Yousef Alnafjan

It’s been years since the original 3DS launched. There’s an updated version with better 3D , improved controls, and of course, a wealth of excellent games to play. There’s also a 2DS XL that can do everything its 3D brother can do, aside from 3D.

Below, find our 12 favorite games for the 3DS and 2DS. All of these games will play on the original 3DS, the 2DS, and the New 3DS.

In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, you’ll decorate and expand a house, fish and catch bugs, and assume a number of mayoral duties—all while you make a bunch of new, quirky friends. Who knew that a sleepy town of anthropomorphic animals could be so fulfilling?

A Good Match For: Self-directed gamers with a strong, child-like sense of wonder and a penchant for creativity. You’re given a house and a whole town to play with, along with charming villagers. What will you do with it all, how will your personality shine?

Not a Good Match For: Those who want something fast-paced. This isn’t a game you’ll want to run in, and most of the exciting things tend to happen “tomorrow.” Anything worthwhile requires patience in this game.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Study our tips for the game.

Purchase from: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | GameStop

Fire Emblem: Awakening revolves around two things: Complex tactical combat and sweet, sweet romance. It’s a turn-based tactical role-playing game like Final Fantasy Tactics or Devil Survivor, but with a twist: As your combatants fight alongside one another, they can fall in love. If you keep them paired up, they’ll boost one another’s stats, and they can even get married and have kids together. Without all the love and marriage, Fire Emblem: Awakening would be an immaculately designed, rewarding, and difficult strategy game. With all the love and marriage, it becomes one of the best strategy games on any system, and certainly one of the best games on the 3DS.

A Good Match For: Strategy fans, people who like games where loss carries real consequences, romantics, micromanagers, matchmakers.

Not a Good Match For: Those who want-paced action, uncomplicated rules, unchallenging games, or main characters who have feet.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Study our tips for the game.

Purchase from: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | GameStop

The latest Phoenix Wright game is the best one yet, and that’s saying something, given the generally high quality of Capcom’s long-running series of comical lawyer-simulators. One part detective game and one part visual novel, Dual Destinies tells the tale of defense attorney Phoenix Wright and his can-do subordinates Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes as they embark upon zany adventures in the name of justice. The new game is a great entry point for the series, as knowledge of past games isn’t required, though there are still plenty of fun callbacks for longtime fans. Phoenix’s world may be trapped in a dark age of the law, but Dual Destinies is a 3DS bright spot.

A Good Match For: Wannabe detectives, anime fans, people who like jokes, hawk-enthusiasts.

Not a Good Match For: Those who want a lot of action—Phoenix Wright games involve a lot of reading, and the new one is no different.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Purchase From: Available digitally from the Nintendo eShop.

There hasn’t been an action role-playing game quite like The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds in more than 20 years. What began as a remake of the Super Nintendo classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is now one of the most delightfully charming adventures available on any game platform. The perfect melding of the old and new into something better than the sum of its parts.

A Good Match For: Old-school role-playing fans looking to recapture the magic of the 2D era without sacrificing fidelity — and just about everyone else.

Not a Good Match For: Sub-humans. People allergic to joy.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Purchase From: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | Gamestop

Sequels don’t all have to be bad. Take Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. It’s a follow-up to sequel to the 2001 GameCube game that will make players chuckle, as Mario’s skinnier brother suck sucks up ghosts using a souped-up vacuum. More than that, though, it’s a new installment that successfully adds multiplayer and new mechanics—love that Dark Light!—in ways that don’t ruin an already-fun experience.

A Good Match For: Sidekick lovers. Sure, he’s a big ol’ fraidy-cat in this game but Luigi gets to amble through an exceedingly clever set of designs in Dark Moon. Whether it’s things like pulling away curtains to reveal coins and secret passages or stunning a handful of ghosts to suck them up all at once, Luigi feels resourceful in a way that’s not possible when he’s playing second fiddle to Mario.

Not a Good Match For: Those who want to leave previously explored environments behind. This Luigi’s Mansion makes you backtrack and revisit various levels a lot, without offering up compelling reasons for doing so.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Purchase from: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | GameStop | Nintendo eShop

At long last, a (sort of) new Metroid game! Metroid: Samus Returns is a remake of the 1991 Game Boy game Metroid II: Return of Samus, and it’s a worthy remake at that. It’s still got that lonely feeling of exploration, those dense and secret-filled alien caves, and that killer soundtrack. The game sticks to the unusual concept of the Game Boy game, too, but with some new tricks that encourage a more active playsyle and make it harder to get stuck. Samus Returns is a good Metroid game, and a great way to revisit a pivotal story moment for the series.

A Good Match For: People who like exploring and discovering secrets, people who hate Metroids.

Not A Good Match For: People who hate backtracking, people who love Metroids and would never want to see one harmed.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | Gamestop

The Mario Kart formula wasn’t broken so you can’t say that Nintendo needed to fix it. What they did need to do, though, for the franchise’s 3DS debut was find a way to add new elements that would tap into the device’s key features. Hence, the addition of glider wings, aerial sections, submersible karts and underwater detours. You can steer using the gyroscope while airborne and the will get the benefit of a nice 3D pop when you’re soaring or submerged. Just goes to show that your wheels don’t have to be in the ground for a Mario Kart to still be great.

A Good Match for: Bumper car addicts. The wild unpredictability of Mario Kart races are what make them so fun. Just like the theme park staple, there’s only a loose connection to these vehicles and actual real-world automobiles. Until Toyota includes a forcefield as a standard option, that is.

