Popular Game ‘Prison Architect’ Comes to Mac App Store

Popular Steam game Prison Architect, which was originally released in October as part of Steam’s Early Access program, is making its way to the Mac App Store today through a partnership between developer Introversion Software and MacPlay. Prison Architect is a top-down simulation game where the goal is to build and run a successful prison. Players are tasked with building cells, recruiting

Samsung gets DMV’s OK to test autonomous cars in California

Samsung first got a permit to test self-driving technologies in its home country earlier this year. The chaebol revealed then that it was planning to test the sensors and parts it’s developing aboard a Hyundai car. It unfortunately didn’t elaborate on what those components can do, but we might find out more details when the company starts testing them in California. The number of companies

US settles first Muslim ban lawsuit with campaigners | USA News

The US government will allow people barred from entering the country in the early days of President Donald Trump’s travel ban to reapply for visas following a legal settlement with campaigners.  Muslim Ban Protests Spread Outside Airports Under the terms of the agreement, announced on Thursday, the government must contact all individuals who had been turned away at borders as a

Brazil suspends Amazon reserve plan, but threats remain | Brazil News

Environmental activists have warned that a vast Amazon reserve is still under threat despite the suspension of a government decree that would open it up to commercial mining. The federal court in the capital, Brasilia, said on Wednesday that it had “partially granted an injunction to immediately suspend any administrative act” aimed at annulling the Renca reserve, which is nearly the size of

FARC rebels reborn as ‘revolutionary force’ party | Colombia News

Colombia’s former FARC rebel group has renamed itself the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, as it transformed into a political party following its disarmament. “By a majority decision in our congress, the name of the new party has been fixed as the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force,” the group’s leader Rodrigo Londono wrote on Twitter on Thursday. In spite of earlier resistance from

Nintendo ordered to pay $10 million in Wii patent lawsuit

The technology created by and patented by iLife was designed to detect when elderly individuals fell and monitor babies for sudden infant death syndrome. It sought $144 million in damages, or $4 for each of the 36 million Wii systems sold prior to the suit being filed, along with an injunction against Nintendo’s use of the technology in question. Nintendo said it didn’t infringe on the patent

Instagram Stories Expand to the Web

Instagram Stories, the feature that allows users to upload ephemeral photos and videos to a special daily timeline, is expanding to the web on both desktop and mobile devices, the company announced today. As with Instagram Stories in the mobile app, on the web, Stories will be featured at the top of the page. Clicking or tapping into a story will allow it to be viewed. For now, Instagram Stories

Police who said ‘we only kill black people’ to be fired | USA News

A white police lieutenant in the US state of Georgia who was recorded on video during a traffic stop saying “we only kill black people” will be fired, a local police chief has said. Cobb County police Chief Mike Register told reporters on Thursday that he has started the process to terminate the employment of Lieutenant Greg Abbott. Videos of US police killings fail to bring justice

Major underwater Roman ruins discovered off Tunisia | News

Roman ruins stretching out over 20 hectares have been discovered off the coast of northeastern Tunisia, confirming “with certainty” a theory that the city of Neapolis was partly submerged by a tsunami in the 4th century AD. “It’s a major discovery,” Mounir Fantar, the head of a Tunisian-Italian archaeological mission which made the find off the coast of Nabeul, told AFP news agency on Thursday.

Iran in compliance with 2015 nuclear deal: IAEA report | Iran News

Iran remains in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal made with the world powers, according to a UN atomic watchdog report. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Thursday that Iran’s stock of low-enriched uranium is used for peaceful purposes, and did not exceed the agreed limit of 300kg. The report was the third since the January inauguration of US President Donald Trump, who

Sony’s RX0 is a tiny camera with big ideas

Sony just announced a new camera called the RX0, but breaking from the trend of lower number = fancier camera, this one is a tiny device that combines an action-cam form factor with some traditional imaging prowess. It’s an unusual combination, yet somehow tempting. The waterproof, shockproof RX0 has a 1-inch, 15-megapixel (cropped down from 21) sensor and a 24mm-equivalent F/4 lens, which right

Apple defends the open internet in a letter to the FCC

On the heels of setting the date for its big fall iPhone event, Apple is coming out swinging for net neutrality. In a letter to the FCC, Apple’s U.S. Vice President for Public Policy Cynthia Hogan advocates for the open internet, cautioning against practices that would allow providers to favor some forms of traffic while throttling the speed of others. “Broadband providers should not block,

Kuwaiti emir to meet Trump as Gulf crisis continues | Kuwait News

The emir of Kuwait will hold talks with US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC next week, according to the Kuwaiti state media, as a three-month-old diplomatic crisis splits the Gulf. KUNA news agency said on Thursday that Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah would depart for the United States on Friday and the Trump meeting was scheduled for September 7. Blockade prevents Qatar residents

Now you can rouse your kids to the smell of ‘Frozen’

Back in 2015, Sensorwake burst onto the scene as a Kickstarter project that replaced a noisy alarm clock with scents. Created by 18-year-old student Guillaume Roland, the device managed to raise nearly four times as much cash as intended. Now, the company, which is now renaming itself Bescent, is launching three follow-ups. The first two are the aforementioned kiddie versions, which are called

US orders closure of Russia consulate in San Francisco | USA News

The United States has told Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco, in retaliation for Moscow’s demands that the size of the US mission in Russia be cut, according to the State Department. The announcement on Thursday also included a demand for a reduction in the Russian diplomatic presence in Washington and New York by Saturday with the closure of a chancery annex in Washington and

TCL is reportedly reviving Palm with new devices in 2018

TCL actually bought the Palm name back in 2014, four years after HP acquired the brand and then shuttered its products a year later after they underperformed. That seemed a tragic end for Palm, which had led the late 90s and 2000s consumer device market with its PDAs and early smartphones, like the Pilot and Pre, respectively. But it looks like TCL is going to introduce an undisclosed number of

Brazil court suspends mining on Amazon’s Renca reserve | Brazil News

A Brazilian court has suspended a recent government decree that would open a huge Amazon reserve to commercial mining, after the initial decision sparked outrage from environmentalists and political opponents.  The federal court in the capital Brasilia said in a statement on Wednesday that it had “partially granted an injunction to immediately suspend any administrative act” aimed at scrapping

What can Russia do to help end the Gulf crisis? | Kuwait

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has been in Qatar as part of efforts to find a common ground in the Gulf crisis. His visit to the Qatari capital of Doha on Wednesday came at the end of a three-nation tour of the region that also included Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.  Lavrov is the highest-ranking Russian official to come to the Gulf since the crisis began. He says Russia fully

Here’s how much it will cost me to watch the NFL this season without cable

Watching the NFL can be expensive, and cable sucks. Some of us like sports but don’t want to pay for channels we’ll never watch. Fortunately there are ways to watch the NFL without cable for the 2017-2018 season. I’m a Baltimore Ravens fan, and I live in San Francisco. It will cost me $17.87 per game to watch every Ravens game from the 2017-2018 NFL season without cable, satellite, or antenna.

US-led air strikes block ISIL evacuation deal | Syria News

A US-led coalition battling ISIL says its fighter jets have blocked a convoy of the group’s fighters evacuated from Lebanon from reaching eastern Syria, and also struck a number of their comrades travelling from the other direction to meet them. The strikes on Wednesday were aimed at derailing a deal for fighters of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) to leave their

Autonomous Vehicle Startup Zoox Snags 17 Former Apple Automotive Engineers

Seventeen automotive engineers who previously worked for Apple left the company to join self-driving startup Zoox following Apple’s shift away from developing a full autonomous car, reports Bloomberg. The group of engineers, who originally came to Apple from several Detroit carmakers and suppliers among other automotive companies, are said to specialize in designing hardware like braking and

Harvey hits Louisiana as Texas hunts for survivors | USA News

Tropical storm Harvey has make a second landfall in the US state of Louisiana as large parts of Texas remain underwater following record rainfall that forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. Since coming ashore on Friday, the heavy rains have reportedly claimed the lives of at least 20 people and sent more than 32,000 to shelters, turning neighbourhoods into lakes in Houston, the

The Instagif is a camera that “prints” animated GIFs

Have you ever wanted to print an animated image? Well now you (almost) can. A maker named Abhishek Singh has created an instant camera that outputs a little box that contains a Raspberry Pi connected to a PiTFT screen. When you take a picture the camera transmits a short video to the screen which the plays it over and over again until you take another picture. The entire project is hand-designed

A New Backdoor Targets Ministries and Embassies Worldwide

Security researchers at ESET have discovered a new malware campaign targeting consulates, ministries and embassies worldwide to spy on governments and diplomats. Active since 2016, the malware campaign is leveraging a new backdoor, dubbed Gazer, and is believed to be carried out by Turla advanced persistent threat (APT) hacking group that’s been previously linked to Russian intelligence. Gazer

South Asia floods: Affected areas and people impacted |

Several countries in South Asia have been hit by floods caused by the annual monsoon season, which brings heavy rain from June to September. This year, the flooding has been worse. More than 1,200 people have been killed in India, Bangladesh and Nepal and hundreds of others have gone missing. According to the United Nations, the floods, rain and landslides affected about 41 million people and

Samsung’s fitness-focused Gear Sport smartwatch is a smaller alternative to the giant Gear S3

Samsung’s wearables family gets a little bigger today with the addition of the Gear Sport. The new fitness-focused smartwatch arrives a few days after Fitbit finally debuted its long-awaited Ionic device, the latest in a growing acceptance among hardware makers that activity tracking continues to be the prime driver in the wearables space, smartwatches, included. The new watch isn’t won’t be

Top-end Teslas get price drop thanks to production improvements

Tesla’s most expensive vehicle offerings got a discount overnight thanks to improvements in the production efficiency of the 100 kWh batteries that are used in their construction. The discounts range from $3,500 to $5,000, depending on the model, and include both the Model S and Model X top trims. As Electrek reports, the 100D models of both the X and the S got a $3,500 discount with the new

UN condemns Egypt’s widening ‘assault on free speech’ | Egypt News

UN human rights experts have raised “grave concern” over a widening “assault on freedom of expression” in Egypt, condemning the blocking of scores of news websites and the unlawful detention of journalists. Some 130 websites may have been banned by the Egyptian government on allegations of “supporting terrorism” and “spreading lies”, David Kaye and Fionnuala Ni Aloain said in a statement on

Floods kill dozens across central and southern Yemen | Yemen News

At least 15 people have died in parts of central and southern Yemen after heavy summer rains triggered flash flooding, sweeping away dozens of cars and wrecking homes in the crisis-hit country, according to local officials and residents. Torrential rains destroyed several homes in Jibla, some 6km from the central city of Ibb, with at least five people confirmed dead and several others still

Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro hands-on: Tiny changes, big improvements

Perhaps the most important update is the Fit 2 Pro’s water-resistance. Rated at 5 ATM, the Pro can survive being submerged in up to 50 meters of water, like the Gear Sport smartwatch, which Samsung also unveiled today. With that underwater capability, the Fit 2 Pro can track your swims with the company’s own S Health app or a new Speedo app that’s launched alongside the new Gear wearables. The

Pakistan parliament condemns Trump’s Afghan policy | Pakistan News

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s lower house of parliament has unanimously passed a resolution calling on the government to consider suspending supply lines to the US-led NATO mission in neighbouring Afghanistan, in response to recent US accusations that the country is harbouring armed groups. “The National Assembly regards President [Donald] Trump’s and General [John] Nicholson’s [the top US

Rights groups call for probe into Syria’s ‘disappeared’ | Syria News

Human rights groups have urged the international community to hold the Syrian government and opposition armed groups accountable for the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared during the country’s long-running civil war.  The call was made in a statement marking the International Day of the Disappeared on Wednesday. “Amid the brutality and bloodshed of the Syrian conflict, the plight

Apple Informs Some Customers About Delayed Repairs Due to Hurricane Harvey

Apple appears to have informed some customers that its repair center in Houston, Texas is unsurprisingly closed due to Hurricane Harvey, which has caused catastrophic flooding and damage in the area since making landfall five days ago. In a discussion on Reddit, one user said his Mac has been sitting at a FedEx shipping facility since Friday. FedEx, UPS, and the United States Postal Service have

Amazon and Microsoft agree their voice assistants will talk (to each other)

Those betting big on AI making voice the dominant user interface of the future are not betting so big as to believe their respective artificially intelligent voice assistants will be the sole vocal oracle that Internet users want or need. And so Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos are today announcing a tie-up, which will — at an unspecified point later this year — enable users of

Sergey Lavrov calls for dialogue to resolve Gulf crisis | Qatar News

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expressed Moscow’s support for Kuwait’s mediation efforts to defuse a three-month long diplomatic crisis in the Gulf. Lavrov made the comments in Qatar’s capital, Doha, on Wednesday, at the end of a three-nation tour of the region that also included stops in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “We welcome all initiatives to resolve the Gulf

Nearly 20,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh from Myanmar | News

At least 18,500 Rohingya Muslims, many sick and some with bullet wounds, have fled into Bangladesh over the past six days amid renewed fighting in western Myanmar. The figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Wednesday came amid increasing concerns by the international community. Foreign governments and organisations fear Rohingya villages are being subject to

ISIL evacuation deal angers Iraq | Iraq News

Iraqis have denounced a Hezbollah and Syria-backed deal allowing fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group to evacuate a Syrian-Lebanese frontier region towards the Iraqi border. Hundreds of fighters started leaving the area on Monday, heading by bus for Syria’s eastern province of Deir Az Zor, which borders Iraq and is the only Syrian province still

We’re live from IFA 2017 in Berlin!

