Vine is in hot water after displaying porn to its users. It’s now doing everything it can to contain all pornographic content on its network. But will it be enough for Apple not to ban the app from the App Store?

It seems that Vine is determined to pretend that the Web wasn’t made for porn. After bringing the Internet practically to its knees with news that one of its editors liked a six-second pornographic video, the young platform is now doing all it can to block searches for NSFW content.

Our collective panic comes only four days after Vine’s illustrious debut in the App Store, as many wondered if this was the next big thing. This morning, however, things took a turn when Vine users were greeted with an explicit video featuring a woman and a sex toy at the top of Vine’s Editor’s Picks. Sacre bleu! Twitter, quick to defend its budding new social platform, blamed “human error” for the video surfacing and quickly deleted it. However, the damage was done, and Vine has since gone into damage control-mode to prevent content containing tags like “porn,” “nsfw,” and “nsfwvine” from popping up in any searches.

In truth, no one should have been surprised. Vine’s users were simply abiding by Rule 34: If it exists, there’s probably a porn version of it. However, what’s most upsetting about the slip is that all users were exposed to the video – we’re talking children, t00 – and that puts the app squarely in violation of Apple’s stringent App Store regulations. Thus, Vine’s developers were forced to self-censor content in a way that smacks of puritanical shaming so they won’t have to the app being pulled from the store outright.

Apple, for its part, was likely beside itself when news broke. Though Vine is still very much active in the App Store, it is no longer being actively promoted in the Editor’s Picks section. Apple’s own policy on pornography is as rigid as it is inconsistent. Apple only recently booted popular photography app 500px for displaying nudity, though apps like Tumblr (which is a hotbed for porn-lovers) and even Snapchat are alive and well.

We’ll keep you updated as the story unfolds. Or undresses? Either way, stay tuned.

2K Games outbid Turtle Rock Studios for the rights to its next big title at the recent THQ bankruptcy auction, and the development studio is surprisingly alright with this.

It’s been five days since we reported on THQ’s bankruptcy auction, and the aftereffects of that event continue to resonate throughout the gaming industry. We already brought you the story of Crytek’s successful attempt to secure the rights to Homefront 2, and today we examine another studio’s attempt to determine its own future. It didn’t work out as well as Crytek’s efforts, but the firm seems happy with the result.

You may not recognize Turtle Rock Studios by name, but you certainly know their biggest game: Left 4 Dead. Turtle Rock initially revealed the multiplayer zombie shooter in 2006, and when it became apparent that the studio was on to something huge the developer was acquired by Valve Software. Unfortunately, as Valve moved the development of Left 4 Dead to its Seattle headquarters, Turtle Rock Studios was shuttered. Its employees were offered the opportunity to relocate to be closer to Valve, but a few opted not to and instead hatched a plan to rebuild Turtle Rock Studios. With permission from Valve, the company reopened its doors in 2009, and while it hasn’t released any games of note just yet, it has been working on a major new title currently dubbed “Evolve.”

“Obviously, we’re really sad to see things dissolve for THQ, we really had a great relationship with them,” said Turtle Rock Studios co-founder Phil Robb. “Regardless of who we ended up with, we were rooting for THQ to come out of this intact and get a chance to turn things around.”

This is where things gets complicated. Prior to THQ’s bankruptcy filing, Turtle Rock Studios and THQ had an agreement that the latter would publish the title. Obviously THQ’s fiscal issues slammed the door on this idea, but Turtle Rock Studios is unwilling to let Evolve die. Instead of watching the IP swirl down the drain, Turtle Rock Studios attempted to purchase the rights to Evolve from THQ during last week’s auction. It failed, and the rights were instead snagged by publisher 2K Games. You’d expect Turtle Rock Studios’ employees to be saddened by this news, but a recent VentureBeat interview paints an entirely different picture.

“Disappointed we were outbid? Hell no,” Robb said. “From our perspective, we came out of the proceedings in an awesome position. We are super-excited to be moving forward with 2K.”

That’s great, but what of Evolve? What exactly is this thing? The scant few bits of concept art that have emerged from this project (see above) tell us little to nothing about Evolve’s gameplay, though it’s apparent that the setting seems to be both modern and filled with gruff military types. And so far Turtle Rock Studios is perfectly fine with the mystery, for now at least.

“Honestly, we’re chomping at the bit to let gamers know more about what we’re doing,” Robb claimed. “We’ve got something really special brewing at Turtle Rock and look forward to the day when we can share it with everyone.”

There is currently no release date or pricing info for Evolve, nor any word on which platforms it might appear. We’ll bring you more at such a time as this information is available, though given the current status of Evolve and the reams of red tape undoubtedly remaining from THQ’s collapse that must be cleared away before development can resume in earnest, don’t expect to hear anything solid on Evolve at any point in the near future. Stay tuned, just don’t hold your breath.

In this tutorial, we’ve put together a list of the best free apps that’ll transform your Android device into a convincing iOS fake.

So here you are, trying to go against what the tech gods intended and make your Android phone look like an iPhone. Perhaps you’re getting home-screen-sick after recently making the switch or maybe you just like to tweak your phone and you think it’d be fun to make it look more like iOS. Whatever your reasoning may be, we aren’t here to question it. All we care about is helping you get the job done.

