Abdulmajeed Al-Shuaibi

A young Robin Williams.

A young Benedict Cumberbatch in his rugby team.

Hovertext: This comic is an allegory for, of course, the 1896 presidential elections.

Reddit moderators have shut down several of the site's most popular sections in response to the company's dismissal of Victoria Taylor. Acting as the main facilitator for its "Ask Me Anything" question-and-answer sessions, Taylor was one of Reddit's most visible employees when she was fired, a corporate decision that moderators say will make securing and executing the site's signature AMAs much more difficult. In addition to the r/IAmA subreddit, huge default subreddits that appear on the site's frontpage have temporarily switched to private mode, including r/videos, r/gaming, r/AskReddit, r/science, r/history, and r/movies.

Continue reading…

Yoko Shimomura, more Ninja Gaiden composers join Brave Wave ⊟ 

Amazing news out of Brave Wave, the brilliant label creating original albums with classic game musicians (and, FULL DISCLOSURE, a sponsor through Club Tiny): Yoko Shimomura has joined up to work on a new album of original music. 

That’s Yoko “Final Fight, Street Fighter 2, Kingdom Hearts, Mario & Luigi, Xenoblade, etc.” Shimomura. That’s a big get!

Ryuichi Nitta (Ninja Gaiden 1 & 2) and Kaori Nakabai (NG3) have also joined up, adding to a roster that already includes Ninja Gaiden 1′s Keiji Yamagishi (oh my god get Retro-Active pt.1). There are… a lot more composers new to the BW team. I’ve just attached all of their bios after the break. It’s, like, everybody.

Yoko Shimomura

Shimomura’s name is one of the most recognized in video game history, and her compositions are some of the most beloved. Since graduating from Osaka College of Music in 1988 as a piano major, she has contributed her music to some of the most renowned video games, such as those within the Kingdom Hearts, Mario & Luigi, and Street Fighter 2 series. After working at Capcom and Square Enix for much of her career, she now continues to compose for games through freelance work, and is currently the lead composer on the upcoming Square Enix flagship titles Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III. For Brave Wave, she’ll be contributing to the upcoming concept album Project Light, which is directed by Ippo Yamada (Mega Man series, Mighty No. 9) and Mohammed Taher, in addition to other unannounced albums.

Harumi Fujita

Fujita started her career at SNK in 1984 with Mad Crasher, but her following years at Capcom ended up defining her as a stellar composer. She was one of the few who worked on the NES, arcade, and the Game Boy simultaneously, contributing to games like Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Bionic Commando, Strider, 1943 Kai, Final Fight, and most famously Gargoyle’s Quest. She was part of Capcom’s in­house band Alph Lyla alongside Manami Matsumae (of Mega Man 1) and Yasuaki ‘Bun Bun’ Fujita (Mega Man 3) among others, and ended up composing ‘Needle Man’, ‘Gemini Man’ and ‘Staff Roll’ for Mega Man 3 before passing the rest of the composition on to Bun Bun. In the past few years she has composed and arranged music for various theatrical productions, and now Brave Wave welcomes her arrival to video games once again. Last year at BitSummit, Brave Wave took the stage to unveil that Fujita is part of Project Light.

Masashi Kageyama

After composing the cult­favorite Gimmick! for the NES, Kageyama slowly retreated from the limelight and decided to change gears from music to design. He built his new career over the years and not only went on to master photography and design, but also ended up becoming an in­house favorite at NARU, the oldest jazz house in Japan. As a jazz enthusiast himself, he started performing with his saxophone during the past two years, and today he’s officially back as a gaming composer with Brave Wave. Kageyama is currently planning his first­ever solo album with Director Mohammed Taher (In Flux, Retro­Active Pt. 1) and looks forward to finally contributing his signature jazzy style to Western games. His photo exhibition of jazz players in Japan will take place in Tokyo, Ginza at “Gallery 84” from August 24 to September 5, 2015.

Yuji Takenouchi

Better known as TECHNOuchi to his colleagues and fans, Takenouchi’s career is an expansive one that began way back with the MSX, where he composed for classics like Metal Gear 2 and SD Snatcher. In recent years, Takenouchi gained popularity and respect as the founder of the now­ defunct music collective GE­ON­DAN (which featured a large group of Japanese video game musicians) and has served as the lead sound director on From Software’s critically acclaimed Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls games, as well Access Games’ D4. He wishes to connect with a global audience through Brave Wave, and is preparing an album of unreleased game music to be released for the first time ever.

