Cancelled ’90s arcade fighter ‘Primal Rage II’ released online

Forget Tekken 7, 2017’s hottest new fighting game has just arrived – only it’s 22 years later than originally expected. After being cancelled in 1995, Kotaku reports that Atari’s long-lost Primal Rage II has found its way onto the internet. Downloading an emulator will allow 90’s fighting fans to dive straight into a competent build of the ill-fated beat ’em up. While some menus are still incomplete and it has its fair share of bugs, players will find that the dino-brawling itself works.

For the uninitiated, Primal Rage made a name for itself in the ’90s thanks to its cutting-edge stop motion animation. The prehistoric fighter soon found it’s way onto almost every home gaming console available at the time, prompting the announcement of a sequel. Just a year into development, however, Atari’s financial troubles gave them cold feet, causing the company to pull the plug on Primal Rage II.

This isn’t the first time a canned gaming project has appeared online. With video games often costing huge amounts of money to produce, it’s no surprise that countless brilliant concepts have fallen by the wayside over the years. Thanks to the ease of communication afforded by the internet, however, not all canceled titles are doomed to the scrapheap of history. Now, let’s see more of that promising looking Star Wars 1313 please, LucasArts.

Source: Kotaku

NVIDIA releases a tool to benchmark your VR setup

If you’ve ever wanted to make sure that your PC’s virtual reality setup is running as well as it possibly can, you now have the software you need. NVIDIA has released its promised FCAT VR tool, which can check for dropped or synthesized frames, warp misses and other signs that a VR title isn’t running smoothly. It’ll even show you how a VR program runs at different detail levels, so you’ll know if you need to tone down the graphics setting to get optimal performance.

You’re most likely to find use for this as a gamer, since it’s an easy way to gauge whether or not your PC is fast enough to handle that hot new VR experience. However, NVIDIA also sees this as particularly helpful for developers and hardware makers that want to fine-tune their products. You may see fewer games that choke on reasonably fast hardware, and graphics card drivers that are more explicitly VR-friendly.

Source: GeForce

Frank Oz on Muppets, puppets and CG Yoda

Frank Oz needs no introduction. He’s voiced iconic characters like Yoda and Miss Piggy and directed classic films like Little Shop of Horrors and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. His impact extends far beyond geek circles; he’s a creative legend in Hollywood. I had a chance to chat with Oz at SXSW this week about his upcoming documentary, Muppet Guys Talking: Secrets Behind the Show the Whole World Watched.

As he explains it, the film is the first time several core Muppet puppeteers had a chance to sit down and dish about their experience with the series. Of course, I couldn’t help but ask about his entire career. We discussed how he managed to pull off scenes in The Muppet Movie and Little Shop of Horrors as well as how CG compares to traditional puppetry. And yes, I asked him about CG Yoda as well as if the character will be making a return in Star Wars.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from SXSW 2017.

McDonald’s Tests Mobile App Ordering That Uses Geo-Fencing to Optimize Food Prep Time

Although it’s late to the mobile ordering trend, McDonald’s today has begun testing an update to its smartphone app that will allow customers to create an order anywhere and pay for it through the app when they arrive at their local McDonald’s. In a bid to avoid customer congestion, long wait lines, and cold food, the app will use geo-fencing to detect when each customer is getting closer to the McDonald’s and alert staff to begin preparing their meal accordingly (via Reuters).

The tests have begun today at 29 McDonald’s locations in Monterey and Salinas, California, and will expand to 51 new locations Spokane, Washington on March 20. Jim Sappington, McDonald’s executive vice president of operations, said that the tests are intended to work out any kinks in the mobile order and pay update before a wide rollout in almost all of the 14,000 U.S. McDonald’s locations by the end of 2017. Around 6,000 others will also get the update in Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Australia, and China.

In the current state of the McDonald’s app [Direct Link] users can browse the menu, get deals, and find nearby locations. Sappington hopes that the update results in an overall experience that’s “clearly better” to use.

If its famous french fries are served cold or if mobile customers have to wait for orders, “you get a question of ‘Why did I use the app?’,” Sappington said. “Our focus is to make the overall experience clearly better.”

