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This Week's TV: The Most Epic Game of Thrones Episode of All [Video]

This coming week's episode of Game of Thrones could be one of the most lavish, insane spectacles ever put on television, and we've got all the details here. Other reasons not to throw out your television set: Awake's finale features the meeting you never expected. More »

Radiohead's Kid A, composed entirely as an old school video game [Video]

After releasing OK Computer, an album about technological malaise at the close of the 20th century, Radiohead released the spartan and sterile Kid A, an LP even more devoted to alienation. More »

The Newest Player in the Game of Thrones Marches its Armies onto Facebook [Game Of Thrones]

Like five kings fighting over the Iron Throne, games hoping to represent the true Game of Thrones experience keep arising. The newest contender hopes to wave its victorious banner over the fertile fields of Facebook. More »

Google Chrome Overtakes Internet Explorer as the Number One Browser [Google Chrome]

According to digital analytics site StatCounter, Google Chrome has passed Internet Explorer as the most popular web browser with 31.88% of the world's web traffic. Internet Explorer wasn't far behind coming in at a close second with 31.47%. More »

YouTube blows out seven candles, cuts birthday party short to log 72 hours of video per minute

Ah, YouTube. It wasn't long ago that that it was pumping out around 60 hours of content every 60 seconds, but nothing can stop the video juggernaut. Celebrating its seven years of existence with a video charting its rise, rise and rise, YouTube's official blog has also announced that it's now dealing with an eye-bleeding 72 hours of video every minute. We're still finding all this content as pervasive as ever though, with over 3 billion hours now watched every month. Catch the site blowing its own trumpet in the tribute vid right after the break -- which is all well and good, but where's the free game?

Continue reading YouTube blows out seven candles, cuts birthday party short to log 72 hours of video per minute

YouTube blows out seven candles, cuts birthday party short to log 72 hours of video per minute originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 May 2012 11:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unspeakable Tragedy: $320 Million of Cheese Destroyed in Italian Earthquake [Cheese]

On Sunday, Northern Italy was rocked by a magnitude-6.0 earthquake. In the process, many cheese factories in the region suffered damage—and it is estimated that over 300,000 wheels of cheese, thought to be worth at least $320 million, have been destroyed. More »

The first female aeronaut inspired the Mile High Club in 1784 [Secret History]

You'd probably guess, if asked, that the first Mile High Club members were those dashing stunt pilots of the 1920s, who did things like play tennis on the wings of a plane. You'd be off by a century and a half. As soon as the very first woman took to the skies, people started having ideas. More »

Why Facebook's Tanking Today [Facebook Ipo]

The stock is falling! The stock is falling! If you stopped following the Facebook IPOcalypse on Friday, it might be time to pull up another chair. FB has plummeted 12 percent as of this writing, with no signs of pulling out of its nosedive. Ruh roh. More »

Engadget Giveaway: win an 11-inch MacBook Air pre-loaded with Parallels!

This may just be the biggest single giveaway we've held on Engadget yet. We dare you to resist the tempting lure of an 11-inch MacBook Air with 4GB RAM and 128GB hard drive, capable of running Mac OS X and Windows 7! With graduation season upon us, our friends at Parallels are hooking you up with the best senior gift that you could possibly receive. So what's this software all about? Essentially, it allows you to run Windows and OS X apps side-by-side on your Mac without rebooting -- that way, you'll get the best of both worlds.

The MacBook Air will come pre-loaded with Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac, Windows 7 home premium and Microsoft Office Home and Business 2012 for Windows. It'll also come with Parallels Mobile app for iOS, which gives you the ability to access and run everything on your Mac via your iPhone or iPad. Not too shabby for the low, low price of one comment. So brush up on the rules, enter to win and good luck!

Continue reading Engadget Giveaway: win an 11-inch MacBook Air pre-loaded with Parallels!

Engadget Giveaway: win an 11-inch MacBook Air pre-loaded with Parallels! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 May 2012 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Stupid Things You Do on Facebook (and How to Fix Them) [Facebook]

Reluctantly or otherwise, Facebook is the place most of us have chosen to share our lives online. In spite of its many useful features, the social media site can be a constant source of annoyance, embarrassment, and trouble if you make a few stupid decisions you might not even realize you're making. Fortunately, with a little effort, you can get Facebook under your control. More »

Baseball Gloves with MLB Players' Twitter Handles Are So Very Useless [Sports]

Because professional athletes use Twitter to communicate with their fans (somewhat true), follow hot girls (very true) and show off how interesting and well-rounded they are (rarely true), sports leagues have decided to use players' Twitter handles as a gross promotion vehicle. It's even invaded the teensiest of details: baseball batting gloves. More »

