‘Rare Replay’: gaming classics at their best-worst
It wasn’t until after I’d repeatedly pummeled an oversized rat’s testicles that I realized why preserving video game history is so important. Were it not for Rare Replay, an anthology of 30 games spanning 32 years, I’d never have played Battletoads Arcade and would’ve missed one of the finest moments from one of gaming’s most storied developers.
Replay is an invaluable record of developer Rare’s legacy, but it’s neither complete nor perfect. Before Microsoft purchased the studio for $375 million in 2002, Rare made games almost exclusively for Nintendo. GoldenEye and the Donkey Kong Country series (arguably its biggest hits) are absent here thanks to publishing and licensing deals, while other games have been scrubbed free of Nintendo references entirely. While Replay‘s remastered contents are the best they’ll likely ever look, games aren’t movies, and visuals are only one part of the equation here. So can a slick, modern package make up for any shortcomings that result from playing decades-old games? The answer isn’t so simple and it fluctuates wildly from one classic Rare title to the next.
More than anything, Rare Replay absolutely nails it in the presentation department. The gallery-styled menu system treats games with the reverence they deserve, for one. And for any title released prior to the Nintendo 64, the 4:3 image is surrounded by an arcade-style screen border with art inspired by the game you’re playing, instead of stretching the pixelated graphics to fit a widescreen display.
But perhaps the biggest visual trick on tap is a filter that takes the pristine pixels from games like R.C. Pro-Am and Jetpac and gives them some analog fuzz. It’s meant to emulate the look of an old CRT television and the effect is convincing as all get-out. The edges of the screen “warp” into the bubble shape so instantly recognizable to anyone who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, and there’s a faint jump in brightness around its edges. Most impressively, the action looks just soft enough to trick my brain into thinking I was playing on my parents’ tube TV.
Part of what made classic games so difficult was the lack of a save system. Rare Replay smartly sidesteps this by giving you unlimited continues (in the case of Battletoads and its Arcade follow-up), a save-anywhere option for other titles and a rewind feature to help undo any mistimed jumps or other mistakes made. It’s the same thing the Forza racing series has offered for a while. Is it convenient? Yes. Does it present the games as they originally played? No, which makes Replay less of an archival record for the history buffs and more of a novelty to appeal to modern players.
More than anything, Rare Replay absolutely nails it in the presentation department.
But even those modern conveniences can’t save a fog of nostalgia from the harsh sunlight of reality: A majority of the 30 games here really don’t hold up all that well for a number of reasons. Much of our tolerance for sloppy, imprecise and lethargic controls from gaming’s past has dissipated. It isn’t necessarily the games’ fault, though — they weren’t designed to play on a flat-screen. For all their shortcomings, CRT TVs didn’t suffer from processing lag the way modern displays do. As such, making precise jumps in gothic platformer Underwurlde while ghosts and goblins threatened to bounce me across the screen was a gigantic pain in the ass. Sluggish controls have amped the difficulty of the already tough Battletoads and, thus, moving my favorite war-amphibian around felt like I was pushing him through wet concrete.
Where the biggest issues lie, however, are with the more recent offerings. It took a while for me (and I presume most everyone else) to get used to controlling shooters with dual analog sticks, but now replaying 3D games from the N64 is an exercise in frustration. Banjo-Kazooie, its sequel and Perfect Dark fare pretty well (and look rather sharp) considering those games were released in some fashion on Xbox Live Arcade. But playing the N64’s Jet Force Gemini is a nightmare.
Modern games use the left analog stick for moving backward, forward, left and right, and aiming is tied to the right stick. Default controls for JFG don’t offer that, but a post-launch patch adds something similar. The problem is, the N64 controller’s single-stick legacy lives on, regardless. Unless you’re constantly pulling the left trigger on the Xbox One gamepad, you’re stuck with legacy controls and extremely aggressive auto-aim. It looks quite good, however, with widescreen support and slightly touched-up character models.
Conker: Live and Reloaded
What’s puzzling is why Rare opted to use an N64 port of Conker’s Bad Fur Day here rather than Conker: Live and Reloaded, which appeared on the first Xbox with progressive scan and a 16:9 widescreen presentation. Bad Fur Day instead runs in a 4:3 pane like the 8- and-16-bit games do, but doesn’t offer the fuzzy CRT filter or any control customization options.
