Yousef Alnafjan

While the offline models are less comprehensive than their online equivalents, they are perfect for translating in a pinch when you are traveling abroad with poor reception or without mobile data access.

So go out and explore another language or another culture without worrying about Internet access. There’s a whole world offline out there.

Posted by Minqi Jiang, Associate Product Manager

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Tagged: rappers , slang , microsoft word , Music FAILS Share on Facebook

If you're from the future and have your own 3D printer, you can customize your Ouya console with a 3D-printed case.

Ouya posted a 3D model for the console on Thingiverse, allowing 3D printer users to customize the box with whatever materials and colors they have, and print their very own. You could even try to edit the model to add features to the thing. The designs are "optimized" for the MakerBot Replicator 2, a device that really exists and that people can buy.

If you're at GDC this week, you can see the results of this art project for yourself. Meanwhile, Ouyas will begin shipping out to Kickstarter backers tomorrow.

You can totally 3D print your own Ouya case originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 27 Mar 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One thing you should have noticed in the today's trailer for Metal Gear Solid 5 is the supposed voice work of Kiefer Sutherland. Sutherland is most certainly not David Hayter, previous voice talent for Big Boss and Solid Snake since the series' humble beginnings on PlayStation, who's indicated he won't be reprising a starring role.

"Well look, at least I had a good run," Hayter tweeted today, likely after seeing the news himself. He also replied "nope" to another Twitter user, who inquired if Hayter was asked to reprise his roles as voice actor. Snake losing his voice is quite a phantom pain in itself, except for the whole Kiefer Sutherland part.

Update: To clarify, the supposed voice of Sutherland can be heard from the bandaged man that is guiding Snake in the trailer, not Snake himself. Presumably, another voice actor has replaced Hayter.

Update 2: Contrary to what Kojima said during the GDC panel today, Konami has confirmed with Joystiq that Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain are indeed separate games.

David Hayter says he wasn't asked to voice Metal Gear Solid 5 [update 2: separate games] originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Update: A press release confirms Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Update 2: Contrary to what Kojima said during the GDC panel today, Konami has confirmed with Joystiq that Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain are indeed separate games from Metal Gear Solid V.

As many suspected, The Phantom Pain is in fact a new Metal Gear game. It is Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, Kojima Productions head Hideo Kojima revealed during a GDC panel today. Kojima told the audience that Metal Gear Solid 5 is made up of both Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, and the influences of both could clearly be seen in the trailer.

The game stars a Snake who has been in a coma for 9 years. Its opening section will be familiar to anyone who's seen the Phantom Pain trailer, as Snake wakes up in a hospital and must escape an unknown enemy. He's accompanied by a man with a bandaged face and a voice that sounds very much like Kiefer Sutherland. Naturally, it's pretty hard for Snake to stand up after 9 years of lying down, so most of his escape (and the GDC demonstration) is spent crawling on the floor.

Hallucinations seem to play a role in the game, as Snake spies a woman with a resemblance to Psycho Mantis mystically floating up an empty elevator shaft. The hallway is then engulfed in flame, and Snake and his new friend are accosted by a huge, intimidating man ... who soon spontaneously combusts and disappears. Whether these scenes are real or merely hallucination isn't quite clear.

The hospital section serves as a tutorial, after which the game proper begins. Today's demonstration was running on PC.

The Phantom Pain was revealed during the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards, with many immediately speculating that it was related to Metal Gear.

Continue reading The Phantom Pain is Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain [update 2: separate games]

The Phantom Pain is Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain [update 2: separate games] originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Lifehacker, More »

It was only two days ago that ZeroDesktop launched MiiPC, a $99 kid-safe Android PC, and the Kickstarter campaign's already surpassed its $50,000 goal. To jog your memory, MiiPC is an attractive 4.7 x 4.7 x 3.1-inch desktop computer running Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). It's powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Marvell New Armada SoC with 1GB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. The system features an SD card slot in front, a power button on top and a full array of ports in the back, including two USB 2.0, HDMI, analog audio I/O, Ethernet and power.

