Yousef Alnafjan

It’s been a few weeks, but it’s knife to be back! Shanks for waiting!

تقديم: يوسف النفجان | عبدالعزيز الحديثي  |  عبدالعزيز الزامل

نبدأ بالحديث عن الألعاب التي نلعبها الآن، أهمها Super Smash Bros for Wii U المنتظرة كثيرا، و Dragon Age Inquisition (الفائزة بلعبة السنة)، ولعبة Game of Thrones الجديدة من Telltale، و Persona Q. بعد ذلك نتحدث عن جوائز وأخبار The Game Awards 2014، وأحداث PlayStation Experience، والمزيد!

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Alex Blumberg in real life sounds just like Alex Blumberg on the radio.

If you've ever listened to This American Life, the massively popular weekly radio show, or Planet Money, NPR's excellent economy-explaining podcast, you know Alex Blumberg's voice. I certainly did. Today, as he stands in front of the laptop he's perched on a wooden chair atop a long table (a brilliant hack of a standing desk), it's hard not to close my eyes and just listen.

That is, of course, exactly what Blumberg is hoping for. Here in the brand-new offices of Gimlet Media, on the fifth floor of a downtown Brooklyn co-working building, amid piles of old furniture and terrifying art, Blumberg and his colleagues are attempting to build a big business out of podcasts. They've been chronicling their adventures in — what else? — a podcast, called StartUp. It offers an intimate, funny, and occasionally deeply awkward look at what it takes to start a company. The podcast quickly became popular, and so did Gimlet: Blumberg and his co-founder Matt Lieber raised $1.5 million in venture capital, hired a team, and honed their pitch. That pitch, in a nutshell: we're entering a golden age of audio, the first since we all sat around radio cabinets and listened to The War of the Worlds. The future of radio is here.

Podcasts are a decade old, but they're just starting to make noise

Podcasts aren't new, of course. Even the term has been around for a decade or so, and now feels hilariously dated. (What is a pod anymore? Or, for that matter, a cast?) They have traditionally been thought of as two people sitting at a table with microphones, chatting aimlessly about… whatever. ESPN, for one, has built a huge podcast network on the shoulders of Bill Simmons chatting with his friends on The BS Report and its many other shows focused deeply on a single topic or a single host. Yet Gimlet Media and others are betting that there's room for more. More production, more storytelling, more narrative. So far, it seems like they're right.

Hi my name is David and I am addicted to podcasts

Serial, the remarkable murder mystery told by Sarah Koenig (another This American Life alum), is the fastest-growing podcast in history. It's spawned discussion boards, truthers, deniers, other podcasts, and a level of fanaticism rarely seen this side of Lost. Radiotopia, a new network of shows anchored by the popular 99% Invisible, raised more than $600,000 on Kickstarter in an effort to create essentially an indie label for podcasters. The audience is growing larger and more dedicated, spending hours per day listening to shows about everything from fantasy football to terraforming.

As the shows and audience expand, the technology and infrastructure for podcasts is picking up as well. iTunes remains the behemoth of the podcasting industry, the place where most people find things to listen to. Apple now bakes a podcast app — and a decent one at that — into the iPhone, which has gone a long way toward making people aware of the fact that podcasts even exist in the first place. There are other great apps, too, like Overcast and Pocket Casts.

Jake Shapiro, CEO of PRX and Radiotopia

TuneIn and Deezer have both made commitments to podcasts, placing them among their more traditional radio offerings. Spotify, Pandora, and others are rumored to be doing the same. SoundCloud has done wonders for the podcast industry; more than one person told me that uploading and sharing audio online was an awful experience before SoundCloud made something universally embeddable. Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto are poised to finally teach us how to connect our phones to our cars, meaning the hours a day we spend driving can be spent listening to what we want, not aimlessly scanning through FM frequencies.

Listening to podcasts is finally as easy as it should be

The opportunity for audio, at least according to Alex Blumberg, is huge. There's far more room for audio in our lives than even video; we can listen to podcasts while we do dishes, mow the lawn, ride the subway, even while we work. The tech is there, in our pockets. All we need now is something to listen to.

So Blumberg clears his throat and starts talking. He reads his part of the script he's written, then hits space on his computer and plays audio. Sometimes it's Blumberg's wife who begins to talk, other times it's Matt Lieber, who sits in the room taking notes while his voice comes from Blumberg's laptop. Blumberg soon stops the audio and speaks again, occasionally stopping and typing, editing his script on the fly. He apologizes every time he stumbles in his reading, which isn't often. He says things like "establishing sound here that I haven't pulled yet," and sneaks bites of his lunch while others' sound bites play.

After 20 minutes or so, he's gone through a rough cut of episode seven of StartUp, which the whole of Gimlet Media is nervous about. In it, Blumberg asks listeners for money. Money to make up the last $200,000 of the $1.5 million. He's offering a few lucky listeners a stake in the company, while warning them of the risks and the many, many regulatory hurdles to investing. (After the episode aired, Gimlet raised the money in less than an hour.) He finishes reading, makes a face at his team, and says, "Well, there you go." Everyone else furiously shares their Google docs with each other, and edits begin.

Making a podcast, even one about making a podcast, is hard work. But more than ever before, this is the right time to try. Podcasts won't kill AM and FM as we know it, at least not anytime soon, but they're on the precipice of becoming totally and utterly mainstream. They offer what we want, when we want, wherever we want. They're our own personalized radio, with every topic, every show, and every host you love on exactly your own schedule.

Everything podcasts were named for might now be dead, but podcasts are just starting to come alive. The future of radio is here, and it's awesome.