Ryuichi Nitta

Ryuichi Nitta started his gaming career at Tecmo, where he co­composed the original Ninja Gaiden alongside Keiji Yamagishi (using Yamagishi’s sound driver), and then went on to compose the soundtracks to Ninja Gaiden 2 and Solomon’s Key 2. After his time at Tecmo and Banpresto, Nitta became a freelancer and co­founded his own music company, Kajiya Music, with Keiji Yamagishi and Kaori Nakabai (of Ninja Gaiden 3). Now, fifteen years later, Brave Wave is proud to represent the full Kajiya Music family in conducting their business outside of Japan.

Kaori Nakabai

Following the works of Keiji Yamagishi and Ryuichi Nitta at Tecmo, Kaori Nakabai took over Ninja Gaiden 3 and was able to deliver the same quality of music that the series was well known for. Her gameography includes Tecmo’s role­playing game Radia Senki (composed alongside Yamagishi) and the fan­ favorite Captain Tsubasa 3 on the Super Famicom. She went to Koei and helped shape the soundtrack of Dynasty Warriors with Yamagishi, and then formed Kajiya Music alongside Yamagishi and Nitta. Today, Nakabai looks forward to working on Western games as well as contributing original tracks to Brave Wave’s music catalogue.

George Art “Smoke Thief” Baker

Smoke Thief is the alias of George Art Baker, a British composer with a Master of Arts in Music Performance. Formerly a professional jazz bandleader and composer, he was drawn to create a style incorporating ambient, jazz, and hip­hop. Emerging from this jazz background with his own style, he set out to explore more minimalistic arrangements that focus on connecting listeners to his vast inner worlds, evident in his recent work for Relay FM’s podcast Behind the App as well as his Bounty Hunter Remix on Keiji Yamagishi’s Retro­Active Pt. 1. Brave Wave is proudly presenting him as the label’s first original artist. His new album is coming out soon, following Keiji Yamagishi’s Retro­Active Pt. 1.

Alex Mauer & Steve Lakawicz

Mauer is the co­founder of game company Imagos Softworks, home of the upcoming Starr Mazer videogame in which Mauer serves as its lead composer. His involvement in Starr Mazer finds him working with a multitude of musicians including Brave Wave’s Manami Matsumae (Mega Man) and Keiji Yamagishi (Ninja Gaiden). Mauer is perhaps best known for his 2007 album ‘Vegavox’, which was the first album to be released on handmade NES cartridges. Alongside him is chiptune tracker Steve ‘ap0c’ Lakawicz, a classically trained musician with a Master’s degree in Music Performance, specializing in orchestral tuba.

Lakawicz have toured with brass quintets and performed with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and lately have taken an interest into crafting and emulating authentic chiptunes. The duo’s initial role at Brave Wave is to work closely with Director Mohammed Taher and Keiji Yamagishi on a special project involving authentic NES sounds (TBA), and Brave Wave is excited to add their exceptional talent at crafting authentic chip sounds to the team.

The Nexus 6 was a break from the past for the Nexus program with its high price tag and massive size, but it was probably an emergency replacement after the collapse of Android Silver. We've been wondering if Google would recommit to the Nexus program, and it's sounding like yes—in a big way. We've gotten some details on two alleged Nexus phones for 2015, but there are currently no plans for a tablet.

[Rumor] No Nexus Tablet In 2015, But Two Phones—A 5.2-Inch LG (Code Name Angler) And A 5.7-Inch Huawei (Code Name Bullhead) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina confirmed this morning she would be running for president in 2016. In a short video posted to Twitter, the Republican hopeful said, "We need to restore possibilities for every American, regardless of their circumstances." One internet dweller probably wondered if the 30,000 people Fiorina laid off during her time at HP were included in that group, and decided to send a little reminder. That person picked up the domain name carlyfiorina.org and peppered it with sad emoticons — one for each person who lost his/her job at HP.

It goes on.

And on.

If you like pranks that involve a heck of a lot of scrolling, this one's for you.

When Fiorina was asked if she would...

Continue reading…

Nathan Fillion in his yearbook.

Heath Ledger and his on-set assistant Nathan Holmes during the filming of The Dark Knight.

April Fools’ Day is upon us, and like every year, Google is trying to outdo itself once again. The company’s various divisions always create more practical and impractical jokes than any other tech firm, and it’s simply hard to keep track of them all. As a result, I’m doing my usual annual roundup.