What makes this device so unique is the software, which is optimized for use with a large screen (up to 1080p), keyboard and mouse. It provides a desktop-class web browsing experience with Flash and runs standard Android apps. MiiPC supports multiple user accounts which can be controlled and monitored remotely in real-time using a companion app for iOS and Android. The idea is for parents to create a safe online environment for their kids by managing their access to the web and to apps. We got the chance to play with a prototype MiiPC yesterday -- read our impressions and watch out hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: ZeroDesktop MiiPC hands-on

Gallery: ZeroDesktop MiiPC screenshots

Gallery: ZeroDesktop MiiPC companion app

Filed under: Desktops

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Dragon’s Crown screens are blowing my mind

The last few minutes have just been a stream of semi-angry IMs to Eric about how crazy great these screens look.

• “this art my god”
• “how is this a screenshot”
• “THIS GAME”

This game looks better every time I see it.

PREORDER Dragon's Crown (PS Vita & PS3), Dragon's Crown (PS Vita import & PS3 import), upcoming games

Every accountant I know swears by the powers of Excel. But not every accountant can harness that power as beautifully as Cary Walkin, an accountant from Canada. Walkin made a full RPG game inside Excel. As in you can use Excel to actually have fun.

The game, called Arena.Xlsm, can be downloaded here. It works with Excel 2007 and 2010 but hasn't been tested with Excel 2013 (it should work though). Unfortunately, like all things wonderful about Excel, Arena.Xlsm won't work on the Mac version of Excel. Gameplay includes:

• Random enemies: Over 2000 possible enemies with different AI abilities.
• Random items: 39 item modifiers result in over 1000 possible item combinations and attributes.
• An interesting story with 4 different endings depending on how the player has played the game.
  8 boss encounters, each with their own tactics.
• 4 pre-programmed arenas followed by procedurally generated arenas. Each play-through has its own challenges.
• 31 Spells. There are many different strategies for success.
• 15 Unique items. Unique items have special properties and can only drop from specific enemies.
• 36 Achievements.
• This is all in a Microsoft Excel workbook.

• It's like someone took the games we all used to play on TI-83s to a whole 'nother level. And maybe gives the rest of us a reason to use Excel! [Cary Walkin via BoingBoing]

Since we first got a look at the Wii U, one of our biggest complaints has been its unbelievably laggy user interface. Thankfully, a partial fix is on the way next month, and now we’re getting a look at what kind of a difference it’s going to make. In a video (below) posted to Nintendo’s YouTube account you can see how much faster it will be to return to the main Wii U menu from a game in progress post-update compared to a Wii U running the current software. Granted, it’s a huge improvement over the glacial pace of the existing software, but it’s still not as zippy as we would hope from a next-generation console. Thankfully, a second update is planned that ought to speed up launching software, but it won't be coming until summer.

Alaa Wardi (Twitter, instagram) is a Saudi singer whose a capella harmonies and one-man viral videos have become big hits throughout the mideast. His latest, "Risala Ela...", is out today in video and as a DRM-free pay-what-you-want download.

Lyrics:

I've been waiting for years, to find someone new, that would fill my hole, and make me forget you.
I promised you I'd leave, And sing from far away, but how can I walk away and forget, you are my source of inspiration.
Ya Bay, Ya Bay...
They told me time passes, and heals all wounds, but my only cure is you, from now till I die.
People tell me to forget, that it wasn't meant to be, but If you give me a chance, I've changed a lot.
Ya Bay Ya Bay...

More of his recent work below. I love this guy.

(Longtime Boing Boing reader Alexander Ringis recently turned me on to him—thanks, Alex!)

megamasterx:

HAHAHAH

Genuine out-loud chuckles.

“Apart from a scene showing a zombie eating a guy, what other scene is in all zombie movies? A scene in which a main character confronts a loved one turned zombie. The rest of the previous zombie attacks are merely prelude to that one, specific, pivotal interaction. Quick, bolt the door, ambivalence is coming. Movies give the loved-one zombie a momentary flash of the old self— is it remembering, is it a trap, or are you seeing what you want to see? This is the most important scene and how the living negotiate that bit of mourning determines if they’ll be able to put the dead to rest, or are going to have be tied to them forever. In The Walking Dead, there isn’t just one such scene; the whole show is those scenes.”

