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April 18, 2014 at 10:30 PM

by Brad Reed

Ex-Microsoft engineer invents a new machine to help you brew the perfect batch of beer

By Brad Reed on April 18, 2014 at 10:30 PM.

Home brewing is rewarding but it’s also often fraught with peril — if you don’t thoroughly sterilize all of your equipment or if you drop in the yeast while your wort is still hot, it can ruin hours of hard work. Bloomberg Businessweek has written a profile on former Windows engineer Bill Mitchell, who left Microsoft in 2010 to work full-time on PicoBrew, a startup that’s dedicated to take away as many potential pain points as possible for home brewers.

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Gaming

April 18, 2014 at 9:15 PM

by Brad Reed

Now Android fans can play one of the greatest computer games ever on their tablets

By Brad Reed on April 18, 2014 at 9:15 PM.

Old-school RPG fans still get nostalgic when you bring up Baldur’s Gate, the classic Bioware D&D-based adventure that set the standard for computer RPGs when it was released all the way back in 1998. In fact, the Balur’s Gate series’s popularity has been so enduring that studio Beamdog has overhauled it with improved graphics and features while also adding touch controls to make it easy to play on tablets. Although Beamdog released its Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition for the iPad a while ago, the studio has finally gotten around to porting it to Android, and it’s now available on the Google Play store for $9.99. Although the iPad version of the overhauled Baldur’s Gate received mixed marks for its buggy controls, early reviews of the game over at Google Play are pretty strong, as it’s currently averaging a score of 4.5 stars based on 72 reviews.

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Hit List

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Gaming

April 18, 2014 at 8:00 PM

by Chris Smith

Blizzard’s free Hearthstone card game conquers the iPad

By Chris Smith on April 18, 2014 at 8:00 PM.

Blizzard’s new Warcraft-inspired card game soft-launched on iPad in early April, and was released worldwide earlier this week as a free download. However, in less than a day the game took the App Store by storm, quickly becoming the top application in the Top Free Apps charts in many markets. According to data provided by App Annie, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is now the No. 1 free app in 38 markets where the App Store is available to customers, including the U.S. When looking at iPad games only, the app is No. 1 in 40 countries. More →

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Gaming

April 18, 2014 at 6:45 PM

by Jacob Siegal

Easter weekend flash sale offers PS3 and Vita games for $0.99

By Jacob Siegal on April 18, 2014 at 6:45 PM.

U.S. PlayStation fans weren’t fortunate enough to receive a big Easter promotion like their European counterparts, but Sony is making up for it with a 99 cent flash sale this weekend, slashing prices on over 25 games on the PlayStation Network. Sony announced on the PlayStation Blog that the offer had officially gone live on Friday, featuring PlayStation 3, Vita and PS2/PS1 Classics that will cost you less than a dollar to pick up. The full list follows below. More →

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Game Changers

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mobile

April 18, 2014 at 5:30 PM

by Jacob Siegal

Verizon to finally roll out KitKat for the Galaxy S4 on May 2nd

By Jacob Siegal on April 18, 2014 at 5:30 PM.

It’s taken far too long, but it looks like an update to the latest version of Android on Verizon’s Galaxy S4 is finally in sight. Android Geeks obtained a leaked document from one of its readers which points to May 2nd as the launch date for Android 4.4.2 KitKat on the S4, around two months after the roll out began for AT&T and Sprint subscribers. Google has made it clear that the inexplicable update delays will be handled more efficiently in the future, but for now, Verizon customers are dependent on internal leaks to learn about software updates. More →

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mobile

April 18, 2014 at 4:48 PM

by Chris Smith

Motorola will soon launch an even cheaper, slimmer Android handset

By Chris Smith on April 18, 2014 at 4:48 PM.

Motorola has previously hinted that it wants to offer users an even more affordable smartphone this year, and Tecnblog says it learned that such a handset will launch this May. The Moto G has been one of Motorola’s best-selling smartphones thanks to its affordable price, and this new device may be even cheaper. More →

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Accessories

April 18, 2014 at 4:22 PM

by Tero Kuittinen

Cheap 3D printers are poised to wreck companies’ powers to enforce their IP

By Tero Kuittinen on April 18, 2014 at 4:22 PM.