تقديم: يوسف النفجان | ماهر أبوعلي

نفتتح فقرة الأخبار بالحديث عن سماعة أمازون الذكية Echo، والتي تستمع للأوامر الصوتية في المنزل وتستجيب لها على طريقة Siri و Google، ثم نتحدث عن جديد Office من مايكروسوفت من نسخة مجانية على أندرويد و iOS إلى مساحة غير محدودة على OneDrive. بعد ذلك ننتقل للحديث عن تحديث Android Lollipop ووصوله لعدة أجهزة مختلفة قبل النكسس، ويتكلم يوسف عن انطباعاته بعد تجربة نسخة شبه نهائية من النظام لأسبوع. أيضا نتحدث عن راوتر ASUS الجديد RT-AC87، وعن طريقة دمج عدة اتصالات إنترنت في مكان واحد، ونجيب على أسئلتكم التي وصلتنا، والمزيد!

• اضغط هنا لمتابعتنا ومراجعتنا على آيتونز أو اضغط هنا لمتابعتنا عن طريق أي برنامج يدعم خلاصات الـRSS

 

• سماعة لاسلكية محيطية ممتازة من Sennheiser

• تطبيق حجب الرسائل الغير مرغوبة على أندرويد

Browsers are pretty amazing things. Before, if you wanted to do any serious computing, you’d have to install software onto your computer. But these days, most of that can be done right from within the browser. For example, you can use Google Drive to preview files directly in Gmail, create and share Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, and even edit other file types like Microsoft Office documents without installing a single thing on your hard drive.

But here’s the catch: when it comes to browsers and installed applications working well together, they aren’t quite on the same page. To change that, today we’re launching a new extension for Chrome that lets you open files from Google Drive directly into a compatible application installed on your computer. This includes apps like advanced image and video editing software, accounting and tax programs, or 3D animation and design tools. So, no matter what you keep in Drive, using the web to access and manage files doesn’t mean you’re limited to using applications that only work in your browser.
To get started, install the latest version of the Drive app for Mac or PC (version 1.18) and sync your files. Then, visit Google Drive in your Chrome browser (make sure you’re on the new Google Drive). Finally, right-click on the file and select “Open with” to see a list of compatible applications on your computer that can open it. For example, you can choose to open a PDF file with Adobe Reader, or a .psd with Photoshop, make your edits and save back changes to Drive which will sync across all your devices and other collaborators. If you have any questions about this feature, you can learn more in the Help Center.

Please note: This extension will be rolling out over the next several days.

Posted by Rachel Barton, Product Manager, Google Drive

Remember KnowRoaming? That seemingly magical sticker SIM supposed to be attached on top of your usual one, so you can avoid expensive roaming charges? It's finally available for purchase. KnowRoaming works with a GSM Android, iPhone or Windows mobile device and connects you to a local carrier as soon as leave your home country (where it stays dormant) and enter another one. We first heard of it in 2013, when the startup was trying to raise money for production through a KickStarter campaign. It started shipping kits to its backers in February this year while it was still in beta, but after 12 months of testing, it's now ready for a wider release.

You can get one of KnowRoaming's sticker kits for $30 straight from the company's website and buy credits through its accompanying Android, iOS or web app when you're ready to use it. Those credits are used to purchase unlimited data for $7.99 per day, to pay for data as you use it, or to make phone calls over a network to anyone you want. Call rates, on the other hand, vary per country, but you can always check them on the website before you dial.

A few things to keep in mind, though: the unlimited data offer only works in 55 countries (listed on the website). Plus, even though you can use the SIM card to make local calls anywhere you are, you can only call long distance (anywhere you want) if you're currently in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Finally, the company only ships to select countries -- if you don't live in one of 'em, you might have to stalk eBay or find other indirect means of getting one. Planning to get a kit soon? If you're going out of the country within the next two weeks, make sure to try the service out to get $15 credited to your account for free.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: KnowRoaming

تقديم: يوسف النفجان | عبدالعزيز الحديثي | محمد أبو الحسن طاهر |  خليل أبو سيدو

نبدأ بالحديث مع ضيفنا خليل أبو سيدو عن لعبة الرعب Promise التي ساهم في تطويرها، ثم نتحدث عن العديد من الألعاب وانطباعاتنا عنها، بداية بألعاب الرعب الأخرى Resident Evil Revelations 2 و The Evil Within، إلى لعبتي الأكشن Lords of the Fallen (الشبيهة بدارك سولز) و Bayonetta 2، وألعاب أخرى متنوعة مثل Civilization: Beyond Earth و Super Smash Bros for 3DS و Fantasy Life و Terra Battle، والمزيد. بعد ذلك ننهي الحلقة بانطباعات يوسف عن تجربته التفصيلية للواقع الافتراضي بعد حصوله على Oculus DK2، من التركيب إلى الدخول إلى عوالم جديدة.

• للاشتراك في Gaming FTW عن طريق آيتونز وغيره من البرامج التي تدعم خلاصات RSS، اضغط هنا

 

• لعبة Promise التي ساهم في تطويرها خليل

When it comes to improving our fitness, every little effort counts. That’s why we’ve created Google Fit – a fitness app that helps you to start tracking your activity effortlessly and become more active, aware and motivated.

Google Fit uses sensors already built in to your Android phone to automatically detect walking, biking and running. And you can set and monitor your fitness goals based on your activity levels. It’s a great tool to discover how active you are and check in on your progress as you work on your fitness goals. In fact, you can check in just about anywhere, including your phone, the web, tablet and Android Wear devices.