Not a Good Match For: Those who want customization choice. While the ability to swap out bodies and add on details is a new one in MK7, new parts get doled out to you automatically.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Purchase from: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | GameStop

Could the sixth Professor Layton game really be the best one? It’s at least the best one on the 3DS, trumping the already-impressive Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask as it caps off the Layton series’ prequel trilogy. (In terms of timeline placement, think Star Wars… this game is the Revenge of the Sith, but just way better).

Professor Layton games present a mix of exploration-based, story-heavy adventuring mixed with lots and lots of brain teasers and other puzzles to solve. In this game, which you can enjoy with no prior knowledge of the others, Layton and friends are trying to unlock the power of an ancient civilization and are doing so in a game that actually plays out as a series of short adventures nestled within one grand globe-spanning episode. The game is more open-world than its predecesors—not quite Grand Theft Layton, but nevertheless set in a rich world full of colorful characters with lots of things to do and more player choice regarding in which order you’ll do them.

A Good Match For: People who like puzzles and thinking—and who want a game that unlocks new puzzles every day for a year following its release date.

Not a Good Match For: Fans of the earlier Laytons on the Nintendo DS who want a swift-playing 12-hour adventure with minimal chatter. There’s a lot of story in this one and at least double the play time.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Purchase From: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | Gamestop

For years, Majora’s Mask was the “cool” Zelda game, the one the hip kids all said was their favorite. Now it’s been re-released on 3DS, and we can all play it and see… oh, hey, the hip kids were totally right, this game is amazing. It’s not much like any other Zelda game, but that’s a good thing. Don’t let the time constraint or the freaky moon stress you out. It’ll all be fine…

A Good Match For: Anyone who didn’t play it the first time around, anyone who did play it the first time around.

Not A Good Match For: The easily stressed, those who hate having a time constraint, anyone who didn’t like it the first time around.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Study our tips for playing the game.

Purchase From: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | Gamestop

BoxBoxBoy knocks its excellent predecessor BoxBoy off this list by doing something very simple: adding another box. It has the same sublime puzzling as its predecessor but with more complex mechanics and some fresh ideas. (Honestly, if you like this game you should also play the first one. Consider this entry a BoxBoy omnibus.) Like the first game BoxBoxBoy starts simply, asks little of you and then, soon enough, has taught you moves that would have seemed like wizardry mere minutes before. It feels a lot like playing Portal, and yeah, we know that’s a bold statement.

A Good Match For: People who like brain-tickling games, people who like solving puzzles, fans of boxes.

Not A Good Match For: People who hate boxes, people who need their games to be in color.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Purchase From: Available digitally from the Nintendo eShop.

For 20 years now, Pokémon games have presented fantasies where people collect, battle, and grow alongside powerful monsters. In the latest tropical-themed iteration, Pokémon invites you to leave your worries behind and grab yourself a lei. Familiar monsters now have cooler Alolan variants, and surprisingly fresh Island Trial challenges have replaced tired, old gyms. But what really sets Sun and Moon apart is the love and care the developers have put into depicting what it’s like to actually own a Pokémon. In Sun and Moon, what’ old is new again. The new Ultra Sun and Moon expands on and enhances the original game significantly, with new moves, better customization, more quests, and more Pokémon.

A Good Match For: People who love pets, collecting, and charming stories.

Not a Good Match For: Still not really the game for Jason Schreier, aka those looking for a mature, nuanced story.

Read our review, and about the new stuff in the Ultra version.

Watch it in action.

Study our tips for the game.

Purchase From: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | Gamestop

Of course, it’s a Super Mario game that validates the decision to base Nintendo’s newest hardware around glasses-free stereoscopic 3D. Even with the gameplay as familiar as always, the mid-air blocks and moving hazards seem more dreamlike and surreal than ever, floating somewhere between the device and your brain.

A Good Match For: Folks who need a little bit of help. 3D Land riffs on the play-assisting Guide features that Nintendo’s been putting in games for the last year or so with the Super Tanooki Suit, which makes you nigh-invulnerable

Not a Good Match For: Those who want the rug to stay right where it is. If Super Mario 3D Land’s rug is warm nostalgia, then it gets ripped out from you once you finish it the first time. A whole new level of challenge opens up for subsequent playthroughs and there’s nothing warm about it.

Read our review.

Watch it in action.

Purchase from: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | GameStop

How has this list changed? Read back through our update history:

Update 8/27/18: No changes.

Update 12/01/2017: We’ve added Pokémon Ultra Sun and Moon in the place of the original Sun and Moon.

Update 10/04/2017: We’ve added Metroid: Samus Returns in place of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

Update 2/14/2017: Pokémon Sun and Moon makes an overdue debut on this list, bumping off its predecessor Pokémon X & Y.

Update 10/6/2016: BoxBoxBoy replaces Boxboy. It will likely stay on the list until it is usurped next year by BoxBoxBoxBoy.

Update 8/12/2015: List mainstay Pushmo has been edged out by the upstart BoxBoy.

Update 3/2/2015: Mario & Luigi Dream Team and Bravely Default step aside to make room for The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

Update 11/26/2014: The big fall update is... there is no update. All 12 games on this list have held strong in the face of some worthy challengers. Good show, games.

Update 4/02/2014 : We’ve made a Layton swap, subbing Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy for last year’s Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask.

Update 2/21/14 : We’ve retired Project X Zone to make room for the fantastic JRPG Bravely Default.

