take much longer to show up on test servers, but here it is. In some ways, I'm not surprised, since we're in the just-after-launch pattern of finishing and polishing stuff that wasn't quite ready for launch with the rest of the game, but still. It's a small one, but you know, I can live with frequent small patches just as well as I can live with more spaced-out large patches. As it stands right now, we've had about a month to get used to the Strain drop, and I imagine we'll be seeing Daggerstone pass on live sooner rather than later. (With my luck, tomorrow.) So let's talk a little about the last patch, the upcoming patch, and what we can see about how Carbine Studios handles its patches overall. Oh, and dropping bombs on your teammates. I'm sure that'll factor into this discussion at some point.
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's first dose of Strain
The funny thing about launches is that they're like every other aspect of the game industry: They're based on momentum. Create the feel that you're coming out with new content on a quick basis and you get points from players, even if it's inevitable that some of this content is stuff that was almost-but-not-quite ready for launch and just had to be trimmed back a little before we first got to dip our toes in the official swimming pool. You can see the zones on your map in WildStar right now, even. Does it matter to me? Nope. I have to admit it doesn't. I'm satisfied. The bulk of the news this month has been about the game's first major patch, which is due for "early July" without a harder date. I have not yet gotten to go hands-on in this content; I've been too busy focusing on the live game and advancing there (up to 50 on one character, at least!), but let's talk a little bit about what's being added in the patch. Fair warning: Spoilers may ensue.
What's on tap for Google at I/O 2014
Don't let its DevCon facade fool you: Google I/O has plenty of interesting stuff for everyone. Most of the company's big announcements come during the day one keynote, which we'll be liveblogging tomorrow morning. This year's theme is "Design, Develop, Distribute," a slogan that doesn't reveal any major clues about what we can expect (aside from the fact that Google is focused on new design, which we'll cover in more detail later). But that's what we're here for -- to figure it out! We've compiled a handy guide that discusses what to expect -- and not expect -- to see at San Francisco's Moscone Center this week. Your first order of business should be to bookmark this link and join us on Wednesday at 12PM ET as we liveblog I/O's opening keynote.
Perfect Ten: MMOs from the '90s
The course of MMO history and the developer pioneers who forged a path to online gaming have long fascinated me (so much so that I write an occasional column about it). While we often think of MMOs as modern entertainment barely out of its infancy, the truth is that you can trace the industry back decades to see a fringe group of devs and players striving to make these games a reality. While the number of MMOs in existence exploded in the early- and mid-2000s (and hasn't stopped growing since), the 1990s are often an overlooked decade that featured more than the one or two games that are usually mentioned in brief history overviews. There were actually far more titles than most assume, even if you dismiss text-based MUDs and the like. Today we're going to run down 10 MMOs that were born during the era of the dot-com revolution, dial-up modems, and the peak of the Simpsons (third through seventh seasons).
The Nexus Telegraph: The first week in WildStar
Full launch for WildStar has come and gone, the servers have been up and running for a week, and I've been hacking away at various enemies of the Dominion like a good soldier. As I write this, my main is 23, although I'd probably be a fair bit higher by now if I hadn't stopped quite so many times for roleplaying and to decorate my house. (Not too much of that, though, I need to afford that spacious house once I get to a valid level.) It's safe to say that I'm enjoying the game a whole lot. Server loads seem to have largely stabilized, at least from my end, and the fullness of time has given me more opportunities to run more stuff and really enjoy a wider variety of what's in the game. There's some good stuff, some annoying stuff, and some things that kind of cut both ways at the same time. So let's just dive in, shall we?
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's headstart (launch) is here!
Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen. We've been waiting for it for a very long time, but you can indeed play the game now. WildStar is no longer a vague promise of what might be in the future, it has well and truly launched, and it's inherited all of the launch issues that come along with every single MMO launch, along with an assortment of people certain that we've never seen anything like this before. Hey, guess what I'll be talking about with today's column. I haven't had nearly as much time in the headstart as I would have liked at this point, largely due to the dread specter of Real Life minimizing my free time between launch on Saturday and when this column is being written (which is not five minutes prior to posting, if you were curious). But I've got some impressions just the same, and whilst I don't think they really qualify for first impression status, you came here to read about WildStar's launch, and that's just what I want to talk about.
The Nexus Telegraph: Preparing for WildStar's launch
When you read this, dear reader, you will be less than two weeks away from early access to WildStar. Unless you've come here just to let everyone know you don't want to play the game, in which case you might want to find slightly more joyous hobbies? Just a thought. The obvious thing to do pre-launch, of course, is to reserve your name, but that didn't work out for everyone so well, and I'm betting that if you were going to do that by now, you would have done it. (Still have a little time if you haven't, though.) What else can you do? Open beta is over. It's just getting into the meat of the game and maybe taking a day or two off of work first, right? Obviously not; there's more stuff you can do to prep yourself for the launch psychologically and otherwise. So step into my metaphorical office, and I'll give you some suggestions about things to do before the game starts and once early access kicks off.
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's pre-launch ups and downs
We're in the home stretch before WildStar's launch now. If you haven't pre-ordered, you should do so. For all intents and purposes, the launch game is what's being used in the weekend test sessions. All that's left is the actual gameplay, and if you're an RPer, hunting down the roleplaying community to see what's acknowledged as the unofficial community roleplaying server because beta servers certainly do not have those all-important RP tags. What? I know what side of the bread my butter's on. A bit of discussion with a friend the other night reminded me that I can't think of a single game over the past four and a half years that I really thought launched at the right time; either they launched a bit too early or a bit too late, at best. So today, with launch less than a month away, I'd like to talk about the things that make me most displeased about the game... and the bits that make me the most hopeful.