You can also connect your favorite fitness devices and apps like Strava, Withings, Runtastic, Runkeeper and Noom Coach to Google Fit and we’ll surface all of the relevant data in one spot, giving you a clear and complete view of your fitness. No need to check one app to see your weight and another to review a run – with Google Fit, that data will all be surfaced in one, simple place.

Just keep your Android phone with you and we’ll make sure your activity counts – whether you’re cycling up steep hills, going for a morning jog or walking the dog.

Google Fit is available starting today on Google Play for devices running Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich and above.

Sabrina Ellis, Director, Product Management, Android 

When CVS and Rite-Aid shut off their NFC-based payments to prevent customers from using Apple Pay, we heard it was because they're part of a large group developing rival technology CurrentC. Now, The New York Times has shed more light on the issue, and it turns out they did it not just to stifle the competition, but also because they're contractually obligated not to offer Apple Pay in their stores. The whole Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) group, including these two drug stores and big-box retailers Walmart and Best Buy, signed a contract years ago that binds them to Current C. That contract, signed way before anyone knew if Apple Pay was ever going to materialize, prevents them from supporting rival technologies, as doing so will earn them outrageous fines.

CurrentC's the ideal payment method for MCX retailers, because it connects directly to people's bank accounts, eliminating the need to pay credit card fees. Also, it allows stores to track customers' spending habits themselves. Problem is, it won't be ready until 2015, and by then customers might already be too attached to Apple Pay to consider anything else and demand its use in MCX members' outlets. Of course, it's always possible for Apple Pay not to catch on in the end, but -- bad news for this bunch of companies -- it's doing really well thus far.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Source: The New York Times

تقديم: يوسف النفجان | عبدالله الثاني

نتحدث هذا الأسبوع عن أجهزة آبل الجديدة، من آيباد إير 2 وآيباد ميني 3 (أو 2.1؟) إلى ماك ميني الجديد، وآيماك ريتنا بشاشة 5K. بعد ذلك نناقش تطبيق قوقل الجديد، Inbox by Gmail، والذي قد يصنع ثورة في طريقة استخدامنا للبريد الإلكتروني، ونتحدث عن جهاز Fire TV Stick المصغر من أمازون. في فقرة الانطباعات يتحدث يوسف عن جهاز ADT-1 الذي وصله من قوقل بنظام Android TV، وعن تطبيق خرائط Nokia HERE على أندرويد. بعد ذلك نتحدث عن كيفية دعمكم للبودكاست واستمراريته، ونجيب على أسئلتكم التي وصلتنا، والمزيد!

• اضغط هنا لمتابعتنا ومراجعتنا على آيتونز أو اضغط هنا لمتابعتنا عن طريق أي برنامج يدعم خلاصات الـRSS

• لتثبيت تطبيق Nokia HERE على أي هاتف أندرويد

• تطبيق QuickPic لاستعراض الصور

• هاتف منزلي ثابت يدعم استخدام الجوالات له بتطبيق خاص

• جهاز لابتوب لينوفو على موقع أمازون الألماني

shade-shypervert:

kada-bura:

Oh my god please watch this video please.

Sorry, but I just need this here BECAUSE I’M CRYING SEND HELP

Happy Halloween! Be safe and don’t make fun of people with disabilities, even if they have a silly pumpkin face

[dappagent]

Portable games consoles are still a thing.

As the Wii U flounders, it’s almost easy to forget that Nintendo has another console plugging away in a valiant effort to prop up the company’s bottom line. The 3DS has been out for over three and a half years now and has sold a respectable 44 million units to date, with a steady stream of great games along the way. But sales have slowed, and it won’t match the runaway success of its predecessor.

Many of the 154 million people that bought an...

Continue reading…

If you’re following along at home, with a bucket full of coconut-oil popcorn (delicious! healthy!), you probably saw our recent announcement where we unveiled a new direction for Plex in the living room. Beautiful library browsing and new and exciting content discovery features all wrapped up in a pair of brand new apps that feel perfectly at home on the big screen.

But what if you’re not a gamer, or have no plans to add an Xbox to your personal media arsenal any time soon? Or maybe you’re just a minimalist, and prefer not having any boxes next to your TV. You watch movies on the floor, crosslegged, eschewing non-hemp footwear and personal hygiene. We’re fine with that too.

Not only that, we’re happy to say that we can lend at least some of you a hand. We’re thrilled to announce our brand new Plex app for VIZIO Smart TVs, available today for Plex Pass subscribers! Once the Plex Pass preview period ends, the app will be available to purchase for a one-time fee if you don’t have a Plex Pass.

If you’re in the market for a new TV, you’ve probably heard that VIZIO just launched its delicious P-Series lineup of 4K TVs. Starting at just $999 (really!?) these are truly lovely displays with all sorts of fancy features like HEVC hardware decoding and local dimming. Definitely worth a look if you’re in the market for a new display. If you already have a 2013 (E/M series, except ones where the app store is called “Vizio Internet Apps” and not “Vizio Internet Apps Plus”) or 2014 (E/M/P) series, you’re also good to go; just navigate to the VIZIO app store and grab the Plex app today. Like the Xbox apps, the VIZIO app is also focused on video at first (we’re working hard on music and photos, and they’ll be available in an update as soon as they’re ready). In case you can’t find the remote fast enough, feast your eyes on the images below to get a taste of what it looks like.

In order to use this new app, you MUST install the latest release of the media server; available on our Downloads page.

Bidding you a fond hello, while camouflaged in the cool dewy morning grass, is our own Barkley Bonestein: official Plex mascot, and a big fan of Pit Bulls & Parolees.

