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Nintendo rides are coming to Universal’s theme parks

Over the years, Nintendo has crafted a diverse roster of beloved video game characters. They’re colorful and instantly recognisable, so inevitably some fans have wondered whether a Disney-style theme park could be built around them. Well, wonder no more. Nintendo announced today that it’s teaming up with Universal to build new rides in some of its theme parks. It’s staying tight-lipped on the details, but says to expect “spectacular, dedicated experiences” based on Nintendo games, characters and worlds. The move is another sign that Nintendo is becoming less protective over its homegrown video game franchises. The company is already working with DeNA to develop new mobile games, and last month the Wall Street Journal reported that a Legend of Zelda TV show was in the works. That rumor was later shot down (at least partly) by Iwata, but it still signalled Nintendo’s willingness to work with others. After all, these sorts of initiatives could help Nintendo to capture the imagination and support of a whole new generation of gamers. Something that’s increasingly important, given the lacklustre sales of the Wii U. So what Nintendo rides would you like to see in Universal’s theme parks? A rollercoaster based on F-Zero , or a haunted house inspired by Luigi’s Mansion ? Of course, there’s always Nintendo Land if you need some inspiration… Filed under: Gaming , Nintendo Comments Source: Nintendo

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Nintendo rides are coming to Universal’s theme parks

Here’s The First-Ever Picture Of Thunder

During a thunderstorm, it’s normally the lightning bolts that take over Instagram — after all, it’s a little difficult to apply the X-Pro II filter to a soundwave. That is, if you’re a heliophysicist armed with rockets, your own lightning bolt, and some heavy science. Read more…

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Here’s The First-Ever Picture Of Thunder

Spiders Dosed With Graphene Can Spin Stronger Silk

Spider silk is one of the world’s strongest natural materials . Graphene is a super material with many amazing uses . So, oddly, scientists decided to combine the two by spraying spiders with the carbon-based wonder material—and the results were surprisingly impressive. Read more…

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Spiders Dosed With Graphene Can Spin Stronger Silk

‘Grim Fandango Remastered’ comes to Android and iOS

The classic point-and-click adventure Grim Fandango has made its way to iOS and Android . Originally released by LucasArts, Grim Fandango was remastered by creator Tim Schafer’s Double Fine Productions for PlayStation 4, Vita, PC, Mac and Linux earlier this year. Unlike many mobile ports of traditional games, Grim Fandango ‘s point-and-click gameplay should lend itself to extended plays on iPad and Android tablets quite nicely, although playing on smaller phones may prove problematic. The mobile version of the critically acclaimed game includes the re-release’s improved graphics and audio along with additional features like an optional director’s commentary. Grim Fandango is priced at $9.99 in both Google Play and Apple’s App Store for one week only, after which it’ll be sold at $14.99. If you don’t have that kind of equipment but are still keen to play it, Double Fine is applying the same 33% discount to the game on both Steam and the PlayStation Store. Filed under: Gaming , Mobile , Apple , Google Comments Source: Double Fine Productions , (Google Play) , (App Store)

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‘Grim Fandango Remastered’ comes to Android and iOS

Reddit creates a team devoted to original videos

Reddit is about to host a lot more than links and comments. The social site is launching a dedicated team that will produce original video content. It’ll initially focus on bringing the spirit of Ask Me Anything sessions to video, but it’ll eventually look at covering stories from subreddits and individual users — if you’ve seen the “Explain Like I’m Five” adaptation, that’s a hint at where Reddit is going. It’s hard to tell if this will click with a community that’s more about impromptu discussions than slick presentations, but Reddit is clearly willing to find out whether or not there’s money to be made in moving pictures. Filed under: Internet Comments Source: The Verge

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Reddit creates a team devoted to original videos

Comcast to pay you $20 each time a technician is late for an appointment [Updated]

UPDATE : After publication, we learned Comcast has been making the $20 guarantee for more than two years  before this week’s announcement. The other parts of the announcement, including the hiring boost, store renovations, and changes to technology and training, appear to be new. Comcast is once again pledging to overhaul its legendarily bad customer service, hiring more than 5,500 new customer service employees and making “major investments in technology and training,” the company announced yesterday . Part of the hiring boost will add “hundreds of additional technicians across the country,” with a goal to always be on time for customer appointments by Q3 2015, sometime between July and August. To prove how serious it is, Comcast is making a new promise: “If a technician doesn’t arrive on time for an appointment, Comcast will automatically credit the customer $20,” the cable company said. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Comcast to pay you $20 each time a technician is late for an appointment [Updated]

AT&T finally ramps down throttling of unlimited LTE customers

AT&T’s long-standing policy of throttling LTE service for unlimited data customers has finally been changed so that customers are throttled only when they connect to congested cell towers. Until now, AT&T customers who used 5GB of data in a single monthly billing period were throttled for the rest of the month at all times, receiving barely usable service, despite paying for “unlimited” data. AT&T is facing a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission over the practice and has denied wrongdoing , but it promised that it would change the policy to make it more lenient before the end of 2015. AT&T did not make any official announcement of the change, but it is now apparent in the policy detailed on its website : Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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AT&T finally ramps down throttling of unlimited LTE customers

The first self-driving big rig licensed to operate in the US

A Daimler-built autonomous truck can now legally operate on the highways of Nevada. Gov. Brian Sandoval has officially granted the “Freightliner Inspiration Truck” a license for road use in the state, making it the first of its kind to navigate public roads in the US. The Inspiration is loaded with cameras, radar systems, other sensors and computer hardware like most autonomous vehicles. However, it’s not completely self-driving — it still needs a human driver behind the wheel. According to the big rig’s official website , the all its sensors and computers are “responsible for maintaining legal speed, staying in the selected lane, keeping a safe braking distance from other vehicles, and slowing or stopping the vehicle based on traffic and road conditions.” That frees up the driver to do other tasks, like doing the inventory, route planning and scheduling. Certain conditions require the system to transfer control back to the driver, though, particularly when exiting a highway, driving on local roads and docking to drop off deliveries. Developing… [Image credit: Freightliner Trucks/Instagram ] Comments Source: Daimler , Freightliner (1) , (2) , (3)

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The first self-driving big rig licensed to operate in the US

PSA: 3D Realms classics debut on Steam in 32-game bundle

The modern trend of out-of-print PC games coming back to life on digital-download shops got another big jolt on Tuesday with  The 3D Realms Anthology , a 32-game bundle available only on Steam. All of the games have been recoded to work on both Windows and OS X, and while many of the titles had already launched on Good Old Games (GOG.com), one particular Ars favorite made its Steam debut today: the original 1994 version of Rise of the Triad . That first-person shooter began life as the original sequel to Wolfenstein 3D , but when id Software went on to focus on  Doom instead, a different team—some of whose members went on to work on Duke Nukem 3D —put together a surprisingly robust shooter stuck in the relatively dated Wolfenstein 3D engine. For now, the only way to get that game on Steam, along with many other 3D Realms classics, is through today’s new 32-game bundle, which means you’ll have to shell out $30—but that price does come with other notable titles like 3D arcade-space shooter Terminal Velocity , pinball classic Balls of Steel , and mid-’90s FPS classic  Shadow Warrior . (Oh, and pretty much every Duke Nukem game, to boot.) GOG.com, meanwhile, was already selling  most of the bundle’s best games in a la carte form , in case the Steam bundle’s glut of edutainment nonsense does nothing for you. 3D Realms confirmed in a statement that before the Steam bundle launch, all of the games were either available as paid downloads directly from 3D Realms’ site or as freeware downloads. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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PSA: 3D Realms classics debut on Steam in 32-game bundle