Author: Zach Walton

Animal Crossing: New Leaf hits the 3DS next month. Nintendo is preparing for the launch with a new advertising campaign that features a child visiting the weird world of Animal Crossing. It’s a little like H.R. Pufnstuf, but far less creepy.

Besides being the mayor of your own town full of nightmarish anthropomorphic animals, players can invite their friends to join in on the fun. What fun would that be? Manual labor, giving what little money you earn chopping down trees to a loan shark, and racking up more debt by buying more stuff.

Actually, Animal Crossing is pretty depressing when it’s put that way. It’s amazing that Nintendo has somehow figured out how to make the unbearable world of being an adult into something fun and inviting.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf will be out on June 9 exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS.

The Xbox One announcement was all about one thing – TV. It’s clear that Microsoft is positioning its next console as more than just a game machine, but it might be bringing some game elements to television broadcasts.

Gamesindustry.biz reports that Microsoft has recently applied for a patent that would hand out achievements to TV viewers. Similar to how achievements encourage players to complete specific objectives, TV achievements will be used to incentivize viewers to watch more content. Here’s the description:

“Television viewing tends to be a passive experience for a viewer, without many opportunities for the viewer to engage or have interactive experiences with the presented content. To increase interactive viewing and encourage a user to watch one or more particular items of video content, awards and achievements may be tied to those items of video content. Additionally, by tying the awards and achievements to particular items of video or advertising content, viewers may be encouraged to increase their viewership of the content, thus increasing advertising opportunities,”

Speaking of advertising opportunities, the patent application says the Xbox One may use Kinect to get viewers to interact with the program. One of the examples has the viewer holding up a particular object that may coincide with what’s on the screen. The TV show would then reward the viewer with an achievement for being a blind loyal consumer.

The most interesting part of the application is a little section that says TV achievements may not just be points that go towards a Gamerscore. Instead, Microsoft may offer users digital and physical rewards for watching shows and scanning in items.

For now, this is just a patent application. There’s no guarantee that this will show up on the Xbox One. That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it after Microsoft put so much emphasis on television at its unveiling event.

McDonald’s is huge in Japan, and it just got bigger with its Mega Potato Fries.

IT Media reports (via Kotaku) that McDonald’s is now offering its largest calorie item in the history of the chain with the Mega Potato. It holds the equivalent of two large fries, but at almost half the price.

Unfortunately for you McDonald’s french fry fans, the Mega Potato is only available in Japan. You could hop on a plane to grab some, but you have to be fast. The Mega Potato will only be on sale through the end of June. After that, you’ll have to start forking over $6 for two large fries.

This isn’t the first time that a fast food restaurant in Japan has offered ridiculously sized meals. For the release of Windows 7, Microsoft teamed up with Burger King to offer a seven-patty whopper. Earlier this year, Japanese restaurant chain Lotteria outdid everybody with a nine-patty cheeseburger to coincide with the release of Evangelion 3.33.

What’s black, white and flat all over? iOS 7 if some reports are to be believed.

Sources close to Apple told 9to5Mac that the next iteration of Apple’s iOS software will be getting a complete redesign. That redesign will predominantly sport black and white colors while toning down on the textured look that iOS has been known for since its inception in 2007.

Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive (aka the guy who designed the iPhone hardware) is now in charge of the iOS7 overhaul. He is expected to bring the simplistic design of his hardware to iOS 7. He reportedly feels that Apple’s iOS has become complicated in recent years with different visual designs for different apps. His design would unite all of Apple’s software under a common aesthetic principle while retaining the simplicity of use iOS fans have come to expect.

Ive’s new black and white approach to UI design will find its way into pretty much every facet of the next iteration of iOS. Some examples include a lock screen that’s no longer transparent, notifications that ditch the current leather look in favor of a white text on black background, and the home screen will be removing gradient textures from backgrounds and app icons.