McDonald’s said that automating more orders should cut transaction times, reduce errors and free up workers to do things like deliver food to tables or cars in spots designated for mobile orders.

“It’s better to be right than to be first to market,” McDonald’s Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook said recently.

While customers will browse the menu and place their order outside of the local McDonald’s, the app is said to ask for an order confirmation and payment “when the customer arrives at the restaurant,” seemingly when the geo-fencing feature kicks in. After that, the kitchen will begin preparing the order. Janna Sampson, a McDonald’s investor, questioned the utility of this process: “If they don’t start your order until you pull in the lot, are you really gaining that much time?”

In the final version of the app, customers will also be able to pick table dining, drive-through, or curb-side delivery when they place their meal orders. McDonald’s competitors like Chick-fil-A include mobile ordering with counter pick-up as well as a QR code-based checkout option. McDonald’s didn’t detail how payments work with its new mobile order update, but traditional credit cards tied to user accounts are expected. Given McDonald’s early embrace of mobile wallets like Apple Pay, those could be included as well.

Tag: McDonald’s
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Apple Opening Three New Stores Next Saturday, Including First in Downtown Miami

Apple today announced that its all-new retail store at the new Brickell City Centre shopping mall in Miami opens on Saturday, March 25 at 10:00 a.m. local time. Apple has four existing stores in the Miami area, but this will be the first to be located in the city’s thriving downtown core.

Apple Brickell City Centre will be one of three Apple retail stores to open on that day alongside new locations at Schildergasse in Cologne, Germany and Jinmao Place in Nanjing, China, which also open at 10:00 a.m. local time respectively. All three are brand new stores, not renovated or relocated ones.

Brickell City Centre is a new shopping and mixed-use development in Miami’s financial district. Apple’s plans to open a retail store there were revealed in February 2016, and construction began shortly afterwards. The location is expected to be one of Apple’s largest retail stores in Florida.

Apple continues to renovate and expand a number of its stores across the United States with a new design introduced in 2015, including its relocated St. Johns Town Center store that opened March 11 in Jacksonville, Florida. Apple’s Woodland Mall store in Grand Rapids, Michigan is next on the docket.

The newer look often includes wider open spaces with some combination of large glass doors, touch-sensitive sequoia wood tables and shelves, seating areas for community events, large 6K resolution video screens for product marketing, indoor trees, and light boxes extending the length of the ceiling.

Elsewhere in the United States, Apple’s expanded Pentagon City store in the Washington D.C. area reopened on March 4, while its Danbury, Connecticut store location closed for renovations in early February.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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Huawei Watch 2 Sport vs. LG Watch Sport: Which Android Wear 2.0 watch is better?

Huawei has finally taken the wraps off the second iteration of the Huawei Watch, and unlike the first time around, the company has actually launched two devices: The Huawei Watch 2 Sport and the Huawei Watch 2 Classic. Given the slew of new sports-focused devices — including the recently-unveiled LG Watch Sport — it can be hard to decide which one is right for you.

That’s why we’ve decided to compare one of Huawei’s latest watches with LG’s latest flagship when it comes to specs, design, and other notable facets.

More: The best fitness trackers you can buy

Specs

Huawei Watch 2 Sport

LG Watch Sport

Size
48.9 x 45 x 12.6 mm (1.93 x 1.77 x 0.50-inches)
45.4 x 51.2 x 14.2 mm (1.79 x 2.02 x 0.56-inches)
Weight
57g (2.01oz)
89.4g (3.15oz)
Screen
1.2-inch AMOLED
1.38-inch P-OLED
Resolution
390 x 390 pixels
480 x 480 pixels
Operating System
Android Wear 2.0
Android Wear 2.0
Storage
4GB
4GB
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100
Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100
RAM
768MB
768MB
LTE Support
Yes (international version only)
Yes
Connectivity
GSM/HSPA/LTE/Wi-Fi b/g/n
GSM/HSPA/LTE/Wi-Fi b/g/n
Bluetooth
Yes, version 4.1
Yes, version 4.2
GPS
Yes
Yes
Battery
420mAh
430mAh
Water Resistance
IP68
IP68
Sensors
Accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate, barometer, compass
Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, heart rate, barometer
Colors
Orange, Black, Grey
Titanium, Dark Blue
DT Review
Hands-On
3/5 Stars