Google, reversed

Head over to com.google. Yes, that’s right: Not google.com but com.google.

Sadly this only works for com; Google clearly had a lot of time to waste, but it didn’t want to replicate this for every single domain.

Play Pac-Man in Google Maps

Google Maps on desktop and mobile now has a Pac-Man mode. Fire up Google Maps, look at the clues, and search for a place you think Pac-Man might be. Alternatively, you can just navigate to a place on the map where you want to start your game, click Pac-Man in the bottom left. The streets are your maze, while Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde are your enemies.

While this wasn’t the first joke this year, it was probably the first one to be picked up widely, because it’s simply so cool. As we noted on GamesBeat, you can finally unleash Pac-Man on the streets you travel every day.

Play Pac-Man in Ingress

What many haven’t spotted is that Google’s augmented reality game, Ingress for Android and iOS, has also gained some Pac-Man gaming additions. Remember to yell a lot as you run around your neighborhood.

The video’s description doesn’t reveal anything else. It just includes the typical Ingress description: “This world around you is not what it seems. Our future is at stake, and you must choose a side.”

#ChromeSelfie

Chrome on mobile now lets you take a selfie as a reaction to what you’re currently browsing. Just open up the menu, choose “Share a reaction,” and let your friends know how that link makes you feel.

Google says it takes a lot of time and hassle to exit Chrome, open the camera, and snap a pic just to react to everything they see online — most Chrome users lose up to 6 hours of selfie-taking time every day. No more!

Google Panda

Google Japan announced Google Panda. According to Google Translate, the goal is simplicity: eliminate the search box and adopt a simple monochrome color.

“From the very beginning, Google has always been about search,” the executive says. “From desktop search, to mobile search, and now voice search. What we’re about to do is take a leap to a world where people don’t even need to search at all. A product that is so brilliant that you can ask it anything, but so cute that you will want to hug it.”

Google Japan’s hands-free input device

The Google Japan Input team has created a keyless keyboard (Google Translate). “We have developed a device that makes hands-free input more convenient than ever.”

The Piro-piro (party-horn) uses an infrared sensor to measure the length of how far you blow, and sends the corresponding letter to your device via Bluetooth. I even has its own brilliant short url: g.co/___o.

Google Maps warns Australia will be in the Northern Hemisphere by 2055

Google Maps engineers in Sydney have warned that Australia is on its way to becoming a Northern Hemisphere country by 2055. These engineers constantly reassess the Earth’s geospatial data in relation to other objects in the solar system, and in the past two months, they found that the Earth’s equator is slipping south at rate of 25km per year.

“Movements in the equator are caused by changes in the Earth’s tilt, called Milankovitch cycles,” Google explains. “A degree of movement is not unexpected but the speed of this movement has alarmed scientists, who have expressed concerns about the impact on migratory birds.”

Smartbox by Inbox

First there was Inbox by Gmail. Now there’s Smartbox by Inbox.

Think of Smartbox as Google’s attempt to reinvent physical mail. It has smart folders, filters, and even apps. Oh, and you can take Smartbox with you, wherever you go.

Google Fiber’s Dial-Up Mode

Google Fiber has launched a dial-up mode. “Loading bars used to give people an opportunity to pause and take care of the little things—like making a cup of coffee, taking a bathroom break or playing with the dog.”

The company says it was able to reduce Fiber speeds up to 376 times “by withholding photons from the fiber strands” so that “the light-based fiber optic technology dims to a flicker of its previous capacity.” Users complained that they wanted their loading time back. Google, once again, delivered.

Chromebook Self-browsing

Google has Chromebook self-browsing extension. You can download it now from the Chrome Web Store.

“Google’s top research scientists have calculated that the average person burns up to five calories per day by clicking on web links,” Google says. “This is absurd—these calories could be put to much better use for breathing, pranking a co-worker, or cleaning your bathtub.” We agree with only one of the three.

Google Actual Cloud Platform

Google asks: Why isn’t cloud computing built in actual clouds? Now it is.

New features include a new compute zone, actual-cloud machine types, Stormboost, CloudDrops, weather dashboards, and bare-metal container support. Should we change the term to clouds computing?

When it comes to April Fools’ Day, Google seems to have a bottomless pit for a marketing budget. We will update this post as the company launches more jokes.

More information:

Powered by VBProfiles

More information:

Powered by VBProfiles

Hovertext: We're all doing relatively terrible. Thanks to the Information Age, we never forget!