Game
EA Screws Up their FIFA 16 Messaging on Female Teams
Why has it taken so long? According to EA, you can blame technology, not sexism.
“We’ve been talking about it seriously since 2009,” David Rutter, the game’s lead producer, told ESPN. “The problem was, we weren’t at a point then where the graphics would’ve been able to clearly articulate visually the
My Home Screens: June 2015
I don’t know about where you live, but it’s really starting to feel like summer now, and I could not be more excited about it! The sun is out, I can run every morning without worrying about it being freezing out there, and everyone just seems to be in a great mood.
In
Links
What’s Up with Google and Android Wear?
They made no mention of anything meaningful in health and fitness, and the didn’t address the slowly-coming-into-focus idea that the wrist can really be a great place for technology. It all just felt very blah.
- Abdel Ibrahim for WatchAware
I agree with Abdel that Google’s Wear announcements were pretty bland.
Game
Is Destiny Really a Terrible Video Game?
Jon Bois writing for SBNation:
Destiny both represents and precipitates a slow death of the heart. Ostensibly presented, as is every video game, as a refuge from our work and obligations, it instead re-packages that work and those obligations, rejoicing in them, blissfully conflating "doing stuff" with "fun." It doesn&
Android
Thoughts on Android M
[embed height="315" width="560"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KLyOb7gDm8[/embed]
Last year I ditched my iPhone right after Google I/O and went all in on Android. I have no such feeling this year. Part of me knows that the grass may seem greener, but that’s just
Links
Spectacular Blade Runner Poster
I know this is a truly excellent poster because I really want to watch Blade Runner right now. Via The Ninja Bot, but it's tragically sold through its limited run.
feature
Art vs. Tools
Google I/O is the week of the year where I like Google the most. It's where Google shows off some of their new tech and spells out what they believe. As far as tech goes, this was a less-than-thrilling event. There were very minor updates all around with a few
Links
Custom Crystal Pokéballs
I missed out on my chance to get a Charizard Amiibo for a reasonable price yesterday, but I would pay so much more for one of these custom-made pokéballs.
Links
I Wish This Was Real: The Tea Calendar
The Tea Calendar is a super rad concept for a tea sampler. I don’t even drink much tea, but I would take it up to use this calendar.
Links
The Anti-Tidal Press Continues
That’s Business, Man: Why Jay Z’s Tidal Is a Complete Disaster - Bloomberg
Some of the Tidal artist-owners can’t pull their work from rival services—because their record deals don’t allow it—but this raises a delicate question: If they could, do Jay Z and his partners really believe that their
Links
The Pebble Faithful Are Getting Bent Out of Shape
Reviews are out for the Pebble Time, and Pebble diehards at /r/pebble are going nuts over some of them. This thread in particular has drawn quite a bit of ire. I find it fascinating how much weight people put on review scores. Some suggested that The Verge was too afraid to give the Pebble
Target "Loves Apple Pay" and Wants it ASAP
Target CEO Loves Apple Pay, but Wants Chip-and-PIN Cards First | Re/code
“I’d love to have Apple Pay today,” he said. “Once we finish, we’ll be open-minded” about supporting other payment systems. Cornell said he has met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and told him the same.
I called it
Game
Heist Nabs GAME's Entire Splatoon Inventory
Splatoon stock swiped in Nintendo lorry heist - Eurogamer
A lorry carrying stock of Splatoon and its various Amiibo figurines has been stolen.
Copies of the rarer, more expensive Splatoon Special Edition - which contains the game's rare Squid Amiibo - made up much of the delivery.
GAME's entire shipment is now gone.
Just
Game
'What Remains of Edith Finch' Revealed for PS4
I had a deep love for 2012’s The Unfinished Swan, so of course I’m on board for Giant Sparrow’s follow up, What Remains of Edith Finch.
Links
Smart Watches are Made for Goliaths
Serenity Caldwell on smart watch sizing
It just baffles me. Women buy phones. We like technology. And, by and large, we like nice-looking jewelry on our wrists. Yet Apple is the only company that even considered including women in its initial watch marketing.
Even speaking as a man, I don’t like large watches,
podcast
Bite Size Tech #3: I Can't Even
Mostly happy news this week, but there’s one story that I just can’t even…
Links
* Charter to buy Time Warner Cable
* Microsoft is bringing Cortana to Android and iOS
* Jony Ive taking new, more hands-off ‘chief design officer’ role at Apple
* iOS 9 supports ‘iPhone 6S’ Force Touch, may enhance iMessage, Keyboard
tech
Fire Sale
Amazon is offering their Fire Phone for a pretty deep discount right now. Obviously the phone as not lit the world on…fire…like Amazon hoped it would and they’re clearing out inventory. This raises 2 questions for many of us:
One, should you buy this as a cheap high end Android phone and
goodies
Goodies: May 26
Kind of a weird day over here at the BirchTree world headquarters, so we’re just doing some of my favorite links of the week here. But fear not, a solid new Bite Size Tech is coming this afternoon, and some other really cool stuff coming down the pipe. Stay tuned!
Links of Note
* How