It seems as though wearable devices are a lot less varied in the specs department than smartphones, and that proves to be true in this case. Both the LG Watch Sport and Huawei Watch 2 Sport feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, which is Qualcomm’s wearable-specific chip. Not only that, but they also both offer 4GB of storage, 768MB of RAM, LTE support, and Wi-Fi support. In other words, you could certainly argue that these are the same devices in a different case.

There are, however, a few subtle differences. The LG Watch Sport, for example, features Bluetooth 4.2 instead than Bluetooth 4.1, which is slightly faster and adds Bluetooth over Internet Protocol version 6. While there are advantages to Bluetooth 4.2 over Bluetooth 4.1, in reality, you’re unlikely to notice a difference in the connectivity between the two.

When it comes to battery life, the LG Watch Sport offers a 430mAh battery, while the Huawei Watch 2 Sport opts for a 420mAh alternative. It’s possible that the Huawei Watch will eat up battery quicker than LG’s offering, but we’ll have to perform more tests before we can be certain.

When it comes to general performance, there’s basically no difference between these two devices.

Winner: Tie

Siempo’s distraction-free smartphone lets you put the internet on pause

Why it matters to you

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the number of notifications you get each day, the Siempo smartphone’s here to help.

There’s no question about it: Smartphones are a massive time sink. According to a study by psychologists at Nottingham Trent University, young adults use their phone roughly five hours every day, and it isn’t just young people. Researchers at Deloitte found that Americans of all ages check social media apps, email, and texts a collective 8 billion times each afternoon.

The reasons why each of us reach again and again for the buzzing handsets in our pockets differ, of course, but some psychologists believe it’s an urge rooted in instinctual curiosity. Others argue it’s a form of addiction, and that our phones scratch a habitual itch to know what our friends, family, and acquaintances are up to at any given moment. No matter the cause of our smartphone attachment syndrome, though, most agree it’s a problem — and one that Jorge Selva set out to solve with Siempo, a “new class” of phone that limits distractions.

A distraction-free smartphone

Inspiration struck Selva on a phone-free trip to Peru. “I remember I was sitting out one morning with coffee, reading my Kindle, and thinking to myself, ‘Why do I need my phone?’” he said. “It buzzes for my attention and sucks me into a rabbit hole. I thought I’d have this anxiety or stress, but I didn’t really miss anything,” he said. “I felt productive, present.”

The Siempo is a smartphone at its core. It has a 1GHz quad-core processor, a camera, 8GB of internal storage, a fast-charging 1,600mAh battery, a 4-inch high-resolution screen, and an Android-based operating system. However, it’s unmistakably nontraditional. Unlike flagship phones from the likes of Samsung, LG, Apple, and others, the Siempo doesn’t do a whole lot, and that’s sort of the point.

The design process was evolutionary, Selva said. “We started as a minimalist phone — a dumbphone,” he said. “Then we realized that by migrating to a smartphone design, it gave people more of the ‘nice to haves’ — email, for example. When you’re going after young people, that gives them what they need for a primary phone.”

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

The Siempo is organized around the idea of “intentions,” or the digital tasks and goals you want to accomplish you unlock your phone. It lacks a home screen and instead serves up what Selva called the Intention Field: A blank search box that uses intelligence to guess at what you want.

It’s as impressive — and clever — as it sounds. Enter a name in the Intention Field, and it’ll pull up the person’s details if they’re in your contact list (or let you add them if they aren’t). It recognizes notes, too, so typing “Buy the milk” will prompt you to save a reminder to Siempo’s memento app. You can even send texts directly from the Intention Field to the recipient number of your choice.

The Intention Field’s just the beginning of Siempo’s minimalist suite. The phone packs a simple email client, calendar app, web browser, and mapping service powered by Google Maps.