Part of the Engadget crew may have just wrapped up Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, but another set of staffers has arrived in a different part of the country to start IFA 2017. This year, at Europe’s biggest tradeshow in Berlin, we’re expecting to see products from a handful of major tech companies. That includes Acer, LG, Samsung and Sony, which are all expected to unveil products ranging from

Civilians feared killed in air raid on Taliban base | Afghanistan News

An investigation has been launched into air raids targeting a Taliban base that resulted in the deaths of at least 13 civilians, including women and children, in the western province of Herat, according to Afghan officials. The raids, targeting a prison and command base run by the fighters in the Bakhtabad area of Shen Dand district, also hit nearby houses late on Monday evening, Jilani Farhad,

Apple Pay Support Comes to Popular ‘Citi Bike’ NYC Bicycle Sharing Service

Bicycle sharing service Citi Bike released version 6 of its iOS app on Tuesday to bring Apple Pay support to customers in New York City and New Jersey. Now that Apple’s mobile payment system is supported by the service, riders using the app are able to purchase a single pass or Citi Bike membership using their digital wallet instead of plastic. The app includes a color-coded map of New York City

Western Louisiana braced for Harvey’s havoc | USA News

Western Louisiana residents are bracing for more wind and water as Tropical Storm Harvey headed their way after dumping record rainfall on Texas. National Weather Service meteorologists expect the deadly storm to make another landfall early on Wednesday in southwestern Louisiana, after it remained over Texas for days before moving back into the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters said another 13 to 25cm

Air strike on Houthi checkpoint ‘kills at least seven’ | Yemen News

WAR IN YEMEN At least 10,000 killed since 2015 and around 40,000 wounded 2,000 have died of cholera since April 600,000 expected to contract cholera this year Millions forced from homes amid fighting     An air strike on a checkpoint of the Houthis outside the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, has killed at least five civilians in a taxi and two armed personnel manning the site, witnesses say. The

Will Spain’s ‘disappeared’ find justice in Argentina? | Human Rights

It was a moonless night in the countryside outside Granada, Spain in 1936. A coded execution order came down: “Give him coffee, lots of coffee!” Antonio Benavides, part of an irregular volunteer firing squad, obliged. “I gave that fat-head a shot in the head,” he reportedly boasted later.  This is one account of the death of the famed Spanish poet and playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca. There are

North Korea tensions: All the latest updates | News

Here are all the latest developments since the latest “toughest” UN sanctions imposed on North Korea on August 4: August 29, 2017  North Korea has fired a ballistic missile that flew over Japan before plunging into the northern Pacific Ocean, in a step termed by the Japanese prime minister as a “grave threat”. The launch appeared to be the first to cross over Japan since 2009 and comes amid

Apple Now Selling Refurbished 2017 21.5-Inch iMac Models

Apple today updated its online store for refurbished products to add the new 21.5-inch iMac models that were initially released in June of 2017. Today marks the first time the new 2017 iMacs in the 21.5-inch configuration have been available through the refurbished store since their launch at the Worldwide Developers Conference. The new iMacs feature Kaby Lake processors, upgraded displays,

Zeiss VR One Connect puts PC games on mobile VR headsets

Zeiss says you need a “current” smartphone (a minimum resolution isn’t specified) but can use other headsets besides its own $99 VR One. It supplies a USB cable (hopefully a long one) to connect to your SteamVR-compliant computer, and a pair of controllers . The game relies on your phone’s built-in motion sensors and Bluetooth chip, but all the game processing is done on the PC. (It’s hard to

Guatemala top court sides with UN anti-corruption unit | News

Guatemala’s top court on Tuesday ruled definitively against President Jimmy Morales’ internationally criticised push to expel the head of a UN-backed anti-corruption unit probing his campaign financing. The decision by the Constitutional Court ratifies a provisional ruling that the government could not expel Ivan Velasquez, a veteran Colombian prosecutor who leads Guatemala’s International

Venezuela’s assembly votes to prosecute ‘traitors’ | Venezuela News

Venezuela’s all-powerful constitutional assembly has passed a decree ordering authorities to investigate and try those believed responsible for supporting new US economic sanctions. The decree passed on Tuesday declares all those who promoted the latest US response to Venezuela’s political conflict as “traitors of the patria”. The move comes days after Venezuela’s president vowed to prosecute

Apple Shares Trailers for Next Week’s Carpool Karaoke as Tonight’s Episodes Air

As two new episodes of “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” air tonight, Apple has shared trailers for next week’s episodes, which will pair Michael Strahan with Jeff Gordon and Shaquille O’Neal with John Cena. The first trailer features media personality and former football player Michael Strahan and Fox NASCAR announcer and former professional race car driver Jeff Gordon. The two dress up with props,

Go big and go analog with the Lomo’Instant Square camera

We don’t do a lot of Kickstarter posts because the outcomes of crowdfunding campaigns, especially hardware ones, are notoriously unpredictable. But it’s with an easy conscience that I recommend Lomography’s new instant film camera; I backed the company’s last one, the Automat, and it’s been fantastic. This one looks similarly fun, and shoots in a larger format. The Square has a funky