- The Last Psychiatrist: The Walking Dead: Not About Zombies

For those that can swing a Chromebook Pixel in the first place, the LTE model may be the wisest choice when it promises always-on data for a constantly connected machine. Anyone who can justify the $1,449 outlay will be happy to know that Google has quietly narrowed down the launch window: early orders should now ship by April 8th. Shoppers will still have to be Americans willing to latch on to Verizon's network for LTE, but the date leaves a mere two weeks before the release of what's unquestionably the highest-end (and priciest) Chrome OS system yet. Any takers?

Filed under: Laptops, Google

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Via: Jeff Jarvis (Twitter)

Source: Google Play

Original Post from نادي الفتح الرياضي:

إسماعيل هنية رئيس الوزراء الفلسطيني متوشحاً شعار #الفتح   مع عضو مجلس إدارة النادي أ. مالك الموسى.

BGSZKHpCQAIooWw.jpg large.jpg

BioShock Infinite's included benchmarking tool is quite good.

clip2net.com/clip/m20788/1364277966-clip-60kb.jpg?nocache=1

Yoichi Wada is leaving his post as Square Enix president and representative director, Square Enix announced this morning. Wada, who became the company's president and CEO in December 2000, is to be replaced by former company director and CFO Yosuke Matsuda. According to Square Enix's announcement, the change is "subject to a resolution" at the company's annual shareholders meeting in June, and a board of directors meeting held afterwards.

The news coincides with Square Enix announcing further major revisions to its fiscal year forecasts, which the company attributes to its decision to implement major restructuring in the wake of "the rapidly changing environment of the game businesses." Square Enix expects the changes, which it noted as affecting development policy, organizational structure, and business models, to incur a total "extraordinary" loss of ¥10 billion, or around $106 million.

However, Square Enix says the primary reason for the company's lower-than-expected results is the "sluggish" sales performance of its major games in western territories. When Square Enix announced its nine-month fiscal year net loss of just over ¥5 billion, the company said then it hadn't recovered the losses from earlier in the year because of "the increasingly difficult condition of the worldwide console game market."

Today's forecast revisions show a dramatic turnaround for the company's yearly financials. For the fiscal year ending March 31, Square Enix is projecting now a net loss of ¥13 billion, or around $138 million, compared to initial forecasts of a net profit of ¥3.5 billion, around $37 million. The previous fiscal year, Square Enix posted a net profit of just over ¥6 billion.

Update: GamesBeat is reporting Square Enix sold a number of its free-to-play games to privately funded start-up Sleepy Giant, with sources "familiar with the matter" saying four unannounced games were included in the deal. Neither party has announced the deal, with a Square Enix representative telling GamesBeat it doesn't "comment on any details for external development deals."

Square Enix president Wada to step down, $106M 'restructuring' loss [update] originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 26 Mar 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it safe to lance?

Just a fun screenshot from Rune Factory 3 that popped up on Tumblr today, courtesy of CD-ROMantic. Oh, and a reminder that Rune Factory 4 is coming out July 19, hopefully with more jokes like this one.

BUY Rune Factory 4, upcoming releases

Well, the weekend has come and gone, and we just squeaked past $30,000 — no doubt thanks to the help of sites like Polygon, Kotaku, and Tiny Cartridge, who each gave us some helpful publicity. Thanks, dudes! If you happen to be connected to a video game site and would like to write about our Kickstarter, let us know — we’d be more than willing to give you a tasty quote and a shout-out of our own.

That said, you may have noticed we’ve already met our new theme song stretch goal (hooray!), and if what we want to happen actually happens, well, you’d best order some new socks because the ones on your feet will undoubtedly be knocked off. We’ll try to give you more information on this as soon as we can!

And, once again, we’ve expanded our reward tiers — so if you missed out on ordering a DVD or the illustrious combo pack, you’re in luck! We’ve also added a new tier which can net you an original, framed piece of video game fan art for a $250 donation. So far, we’ve enlisted Bill Mudron, Rusty Shackles, Nick Daniel, and K.C. Green – even our own Jeremy Parish will be lending his talents to this reward tier. And we’re currently in the process of finding other artists who’d like to contribute. We’ll be sure to let you know more on this as soon as we do.

