John Routledge - Technoshia

26 Jan

What’s up with the ‘toxicity’ around Cities: Skylines II?

John RoutledgeLatest News

Cities: Skylines II developer Colossal Order has a uniquely close relationship with its community. The original Cities: Skylines came out in 2015 and gobbled up the audience that was left behind by EA’s SimCity, which came out in 2013 and was a busted mess. Cities: Skylines scratched that urban-planning itch, plus it cost just $30. The game came first to…

26 Jan

Instagram is testing ‘flipside,’ a finsta feature that already kind of exists

John RoutledgeLatest News

Instagram is testing yet another feature meant to give users an alternative to finstas. It’s called “flipside” and it allows people to create a secondary photo grid that only designated friends can see.If that sounds somewhat familiar it’s probably because Instagram already makes it pretty easy for users to create posts intended for a more limited audience. The app added…

26 Jan

The Final Fantasy 14 live-action TV show is dead

John RoutledgeLatest News

A live-action TV series based on Final Fantasy 14 is no longer happening. The project is now dead, according to Dinesh Shamdasani, the co-founder of Hivemind, one of the production companies involved."We took around a fantastic pilot script by Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton along with a multi-season plan they built with our show runners but got rejected across the…

26 Jan

Sundance documentary Eternal You shows how AI companies are ‘resurrecting’ the dead

John RoutledgeLatest News

A woman has a text chat with her long-dead lover. A family gets to hear a deceased elder speak again. A mother gets another chance to say goodbye to her child, who died suddenly, via a digital facsimile. This isn't a preview of the next season of Black Mirror — these are all true stories from the Sundance documentary Eternal…

26 Jan

Tesla recalls 200,000 vehicles because of a faulty backup camera

John RoutledgeLatest News

Tesla is recalling 200,000 vehicles in the US due to a malfunctioning backup camera. There were reports that the cameras wouldn’t engage when the cars were in reverse, which is a pretty big safety issue and the whole point of those cameras in the first place. Tesla has processed 81 warranty claims potentially related to the issue, according to Autoblog.The…

26 Jan

NSA admits to buying Americans’ web browsing data from brokers without warrants

John RoutledgeLatest News

The National Security Agency’s director has confirmed that the agency buys Americans’ web browsing data from brokers without first obtaining warrants. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) blocked the appointment of the NSA’s inbound director Timothy Haugh until the agency answered his questions regarding its collection of Americans’ location and Internet data. Wyden said he’d been trying for three years to “publicly…

26 Jan

The MicroKorg 2 hands-on: A stylish update to an iconic digital synthesizer

John RoutledgeLatest News

The MicroKorg 2 has some big britches to fill. The original MicroKorg is one of, if not the best selling synthesizer of all time. It's also probably the longest continuously manufactured synth, having hit the market in 2002. Of course, technology has advanced quite a lot in the last 22 years and it was time to give what is arguably…

26 Jan

Ultrawings 2 hits PS VR2 early and even the developer was surprised

John RoutledgeLatest News

To the surprise of just about everyone — seemingly including the studio behind it — virtual reality game Ultrawings 2 has hit PlayStation VR2 earlier than expected. Developer Bit Planet Games wrote on X that "shadow dropping Ultrawings 2 on PS VR2 today was not on our 2024 bingo card but, well, here we are." (A shadow drop refers to…

26 Jan

Samsung’s AI features on the Galaxy S24 in China reportedly ditch Google for Baidu

John RoutledgeLatest News

The Samsung Galaxy S24 isn’t taking Google’s Gemini AI with it to China. CNBC reported Friday that the Chinese version of the flagship phone uses Baidu’s Ernie chatbot to power the phone’s AI-powered features. Ernie arrived last August after reportedly receiving Chinese government approval. “Now featuring Ernie’s understanding and generation capabilities, the upgraded Samsung Note Assistant can translate content and also…

26 Jan

George Carlin’s estate sues over AI-generated comedy special

John RoutledgeLatest News

George Carlin’s estate has filed a lawsuit against the makers of an hour-long comedy special featuring an AI replica of the comedian, as reported by NBC News. The late comedian’s estate, including his daughter Kelly Carlin, filed the suit in a Los Angeles federal court last night. It claims the online media company that posted the video, Dudesy, violated the…