Yousef Alnafjan

We did it. My hands are shaking.

Video Game Sensation ‘Minecraft’ Coming To The Big Screen As Warner Bros Acquires Rights; ‘Lego’s’ Roy Lee Producing Minecraft, one of the hottest video game franchises in the market today, is going to be made into a major motion picture. Warner Bros just acquired the rights to the wildly popular game from Swedish indie developer Mojang AB (Mojang means “gadget” in Swedish). The property is already getting huge interest from writers and filmmakers as Warners is putting together a live-action version. Lego producer Roy Lee is handling for the studio via his Vertigo Entertainment, according to sources inside the studio. More on Deadline

We still don't know if infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters can produce the complete works of Shakespeare, but it appears that tens of thousands of people collectively controlling a single Game Boy can beat a famous game. Two weeks ago, viewers of game streaming site Twitch.tv started playing a massively multiplayer session of Pokémon where each comment in the chat window translates to a button press on the gamepad — and somehow the resulting mess of over 10 million button presses has turned into successful gameplay. As of today, Polygon reports that players have managed to steer the game's protagonist to collect all eight badges, the medallions of the Pokemon world required to proceed to the game's final stages.

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Digrat we hardly knew ye

However, there have been losses along the way. Anarchists have managed to direct the group's shared avatar to release many healthy, powerful Pokemon into the wild, something smart players would normally never do in the original game.

Arguably, the current (peak) of 100,000 players would never have gotten this far if the game's creators hadn't tweaked how the Twitch metagame is played. Users can no longer spam the Start button to bring the action to a standstill, and they can vote to throw the game into a "democracy" mode where users vote on button presses rather than having their chat commands press buttons immediately.

You can watch the game's finale, or help play it yourself, at this link.

SThe cult of the Helix fossil/Omanyte is not the only 'religion' that's formed around the events of Twitch Plays Pokemon, you know. This makes sense: a random group of thousands of people aren't necessarily all going to believe in the same thing.

Plus, the mythology surrounding the Helix fossil itself is a complicated beauty/mess—there are many players and villains. Reddit user aseanman27 made a handy image that not only details all the various 'beliefs' around Twitch Plays Pokémon, but also outlines some of the major events and common occurrences in the playthrough. It's worth a look, both if you've been keeping up with the progression Twitch Plays Pokémon, or if you're curious about some of the ridiculous memes that have developed around it.

Click 'expand' to see it at full size...and feel free to annotate parts of the image by clicking it, too!

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(Via Reddit)

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Even Seth Rogen acknowledges that most of us would expect his top political cause to be the legalization of marijuana. While giving testimony at a Senate hearing yesterday, Rogen took plenty of time to joke about his role in vulgar comedies and the perception of him as immature and lazy. But Rogen was actually there to speak on a cause far more important to him: Alzheimer's research. Rogen delivered a heartfelt and often hilarious speech to the hearing about his experience with a relative who has the disease and about the advocacy that he's done through his charity, Hilarity for Charity.

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"It hurts the cause to see that many empty seats."

Rogen strongly criticized the state of Alzheimer's research and the public perception of people with the disease. "That's right," Rogen said, "the situation is so dire that it caused me — a lazy, self-involved, generally self-medicated man-child — to start an entire charity organization." His testimony came as part of a larger Senate hearing about the state of Alzheimer's research.

But despite hosting the hearing, it appeared that the Senate still wasn't that interested in the cause. After the hearing, Rogen chided lawmakers on Twitter for not attending or leaving partway through. "Not sure why only two senators were at the hearing," Rogen writes. "Very symbolic of how the government views Alzheimer's. Seems to be a low priority." One senator later tweeted at Rogen to thank him for the testimony, only for Rogen to reply asking why the senator hadn't actually stuck around to hear it. "Symbolically," Rogen writes, "it hurts the cause to see that many empty seats."

.@SenatorKirk pleasure meeting you. Why did you leave before my speech? Just curious.

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) February 26, 2014

@SenateApprops four left after the first panel. Only two at mine.

