Google Stadia Review: Gaming’s Streaming Future Isn’t Here Yet

Scott Stein, reviews Google Stadia cloud gaming service for CNET: Stadia’s launch day was earlier this week… sort of. Really, consider this the start of Stadia’s early-access beta period. Because Google’s big promises haven’t arrived, and at the price of the Stadia’s Founder’s Edition, I can’t recommend anyone jump onboard at the moment. Google’s experimental game streaming service, Stadia, launches without…

Web Summit Cancels Next Year’s Rise, One of Asia’s Largest Tech Conferences, Over Tension in Hong Kong

The ongoing tension in Hong Kong between the government and pro-democracy protesters continues to spill into the tech domain. From a report: Rise, which is among the largest tech conferences in Asia, will not run next year as planned due to “the ongoing situation in Hong Kong,” according to Web Summit, the Ireland-based company that organizes the show. The organizer said…

Taiwan Stops Selling Huawei Phones That Identify It as Part of China

Taiwan suspended sales of three Huawei smartphone models that identify Taiwan as part of China, striking a fresh blow in a long-running conflict over references to sovereignty. From a report: Phone carriers were ordered to stop offering Huawei’s P30, P3O Pro and Nova 5T models starting Thursday because their displays included the words “Taiwan, China” for time zones and contacts, said…

Apple Is Finally Willing To Make Gadgets Thicker So They Work Better

Apple has started to make its products thicker in an effort to give people what they want: functionality over form. This is a good thing. There are two recent examples: this year’s iPhones and the new 16-inch MacBook Pro. Todd Haselton writes via CNBC: This is a theory, but it seems this may be that there are some design changes being…

Apple Unveils New 16-inch MacBook Pro With Improved Keyboard, Starting at $2,400

Apple today launched a new 16-inch MacBook Pro. The starting price of $2,399 is the same price as the previous 15-inch MacBook Pro, which this one replaces. It has new processors, better speakers, a larger screen, and (finally) a better keyboard. The base model is powered by a 2.6GHz 6-core 9th gen Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 4.5…

Amazon’s $1.5 Million Political Gambit Backfires in Seattle City Council Election

Seattle voters, in a rebuke to heavy corporate campaign spending by Amazon.com, have kept progressives firmly in control of their city council, reviving chances for a tax on big businesses that the tech giant helped fend off last year. From a report: Amazon poured a record $1.5 million into a Super PAC run by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce to…

Google Reveals Stadia Launch Lineup of 12 Games

As we approach the November 19th launch date of Stadia, Google has revealed there will be just 12 games available to start. ExtremeTech reports: Stadia is similar to GeForce Now and Microsoft’s upcoming xCloud service. Instead of downloading a game or buying a physical copy, Stadia renders the games on a Google server and streams the video down to your devices….

In China, Shutterstock Censors Hong Kong and Other Searches

Shutterstock, the well-known online purveyor of stock images and photographs, is the latest U.S. company to willingly support China’s censorship regime, blocking searches that might offend the country’s authoritarian government, The Intercept reported this week. From the report: The publicly traded company built a $639 million-per-year business on the strength of its vast — sometimes comically vast — catalog of images…