It’s tough to make your Android phone operate exactly like an iPhone in every way, but there are a few apps and tweaks that’ll get you close. If you’re just going for aesthetics, you might just want to get a faux-iOS launcher, but for those of you looking to get a more complete iOS experience on your Android device, we’ve also included a variety of lock screens, messaging apps, and keyboard skins that’ll transform your phone into a rather convincing fake. There are boatloads of iOS-copy apps on Google Play, and while most of them are paid, we’ve done our best to find all the good ones that are completely free. 

Launcher

There are a handful of decent Android launchers that mimic the look and feel of iOS, but none of them are even half as good as Espier Launcher. We won’t even bother mentioning the others here. Espier is the one you want; it’s smooth, responsive, and strikingly similar to the real iOS interface. In addition to authentic-looking squarish icons, this launcher app even gives you the ability to create iOS-style folders by dragging apps onto each other. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and you’ll be presented with a list of your recently-used applications — just like you would on an iPhone. The only shortcoming is that it doesn’t come with a lock screen, but don’t trip, there’s a solution for that. 

Lock Screen 

Smart iPhone 5 lock screen: Although it doesn’t quite nail the look, this lock screen does offer the same functionality as the iPhone one and includes a working button for your camera app.

iPhone 5 Lockscreen: So this one isn’t a 100% faithful rendition of the iOS lock screen, but it’s close enough, and could definitely pass for a jailbroken iPhone that’s been customized. 

iPhone Lock Screen: This one looks a bit more authentic than most. The app’s designers nailed the font and dimensions incredibly close to the real thing.

Messaging/calling

GO SMS Pro iPhone theme: The developers behind this app did an impressive job of mimicking the iPhone’s green and white conversation bubbles. As far as free apps go, this is about as good as it gets for iOS-like text messaging. 

iPhone Notifications: Download this app and all of your notifications will look convincingly Apple-esque. Incoming phone calls don’t look as authentic, but they’re close enough.

InoMail: Looking for a mobile email client that feels like iMail? InoMail is just what you need. Not only does it look a lot like iPhone’s native mail app, but it comes with a number of impressive features as well. 

Keyboard

New lockscreens and icons might trick your eyes into thinking you’re on an iPhone, but in order to fool your fingers you’ll need a convincing faux-iOS keyboard as well. A.I.type Keyboard is the only one that’ll do the trick. The keyboard looks and feels like you’re using an iPhone. If you’re willing to pay a few extra bucks, it also comes with some powerful typo correction and word prediction features as well.

Put all these together, and you should have a fully-functional iDroid, or Anphone, or whatever you want to call it now. If you know of any useful Apple/Android crossover apps or tweaks that we left out, let us know in the comments below.

Quantic Dream collaborator and composer Normand Corbeil passed away last week, leaving behind a legacy of spectacular scores in games like Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain, Indigo Prophecy, and Beyond: Two Souls composer Normand Corbeil passed away after a five-month battle with pancreatic cancer on Friday. He was 56-years-old.

“The first notes raise the hairs on the back of my neck; [Heavy Rain character] Ethan’s theme fills the studio, swelling with emotion from the breath of the brass and the stroking of the strings,” said Heavy Rain director David Cage, speaking about Corbeil’s work, “Ethan is born for the third time, first in the writing, secondly in the image and now in the music.”

“Over the past eight years, Normand had grown to become an integral part of our team,” reads a message on Quantic Dream’s website, “Normand was not only one of the most talented composers of his generation; he was a formidable person, kind and humble.”

Corbeil worked on numerous television shows and films across his twenty-six-year career. In 2011, he received a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for his work on Heavy Rain.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Corbeil’s family. Fingers crossed that his hard work on Beyond: Two Souls appears in the game when it’s released later this year.

This morning the producers of Mass Effect 3 unveiled two new screenshots that are currently unrecognizable as part of the game. Does this suggest that more downloadable content is on the way for the BioWare roleplaying epic?

Earlier today, Mass Effect 3 executive producer Casey Hudson tweeted an image alongside the phrase “Looks like a nice place for some R&R…” You can see the picture Hudson presented in part at the top of this post (and in full at the bottom), but the major takeaway here is that it is a picture of nothing we’ve seen in Mass Effect 3 to date.

Shortly after Hudson’s tweet, Mass Effect 3 producer Michael Gamble followed suit with a mystery image of his own. You’ll find that one below, and while Gamble’s picture is of a Krogan swinging a huge club, it’s as foreign as Hudson’s picture of a neon-drenched cityscape. As for helpful text, Gamble says only, “Does not look like a guy you’d want to mess with…”

To further compound the mystery, after Gamble and Hudson offered up their screenshots, the official Mass Effect Facebook page was updated with a short post which reads, “Casey Hudson and Mike Gamble both tweeted some strange images this morning. What do you make of it?”

BioWare isn’t giving fans much to go on but we do have a few clues to work with. First, the cityscape seen in Hudson’s image looks very much like the Citadel. It would have to be a new area of the Citadel that players have not seen before, but the Citadel is utterly massive and could certainly house all kinds of things that players have not yet encountered in the three vanilla Mass Effect titles. Second, that’s quite obviously a casino, and years of playing role-playing games of all stripes have taught us that whenever a casino is present in a game of that genre, it means that players will be given the chance to gamble their in-game cash for more cash – or more likely, special items that can’t be found elsewhere.

Gamble’s image is more difficult to figure out. It’s obviously a picture of a Krogan in battle, but that does little to narrow down the possibilities. “In battle” is the default state for all members of the Krogan species. Thanks to that nondescript armor the Krogan is wearing we don’t even really know if it’s a male or female, despite Gamble’s use of the word “guy” in the picture’s description. That club is the most notable part of Gamble’s image, but with our lack of knowledge on what might be included in this hypothetical DLC pack we aren’t able to glean anything useful from it either.

