This is the future of video game development

The Girls Make Games initiative aims to encourage young women to dive into the rich industry of video game development, and it seems to be doing the trick. This year at the Independent Games Festival awards ceremony, nine young ladies from Girls Make Games collected the ID@Xbox Rising Star award for their work on The Hole Story. It’s a top-down RPG featuring an archaeologist named Wendy who digs a portal to a fantastical dimension in her backyard. Yeah, it’s pretty neat.

We caught up with the winners right after they collected their prizes and had one question for each of them: What do you want the future of video games to look like?

GDC 2016 Revisited: Virtual reality takes a big leap

And just like that, GDC 2016 has come to a close. But, before the Engadget team says goodbye to the gaming conference, we wanted to give you a look at some of the highlights of the week. Virtual reality was definitely the hot topic of conversation, with plenty of interesting news from Sony, Oculus and other companies. We’ll see how these announcements play out over the next few months. Now, who’s ready for E3 in June?

Ben Heck’s console wars: PlayStation 1 vs. Nintendo 64

The console wars have begun! Ben compares the inner workings of the original PlayStation and Nintendo 64 by tearing them down to their chips and highlighting the electronics design considerations, in case you want to make your own portable version. Which worked better? The 32-bit based PlayStation or the 64-bit N64? Watch the episode to find out the strengths and weaknesses of each to determine if you should design for CD-ROM or cartridge. Let us know which console you prefer on the element14 Community page.

Steve Wozniak’s Madame Tussauds Wax Figure Revealed At Silicon Valley Comic Con

Madame Tussauds revealed its Steve Wozniak wax figure Saturday morning at the Silicon Valley Comic Con opening ceremony. The figure will be on display at Tussauds’ Comic Con booth for the entire weekend before its moved to it’s San Francisco location for permanent display.

Steve Wozniak, left, next to his wax figure, right.
Chris Cooper, Madame Tussauds general manager, said that the company held a vote to see which technological innovator would receive a figure. Wozniak overwhelmingly won the poll with over 60 percent of the vote, beating out other tech luminaries like Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

When the red covering dropped it was revealed that Wozniak, who had wandered off the stage moments before, was posing next to his figure, trying to keep as still as possible. After some quick antics, which included the opening ceremonies’ hosts pretending the wax Wozniak was the real Wozniak, the Apple co-founder talked about how surprised he was about the process.

“The incredible art and precision that went into every little measured detail for about five hours,” Wozniak said. “The features at every angle and the human work to make it come out realistic looking. I did not know there was so much involved, I thought you take a picture and a computer prints it out.” Wozniak also said that it was an honor to have a wax figure because he had always wanted one, mentioning the wax figures of superheroes he saw in wax museums when he was younger.

Before inviting the attendees to have fun on the convention floor, Wozniak spoke a little about his inspiration for creating a Comic Con. He noted how that when he was younger, himself and the other employees at Apple didn’t dress up like employees at other tech companies. They were geeks and outcasts that didn’t necessarily fit in. Naturally, they looked to science fiction and superhero stories as a way of escape, and Wozniak says modern technology makes him feel like he’s apart of those worlds. He noted the ability to push a button in an app and summon a car to take you somewhere as similar to a super power.

“I love technology, it makes me feel like I’m a superhero in a way; I’m so much more powerful than I would be without it,” Wozniak said. “Now the whole process is you have imagination. Things that maybe don’t exist in the real world but they exist in your world, in your head. Then we have the ability to realize them, to make them real.”

Tags: Steve Wozniak, Madame Tussauds, Silicon Valley Comic Con
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Candy Crush Jelly Saga: King stays true to its formula [Review]

There’s a very high chance that you know someone who plays Candy Crush. The game stormed the App Store and Google Play when it came out, and even after several years, it

Advanced Call Recorder: Automatically record calls, for posterity. [Review]

Overview – Advanced Call Recorder allows you to record all your calls for future recalling, with minimal setup and low maintenance. Developer: Systweak Software Price: free (Pro, $1.54) Highlights: Automatic Call Recording,

Zeiss VR One is a perfect example of how to do VR wrong

There are clever design decisions, and then there’s what Zeiss did.

