Dungeons & Dragons, which was originally designed by Gary Gygax (1938-2008) and Dave Arneson and first published in 1974, has finally earned its place in the National Toy Hall of Fame. It beat out a diverse set of nominees including Care Bears and bubble wrap. The Hall is housed at the Strong museum in Rochester, […]
Google says its music tool will get smarter with playlists that take into account location, time and even the weather. It’s an attempt to bring the approach of Google Now to the Music app. While playing your choice of music or creating playlists based on a song or artist will still work as normal, the […]
Oculus Rift will now run on lower-spec computers thanks to a feature the company dubs asynchronous spacewarp. It will mean a slightly less impressive experience is available on much cheaper machines. One of the big drawbacks of the virtual reality system was that not only does the headset cost $600, but the original minimum specs […]
Researchers have successfully used a wireless connection to transmit signals from a paralyzed monkey’s brain to control its legs. They say it’s now at least conceivable to use such a technique on humans. The aim is to treat people with damaged spinal cords that mean the brain can’t pass on electrical signals that act as instructions […]
YouTube is to support high dynamic range (HDR) videos. It’s a soft launch to say the least with just four videos uploaded to start with. HDR in video is not the same as the more established technology of the same name in stills photography which involves combining multiple images shot with different range exposures and […]
Google’s artificial intelligence system DeepMind is to play StarCraft II to try to hone its learning skills. It’s the next step in a process that began with Atari 2600 titles. The DeepMind project has already made the news with a program that beat leading players at Go. While that was hugely impressive given the sheer […]
Apple is estimated to be making 103.6 percent of all the profits in the smartphone market. The seemingly-odd figure is a combination of the methodology and the financial bloodbath caused by the exploding Samsung Note 7. The 103.6 percent figure comes about because, unlike with revenue, it’s very much possible to make negative profits. In […]
Sony says more than 40 games will get immediate benefits from the PS4 Pro that launches next week. The precise details of each title’s improvements aren’t available yet. As well as improvements to the processors, the Pro console will support increased frame rates, 4K resolution and HDR (which improves both contrast and the range of […]
Mobile devices now make up more global website traffic than desktop computers for the first time according to newly-published figures. But traditional computers still make up the majority of traffic in the US. The figures come from StatCounter, which measures traffic on around three million sites for which it provides analysis services. One note of […]
An 86-year-old Canadian grandmother has denied illegally downloading mutant-shooter Metro 2033, noting that it is not exactly to her taste. It’s another example of what has generously been called “speculative invoicing” by a company acting on behalf of rightsholders. Christine McMillan received two emails forwarded by her ISP from a private company. It said she […]