The post Plex and VIZIO! appeared first on Plex Blog.

تقديم: يوسف النفجان | عبدالله الثاني | ماهر أبو علي

نبدأ بالحديث عن نسخة أندرويد الجديدة Lollipop وأجهزة النكسس الجديدة المختلفة التي تأتي به من تعاون قوقل مع HTC و موتورولا و ASUS: هاتف Nexus 6 العملاق، وتابلت Nexus 9، ومشغل الميديا Nexus Player. بعد ذلك نتوقع بشكل سريع ما سنشاهد في مؤتمر آبل غدا، ونتحدث عن تفاصيل إضافية لصفقة فيسبوك ووتساب، وهبوط مبيعات سامسونج بشكل كبير، وأجهزة لينوفو الجديدة. وفي فقرة الانطباعات، يشرح يوسف لماذا يعتبر Moto X الجديد أفضل هاتف أندرويد على الإطلاق، ونتحدث عن تجربتنا لنظام ويندوز 10، ثم نجيب على أسئلتكم التي وصلتنا، والمزيد!

• اضغط هنا لمتابعتنا ومراجعتنا على آيتونز أو اضغط هنا لمتابعتنا عن طريق أي برنامج يدعم خلاصات الـRSS

• موقع نكسس الجديد

• تحميل النسخة التجريبية من ويندوز 10

Good things happen when everybody’s invited. A few years ago, we had the thought that phones (and stuff that hadn’t even been invented yet like tablets and smart watches) would be way more interesting if everyone could build new things together. So we created Android as an open platform, and put it out there for everyone to imagine, invent, make, or buy whatever they wanted.

Since then, all kinds of people—from companies big and small to folks on Kickstarter, kids in schools, and crazy smart developers—have been innovating faster, together, more than we ever could alone. And the best part is that every time someone new joins in, things get more interesting, unexpected, and wonderful for all of us.


Getting everyone in on the party is the same spirit behind Android One—an effort recently launched in India (coming to other countries soon) to make great smartphones available to the billions of people around the world who aren’t yet online. It’s also why we’re excited about Lollipop, our newest software release, which is designed to meet the diverse needs of the billion-plus people who already use Android today.

Joining the party: Android 5.0 Lollipop
As previewed at Google I/O, Lollipop is our largest, most ambitious release on Android with over 5,000 new APIs for developers. Lollipop is designed to be flexible, to work on all your devices and to be customized for you the way you see fit. And just like Android has always been, it’s designed to be shared. Lollipop is made for a world where moving throughout the day means interacting with a bunch of different screens—from phones and tablets to TVs. With more devices connecting together, your expectation is that things just work. With Lollipop, it’s easier than ever to pick up where you left off, so the songs, photos, apps, and even recent searches from one of your Android devices can be immediately enjoyed across all the other ones.

As you switch from one screen to another, the experience should feel the same. So Lollipop has a consistent design across devices—an approach we call Material Design. Now content responds to your touch, or even your voice, in more intuitive ways, and transitions between tasks are more fluid. 

Lollipop also gives you more control over your device. You can now adjust your settings so that only certain people and notifications can get through, for example, when you’re out to dinner or in the middle of an important meeting. And when an important notification does come through, you can see it directly from the lockscreen.

And because we’re using our devices a lot more, there’s a new battery saver feature that extends the life of your device by up to 90 minutes—helpful if you’re far from a power outlet. We’ve enabled multiple user accounts and guest user mode for keeping your personal stuff private. And you can now secure your device with a PIN, password, pattern, or even by pairing your phone to a trusted device like your watch or car with Smart Lock. But this is just a small taste of Lollipop. Learn more on android.com.

Meet the Nexus family, now running Lollipop
Advances in computing are driven at the intersection of hardware and software. That's why we’ve always introduced Nexus devices alongside our platform releases. Rather than creating software in the abstract, we work with hardware partners to build Nexus devices to help push the boundaries of what's possible. Nexus devices also serve as a reference for the ecosystem as they develop on our newest release. And for Lollipop, we have a few new Nexus treats to share with you.


First, with Motorola, we developed the Nexus 6. This new phone has a contoured aluminum frame, a 6-inch Quad HD display and a 13 megapixel camera. The large screen is complemented by dual front-facing stereo speakers that deliver high-fidelity sound, making it as great for movies and gaming as it is for doing work. It also comes with a Turbo Charger, so you can get up to six hours of use with only 15 minutes of charge.

Next, a new tablet built in partnership with HTC. Nexus 9, with brushed metal sides and 8.9-inch screen, is small enough to easily carry around in one hand, yet big enough to work on. And since more and more people want to have the same simple experience they have on their tablets when they have to do real work, we designed a keyboard folio that magnetically attaches to the Nexus 9, folds into two different angles and rests securely on your lap like a laptop.

Finally, we’re releasing the first device running Android TV: Nexus Player, a collaboration with Asus, is a streaming media player for movies, music and videos. It's also a first-of-its-kind Android gaming device. With Nexus Player you can play Android games on your HDTV with a gamepad, then keep playing on your phone while you're on the road. Nexus Player is Google Cast Ready so you can cast your favorite entertainment from almost any Chromebook or Android or iOS phone or tablet to your TV.

Nexus 9 and Nexus Player will be available for pre-order on October 17. Nexus 9 will be in stores starting November 3. Nexus 6 will be available for pre-order in late October and in stores in November—with options for an unlocked version through Play store, or a monthly contract or installment plan through carriers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon. Specific carrier rollout timing will vary. Check out google.com/nexus for more details on availability.