There are a lot of people out there who hear the name Zeiss and immediately think quality optics, and with good reason. When Zeiss decided to make a Google Cardboard-esque VR headset where you shove whatever phone you want into a slot and enjoy, it seemed like a no brainer. Unfortunately, the Zeiss VR One is not the virtual reality superstar I was hoping it would be. In fact, it suffers from a serious design flaw that can only be fixed by released a new model.

Here’s a quick look at the Zeiss VR One, and some suggestions on how to do better next time.

Zeiss VR One is designed to be a sturdier version of Google Cardboard. The hard plastic body is well designed, allowing plenty of room for glasses to fit in the viewing area with plenty of covered air vents to keep things from getting foggy in the middle of a VR session. The Zeiss lenses on the inside are fixed, but massive. It’s a design that works well by taking full advantage of the display on the other side, which would be incredible if any of the 2560 x 1440 displays on modern smartphones fit in the body of this headset. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.

Rather than an open face to insert your phone like the Mattel View-Master VR, Zeiss uses cartridges that slide in and out of the side of the headset to align the phone you are using. Zeiss sent me a cartridge for the Samsung Galaxy S5, and it didn’t take me long to figure out why. The cartridge slot isn’t any wider than a Galaxy S5, which means they can’t really make cartridges for things like Galaxy Note 5 or Nexus 6P. Zeiss open sourced the cartridge design so the community could help out, so if you have a 3D Printer you can make your own cartridge for the Galaxy S6 or Xperia Z5 Premium.

This cartridge slot raises another incredible pain point, which is cleaning the lenses. Dust happens, and in most cases a quick swipe with a microfiber cloth will remove dust and get you back into the VR zone. But since you can’t easily open the Zeiss VR One, cleaning is incredibly difficult. Once dust gets on the other side of the lenses — and it will —the VR experience is negatively impacted, so all around it’s a problem. If you have something to blow air across the lenses it’s not as big a problem, but if you try to do that with your face you’re going to wind up with dust and spit on the inside part of the lens, and you will not be enjoying VR today.

Finally, the price tag for this Google Cardboard clone is $129 once you include the cost of a cartridge. That’s $30 more than Samsung’s significantly more capable Gear VR headset and $100 more than most Google Cardboard headsets you’ll find for sale. The VR One hardware feels nice, and the pair of Zeiss VR/AR apps in the Google Play Store are a clever way to get people used to this experience, but nothing about this justifies that price. Zeiss needs to drop the price, open up the body for larger phones and maintenance, and keep the amazing optics and ventilation system in the front. Until that happens, this is not the VR system you are looking for.

See more at Zeiss.com

Save $15 when buying two Chromecast Audios from Google Store

The Google Store is currently offering a $15 savings when buying two Chromecast Audios at the same time. That’s right, whether you are looking to expand upon your current set up, or start a new one in your home, now may be the time to do just that. With more than one Chromecast Audio in your house, you can set them up in independent zones to play different music, or the same to have the tunes play throughout your house.

Check out our Chromecast Audio review

You’ll need to add two of them to your cart for the $15 savings to appear.

See at Google

Thanks for the tip, Jeff!

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Balight’s bike LEDs light up your ride in the doofiest way possible

Twenty-nine people died in traffic-related accidents on the streets of San Francisco in 2014. Seventeen of them were pedestrians and cyclists. So when I commute through the city on a bike, there’s no such thing as being too visible. Well, maybe except for when I turn on the Balight wheel LEDs. This $170 hub-mounted safety light device goes far beyond alerting drivers to your presence: It practically screams, “Hey, everybody, look at me, I’m on a bike!” I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

The system works like many other bike-light sets do: The battery and micro-controller are mounted on the wheel’s hub and, in this case, propel the four spines along which the LEDs run. Each individual LED light is capable of displaying 16 million colors, and as the wheel spins, it generates the optical illusion that you see.

You’ve equipped WHEEL LIGHTS.