We’ll also be working with the fine people at Fangamer to make sure our rewards are of the highest quality. They’ll also be contributing some amazing merch to reward tiers we hope to announce very soon. (Geez, don’t we sound like a broken record?)

In closing, we’re coming incredibly close to hitting our next stretch goal, which will give Retronauts the power to create video content — and we have some great ideas that will entertain and delight you. So please, spread the word! We’d definitely appreciate it. And just in case you’re not aware, here are all of our Internet haunts:

Twitter
Tumblr
Facebook

In this video uploaded by DAFNA kopelis on YouTube, a cat picks up a dog’s leash and walks it home with the help of some coaxing meows.

via Cineraria, Tastefully Offensive

Here's a little something to help you through the Mondays.

أعلنت وزارة التجارة ومحامي شركة آبل في السعودية في جريدة أم القرى بتاريخ ١٥ مارس  عن تسجيل علامة آبل التجارية في السعودية بأشكالها المختلفة كعلامة مسجلة لا يمكن إستخدامها تجارياً دون أخذ التصريح من الشركة.

هذا التسجيل يعطي إنطباعاً عن تغيرات جديدة قادمة لآبل في السعودية، وقد يكون أول المؤشرات الرسمية لإفتتاح مكتب لشركة آبل في المملكة كما ذكرنا سابقاً.

هذا الإعلان يأتي إمتداداً للعديد من التغييرات التي حصلت في الفترة الماضية كإفتتاح مكتب أبوظبي الممثل للشركة، وتغيرات الموزعين والوكلاء في السعودية والخليج بشكل عام.

الصورة عبر بندر النقيثان من تويتر

It doesn't star Ashton Kutcher, and it isn't written by Aaron Sorkin, but it might be more interesting than both: it's the Japanese manga adaptation of Steve Jobs' life. You could be forgiven for thinking that the juice has been squeezed out of this particular story, following 2011's official biography by Walter Isaacson and a brace of upcoming movies — but if ever there were a medium that can put a new spin on an old tale, a manga series would be it. Today's publication of Mari Yamazaki's Steve Jobs, then, is a somewhat notable event. The first volume is now available in the May 2013 issue of girls' comic anthology Kiss, oddly enough, and it's quite unlike anything I've read before.

---

Yamazaki has pulled off the artwork beautifully

The manga is actually an adaptation of Isaacson's biography, and credits it as the source material on the bottom of the first page. Told from Isaacson's perspective, it begins with Jobs repeatedly nagging the biographer to write his story — a conversation that persists over the first fifteen pages before a call from Jobs' wife Laurene Powell finally breaks Isaacson's resolve. The first thing you'll notice in these opening pages is that Yamazaki has pulled off the artwork beautifully; far from the spiky-haired caricatures that may come to mind when you think of manga, Jobs has been brought to life in a semi-realistic monochrome style that is never off-putting, but stays in the Japanese manga tradition.

Once Isaacson has been persuaded to write the biography, the manga jumps back to Jobs' early years. It's here where we start to see Yamazaki play to her perceived audience — Jobs is rendered as a cute, doe-eyed kid who worries about whether his adoptive parents love him. From then we see Jobs grow into the man who founded Apple with the realization that he is "special," a developed interest in engineering, and school pranks that establish a slightly bad-boy persona.

Context is important, here; "Steve Jobs" is appearing in the pages of Kiss alongside regular tales of high school love and drama, and that's the lens through which readers will view it. Jobs is as much a household name in Japan as anywhere else, but the manga already pushes its luck by starting with a fifteen-page deliberation on the writing of its protagonist's biography — however, the story quickly turns into something more reader-friendly.

From candy to LSD in two pages

Once Jobs is of college age, Yamazaki swiftly transforms him into the type of character any schoolgirl reader could fall in love with. In one memorable two-page spread, Jobs goes from accepting a bribe of $5 and candy from his influential teacher Imogene Hill, to replying "Sure!" when encouraged to try LSD by a long-haired peer in college corridors. Yamazaki plays on Jobs' rebellious side, including an incident where he accidentally leaves a gigantic bag of marijuana in his car at the age of 15. Jobs' father Paul discovers it, but the argument isn't resolved on page — in the next panel, we see Jobs laying down and smoking in a field, thinking to himself "I'm special, so I'm a free person." In a country where drug use is still genuinely counter-culture in most circles, it seems the archetype of the misunderstood genius works just as well.

