gaming

'Playing' Crave with nifty Chrome World Wide Maze

Finally, Chrome has given me a way to turn work into a game.

Chrome World Wide Maze is a nifty experiment from the Google Japan crew that syncs the mobile Chrome browser to a tab on the desktop, turning your smartphone into a controller that navigates a digital pinball on the desktop screen around a 3D rendering of any site on the Web.

Sounds like an odd concept at first, but once your device and desktop are synced up via HTML5 WebSockets (it took me a few tries, as I got a couple of "null" responses on the … Read more

Google smartwatch in the works?

Now Google is making a smartwatch.

You didn't think Google was going to sit the smartwatch party out, did you? Since the Pebble watch made a splash at CES, we've gotten word that both Apple and Samsung are busy working on wearable tech that will talk to our mobile phones. It should come as no surprise then to find out that Google is now exploring the market with a watch based off its Android operating system. There's no date on when to expect these watches, but for now you can read reviews of ones that have already … Read more

Game maker: Apple banned our sweatshop iPad game

Education becomes more difficult by the day.

Kids have their heads buried in gadgets and bongs. For them, virtual communication is the only real communication there is.

So how can you get them to think about the wider world? One game developer, Littleloud, thought it would be stimulating to create an iPad game called Sweatshop HD.

This tasked the young players to maintain, yes, a sweatshop. It was, indeed, helpful during the game to ignore human rights and hire frightfully young employees. Just as in real life.

Apple, though, felt it was too much like real life. According to Pocket Gamer, … Read more

15 best Android games

When it comes to finding games for Android, everyone knows that Google Play, with all its offerings, can feel downright overwhelming. With that in mind, I'm here to help you navigate through some of the clutter.

Here are some of my current favorite games for the Android platform, displayed in alphabetical order. Of course, with so many new titles being released almost on a daily basis, there's a good chance I missed some of your favorites. So, feel free to give your thoughts and even some of your recommendations in the comments, and I'll do my best … Read more

At 'Game of Thrones' premiere, nerds can identify

SAN FRANCISCO--For the record, although "Game of Thrones" is said to have perhaps the largest cast in television history, Craig Newmark is not on the hit HBO show.

Which raises the question: Why was the founder of Craigslist making his way down the red carpet rope line at the "Game of Thrones" season three premiere here last night?

In contrast to the real premiere, held a night earlier in Los Angeles, the event here was filled to brimming with the best and brightest in the world of technology. Twitter employees were abundant, some sporting shirts with … Read more

Petting Zoo: An eccentric picture book that comes to life on iOS

Christoph Niemann, a visual columnist at The New York Times and an illustrator whose works appeared on the cover of several magazines covers including The New Yorker and Wired, launched an iOS app recently called Petting Zoo.

For kids, but has wide appeal Aimed toward children ages 4 and up, this app is categorized under games, but it's more of an interactive picture book than anything else. Each drawing constitutes as a chapter, but there is no overall narrative story that takes place. Instead, it simply contains 21 of Niemann's hand-drawn animals that each react in different ways … Read more

Logitech thanks science for new 'G' PC gaming accessories

Logitech has rebranded its gaming group division with six mice and keyboards, along with two new headsets that make up the company's latest "Logitech G" lineup. Using infrared technology and a bit of science to determine optimal hand position, the new G100s and G400s optical mice are both clues to the company's commitment to innovation, with a new sensor technology called Delta Zero that promises to improve accuracy at any speed.

The G100s, G400s, G500s, and G700s gaming mice are all equipped with a "hydrophobic" coating that repels palm perspiration to keep your hand … Read more

Next Xbox won't support optical drive game playback -- report

Microsoft's next Xbox won't allow gamers to play titles from an optical drive, according to a newly leaked document.

The folks over at VGLeaks recently released what they claim is the Microsoft documentation for its next console, code-named Durango. In the long-winded document, which makes mention of enhanced graphics and an improved Kinect sensor that will be sold with the console, Microsoft notes that only hard drive-based game playback will be offered.

"Every Durango console will have a hard drive, although its exact capacity has not been chosen," the company wrote in the documentation. "It will be large enough, however, to hold a large number of games. All games will be installed on the hard drive. Play from the optical disc will not be supported."… Read more

Stinky Footboard gives your PC gaming foes agony of the feet

Snickers come easily when dealing with a product like the Stinky Footboard, to be announced later today. It has a corny name. The idea of a specialized foot-based input device for PC gaming seems spectacularly niche and nerdy.

Then you use it, and you recognize its benefits almost immediately.… Read more