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) February 26, 2014

All those empty seats are senators who are not prioritizing Alzheimer's. Unless more noise is made, it won't change. pic.twitter.com/xDW6tlMHmH

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) February 26, 2014

Plex launched support for Chromecast a few months ago, and now its offering is getting even better. Starting today, Android users (sorry, iPhones!) can not only cast any music, videos or photos from their Plex library onto their TVs using Chromecast, they can also play content in file formats previously unsupported by the dongle. With the feature, Plex transcodes the content into a new format, allowing it to be played just as if it was natively supported. The app also now supports content mirroring. A first for the Chromecast, with mirroring you can cast a movie synopsis to the big screen while you're browsing your library to help the group make a movie night decision. If you pick a high-bitrate 1080p flick from your library, Plex tweaked how content is cast to eliminate "expensive transcoding" and make the process more reliable and efficient than ever before.

The updated version of the Plex app is available now for Android, and an iPhone version is on the way. If you're thinking of giving the app a try, be forewarned: for now use of the Chromecast feature currently requires you pony up for a PlexPass subscription -- which start at $3.99 a month. The company says the feature will be free for everyone after its (undefined) preview period ends.

Filed under: Cellphones, Household, Wireless, HD, Mobile

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Source: Plex

We’re still getting a good flow of signups from existing users and users that have been in the free trial, so we’ve decided to keep our discounted pricing in place for a bit longer.  This will also give more time to those users who were waiting for paypal support.

Thanks again for all of your support.  Make sure to jump on the $2/month pricing while it’s available.  And, as always, thanks for using The Old Reader!

image source: http://www.stockvault.net/photo/117500/satisfied-cat

South Park is a series known for its ability to get away with quite a lot, but not everything. Add South Park: The Stick of Truth to the raucously raunchy series’ short list of consolations, as it’s had a few scenes nipped and tucked in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. You might feel inclined to curse up a storm, make a steaming pile of poop jokes, and then somehow come around to making a worthwhile point in response, but take a deep breath: the PC version is unaffected.

… [visit site to read more]

Here’s a simple truth: the internet has radically changed the world. Over the course of the past 20 years, the idea of networking all the world’s computers has gone from a research science pipe dream to a necessary condition of economic and social development, from government and university labs to kitchen tables and city streets. We are all travelers now, desperate souls searching for a signal to connect us all. It is awesome.

And we’re fucking everything up.

Massive companies like AT&T...

Continue reading…

Goophone's a bit like a covers band that just happens to make knock-off smartphones. Not content with just plundering better artists' catalogs, the company has apparently managed to copy the Galaxy S5 in under two days. The Goophone S5, yep, has a 5-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 display, paired with a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek chip and 2GB RAM. Keep looking, and you'll find 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, dual-SIM slots, 32GB storage and a 2,800mAh battery, in addition to 13-and-5-megapixel rear and front cameras. It's available in white, black, gold or blue and is priced at $300, making it the ideal companion for your Lucci bag, Tammy Hilfinger shirt and Seanheiser headphones.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: Goophone

Reddit's community has an impressive ability to piece together scattered bits of information during major breaking news events — though it's efforts have at times gone more than awry. But now the site is hoping to streamline its community's reporting ability as it begins to test a live blogging tool that will eventually allow users to start posting automatically updating streams of information, much like many news outlets use. The new post type, called a Liveupdate thread, is being publicly tested in two places: it's currently being used to provide updates on TwitchPlaysPokemon, and several days ago it was used to provide updates on the conflict in Ukraine.

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Reddit can piece news together quickly, but not always correctly

Reddit has done a fine job in turning some of its community's interests into well-respected platforms, such as its IAmA series. But reporting — particularly on breaking news — has been a point of trouble due to the community's lack of editorial restraints or accountability, and that was widely highlighted after one community collaborated on what was effectively a witch hunt to find a suspect in the Boston bombing case. It'll likely be a much harder task for Reddit to curate controlled journalistic behavior within its communities, and it hasn't suggested how or if the site might attempt to improve live reporting on major breaking news events in the future.