Just press pause

However, the undoubted highlight is the Siempo’s “Pause” button, a physical key on its side that temporarily disables incoming notifications.

More: Are smartphones killing the art of face-to-face conversation? We ask the experts

Pause is a little like Android’s Priority mode. For a block of time, which you specify beforehand, the Siempo blocks text messages and other alerts that aren’t from contacts you’ve chosen to let through.

“It kind of prevents our lizard brain from taking over,” Selva said. “If you see a notification, you’re going to check it.”

“We’ve always had trouble living intentionally and exercising control,  it’s human nature”

Mindful Morning, another of the Siempo’s “focus features,” works in much the same way. When enabled, you won’t see any of the notifications you received overnight. Instead, you’ll get the alarms you set the night before and a list of preparatory, meditative, or wellness tasks to complete.

“We realized that our phones weren’t serving us — that they didn’t benefit us,” said Selva. “It’s the ‘Pomodoro Technique’ — taking chunks of time to accomplish specific activities.”

It isn’t a new problem, Selva said. “We’ve always had trouble living intentionally and exercising control,” he said. “It’s human nature.”

Selva said the decision to design a smartphone rather than release an app for devices on the market was motivated by logistics, in part. “We couldn’t quite deliver on [notifications],” he said. “we tried to hide things and bring them back up, but it didn’t work properly.”

The inefficacy of app-based solutions was the another sticking point — the team wanted to make sure Siempo delivered on its distraction-free promise. “We did extensive research into people who’ve set up phones and found that overwhelmingly, people start strong but fall back,” he said. “Most apps are too easy to circumvent.”

Are people rejecting smartphones?

Siempo seems to have tapped a nerve. One of the most buzzed-about phones this year is the Nokia 3310, a 2G dumbphone. So-called digital-detox camps like Camp Grounded, which charge as much as $600 for phone-free excursions in the Northern California wilderness, have exploded in popularity, too, and it’s no wonder. Studies show that putting down your smartphone for a few extra hours can reduce anxiety and depression.

The Siempo may fall short of a true cure to the problem — it’s a smartphone, after all — but Selva sees it as a half-step toward more mindful living. “People yearn for a better way to be,” he said. “We want to offload that mental stress however we can.

Siempo launches on Kickstarter for $350 this month, and you can sign up for updates here. The first prototypes will become available in May, and the launch target’s Christmas.

Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers make paid apps free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money, and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

More: 200 Awesome iPhone Apps | The best Android apps for almost any occasion

Wireless Drive

Why carry a physical USB drive around wherever you go, cluttering up your key ring? Instead, this simple, convenient app converts your iOS device into a wireless hard drive that works over Wi-Fi.

Available on:

iOS

Best Greeting Cards

Create unlimited eCards for any occasion with just one single app. Download it now for free with all its functions and features.

Available on:

iOS

My Score Plus

Carrying a pen and paper with you all day is not the most practical way to keep a food diary, but with My Score Plus you’ll always be just one touch away from your food diary.

Available on:

iOS

Blink

Capture beautiful pics with Blink. These powerful and beautifully designed tools will help you add beautiful frames, filters, text, and so much more to your photos.

Available on:

iOS

Delete Contacts

Here is the easiest and quickest way to cleanup your address book. This app allows you to quickly delete multiple contacts of your address book and merge all the duplicate contacts automatically!

Available on:

iOS

Typography

Typography Insight is a toolkit for learning & teaching typography. Now you can access thousands of fonts from Adobe Typekit with Adobe ID.

Available on:

iOS

Snag this Lenovo 14-Inch IdeaPad N42-20 Chromebook for only $148

Chromebooks are the perfect solution for consumers looking for a lightweight, portable machine that won’t slow them down. With minimal internal memory, Chromebooks prevent you from overloading your machine with files and programs by using Google docs, apps, and more instead, which ensures you to consistently have a machine that is fast, easy to use, and easy to carry. Best of all, Chromebooks don’t cost an arm and a leg, with most running hundreds less than your standard PC, such as this Lenovo 14-inch IdeaPad N42-20 Chromebook which is currently discounted to less than $150 on Amazon.