Continue?
Yes �?
No pic.twitter.com/Fre7E1hLmJ

— Andrew Tarantola (@Terrortola) Jan. 14th, 2016

On paper, there’s a lot to like about the Balight. Initially marketed as an Indiegogo campaign, where it exceeded its $30,000 funding goal, it offers a litany of features. That includes a 10-hour battery, water/shockproof operation and Bluetooth connectivity, allowing it to be used with a companion mobile app. What’s more, the light can display both still images and animated GIFs from either Balight’s curated online gallery or your own camera roll.

The Balight app also provides a number of features and a surprising degree of personalization. Users can program the light to cycle through specific photo sets at varying lengths of time by sorting images into albums. Additionally, the app incorporates a helpful battery meter for the light, includes GPS and even tracks your ride performance (distance, time and both the maximum and current speeds).

Unfortunately, many of these perks are negated by how awkward the system is to set up and use. First off, just getting the light onto my wheel was a master class in frustration. The printed instructions that come with the unit make no sense. At all. They read like LEGO assembly instructions that have been fed through Google Translate four or five times. I actually had to reach out to the company and have it send a video walk-through just to get the damn thing on; that’s how little sense the written instructions make. I mean, the light is easy to install once you know what the assortment of included screws and clips are for, but getting to that point is a challenge.

It was the same with pairing the light with my mobile device. I spent the better part of an hour alternately swearing at my phone and bike until the two randomly decided to start speaking to each other. I still don’t know what I did to get it to work, but now it does.

The app itself (available for both iOS and Android) feels equally unpolished, even on version 2.2.0. Signing in to my Balight account is hit or miss at best, and some of the functions are still said to be “under testing” but have active buttons nonetheless.

Then there are the more fundamental design flaws. Like the fact that I can’t park my bike on any street in San Francisco with this thing attached if I want it to be there when I get back. Yes, the Balight comes equipped with an anti-theft alarm. No, it isn’t going to do a damn lick of good. Even if I used a secondary cable lock to secure the rim itself, there’s nothing to stop a thief from snipping the spokes and pulling the light out. It’s enough of an issue that I figure it’d be easier if I bought a second rim, installed the light on it and swapped the wheels wholesale.

At 3.3 pounds, the light also adds noticeable weight to your ride. It’s not terrible when mounted on the rear, but install the light up front and it feels like you’re pushing a wheelbarrow. This is exactly what I don’t need when riding a single-speed around hilly San Francisco. What’s more, you need to be traveling at a pretty good clip in order for the displayed animations to not jitter interminably. I could see the benefit of the light during long social rides (i.e., during a Critical Mass-like event), but when I’m racing from light to light during my commute, there isn’t much chance to show off the Balight’s capabilities.

Overall, I like the idea behind the Balight but, as with most crowdfunded products, don’t think it’s ready for consumers yet. I mean, it’s a decent bike light. But for all the hassles that you’ll go through to install and use it, there are plenty of wheel-light systems that do the same thing for much less.

Stagefright exploit reliably attacks Android phones

You may know that the Stagefright security flaw is theoretically dangerous, but it hasn’t been that risky in practice — it’s just too difficult to implement on an Android device in a reliable way. Or rather, it was. Security researchers at NorthBit have developed a proof-of-concept Stagefright exploit, Metaphor, that reliably compromises Android phones. The key is a back-and-forth procedure that gauges a device’s defenses before diving in. Visit a website with a maliciously-designed MPEG-4 video and the attack will crash Android’s media server, send hardware data back to the attacker, send another video file, collect additional security data and deliver one last video file that actually infects the device.

It sounds laborious, but it works quickly: a typical attack breaks into a phone within 20 seconds. And while it’s most effective on a Nexus 5 with stock firmware, it’s known to work on the customized Android variants found on phones like the HTC One, LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy S5.

This doesn’t amount to an in-the-wild attack, and you’ll be fine if you’re running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or any other OS version patched against Stagefright. The catch is that relatively few people are in that boat — most Android users are running Lollipop or earlier, and only some of those devices have Stagefright patches. You’re probably fine if you own a relatively recent device, but your friend with a years-old Android phone is at risk.

Via: ZDNet

Source: Exploit Database (PDF)