Speaking of apps, all of Apple’s apps have reportedly been redesigned with the new black and white look in mind. One example is the Notes app, which currently features a yellow notepad look. The new design will likely feature a simplistic white look with black text.

Outside of design, the new mobile OS will also reportedly include integration with Flickr and Vimeo.

We’re likely to see if the above rumors are true at Apple’s WWDC keynote on June 10. The developer-focused event will likely not feature a lot of new hardware (sorry iPhone fans), but we’ll probably get our first look at iOS 7 and the next version of Mac OS X.

A&E is canceling its award-winning documentary series Intervention this year. The 13th season, which is set to start airing on June 13, will be it last.

Intervention’s final season will be comprised of five episodes that feature “fan favorites” from the series’ long history. Some of the addiction specialists tapped to return include Jeff Van Vonderen, Candy Finnigan, Donna Chavous and Ken Seeley. A&E says the final season will feature some rather intense episodes.

“As Intervention comes to an end, we’re proud to have paved the way for such an original and groundbreaking series,” said A&E and BIO Channel’s executive vice president of programming David McKillop. “We’re honored to have been a part of the 243 interventions since its premiere in March of 2005, leading to the 156 individuals that are currently sober to this day.”

You may have never watched the series, but one episode from the A&E series became a short lived Internet sensation on the Internet a few years ago when the emotional climax was auto-tuned:

[h/t: Reuters]

After Tuesday’s Xbox One reveal, reports came forward that Microsoft would block used games, or at least charge those playing used games a fee. Microsoft finally came out with an official statement that didn’t clear much up, but a report out today offers more details.

MCV reports that Microsoft will be taking command of the pre-owned market with a system that gives publishers and itself a cut of every used game sale. In fact, the new system detailed today would give retailers about the same cut as it gets from selling used games.

As you already know, each Xbox One game will tie itself to a single Xbox Live account when installed on the system. In essence, you are buying a license to use that software.

Now, this is where things get interesting. Those who sell their game to a retailer will have that game’s license removed from their system. This will all be done through Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform – the same platform that will power Xbox Live on the new console.

Once the game is in the hands of the retailer, they can sell it for whatever price they like. Unfortunately, that price may be higher than usual thanks to Microsoft and publishers now getting a cut of every pre-owned sale. In fact, unconfirmed reports are saying that retailers will only get to pocket 10 percent of pre-owned sales. The current pre-owned market allows retailers to pocket all of the money from sales.

While this may be good for publishers and Microsof, I find it hard to believe that retailers would accept these terms. Retailers like GameStop can only survive thanks to the used game market. Taking that revenue away from them makes many, including myself, think that GameStop and others will refuse to sell pre-owned Xbox One titles.

It should be noted that these are unconfirmed reports for now. It wouldn’t surprise me, however, to see Microsoft working with publishers to take back the profits from the pre-owned market. It may be good for them in the short run, but I can only see it blowing up in their faces further down the road.

One of the pleasant surprises out of this year’s Google I/O was the announcement of a Nexus edition of the Galaxy S4. Now Google may be working on a similar deal with HTC.

Anonymous sources speaking to Geek say that HTC is now working on a version of the HTC One that will ship with stock Android 4.2.2 instead of its HTC Sense software. If true, it could potentially be a major win for HTC as it’s aiming to capture more of the market that’s been cornered by Samsung in recent years.

Of course, there is one question we must ask – why bother with a Nexus edition of the HTC One when people can already buy the HTC One developer edition and flash their own custom ROMs on the device? Well, some people adore the vanilla Google experience, but don’t know how to install custom ROMs. Letting HTC and Google do all the work for them could boost sales of HTC’s flagship while getting the definitive Google experience, ads and all, into the hands of more users.

So, when can you expect to see the fabled Nexus edition of the HTC One arriving in stores? It’s said that we’ll get an announcement within the next two weeks with a release following later in the summer.

It should be noted that this is merely a rumor for now, but Geek broke the news that Google would be releasing a Nexus edition of the Galaxy S4 before its announcement at Google I/O. I wouldn’t be surprised to see HTC follow suit.

The government is concerned about the proliferation of 3D printed guns. That much was obvious when the State Department demanded Defense Distributed remove the blueprints for the first 3D printed gun – The Liberator – from its Web site. Now another government agency is warning law enforcement about the potential dangers posed by 3D printed firearms.

Fox News reports that the Department of Homeland Security has issued a bulletin on 3D printed guns to law enforcement agencies around the nation. It says that 3D printed guns in their current state may be “impossible” to stop. The DHS continues by saying that it can’t regulate the guns because it can’t regulate the file sharing that’s putting the gun’s blueprints in peoples’ hands.

Like other agencies, the DHS is concerned that people will use 3D printed firearms to get past metal detectors. Their main concern is that large events will be harder to police since magnetometers, which are used to find metal weapons, will be useless against 3D printed weapons.

An anonymous law enforcement official told Fox News that the only solution to the potential threat is to pat-down every single person attending any large event. He ends by asking if America is ready “for pat-downs at every event.”

Near the end of the memo, the DHS says that Congress can pass laws banning 3D printed weapons. The agency admits that it probably won’t stop the creation of 3D printed guns though:

“Even if the practice is prohibited by new legislation, online distribution of these digital files will be as difficult to control as any other illegally traded music, movie or software files.”

We’ve seen over the past few weeks that people are already experimenting with the Liberator and making it better. Some are even making 3D printed bullets. The DHS does have some legitimate concerns, but it’s hard to say just how much of a threat 3D printed guns pose at the moment. It seems that hobbyists and gun smiths are the only ones interested in the technology for now. Besides, the liberator isn’t much of a gun, and is still prone to exploding.

Nintendo recently held an event for Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D that allowed people to play the game before it launched. That wasn’t all though as Nintendo also decided to terrorize small children when the life-sized DK himself burst through a promotional poster.

Donkey Kong can be a pretty intimidating fellow it seems. He even made some of the adults in the crowd jump.

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D hits the 3DS on May 24.

At the February PS4 conference, Bungie announced that Destiny would be coming to the PS4 and PS3. Now the developer has announced that it will be bringing the game to Sony’s E3 press conference with a new trailer.

The trailer doesn’t really tell us much about the game, but it does have that cinematic flair that made Halo such a groundbreaking game when it launched on the original Xbox. If the actual game can pull this off, Destiny may just be a keeper.

We still don’t have any gameplay, but Bungie announced in the above trailer that that the gameplay will finally be shown off at Sony’s E3 press conference on June 10. It’s a pretty big win for Sony when you consider that Bungie was owned by Microsoft just a few years ago.

Beyond the Sony presser, expect a lot more Destiny news at E3. Besides Call of Duty Ghosts, this is Activision’s other big game for 2013. There’s a lot of expectation riding on it so Bungie has to get it right, and I have no reason to doubt them yet.

Google Chrome already holds the distinction of being one of the fastest, if not the fastest, browsers around. Now Google is working to make it even faster with the latest update to its Chrome beta client.

Google announced that Chrome 28, which is currently available in the beta channel, speeds up the browser with a new threaded HTML parser. What does that mean? Google says that Chrome 28 will load DOM content about 10 percent faster, and reduces the the maximum stop time by 40 percent. In other words, you’re going to see pages load much faster.

For users of Chrome for Android, you’re going to find that WebGL has been added as an experimental feature in the beta alongside Web Audio and WebRTC. WebGL and Web Audio can be combined to create web apps and games that run natively across any browser on any device.

Chrome for Android is also getting the Fullscreen API with this latest beta. When enabled, the browser UI and OS status bar will be hidden in favor of a full screen experience. You can test Chrome for Android’s Fullscreen API with this Chrome Experiment.

Google also details two major deprecated features that users and developers will need to be aware of. First, the Content Security Policy HTTP head is no more. Second, Chrome Extensions have been ditched in favor of the Rich Notifications Chrome API. Many see as a sign that Google Now is about to come to Chrome.

If you want to play around with the above beta features, be sure to download the Chrome Beta here.

The Hangover 3 didn’t seem like it would wow critics, but we couldn’t be for sure until the reviews came in. Well, Hangover 3 reviews are now coming in and critics aren’t exactly in love with it.

Currently sitting at a 25 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, The Hangover 3 is a certified critical bomb. Critics around the country are complaining that the film isn’t funny, and that it reeks of a cheap cash-in. Here’s what some of the critics are saying:

Odie Henderson for the Chicago Sun-Times says: “I had to wait until halfway through the closing credits for my first, and only, laugh.

Scott Weinberg of GeekNation was a little more harsh: “Exists for the producers, the studios and nobody else. Insulting, amateurish garbage.”

Richard Roeper delivers what is perhaps the most damning review: “Director Todd Phillips delivers a film so different from the first two, I’m not even sure it’s supposed to be a comedy.”

Despite all the hate for the film, some critics seemed to have enjoyed the film. Those who did enjoy it say that it’s not as good as the first one, but argue that it’s better than the second. Some are also saying that Zack Galifianakis’ performance is solid.

It seems that audiences who have seen the film so far overwhelmingly agree with the minority of critics that liked it. It’s currently sitting at an 88 percent on the audience meter on Rotten Tomatoes.

Thankfully for those who didn’t like it, The Hangover 3 is being billed as the last film in the franchise.

The biggest surprise from the PS4 unveiling was when Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid, announced that his next – The Witness – would be a limited console exclusive on the PS4. Now the famed, and rather outspoken, creator is back talking about indie game development and his relationship with Sony.

As an added bonus, there’s some new footage of The Witness in action as well.

It’s so refreshing to hear a game developer say that he puts his creative vision ahead of profit. Most indies are like that though, and it’s fantastic to see Sony supporting them in such a big way.

Amazon hasn’t been able to effectively compete with Apple just yet as its Kindle Fire devices are only available in a select few countries. That’s all going to change next month.

Amazon announced today that the Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ will start shipping to over 170 countries in June. If you don’t believe them, pre-orders are open now in all those countries.

“Kindle Fire HD is the #1 best-selling item in the world for Amazon since its launch, and we’re thrilled to make it available to even more customers around the globe today,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “Not only does Kindle Fire feature advanced hardware, it’s also a service. When combined with our content ecosystem, great email and browsing and top-rated customer service, we hope people around the world will agree that Kindle Fire HD is the best tablet for an incredible price.”

Coinciding with the announcement, Amazon also announced that its Appstore for Android is now open for business in over 200 countries. Those getting a Kindle Fire next month can start downloading the very best Kindle has to offer while those who already own Android devices can start taking advantage of Amazon’s free app of the day, among other promotions.

Speaking of which, Amazon will be making Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope: Experiments available as free downloads on its Appstore on May 23 and May 24 respectively to celebrate the launch. The offer is available to everybody who has access to Amazon’s Appstore for Android.

“We are thrilled to be expanding the reach of our global app distribution to nearly 200 countries. We think our customers will love the app selection we have to offer and also find features such as Free App of the Day and personalized recommendations very helpful as they discover and explore new apps and games,” said Mike George, Vice President of Apps and Games at Amazon. “By further expanding the distribution of apps to millions of customers around the world, we are continuing to make it easy for customers to enjoy their Amazon apps on Kindle Fire and any Android device.”

This is a pretty big deal for Amazon. It can now compete on a global level with other device manufacturers, like Apple, who have been selling tablets for years now. The cheap price of the Kindle Fire HD has the potential to undercut Apple, Samsung and more around the world.

Needless to say, it will be very interesting to see how the global tablet market reacts to this news.

In a surprising move, Pope Francis has come out in defense of atheists.

