Award-winning game 140

Side-scrolling platformer 140 hinges gameplay around the soundtrack for a synaesthetic gaming experience.

The game is a spare time project by Jeppe Carlsen, developer at Playdead and creator of the puzzles for the critically acclaimedLimbo. It takes the form of a minimalist platformer with a colourful abstract art style (a world apart from Limbo) which demands rhythmic ability for success.

Study: morphing material alters transparency and roughness on command

A team of biomimicry engineers has used teardrops as inspiration for a material that morphs between states when stretched, altering its transparency and roughness.

The team from Harvard's Wyss Institute revealed the find in an issue of Nature Materials, demonstrating that a continuous liquid film infused within a nanoporous elastic substrate -- akin to tears that grouped together coat our eyes for multiple purposes -- alters properties when it is stretched or physically manipulated. Those manipulations cause the nanopores to become bigger or smaller, which causes the continuous liquid surface to change shape.
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Battle through the history of adventure games in Evoland

A new release from Shiro Games lets you explore, fight monsters and save the world all the way through gaming history.

Evoland opens on a monochrome screen, with only one dimension of movement available to you. You walk right, and open a chest, and it unlocks a second dimension. You walk up, onto another screen, and it unlocks sound FX. Then smooth scrolling.

Keep playing and you'll find a sword and monsters, then save points, then music, then 8-bit and, later, 16-bit colour. Then turn-based battles. Then another party member. As you continue, you get closer and closer to the present day.
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Vietnamese bridge is a giant fire-breathing dragon

The Vietnamese city of Da Nang has celebrated the 38th anniversary of its liberation during the Vietnam War by opening a new bridge in the shape of a giant dragon that breathes huge balls of fire.

Da Nang is Vietnam's fourth-largest city, an important port and now also home to the country's largest steel-span arch (166 metres) and also a dragon head. Because why not? The Dragon Bridge is modelled on the dragon of the Lý Dynastyaccording to VietnamNet, a creature known in Vietnamese folklore for flying to the sea and bringing good luck.
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Griffin's StudioConnect is a nifty dock for iPad musicians

If you're serious about wanting to make music on your iPad, Griffin's Studioconnect supplies almost everything an amateur musician could possibly need.

It packs a wide range of useful ports and sockets into its sturdy plastic body, which also serves as a stand to hold your iPad securely at a useful, stable angle in either portrait or landscape orientation, even if it's in a case. A dock connector hooks up the iPad to the device, and also charges it.

On the rear, there are MIDI-in and -out ports, a 1/4-inch jack for plugging in mono instruments like keyboards and guitars to record or sample, and a pair of phono output ports to send your audio signal to an amplifier and speakers. On the front is a 3.5mm headphone jack, a gain control for the 1/4-inch input jack, and a big ol' volume knob that controls the level of headphone output.
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Best budget Android phones: review roundup

High-spec, high-price smartphones might be what get us excited, but the real work is being done at the budget end of the Android market, with workhorse devices that make the daily business of organising our lives, entertaining us and keeping in touch seem easy and hassle-free. Top tier technology is steadily trickling down to the lower price points too, sometimes in less than a year, making this an increasingly competitive area, and harder than ever to tell the crackers from the squibs. Here are a few of the best budget Android devices that have come across our desk in the last few months.
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Legendary film critic Roger Ebert dead at 70

Roger Ebert -- the prolific film critic, author, and television personality who became a definitive voice in what movies were good and what movies weren't -- has passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was 70.
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Copyright holders target their takedown notices with takedown notices

Entertainment companies often send takedown notices to Google, asking them to remove links to material they claim copyright over. That's fine. But now those same companies have started sending takedown notices requesting that Google take down... the takedown notices. It's basically the legal version of Inception.
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Apple iPod touch review (5th gen, late-2012) (2)

It seems like a long time since demand for the iPod was overtaken by the iPhone, but there's still a place for what is largely the same device, sans phone and high price.

YPlan app launches to offer last-minute event seats to bored Londoners

YPlan is the latest in last-minute event discovery -- but can an app succeed by foregoing personalisation and tailored recommendations in favour of simplicity?

GameDock turns your iOS devices into a retro games console

With the Android-based Ouya unveiling earlier this week to massive fundraising success,

Apple releases OS X Mountain Lion on the Mac App Store for £13.99

Updated 13:45 25/07/2012: Mountain Lion is now available to download from the Mac App Store, here. It costs £13.99.

New iPhone, possible iPad mini, could launch sooner than expected

This year's iPhone refresh may come slightly earlier than last year's, but still within the general autumn timeframe. Not one, but two publications cited sources claiming the device could launch as early as mid-September, with a special Apple event happening earlier in the month.

Apple patents solar-powered Smart Cover with flexible display, keyboard

Apple has recently been granted a patent for a Smart Cover with an integrated flexible display, that could show messages and media controls when connected to an iPad.

Griffin's StudioConnect is a nifty dock for iPad musicians

If you're serious about wanting to make music on your iPad, Griffin's Studioconnect supplies almost everything an amateur musician could possibly need.

BBC iPlayer downloads arrive for iPhone and iPad, Android coming 'soon'

The BBC has released a new version of its iPlayer app for theiPhone and iPad, which enables downloading of programmes to these devices for offline viewing.

Apple loses appeal, must run ads saying Samsung isn't copycat

The UK's Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court's ruling that, despite similarities, Samsung's Galaxy tablet did not infringe Apple's designs.