Android 5.0 Lollipop, which comes on Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Nexus Player, will also be available on Nexus 4, 5, 7, 10 and Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks.

The party’s just getting started
With this latest release of Android Lollipop, we're excited to continue working with our developer community, hardware partners, and all of you. More ideas and more creators is what gets us all to better ideas faster. And since everyone's invited to the party, we hope you'll join in the fun by creating and sharing an Android character that captures a little bit of who you are—one of a kind. Enjoy!


Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps

Editor's note: Bayonetta 2 arrives on Switch with everything intact from the Wii U version, but with the added convenience of portability and a more consistent frame rate, making it the definitive version of the game. Thanks to the confident execution of seemingly unbridled creativity, Bayonetta 2 remains a game that shouldn’t be missed, just as it was when we first reviewed the game on Wii U. The original review has been updated to reflect the new version of the game. - Peter Brown, Feb. 14, 6:00 AM PT

Bayonetta 2 never strives to be anything less than the purest, rarest kind of action-game experience, one that values skill, reaction times, and sheer spectacle over all else--realism and storytelling be damned. Sure, you can feel the influence of the likes of Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden in Bayonetta 2's combat, and see it in its wonderfully outlandish visuals. But neither of those games, nor the many that followed in their footsteps, come close to the brilliance of Bayonetta 2. It is a masterclass in pure, unadulterated action-game design, where its insane eye-popping visuals meld effortlessly with some of the sharpest, most joyful combat to have ever graced a video game.

There's no delay in getting you to the good stuff either, no scene-setting preamble to keep you from the action; I can think of few games where the opening moments are as outrageously bombastic as the last. Within minutes you'll have travelled through space atop a crumbling building, sliced golden angels into gooey chunks of meat, and even hopped inside a machine-gun-mech to take on gargantuan holy beasts. Newcomers may well button bash their way though these opening moments, but the sheer spectacle of it all makes them no less fun or exciting.

The basics are explained briefly--press Y to fire your guns, press X to punch things--but Bayonetta doesn't hold your hand via convoluted tutorials or training sequences. All it gives you are the absolute essentials you need to survive its early stages; it's up to you to learn more complex moves by experimenting or perusing the command list. Your proficiency with the titular Bayonetta's combat skills evolves at a natural pace. Nothing seems forced or faked, and--with a couple of minor exceptions--nor are you suddenly gifted some newfangled ability that results in a huge boost of power.

It's the design of the levels themselves, and the enemies that populate them, that encourage you to learn new combos and improve your skills. While there's not much in the way of exploration, levels like the beautiful, European-like Noatun, with its detailed stone pillar walls and glistening canals, hide secret battles and challenges for you to find. Most, however, funnel you as quickly as possibly from one hypersonic set piece to next. One moment you're happily chopping away at angelic guardians atop a fighter jet, and the next you're battling a giant golden snake that's guarding the glittering gates of heaven. Death comes quickly to those who fail to adapt to the timings and speeds of these wildly different encounters, but it's in this learning by doing that you're rewarded with a real sense of accomplishment, one that you don't get from simply being told what to do.

The mechanics of Bayonetta 2's combat don't differ that all that much from those of its predecessor. But when that predecessor is one of the greatest action games ever made, this is no bad thing. Everything from the way punches and kicks connect with your enemies, to the detailed, pixel-perfect animations that accompany them, showcases a stunning combat system that values skill and reaction times while looking gorgeous in the process. Even minor frame rate issues during the game's more complex scenes do little to detract from it. What is new in Bayonetta 2 is Umbran Climax, a powerful combat technique that lets you unleash powered-up punches and kicks, and a devastating demon summon. While you need a full magic gauge to perform an Umbran Climax--preventing you from using one of Bayonetta's gruesome torture attacks--the increased range of each hit, and the small amount of health you reclaim while using it, makes it a far more useful in combat.

But it would all be for nothing without Witch Time, a dodging mechanic that rewards last-second escapes by temporarily slowing down time, allowing you to unleash a barrage of attacks, or circumvent defences like shields and rotating spikes. It's a mechanic that's often mimicked, but never bettered; Witch Time transforms the already impressive combat into a sweeping ballet of guts and gunfire, culminating in the furious button mashing and blood-splattering of a dazzling Climax finish.

Timing, of course, is crucial to these moments, but even if you aren't that adept at unleashing a killer combo, the simplicity of Witch Time's single-button manoeuvring makes impressive displays of combat accessible to all. Bayonetta 2 ably strikes that balance between intuitiveness and depth, and does so without resorting to built-in handicaps or convoluted training missions. With just a few simple combos and well-timed flicks of the trigger to engage Witch Time, Bayonetta effortlessly twirls and kicks through the air, unleashing calamitous blows that are overwhelmingly satisfying to perform. Before long, you feel like a master of the form, even if, in reality, you've barely scratched the surface. The smooth, seamless flow of gratuitous gore and eye-popping visuals that follows the most dramatic of your encounters make for a wild ride almost impossible to put down.

It helps that Bayonetta 2 rarely lets the action drop. Unlike its predecessor, the game rarely allows the pace to dip as you explore larger towns, and it's not long before you're thrown back into another spectacular battle against the forces of heaven and hell (Paradiso and Inferno, in Bayonetta speak). Cutscenes are briefer this time around, which keeps the focus squarely on the combat, but they are just as tongue-in-cheek as before. You get your fair share of cheesy characters and sight gags, particularly in the humorous opening moments where bumbling Italian gangster Enzo is mercilessly teased by Bayonetta, and then has his more delicate parts almost run over by a motorbike-riding Jeanne. Things get a little more tense as the battle to save the earth rolls on, but the game never takes itself too seriously, punctuating its deeper moments with sarcastic quips from Bayonetta, who--despite suffering crotch shots and blatant innuendos--remains one of the most charismatic and powerful heroines in the medium. There are none of the sleazy moments that peppered the likes of Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer Is Dead; the sexualisation here serves to empower, not to belittle.