Of course, given the live-blogging tool's testing on TwitchPlaysPokemon, it's clear that Reddit also sees this as a fun tool for its community — not just an outlet for breaking news. For now, live blogs are still in a testing phase and can only be created by Reddit employees, but Reddit says the next goal is to make them available for everyone to make and manage (streams won't be open for anyone to post in though, just those who the stream's creator approves). Streams can only include basic text and link updates right now too, and Reddit hopes to eventually support richer content, including images, videos, Reddit comments, and posts from social media sites. They're quite basic posts right now — not unlike the rest of Reddit — but it's easy to imagine that they'll be enough to help the community quickly organize news, for better or for worse.

And on the 11th day, the lord of 'Twitch Plays Pokémon' was brought back to life.

After collecting six badges, after countless fan art tributes, after accidentally releasing over 12 Pokémon in a single day, after getting through any trees and ledges that stood in the way, and after successfully navigating the treacherous Safari Zone, thousands of players on 'Twitch Plays Pokemon' did it: they revived the Helix fossil by using the Pokémon lab in Cinnabar Island. It's amazing.

This development is significant because, funnily enough, a 'religion' of sorts formed around 'Twitch Plays Pokemon'—having thousands of players try to control a single character often meant that players found themselves accidentally delving into a menu that held a fossil. Players constructed a narrative around the mistake: Red, the main character must be looking to the Helix fossil for guidance, right? That's why players consult it so much, for guidance.

And because of that fixation, the Helix fossil started being regarded as a holy deity by players—a force so important that the real point of the game, some joked, was not to beat the Elite Four and beat the game, but rather to take the fossil to Cinnabar Island and turn it into a fossil Pokemon called "Omanyte" (pictured above). In doing so, players would show their devotion to the chaos that makes Twitch Plays Pokemon so special, since the Helix fossil is the god of anarchy...or something like that.

Now that 'Twitch Plays Pokemon' has revived the Helix fossil, the team line-up looks like this:

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(Image via the Google doc that monitors progress on 'Twitch Plays Pokemon')

Here's what this looks like in-game:

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(Side-note: isn't AAAAAAAA going into battle kind of the best thing?)

Omanyte is the only Pokemon that doesn't have a doofy nickname, which is appropriate, really. Omanyte's revival, along with the acquisition of powerful 'mon like Zapdos, means that players on Twitch have a pretty formidable team. The Pigeot alone is leveled high enough that it can destroy most opponents, and Zapdos is a "legendary"—which means its pretty powerful. Eventually, the Omanyte will evolve into an Omastar.

As of this writing, Twitch players are trying to acquire the "secret key"—an item which will allow them to face Blaine, the gym leader of Cinnabar Island. From there, players will need to acquire one last badge before being able to head into Victory Road—the grueling final portion of the game before the Elite Four. Whether or not they'll be able to do all of this remains to be seen—but somehow, they've made it this far, right? I wouldn't underestimate what Twitch players can accomplish, given enough time. We'll keep you updated on progress.

You can watch the livestream here, if you're curious:

Bets on how long until someone accidentally releases Lord Helix?

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It has been argued that, given infinite time, a roomful of monkeys banging on typewriters would eventually recreate the entire works of Shakespeare. Okay, but if you replaced those typewriters with Game Boys, would they be able to beat Pokémon? ...

Twitch Plays Pokemon by OMOCAT ⊟

You would think we’d have posted about Twitch Plays Pokemon by now, the madness that’s engrossed hundreds of thousands of people, all prostrated to the almighty Helix Fossil.

I tried watching it for 20 minutes, during which I just saw Red unable to navigate his way out of a Pokemon Center, repeatedly accessing a PC until he released CCC the Hitmonlee.

After all that despair, I decided to cheer myself up by going back to playing Dangonronpa.

BUY Pokemon X and Y, upcoming games

We’d like to give a quick status on the new Premium plans and thank you all for the support.  It’s been a little over a week since we introduced the new paid accounts and the support from our community has been terrific.  That said, we still have a ways to go to meet our goals and are working diligently to address as much of your input as possible.

