'Sid Meier's Starships' Launches Today on iPad and Steam [Mac Blog]

First announced back in January as an interstellar continuation of Civilization: Beyond Earth, Firaxis' Sid Meier's Starships today launches for iPad, PC, and Mac (via iMore ).



Developed by Firaxis in conjunction with 2K Games and Meier himself, Starships places players at the helm of a fleet of starships and tasks them with building a thriving interplanetary federation.




Image via GameSpot


Players will gather new technology, discover new planets, and wage wars in missions that will randomly generate combat, offering a degree of replayability to the main story thread. Though still unclear, Civilization: Beyond Earth and Starships will also offer some form of connectivity between the two games, as well.

Set in the universe of Civilization: Beyond Earth after the age of the Seeding, Sid Meier’s Starships offers sci-fi/strategy fans a full stand-alone game experience that also features cross-connectivity with Beyond Earth, expanding the depth of both games. See if you have what it takes to rule the universe!



• Tactical Space Combat: Encounter unique tactical challenges in every mission, with dynamically generated maps, victory conditions, and foes.

• Fully Customizable Starships: Create an armada that fits your tactical plan with modular spaceship design.

• Diplomacy, Strategy, and Exploration: Expand the influence of your Federation and gain the trust of the citizens of new planets. Use the unique abilities of the each planet to enhance your fleet and Federation, and keep your opponents in check. Build improvements on worlds to increase the capabilities and resources of your Federation.

• A Galaxy Of Adventure: Explore the galaxy as you lead your fleet to distant worlds and complete missions to help the citizens of these planets. Fight pirates, protect colony ships, destroy rogue AI, and more.

• Multiple Paths To Victory: Will you win by conquering the greatest threat to the galaxy? Or will you unite a plurality of worlds in your Federation? Perhaps you will lead your people to push the frontiers of science. Each choice you make carries consequences on your path to victory

A few early reviews have praised the game for offering the complexities of the Civilization series without the huge time commitment, though simultaneously noting hardcore fans may have issue with the shorter, more "bite-sized" gameplay.



The iPad App Store version of Sid Meier's Starships [Direct Link] is out now, but the PC and Mac editions on Steam can currently only be pre-purchased, with a three hour countdown marking the game's release as of writing. The game is available for $14.99 on all platforms.

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, March 12

12.9-Inch 'iPad Pro' Again Rumored to Have Oxide LCD Display

Apple's much-rumored 12.9-inch "iPad Pro" could have Oxide LCD display technology and will enter mass production in the third quarter of 2015, according to DigiTimes . The report, citing sources within the supply chain, claims that Apple has elected to use oxide panels for the tablet after weighing the cost versus performance of display technologies a-Si, TFT LCD and Oxide LCD.

"Market rumors over the last six months have stated that Apple would aim to release the device in the first half of the year, with mass production occurring in the first quarter. The company, however, has been assessing different panel technologies ranging from a-Si, TFT LCD and Oxide LCD in terms of cost versus performance, and has only recently decided to move forward with Oxide technology."

The report adds that Sharp, LG Display and Samsung Display have been sending Apple display samples as they compete to secure component orders for the iPad Pro. Sharp is expected to be the main supplier due to its advantages in Oxide LCD display production, with LG also in the running to be a secondary vendor. The panel suppliers will reportedly produce limited supply in May and begin mass production in July and August.



KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a respectable track record at reporting on Apple's upcoming product plans, also forecasted in November that the iPad Pro would be equipped with an oxide panel for "high resolution, quick response, and high color saturation," with manufacturing difficulties pushing mass production of the tablet into the second quarter of 2015.



Bloomberg Business reported late Wednesday that Apple missed the mark on second quarter production of the iPad Pro and that manufacturing of the tablet is now slated to begin around September. The larger-screened tablet, rumored to potentially have USB 3.0 ports for faster data transfer, could help Apple reverse four quarters of declining iPad sales as overall tablet market growth has slowed.

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, March 05

Now we know the real reason Google is becoming a wireless carrier

Google really is going to become a wireless carrier, although you shouldn't expect it to have a major impact on the markets where it's launched as Google Fiber has. During a talk at Mobile World Congress this week, Android and Chrome boss Sundar Pichai explained that Google is really going to become a mobile virtual network operation (MVNO) but added that for the time being it doesn't have plans to build its own nationwide network capable of rivaling carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile.

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, March 02

Secret Apple acquisition uncovered!

When iTunes was first unveiled nearly 15 years ago, it was a revolutionary product — all your music available in one place. As time has moved on, other platforms, including Pandora, Spotify and others have eaten away at iTunes, as digital streaming has replaced the download.

