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If you’re having trouble finding something cool to play, then you should definitely try out Calavera Studio’s recently released Doom 2 clone. Dubbed MiniDoom, the two-parter promises the same trigger-frenzy action as the original game in addition to humorous cutscenes and epic boss battles.

Doom Clone Scheduled to Launch with Doom 4

According to Calavera Studio’s developers, MiniDoom was supposed to launch around the same date as big brother Doom 4, but the guys missed the scheduled due to financial issues. Once it was released the first MiniDoom was more of a flash game than a fully-fledged one, but the humorous cutscenes, rancid comments, and Metal Slug-interface made it enjoyable.

And now, the developers announced that a sequel has just been made available, and this time they aim to please. MiniDoom 2 has 17 new levels, 14 exotic arms, ranging from the classic chainsaw to the BFG, five difficulty levels, and four gameplay modes.

Since this is not an official ID Software game and more of a parody, the team has decided to include a couple of weapons that don’s feature in the original release. With MiniDoom 2 released, the company is currently working on a new Sidescrolling title called Killumination.

What can you expect from MiniDoom 2? Well, apart from the undying character dubbed the Doom guy and Doom-inspired creatures such as the Hell Knight of the freaky robotic spider with a big brain, the game has everything need to satisfy both casual and hardcore gamers.

Conclusion

It’s up to you now to decide between a brisk walk through Hell’s park or gameplay that makes Dark Soul II look like it’s a kid’s game. The game can be downloaded from Calavera Studio’s website totally free of charge.

Since it’s a 2D Sidescroller, the game can be run on any machine, regardless of the specifications.

Image courtesy of Calavera Studio

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In the category ‘things your child should not mess around with’ we give you the semi-humorous story of a Chinese mother who now has to wait nearly half a century to use her phone. Apple’s technicians declared that there’s nothing to do in this case but wait or lose all data on the phone.

Chinese Mom Said She Left Her Child Unsupervised for a Couple of Seconds

The unlucky Chinese mom named Lou told a Shanghai news outlet that her 2-year-old son managed to lock her out of her iPhone for 47 years. As stunning it would might sound, this is quite a common thing among iPhone users who repeatedly enter the wrong PIN.

According to the Chinese mom, on that particular morning, she gave her 2-year-old son the phone in order to watch a couple of educative videos. She went to the kitchen and returned after a couple of seconds to check up on her son.

Upon returning, the woman had the shock of her life to discover that she was locked out of her phone and that the device kindly asked her to try again in 25,114, 984 minutes or roughly 47 years.

The Chinese mom jestingly told the reporter that she called the Apple customer service center because she wasn’t about to wait until her grandson is born to tell him or her about how his father managed to lock her out of her iPhone.

The Apple technician told the woman that she has two choices – either to a manual factory reset, which meant losing all data on her phone or wait until the device becomes unlocked.

The Chinese mom declared that she becomes weary of waiting, as it’s been two months since she last used her phone. An Apple technician declared that one user reported that he had to wait 80 years for his phone to get unlocked.

Image source: Flickr

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Picture this – still of the night, no soul in sight and, suddenly; your Amazon Echo starts laughing as if it heard the best joke ever. Recently, the company’s service has been assaulted by reports of a peculiar bug that seems to affect Amazon Alex.

Amazon Alexa Bug Related to Incorrectly Processed Voice Commands

According to an Amazon spokesperson, several customers have been complaining about their Amazon Alexa laughing like crazy even though nobody uttered a word in front of over.

A customer told the call center operator that during a meeting, the Amazon Echo simply started laughing for a couple of seconds and then simply switched itself off. Another one reported being alone with his mother when they’ve heard the sinister laugh coming from their Amazon Alexa who was in standby mode.

As far as the software engineers are concerned, the peculiar bug reported by the clients has something to do with how Amazon Alexa picks up voice commands. Various ambient sounds might be picked up by the device and simply interpreted as voice commands.

To that end, the company announced that the software engineers had changed Alexa’s voice command for laughter. Now, if you want to make Alexa laugh, you will need to say the sentence ‘Alexa, can you laugh?’ instead of ‘Alexa, laugh.’

Although this solution seems to have partially sounded the annoying and creepy bug, the software engineers still don’t know for sure what exactly caused in the first place. One theory out there suggests that the devices emitting the sinister laughter might have been hacked by someone who’s programming it to emit the sound at regular intervals.

However, the theory is as far-fetched as it is unsubstantiated, the software developers believing that it has more to do with ambient sounds than with hackers.

Image source: Pexels

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The next time you’ll be craving for a Caliburger dish, be prepared to have your meal cooked by a robot. John Miller, the company’s CEO, announced that Flippy, a $100,000 robot, will be employed to help the staff prepare the restaurant’s signature dishes.

Flippy Is an Impressive Piece of Equipment

Although Flippy’s main task is to flip those succulent burgers all day long, Miller declared that the robot is more than meets the eye. Designed and manufactured in collaboration with Miso robotics, Flippy is equipped with artificial intelligence which helps it learn, relearn, and improve.