Here are answers to many of the frequent questions that we’ve been receiving over the past week.

Q: Why no Paypal?

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So, if one of the users who is subscribed to that feed decides to become a premium user, all of the feeds that user is subscribed to will begin updating faster. Any free users subscribed to the same feeds will get the faster refresh time as well.

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Thanks for using The Old Reader!

News broke earlier today that Facebook was buying popular messaging app WhatsApp for $16 billion, and while the social media giant ingesting yet another company is certainly news unto itself, the deal marks what could be one of the most successful venture capital investment deals of all time. Sequoia Capital reportedly invested a mere $8 million in WhatsApp back in 2011 — and while startups commonly raise subsequent rounds of funding amongst several investors, WhatsApp never announced any additional funding. Simply sticking with that initial investor would be striking, but it's even more arresting in light of the payoff.

The percentage of WhatsApp owned by Sequoia has been kept under wraps, but sources tell us it lands somewhere between 10 and 20 percent — meaning Sequoia could be reaping as much as $3.2 billion in cash and stock for that initial investment. It's a huge win for the firm, and makes other recent deals — Instagram reportedly closed a $50 million round of funding right before Facebook acquired it for $1 billion, for example — look puny in comparison.

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"In terms of value creation, this is the biggest on record."

"In terms of value creation, this is the biggest on record," says Anand Sanwal, CEO of venture capital tracking firm CB Insights. eBay, long considered one of the great venture capital exits, raised $6.7 million and was valued at $1.9 billion after its IPO. Today's announcement also makes the the news that Snapchat turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook seem a lot less shocking than it did at the time.

Ironically, just this past December WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum told the Wall Street Journal that the company had no intention of selling, going public, or raising new funding — a stance it was able to maintain because it wasn't spending money on extraneous expenses like marketing. "That will allow our company to stay independent," he said at the time. With $16 billion in the equation, however, it appears that became a very different story — and depending on where Facebook's stock goes in the months and years ahead, the number could soar even higher.

Update: Fortune reports that Sequoia may have ultimately invested as much as $60 million in WhatsApp, which might be a larger amount the company publicly reported but does nothing to change the epic scale of Sequoia's financial win.

Additional reporting by Ben Popper

When Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to "connect the world’s people," it’s not some gentle, humanist statement. Zuckerberg intends to own the communications layer of the world we live in — if today’s $16-plus billion acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp is any indication. Facebook grew up inventing the world’s leading social network for sharing with everyone you know, and it now owns what could be called the world’s largest private social network. Between the two companies, about one billion photos and 30 billion messages are sent per day.

While Facebook slaved away creating a utility used by 1.25 billion people, WhatsApp has replaced an essential utility for many, SMS. WhatsApp is used by over 450 million people every month, and often in places Facebook and its Messenger app had little success reaching, like Spain and Switzerland. By filling in the gaps with WhatsApp, Facebook’s communication pipes are thicker and spread far wider than ever before. The company commands an enormous portion of the world’s messages and photos sent per day. And don’t forget that WhatsApp users send a whopping 200 million voice messages per day. For many, WhatsApp has likely replaced voice calls as well.

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Facebook’s latest acquisition might appear to be a simple land grab for the hottest mobile app in the world, with some delightful side effects, but the reality is far bigger. Each company Facebook acquires is another hedge against the various public and private ways people choose to communicate. Instagram lets people share photos in a way Facebook’s friending model wouldn’t allow. WhatsApp lets people share messages in a way that’s familiar to first-time feature phone and smartphone users — something Facebook can’t boast. Facebook’s product portfolio is becoming vast, full of competing services and apps, and that’s okay.

Facebook is now a conglomerate, kind of like Disney

Facebook is now a conglomerate kind of like Disney, says Re/code’s Kara Swisher, owning all the best brands and serving all demographics simultaneously. Facebook plans to operate these and likely future product acquisitions independently, to see which one gets the biggest. The company simply doesn’t want to mess with the formula that’s ostensibly killing it, whether it’s Instagram, WhatsApp, or the next hot communications app.

