Free games

• Twitch

  • Serial Cleaner

    • 2017
    • A Hotline Miami style top-down stealth game that has you sneaking through crimescenes to clean and hide the evidence before the authorities can put your bosses away for good

  • Deadlight: Director’s Cut

    • 2016 rerelease of the 2012 title
    • Sidescrolling cinematic platforming survival horror game that has you attempting to traverse a zombie-infested Seattle to rejoin your family

  • Stranger Things 3: The Game

    • 2019
    • A 16-bit beat ’em up based on the third season of Stranger Things with local co-op

  • The Walking Dead: Michonne

    • 2016
    • A spin-off Telltale Games title that explores what Michonne was up to during a temporary departure from the main group

  • Adam Wolfe

    • 2016
    • Acting as Adam Wolfe, an investigator of the paranormal, you will discover a hidden world under the modern San Francisco. In this city, ghosts, artifacts, secret orders and curses are just some of the things that Adam will come across working on his most important case.

• Epic Games

  • Minit

    • 2018
    • Minit is an adventure played sixty seconds at a time. Journey outside the comfort of your home to help unusual folk, uncover countless secrets, and overcome dangerous foes, all in hopes of lifting a rather unfortunate curse that ends each day after just one minute.

The saga of iOS 13 continues, and it’s a messy one

• Just to get it out of the way, if you’re already on iOS 13 then you’ve got nothing to lose at this point- the fixes will help. If you’re still on 12, then I’d hold off if I were you
• Apple has already released iOS 13.1.2 this week, following last week’s 13.1 and 13.1.1 and the week before’s initial iOS 13 release
• Apple’s really sat themselves on the bleeding edge with these updates, and it has me concerned about their software for the future- we’ve gone from the days when I wanted to run the latest betas to today when I regret installing the new OS even some time after it’s come out
  • The new features are neat, sure, but when your patch notes include things like “Fixes an issue where Camera may not work” or “Addresses an issue where Bluetooth may disconnect on certain vehicles”, fairly core functions, I start wondering why these weren’t caught during the beta.
• We’re four releases in to iOS 13 there are even still issues with syncing in the Notes and Reminders apps that may or may not be related to app upgrades requiring the new macOS (Catalina) that isn’t even out yet
  • The new versions of these apps that came with iOS 13 last month aren’t compatible with earlier versions of iOS or macOS, so if you’re running a mixed environment you’re probably noticing inconsistent/missing/lost data
• I mean, kudos to Apple for fixing things as quickly as they can, but we’re at the point where iOS 13 should have just been delayed a month and maybe just come out with Catalina in the first place

The Samsung Galaxy Fold is here, and it’s… pretty much what we expected

• $2000 gets you an interesting concept device with some limited usefulness
• The device comes with a whole sheaf of paperwork on how to use and care for it without breaking it
  • Basically they warn to use a light touch, avoid water and dust, avoid excessive pressure, and keep it away from things that are sensitive to magnets
• All in all it’s big, heavy, and has a non-standard screen size regardless of how you use it. It’s kinda novel but doesn’t seem worth it when a screen replacement, on their warranty program, costs $150
  • TechCrunch has already broken theirs accidentally by pressing on the display to close it

Speaking of dual screens, Microsoft has some interesting new hardware coming down the pipe

• First up are their new Surface Neo and Duo- book-style folding devices with two screens (instead of the Fold’s single folding screen)
  • The Neo is tablet sized, runs Windows 10X (a custom version of Windows 10 made for dual displays), and has an optional bluetooth keyboard that magnets on
  • The Duo is their phone version that runs a heavily-skinned version of Android, so who knows when updates will come
  • Both of these are expected late 2020 though, so we haven’t even seen prototypes yet
• Other than that they’ve overhauled their Surface lineup to compete more with the iPad Pro, and later this year their Airpods competitor the Surface Earbuds will launch
  • The big selling feature of these is the large round art-deco touchpad attached to your ears, which is definitely a style choice and totally doesn’t look like a couple of Apple Watch chargers stuck to the sides of your head

On the topic of Airpods, it looks like the next model has leaked via icons found in the upcoming iOS 13.2 beta

• We don’t have much detail yet, but they seem to be more focused on noise-isolation and adjusting the classic earpod/airpod fit, which has a lot of people whose ears weren’t compatible taking note

A security researcher has released a full bootrom exploit for all iPhones from the 4S to the X, along with several iPad models and a few generations of the iPod Touch

• This will pave the way for a permanent, un-patchable jailbreak for all the devices involved- the bootrom is read-only, so Apple can’t fix it with an update
• On the plus side, this can only be exploited by physically connecting to your device while in recovery mode, so general users should be safe while people that want their jailbreak tweaks can jump through the needed hoops to get that set up

Minecraft Updates!

Character Creator is coming to all Bedrock platforms.

• Xbox One
• Windows 10
• Nintendo Switch
• iOS
• Android

Nether is Getting Biomes!

• Soulsand Valley
  • What could be more welcoming than a new biome full of blue fog and blue flames (courtesy of the new blue fire block!), and ominous gigantic fossils everywhere? Don’t answer that, just get hyped for this barren wasteland that can’t wait for you to risk a visit…
• Netherwart Forest Red
  • A dense forest, with swirling particles and dense atmosphere, deliberately designed by our meanest level designers to make you get lost. Mwahahaha!
• Netherwart Forest Blue
  • Well, less another biome, more a variation on Netherwart Forest Red (oh great – I only just managed to escape from that) but with its own unique atmosphere, and its own unique blocks! For example, watch your step for that twisty new Nether Fungi covering the ground…

New Nether Mobs!

• Piglin Beast
  • What’s a new biome without a new mob to cause chaos within it? Meet the Piglin Beast, the tusked little terror that’s Minecraft’s newest hostile mob! It can be bred as a source of food in the Nether (and let’s face it, you’re not exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to lunch options in the Nether, are you?).
• Piglins
  • Speaking of names, we’ve renamed the Zombie Pigmen to Zombified Piglins, and we’re introducing a new hostile mob to Minecraft… the Piglins! Piglins live in the Nether, and are hostile to you and most other mobs. You’ll also find small fortifications they’ve built in the Nether, called bastions.
  • Just like the person writing this post, Piglins are constantly on the hunt for gold, which is something you can use to your advantage. Wear gold armour and the Piglins will ignore you… unless you start rifling through their chests. Then prepare for a Piglin battle! Want to be more of a Piglin pacifist? It’ll be possible to trade with Piglins, but don’t expect the same experience as trading with villagers. This will be known as bartering and it’ll be far less friendly!

New Block!

• TARGET BLOCK
  • Not completely related to the theme of the new update, but a brand new block designed for redstone enthusiasts! Shoot the block with an arrow, and it’ll emit a redstone signal. The closer your arrow to the bullseye on the Target Block, the stronger the emitted signal. We can’t wait to see what redstone contraptions you make with this one!

Tidbits

• The future is here, and after last year’s Fortnite crossplay beta Sony has officially opened up cross-platform play for all developers
  • Now we just need proper cross-platform cloud saves and we’ll really be cooking with gas
• Spotify is finally getting Siri integration, if their beta app is any indication
  • There’s no timeframe for release, but considering this was one of the tentpoles of their anticompetitive complaint against Apple earlier this year it’s a little amusing to see them figuring it out themselves
• Facebook is cementing just what an evil company they are even more this week, by removing their rules against running ads with false and misleading content to allow Trump to lie in campaign ads
  • They now only prohibit claims debunked by third-party fact checkers, but political figures are apparently exempt from even that narrow restriction

Alan recommends OrangeTheory Fitness