Ubisoft announced today that the next entry into its line of Driver games will be bringing speedboat racing to iOS in April.

Titled “Driver Speedboat Paradise,” the game puts players in the shoes of a young speedboat racer as he is enlisted to combat the mafia… by racing speedboats.

Ubisoft says that the game will feature realistic visuals and challenging courses as waves shift and change in real-time. Players will have to master the art of riding and dodging waves, water drifting, and performing crazy stunts with ramps planted throughout the game’s courses. Along the way, players will collect upgrades for their boats including ship parts, new boats, and decals that will let them pimp their ride.

Overall, the plot of Driver Speedboat Paradise is either the most ridiculous or most amazing thing we’ve heard in a while. Either way, you’ll be able to check it out when it lands on iOS in April. In the meantime, you can check out the game’s trailer above.

Press Release:

Trying to make people afraid of enabling, empowering technology isn’t bad journalism, it’s an attack.

Yet that’s exactly what happened last night when the New York Times published an article originally titled “Could wearable computers be as harmful as cigarettes?”, later amended to “The Health Concerns in Wearable Tech”.

But what does all this research tell the Apple faithful who want to rush out and buy an Apple Watch, or the Google and Windows fanatics who are eager to own an alternative smartwatch?

Nothing. Because no “research” was properly presented, no true experts were quoted, and nothing was done, in good faith, to further knowledge or understanding.

The Apple Watch is going to help many people in many ways. It’s going to make the world more accessible for some, and it’s going to make lives healthier and more fit for others. The NYT, by picking a narrative to make a story instead of researching facts to present one, is not only failing to inform but is actively disinforming. It’s making its readership dumber.

That’s the only really frightening thing about it.

For more information on the science behind Apple Watch, iPhone, and health, check out Derek Kessler’s essay:

• Relax, your smartphone and smartwatch won’t — and can’t — give you cancer

Update: In addition to numerous tech publications calling the article to task, Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times Public Editor has now weighed in as well:

Here’s my take: Mr. Bilton’s writing on technology — on which he’s often engaging and informative — doesn’t make him a health or science expert. It is, of course, possible for a non-expert to write effectively on a complicated subject but, when that happens, extra checking and caution is in order. That didn’t happen here.

And although Mr. Bilton is a columnist, with plenty of leeway for expressing opinion, the careful interpretation of facts still matters. That, too, was lacking.

What’s more, the original web headline felt like click bait, although it certainly reflected the top of the column. Toning it down was a smart move — in fact, a necessity. That change happened after Times Science staff members saw the first headline online and objected, Mr. Emmrich told me.

If you use the default Calendar app on your iPhone or iPad, you can quickly and easily manage any events you were invited to, no matter how you RSVP’d the first time around. If you decide later you need to change your mind, you can quickly access an entire list of all the events you were invited to by following these steps:

How to manage all shared calendar events on iPhone and iPad

1. Launch the Calendar app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on Inbox in the bottom right hand corner.
3. Tap on Replied in the top navigation.
4. You’ll see an entire list of shared events. Tap on any of them to view more details or tap on any action button to change your reply quickly.

Pebble will put their own money in backing smartstrap ideas to help turn them into products.

When the Pebble Time Steel was announced Pebble also announced smartstraps – an open hardware accessory platform. Since then there has been a lot of buzz in the developer community about smartstraps, which allow sensors to be added right into the bands. To help these ideas grow into actual products Pebble has just announced that they are putting 1 million dollars into funding the development and support of smartstraps.

We monitor Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms for Pebble smartstrap-related projects, and we’ll back the best of them. We truly understand the value of backing projects in their early state, having started that way ourselves. From there, we expect many projects to evolve into products fit for wider release.

Pebble will not be able to fund every single project that comes out, but they will be using their best judgement to distribute the available funds. A few companies have already caught the eye of Pebble with their ideas, the first being Spark.io. The concept presented here would allow you to be able to untether your Pebble and connect directly to a cellular network, allowing for your watch to remain connected at all times. Next up is SeeedStudio who looks to create a connector for their arduino-compatible Xadow modules which include GPS, NFC and Heart Rate Sensors.

The process of qualifying for funding from Pebble is outlined very simply. Get your team together and build a prototype, then put your idea on a crowdfunding platform, and finally get in touch with the Pebble team through Twitter or email. If you had any interest in building a smartstrap for the Pebble Time, this is definitely great motivation to get in gear and see if Pebble will support your ideas.

Press release:

Microsoft today announced yet another affordable Windows Phone, the Lumia 430.

But, coming not long after the Lumia 435 and being pretty close to it in the naming scheme, there are going to be those asking “so what’s different?” It can get confusing, so here we try to break it down and see how, if at all, the Lumia 430 differs from the Lumia 435.

Although the initial roll out of the BlackBerry Classic came pretty fast, there’s still some regions out there waiting for the device to arrive fully and one of them is Indonesia but the wait is soon over. Telkomsel, one of Indonesia’s largest carriers, has now started taking pre-orders for the device and will continue all the way through until March 24th and through their partnerships with Blanja.com, Erafone.com and Blibli.com, they also have some special offers in place.

Read More »

Target has finally begun selling the Microsoft Band in the US, two days after it was expected to do so. Sales of the fitness band are only on the retailer’s website. The device is not currently being sold in Target’s brick-and-mortar locations.

Like all of the devices coming from BlackBerry, the BlackBerry Leap design has a story behind it. Over at the Inside BlackBerry Blog, Donny Halliwell has sat down with the designers of the BlackBerry Leap, Brian Paschke and Younghwan Kim, to discuss some of the design inspirations for the latest all-touch device.

Read More »

Microsoft’s newest Windows Phone is the super-affordable Lumia 430 announced today, and we’ve got just the place for you to come and talk about it. The brand new Windows Central Lumia 430 forums are now open for business and awaiting your visit!

So, whatever’s on your mind, questions to ask, opinions to share, hit the link below and come join in the conversation!

• Join the discussion in the Lumia 430 forums

No one could ever claim that the dialer on the current version of Windows Phone is exceptional. Sure, it works, it is easy to read, and it has most functions that we expect from something as simple as a dialer.

However, it is missing Smart Dialing – the ability to type someone’s name using the keypad to bring up their contact information. This feature saves you the extra step of opening the contacts list and scrolling until you find the person you want to dial. Instead, as you type those initials (D…a…n…) the list sorts down to the number you want.