EA Pulling Dragon Age: Legends from Facebook and Google+ on June 18th [Dragon Age]

EA hasn't been shy about blatantly saying that they're going to extend their big games across as many platforms as possible. The recent example Mass Effect Infiltrator on iOS—which links back to the console game via the mega-publisher's Origin online service—shows how EA probably wants this kind of thing to work in the future. An example of how they don't want things to work? Look no further than Dragon Age: Legends. More »

Detailed Graphic Shows Every British Navy Ship Lost In World War II [Visualization]

I just love these old school visualizations: here are all the ships lost by the British Navy during World War II. Many of these were hunt down by Nazi U-Boats. It's a staggering amount but it could have been a lot worse. More »

The vast, abandoned salt mines that lurk beneath Detroit [Modern Ruins]

Over 1,000 feet beneath the city of Detroit is a 1,500 acre sprawl of tunnels created by salt miners at the turn of the twentieth century. Over at Environmental Graffiti, there's a fascinating story about the rise and fall of Detroit as the great city of salt production. Discovered in the late nineteenth century, Detroit's salt deposits would prove lucrative — but only to the company with the engineering capabilities to actually drill down far enough to reach it. More »

Comcast officially launches next-gen X1 DVR platform and iPhone remote app

As expected, Comcast is kicking off the rollout of its new X1 (previously beta tested under the name Xcalibur) DVR platform. The announcement was made at the Cable Show in Boston, and that's where it will be available first, some time in "the coming weeks" with a few other major markets following soon after. We've had a few peeks at the new UI over the last year or so but now we have a full gallery of shots of both the DVR software and accompanying X1 remote app that will be available first on the iPhone. The new guide looks very similar to the existing Xfinity TV remote apps for phones and tablets, formatted for HD screens and with support for recommendations from your social network and support for apps like weather, TV, traffic, Facebook and Pandora to start. The new set-top boxes it runs on have built-in tru2way and internet support, as well as RF remotes instead of IR.

Meanwhile, the X1 remote control app adds motion and gesture control to the current set of features, as well as more direct interaction with what's on screen, since it can be used to swipe through pages, type into menus and pause currently video with a shake. As far as pricing, Comcast says it will be available to new Triple Play customers with HD/DVR service at no additional cost -- no word yet on what that means for everyone else. Check the gallery below for a look at the new software, and check the press release after the break for more info.

Continue reading Comcast officially launches next-gen X1 DVR platform and iPhone remote app

Comcast officially launches next-gen X1 DVR platform and iPhone remote app originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 May 2012 10:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The BootlegMIC Is a Tiny, DIY Mic that Seriously Increases the Sound Quality on Your Phone [Video]

If the mic on your phone, laptop, or other device leaves a bit to be desired, the bootlegMIC is a simple DIY mic that sounds fantastic and takes up almost no space at all. More »

Talk Amongst Yourselves [Official Kotaku Forum]

Welcome to Kotaku's official forum, known affectionately as Talk Amongst Yourselves. This is the place where we gather on a daily basis to discuss all things video game and existential. Want to talk about new games, old games, games that aren't even out yet? Knock yourselves out! More »

The Care Bears are back, and they're creepy as hell [Video]

The Hub is bringing back 1980s cartoon bear juggernaut The Care Bears in a new horrifyingly CG series called Care Bears: Welcome to Care-A-Lot. Is it just me, or do the humans in this trailer look like skulls? More importantly, will this new 1980s nostalgia cartoon provoke the rage of the Bronies? We can only imagine with delight a Braveheart-style fight between the two fandoms at the next Comic-Con. More »

ZTE Tania launching in China within days, gets a CPU upgrade

ZTE is slowly growing to be an important partner with Microsoft and Windows Phone as they're one of the largest OEMs in the world (that you never heard of). Their "Tania" has been around for some time now but it surprisingly hasn't launched yet in China, which received its big Windows Phone push last month with Nokia and HTC leading the way.

Now it looks like the device will finally be out within days though no specific carrier has been announced. According to Wei Xiaodong, ZTE sales director, the phone will be released by the end of this month and will get a CPU bump from 1GHz to 1.4Ghz--a trend we're seeing with the more premium Windows Phones like the 710 and Focus 2. Everything else will stay the same though: 4.3" screen, 4GB storage, 512MB RAM and a 5MP camera. Of course the OS is expected to be "Tango" for the Chinese localization.

We played with the Tania back at CES and actually like the little guy. While perhaps not amazing by certain standards, for a premium Windows Phone it's actually well done. ZTE has also announced plans to make a push here in the United States and it will be curious to see how that pans out.

See our hands-on video on the ZTE Tania from CES 2012 here.