Update 12/11/13 : We’ve launched a newly redesigned Bests and have taken the opportunity to swap out some old games with some new ones. Resident Evil Revelations, Kid Icarus Uprising and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time have made way for new additions Pokémon X & Y, Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

Update 08/28/13: Today saw the announcement of an all-new Nintendo handheld called the 2DS, which will play all the games in the 3DS catalog without the 3D. In honor of this news, we’ve given the Bests list for the 3DS an once-over. And what do you know, it sure seems like it’s time for one Mario game to take the place of another. Out you go, New Super Mario Bros 2. And hello to Mario & Luigi: Dream Team.

Update 07/05/13: Nintendo’s handheld continues to build an impressive library of titles. Two of the latest releases are so good we think they deserve a spot on this Bests list. Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Project X Zone jump onto the list, knocking off Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars and Ketzal’s Corridors.

Update 04/18/13: Why should Mario get all the fun? Somebody at Nintendo decided that he shouldn’t, because there’s a ton of enjoyment to be had in Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, which joins the 3DS Bests list. So, say a fond farewell to Cave Story 3D and shake hands with Nintendo’s other adventuring plumber.

Update 02/26/13: The call has sounded! And it says “Fire Emblem is pretty great!” Who are we to ignore the call? Of course, one game has to get the boot to make way for Intelligent Systems’ fine RPG. So, wave goodbye to Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition and say hello to an addictive new handheld experience.

Update 11/14/12: We’ve added the newest Professor Layton to our Bests list for Nintendo’s stereoscopic portable. Whether you’ve sporting the original 3DS or the newer, super-sized version, these games will make the most of the handheld.

Want more of the best games on each system? Check out our complete directory:

The Best PC Games • The Best PS4 Games • The Best Xbox One Games • The Best Nintendo Switch Games • The Best Wii U Games • The Best 3DS Games • The Best PS Vita Games • The Best Xbox 360 Games • The Best PS3 Games • The Best Wii Games • The Best iPhone Games • The Best iPad Games • The Best Android Games • The Best PSP Games • The Best Facebook Games • The Best DS Games • The Best Mac Games • The Best Browser Games • The Best PC Mods

Note: While some games on this list are download-only, most if not all of them can be purchased through the 3DS’ online store. If you buy any of these games through the retail links in this post, our parent company may get a small share of the sale through the retailers’ affiliates program.

A patent application filed in 2011 has revealed that Microsoft may plan on bringing achievements to TV watching — including use of its Kinect camera system to monitor the behavior of TV viewers. As an application, the patent doesn't provide any definitive evidence that Microsoft plans to bring TV achievements or viewer monitoring to the Xbox 360 or the Xbox One, but it's an example of where the company's thinking could be headed as it expands its focus on the living room television experience.

Microsoft has already used Kinect to let viewers interact with ads; the company unveiled its NUads program more than a year ago, which is designed to use the sensor to let users share ads on social networks or control other aspects of advertisements. Responding to privacy concerns over NUads, Microsoft told The Verge that it has "strict policies in place that prohibit the collection, storage, or use of Kinect data for the purpose of advertising."

In the application, Microsoft notes that "traditional television viewing experiences tend to be passive and do not frequently provide opportunities for a viewer to engage with programming." Microsoft presumably thinks that adding achievements for TV watching is a way to increase engagement — specifically mentioning the value this could provide for advertisers. "To increase interactive viewing and encourage a user to watch one or more particular items of video content, awards and achievements may be tied to those items of video content," Microsoft writes.

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Harnessing Kinect to detect how you watch TV isn't far-fetched

"Producers, distributors, and advertisers of the video content may set viewing goals and award a viewer who has reached the goals," the application notes. Those awards could include anything from digital gifts, like a score or some flair for your avatar, or promotional rewards from third-parties, like coupons or products.

Microsoft's examples include achievements or awards that could be offered for watching an entire television series from start to finish, for watching enough commercials during a program, or for "an action performable by the viewer." How Microsoft thinks it can achieve the last bit is the most interesting, because it would require monitoring TV watchers as they sit on the couch — something the company is poised to possibly implement with the Xbox One, which will ship with a Kinect camera.

We already know that the Kinect can be configured to monitor motion, depth, and audio data in its range — indeed, the peripheral will even listen to you while it's turned off — so harnessing its capabilities to detect how you watch TV isn't far-fetched. (As Microsoft demonstrated to us this month, the new Kinect will even be able to know when you're looking at or away from the screen.) The patent application states that the system "may be configured to track the viewing behaviors of one or more viewers," and "may then compile one or more user-specific reports of the viewing behaviors."

There's no guarantee Microsoft will actually implement the details of the patent, but it wouldn't come as a huge surprise. The company focused heavily on the Xbox One's television capabilities during its reveal event this month, with a heavy emphasis on voice and motion control integration with the TV watching experience. We've asked the company to comment on its plans, but so far Microsoft has been tight-lipped about the biggest mysteries surrounding its newest console.

Samsung is holding an event in June to unveil new mobile devices. The London show will focus on the company's Galaxy brand, which covers its Android phones and tablets, and the newer Ativ brand, which is the unified name for its Windows Phones, as well as its Windows 8 and Windows RT laptops, tablets, and hybrids. The event will be called "Samsung Premiere 2013," and will kick off at 2PM ET (7PM BST) on June 20th. As usual, Samsung will be livestreaming the entire thing on its YouTube channel.