It’s doubtful that EA and BioWare would give Hudson and Gamble the greenlight to share these images if the companies weren’t close to announcing what they indicate, so expect official word on this artwork shortly. It’s most likely to be a teaser for an as-yet-unannounced DLC pack, but there’s no solid evidence to support that idea. But it seems like a good bet.

Microsoft confirmed today that it will launch it’s 2013 version of Office tomorrow along with a new subscription-based model.

Microsoft’s Office Twitter account, @Office, announced today that Office 2013 will launch on January 29 with an event in New York’s Bryant Park. The ubiquitous office suite has been making the rounds in enterprise settings for the last couple of months, but January 29 marks the first time that the general public will be able to get their hands on it.

Along with Office 2013 comes a new way to experience and pay for the popular suite: a new subscription version called Office 365 Home Premium. Though Microsoft Office 365 has been in pubic beta for over a year, this marks the rental suite’s formal debut. For $99.99 a year, users can access Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, and Publisher on up to five different devices – including tablets and Macs – at the same time. Microsoft sweetens the deal even further by offering 20GB of SkyDrive online storage and 60 minutes of international calls for Skype users.

Office 365 Home Premium is a lot like Google Drive, which saves all of your work in the cloud and gives you access to all of your work no matter where you are. In other words, you’ll never have to worry about leaving that important file on your home computer again.

For users who eschew the subscription model for software, Office 2013 will be available in the traditional pay-once-and-install format, too. Office Home & Student 2013 is set to sell for $140, Office Home & Business 2013 for $220, Office Standard 2013 for $370, and Office Professional Plus 2013 for $499. The least expensive version, Home & Student, does not include Outlook, which may entice email fanatics to upgrade to Home & Business or take a second look at Office 365 Home Premium, which includes access to the email behemoth.

Whatsapp’s feature that enables users to pull in contacts from their phone contact list, breaks privacy laws says Canadian and Dutch authorities.

Whatsapp automatically pulls phone numbers from your address book to find users who may have the app installed, a well known feature of the messaging app. But Canadian and Dutch authorities are just beginning to realize that this practice of seamless contact sharing is an invasion of privacy.

As a messaging app and SMS alternative, pulling in your contact list with a click of a button is convenient. There’s no need to message your friends and find out if they have Whatsapp in the first place, before requesting their user ID. But despite the convenience, The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) and the Dutch Protection Authority have published a report on the app’s violation of privacy laws, Reuters reports. The root of the offense stems from the user’s ability to pull in contact information stored on your phone into Whatsapp. What this means is that Whatsapp has been granted access to your friends’ phone numbers without your their permission.

Where Whatsapp crosses the line however is when the authority discovered that Whatsapp stores all phone numbers that the messaging app is granted permission to, including phone numbers of non-users. What the messaging app would do with this data is left up to speculation, although for a company that’s adamant on not selling out and a fervent opposition of advertising, you shouldn’t be concerned with brands getting a hold of your phone number.

“This lack of choice contravenes (Canadian and Dutch) privacy law. Both users and non-users should have control over their personal data and users must be able to freely decide what contact details they wish to share with WhatsApp,” Chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, Jacob Kohnstamm told Reuters. Address book privacy has been an issue before, most notoriously when it was found that social app Path uploaded your entire contact list – as did a number of other apps. All of them soon changed this function. 

If any further actions are taken, like a lawsuit, Whatsapp could have a privacy debacle on its hands. But the authorities have stated that Whatsapp has been working closely with the authorities based on these aforementioned discoveries and the messaging app is updating its policies and features to protect its user’s privacy. Some of the updates include better encryption of messages and the ability to add contacts manually.

Your first chance to play Perfect World Entertainment’s upcoming MMORPG Neverwinter is right around the corner, but it might cost you some serious scratch.

Neverwinter is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game published by Perfect World Entertainment and developed by Cryptic Studios, a firm best known as the original creator of City of Heroes. As the name would suggest, Neverwinter is set firmly within the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse, and more specifically within the titular city. If you’ve been playing role-playing games for a while you’ll recognize that name from BioWare’s excellent Neverwinter Nights (or, for you older folks, the ancient AOL game of the same name). The city of Neverwinter has always been a popular destination for D&D players, and with Cryptic Studios’ pedigree behind it, it’s easy to see why Neverwinter would be highly anticipated by fans.

As of now the game sports a nebulous 2013 release date. Supposedly it will show up toward the beginning of this year, so it makes sense that Perfect World Entertainment would want to commence beta testing on the game. Less sensible is how the company intends to go about this. The good news is that instead of a single beta test, Perfect World plans to host three: One on the weekend of February 8, the second on the weekend of March 8, and the final test on the weekend of March 22. The bad news is that in total the test will only span a maximum of nine days, leave scant little time for players to get acquainted with the game. More crucially, it also limits the number of players that can take part in the beta test.

Assuming you’re anxiously awaiting Neverwinter, you’ll want to drop your name into the running for a public beta spot as soon as possible. To do so visit the official Neverwinter website and offer up all your necessary information. We will warn you ahead of time though that given the test’s short scope and necessarily limited playerbase, the odds of your being granted a gratis place in one of these beta test weekends is quite low. Don’t worry though! Perfect World Entertainment has you covered. Or, that is, it has you covered if you’re willing to shell out at least $60 for the privilege of aiding the beta test effort.