There are bright spots in Rare Replay‘s game collection, although they’re just few and far between. I gushed earlier about Battletoads Arcade and, along with the boat-based action of Cobra Triangle, it’s really the only old-school title worth sinking time into. Remember how I said that this collection was incomplete? Well, Rare created the avatar system for the Xbox 360 and, with that, the avatar-centric Kinect Sports games. Since those aren’t compatible with the Xbox One’s Kinect, they aren’t included here. And, oddly enough, neither is 2014’s Kinect Sports Rivals.
The other peculiarity is that rather than including Rare’s modern games (Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo: Elements of Power, both Viva Pinata releases, Jetpac Refuelled and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts) on the disc, I had to download and play them through the software-based backward compatibility. I’d missed Viva Pinata the first time ’round and was disheartened to learn that I couldn’t play it immediately after popping the disc in. Granted, the likelihood of someone owning an Xbox One and it not being connected to the internet is incredibly slim, but a $30 purchase does not include everything packed into one disc. And depending on your connection speed, it could be quite a while before you get to play with papier-mache animals.
The adorable Viva Pinata
That wait is worth it though as Viva Pinata is easily Rare’s best game, period. It holds up incredibly well thanks to its charming stylized art, vibrant color palette and carefree gameplay. It’s quickly risen through the ranks as my chill-out game of choice, too.
Throughout Rare Replay there’s a tangible sense of love and care for the entire package. And while the games themselves might not all stand the test of time, nothing about Replay feels like a cash-grab or like Microsoft is simply exploiting nostalgia here. Instead, what we have is an anthology that wears its warts like an awkward badge of honor. For a company with a history like Rare that’s celebrated weirdness and going against the grain, that’s probably the best we could hope for.
Image credits: Rare/Microsoft Game Studios
Filed under:
Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Tags: banjokazooie, battletoads, gaming, hdpostcross, jetforcegemini, microsoft, nes, nintendo64, perfectdark, Rare, rarereplay, rcproam, review, supernes, vivapinata, xbox, xboxone
‘Mighty No. 9’ producer: ‘We feel bad. Really, really bad.’
Mighty No. 9 is one of the most successful video game Kickstarters of all time. It’s also been delayed. First until September, and then, earlier this week, it was pushed all the way to 2016. In the months between the two delays, the studio announced it’s working with Armature and Microsoft on the Xbox-exclusive ReCore, and its developer Comcept launched two more crowdfunding campaigns for other projects. Backers are upset. So upset that the campaign for the new game failed to reach its goal. We sat down with Mighty No. 9 producer Nick Yu to ask why the game has been delayed, what Kickstarter is for and whether he feels bad. (He does.)
How has Mighty No. 9 been progressing over the past few months?
It’s good, however, we just announced that we’re delaying the release of the game until Q1 2016. The game is pretty much done. We were doing bug fixes and we found some bugs in the network system that will affect the multiplayer. It’s not like a “showstopper” bug, but it’ll make players really frustrated. We don’t want that to be the experience for our players, so that’s why we decided to delay and polish the game a little bit more.
What’s the experience of funding a game through Kickstarter been like for the studio?
The simplest way to put it is a crazy, crazy ride. We started to prepare for the Kickstarter with about three, four months to go, and the campaign was about one month. I was working from 10 in the morning until 10 at night, going home, having a shower, eating some dinner, having an hour-long nap, and then waking up, checking updates for the US timezone, and going back to bed around 4:30-5, sleep for two more hours, then go back to work. A lot of people did that for a full month. That was crazy, but it was totally worth it. That’s how the game was born, and now we’re here at Gamescom, showing the game; it’s almost finished, and we’re receiving a lot of good comments about the gameplay and the experience, so it was totally worth it.
Is there anything the team would’ve done differently with Kickstarter, and how things have been handled after the campaign ended?
There are always things that you regret, things that you wish that you could do again. For example, we have been communicating with the backers pretty regularly. We did three updates per month. Maybe it’s a bit too much for the development team. Because on top of their normal development work, they have to think about updates; they have to prepare the content. It’s a lot of work. Maybe we could’ve done less updates, but focusing on more communication with the backers. Focus on the game a little bit more, so there could be no delay, or we could find the bug earlier.
So you’re saying that because you’ve been trying to “do right” with the Kickstarter backers, and trying to communicate, it’s divided the development team’s attention and made things slower there?