The event will come just one week after Apple's yearly developer conference, WWDC, which usually contains important announcements about the company's upcoming software and hardware. It's also just days before Microsoft's annual developer conference, BUILD. June is going to be a big month for tech news.

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Whatever era you call it, post-PC or simply PC plus, the Mac vs. PC war has ignited once again today. In a fresh Windows 8 ad, Microsoft is directly attacking Apple's iPad on price, an approach it took during the early Vista days with low-priced laptops. It's also doing it in a way that parodies Apple's own commercial, complete with Siri's voice.

Microsoft choses to highlight Windows 8's side-by-side apps with Live Tiles, PowerPoint, and the $449 price of the 64GB ASUS' VivoTab Smart as the benefits of Windows 8. It casually ignores any strengths of the iPad, while assuming consumers will purchase a comparable 64GB model at $699. "Should we just play chopsticks," quips Microsoft's ad, with a sequence that mimics the iPad mini commercial. Microsoft recently created an Apple vs. Samsung wedding fight for its latest Windows Phone ad, and this latest commercial feels all too similar to the "I'm a PC" ads that Microsoft crafted to counter Apple's "Get a Mac" campaigns years ago.

We've seen some crazy Windows 8 campaigns in Asia recently, and Microsoft's original Windows 8 ads focused on a mix of people and apps. Direct competition and comparison with Apple's iPad is probably something that Windows 8 needs right now as consumers adapt to Microsoft's new operating system with its hooks to the legacy PC past. With over $1 billion set aside for its Windows 8 marketing blitz, this latest ad won't be the last we'll see from Microsoft. With the Windows 8.1 release due later this year, and a focus on 7- and 8-inch tablets, we might even see Microsoft go head-to-head with the iPad mini in its commercials. It's Mac vs. PC all over again, but this time Apple has the market share advantage in the tablet wars.

Twitter has announced that it is finally rolling out two-step authentication for accounts, a much-needed security feature that comes after several months of high-profile Twitter account hacks. This feature can be enabled in the Twitter settings menu for any account that has both a confirmed email address and a verified phone number. Once activated, you'll need to enter a six-digit code sent to your mobile phone via SMS after you sign in with your standard username and password.

Twitter says that applications that you've enabled using your Twitter login should be unaffected even after logging in with two-step authentication enabled. If you want to sign in on other devices or apps, Twitter says that you can visit the applications management page to generate a temporary password and log in.

This long-awaited security feature comes after a particularly bad period in which the Associated Press, The Guardian, and AFP had their Twitter accounts hacked. They were far from the only ones — Burger King and Jeep both were hacked as well, and we've seen plenty of ordinary users have problems with hacking as well. Twitter said it was working on two-step authentication last month, and we imagine that plenty of brands and users alike are glad to see this feature finally rolling out.

"After 25 billion cubelets have been destroyed, over 150 days... we have reached the end," Peter Molyneux says in a video that was first revealed to the winner of his experimental game, Curiosity. "How can anything be worth all that effort?"

Curiosity - what's inside the cube, a game about a secret inside a gigantic digital cube, has come to an end — and the secret is how the developer's next game, Godus, will operate. Appearing to speak from inside the center of the game's digital cube, Molyneux says that the winner of Curiosity will literally become the ruler of Godus, determining the game's rules and sharing in its success. "You will decide on how many people play a game," Molyneux says to the winner. "You will accrue riches from that game, from the start to finish of your reign. That, by any definition of the word, is life changing."

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"You will have fame, you will have fortune."

"You will have fame, you will have fortune, and you will have the power to introduce morals into a game," Molyneux says.

Curiosity was introduced last year with a simple premise: get a bunch of people together, have them deconstruct a giant cube, and compete to discover its mysterious core. The cube was made up of over 60 billion individual "cubelets" that players could tap on to destroy, revealing another cubelet underneath. Players had to remove every cubelet from each layer in order to reach the next and worked together across the iOS and Android platforms to smash blocks and race to the center. The game raised interesting questions, with the value and substance of the secret a complete mystery — leaving players wondering if the winner might be able to hide or sell the secret.

"I hope the world agrees that it's a worthy prize."

"This idea of allowing one human being to be the god of an entire game genre came to us many years ago," Molyneux says, "but only now, when we're all connected... that we have the power to do it. I hope the world agrees with me that it's a worthy prize."

Godus is clearly an experiment in its own right, and successfully completed Kickstarter funding back in December. The title is a follow-up to Molyneux's first "god game," Populous, back in 1989, and is set for release on PC, Mac, Android, and iOS this September.

Late on the night of September 9th, 2012, I was sitting at my kitchen table, going over notes for a piece I was writing about video game arcades. The next morning at 6AM I was bound for an Amtrak train which would take me to Pennsylvania, then to Baltimore, on a four-day trip of interviews for the piece. I was packed and ready for bed. I was exhausted, and as I brushed my teeth, thought of the next day’s work.

I’d like to be able to say that I went peacefully to bed, my iPhone tucked underneath my pillow as I was wont to do, but that isn’t what happened. What happened, instead, was a series of events involving my phone, a toilet, and a bowl of rice at 1AM. As I removed the SIM card from the phone and buried it in rice, still vibrating and refusing to power down, I didn’t know that my phone was definitely, totally, completely dead.

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I went to bed angry at myself for dropping my phone into a toilet

In horror, I quickly and hastily chose from among the dozens of tester phones I am routinely surrounded by. I passed up a Windows Phone as too foreign since I have so little experience with them, and settled on a European version of the HTC One S. It was bigger than my iPhone, which I didn’t like, but it was close enough in size that I thought I could manage for the unavoidable four days of hell I was surely in for. After all, traveling with a brand new phone when I’d need access to my emails, maps, music, and text messages with only minutes to make the switch was not ideal in any way. I went to bed afraid and confused, angry at myself for dropping my phone into a toilet. As I struggled to figure out how to set the alarm on this dreaded device and silence its notifications, I cursed it openly.

This was my introduction to Android.

I was suspicious of sizing up: I assumed that my days of multitasking one-handed were over, and they were. The One S wasn’t mine and it wasn’t an American phone, which seemed to cause it occasional data problems, but, other than that, I loved it. I got on that Amtrak train on September 10th groggy and acutely aware that I was going to be uncomfortable with my phone for the duration of the trip.

It’s now been so long since I touched an iPhone

But I was wrong. By the end of the trip I was emailing other Verge writers, effusively praising the glories of Android. Rdio worked beautifully! The notifications were so much better than the iPhone’s! My email, oh God, my email. I composed long, beautiful emails in dead spots where I had no service and it quietly sent them later on. The Twitter app seemed... better. It loaded faster, I thought. The battery life was better than my iPhone’s. I could effortlessly Gchat, 24 hours a day! Editing documents on my phone was something I could actually do realistically now. Oh, and the maps put the iPhone 4 to shame. There were other, smaller things, too, but I can’t remember them, because it’s now been so long since I touched an iPhone.

The most important thing was that the transition, which I’d sort of wanted but feared for several years, was seamless, mostly because I already used so much Google stuff. This should come as no surprise to switchers and long-time Android users, but it did to me. I’d messed around with Android phones over the years, but had lazily stuck with iPhones, consistently, since their debut back in 2007. There were plenty of things I didn’t like about the iPhone, but I’d never encountered anything I considered a deal breaker. Nothing but absolute force made me change. And when I did change, I never looked back.

The HTC One S

I didn’t even try to turn my iPhone back on when I got home four days later. In fact, I didn’t try to turn it on for about six months (it’s dead, as I suspected). And, while I’ve been actively window shopping for a phone to call my own since last September, I never once seriously considered buying a new iPhone.

A few months ago I started saying that while I loved Android, my ideal Android phone didn’t exist for AT&T. Let me describe it: it’s an Android phone, made by HTC, and it’s about the size of an iPhone. It has LTE. The size was really the one remaining annoyance, I guess. Though I’d adjusted just fine to the extra height and width of the One S, four months ago or so, I still had it in my head that the ideal phone for my smallish hands was roughly... iPhone sized.

Enter the Facebook phone, also known as the HTC First. No phone could fit my wish list more perfectly, and once I realized that the Facebook veneer was optional, I assumed this would be my next phone. Finally, I thought, someone woke up and made what I’ve been dreaming of! And it's HTC! HTC whose Beats by Dre (don’t laugh, they rule) I adore and now require, whose hardware is, in my opinion, the best in the industry, whose Sense skin I actually really like. Thank you, HTC!

Finally, I thought, someone woke up and made what I’ve been dreaming of

But I didn’t buy it. Instead, I decided to give the also-brand-new HTC One a spin. The One is HTC’s newest, beautifully-designed and built flagship Android phone. Sure, it has some weird home screen stuff on it which made me mad to look at, but it was easily disabled, leaving me with Sense, which as I said, I’m a fan of. The One was also quite large by my standards and I assumed that I wouldn’t want to buy one because of that.

Again I was wrong. Now, it’s not like this phone is giant, but it feels different, and it takes some getting used to. The first few days were uncomfortable, and I thought about going back to the One S until I found a phone I wanted to commit to. I briefly thought, "I should just get that Facebook phone," as I my thumb struggled mightily to reach the notification drop down one-handed. By the end of the first week, though, I had adjusted, and there were some things that I knew I wasn’t willing to budge on which would make it hard for me to abandon the One: first, the screen, which is large, is also incredibly beautiful; it’s beautifully built, and it seems to be indestructible, though I haven’t tried dropping it in a toilet... yet.

My hands needed to learn to stretch

The truth is that while I spent months imagining — and talking about — a phone which was exactly the HTC First, I was all the while adjusting to a different and better reality: that of a slightly larger phone. The smaller "iPhone-sized" dream was just a red herring.

It’s been almost 8 months, and one month ago, I finally relinquished that HTC One S, trading it in for the much larger, but very similar, HTC One.

Here’s the thing: I’m probably a pretty standard smartphone user, in that I find something I like and I stick with it. I don’t switch phones every few months or even every year. Change isn’t hard, it’s just not something I’m interested in. I go with what works, and I think that’s what most people should do. I’ve had five phones in around seven and a half years, counting the few months I used the HTC loaner. But it’s an inescapable reality that despite myself, I’ve once again adapted to the modern world. It turns out I was wrong: the phone didn’t need to fit my hands, my hands needed to learn to stretch.

After seven months of cooperative tapping, Peter Molyneux's Curiosity experiment is finally over: the cube is open. As Molyneux's studio, 22Cans, teased the game's last layer over Twitter, players descended upon it, chipping away the last million cubelets in a matter of minutes. "We have a winner," the game's creator wrote on the social network. "They should get a message now." 22Cans is currently trying to validate the player who tapped away the final block. After the final block disappeared, so did the cube, presumably to be opened privately by the winner. So, what was inside the box? We may never know -- but if you just happened to win, fill us in, would you?

Update: The winner asked Molyneux to share the winner video with the community. Their prize? Godhood, according to 22Cans. The winner will be featured as a deity in the company's next game, Goddess, and will able to "decide on the rules that the game is played by." The winner will get a share of the revenue generated by the title. Check out the full video for yourself after the break.

Filed under: Gaming, Mobile

Comments

Source: 22Cans

Adding to a spate of recent infiltrations of major media outlets, the Syrian Electronic Army appears to have compromised the Twitter account for the British Sky Broadcasting Group, spreading fears that the broadcaster's apps had been compromised in a hack. Sky denies that its Android apps — including Sky Go, Sky+, Sky Wi-Fi, and Sky News — have been compromised, but the apps in question are not currently available on the Google Play market.

According a source familiar with the matter, The Verge has learned that the Sky help team's Twitter account had been compromised, and that tweets asking customers to uninstall their apps were made by unauthorized actors. The broadcaster is said to be currently investigating the matter.

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UPDATE: All Sky's Android apps were hacked and replaced... please uninstall it, And we will let you know when it will be available

— Sky Help Team (@SkyHelpTeam) May 26, 2013

So far the Syrian Electronic Army's campaigns have focused on spreading jokes and propaganda rather than malware. The group, considered by researchers at HP as one of the most skilled hacking teams in the world, has taken responsibility for compromising social media accounts for CBS, NPR, the BBC, the Financial Times, and several other major news and media outlets. That's not to say the SEA's actions are harmless; in April, the group hacked the Associated Press' Twitter account, spreading a false claim that explosions at the White House had injured President Barack Obama.

Update: A Sky spokesperson has provided The Verge with the following statement: "Sky Android apps previously downloaded by Sky customers are unaffected and there is no need to remove them from an Android device."

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

The Japanese government has issued a formal statement denying knowledge of rumors that the prime minister's official residence is haunted by ghosts. Shinzo Abe is yet to move into the dwelling five months after he assumed power in December, prompting lawmakers to question the new prime minister's thinking.

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Government 'unaware' of ghosts

Since this is Abe's second spell in office after he resigned in 2007 amid illness and scandals, some have wondered if he had a bad experience last time he stayed at the residence. In a letter of inquiry, said the Asahi Shimbun, Ken Kagaya of the rival Democratic Party asked if ghosts are the reason Abe is yet to move in. The Cabinet issued a curt response saying that it was "unaware" of any such rumors.

Built in 1929, the residence was formerly used as the prime minister's office and has a bloody history. One prime minister was assassinated there in 1932, and four years later several officials were killed in an attempted military coup known in Japan as the February 26th Incident.

Rumors of hauntings have long dogged the residence, and the topic has come up a few times in Japanese political discourse. Former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, for example, told reporters in 2006 that although he wanted to see a ghost there, he never managed to. Abe's predecessor Yoshihiko Noda echoed Koizumi's experiences, telling the Wall Street Journal last year that "the parliament is much more scary."

It seems that Conan O’Brien has a problem with the fact that Superman has a beard in the latest Man of Steel trailer. Here is his hilarious video response (above,) to which I reply:

[Team Coco | Via The Mary Sue]

Will Smith and his son Jaden are in London to promote their new film (and hold a mini Fresh Prince reunion), and their trip happens to coincide with the city hosting this year's Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. So before the match, the Smiths stopped by the UEFA Champions Festival on the International Quarter to attempt a few penalty kicks against former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

After a big stretch, Will stepped up to the spot first. He took a smooth run up, a big kick and then weakly scuffed the ball to the top corner of the miniature penalty box. A penalty so bad that the cameraman couldn't even keep it in frame. The crowd laughed and Smith had Van der Sar get rid of the offending ball.

Jaden was up and he was able to score, in part because his father physically restrained Van der Sar. Sadly, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Alfonso Ribeiro (who was also there) did not take penalty kicks of their own.

 

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Arjen Robben gains redemption in lifting Bayern Munich to Champions League title
• Arjen Robben in tears after emotional victory
• Prince William nearly got his Champions League prediction right

Leap Motion revealed a new video today showing off the device's gesture control capabilities with Windows 7 and 8. When plugged into a Windows OS device, the Leap Motion will support full multitouch gestures out of the box, allowing users to click, drag, scroll, swipe and rotate screens entirely with gestural input. Leap Motion's previous demos focused on native apps and building out the device's Airspace app store, but the latest news confirms that the device will also be useful for OS-level navigation. The company will enter its recently announced beta testing round next month, before the product's final release on July 22nd.

If you can muster the energy to think back to January of 2012 (that is a very long time ago in the mobile world) then you should remember the exciting announcement that Capcom was remastering and rereleasing the original Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney trilogy for iOS. The game was said to be coming "shortly," and while it did indeed launch the following month in Japan, here in America and elsewhere we waited, and waited, and waited some more with no game in sight.

Then the following August, Capcom stated that the game would finally be out in the fall. Again we waited and again Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy HD stood us up. This past April, Capcom again broke some news about the game but this time it wasn't anything good: for reasons unknown the game would be delayed even further with a tentative release for July of this year.

It's been a long and dramatic road for Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy HD, but things are finally looking up as over on the Capcom Unity blog the company surprised everybody and has announced that the game won't be delayed after all and instead will be showing up in the App Store next week on May 30th. Exciting!

Pricing for Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy HD is also rather nice. The game will be free to download and you'll be able to play the first two cases from the original game Ace Attorney, and if you like it you can unlock the whole original game for $5.99. The other two games in the trilogy, Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations, will be available for $6.99 apiece. Alternatively, you can just buy all three games in their entirety in one fell swoop for a price of $16.99.

Hold on to your briefs as we finally – barring some additional cataclysmic disaster – get our hands on Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy HD when it launches next week, and add the game to your TouchArcade [Free] app Watch List to get alerts when more news hits.

[Capcom-Unity via Joystiq]

Dubai's Burj Khalifa may have its status of "world's tallest building" usurped at the end of the year by a rival yet to break ground. BSC is set to begin construction next month on the 2,750-foot (838-meter), 220-story high Sky City in Changsha, China, and thanks to a process where the building's components are mass-produced in factories ahead of time, the project is planned for completion by the end of the year. A total of 19,000 workers will prefabricate the parts in four months before commencing a three-month assembly process on site.

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The manufacturing process means that the building will also be easy to replicate in other areas; BSC told Treehugger that the project is intended to address the growing population of the world. Sky City will feature apartments, schools, recreational facilities, and more, reducing the per capita use of land and the need to move around. BSC claims a fivefold increase in energy efficiency over buildings built with conventional techniques.

Sky City's design is said to be earthquake-resistant to 9.0 magnitude, with "over 10 sessions of government assembled expert group reviews" verifying its overall safety. While cramming thousands of people into a colossal tower may not make for the most comfortable of abodes, BSC believes that it signals the way forward for Chinese cities, saying "Urbanization can not be materialized at the cost of land and environmental pollution."

When Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed released the first 3D-printed gun files online, he saw it as a logical combination of the First and Second Amendments: a way to make access to firearms as widespread as access to information. Anyone, the argument goes, could buy a 3D printer and put together their own pistol. But while the novelty and promise of 3D printing is real, homemade, unlicensed guns have a long history — and 3D printing doesn't guarantee that gunmaking will be easy.

Earlier today, Australia's New South Wales Police issued a warning on the Liberator pistol. After printing two guns on a $1,700 printer, Commissioner Andrew Scipione issued a warning that the tiny pistols "will kill at both ends," according to the Sydney Morning Herald. To drive home his point, Scipione released video of the guns misfiring, their barrels exploding in testing. Obviously, the police force wants to show the Liberator in the worst possible light: "It is an offence to make, an offence to possess and an offence to use," said Scipione. But enthusiasts have reported problems as well. "Joe," who made the Lulz Liberator pistol, had a barrel explode and experienced several misfires on his own gun. This doesn't mean the pistols are unviable, but it does drive home that making one still requires dedication and care.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mother Jones' Bryan Schatz attempts a much less futuristic task: making an unlicensed AK-47, one of the toughest and most ubiquitous guns in production. Unlike the Liberator, it's not potentially invisible to metal detectors, but buying an "untraceable" kit is legal, and amateurs can put them together with some help from more experienced gunsmiths and a workshop. While it's not as easy as printing a pistol, the results are far more impressive. "Seeing how easy this is, are build parties monitored?" asks Schatz. "Do hand-built weapons ever surface in crimes? Are the cops worried?"

Citing "sources familiar with the system," Polygon reports that the Xbox One will not require a fee to play used games. Instead, the console will perform regular online checks to verify disc authenticity and ownership.

Polygon's sources note that used game sales will continue, as Xbox One game ownership is determined by an on-disc encryption code. Once a game has been sold, traded, or otherwise activated by another console, access to the previous owner's installed content is revoked and transferred to its new owner.

Microsoft's Major Nelson addressed recent speculation regarding the upcoming console's ability to play used games in a statement released earlier today. "Xbox One is designed to support the trade in and resale of games," Major Nelson said. "Reports about our policies for trade in and resale are inaccurate and incomplete. We will disclose more information in the near future."

Polygon additionally reports that Xbox One voice chat and party chat will be powered by Skype, according to an unnamed Microsoft representative. Recent rumors suggest that Skype will also enable remote play sessions.

"Skype technologies are used in Xbox One which improves voice quality during multiplayer game sessions," Microsoft's representative wrote in a statement to Polygon. "Skype can also be used to call any of your Skype contacts for voice or video chat exclusively or while playing a game. Additionally, we have improved the Kinect hardware, from microphone configuration to dedicated audio processing, which contributes to providing a high-quality voice experience whether you are chatting in a game or through Skype."

Report: No fee to play used Xbox One games, Skype powers voice chat originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 24 May 2013 20:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's hard to say if there's a market yet for an all-in-one touchscreen PC that you can just pick up and carry around, but it seems that no Windows PC maker wants to be left out. Hot on the heels of Dell's XPS 18, Sony's VAIO Tap 20, and the Asus Transformer AIO, Hewlett-Packard has announced the Envy Rove 20. It's a tabletop PC with a 20-inch touchscreen, a four-hour battery, and a spring-loaded kickstand that folds flat into the frame.

We got to check out the Rove 20 briefly at an HP event in San Francisco late last month, and we're not yet sure what to think. The 10-point capacitive touchscreen felt responsive, and the kickstand has a very satisfying action (you squeeze a button around back to release the lever as you set it down) but the machine still felt fairly thick and heavy for a machine designed to be carried around. It's quite a bit thicker than the Dell XPS 18, for instance, and the 1600 x 900 IPS touchscreen also isn't as crisp, clear or pixel-dense as the one we saw demonstrated on that unit.

It does, however, have quite a bit going on inside. HP includes Intel's latest Haswell processors, next-gen 802.11ac Wi-Fi, three USB ports, a 1TB hybrid hard drive, Intel's Wireless Display tech for connecting to a TV, as well as Beats Audio processing for specially tuned speakers that didn't sound half-bad to me. HP tells us it's aiming for a competitive price somewhere below $1,000, including a mouse and keyboard, when the Rove 20 arrives this July.

Invented in 1987, the GIF (or Graphics Interchange Format) definitely isn't showing its age. Popular on social networks, community websites, and making appearances in acquisition announcements, the GIF has evolved from the spinning email animations of yesteryear into short and seamless pieces of online media. It was named word of the year in 2012, and yesterday, its creator — Steve Wilhite — accepted a lifetime achievement award at The Webby Awards.

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Wilhite created the GIF when he was working at CompuServe (an early US ISP). According to The New York Times, the format was originally intended to help the company display things like color weather maps, although the first image he created was an animated paper airplane. More than 10 years after his retirement, he remains proud of his creation but there's one thing he's been wanting to clarify — the pronunciation of the word. Fittingly, Wilhite used a GIF for his Webby acceptance speech, reminding us "it’s pronounced JIF, not GIF."

Samsung has announced the Galaxy S4 has reached 10 million global channel sales less than a month after its commercial launch. The figure sets a new record for Samsung's line of smartphones; the Galaxy S III took a full 50 days to reach the same figure, while the S II took five months. The Galaxy S4 officially launched on April 27th, and as of right now Samsung says it is selling four S4 smartphones every second. Along with the figure, Samsung also announced it would be adding several new colors to the lineup this summer, with names like "Purple Mirage" and "Brown Autumn."

The news doesn't come as a complete surprise. Just last week Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun estimated that the S4 would hit the 10 million mark this week. Of course, it's also important to look at what number Samsung is actually reporting here. According to the company, these are 10 million global channel sales — not direct sales to consumers — which puts the number on the "shipped" side of the sold vs. shipped debate that has plagued Samsung sales figures in the past. The figure is controversial because shipped phones could theoretically be waiting on store shelves without having been purchased by customers. In comparison, when Apple announced it sold 5 million units of the iPhone 5 in its first weekend, it was referring to actual sales to end users. Still, Samsung's figure is beyond impressive, and a sign that the trajectory of the Galaxy line is all but guaranteed at the moment — despite the efforts of competitors like HTC.

The Xbox One controller looks a lot like the Xbox 360 controller, but the new pad actually sports some subtle but relevant differences. Let's take a video tour, shall we?

The video above shows you the goods and also includes an attempt at a joke by me. Very regrettable, sorry. But...details! For those of you without the time or bandwidth to watch!

• A clickier d-pad
• Smaller control sticks with a tighter dead zone
• Control sticks that take less effort to move (phew!)
• A new "View" button in place of the back button... could pop up your inventory or map in an RPG or the leaderboards in an FPS
• A new "Menu" button in place of the forward button... would go to a game's menu.
• "Triple-shot" face buttons that make them look snazzier and require less force to use (phew again!)
• Vibration motors ("impulse triggers") in the triggers (This is awesome. Find out more from our friends at Gizmodo.)
• High-speed data port
• Less-obtrusive battery compartment running AA batteries.

The time has come. Hive is ready (mostly) for you, the awesome people, to use it. All the core features are in: subscribing to sites, reading those sites, sharing stories, commenting, liking, staring and xml import from google reader. The UI/UX is awesome and getting better. There are still some features I am adding/fixing and I will be doing that forever. Really excited to put this in your hands right away and get feedback.

Announcing the closed beta of HiveReader

**
web 3.0 viral rss social synergy network website.***

**not a real logo

*** not a real tagline

Wait a minute. I’m new here. What’s Hive?
Hive is the best place on the internet to read the internet. At it’s core it’s a reader app. You subscribe to your favorite sites and read them all in one simple interface. It’s also so much more.

What happened to Hivemined? Why the name switch?
This was a much discussed topic. After explaining to the 100th person. “no, HiveminEd, with an e. Like miners” Something had to change. We’ve all been calling it Hive anyway. So why not call a horse a horse and a reader a reader? And horse.com is taken. Hivemined has become the default user we all follow (ala tom) also the blog title is still hivemined.


How do the keys work?
When you get a key it has N number of uses. So you can bring your friends in and get down to business or just post it wherever you want. I suggest you hire a plane to skywrite it.


What does it look like on the inside?
Like this:


(yeah, I liked my own post)

Other Common Questions:

I need a key right now. I am dying with google reader shutting down.
Sign up on Hivereader.com. Bug me on twitter. Send me an email Francis[at]hivereader.com I will be slowly sending keys out for others to send to their friends. Starting with people who are alright with using something that might be a little messy or missing something.

Still working on the experience for people new to readers who don’t have an import file to start with. I hope to have a better ‘getting started’ flow setup soon.

OMGZ!!1! THIS IS THE WORST. ____ IS MISSING AND ____ IS BROKEN!!1 YOU SUCK!! I’M OUT, PEACE!
Pushing code and fixes nearly all day everyday. Keeping my eye on twitter, email, and bug reports. #hivebug

PS: You are amazing. Thanks for sticking around and helping build the best thing on the internet.

Again. Huge thanks to Tivix (especially Andy, Adam, Rex, Bret, Sumit and the rest of the Tivix team) for creating the opportunity to make the reader we all want and need (I hope it becomes everything you’ve ever dreamed of).