As with many modern MMOs, Neverwinter is offering prospective players the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the game and offering solid rewards in exchange for your hard-earned cash. As Kotaku reports, there are three tiers of the Neverwinter Founder’s Program. The first, which is priced at $20 (despite being labeled a “$50 value”), contains an Amulet of Protection, a Small Bag of Holding and a handful of minor in-game items designed to give new players a solid start in the game’s fantasy realm. Consider it a starter kit.

The next two tiers are where things get interesting. Not only do both of the higher-value Founder’s Program tiers offer guaranteed access to the Neverwinter beta test, they also deliver a number of excellent bonuses. As you’d expect though, these goodies are going to cost you. For $60 you can pick up the “Guardian of Neverwinter Pack,” which includes the following:

• Three-day head start access to Neverwinter Open Beta
• Unique ‘Gold Moonstone Mask Regalia’ head piece
• Unique ‘Armored Horse’ mount
• Unique ‘Direwolf Companion’
• In-game and forum ‘Founder’ title

If you’re independently wealthy or a huge D&D nerd you may want to burn some of that excess cash on the “Hero of the North Founder’s Pack.” This one features a $200 price point (though it boasts a $550 value), but also includes the most impressive extras, including the opportunity to play as a doppelgänger of D&D’s most famous dark elf, Drizzt Do’urden. Have a look:

• Five-day head start access to Neverwinter Open Beta
• Beta Weekend Friend Invite code
• Exclusive access to ‘Menzoberranzan Renegade’, a Drow playable race like the legendary ranger Drizzt Do’Urden, complete with unique racial abilities and tattoo
• Unique ‘Armored Spider’ mount
• Unique ‘Panther Companion’
• In-game and forum ‘Founder’ title
• VIP Game Access to skip-the-line and get priority log-in access

We often complain about pre-order schemes that offer the wealthy a more complete, entertaining gameplay experience, but in this case we won’t bother. If you’re willing to shell out $200 for a game that has yet to prove its value or even basic functionality, then you probably deserve to receive a little something extra from the people who created the virtual world. Expect your fellow players to sneer every time you summon your spectral panther buddy though.

Apple isn’t as hot anymore in Asia as it used to be, and now Samsung is steadily taking over.

The iPhone has a target on its back. After more than half a decade dominating the coveted smartphone on the market, Apple’s must-have novelty is wearing off in Asia, says Reuters.

According to the report, Apple’s phone has been so successful in Asia that areas of the region are suffering from “iPhone fatigue,” leading to “a desire to be different” from users that are looking for a phone that not everyone sports. You’ll be hard pressed not to find someone who doesn’t own an iPhone in China. The ownership of an iPhone has become so commonplace that smartphone owners are deciding on switching devices.

Android has been the primary culprit for the iPhone’s declining presence in Asia, and Samsung is to blame. The Korean company has been slowly but surely chipping away at Apple’s market share by pricing and launching its phones for the low-end, up to the luxury end of smartphones – and by luxury we mean $15,000 Samsung phones that you can’t find out in the West. At the same time, Samsung phones are riding the K-pop wave that was popularized before and after (especially Psy). This trend, Reuters reports, is especially prevalent in Thailand where Korean music and TV shows are popular.

Smartphone buyers are also discovering the value in a larger smartphone screen sizes that verge on being the size of a mini tablet. There’s a boon to larger screen sizes that make productivity a lot easier, and these devices also happen to be Android devices. In Beijing for instance, Samsung’s Galaxy Notes are the rage, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S3.

But Singapore is one indicator of this marked shift toward devices that aren’t related to Apple. Apple once had a 72 percent share stronghold among smartphone users last year January 2012 in the country, but dropped to 50 percent this month (and one year later) by January 2013. In Hong Kong, the total percentage of iOS devices hovers around 30 percent, down from the 45 percent of iOS devices that existed last year. And both countries are typically indicators of how devices will perform in the West.

The declining brand loyalty to iPhone devices isn’t a huge surprise. Apple device owners have expressed their discontent with the iPhone 4S, and iPhone 5, and have on occasion, said that twinkle in Steve Job’s eye, which converted fans into Apple fanboys, has been fading slowly as Tim Cook’s fingerprints begin to get on Apple devices. “After Steve Jobs died, it seems the element of surprise in product launches isn’t that great anymore,” Janet Chen, a Hong Kong based advertising professional, told Reuters.

Localytics has released a report detailing the market share of Android tablets in the United States,and Amazon’s Kindle Fire is enjoying an impressive lead.

Localytics, an analytics firm that specializes on the mobile market and its trends, has released its report on the current market share of Android tablet, and it spells good news for Amazon. According to the report, Amazon’s Kindle brand holds an impressive 33 percent of the U.S. Android tablet market,  followed far behind by the Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Samsung’s Galaxy series, Google’s Nexus 7, and other devices.

The report was generated by recording the number of application installs across more than 500 million devices, and compiles the hard data both by nation and, for the United States, by device. While it is not completely comprehensive, it offers a fairly accurate picture of just who is selling Android tablets. As far as Localytics is concerned, Amazon’s Kindle is leading the charge for Android, holding 33 percent of the market among other Android Tablets. Distantly behind Amazon is the Nook with 10 percent, Samsung Galaxy series with 9 percent, and Google’s Nexus 7 with 8 percent. While these numbers do not include other devices like the iPad or Playbook, it still helps offer perspective to how far ahead Amazon is among other Android tablets.

As for Amazon’s competition, all three of its closest competition have some serious catching up to do. Google is showing some serious promise as a future contender to the massive e-reader and tablet seller. While the Nook and Galaxy series of devices have been around for some time, Google’s Nexus 7 is just one device that has been around a mere six months. If this kind of growth continues for Google, it will challenge Amazon in the near future. But with growing competition among both Android and non-Android tablets from dozens of manufacturers, the market is still anyone’s for the taking.

In what may be the best news the city of Baltimore has received since the end of The Wire, EA’s Madden ’13 has selected the Ravens to trump the San Francisco 49ers in this year’s Super Bowl.

Since 2004, in the days leading up the Super Bowl EA has run a simulated match, in which the latest version of the publisher’s fan-favorite Madden NFL football franchise attempts to predict the outcome of the big game. Normally this would be seen as merely an effort to drum up latter-day interest in a product, but over the past nine years Madden NFL has proven surprisingly accurate in calling out the winner of the upcoming Super Bowl. In nine attempts to date, the video game was able to correctly predict the victor seven times, including picking the New York Giants to win the last Super Bowl over the heavily favored New England Patriots.

With Super Bowl XLVII scheduled for February 3, we’re now less than a week from the biggest football game of the year. As such, EA has announced the results of its latest Super Bowl simulation. According to the game, the Baltimore Ravens will beat the San Francisco 49ers with a final score of 27-24, thanks to a late-game field goal by rookie kicker Justin Tucker. As time ran down in the faux Bowl the 49ers attempted to mount a quick comeback, but that was rapidly ended when Ravens safety Ed Reed intercepted a pass thrown by 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Along with its press release heralding the simulated results, EA also issued a highlight reel which you can find embedded below. As you’d expect, that aforementioned interception receives a lot of focus, but there’s also a very solid hit from Ray Lewis at the 46-second mark. It’s almost enough to make you forget about that one time he was accused of killing two guys. 

West Virginia Democrat Senator Jay Rockefeller introduced the Violent Content Research Act of 2013 on Thursday as part of President Barack Obama’s legislative push to combat gun violence. Will the NAS study find something previous studies into the link between games and aggression did not?

As promised, President Barack Obama is pushing forward with legislation to tackle gun violence in the United States in the wake of the Dec. 14 massacre in Newtown. Included in these efforts is a plan to fund new studies into how violent media, and particularly video games, effect the development of children. Senate Bill 134, the Violent Content Research Act of 2013, was introduced by Senator Jar Rockefeller on Thursday and the bill is already garnering support from all parties in the United States Senate.

“The reality is we are living in an increasingly violent culture which, when coupled with mental illness, can create a very dangerous situation,” said Nevada Republican Senator Dean Heller, “This bill is a step in the right direction towards better understanding the effects of violence on children, and I look forward to the recommendations that result from this report.”

The proposed National Academy of Sciences study will try to determine if violent video games and movies have a “direct and long-lasting impact” on children, and whether that violent media encourages aggressive behavior.

Sen. Rockefeller first proposed the study less than a week after the Newtown shootings. While the Senator’s initiative to study the effects of violent media on people is an appropriate response in the wake of myriad shootings in the United States, particularly after the Colorado shooting during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises, his other proposals calling for the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission to curb violent media is more concerning.

“At times like this, we need to take a comprehensive look at all the ways we can keep our kids safe,” said Rockefeller in December, “I have long expressed concern about the impact of the violent content our kids see and interact with every day. Recent court decisions demonstrate that some people still do not get it. They believe that violent video games are no more dangerous to young minds than classic literature or Saturday morning cartoons. Parents, pediatricians, and psychologists know better.”

It will be interesting to see if the NAS’ findings differ significantly from the 2010 study conducted by Dr. Christopher J. Fergusson and Dr. Stephanie M. Rueda, “The Hitman study: Violent video game exposure effects on aggressive behavior, hostile feelings, and depression”:

“[They] took a sample of 103 young adults and had them solve a ‘frustration task.’ Separating the participants into four groups, the researches [sic] had one group play no video game, one play a non-violent video game, one play as good guys in a violent game, and one play as bad guys in a violent game.”

“They found that the games had no impact on aggressive behavior whatsoever, and that the group which played no game at all was the most aggressive after the task, whereas the group that played the violent games were the least hostile and depressed.”

It should be noted that Dr. Fergusson and Dr. Rueda studied the effects on young adults, not young children. Young children, though, can’t purchase violent video games of their own accord. The ESRB ratings system is in place to prevent just that.

Two of the most watched creators in entertainment will co-host the opening keynote address at the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science’s DICE Summit next week: Star Wars Episode VII director J.J. Abrams and Valve president Gabe Newell.

Of the two major video game industry conferences held each spring, the DICE Summit often plays second fiddle to the Game Developers Conference in terms of generating excitement amongst players. Game makers get to talk shop, dissecting new development techniques and technology at both, but it’s GDC that game makers have increasingly leveraged as a venue for new game announcements in recent years. More audience eyes will linger on DICE 2013 when it starts on Feb. 6 than usual though, given that one of the most watched men in movies will deliver the opening keynote address alongside one of the most watched men in video games. Star Wars Episode VII director J.J. Abrams will open DICE 2013, alongside Valve president Gabe Newell.

“From TV to film and now award-winning mobile apps, there’s no question that J.J. has his finger on the pulse of the entertainment industry, and we’re thrilled to welcome him and our 2013 Hall of Fame inductee, Gabe Newell, to the DICE stage,” said Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences president Martin Rae, “Each year, the DICE Summit sets the tone for the year ahead in games and adding J.J. and Gabe’s shared insights is a natural fit as we see all forms of entertainment converge.”