The robot is also equipped with a 3D camera that helps him better understand and navigate the environment. However, at the moment, Flippy is still trying to get the hang of its job.

Miller declared that Flippy stepping into the kitchen is not a whim, but a necessity. The job Flippy was trained and programmed to do is one of the least paid and dirty ones in a fast-food restaurant, as Miller described it.

And since the job doesn’t pay much, hundreds of candidates resigned after just a few days spent in the kitchen, flipping burgers. But, as times are a changing, the robot is more than happy to cover himself in grease and flip them burgers from dusk till dawn.

At the moment, the robotic fast-food chef is capable of flipping 150 burgers per hour. Sadly, the robot still has much to learn and will, for the time being, stick to flipping burgers, making sure they’re cooked right.

Flippy will be supervised by a human handler whose job is to pass the burger patties and to add the rest of the ingredients. The robot will also be able to tell if the burgers are thoroughly cooked by analyzing the temperature with its built-in sensors.

Image source: Wikipedia

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Stephen Kick, the founder, and CEO of Nightdive Studios, the company which bought the rights of the System Shock series, recently announced that the team is taking a raincheck and that the remastered version of the game will not be coming out anytime soon.

System Shock Remastered Delayed or Cancelled?

As far as gaming history is concerned, few know that System Shock spearheaded the innovative move that will give birth to open-world first-person perspective games. Being considered the spiritual parent of the Bioshock series and the recently-released Prey Remastered, System Shock is without a doubt, one of those games that stays with you, no matter when you’ve finished it.

Back in 2013, Looking Glass Studios, the creator, and distributor of System Shock decided to leave the gaming scene, selling all the intellectual rights of the franchise to the insurers.

Several months later, Kick, who learned about the company’s downfall, would track down all the parties who owned the rights to the franchise and spend a ludicrous amount of money in order to buy them.

Three years later, Kick announced that his game studio, Nightdive, will be working on the remastered version of the game. This version would have been built on the Unity engine and compatible with high-end PCs.

As for financial aid, Kick and his studio started a Kickstarter campaign. Within a couple of months, Nightdive Studios’ bank account contained the very round figure of $1.3 million, funds which should have been used to hire devs and put the final touches on the game.

Unfortunately, after two years of tinkering, Kick announced that his company has put the project on hold for the time being and continue to work on System Shock’s sequel. Moreover, the company’s CEO declared that this doesn’t mean that the project has been abandoned, merely that the team is taking a breather and reflect on where they want to go with this game.

Image source: Flickr

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Ted Timmins, the PC lead over at Lionhead Studios, announced that the upcoming March title Sea of Thieves would be optimized to run even on low-end machines. The official launch date for the new pirate title has been set for the 20^th of March and will be available for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.

Sea of Thieves Rumored to Revolutionize the Genre

The upcoming title, developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft is rumored to spearhead the genre’s revolution, despite its cartoonish-like aspect and seemingly family-friendly characters.

According to the game’s description, Sea of Thieves is a first-person perspective, MMORPG, whose story takes the player of the 18^th-century Caribbean region where he or she will need to plunder and engage in naval battles against computer-generated foes or other players who wish to claim the title of sea lord.

With enhanced online mechanics and tons of stuff to do, Sea of Thieves is believed to be one of the interesting titles ever to have landed on consoles since Pirates of the Caribbean, the 2003 box-hit developed by Bethesda, Ubisoft, Disney Interactive, 1C Company, and TDK.

As far as gameplay is concerned, the game features a fully-explorable environment, filled with hidden treasure and deadly foes. Still, the main objective of the game is to put together a crackerjack crew and become the terror of the seven seas

Players will be able to construct massive fleets, customize their flagship with as many cannons and battle equipment they see fit, and, of course, plunder settlements and destroy fortifications.

Conclusion

Specs-wise, Timmins said that the game would be fully playable even on a low-end PC. To be able to run Sea of Thieves you’ll need an Iris Pro Graphics 6200 or Intel Iris 540 processor, Windows ten anniversary, 4GB RAM, 45GB of free space, and 1GB of video RAM.

Image source:  Flickr

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It’s not yet official, but by the looks of it, we will need to rethink the way we interact with a VR-generated environment. Sony is about to unveil the patent for new kind of VR controller, one that relies more on independent finger tracking than on headset motion detection.

Sony To Spearhead the VR Revolution?

It’s been about eight years since the first wireless controller has been unleashed on the market and it would seem that things are about to get even better. Rumor has it that Sony is secretly working on the next-generation of VR controllers and two leaked patents have popped out all over the Internet.

While this is exciting news indeed, we don’t know for sure if the tech giant is really going forward with the project or if this is one of those ruses meant to keep users on edge.

What Should the New VR Controller Look Like?

According to schematics which bear Sony’s undistinguishable moniker, the VR controller resembles a vertical grip controller, with a directional thumbstick on top. Also, the patent also reveals that the VR controller will also have several customizable action buttons on top of the rubbery thumbstick and a trigger further down its body.