The story stitching it all together is utter nonsense, but fittingly so, because its absurdity serves as way to push you into ever more outlandish battles. By the time you reach the latter half of the game, the action rapidly escalates into multiple "Whoa! Did that really just happen?!" moments--a rock 'em sock 'em battle between two giants of Paradiso and Inferno, and an underwater clash with a sword slicing mega-knight being particular highlights--before climaxing into some of the most absurdly weird and wonderful boss battles to have graced an action game. But making it to the end credits barely scratches the surface of Bayonetta 2. There are hidden battles to find in each chapter, different accessories and weapons to buy and pick up from fallen enemies that give you access to new combos and powers, and challenges that have you trying to defeat enemies without taking a single hit, or by only being able to deal damage in Witch Time.

Then there are the medals doled out after every battle (awarded to you depending on the length of your combos and how much damage you take) that encourage you to keep going back and trying to perfect your performance--and when you've done that, there are the harder difficulties to try and master too. You can spend hours hunting down Nintendo-based Easter eggs and costumes, and--judging by my own squeals of delight when I found them--it's well worth the effort.

If you manage to work your way through all that, there's Tag Climax's two-player online co-op to master too. Not only does Tag Climax let you do battle with enemies not in the main game, it's actually also one of the best ways to acquire halos (Bayonetta 2's in-game currency), if you've got the chops for it. You can wager halos against your online partner as to who will get the highest score, with larger wagers upping the difficulty as well as the potential reward. Then, at the end of six rounds of furious battling, a winner is declared. Shared abilities like Witch Time and Umbran Climax ensure that there's an element of teamwork to these cooperative battles, and on higher wagers, they can get incredibly challenging.

But it's a challenge you'll want to experience again as soon as you put down the controller. Bayonetta 2's combat is so expertly constructed, and its presentation so joyously insane, that you'd have to try so very hard to get bored of it all. In a year filled with the promise of ever more elaborate experiences on all the shiny new hardware, that Bayonetta 2--a homage to classic game design and escapism--should be the most fun I've had playing a game all year is unexpected. But maybe it shouldn't have been. After all, its predecessor still stands as one of the finest games of its genre. To have surpassed that with Bayonetta 2, and to have created a game that will be remembered as an absolute classic, is nothing short of astonishing.

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تقديم: يوسف النفجان | عبدالله الثاني | ماهر أبو علي

مايكروسوفت كشفت عن النسخة التي تأتي بعد ويندوز 8 وقررت أن تسميها.. ويندوز 10. نتحدث عن اختيار الاسم وعن أهم الميزات الجديدة في نظام ويندوز القادم، ونناقش جدل انحناء الآيفون الجديد ونجاح إطلاقه في السوق السعودي، وعن تسريبات النكسس القادم، وجهاز بلاكبيري الجديد. بعد ذلك يكمل يوسف انطباعاته عن ساعة موتورولا الذكية “موتو 360″ بعد تحديثها الذي يطيل عمر البطارية، ونجيب على أسئلتكم التي وصلتنا، والمزيد!

• اضغط هنا لمتابعتنا ومراجعتنا على آيتونز أو اضغط هنا لمتابعتنا عن طريق أي برنامج يدعم خلاصات الـRSS

• شرح تعريب الكندل

• تحميل النسخة التجريبية من ويندوز 10

• صورة مسربة للنكسس القادم

“I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
‘This could be Heaven or this could be Hell’
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say…”

Welcome to Dota 2, the Hotel California of online gaming. Late last December, I was naïve enough to dip a toe in its beguiling waters and today, 1,399 hours of gameplay later, I return as a semi-functional human to regale you with tales from its realm.

Continue reading…

IGN 9.3/10 - Gamespot 8/10 - Polygon 9.5/10 - Game Informer 8.25/10 - Eurogamer 8/10 - Kotaku YES - EGM 8.5/10

GamesTM 8/10 - Destructoid 6/10 - The Escapist 4.5/5 - Shacknews 9/10 - Game Front 90/100 - Playstation Lifestyle 9/10

CVG 9/10 - Videogamer 9/10 - Joystiq 5/5 - Hardcore Gamer 4.5/5 - GamesBeat 8/10 - GamesRadar 4.5/5 - Gaming Age A-

High-end GPUs like Nvidia's new GTX 980 are all well and good, but not everyone wants to fork out $549 (£429) just to have the latest piece of graphics tech. Traditionally, the sweet spot for GPUs is somewhere in the middle, where the price/performance ratio is more sensibly balanced. Usually, that means taking a significant (if acceptable for the price) performance hit compared to the high-end cards, but something rather special has happened with the GTX 970.

Retailing at around $329 in the US, and £259 in the UK, the GTX 970 features the same GM204 chip as its bigger brother the GTX 980, but comes with less CUDA cores and slightly slower clock speed. However, because The 970 is based on the same power-efficient Maxwell architecture, it's a prime candidate for overclocking. With a stock TDP of just 145W (20W less than the GTX 980), there's a significant amount of headroom available for pushing the GPU--and the results are nothing short of spectacular for the price.