You could say that. But that’s one side. Because we keep constantly updating backers, the kind of feedback we get is very instant. Whenever an update goes out, we get feedback within one or two days. So we know if there’s something that we should change, or at least look into changing. There’s definitely that reward there, for the three updates per month. Like I said, though, there is more work involved in building more updates. So we can’t really say which is better. We chose the updates, but it could be the other way around was better.
Okay. So Kickstarter: Is it a pre-order platform? Is it promotional? Is it just about investment? Is it about fan feedback? What is Kickstarter to you?
Kickstarter to me, and to most indie creators, not just video game makers, is a chance to make your dream come true. It lets you start your project. Nowadays, you can’t just bring an idea to someone and say, “Give me your money; let me make it.” It’s really hard. Maybe not impossible, but super, super hard. Kickstarter can make that happen rather easier. It’s not easy, but easier than normal. It’s a great way to “kickstart” your project, and to bring a project to life. What you do from there, is up to the creators, up to the project managers. They can just do what they promised in the campaign, and be done with it, or take the opportunity to make it even better. There’s no way to say what’s better, but it’s a great, great system to start something from scratch.
In the case of game creating, normally speaking, when you’re making a video game, you cannot announce the game until a certain stage in the process. Let’s say after the alpha, or after the beta, or whatever. From the start of the project until that stage, no one can say a thing. And it’s really scary. You don’t even know if people will like the idea of the game you’re making, that you’re putting so much work into making. So there’s that constant fear in the mind of creators: “What if people don’t like it? What if people hate my game?” In that sense, when you do a Kickstarter project, you don’t have that; you throw the very core of your idea out there first, and people judge based on that. And it’s only one month. Fail or success, it’s one month. If the project’s successfully funded, you will know for sure that people love your idea enough to give you money one, two, three years before it’s going to be ready. You feel more confident, and it’s very healthy for the mental state of the creators; they don’t have the constant fear or worry about whether people will like the game.
As a creator going to Kickstarter, what do you feel like you owe the backers that give you money? You gave out estimated delivery dates when you did the campaign. What’s the feeling like when you miss that estimate?
I’m sure a lot of people, almost everyone, is upset about delays, and things that can’t be done. But, and this is my personal view, the creators announcing the bad news feel worse than the backers. You know that you have to tell the people, and it’ll make them sad; it’ll make them upset. And you’re the reason for that happening. You’re the one making it. Even if it was accidental, or you had no control over it, you’re the reason the delay happened. We feel bad. Really, really bad.
People are saying that we didn’t announce the delay fast enough. But although we saw the possibility of the delay, we weren’t sure. You’ll never be sure until the moment when you say, “This is not going to make it anymore.” Even if there are rumors or possibilities for delay, we can’t say anything until we are sure. In the end, that might cause some bad PR, people calling you liars, but there’s nothi– there’s maybe some things we could’ve done better, but, at that point, we couldn’t say anything for sure, so. … We are upset as well, just as much as the backers.
The studio has a few different projects going on at the same time. [Keiji] Inafune-san is working on ReCore with Armature, and you had two further crowdfunding campaigns recently. If the team working on Mighty No. 9 is still working on that project, do you think the studio could’ve had given out a clearer message? Because the public perception, and the reaction to these campaigns, has not been good.
The reality is, we said all that stuff in the updates, in the interviews, we did say [that Mighty No. 9 is not affected]. But it wasn’t communicated nicely enough. I’m not in that team, but I see that from the side, that communication wasn’t done right, at all. Timing-wise, it was bad, but for a small company like us, we need to have projects constantly to be working on, or we have people just sitting there doing nothing. For a small company, even a month of sitting there doing nothing will hurt us a lot.
People say, “Why are you overlapping these two projects together?” The answer to that is, “We have to.” Or people lose their jobs, or — this is a little bit exaggerated — the company can go bankrupt. For us, we can explain the reason behind it, but I know it’s hard for everyone to understand. There’s just no way the level of understanding will become the same.
So you’re saying that some people are working on Mighty No. 9, but others are finished with their work?
There are people still working on Mighty No. 9, but other teams are just doing nothing, so we need to move those teams onto new projects. Something that can generate payments, generate their salaries. We had this idea for a while, about Red Ash, and we just thought, ‘why not do another Kickstarter?’
I understand what you’re saying but–
Once you explain to people they typically understand, but the initial message wasn’t clear enough, the timing was bad, it’s just — everything went in a bad, bad direction.
So you said at the start of the interview that your single-player campaign is in a very good place, it’s basically completed?
Yes. It’s 100-percent complete.
Is there no way that you could’ve given that to the people that backed you? And maybe released the multi-player aspect at a later date?
In order for us to just give out the single-player… It’s difficult to explain this in short terms. When you’re submitting a game to the platforms, there’s a testing, an approval process for PlayStation, Xbox, all that stuff. The way it is, you have to submit the product. If we were to give out the game to backers, they have to choose their platform. Either way, we have to go through that approval process for us to give that to the backers.
If we were to just give out the single-player, that means we have to make the whole package as a single-player game. Once that’s out, we can no longer say this game is single-player and multi-player, we can only say this is single-player. When that goes to the retailer, you can no longer sell the product as a single-player / multi-player game. Because it’s not, even if you add a patch later on. And the price will just break. Because it’s only single-player. It’s not that we don’t want to give that to the backers — we can’t.
For us to make that change — only single-player, then patch multi-player later — simply put, the approval process would be doubled, and we would have to spend even more time to break those two aspects of the game apart into separate packages. Submit the single-player first, get approval, fix the multi-player campaign, get approval again.. And there’ll be even more quality assurance because we’re taking stuff out. All that together, I think the game will be out with them together before we could’ve pulled them apart, even with the delay. That’s the reality, however, I know we should think about something to show that we are really sorry to the backers. We’re looking to see if there’s something we can do for the backers. But, we’re looking into that, and we’re looking to get a proper release date, seeing how bad the bug is. How fast we can fix it. Once we know that, we’ll announce the release date properly. For now it’s just Q1 2016.
For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the game, and I just hope you can get it finished so everyone that backed it can enjoy it too.
It’s good to hear that. Everyone that’s played it has been saying it’s really fun, and they can see it’s not just a traditional 2D platformer, it’s something new. There are new elements in the game. It’s a relief to hear that people like it, and it’s just that they don’t like the delay. No one likes the delay. We don’t like the delay. So hopefully we can resolve that as soon as possible.
[Image credit: Comcept]
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Tags: comcept, gamescom, gamescom-2015, gamescom2015, hdpostcross, interview, kickstarter, mightyno.9, MightyNo9
EFF’s browser extension that blocks spying ads officially launches
After more than a year of testing, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is releasing Privacy Badger 1.0, a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that prevents ads and sites from tracking your activity on the web. The EFF says over a 250,000 users have used the early versions of the extension, following a call for testers last May. So how does it work? Privacy Badger blocks so-called super cookies and browser fingerprinting, both of which can be used to track your browsing habits across multiple sites. It works together with the Do Not Track setting in browsers, which also allows you to opt out of ad tracking, but requires services to honor that setting. Together, they should both offer some peace of mind if you’re worried about increasingly powerful web ads, but don’t want to stop ads entirely with services like AdBlock.
Filed under:
Software
Source:
EFF
Tags: ads, adtracking, EFF, PrivacyBadger, security
Is HTC Android’s first falling giant?
HTC has announced “significant cuts” and slashed jobs after posting a $265 million net loss, with more losses promised for the future. Reuters is reporting that the poor performance has been blamed on the company’s One series of flagships that, while accomplished, are losing out to “more fashionable phones” in the market. TechCrunch is saying that HTC is hoping to reverse this trend by turning its attentions to the middle-tier of the market, devices that cost between $300 and $500, parking its tanks squarely on the lawns of Chinese rivals Huawei and Xiaomi.
HTC’s woes are likely to start a round of serious bloodletting in the Android industry, as companies fight off multiple threats to their business. For a start, many established players are feeling the squeeze as newer, younger rivals produce hardware of a similar quality but are happy to make a much smaller profit. Then there’s the fact that the smartphone market has matured to the point where there aren’t millions of people all looking to buy their first device any more. For years, China was thought of as a rich, untapped seam of fresh customers, but a recent IDC report claims that the country is now locked into the same upgrade cycle as everybody else.
HTC is hoping to get ahead of the curve by turning its attentions towards India, which is seen as the next big market for manufacturers looking for a fast buck. Unfortunately, this could be too little, too late, since OnePlus, Xiaomi and even ASUS are now directing efforts to gain a foothold in the country. In addition, established local player Micromax has teamed up with independent Android firm Cyanogen to bolster its software efforts and lure in customers. Google’s not helping either, since its Android One program is ensuring that bargain-basement firms can produce devices with a half-decent experience for very little cash.