More: The Best Chromebook You Can Buy

The Lenovo 14-inch IdeaPad N42-20 Chromebook is powered by a 1.6 GHz Intel Celeron N3060 dual-core processor and 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and is equipped with 16GB of eMMC flash storage, although you can connect additional storage using the two USB ports. The machine has a 14-inch display with 1,366 x 768 resolution, driven by integrated Intel HD graphics, delivering high-quality HD content on an HD Anti-Glare LED-backlit screen. Easily connect the device using 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi and pair compatible wireless peripherals using Bluetooth 4.1 technology. Complete with all the basics you need in a laptop, the Chromebook has a webcam, SD card reader, and an audio in/out jack.

The Lenovo Chromebook is portable yet rugged, and easy to use right out of the box. It weighs in at only 3.3 pounds and is extremely easy to carry, yet it’s durable thanks to reinforced ports and hinges, anti-peel keys, and a water-resistant keyboard that increases resistance to damage from accidents and frequent use. A fanless design and a sealed touchpad make the Chromebook even more reliable.

Featuring Chrome OS, you can simply sign in with your Google account and get started in seconds. The operating system works exclusively with web applications and is designed for users who are always connected to the Internet. The user interface takes a minimalist approach, and greatly resembles the Google Chrome web browser.

A Chrome web browser is the only application installed, while all other applications are accessed by adding apps from the Google Chrome Web Store. By solely using Chrome OS, all your files are stored online, ensuring the computer runs fast and you can worry less about viruses from downloads and other harmful files.

The Lenovo 14-inch IdeaPad N42-20 Chromebook normally retails for $219 but is currently discounted to $148 on Amazon, saving you $71 or 32 percent for a limited time.

Drones 59, naysayers 0: DJI tallies up lives saved from drone rescues

Why it matters to you

DJI’s latest study balances questions about drone risks with data on the number of lives that have been saved by drone technology.

Organizations around the world have conducted studies on the potential dangers of flying unpiloted aircraft — but what about their life-saving capabilities? On March 14, DJI released a study based on news reports indicating that drones have saved at least 59 lives. With 38 of those rescues occurring between May 2016 and February 2017, that number averages almost one life per week. And drone use for life-saving purposes is only increasing.

Search and rescue teams are quickly adopting imaging drones to act as eyes in the sky — and the Red Cross will even soon have it’s own drone-launching Land Rover. Meanwhile, DJI’s report has an unexpected statistic. One third of those rescues were not from rescue teams, but from volunteers operating their own consumer drones, suggesting that even hobbyist drones are making a positive impact.

More: More drone crashes caused by technical glitches, not human error, study shows

DJI’s study is based on global news reports going all the way back to 2013, but it shows that all but 21 of those rescues occurred in 2016 and 2017. The numbers are based only on published reports, and DJI suggests the actual number is much higher. The research group did not include incidents where drones helped narrow the search grid for the rescue teams, for example. And in one case in India late in 2015, up to 200 people were rescued from severe flooding as a result of drone use; but since DJI couldn’t find a definitive number, those estimates were also excluded.

DJI says 31 of the 59 were rescued from a flood and while in most instances the drone camera was used to find survivors, some of the aircraft also tossed down life jackets and rescue ropes. Another 19 people were spotted on land, including one case where a thermal camera identified a missing man in a snowstorm. Nine were rescued from water environments not caused by flooding.

“The clear conclusion is that drones are regularly saving lives around the world. This is occurring even though professional rescue crews are just beginning to adopt UAS technology, and in many cases are relying on bystanders or volunteers to provide lifesaving assistance,” the report from DJI’s Policy & Legal Affairs Department concludes. “DJI is at the forefront in efforts to develop best practices and optimal standards for firefighters, rescue services, and other first responders to integrate drones into their command protocols. As these efforts continue, we expect the number of lives saved by drones to continue to grow.”

The report comes just after a study from the same company suggesting that drone weight limits requiring registration (and a pilot’s license for commercial use) above 2.5 kilograms could be four times higher and still meet the same safety standards.