Apple announces 'special event' for 12 September, iPhone 5 expected

Apple has invited journalists (including Wired.co.uk) to a "special event" on 12 September, putting an end to any doubt that the iPhone 5 is about to be launched.

The competition facing Apple's iPad mini

The iPad may not have been the first tablet computer, but it was the device that established the category and set the bar for the onslaught of full-sized tablets that followed.

Apple introduces 8-inch iPad mini, updated full-size iPad

Apple has introduced a new, smaller iPad called the iPad mini.

Moroccan desert stands in for Mars in manned mission simulation

Austrian Space Forum has sent a team of astronauts to Morocco for a simulation of a manned mission to Mars.

The Austrian Space Forum (Österreichisches Weltraum Forum, or OEWF) is a national network for aerospace specialists and space enthusiasts which connects the space sector with members of the public.

Lenovo ThinkPad Twist S230u review

Hybrid tablets try to bridge the gap between the convenience of a tablet and the capability of a laptop, and they've been becoming more popular since the arrival of touchscreen-optimised Windows 8. The Lenovo ThinkPad Twist doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it makes it turn rather well…

The Lenovo ThinkPad Twist is on sale now from £850 for the basic Intel Core i5 model with 500GB hard drive, rising to our £1,060 test model, which features an i7 processor and 128GB SSD drive.

Design
Let's get one thing straight, the ThinkPad Twist is essentially anultrabook, but with one cool party trick. At 1.5kg it's a fair weight for a ultrabook, but as a tablet it'll soon start to wear you down.

The design and colour scheme, with its flashes of bright red on rubberised black plastic, with a chrome band running around the tablet part, doesn't give the impression of an upmarket device -- it's more Fisher Price than cutting edge. Fortunately the keyboard feels better than it looks, with nicely springy keys whose slightly concave shape invites your fingers to caress them, and responds with a good level of travel and responsiveness.

Best budget Android phones: review roundup

High-spec, high-price smartphones might be what get us excited, but the real work is being done at the budget end of the Android market, with workhorse devices that make the daily business of organising our lives, entertaining us and keeping in touch seem easy and hassle-free. Top tier technology is steadily trickling down to the lower price points too, sometimes in less than a year, making this an increasingly competitive area, and harder than ever to tell the crackers from the squibs. Here are a few of the best budget Android devices that have come across our desk in the last few months.

Study: human 'breathprints' reveal inner health for instant diagnosis

Everyone's unique metabolic phenotype -- a measure of overall health -- is present in his or her exhaled breath, a study has suggested. This "breathprint" could pave the way for personalised medicine with a simple, non-invasive breath test detecting all manner of health indicators instantly.

Game designed to be played in future buried in Nevada desert

Game designer Jason Rohrer has developed a game -- A Game for Someone -- intended to be played by people he'll never know, within a few millennia from now. It's been buried in the Nevada desert.

Rohrer, who designed Passage, The Castle Doctrine and Diamond Trust of London, was responding to the tenth Game Design Challenge at Game Developers Conference (GDC). This year's theme was "Humanity's Last Game". Rohrer's game was inspired by ancient board games such as Mancala, a count and capture strategy game that has been played in many different civilisations.

Hands-on with the iPad mini

Apple finally announced the iPad's little brother on 23 October, the much-rumoured iPad mini. Despite the "cute" connotation associated with things dubbed mini, I wouldn't call it cute: the iPad mini makes for a decidedly polished and attractive 8-inch tablet.

The iPad mini measures in with a 7.9-inch, 1024 x 768 resolution display and is only 7.2 mm thick. The display, although not Retina quality, still looks bright and crisp, but those accustomed to a Retina display iPad or MacBook Pro may find fault here.

Apple said that you can operate the iPad mini using just one hand, but I found it to be a bit too big for that. Even though it's definitely light enough to comfortably hold in one hand, I couldn't do that and comfortably operate things without using both hands. Weighing a mere 308 grams, it puts other 7-inch tablets to shame and makes the fourth-generation iPad, also light for its size, feel hefty in comparison.

HTC One SV review

Continuing its attempts to be all things to all people, HTC has released yet another phone that seems very similar to some of its predecessors, not least the One S, but this time, it's got 4G.

It's on sale now for around £320.

Design
The HTC One SV is a solidly built handset that's pretty slim at a sliver over 9mm deep and weighs in at a reasonable 122g. The 4.3-inch touchscreen takes up almost all of the front, protected behind a sheet of tough Corning Gorilla Glass and as we've come to expect from HTC, it's nicely responsive to touches. With a pixel resolution of 480x800 however it's hardly world-beating, and looks less sharp than some lower-priced rivals such as the Google Nexus 4.

The One SV sees the general adoption of 4G coming closer, though at the moment you'll still need to be with EE to use it. The 4G connectivity works fine, so long as you're in a 4G area of course, with very fast downloads and smooth video streaming, though you'll soon burn up your data allowance if you're not careful.

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Award-winning game 140

Latest News

Study: morphing material alters transparency and roughness on command

Battle through the history of adventure games in Evoland

Vietnamese bridge is a giant fire-breathing dragon

Griffin's StudioConnect is a nifty dock for iPad musicians

Best budget Android phones: review roundup

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert dead at 70

Copyright holders target their takedown notices with takedown notices

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