At this point you have to hope HTC has a really good plan B. pic.twitter.com/Dv4d58UJKX
— Charles Arthur (@charlesarthur) August 6, 2015
None of this bodes too well for HTC, and this tweet (above) has been circulating, highlighting how long its business has been in a state of decline. Looking at the (rough) numbers since the first “One” flagship, the general trend is clear for anyone to see. Since 2012, the firm’s revenue has gently declined in a fairly regular pattern, with only the launch of each new flagship propping it up. But every new release brings in a little less cash than its predecessor, and these diminishing returns aren’t putting smiles on anyone’s faces.
Of course, HTC isn’t going to collapse overnight, and its VR partnership with Valve might just prove the boost that the company needs. It’s not unfair, however, to say that it’s very hard to pull out of one of these death-spirals when you’re in one. That job is even harder since, unlike deep-pocketed firms like Sony and LG, HTC doesn’t have other profit-making appliance and manufacturing divisions that can prop it up when times are hard. We’ve already seen how this story played out at Nokia and BlackBerry, and this could be the third case of history repeating itself in as many years.
Filed under:
Cellphones, HTC
Tags: Android, Business, China, Financials, htc, India, Sales, VR
Scientists develop software for drone traffic management
It’s all systems go for NASA Ames’ Unmanned Aerial Systems Traffic Management project. One of its partner organizations participating in the program’s initial phase is the University of Nevada, Reno, where a team of researchers has already created the software to make it possible. If you’re wondering, the initiative aims to establish a feasible system that can manage the flow of traffic for unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters, planes and gliders that fly 500 feet and below. The team’s software will serve as the connection between UAVs/other aircraft and the traffic system NASA’s developing.
According to Richard Kelley, the group’s lead scientist, they (everyone involved in the project, that is) “need to devise a system to make vehicles autonomously aware of each other so they can avoid each other, as well as a system to create traffic ‘patterns’ or navigation protocols that would keep aircraft away from each other in the first place.” Kelley will load his software on a drone in the coming months and will begin conducting test flights while connected to a NASA server and under the space agency’s supervision. That means he’s not only testing his software, but NASA’s traffic system itself.
Now that more and more organizations and industries (like farming, fishing and film) are finding new uses for UAVs — not to mention, people are now more open to buying them — low-altitude airspace could become very busy in the future. A proper traffic management program can help avoid collisions and ultimately keep everyone safe.
[Image credit: Alamy]
Filed under:
Misc
Source:
University of Nevada, Reno
Tags: drone, nasa, UAV, universityofnevada
Worried about Stagefright? Here’s what you can do for now
Android vulnerabilities have been surfacing regularly over the past couple of years. They stir up talk – usually some rather alarmist posts by security companies and a flurry of comments on various tech blogs. But then something interesting happens – the scares just fade away, replaced by other alerts, to the point that worrying about (in)security has become the norm in the Android ecosystem.
Stagefright appears to be different. The vulnerability affects 95 percent of all Android devices, and can be exploited with a simple MMS message. A specially designed piece of malware could spread like wildfire by tapping into the contact list of every infected device. Perhaps that’s why Google and major Android OEMs have actually tried to offer a coordinated response.
There’s a very long and very complex discussion to be had about the root of the evil in the Android ecosystem. But that’s not the point of this post. For now, you will probably want to check if your device is vulnerable to Stagefright-based exploits.
Zimperium, the company that discovered Stagefright, published a simple app that checks if the device is exposed to any of the several vulnerabilities that make it up. Simply install it, tap “Begin Analysis,” and the app will show which vulnerability affects your phone. Unfortunately, the app does nothing else, so it’s up to you to look up what each code means and what you can do about it.
So, what exactly can you do if your phone has a case of Stagefright? First up, don’t panic. There is no exploit of this vulnerability in the wild, as far as we know. And there are a few simple things you can do to protect yourself.
- Disable the auto-retrieval of MMS, as the vulnerability relies on modified videos embedded in MMS messages. Some apps auto-retrieve MMS content before you open it – you don’t want that, because that can get your phone infected without you even knowing it.
- Consider switching to a messaging app that has been updated with some level of protection against Stagefright, like Textra.
- Consider switching to a custom ROM like CyanogenMod – the latest CM nightlies are patched against Stagefright.
- If you’re particularly worried about this issue, don’t open MMS messages from unknown numbers.
