Google’s Stadia Problem? A Video Game Unit That’s Not Googley Enough

The tech giant likes to test and tweak. Stadia promised to change the industry and failed to deliver. From a report: Google’s streaming video game service Stadia had ambitious plans to disrupt the gaming industry, which is dominated by consoles. The tech giant had planned to pack Stadia with original content, announcing two years ago that it was hiring hundreds of…

Do we all see the same moon phase?

No matter where you are on the globe, we all see the same moon. So why do photos from a distant location sometimes look different from what you’re seeing? Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/do-we-all-see-the-same-moon-phase…

Why Does the Apple TV Still Exist?

Apple commentator Jason Snell writes: Why does this product still exist, and is there anywhere for it to go next? Gruber and Thompson [two other columnists] suggest that perhaps the way forward is to lean into an identity as a low-end gaming console. Maybe amp up the processor power, bundle a controller, and try to use Apple Arcade to emphasize that…

PlayStation 5 Controllers Are Suffering From Drift

Similar to Nintendo’s “Joy-Con drift,” Sony’s PlayStation 5 DualSense controller is apparently suffering from drift: movement on-screen that doesn’t correspond to any button press or input. ExtremeTech reports: Users have reported DualSense drift as quickly as 10 days after purchasing a PlayStation 5, which tracks with some of the shorter reports we’ve heard about Nintendo as well. We can assume that…

Sony Says It Sold 4.5 Million PlayStation 5 Consoles Last Year and Took a Loss on Sales

Sony shipped more than 4.5 million PlayStation 5s from the console’s Nov. 12 launch to the end of the year, but it took a loss on those sales because the PS5’s “strategic price point” is lower than what it cost to manufacture it. From a report: The disclosure was part of Sony’s quarterly report to investors, delivered in Japan earlier today….

‘We Messed Up’. Microsoft Rescinds Xbox Live Gold Price Hike

“We messed up today,” the Xbox Live Gold team wrote late Friday night, “and you were right to let us know.” Their blog post’s new title? “No Changes to Xbox Live Gold Pricing, Free-to-Play Games to be Unlocked.” Forbes reports: It has been a very strange few days for Microsoft and Xbox fans. On Friday, Microsoft announced that for effectively no…

Sony TVs Get Brighter OLED, Cognitive Processing, Google TV Streaming in 2021

Sony is probably the most storied TV brand still standing and while it’s no longer a top 5 seller, it remains a powerhouse among high-end models — aka TVs that cost a lot of money. Its 2021 lineup of new sets, announced in advance of CES, includes lots of impressive technology and will likely cost a pretty penny too. From a…

Forgotten PS1 Game ‘Magic Castle’ Finally Emerges Two Decades Later

It might have taken more than 20 years, but a game intended for the original PlayStation has at last made its way into the world. Engadget reports: A group of Japanese developers worked on Magic Castle for eight months in the late ’90s. They used Sony’s Net Yaroze, a system with which hobbyists could make games for the console. The team…

Linux Kernel Ported to the Nintendo 64

Phoronix reports: It’s been a turbulent year and 2020 is certainly ending interesting in the Linux/open-source space… If it wasn’t odd enough seeing Sony providing a new official Linux driver for their PlayStation 5 DualSense controller for ending out the year, there is also a new Linux port to the Nintendo 64 game console… Yes, a brand new port to the…