But Facebook is not just diversifying its product portfolio. It’s also diversifying its business model. Facebook had the opportunity to make WhatsApp free, like all of its other products, but chose not to. WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum promises that the service will remain ad-free under its $1 / year revenue model. With Koum on Facebook’s board, perhaps the company will consider similar revenue streams in the future. WhatsApp’s runaway success with its own business model proves that there’s a lot of breathing room for essential services to monetize without ads or in-app purchases.

"WhatsApp is the only app we’ve ever seen with higher engagement than Facebook itself."

It’s unclear how much say Koum will have in future Facebook products, but by including him in its board, Facebook is also diversifying its thought process. Facebook’s internal slogan is "move fast and break things," but WhatsApp has done the polar opposite. While competitors, Facebook Messenger included, added features, removed them, came alive, and went under, WhatsApp held fast to its belief in one goal: to replace texting. As Dan Frommer points out, the opportunity to replace texting is still enormous — SMS is still a $100 billion / year industry globally — and WhatsApp is the company in the best position to seize that opportunity. If WhatsApp had abandoned its goal to create a platform for games, or jump on the photo-sharing app bandwagon, it might not have been in the position it is in today.

Betting nearly a tenth of its market cap on a messaging app is a big risk for Facebook, but at least it bet on the only app that’s more social than Facebook itself. "WhatsApp is the only app we’ve ever seen with higher engagement than Facebook itself," Zuckerberg said on a conference call today. Perhaps this is the only reason Facebook acquired WhatsApp. Or perhaps it’s a sign of something bigger taking place, a diversification of Facebook as a company. But its ideals are still true to Zuckerberg’s stated mission, and the scope and ambition of what he means by "connecting the world’s people" has been fully revealed. However way the world’s people choose to connect next, you can bet Zuckerberg’s going to be standing not far off, wearing a grin and holding an open wallet.

Remember when HTC's Cher Wang said that her company solved the smartwatch battery life conundrum? Rumor has it the answer was Mirasol. According to Bloomberg sources, the company is preparing to share its smartwatch prototype with carriers at Mobile World Congress next week, a wearable that's said to be based on Qualcomm's Toq. If the would-be watch matches that model blow for blow, it'll have a Mirasol touchscreen, wireless charging capabilities and the ability to handle calls, music, calendar data and limited text messaging (read only) directly from the device. Bloomberg's leaker also said that the firm is also working on a second watch that leverages the power of Google Now as well as an "electronic bracelet that plays music." Variety may be the spice of a good product portfolio, but we'll admit, we're not sure what to make of that last item.

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Source: Bloomberg

Standing confidently at a podium, President Garrett Walker practices a rousing State of the Union speech before asking rather meekly if “the frostbite bit" is too much. Meanwhile, opposite him in the room, newly-minted Vice President Francis "Frank" Underwood sketches the silhouette of an excessively well-endowed bull. "There are two types of vice presidents,” Underwood says to the camera as he presents his art, “doormats and matadors. Which do you think I intend to be?"

Spoiler alert:...

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Portrait videos are a touchy subject. As the logic goes, our eyes are side by side, not stacked on top of one another, making tall and skinny videos something subconsciously unsettling. In a very popular YouTube video two years ago, puppet comedy group Glove and Boots went so far as to call anything shot vertically "crap," while referring to frequent portrait shooters as sufferers of "vertical video syndrome."

But in Europe, a group of filmmakers have rejected that notion, and are using the...

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We've seen some pretty amazing concept cars come from Rinspeed in the past, but this one has to be one of our favorites. On display at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show early next month, the XchangE turns the Tesla Model S into a "living room on wheels." The autonomous vehicle will not only drive itself, but is equipped with a 32-inch 4k monitor and reclining seats to make you feel like you're cruising around in a private jet rather than a four-door sedan.