What might be considered the usual press release boasting in Rae’s announcement holds true in the case of Newell and Abrams. Lucasfilm and Disney announced on Friday that Abrams is now an instrumental figure in the future of one of entertainment’s most valuable properties. As the director of Star Wars Episode VII, Abrams will help steer the creative direction of a cross media franchise that Disney has already invested billions into through the purchase.

Newell, meanwhile, is poised to redefine the video game hardware and distribution businesses over the coming years. Valve’s Steam is already the most widely used digital distribution games business on PCs with 54 million active user accounts, but Valve is planning to distribute its own PC hardware starting in the next eighteen months. In the same way that Abrams’ work on the Star Wars franchise will have industry defining impact on entertainment content over the next decade, so too will Valve’s Steam Box.

Newell has another talk at the DICE Summit that gamers should follow as well. The designer will host “A View on Next Steps” on Feb. 7.

Android has been labeled the “undisputed volume leader” by Neil Mawston of Strategy Analytics, because of dominating the market percentage over Symbian, iOS, Windows Phone and Blackberry. Even with a large increase in sales over last year, it was not enough for iOS to budge the deficit.

In total there were an estimated 700.1 million smartphones shipped in 2012 which is up from the 490.5 million handsets in 2011.  While it is not really a fair fight due to the fact there are many low end handsets on the market, Apple really only has two fighters in the game.  Pulling a 20% market share is somewhat reminiscent of the movie 300. [Spoiler Alert]  In the end the Spartans were defeated, but they took out quite a few Persians on the way!

To be really honest, 20% is actually rather impressive considering Apple really is only competing with a few handsets globally (iPhone 4, 4S and 5) versus the many, many Android competitors.

This latest information basically reveals nothing we didn’t already know, but it is interesting to see the actual estimated numbers and contemplate on the sheer magnitude in the volume of mobile phones out there.

We spend an hour soaking in the beta preview of Maxis Games’ 2013 refresh of SimCity.

Green, blue, and yellow still rule the day. I saw a lot of new things over the weekend during my hour with the SimCity beta. Modules that allow you to tweak the properties – and visual layout – of various structures. A dizzying array of parks for leisure, sports, formal occasions, and more. A newly centralized management tool in your Town Hall that presents the problems of the day as quest-like objectives. And of course, curvy roads. The thing that sticks out most, however, is that now, more than 20 years later, the fundamentals of the game can still be broken down by SimCity‘s primary colors: green residential zones, blue commercial zones, and yellow industrial zones.

If Maxis Games’ refreshed take on SimCity turns out to be the same level of monster hit among PC gamers that the 1989 originator was, expect much of the credit for that to go to the importance the game places on sticking to the fundamentals. It’s impossible to accurately judge the full picture based on a brief tutorial and an hour’s worth of (mostly) unrestrained play, but the fact that the most familiar facets of SimCity continue to work as they should, enabled me to get more out of that hour than I would have expected.

The beta begins with a tutorial, one that will presumably make its way into the final game as well. The extremely directed rundown of SimCity‘s core mechanisms is presented well, guiding players through the process of rehabilitating some punk former mayor’s failed efforts. Everything from the absolute basics of zoning and urban planning to new features wrapped up in the game’s online elements are covered. Some players will probably feel a bit overwhelmed once the tutorial turns to stat and numbers-heavy info pages, but the tutorial effectively distills the SimCity basics, old and new, into an easily digestible format.

The second half of the beta is where the fun really happens. Electronic Arts’ promise of offering beta players one full hour to craft a city is mostly fulfilled, with only a handful of build options marked as inaccessible to beta players and zero opportunities to fit your creation into the larger online space. You’ve got enough to build a basic city and its infrastructure, covering everything from police and fire to schools and bus stops to power/water/sanitation. What impresses is just how much can be accomplished in the space of an hour, thanks largely to a newly streamlined interface.

SimCity has always boiled down to an elaborate balancing act, requiring players to keep a city’s population happy while managing a budget and figuring out how best to grow. This doesn’t change in the 2013 refresh, but the methods the game uses to communicate with players are much more welcoming now. It’s all about the visual indicators. You’ll have no problem figuring out your school bus coverage, thanks to fading green-colored “zones” that denote the range covered by each stop. General happiness/unhappiness levels are monitored with a full emotional range of smileys, each one connected to a different structure in your city.

All of this is built on top of those familiar fundamentals. You’ll probably start out your city by connecting a main road to the larger world’s highway system, but the process from there is largely one of mapping out a street layout and lining those streets with each of the three zones. The biggest change in this regard is that zones – and all structures, for the most part – must lineup alongside some street or another. The days of blocking out a huge chunk of land for a certain type of zone are over. Streets must now directly service any locations that people can visit.

There’s a reason for this. The new SimCity is effectively The Sims playing out on a grand scale. While you can’t go down to the micro level of designing individual homes and maintaining individual lives, each resident of your city is governed by a rudimentary AI. Click on a car or a pedestrian and you’ll get a sense of who that person is and what his or her desires are, at least as far as what a mayor like you can fulfill. Your streets and sidewalks are populated by individuals rather than mere background visual effects.