- Update your messaging apps and check for updates for your device. Google, Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony, and others have promised patches for their main devices. Unfortunately, the majority of smartphone models will remain unprotected, unless the industry does something radical to change itself.
- Again, don’t panic. The risk is minimal at this point, so you shouldn’t lose any sleep over it.
There is something you can do so things change for the better in the Android ecosystem. Call your manufacturer. Call your carrier. Ask about updates and security patches. Perhaps if thousands of customers speak up, they won’t be able to ignore the issue any more.
Gameloft reveals new MMORPG Order & Chaos Online 2: Redemption
Gameloft today announced that its new mobile MMORPG Order & Chaos Online 2: Redemption will be coming to mobile platforms this year. The game will take place 600 years after the original game, and players will still find themselves in the fantasy world of Haradon.
The timing of the announcement is certainly interesting, considering Blizzard Entertainment announced its latest expansion “Legion” for its own hit MMORPG World of Warcraft for PC and Mac. Unfortunately, Gameloft hasn’t revealed many details about Order & Chaos Online 2: Redemption, other than the fact that it’s coming this year.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Gameloft has recently been laying off many employees and has even closed down its New York City studio. While Gameloft still has over 15 offices around the world, we’re not sure whether this has affected the upcoming MMORPG’s development process.
Users that are interested in Order & Chaos 2 can pre-register for news and even unlock rewards that will be available to you at launch. You can find all the details here.
via: Android Central
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John Wick game adaption will be a VR first-person shooter
Game publisher Starbreeze is working on a virtual reality shooter based off of the hit movie John Wick from 2014. A teaser for the game will first launch on the HTC Vive, Starbreeze says.
The HTC Vive will obviously be the first platform to see the game, as it has a confirmed Christmas 2015 release date, while the Oculus Rift release is still up in the air, saying sometime in Q1 2016.
The movie stars Keanu Reeves, an ex-gangster, who gets back into the fight after his former boss’ son raids John Wick’s home and kills his dog, which happened to be a gift from Wick’s late wife.
Click here to view the embedded video.
The game will be developed in conjunction with WEVR and Grab development studios. If the game is anything like the movie, it should certainly be packed full of action, especially if it’s in set in virtual reality.
As mentioned earlier, a teaser game will launch alongside the HTC Vive via SteamVR. The full game will launch in Spring 2016 and will be available for most VR headsets. Starbreeze is no doubt waiting for the critically acclaimed and crowd-funded Oculus Rift to launch before it releases the full game.
If the game does well, we could possibly see a game adaption for the upcoming sequel of the original movie, John Wick 2.
The publisher gave no details on pricing just yet.
Anyone excited for a John Wick game adaption for virtual reality?
source: Starbreeze
Come comment on this article: John Wick game adaption will be a VR first-person shooter
Motorola updates Moto app to v3.0, adding location-based events
Motorola has updated its Moto application in the Play Store to v3.0, adding new location-based triggers for Moto Assist. Normally you could set events to happen using time, calendar events, and even your driving status, but now events or triggers can go off based on your location.
For example, you could create a trigger that will silence your Motorola smartphone when you arrive at or leave work. When you arrive home, you could have a trigger that sets the device to connect to Wi-Fi, turn on do not disturb, and so on.
While it’s a very small update, it’s a nifty feature to have, as you can do some really cool things with it. It is shipping with the new Moto G, and will no doubt come preinstalled on the Moto X Style and Moto X Play, too. If not, it’s just a simple update in the Play Store, which you can grab from the download link below.
Come comment on this article: Motorola updates Moto app to v3.0, adding location-based events
LG to implement monthly security update policy
Joining a list of companies shaken by the Stagefright vulnerability on Android, LG has announced they will be implementing a new policy to issue security updates on a monthly basis. This strategy is similar to one recently announced by Google for their Nexus devices as well as other smartphone manufacturers like Samsung.
According to a statement made to WIRED,
“LG will be providing security updates on a monthly basis which carriers will then be able to make available to customers immediately. We believe these important steps will demonstrate to LG customers that security is our highest priority.”
Besides the potential harm to the brand from any perceived weaknesses in the Android operating system running on their devices, LG is trying to establish itself as a source of smartphones for the U.S. government, so a commitment to security is a key ingredient to success with that effort.
source: WIRED
via: Android and Me
Come comment on this article: LG to implement monthly security update policy
AIVAnet 