The intense luxury doesn't stop at the television. A built-in espresso machine keeps you powered up for the ride, and If you're traveling for work rather than play, the vehicle's "Business-to-Car" platform ensures you not only have access to all the web services you need, but are surfing safely. Perhaps the most absurd addition to the vehicle is "the world's arguably most expensive watch winder," a $44k Patravi TravelTec wristwatch encased in a transparent globe above the car's steering column. When the car is stationary, the globe uses the Tesla's electric engine to wind the stationary watch. It's all just a concept now, but it's one we can't wait to hit the streets in.

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Via: Inhabitat

Source: Rinspeed

The rise of Bitcoin has lead many to be confused by the digital currency and why it's preferable to cash. In response, Ledra Capital has published a tongue-in-cheek piece outlining what might happen if the reverse was true — cash is introduced into a world that uses digital currency. Taking the form of a fictional news report, the piece outlines some of cash's many failings: it's anonymous, easily lost or destroyed, is geographically limited, and it can even spread disease.

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"I can't think of any reason that a law-abiding individual would want to use cash."

It includes expert quotes saying things like "it is the perfect payment mechanism for criminals, drug cartels, terrorists, prostitution rings and money launderers" and "I can't think of any reason that a law-abiding individual would want to use cash." Ultimately, it concludes that "it would be hard to recommend that the average consumer or merchant becomes involved in what is still today a very buggy system, filled with risk, inconvenience, high transaction costs, and possible disease transmission."

Harmonix is best known for rhythm-focused series like Rock Band and Dance Central, but its next release is quite a bit different — a multiplayer first-person shooter. Called Chroma, the sci-fi PC game has you squaring off against opponents like in any other multiplayer FPS, but the key difference is its focus on music. Weapons will emit musical tones when they fire, and the developer says that both combat and movement are tied to the game's soundtrack.

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"It's a very different headspace than most shooters."

"It's a very different headspace than most shooters," Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos told Polygon, "and on some level much more about creation than destruction." Levels will change at important musical moments, and you'll be able to choose your weapons based on sounds. Just how everything will work is still in flux, however — Chroma is still in an early alpha state, with much of the design not yet finalized. You will be able to check out its musical warfare this year, though, as the free-to-play Chroma is slated to launch on Steam some time in 2014.

After the most recent NPD figures showed strong US sales for the PlayStation 4 in January, Sony has provided an update on the console's worldwide performance since it launched in November. Over 5.3 million PS4 systems have been sold through around the world as of February 8th, ahead of its release this Saturday in Sony's home territory of Japan. The company had previously forecast sales of five million units in the financial year ending March 2014.

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PS4 selling over four times faster than Wii U

The last sales figures released by Microsoft indicated that 3.9 million Xbox One consoles had been shipped to retail channels worldwide as of January 23rd. Sony managed to sell "nearly double" the number of systems last month in the US, Microsoft's traditional stronghold.

Nintendo, meanwhile, has sold 5.86 million Wii U consoles over a year since its release date, meaning Sony's system is moving units at more than four times the pace. While the Japanese PS4 launch should give Sony a further sales boost, March 11th sees the release of Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall on Xbox One, perhaps the most anticipated next-generation title to date.

When boats are launched for the first time, it's customary to smash a bottle of champagne across the bow. But for industrial-robot maker Kuka, its new factory in southwestern Shanghai is being celebrated with a battle between man and machine. On March 11th, the company's squaring off one of its Agilus robots against German table tennis player Timo Boll. While Boll has storied career of victories against human players, he's playing against a model Kuka says is the fastest in the world. Typically those machines are used for product assembly, loading and unloading, and even painting, but in this case it will be trading volleys over a standard ping pong table.

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Man vs. machine, to celebrate a robot factory

This isn't the first time the very same robot has been used for something unusual. Late last year Kuka showed off the KR Agilus model replicating 3D artwork made by Israeli industrial designer Yaron Elyasi. The robot's orange color was also the inspiration for a line of stainless steel luxury watches made by Sevenfriday. Though neither one of those things involved ping pong, or replacing humans in sports.

No word yet on if and when a video of the match will be shown off, but you can see a preview of what to expect in the teaser trailer: