Do you find yourself playing mobile games like Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga long after you know you should have stopped? If so, then there may be real scientific explanations for your addiction. The Guardian has an interview with psychologist Dr. Simon Moore and some developers at Lumo Developments in which they all discuss the secret tricks that game developers use to get you hooked on what are surprisingly uncomplicated, low-graphics games.
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If Intel has its way, you’ll never have to scramble around with your laptop looking for a power outlet at the airport ever again. CNET reports that Intel announced during the Computex conference in Taiwan this week that it’s working on a next-generation wireless charging platform for personal computers that it says could eliminate the need for PC cables by 2016 at the earliest.
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Google’s Google Glass smart eyewear has many fans but also many haters, and the device will be available to more and more users in the future, sporting all sorts of interesting, and possibly creepy features. Hopefully, though, most users won’t have the chance to actually try out a Glass-based augmented technology currently in testing by TrackingPoint. The solution lets users shoot a rifle at targets around the corner. While it’s certainly interesting, it’s also potentially dangerous for civilians. And for the military or law enforcement personnel, Glass doesn’t yet offer the kind of battery life that would make it a useful solution in many scenarios.
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Although Sprint and T-Mobile are facing some steep regulatory hurdles, the two companies are apparently going to try to go ahead with their merger anyway. The Wall Street Journal’s sources say that Sprint parent company SoftBank and T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom have agreed to a deal that will see SoftBank acquire a majority stake in T-Mobile for $40 per share in a deal worth $50 billion. T-Mobile’s shares closed trading Wednesday at $34.28 each while its market cap stood at $27.46 billion, so it looks like DT will be getting a nice premium from SoftBank in the deal, especially since the Journal’s sources say it would retain a 15% to 20% stake in T-Mobile even after the deal is complete. SoftBank has argued that it needs T-Mobile to build Sprint into a truly competitive wireless carrier, although its arguments have been greeted with skepticism by regulators so far.
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Just about every smartphone vendor out there is touting their devices’ camera quality but which high-end flagship phone actually delivers the best pictures? A new video uploaded by YouTube user SuperHDView aims to give us the most in-depth comparison between the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the LG G3’s smartphone cameras we’ve yet seen by letting us look at pictures taken by both cameras in stunning 4K video.
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iOS 8 will bring one under-the-hood change that many app developers, but also iPhone and iPad users, will appreciate: consistent performance no matter what browser app is chosen. 9to5Mac reports that browser apps and apps that incorporate web browsing features will offer the same kind of speed that was previously available only to Safari, the built-in iOS browser, because Apple is ready to share its Nitro JavaScript engine with other apps.
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Microsoft has done a lot to make the Xbox One a better deal for gamers over the last year but there’s still one feature that many are clamoring for: Backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 games. SlashGear points out that many Xbox fans are still banging the drum and asking the company to announce full support for backwards compatibility at next week’s big E3 gaming show.
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In the two years since its public debut, Google Glass has gone from being seen as a potentially game-changing wearable computer to being a hopelessly dorky piece of technology that even diehard Google fans are having a hard time stomaching. Over at CNN, Google X exec Astro Teller explains the reasons that Google decided to create Google Glass in the first place and he inadvertently shows us why this iteration of Glass is falling flat on its face so far.
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We’ve played our part in spoiling the surprise, but it looks like Amazon is finally ready to unveil its 3D smartphone at a launch event on June 18th in Seattle. The news comes from a video Amazon published this afternoon on its YouTube account, and although the phone doesn’t get any screen time, it’s hard to imagine what else it could be. Check out the reveal below.
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On top of the already available iOS features that help users track their lost or stolen iPhones and iPads, iOS 8 will have additional iCloud tweaks to help Apple customers recover their devices.
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