Reuters reports that the Pope recently spoke on atheists and said that those who do good, regardless of their beliefs, are redeemed. Here are his remarks via Vatican Radio:

“The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

The new Pope’s comments are a stark contrast to a lot of religious leaders that equate atheism with a lack of morals. In this case, the pope is stating that morality is not mutually exclusive to Christianity, or religion, at large. He argues that everybody has the potential for good and that people of all beliefs should come together under the common goal of doing good.

Pope Francis may elaborate on his comments in the coming days via his official Twitter account. It will be interesting to see if he responds to the criticism from some evangelicals who say he went too far.

Cartels are still a major problem in Mexico. One particular group has even taken up torching one prominent farming state.

The AP reports that the Knights Templar cartel is terrorizing the Western Mexican state of Michoacan by burning pretty much everything in sight. The group has so far targeted lumber yards, packing plants and even passenger buses in their reign of terror.

Like most organized crime units, this particular cartel is offering to spare farmers if they pay protection money. Some are resisting while others are pleading with the government to help. One such farmer, Alejandro Ayala, sought help from the government and was promptly killed by the cartel for his actions.

The government responded shortly thereafter by sending troops to the region, but it seems to have not helped matters all that much. In response, local farmers have set up vigilante groups to fight the cartels on their own. This has not worked out so well for them as the Mexican government is now arresting members of these vigilante groups as well.

The current conflict has impacted the supply of limes and other produce in the region. Mexico has even resorted to importing limes from Brazil to make up for the shortfall in supply.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for the current conflict. Government forces, cartels and the vigilante forces will continue to fight until only one is left standing. Thus the cycle of violence will continue while innocents are continually caught in the crossfire.

John McCain became the best friend of many cable subscribers around the country earlier this month when he introduced the Television Consumer Freedom Act. The bill would allow consumers to subscribe to only the channels they want instead of having to pay for expensive bundles full of channels they’ll never watch. Now the congressman is pushing his bill in a wonderful op-ed piece for The Los Angeles Times.

The core argument from McCain is that the cable industry needs to be more like iTunes or Netflix. It should allow customers to consume entertainment when and how they want. He laments that the cable industry is fighting against convenience by using federal regulation to push expensive bundles on consumers.

Reinforcing this fundamental unfairness is a federal regulatory and legal framework that tilts in favor of cable companies and television programmers at the expense of consumers.

This framework, which includes arcane but important benefits such as “compulsory copyright licenses,” “syndicated exclusivity,” “network non-duplication” and “retransmission consent,” was originally developed to help the fledgling industry grow. Today, these benefits, vigorously defended by armies of well-paid lobbyists, are helping sustain the status quo while failing to push the industry to meet modern consumers’ evolving demands.

All of this, McCain says, leads to consumers having to pay what he calls the “EPSN tax.” While some consumers may want to watch ESPN, millions of others don’t care about sports. Despite the fact that they never watch ESPN, they are still forced to pay, by his calculations, $5 a month for the channel.

He says that the practice of making consumers pay for channels they don’t want must come to an end. Of course, he realizes this this is harder than it sounds. He says that the cable industry is “firing up their legions of lobbyists” to fight the bill to the bitter end. To them, he has but a simple warning:

Many industries over the years — from the stagecoach builders and saddle makers to those who made the eight-track tape and the Sony Walkman — didn’t much like the change forced on them by the tide of history. Sooner or later, companies standing in the way today will face a similar choice: Meet consumers’ demands or become obsolete.

Some may have issues with McCain’s current bill, but it’s heart is in the right place. There is far too little consumer choice in entertainment these days. If he’s successful in taking on the cable industry, we could see wide sweeping reform in other entertainment industries as well. Being pro-consumer can only help bolster profits in the long run and it’s about time these industries learned that.

Rockstar Games announced today that Grand Theft Auto V will be joining an increasing number of AAA blockbuster titles that will get two separate collector’s editions with the more expensive set packing in numerous physical items.

First up is the $80 special edition for Grand Theft Auto V. Here’s all that comes with it: