Geek News

Nintendo has been on an excellent run between the release of the Switch and its mini retro consoles, and the Wall Street Journal reports that next year its new hardware launch could be a revised version of the Switch. Pitched as a way to "maintain sales momentum" it's unclear exactly what might change in a new version, but one possibility is swapping its LCD screen out for a more battery-friendly and better-looking OLED display. Source: Wall Street Journal via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2P7tN8g If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml , then send me Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to man...

Fans of Civilization VI who want to create an empire while on the go have another option for how to do so -- it's now available on iPhone. There's good news for iPad players, as those who own the turn-based strategy game on the tablet can snag the iPhone version at no extra cost. You can get a taste of Civilization VI by playing your first 60 turns for free. To keep going and unlock the full game, it'll typically cost you $60, though it's on sale for $24 until October 16th to mark the iPhone launch. Since it's a resource-intensive title (with almost all of the PC version's features), you'll need an iPhone 7 or newer handset. Meanwhile, if you'd like another way to grow your empire from the Stone Age to the modern era while on your commute, it's worth noting the game is also making its way to Nintendo Switch next month. ...

Internet giants are getting better at countering fake news . For the most part, though, they screen content on a story-by-story basis and only block entire outlets well after they've done significant damage. Researchers from MIT's CSAIL and Qatar's Computing Research Institute might have a better solution: use AI to measure the quality of the source. Their machine learning algorithm uses collections of existin g articles to gauge the accuracy and bias of a given outlet on the assumption that a fake news peddler or spin factory isn't about to change its ways. Rather than focusing on the claims themselves, it studies the language used to express those claims. The team used Media Bias/Fact Check's analysis of 2,000-plus news outlets to train the algorithm to look for the telltale linguistic cues of sites that push fake or heavily distorted news stori...

FireEye details how this money-stealing operation it now calls APT 38 has emerged in the past four years and how it operates. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2DV6JIG If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

To date, invoking Twitter's data-saving mode on your phone has meant either installing Twitter Lite or relying on the mobile web version. You won't have to make that compromise from now on, as Twitter has introduced a data saver option to its Android and iOS apps. Toggle the feature in your Data Usage settings and it will both lower image quality as well as disable autoplay for videos. You can choose to load higher-quality pictures in those moments when you have data to spare. The update also brings better group chat management, better ad labels and voice accessibility improvements for polls. You can grab the updated app right away, although it may take a while to see all the new features. This doesn't render Twitter Lite useless, of course. It still has a reduced overall footprint, and it's ultimately the better choice if you have to worry about...

Facebook's tougher political advertising policy has had more unintended side-effects . The Washington Post has discovered that the social network inadvertently blocke d dozens of LGBT-themed ads after its screening system (which includes automated and human moderators) deemed them political. Most didn't contain advocacy or obvious political leanings -- the only common link was a reference to LGBT keywords. When the ad runners complained to Facebook, it responded more than once that mentioning LGBT made it about civil rights and thus a "political topic." Spokeswoman Devon Kearns said the ads had been "incorrectly labeled" and has removed them from its archive. She stressed that people at Facebook "do not consider" every LGBT ad to be political and claimed that "several" of the ads took political stances. Advert...

Facebook's eagerness to replicate Snapchat features might extend beyond particularly conspicuous elements like Stories and selfie filters . The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that it's testing a rework of Nearby Friends that introduces visuals uncannily like Snapchat's Snap Map . While the conventional list is still there, testers can see friends grouped by city and neighborhood. You'd have a better sense of whether or not a friend is town without having to read a sea of text. It's uncertain if this will become a standard feature. While a Facebook spokesperson described this as an active test, tipster Jane Manchun Wong noted that the map vanished on her device soon after TechCrunch asked about the feature. There's plenty of motivation to shake things up, though. Nearby Friends is optional like many of these location-based too...

We still don't know the name of Disney's subscription streaming service, but we do have some details for a live-action Star Wars show that will appear on it. Jon Favreau announced on Instagram that The Mandalorian is set "after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order," with a "lone gunfighter" emerging in the tradition of Jango and Boba Fett on the outer reaches of the galaxy. Reports have indicated that the series could cost as much as $100 million to make, so the expectations are high. Other live-action shows that we could see when it launches next year are ones focusing on Marvel Cinematic Universe characters like Loki or Scarlet Witch (presumably Favreau is too busy to star in an Iron Man spin-off). We're also expecting new episodes of Star Wars: Clone Wars , so even if some of the older films aren't ava...

On paper, LG's Watch W7 should provide a first-class Wear OS experience and the longevity of a regular analog watch -- in other words, the best of all wearable worlds. After a bit of hands-on time here in Queens, though, I'm not sure the reality lives up to the concept's promise. But first, the basics. The W7 has a handsome stainless body that, I'm sorry to say, will be too big for a lot of people. It looked relatively nice strapped to my wrist, but the W7 looked absolutely massive on someone's else just to my left. If you have very thin arms, you can basically write this thing off right now. The Watch W7 runs the latest version of Google's Wear OS, and it'll take a bit of getting used to if you haven't used the operating system in a while. (The last Wear OS watch I tested in earnest was LG's Watch Sport, so this update was a pre...