Zotac GTX 970 AMP! Omega Edition Specs

With such potential for overclocking, many Nvidia partners have taken to producing overclocked cards with significant bumps to power and cooling. Notably, while you can buy a cheaper stock version of the GTX 970 and still get a decent boost in performance out of it, these pre-overclocked GPUs don't command too much of price premium over their stock counterparts. The 970 I'm looking at, Zotac's GTX 970 AMP! Omega Edition, goes for £289 in the UK (US pricing TBC). For that price you get a beefy triple-slot cooler, along with two 8-pin power inputs for extra juice when overclocking, letting you boost it all the way to 171W.

GPU	GTX 770 (Kepler)	Zotac AMP GTX 970 (Maxwell)	GTX 980 (Maxwell)
CUDA Cores	1536	1664	2048
Base Clock	1046 MHz	1102 MHz	1126 MHz
GPU Boost Clock	1085 MHz	1241 MHz	1216 MHz
Memory Clock	7000 MHz	7046 MHz	7000 MHz
Memory Bandwidth	224 GB/sec	224 GB/sec	224 GB/sec
Memory Bus Width	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit
ROPs	32	64	64
TDP	230W	171W (up to)	165W
Manufacturing Process	28-nm	28-nm	28-nm

The Zotac 970 comes with a base clock of 1102 MHz, and a boost clock of 1241 MHz, a significant increase over the 1050 MHz and 1178 MHz of the stock card. Impressively, that boost clock is also slightly higher than the 1216 MHz of a stock GTX 980. With all that power and cooling on board, there's definitely room to overclock the Zotac 970 even more (with some reporting stable boost clocks of 1469MHz), but the benchmarks below are based on the out-of-the box experience. Elsewhere, there's the same 4GB of GDDR5 memory as the GTX 980, tied to a 256-bit bus. You also get all the other benefits of Nvidia's Maxwell architecture, including support for VXGI, DSR, and MFAA, which you can read more about in the GTX 980 review.

Benchmarks

But enough of the fluff: just how did the Zotac 970 perform? I tested it out using the same rig I used for the GTX 980, which featured an Intel Core i5-3570K processor overclocked to 4.2Ghz, an Intel Z77 DZ77GA-70K motherboard, 16GB of 1866 MHz Corsair Dominator GT RAM, a 120GB Corsair Force LS SSD, and a Corsair HX 850 PSU.

Unigine Heaven

GPU	Ultra @1080p, 8XAA FPS	Ultra @1440p, 8XAA, Extreme Tessellation	Ultra @4K, 8XAA, Extreme Tessellation
R9 290X	55	34	17
GTX 980	61	37	20
GTX 970	53	31	17
GTX 780 Ti	55	35	21
GTX 780	49	31	18
GTX 680	34	21	4

Tomb Raider

GPU	Ultra @1080p, TressFX, FXAA FPS	Ultra @1440p, TressFX, FXAA FPS	Ultra @4K, TressFX, No AA
R9 290X	74	52	27
GTX 980	77	53	28
GTX 970	73	49	25
GTX 780 Ti	74	49	27
GTX 780	60	42	22
GTX 680	49	32	-

Metro: Last Light

GPU	Ultra @1080p, Tessellation Normal, 2XSSAA, Advanced PhysX Off FPS	Ultra @1440p, Tessellation Normal, 2XSSAA, Advanced PhysX Off FPS	Ultra @4K, Tessellation Normal, No AA, Advanced PhysX Off FPS
R9 290X	72	44	39
GTX 980	74	47	43
GTX 970	72	43	38
GTX 780 Ti	77	47	41
GTX 780	64	38	35
GTX 680	48	27	-

Battlefield 4

GPU	Ultra @1080p, 2XMSAA, HBAO FPS	Ultra @1440p, 2XMSAA, HBAO FPS	Ultra @4K, No AA, HBAO FPS
R9 290X	77	54	37
GTX 980	93	64	44
GTX 970	83	58	40
GTX 780 Ti	82	60	38
GTX 780	78	51	32
GTX 680	60	40	-

Crysis 3

GPU	Very High @1080p, 2XMSAA FPS	Very High @1440p, 2XMSAA FPS	Very High @4K, No AA FPS
R9 290X	46	29	17
GTX 980	52	37	20
GTX 970	52	32	16
GTX 780 Ti	54	33	19
GTX 780	48	30	16
GTX 680	40	21	-

Bioshock Infinite

GPU	Ultra @1080p, AO, AA FPS	Ultra @1440p, AO, AA FPS	Ultra @4K, AO, AA FPS
R9 290X	120	86	46
GTX 980	140	90	52
GTX 970	134	92	48
GTX 780 Ti	134	92	49
GTX 780	110	73	39
GTX 680	92	60

Verdict

Ah, the march of progress. The GTX 780 Ti--which commanded a hefty $699 (£559) at launch and used a full 250W of power--is now, less than year later, largely matched by a £289 card that consumes up to just 171W of power. AMD's flagships--the R9 290 and R9 290X--are now essentially irrelevant. They're wildly inefficient, hot GPUs by comparison, and cost around the same price (more in the US), but are easily bested in the benchmarks by the 970. Even AMD's monster dual-gpu R9 295X2, previously the best value choice for 4K gaming, has its work cut out for it. Two 970s would be far cheaper, run cooler, use less power, and--based on the single-gpu benchmarks at least--run faster. Such a setup would only cost slightly more than a single 980 too.