Source: CNMO; via Unwired View

Illusion tricks you into thinking these celebrities are downright hideous [Video]

Society harbors a strange obsession with seeing celebrities disheveled, out of makeup, and out of shape. The video featured here takes that fascination and turns it totally inside out, by using normal photographs of good-looking celebrities to illustrate what's known as the "Flashed Face Distortion Effect" — an optical illusion first described last year by University of Queensland researchers Jason Tangen, Sean Murphy and Matthew Thompson: More »

Hulu's Summer Shows Might Actually Be Worth Watching [Video]

Hulu has been investing more and more in producing its own original series as well as securing exclusive rights to other shows—it's how the service plans to survive in the face of competition from Netflix and the cable companies. Here's a look at what's in store for you on Hulu this summer. More »

A sneak peek of the new architecture-obsessed Batman graphic novel [Batman]

For his first graphic novel about the Caped Crusader, author and designer Chip Kidd (who worked on Bat-Manga! and oodles of famous book covers) teamed up with illustrator Dave Taylor (2000 AD) for the upcoming Batman: Death By Design. More »

Nokia Lumia 900 Camera Extension app previewed in Hong Kong (video)

You're looking at Camera Extension: a new app for the Lumia 900 that, er, extends the phone's camera function by adding burst, timer and panorama modes plus, most notably, a smart group shot feature. The latter takes five pictures in five seconds, then cuts out the heads and lets you swap 'em out in the same way that BB 10's Timeline Lens (amongst others) works. Will the app bring you out in goofy smiles? Find out in the video after the break, where WeLoveWindowsPhone.hk gives it a go.

Continue reading Nokia Lumia 900 Camera Extension app previewed in Hong Kong (video)

Nokia Lumia 900 Camera Extension app previewed in Hong Kong (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 May 2012 10:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Swipe Safari Adds Tons of Configurable Gestures to Safari on iPhone [Jailbreak]

iOS: (Jailbroken): For whatever reason the mobile version of Safari doesn't have the same handy swipe gestures as its desktop counterpart. If you're looking to add those same gestures to the your iPhone or iPad, Swipe Safari does just that and allows you to customize your gestures in a variety of ways. More »

Diablo III: The Kotaku Review [Video]

Plagued with disconnects and shot through with lag, the May 15 launch of Diablo III had players and press alike railing against the always-online nature of the latest entry in the genre-defining action role-playing series. While not entirely unexpected, those unfortunate events punctuated the problems with requiring constant external server access for a single-player game. More »

Samsung and Apple CEOs Will Meet Today To Talk Possible Settlement [Patent Wars]

Apple's Tim Cook and Samsung's Choi Gee-sung will meet in San Francisco today to discuss a potential settlement in the all-out patent battle the two companies are currently engaged in. More »

Pizza Hut Australia giving away 5 Lumia 800 Windows Phones and $100 vouchers

Nokia and Microsoft have teamed up with Pizza Hut Australia to give away five Lumia 800s and $100 vouchers (for Pizza Hut). How does one enter with a chance to win? Simply head over to their Facebook page and fill out a short form detailing why you believe you should win one of the available prizes.

Do hurry if you're thinking of entering as the competition ends on May 25th. You can download the Pizza Hut app from the Marketplace for free (country restricted). Check out the app in a video demonstration below.

Source: Facebook (Pizza Hut), via: WPDownUnder

Report: Foxconn spending $210 million on Apple production line

China Daily is claiming that Foxconn will pump $210 million into building a production line in China's Jiangsu province. Local authorities have stated that the plant in Huai'an city will produce components for Apple, no doubt heralding a raft of rampant speculation as to Cupertino's intentions. The building will occupy 40,000 square meters, produce $1.1 billion worth of gear per year and require 35,800 employees -- more than Nokia and Sony have fired in recent months, combined.

Report: Foxconn spending $210 million on Apple production line originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 May 2012 09:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ice Cream Burger, Only $1.99. Needs Bacon. That's All. [Foodmodo]

Can life get any better than a burger ice cream under the California sun? No, not it can't. Well, maybe if it had some crispy real bacon inside. Reader Chris Rundgren found this in his local Carl's Jr. in Orange County, California. [Thanks Chris!] More »

Come hear io9's Charlie Jane Anders read in NYC with Brian Slattery [Io9 Meetup]

If you're in New York tomorrow evening, you should stop by the Soho Gallery for the Digital Arts around 6:30, when Charlie Jane Anders will be reading from her novelette "Six Months, Three Days" with Lost Everything author Brian Francis Slattery. This is part of the long-running and illustrious New York Review of Science Fiction reading series, guest curated by Tor.com and Tor Books' Liz Gorinsky. More details here and here. More »