Ten days ago a 3D printer called The Micro started a Kickstarter campaign with the modest goal of raising $50,000 in a month. With 18 days to go, the project has already raised nearly $3 million. The Micro has gained more than 10,000 followers and all of the early production runs of the $199 and $299 versions of the device have sold out. New supporters will have to pick a February 2015 shipment date of pay at least $600 for very early test production runs. Obviously, the frenzy of excitement around The Micro seems to indicate that there is real fascination about the idea of owning a 3D printer priced at the level of a video game console. More →

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mobile

April 18, 2014 at 3:45 PM

by Jacob Siegal

Samsung’s Milk Music streaming service will add premium subscriptions

By Jacob Siegal on April 18, 2014 at 3:45 PM.

Samsung launched Milk Music last month seemingly out of nowhere, a music streaming service to compete with Pandora, Spotify, Beats Music and countless others already on the market. The draw of Milk Music appeared to be its lack of subscription fees, but an infographic posted on the Samsung Tomorrow blog reveals that the ad-free basic service was only a limited time offer, and a $3.99/month premium service is coming soon. Powered by Slacker, Milk Music already houses more than 13,000,000 songs on its 200+ stations, so if you’re a Samsung device owners looking for a slick alternative to the established services, the app is worth downloading while the basic service is still ad-free. The infographic can be found below. More →

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Reviews

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science

April 18, 2014 at 3:11 PM

by Brad Reed

Watch this incredible video of Elon Musk’s reusable rocket in action

By Brad Reed on April 18, 2014 at 3:11 PM.

One of the problems with space travel is how wasteful it is — the rockets that help propel space shuttles into the atmosphere fall off once they reach a certain height and are often completely unsalvageable after they crash back down to Earth. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s company SpaceX has just posted a new video showing off its Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) rocket in action and it looks like the team at SpaceX have done some mind-blowing engineering work. As you can see, the video shows the F9R taking off and then hovering 250 meters in the air before slowly descending and then gently landing right back on the launch pad it took off from. Musk and SpaceX are working on perfecting reusable rockets as one way to make space travel more economically feasible for more people. The full video of the F9R follows below. More →

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mobile

April 18, 2014 at 2:45 PM

by Jacob Siegal

HTC has a secret weapon for taking on Samsung, and it’s not what you think

By Jacob Siegal on April 18, 2014 at 2:45 PM.

No matter how positive the reviews are for its products, HTC can’t seem to break out from behind the shadow of Samsung. Without a veritable army of devices flooding store shelves, it’s difficult for any phone maker to make an impact in the Android smartphone market. But HTC believes that by closing the gap on dedicated cameras, it can attract an even wider audience while trumping the competition. More →

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mobile

April 18, 2014 at 2:03 PM

by Brad Reed

Finally, Apple Maps is good for something

By Brad Reed on April 18, 2014 at 2:03 PM.

Sure, Apple Maps might send you into a death trap in the Australian outback or onto an airport runway, but it does do things that other mapping services don’t, such as being able to find imaginary monsters. AppleInsider points out that hunters of the Loch Ness Monster claim that they found an image of the mythical beast on a satellite image provided by Apple’s iOS Maps, which was something that they didn’t find when they tried looking for it on Google Maps. More →

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Galleries

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Security

April 18, 2014 at 1:28 PM

by Brad Reed

Biometrics expert slams Apple and Samsung fingerprint scanners as unsecured ‘gimmicks’

By Brad Reed on April 18, 2014 at 1:28 PM.

It’s pretty safe to say that computer science Professor Willy Susilo won’t be relying on a fingerprint scanner to keep his mobile phone secure. In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Susilo says that the fingerprint scanners used by Apple and Samsung are mere “gimmicks” that hackers can easily fool and that don’t give users and real biometric security. More →

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Accessories

April 18, 2014 at 1:05 PM

by Chris Smith

Video: Awesome accessory puts transparent physical keyboard on your iPad’s screen

By Chris Smith on April 18, 2014 at 1:05 PM.

Tactus Technology is a startup that has developed an accessory that can create transparent keyboard buttons on top of a touchscreen display. The company is working with Taiwan-based Wistron, Business Insider reports, to manufacture such a keyboard case accessory for the iPad, which should start shipping later this year. More →

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Ex-Microsoft engineer invents a new machine to help you brew the perfect batch of beer

Ex-Microsoft engineer invents a new machine to help you brew the perfect batch of beer

Now Android fans can play one of the greatest computer games ever on their tablets