For convenience and extra comfort, the designers also added something that looks like a leather strap. Now, this is where things get interesting. On the front, the VR controller has finger placements which should be capable of detecting individual finger motion.

What it all boils down to is this – previous headset designs relied heavily on Sony’s head camera to determine the position of the controller. With the new design, it would appear that the each fingers’ movement is tracked using the finger placements, thus allowing more in-game freedom of movement.

Is this official? Unfortunately, it’s not, but it’s not unlike Sony to hold something back in order to surprise its fans.

Image source: Wikipedia

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Bad news out there for all YouTubers who wanted to monetize their YouTube channel. According to a recent blog post, YouTube announces that the channel monetization rules of engagement have changes in order to discourage spammers and ‘bad actor.’

What You Need to Know About YouTube Monetization Policy

The finest hour of any YouTube content creator is that moment when his bankroll starts multiplying. It’s not just a dream come true, but with the YouTube Partner Program, anyone can start making serious money, provided that the owner has enough subscribers and hours of watch time.

Well, far be it from us to discourage, young content creators, but according to YouTube, there will be a massive change of policies, starting with February. The area most impacted by YouTube’s policy change is monetization or rather, the eligibility conditions.

According to one of YouTube’s blog posts, in order to sow what you reap, your YouTube Channel must have at least 1,000 subscribers and a total number of 4,000 watch hours for it to be eligible for the Partner Program.

Compared to YouTube’s past policy, which usually required a channel to hit the 10,000 public views channel, the new one can put a lot of people out of business and, of course, discourage others. But, all in all, it’s not an exactly bad thing, considering that these kinds of changes can seriously discourage spammers and what YouTube called ‘bad actors’ for posting trash content just to increase channel engagement.

So, when will YouTube start enforcing its new policy? According to the post, the new policy will be applied starting with the 20^th of February. YouTube channel owners who don’t meet the eligibility requirements, but made serious moolah before the policy change, will have a grace period of 30 days to get in shape, otherwise is bye-bye channel.

Image source: Pixabay

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Ever wondered what’s it like being so famous that you can actually commission a painter for your portrait? Well, while for most of us it’s still a dream, Google has managed it it’s usually quiet and efficient way to find a workaround. Recently, Google launched an application that can tell you who’s your art doppelganger.

Google’s Art Doppelganger App Takes Selfies to the Next Level

Following Doodle and the app that turns your face into an emoticon, Google has decided to up its game and tackle the arts. And what better way to combine cultural trends like selfies with classic art than to pack them in the same application.

Introducing Google Arts and Culture, an application that not only enhances your painting knowledge but also lets you know who’s your art doppelganger. How does it work? It’s pretty easy. You just need to download the application from Google’s Play store, put on your best selfie face, and snap away.

Within seconds, Google’s magic app will show you the portrait which better bears a resemblance to your selfie.

According to the top cats at Google, the new Arts and Culture application makes use of some cutting-edge technology called computer vision. This engineering marvel analyzes various facial features and compares them to works of art stored in its database.

However, don’t go thinking that the painting Google’s chosen for you will bear a striking resemblance to your selfie. The app, albeit very precise, still has numerous limitations, but Google’s working on them.

And now, here comes the not-so-good news. In order to use Google’s art doppelganger app, you must be in the United States. The company announced that it’s currently developing the UK version of the app, but it will take some time before the app can be used worldwide.

Image source: Flickr

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STATES CHRONICLE – YouTube comes with great news for iOS users, as their version of the app has received a long-awaited update. Until now, users had to watch vertical videos with the unaesthetic black bars on the side. Now, the app is up-to-date, allowing users to watch these videos properly when entering the full screen mode.

The iOS version of YouTube didn’t display vertical videos properly

Whenever iOS users entered YouTube and wanted to watch a vertical video, things got less pleasant as soon as they opted for full screen display. The black bars were present and, if users wanted them gone, they had to tilt the device on one side or another to view the video properly. Therefore, YouTube decided it was time to change.

At first, they announced such a feature in August, and it took them several months to turn it into a real one. The feature has been available on Android phones for two years, so the company thought it was time to offer it to iOS users as well. However, there might be one slight problem.

YouTube needed to adopt the changes and suit the modern times

Some videos were especially recorded for this non-vertical display, meaning that they have the black bars encoded in them. This means that, even if the app will now allow vertical videos, the bars will remain visible. However, the update remains a huge achievement for YouTube.

This feature was popularized by Instagram and Snapchat, which promoted vertical videos and got users used to it. Therefore, YouTube had to adapt, and make sure people get what they expect from the video app. Also, given its popularity and the broad type of content it offers, it was necessary for it to be suitable for these modern times.

Bye bye, black bars. 👋

Now the YouTube player on iOS will automatically adapt to the shape of the video you’re viewing! pic.twitter.com/4jzJ6nPj4G

— Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) December 19, 2017

Image Source: Max Pixel