However, Apple isn't going to go quietly, as the company has said "music... is deep in our DNA."

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, February 24

House Of Cards Season 3: Watch the revealing new trailer here

Netflix accidentally released the third season of House of Cards a few days ago, before realizing what it has done and pulling the highly anticipated show. With less than two weeks to go until the popular TV series is supposed to actually be released, the company posted a new teaser video that offers a revealing glimpse into what the Underwoods will have to deal with this season.

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, February 17

Microsoft Office for iOS Updated With iCloud Drive Support

Microsoft today released an update for its suite of Office apps on Apple's iPhone and iPad App Store for users running iOS 8. The 1.6 updates bring, along with the usual bug fixes and performance enhancements, full support for saving and syncing documents via Apple's iCloud Drive service (via The Verge ).



Microsoft says users of its most popular software like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can now open, edit, and save their work to iCloud as a storage option in the "Places" section of each iOS app.





The additional storage method doesn't require users to have an Office 365 subscription and comes as an alternative to Microsoft's own cloud storage option, OneDrive. As pointed out by The Verge, light restrictions on a few file types may hinder iCloud's usage on Microsoft's iOS apps, however.

There’s also restrictions on filetypes, so while you can see a thumbnail preview of text in a document created with TextEdit on a Mac (stored on iCloud), you can’t access the document or edit it. Overall, it’s a fairly basic feature addition, but one that will please (and possibly frustrate) those who use iCloud on a regular basis.

Microsoft most recently added a similar feature to flesh out its iOS offerings with a partnership with Dropbox that let users open, edit, and save their documents using the popular document-saving cloud app. The Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps launched on the iPhone in early November, bringing free document creation and basic editing to the service.



Microsoft Word [Direct Link], Microsoft Excel [Direct Link], and Microsoft PowerPoint [Direct Link] can all be downloaded from the App Store for free.

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, February 17

SPY VIDEO: Apple's top-secret car prototype gets caught on camera

The cat is officially out of the bag and the new "Apple van" being tested on the roads in and around Palo Alto, California won't be safe from prying eyes anywhere anymore. After an odd minivan with a roof-mounted camera rig of some kind was first spotted earlier this month, reports began pouring out once it was discovered that the automobile belonged to Apple. Numerous reports from reliable sources including The Wall Street Journal and Reuters have since surfaced suggesting that Apple is working on its own self-driving car that will be powered by an electric engine, and these vans are believed to be a part of that project.

Now, the first video of one of these cars has been posted.

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, February 16

Major new leak confirms the HTC One M9’s monster specs

The biggest smartphone battle of the coming months will be between Samsung's newly redesigned Galaxy S6 and HTC's new flagship One M9. Reliable smartphone leaker Upleaks has just dropped what appears to be the comprehensive list of specifications for the HTC One M9 and anyone hoping for a truly high-end Android phone will not be disappointed.

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, February 13

OOPS! Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge make their first appearance on Samsung's site ahead of schedule

Apparently all of the spy shots and insiders leaking information weren't enough for Samsung. The brand new Galaxy S6 isn't set to be officially unveiled until a press conference on March 1st, but we may have already seen the phone — and its Edge counterpart — several times. Most recently, we got our first clear look at renders that are said to be exact representations of both new flagship phone models.

Samsung seemingly wanted to get in on the fun as well, because the company's Finnish website just posted support pages for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge long ahead of schedule.

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, February 09

Get ready, Apple fans: Benchmarks leak for iPhone 6 running iOS 9

There are two times of the year that are the most exciting for enthusiastic Apple fans. The first comes in June, when Apple uses its annual Worldwide Developers Conference each year to debut a brand new version of its iOS platform. The second, of course, is in the late summer or early fall, when Apple releases iOS alongside at least one new iPhone model — though moving forward, we're likely looking at two or more new iPhone models each year.

It's still only January, but Apple is already hard at work on iOS 9, which is expected to include some major enhancements. Now, benchmark test results from an iPhone 6 running an early version of the next-generation software have been revealed for the first time.

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, January 29

The people who said Apple was doomed last year – where are they now?

One surefire way to draw attention to yourself is to come up with a "contrarian" take on current events. While it's always good to try thinking against the grain, there are times when contrarian takes simply fly in the face of reality. Nowhere in the tech world is this more apparent than the pundits and analysts who have repeatedly predicted over the years that Apple is "doomed." We decided to follow up on two prominent examples of this phenomenon from last year to see what they've had to say in light of Apple's record-smashing Q1 2015 earnings.

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Posted in 2015 at 02:05PM, January 28