This is useful for a number of reasons. Getting back to SimCity‘s proclivity for offering visual identifiers to the player, you can click individual houses or thought bubble icons to get a better sense of the specific needs of the people that you, as mayor, ought to address. Visible signs of crime alert you to the need for a stronger law enforcement presence. Heavy traffic at most times on one or more roads suggests that you ought to expand your street layout, build wider streets, or look into mass transit. A bunch of moving trucks signals growth in whatever area they’re driving through.

The SimCity that you know is still very much alive and well in Maxis’ 2013 refresh. The interface is considerably cleaner and more user-friendly now, but the fundamentals that were established back in the 80′s are largely unchanged. You’re still working to nail the perfect balance of green, blue, and yellow zones for residential, commercial, and industrial development, but the game’s methods of communication and overall flexibility are enhanced significantly. All in all, it’s a promising start for this new face of SimCity.

In the seventh edition of Life and Tiles, Andrew begins to tire of how difficult it is to be an early adopter. Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 are still missing the apps and features of Apple’s ecosystems. Will it drive him mad?

Everybody likes a comeback story and everybody loves to root for the underdog. For me, that was part of the Windows 8 appeal. I was so used to worshipping the hero status of Apple, pumping money, praise, and time into its vast product line, basking in all the luxuries afforded to those who sit within the walled garden. All my friends perfectly understood what I meant when I talked about the iPhone 5 and some actually asked me to explain the latest rumors. If I wanted a certain accessory like a speaker or specific case, there were a multitude of options to choose from. New, notable apps in iOS are covered in most major publications and reviewed hundreds of times by users before they were even popular. Being with Apple was easy and really, really fun. But for a tech-crazed lunatic – me – I wasn’t satisfied with the best apps, incredible hardware, and an overwhelmingly pleasant experience. No, I had to get bored instead.

After rooting for the leader of consumer technology for so long, I turned to Microsoft, Apple’s once vehement rival that is now barely in the race. I wanted to feel what it was like to struggle again, joining the ranks of an uprising against the monolithic empire I once swore allegiance to.

At first it was interesting, fun even. Each quality app I found was a direct result of hard work and dedication, combing through the swill at the bottom of the barrel to find something worthwhile. Apps are rarely reviewed when you find them either and part of the fun is getting to be the first one to pass judgment. It’s exhilarating to feel like a part of something, a necessary piece of a puzzle, helping to build a successful ecosystem with enough excitement to draw a crowd. Apple doesn’t need more people to adopt iOS, but Microsoft needs people to move to Windows Phone. WP8 and Windows 8 are essential to its future. I appreciate the innovation present in my Surface tablet and Lenovo Yoga 13. A productive tablet is a dream come true and having a flexible laptop is useful… most of the time.

Unfortunately, fighting for the underdog gets old pretty fast. It’s been two months and I would kill for a top-notch app to be announced for Windows Phone 8. When I am searching for apps I would appreciate the opinions of any brave souls that tried it out before me. Hanging out in Microsoft’s world is starting to resemble trudging through mud in a rainstorm. I’m uncomfortable, tired, and annoyed.

For starters, that “flexible” Yoga 13 of mine has a lot of problems, which I broke down in detail earlier in the series. Since then, the speakers have started acting up, cracking and popping when I play music. Add that to the + = key that keeps popping off, an unreliable touchpad, and the overall flimsy build quality and we have a problem. Being an early adopter may have sounded like a good idea, but it’s certainly an uphill battle. Looking back, my naïve optimism toward putting more work into my digital life appears to be a serious folly. I miss the reliability of my MacBook with a touchpad capable of almost anything and an indestructible body (I dropped it on numerous occasions). I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yoga 13 snapped in half after a drop.

There’s also something to be said for the Apple slogan, “There’s an app for that.” On one hand, it is corny as hell, but on the other, Apple actually has the developers to back it up. It’s unbelievably convenient to have a banking app for whatever establishment you chose or access to cutting edge social media platforms like Vine, not to mention the pain of realizing that the Pebble watch does not have a Windows Phone app.

The appeal of rooting for the underdog comes from the progress you make along the way, the pleasure of watching your chosen team build up to an exhilarating victory. The problem with that is that since Windows 8 launched, I feel like the playing field has been static. Everyone predicted that official Twitter and Facebook apps would be available for the platform once it launched, but so far we haven’t heard anything from either service. Similarly, most of the experimental devices shipped for Windows 8 have earned lukewarm or scathing reviews by publications and users alike – not exactly fodder for inspiration. I’ve made my decision and it is much too late to back out now, but climbing the ladder to success looks a lot better when you’re looking down from the top.

HP will soon release its own Pavilion Chromebook, the latest alongside offerings by Samsung, Acer, and Lenovo. Chrome OS just got a big boost.

It looks like Google’s Chrome OS gambit is starting to pick up steam. According to the listing discovered at the Verge, HP is preparing to release its very first Chromebook.

The new, entry-level Pavilion Chromebook will feature a 14-inch, 1366 x 768 BrightView display, a veritable behemoth when compared to its 11- and 12-inch brethren. Under the hood comes a pretty standard 1.1GHz Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, a 16GB solid-state drive, three USB ports, and a HDMI port – all in a package that’s less than an inch thin and weighs just under 4 pounds. The device touts an inexplicable four hours of battery life, though, which is truly anemic when you consider how lightweight Chrome OS is. And with specs that you’d be hard-pressed to construe as superpowered, HP must be betting hard that the screen will set this notebook apart from the competition.

Perhaps more significant, HP is now joining major PC manufacturers Samsung, Acer, and Lenovo in expressing an interest in the nascent platform. The listing itself comes only weeks after Lenovo announced its own offering in the education-focused ThinkPad X131e. Google has managed to successfully court such big names even as Chrome OS remains unproven with critics and consumers.

