John Drury

BlackBerry is in kind of a tough place right now. First, back in January, everyone thought the struggling company had a big order from the Pentagon… which turned out to not be true. Then, one of its main squeezes, T-Mobile, started offering up the iPhone 5s for free as a “great offer for BlackBerry customers.” That was the last straw, prompting BlackBerry to dump the phone carrier.

According to Reuters, BlackBerry says it won’t be renewing a deal that allows T-Mobile to sell its products. It’s a pretty bold move for BlackBerry as the company is trying to stage a comeback in the hearts of customers who are only becoming more entranced with competing smartphones.

But after T-Mobile blatantly held hands in front of the country with that iPhone thing, it’s over, despite T-Mobile’s John Legere trying to smooth things over afterward.

BlackBerry won’t ditch existing customers on T-Mobile’s network and will still provide them service, or for anyone who buys products still in T-Mobile’s inventory.

“BlackBerry has had a positive relationship with T-Mobile for many years,” BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen said in a brief statement. “Regretfully, at this time, our strategies are not complementary, and we must act in the best interest of our BlackBerry customers. We hope to work with T-Mobile again in the future when our business strategies are aligned.”

In the meantime, the three other major carriers continue to offer BlackBerry devices, which means it’s not totally alone and will have someone to sit on the couch with, eat ice cream and watch The Mindy Project. Can you believe what’s going on with Danny?!? I can’t even.

BlackBerry severs sales ties with T-Mobile US [Reuters]

The Japanese mobile carrier NTT Docomo has been producing a series of public service announcements cautioning people that using a smartphone while walking isn't a good idea. The latest video shows what happens when 1,500 people all do it at once. At one of the busiest intersections in Japan.

That's Shibuya crossing in Tokyo, a five-points intersection that permits "scramble crossing," which is everyone may cross in any direction, all at once. Assuming everyone tried to navigate this intersection while gazing down at a smartphone, NTT Docomo presents this madhouse scenario with help from Aichi University.

The moral of the story: Don't text and walk. And don't text and drive either.

Just got an email for Playstation 4 offer from Sam's Club and then had to go through check in order to get the price and they're offering a Playstation 4 with Second Son and extra controller for $499.99 plus tax.

 

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/ps4-infamous-bundle-ps4-hw-bundle/prod13000134.ip?pid=EMC_20140328_1&rid=1229614716&lid=558936&oid=100013666

 

 

Good until May 8, seems like a long promotion?

 

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/buy/dead-space-ANW.html

 

Update: Part of "On the House" promo

 

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/on-the-house-ANW.html

 

About 'On the House'

• Free?! What's the catch?
• There's no catch. Grab full games, expansions and more at absolutely no cost. Just make sure to act fast because On the House specials can appear and disappear at any time.
• You mean a trial or demo, right?
• Nope. You’re getting a full version of the real game — for free!
• How long will I own the game?
• Once you’ve claimed your game, it’s yours to keep!
• Why is Origin doing this?
• We're gamers, too. We appreciate you making Origin your gaming home ... and besides, who doesn't like free stuff?

2K Games is preparing to share two new games at PAX East next month — a new title from Borderlands developer Gearbox Software and the next project from Firaxis, the studio behind the XCOM and Civilization strategy franchises.

In an invitation sent to press, the company mentions a hands-off demonstration of a "new title from Gearbox Software" will be available for viewing. Additionally, during the Firaxis Games Mega Panel taking place at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 12, the studio will announce its next game. Currently, no additional information is available about these titles.

2K will also be showing off Turtle Rock Studios' multiplayer action title Evolve, where attendees can view a hands-off presentation and then participate in...

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http://www.cheapassgamer.com/redirect.php?url=http://www.amazon.com/Bravely-Default-Nintendo-3DS/dp/B00GV4V8XC

Did you have Taco Bell for breakfast this morning? Well you could’ve, if a waffle taco is your kind of thing (no judgment) — the chain officially launched its breakfast menu nationwide today, just like the signs foretold. Or the announcement a few weeks ago that today would be the day 5,500 chains started offering breakfast. Same thing.

The waffle taco won’t be stumbling out into the big, bright world and blinking into the sun on its own, as Taco Bell has added 13 total menu items to the breakfast lineup as well, all to “make the mornings fun again,” the company whispers conspiratorially in a press release, implying that it knows fun involves syrupy waffle tacos.