HTC-made Nexus 8 reportedly coming this summer
When it comes to producing affordable Nexus tablets, Google's on a roll -- and it's looking to take advantage of that momentum. After partnering with ASUS on a 7-inch tablet each of the last two summers, the software giant is now reportedly working with HTC on an 8-inch version slated to launch in the third quarter of this year. The report comes to us from hit-and-miss DigiTimes, which tells us that Google is switching to HTC because it wants to push a new design, and ASUS is more interested in selling tablets and phones under its own brand instead.
The Nexus Telegraph: In which no WildStar injuries happened
My performance on the dance floor during PAX East 2013's WildStar party is the stuff of dark legends (in my mind, anyway), but it was not replicated this year. Indeed, when I tried to get into this year's WildStar community party, the entranceway was inaccessible due to the sheer mass of people. As I naturally handle crowds about as well as a Mechari handles knock-knock jokes, I opted to turn around and go back to my hotel room. There was a Ghostbusters marathon on, so it was still kind of awesome. This did not, however, mean that the convention was devoid of interesting stories; it just was devoid of stories in which I sustained injuries greatly impacting my normal hiking routes. So let's talk about what things really stuck out in my mind through the whole con. For my money, that comes down to the focus on the endgame and a really stupid statement. Where to start?
Google's new camera app brings Photo Sphere and Lens Blur to Android devices
While Google has continued to toss new features into the camera app shipped on its Nexus devices, many Android phones replace it with something else. But just as we revealed a few weeks ago, now it's available in the Play Store, ready to run on any phone or tablet using Android 4.4 KitKat. Beyond bits like Photo Sphere that we've seen before, Google is filling in the blanks on its new "Lens Blur" option. Meant to emphasize the subject while blurring the background for an impressive depth of field effect, it uses algorithms to simulate the large camera lens and aperture your phone or tablet doesn't actually have. Taking the photo requires an upward sweep to capture multiple images, used to estimate the depth of objects for a 3D map that lets the software re-render the photo later and blur specific items based on where it thinks they are. Google's Research Blog has more details on how it's all done, including the Lytro-like ability to change which object is in focus after you take the shot.
The Nexus Telegraph: Is WildStar a World of Warcraft clone?
No. That was quick, so we can all -- oh, wait, no, I need to write more. Also saying we can all go home is pointless; most of you are reading this from home. All right, we'll start over. This is one of those things that gets trotted out every time a new game comes along, and in WildStar's case it comes out twice as regularly, since it's the first game in history to use colorful and stylized graphics other than World of Warcraft, except that it isn't. It's kind of ridiculous, and it's a bit of a pet peeve. As someone who has played World of Warcraft extensively, I find the list of similarities between the two pretty shallow, and it comes across more as a way of dismissing the game without bothering to learn about it. So let's talk about where WildStar does take its cues from Blizzard's game, where they differ, and why saying it's just a clone is absurd.
The Nexus Telegraph: What it means that you can buy Wildstar
On March 10th, I opined that we were close to seeing a release date for Wildstar, along with the end of the NDA and a real change to beta structures. On March 12th, Carbine Studios announced all of that. Prescient? Possibly. All right, no; I just made an educated guess that turned out to be educated completely right. Astute readers will remember that I also made an educated guess about Medic and Engineer that turned out to be more or less completely accurate, as well, so I am apparently on the same wavelength as the people over at the studio. I didn't find out I was right on the money until you all did. That having been said... do I need to stress that this is a huge deal? Here's a game that fell under the "most anticipated" header for this site two years in a row, and now it's finally going to be a thing. We're finally moving out of beta testing and into launch. So let's talk about the impending launch, the pre-ordering, and all that comes along with both.
WildStar gets a new website
Carbine's sci-fantasy WildStar MMO has a new website. It's still the same URL, mind you, but the layout has changed dramatically while preserving the game's zany space western aesthetic. The front page is subdivided into sections covering each of the game's major features, including info on paths, housing, and more! WildStar pre-orders begin tomorrow, March 19th. [Thanks Siphaed!]
LG G Watch to launch next quarter with Android Wear
Over the last two years, LG has established a storied history of collaboration with Google. The two companies have worked together on three devices (two Nexus smartphones and a Google Play edition tablet) and today we're hearing about the fourth -- a smartwatch. LG's latest piece of handywork, known as the G Watch, features Google's new wearables platform called Android Wear. LG's keeping quiet on the specs and other details of the new device, but as you can see in the image above Google Now features prominently on the platform. And, just like on the Moto X, users will be able to initiate voice commands by simply speaking "OK Google." LG wants the G Watch to act as a "low barrier to entry" for developers, while offering a Google experience to users at the same time; this likely means that when the watch arrives sometime next quarter (exact date and pricing remains unknown), we can expect it to sell at a rather competitive price point. "The opportunity to work with Google on LG G Watch was the perfect chance for LG to really pull out all stops in both design and engineering," said Dr. Jong-seok Park, CEO of LG's Mobile Communications division. "We're confident that a well-designed device has the potential to take the smart wearable market by storm." Of course, it'll have plenty of competition as Motorola, HTC, Samsung and even fashion brands like Fossil get in on the fun.