That's a very impressive result, and one that makes the substantially more expensive 980 that much less desirable. Of course, the 980 is more powerful, and if you want the absolute best in performance, it's still the GPU to get. It, too, is a similarly capable overclocker, which'll push its performance even further. But there's not as big a difference between the two as you might expect, and for those with a more modest budget, the 970 is, comparatively speaking, an absolute bargain. You get silky smooth 1080p at the highest settings, and excellent performance at 1440p.

Zotac's AMP! Omega version of the card is a great piece of kit too; under load, temperatures rarely crept above 70 degrees, giving you plenty of headroom for more overclocking, and at only a small bump in price over the stock 970. The only downside to the Zotac is its triple-slot cooler, which means you need a roomy case to fit one, or a pair of them, in. Regardless of whether you pick a stock card or a pre-overclocked one, though, Nvidia's GTX 970 is cool, quiet, and far more powerful than anything in its price range ought to be. Without a doubt, the GTX 970 is the GPU bargain of the year.

I had little faith that the latest Smash Bros. would recapture the magic. And I've never been happier to be wrong.

The post 3DS Smash Bros. Is an Exhilarating Return to Excellence appeared first on WIRED.

تقديم: يوسف النفجان | خالد السديري | ماهر أبو علي

نبدأ بالحديث عن أجهزة أمازون الجديدة للقراءة وللأطفال، وعن بعض أخبار الكروم بوك وتشغيله لتطبيقات أندرويد، وعن أجهزة أندرويد الموجهة للهند ودول جنوب شرق آسيا. بعد ذلك ننتقل لاستعراض انطباعاتنا الأولية عن آيفون 6 وساعة موتو 360 بعد التجربة! ما تأثير الحجم الأكبر والتصميم الجديد على استخدام هاتف آبل بشكل يومي، وهل هناك تحسن كبير في البطارية؟ وما أثر وجود ساعة ذكية على الحياة اليومية، وهل تستحق ساعة موتورولا الجديدة الشراء؟ نحاول الإجابة على كل هذه الأسئلة، والمزيد!

• اضغط هنا لمتابعتنا ومراجعتنا على آيتونز أو اضغط هنا لمتابعتنا عن طريق أي برنامج يدعم خلاصات الـRSS

• لطلب Moto X من Clove (يقبل طرق دفع وعناوين شحن دول الخليج مباشرة)

• لطلب Moto 360 من Clove أو Google Play (يتطلب استخدام تطبيق VPN واستخدام عنوان شحن في أمريكا مع البطاقة المحلية)

First, we want to thank all of you for the support and loyalty you have given us over the last few years. We truly have the most amazing and passionate community of media lovers on the planet, and it makes our job an absolute joy. If you already have a Plex Pass, rejoice! To show appreciation for your loyalty, the price of your subscription is not increasing (and if you were thinking about upgrading, now is the time). If you don’t have a Plex Pass, this is your last chance to subscribe at current rates.

We’re working harder than ever to bring more Plex goodness to all your favorite devices, and we’re super excited about the things we’re working on and can’t wait to share them with you over the next few months! With premium features and content, sometimes come moderate cost increases. So on September 29, 2014 we’ll be making some changes to our Plex Pass subscription rates for new subscribers:

• Monthly Plex Pass subscriptions will increase from $3.99 to $4.99 per month.
• Annual Plex Pass subscriptions will increase from $29.99 to $39.99 per year.
• Lifetime Plex Passes will increase from $74.99 to $149.99.

For all of you Paypal subscribers, we now have support for recurring monthly and annual Paypal subscriptions. We’re also making it easy to view your billing summary by providing full transaction history and receipts.

Again, please note that these new rates will only affect new subscriptions moving forward. Of course, as we’ve mentioned in the past, we may need to charge separately for certain types of premium content, and we may need to adjust Plex Pass prices again in the future.

Thanks again for all of your support and keep an eye out for more new exciting releases coming very soon!

[Edit: added some frequently asked questions]

Q: Sure, but are you going to bring X feature to app Y?

A: It’s fair to assume we’re shooting for feature parity, especially with big things like playlists and premium features like Extras.

Q: Why do Android Plex Pass members get the app for free, but not iOS/Windows?

A: We’re working on the best way to address this inconsistency.

Q: I need to see a roadmap to know if it’s worth it.

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Q: Why is the Lifetime price going up so much compared to the others?

A: It’s rising disproportionately compared to the other plans because, frankly, at 2.5x the price of a yearly, it was priced in an unsustainable way for us. Turns out humans have a rather long lifespan.

Q: Is the subscription bound to a device or a server?

A: Generally speaking it’s bound to a server (or servers, if you have more than one). There’s one feature (Camera Upload) which requires a Plex Pass on the app, but we’re going to be fixing that.

Q: I just subscribed, do I get a refund if I upgrade?

A: As the great Chuck Norris once said “Anything else would be less than civilized”. And then he crushed a piece of carbon into a diamond. With his beard. When you upgrade, we issue a prorated refund or credit of the amount remaining on your current plan. For example, if you’re half-way into a monthly subscription, we’ll refund you about two bucks.

Q: Do I get all future features or not? What’s with the disclaimer around premium content?

A: The reason why we always have the disclaimer is simple. Let’s say in the future we added some sort of PNetflix-like service (silent P) where we streamed premium movies. There’s no way we could afford that based on a Plex Pass, so we’d need to make it a separate feature with additional cost. But for example, the mega-cool Extras feature we just added involved licensing premium content, and everyone with a Plex Pass got it for free. So we’re just being up front and making sure we’re not limiting ourselves in the future.

The post Upcoming price increase for NEW Plex Pass subscriptions appeared first on Plex Blog.