The manga's final panel shows Jobs' first meeting with a shaggy-haired, bearded Steve Wozniak, with the Isaacson narration elaborating "And that was how the two Steves met;" no further explanation of the Apple co-founder's identity is given. And maybe that's okay — from this first volume, Steve Jobs sets out to tell the tale of the mercurial genius' life in broad, emotionally charged strokes. The unusual mix of theme and tone, mixed with some excellent art, is what'll make me pick up the next volume when it's released next month.

Less than two years after the CyanogenMod founder was scooped up by Samsung to improve Android's veneer, Steve Kondik has decided to depart for greener pastures. In a Google Plus posting, the software engineer shared his mostly positive impressions for Samsung's Galaxy S 4, casually mentioning that he'd departed the Korean behemoth's embrace. The one thing that came in for a bashing was TouchWiz's updated UI, that he says "feels like it has been sent back a few years in time to the Froyo days." Responding to a comment, Mr. Kondik said that nothing in particular had prompted his departure beyond a desire to "do something new," but given the man's pedigree, we can only assume it'll be somehow related to the little green droid that could.

[Image credit: Erica Joy]

Filed under: Mobile, Samsung

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Via: Android Police

Source: Steve Kondik (Google Plus)

After losing their first match of the final round of World Cup qualifying to Honduras, the U.S. needs a win against Costa Rica to improve morale and banish grumblings of discontent within the team. That task was complicated a bit by the weather conditions in Colorado though, as a snowstorm hit before the match that covered the pitch in white powder.

The storm prompted former US national teamers Alexi Lalas and Kasey Keller to don ridiculous hats as they worked ESPN's pre-game show from behind a snow covered desk at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Bob Ley, however, was clearly far more hardcore.

According to Yahoo!'s own Graham Watson, "All the regular seats are covered in snow and water" and the wind is swirling, which requires CONCACAF to break out the yellow balls. Despite all this, the players are apparently making the most of the conditions and US winger Brek Shea decided to use the snowy pitch to send a special message...

Brek Shea used his foot to write this in the snow during warm-ups: twitter.com/BrianStraus/st…

— Brian Straus (@BrianStraus) March 23, 2013

Soccer! twitter.com/Yahoo_Graham/s… — Graham Watson (@Yahoo_Graham) March 23, 2013

UPDATE: It only took new captain Clint Dempsey 16 minutes to score for the US and as the snow continues to fall. With the US in control of the match (or as much as possible under such conditions) and maintaining their 1-0 lead, the match officials tried to abandon the game in the 55th minute, but players from both sides convinced them that they could continue. It seems everyone's having too much fun in the snow to stop. Here's video of Dempsey's goal...

UPDATE II: The grounds crew put in a bit of extra work and in the end, the US held on to win 1-0 in the middle of the snow drift. With those three points, the US now jump to second in the table behind Honduras and ahead of Mexico and Panama. A few more games in the snow and qualification could be a breeze.

Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
• Florida Gulf Coast hands Georgetown the biggest upset of the tournament
• Brian Urlacher was given no choice but to leave Bears
• MLB sues Biogensis clinic
• New Mexico beat writer goes on rant, quits in column

Android: Google Keep is a new app that seeks to save whatever you're currently thinking about so you don't have to remember. Although not the first app to try and solve this problem, Google's integrated Keep directly into Drive to make it easier to use.

Keep organizes everything in a colorful tile interface. Each one shows you a preview of each note, whether it's a photo, a to-do list, a single task, a saved webpage or whatever else. You can organize each to re-prioritize as needed, and you can add new notes with your voice. A Keep widget on your home screen can make adding notes really simple and straightforward. You can even add new items through the web via Google Drive (indirectly at the moment, but directly in the coming weeks). It's kind of like their version of Springpad (or a combination of Evernote and Pinterist).

Keep is available now for free on the Play Store, so go check it out.

Google Keep (Free) | Google Play Store via Google Official Blog