Other fare you can expect at your local Taco Bell: Crunchwraps with scrambled eggs, meat and hash browns; breakfast burritos; Cinnabon Delights with frosting, naturally and then orange juice and coffee for your morning beverage needs.

To push the new breakfast campaign, Taco Bell has also been running ads featuring Ronald McDonald — which is actually a bunch of guys who happen to share a name with the McDonald’s foremost clown and just so happen to adore Taco Bell’s new breakfast. I believe anyone who says his name is Aaron Rodgers is an expert on football, so I suppose the same logic applies here.

Anyway, here it is if you like watching commercials:

You can follow MBQ on Twitter if your name is Ronald McDonald, or anything else, really: @marybethquirk

Sonic: Lost World is set to receive free downloadable content from the Wii U eShop featuring a level inspired by The Legend of Zelda March 27, IGN reports.

The Legend of Zelda Zone takes Sonic through Hyrule in search of the Triforce and other treasures. The DLC features the castle from Twilight Princess, while Link himself will make an appearance on a Loftwing from Skyward Sword. According to IGN, challenges can be completed in any order. Check out the trailer below for a look at the DLC.

Although Sonic has teamed up with Mario before in games such as Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, it's the first time Link and The Legend of Zelda franchise has been incorporated into the Sonic series. The game received a Yoshi's Island-themed...

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Titanfall's anti-cheating system, FairFight, is now active on PC, and it places all cheaters in the same pool to play with each other - and only each other. As Respawn puts it, "You can play with other banned players in something that will...

yeahiwasintheshit:

beautiful

(via TumbleOn)

With the dust of the Xbox One launch having settled, Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Spencer is ready to turn the company's attention toward the future of PC gaming. During a recent roundtable discussion at GDC, Spencer was asked his...

Nintendo will not be exhibiting at this year's PAX East, a spokesperson confirmed to Polygon today.

"Interacting directly with our fans and letting them play our games firsthand is a key component of our approach," the spokesperson said. "That doesn't include PAX East this year, but we will offer our fans a variety of opportunities to get their hands on Nintendo products in 2014. Keep an eye on our social media pages for more information about where we'll be and what you can play."

This year marks the first time Nintendo has not attended PAX East.

Last year, Nintendo's presence at PAX East included Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Pikmin 3 and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. At PAX Prime, the company showed off the Nintendo 2DS and The Legend of...

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By now, most of us know that our packages are not always handled with loving care, getting tossed around warehouses, onto trucks, onto planes, and back onto trucks, etc. But could USPS drivers please at least keep up the thin, delusional veil that they take even the slightest care when it comes to actually delivering a package to the customer’s door?

At the very least, please don’t hurl the box out of your van and onto the recipient’s driveway like you’re delivering the morning paper.

That’s exactly what has been happening to the person who has repeatedly caught his local USPS driver bowling his packages up his driveway with total disregard to the contents.

In the latest video, which is getting some attention on Reddit today, the customer says the package being tossed carelessly to the ground by the driver contained a hard drive.

“This time, the box is fine, but have a few minor dings in my garage door because of this,” he writes. “I’m having trouble formatting the external hard drive which was in that box, so who knows. I need to do some more testing before claiming it’s DOA, hopefully it’s just user error somehow.”

According to the customer, it had been shipped via FedEx SmartPost, which as regular Consumerist readers know, combines the absolute worst aspects of FedEx and the USPS.

He says he has no problem shipping things through USPS, but that the local delivery service has repeatedly mistreated packages.

Here are two previous videos of the same driver lobbing boxes against the customer’s garage door:

(via TumbleOn)

vesley:

My country

(via TumbleOn)

Imagine if someone hands you a small plastic or wooden box. There are four buttons on the top of the unit, and a small slit in black plastic. You push one of the buttons, and a piece of paper slides out of the top with a slight "whirrrrr" noise.

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It's just another day in the Animus, as Ubisoft announced Assassin's Creed: Unity today. The game is slated to arrive on PS4, Xbox One and PC this coming holiday season. Ubisoft offered a brief glimpse at the game in its early, alpha state in the...

It’s not a huge surprise. But it is interesting. Microsoft has lifted the lid on its latest graphics API, DirectX 12. And the big news isn’t a fancy new rendering technology. The big news is better performance. Just like AMD’s Mantle API, DX12 promises to reduce CPU loads when playing games by as much as 50 per cent. Intriguingly, DX12 is coming to the Xbox One and phones, too. Which brings us to the really good bit. It looks likely your existing graphics card will be compatible with DX12. And that includes Nvidia GPUs… … [visit site to read more]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/playstation-4-ps4/playstation-4-ps4-hardware-console/pcmcat296300050017.c?id=pcmcat296300050017

Infamous: Second Son is a superhero game that purports to be about something deeper than blowing shit up.

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Double Fine founder Tim Schafer sat down with Polygon this week to discuss the company's history of experimental financing, their good fortune with Amnesia Fortnight projects and lots and lots of other things.

Among the topics of the free-ranging, more than 30 minute conversation were Double Fine's future, what Schafer would want to do with a future Psychonauts project and why exclusive Kickstarter backer updates don't always make sense for a game publisher.

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Unity 5 — billed as "a massive update" to the multiplatform game engine and toolkit — was unveiled today at Game Developers Conference 2014.

Unity Technologies, makers of the suite, said Unity 5 will overhaul the game's audio toolset and deliver upgraded lighting and and a physically based shader system. It now is a 64-bit engine with this release, Unity Technologies added.

Of note, Unity 5 will also include the launch of a cross-promotion neetwork for mobile games called Unity Cloud, "enabling mobile game developers to run full-screen interstitial ads in their mobile games, as well as exchange ad units with other Unity developers."

The last full version, Unity 4 launched two years ago. Unity supports development on all mobile...

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A new trailer announced RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile to the world today, but going by YouTube ratings the world isn't impressed. At the time of writing, the video has just 49 likes and an incredible 1,968 dislikes. Fans are taking to social media...

http://deals.woot.com/deals/details/bedd625e-45ab-4ac0-9e26-b13521146adb/playstation-4-system-with-1-year-playstation-plus-membership#0

 

This site seems to accept PayPal -- already have my launch PS4 but I sent to a friend to check out as he's looking for one.

 

EDIT: This is not actually for sale by Woot, but a website on Woot. Please use caution when buying. Also, read below for information on the site and those that have used it before.

Coming down the runway we have what is sure to be Summer 2014's biggest hit: a lovely jacket based on the Capcom character Mega Man, complete with removable helme-- er, hood, as well as yellow zippers along the forearms to imitate the buster gauge....

deepthroatmom:

this the rawest shit i ever seen in my life

(via TumbleOn)

Infamous: Second Son hero Delsin Rowe boasts neon, smoke, and other superpowers he acquires by defeating fellow conduits. Sure, the smoke powers are cool, but neon is fun to watch because it's deadly and pretty, like a daffodil wielding a morning...

Developer Heart Machine shared more information on its upcoming 2D action role-playing game Hyper Light Drifter on the PlayStation Blog today, detailing how the team aims to set its combat mechanics and story apart from other games within the genre.

In Hyper Light Drifter, enemies will give players dramatic visible feedback and sound cues when struck, which is part of Heart Machine's goal to make players feel empowered through combat. Rather than offer "cannon fodder," developers have built AI opponents that will lure players into scenarios requiring some tactical thinking and finesse. Some enemies will also be able to command other, weaker enemies.

"To hell with bullet­sponges, witless drones and unfair scenarios," said studio head...

Threes!, the addictive number-crunching sensation that launched on iOS in early February, is being released on Android today, developer Sirvo confirmed to Polygon.

Hidden Variable Studios developed the Android port, which costs $1.99, the same as the original iOS version. The company teased the port on Twitter earlier this week.

"They're a fellow indie dev and have been great to work with," said Greg Wohlwend, the illustrator of Threes!, and Asher Vollmer, the game's writer, in an email to Polygon.

Sirvo also provided an infographic, which you can see below, with statistics about the time that players have spent with Threes! in its first month of release. Of note is that 13.56 percent of the game's players come from China, although...

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The Mac client for free-to-play massively multiplayer online title Star Trek Online is now live, according to an announcement on the game's official forums.

The client can be downloaded via Arc Games' product page and selecting the "Play for Free" option. Initially rolling out to Windows PC in 2010, the Star Trek Online Mac beta began last November, coinciding with the first day of the game's season eight launch.

"We have wrapped up our Open Beta testing period, and we want to extend our warmest welcome to the STO Universe to all Mac users," the statement reads. "Our newest addition of players who utilize the Mac client will be playing on Holodeck, the same server that our PC players play on, allowing them to team up with their...

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