A deluge of SimCity news came from EA and Maxis at the massive Gamescom gaming expo yesterday in Cologne, Germany.
Interested architects can check out the SimCity closed beta sign-up Web page that gives anyone with an Origin account the chance to get an early preview of the urban planner. The page does not, however, list when the beta occurs or how long it lasts.… Read more
If you have an iPhone, you've probably taken a photo or two (or hundreds or thousands) with the device. Maybe you've kept it casual, snapping the occasional cat, kid, and road trip photos and uploading them to Facebook, Google+, or another social network.
Maybe, like the talented Crave readers featured in our Instagram series, you've taken your iPhone photography further than pointing and shooting and gotten hooked on a photo enhancement app or two. Or maybe you've become so passionate about iPhone photography that you spend countless hours and numerous apps perfecting galleries upon galleries of iPhone creations. Most of the photographers featured in the first-ever LA Mobile Arts Festival fall into the latter category. … Read more
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Samsung today brought out early technology relics in hopes of busting Apple's design patents for the iPhone and iPad -- the very ones Apple has pointed at it like howitzers.
The South Korean technology giant called upon a pair of experts -- one in person, another by video deposition -- to make the case that others had beaten Apple to the punch, effectively rendering those patents useless.
Samsung's argument relied mainly on foreign patent designs and an early prototype for a tablet that never made it into commercial production. However, Samsung also brought out … Read more
Monday's top-story rundown knows where you live:
Just when you think it's safe to tweet, here comes WeKnowYourHouse.com. The site is a social media experiment designed to show how easy it is for tweets to be used against you. If a Twitter user has location turned on, and they send a message with the word "home" in it, then the site will display it along with a Street View image of the location. Similar to PleaseRobMe.com, it showcases how some users may not be aware of how much information they are sharing.
But you … Read more
If you think graffiti is an eyesore, you probably won't be downloading Graffiti Art Windows 7 Theme from Windows7Theme. But if you see graffiti as art that reflects and enhances the urban streetscape, this free package of 10 high-resolution, high-quality desktop wallpaper images can do something much the same to your PC, without requiring a single can of spray paint. These 1,920x1,200-pixel wide-screen images celebrate the colorful chaos of graffiti art, and they're great, representative examples of the genre. As the name implies, Graffiti Art Windows 7 Theme is for Windows 7 systems.
The free theme … Read more
How many times have you ripped a CD in iTunes only to find no album art or the wrong art staring you in the face?
iTunes is adept at finding artwork for albums that you buy through the service. But it can falter at tracking down art for music not in its database. There are a few different ways to add the right artwork, but here's one option for manually adding any image you wish as cover art for an album.
First, right-click on the album in iTunes and select Get Album Artwork from the popup menu. If that … Read more
Electronic Arts expects sales of digital games to surpass those of boxed games in the coming years.
"There will come a point, whether it is two or three years from now, when we say: 'We are doing more in digital media now than we are in physical media,'" EA Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore told Reuters.
As a result, the maker of "Battlefield", "The Sims 3," and "Crysis 3" is likely to increase its range of mobile and free-to-play games.
EA will serve up more than 40 social mobile and free-to-play games … Read more
Climbing walls have come a long way since phys ed lecturer Don Robinson glued real rocks to a hallway wall at Leeds University in 1964. Just down the street from my office, walls made of plywood reinforced with steel frames sport dozens of different types of holds and graded "problems" -- perfect for staying in shape during the rainy winter months in Portland.
But not everyone lives within walking distance of an indoor climbing hub, so Munich-based design studio Lunar Europe thought up a pretty sleek art piece that doubles as a climbing wall and syncs up with an iPhone app.… Read more
By the time 2022 rolls around, graphics will have advanced to the point where they are "indistinguishable from reality," says Industrial Light & Magic visual effects supervisor Kim Libreri.
ILM is working with LucasArts on upcoming third-person shooter Star Wars 1313, and in a new video interview with CVG, Libreri said it will one day be nigh impossible to spot the differences between real-time rendering and live action.
"It's an interesting time because with modern computer graphics hardware, the way it's going, it's gonna be pretty hard to tell the difference between something that … Read more
You don't need any accessories to catch up on Friday's top tech stories:
A new service called Dyle picks up live, local TV signals to watch on your mobile device. The first with this service is the MetroPCS Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G. But if you rather not drop $460 right now for a phone, iOS users may have another option this fall when Dyle attachments are expected to go on sale.
No price has been set, but the attachments could cost, at most, $150. And the service from then on is free. Would you pay for an … Read more
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CNET's Galaxy S4 giveaway spectacular!
CNET's publishing another supercharged e-book. "Mastering the Galaxy S4" is almost here, so we're celebrating with a huge S4-related giveaway.
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