latest
Payday Crime War was always destined for failure
Let's explore what happened with this doomed mobile adaptation
Released in beta in 2018, Pay Day: Crime War was an ambitious attempt by then-developer Starbreeze Studios to bring the illustrious series to the mobile platform. It provided bite-sized coop-focused first-person shooter gameplay with an emphasis on high-steak criminal heists. Essentially, the familiar cops and robbers action the series was known for.
Pokémon GO developer cancels four projects just two days after announcing a new game
Niantic faces economic turmoil, lays off 8% of its staff
Two days ago, Niantic announced yet another augmented reality game, this time themed around the NBA. But it would seem Niantic has been struggling to reproduce the success of Pokémon GO, despite having slapped all manner of brands on similar games over the last few years, like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (already shuttered as a failure), Catan: World Explorers (also canceled), and Pikmin Bloom. One-trick-pony just about sums up the company, and even though it's put in a lot of effort to build out its AR tech as a platform (known as Lightship), it would seem the success of Pokémon GO isn't enough to carry the studio forward as its branded clones fail to find similar success. In comes Bloomberg with a recent report that the company is facing a time of economic turmoil, per a leaked internal staff email, and so the studio has canceled four upcoming games while laying off 8% of its staff.
The Nokia 9 PureView won't be getting its second guaranteed OS upgrade, producer HMD Global has announced. The company has confirmed that the device will continue to receive security patches for the time being and is giving owners up to a half-off discount on a new device.
Google kicked a FOSS app off the Play Store for linking to its own website
Google isn't messing around when it comes to payment processing
While the Play Store is generally the more accepting and pervasive of the two big mobile application platforms, it still needs a fair amount of moderation to keep out the riff-raff. Malware, spyware, annoying apps that put things like [Free Download] in the title, it's all got to go. But it looks like Google is getting more aggressive in enforcing its more general developer terms, especially when it comes to payments. Case in point: Language Transfer.
The organizers of CES, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), had been pushing hard to keep next year's event in Las Vegas, but they've finally thrown in the towel. The CTA has just announced that CES 2021 will be an all-digital event, saying that it will offer "a unique experience for the tech industry" and "a highly personalized experience."
Google Cloud Next turns into digital-only conference amidst coronavirus concerns
Is Google I/O Next?
One by one, major conferences and events have been postponed or cancelled in response to the spread of COVID-19, widely referred to simply by the name: Coronavirus. Most major cancellations were occurring for events scheduled in February and March, but it was inevitable organizers would have to begin dealing with events further out on the calendar. The latest name to get his is Google Cloud Next, an event focused on building software using Google services and other web technologies. However, instead of cancelling the event, Google Cloud is turning it into a virtual conference.
Back in 2018, I went hands-on with the 180906.1826 build of PAYDAY: Crime War, a first-person shooter that at the time suffered from lackluster controls and uneven matchmaking. This past August, the game was released in the US as a limited beta, and I guess things have not been working out in the last three months since the developer has announced that PAYDAY: Crime War will be shut down on December 16, 2019. The only silver lining to take away from this announcement is that the game may return under a new publisher in the future, though this deal is currently pending, so it may not work out.
Recently, ZTE's foldable Axon M made a bit of a wave by being released with not one, but two 5.2" 1080p displays. It was a bold move, but it obviously hasn't sold well. It looks like Samsung experimented with the same idea back in 2015-2016, ultimately choosing to scrap the project. But some leaked images of it, dubbed "Project V," have recently surfaced, showing what could have been.
Nextbit launched its Kickstarter last year with just a GSM version of the Robin, but the people demanded a CDMA one too. The company attempted to accommodate them, but now CEO Tom Moss has announced that the CDMA Robin will never exist.
You know how everyone is excited for Google's Android event on Monday (October 29)? Sorry to rain on your parade (heh), but they just cancelled it thanks to Hurricane Sandy.
[Update: Officially Dead And Gone] Google Listen Quietly Pulled From The Play Store, Previous Users Can Still Find It
Listen, the relatively popular, if neglected, podcast app from Google has been surreptitiously pulled from the Play Store recently. It's unclear just how
Listen, the relatively popular, if neglected, podcast app from Google has been surreptitiously pulled from the Play Store recently. It's unclear just how long ago Google pulled it (though it appears to be within the last week or so), and users are looking everywhere for it. There is also no indication on what Google has planned for it from here on out. We've reached out to Google for comment but have not heard back as of publication. For users who have previously installed the app, you can still find the Play Store listing here. Everyone else, however, will see the familiar 404 landing page:
It's official: AT&T-Mobile will not be happening any time soon. AT&T, the US's second-largest wireless carrier and all-around communications mega-corporation, after months of attempting to convince consumers and federal agencies alike that the deal was going to be good for everyone, has given up its plans to purchase T-Mobile, a division of Deutsche Telekom.
All Things Digital is reporting that HP’s planned Android Slate tablet has been delayed, possibly indefinitely. Given HP’s recent acquisition of Palm, it seems likely that HP is choosing to focus on development of their webOS tablet to compete with Apple’s iPad as quickly as possible. From a business standpoint, HP is probably making the right move. For Android and open source fans, though, this is indeed a sad day.