We find it very interesting that some of the biggest PC makers are jumping on board with Chrome, even though it hasn’t established itself as a major alternative to Windows or OS X. Our recent reviews of the Samsung Chromebook and Chromebox stated as much. While Chrome OS shows immense promise, the platform is still very limited. But, with the PC dying a slow death, manufacturers must keep their options open as tablets and even smartphones cannibalize their sales.

Microsoft and even Linux distributors like Ubuntu are officially on alert. If this move is an indicator of anything, Google is officially coming for them.

Virus protection for a Mac isn’t essential, but if you want the comfort of knowing you’ve got extra protection, save yourself some money and try one of our picks for the best free antivirus software for Mac OS X.

Mac users will tell you that third-party antivirus software isn’t necessary on OS X. Simply put, Macs aren’t as vulnerable to malicious attacks because OS X’s core architecture is rock solid. How is it so secure? There are a number of answers to this question, but it’s primarily due to a technique known as sandboxing. Essentially, sandboxing is a form of software virtualization that runs programs and processes in an isolated virtual environment, thus giving them limited access to your system and everything on it.  Secondarily is a system called library randomization, which makes it harder for malicious programs to find their targets. There are dozens of other security features that we could go on about, but we’ll leave it at that. 

However, just because Macs are well-protected against viruses right out of the box, it doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t have a decent antivirus program on your system. Should you pay for one though? We don’t think it’s necessary. There are dozens of great antivirus programs that are completely free, and if used with good OS X security practices, these should offer more than enough protection for your computer.

Before we move on to the software list, here are a few things you can do to make your Mac more secure without installing anything at all…

Securing your Mac without antivirus software

1. Update, update, update – If your computer isn’t set to automatically check for updates, it should be. Apple is quick to pinpoint potential threats and address them as quickly as possible. You should install these updates (especially the security updates) as soon as they pop up. If you ignore them for an extended period of time, you’re leaving your system in a potentially vulnerable state.
2. Make sure your firewall is turned on – To check if it is, head over to System Preferences > Security & Privacy and click the Firewall tab.
3. Encrypt data for extra protection – OS X automatically secures important system files, but if you’re interested in keeping certain sensitive files safe, turn on FileVault. It’ll encrypt all the stuff in your home folder. To turn it on, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy and click the FileVault tab.
4. Don’t be a reckless clicker on the Internet – We shouldn’t have to tell you, but, if you want to keep your computer virus-free, don’t download things from unfamiliar sources and don’t open email attachments from people you don’t know. It’s not essential, but you can make your browsing habits safer by installing the Web of Trust extension in your browser.

That about sums it up. So, without further ado, here’s our list of the best free antivirus software for Mac OS X. For your convenience, we’ve narrowed it down to five contenders. Here they are in no particular order: 

Avast!

There’s a good chance you’ve heard of Avast!. It’s one of the most popular antivirus programs on the Web, and for good reason. Avast! has gained a widespread user base because it offers certain features that you won’t find in other free programs. Although it doesn’t support scheduled scanning like some of the others on this list, Avast! does offer on-demand and on-access scans, as well as email scanning and a variety of Web security features. 

ClamXav

ClamXav is different from the other programs listed here. It’s not exactly a program itself, but rather a graphical user interface for the open source ClamAV antivirus engine that’s otherwise controlled via command-line prompts. Now although it’s a step up from the command-line interface, ClamXav’s design is still pretty stripped down and straightforward. But don’t let absent flashy buttons and sliders fool you – it’s has the same functionality you’ll find in most paid antivirus apps. You can scan individual files or entire folders on-demand, on access, on schedule, and quarantine anything that’s fishy. Users looking for an antivirus program that’s both feature-rich and lightweight should definitely check this one out.

Comodo

In terms of features, Comodo really isn’t much different from Sophos or Avira. It does all the same stuff: scheduled tasks, quarantining, automatic updates for virus definitions – the whole lot. The only real difference is the look and feel of the program’s interface. Of all the programs in this list, Comodo’s interface will probably be the most approachable and easy to understand for tech-challenged users. It features big, colorful icons that make navigation a breeze, well-labeled tabs for each function, and a slider for changing your level of protection. For these reasons, we recommend Comodo for anyone who might be overwhelmed by excessive buttons and icons.

Sophos

As we mentioned before, Sophos, Comodo, and Avira are all rather similar when it comes to features. When it comes down to it, they essentially perform all the same functions, and the only significant differences between them come from their respective user interfaces. Sophos makes use of a cocoa interface, so it looks and feels like a native Mac app. Seasoned OS X vets won’t have any trouble getting started with it. The app’s primary functions – things like full-system or drive-specific scans – are easily accessible from the home screen. More advanced actions, like scan scheduling and quarantined file management, are all easy to execute in just a few clicks.  

Avira

Avira’s interface is the Goldilocks of the bunch. It’s somewhere between Comodo’s uber-simplified layout and Sophos’s logical cocoa-style interface. We found that it strikes a nice balance between ease of use and quick access to advanced features. When it comes time to scan, you can opt for a quick scan that just covers the most important system files, a full system scan that sweeps your whole computer, or a custom scan that only covers the files and folders you choose. Advanced features like scheduling and quarantine are also included.

That sums things up, but if your favorite free antivirus program for Mac didn’t make the list, be sure to tell us about it in the comments!