New Technology and Games

The new iPhone, a Virtual World Convention, fun games and awesome new tech developments are on the menu this week. Let’s start with one heck of a cool new browser!

What’s Happening at the Third Annual Virtual Worlds Convention?

We love conventions. Why? Because they gather some of the best minds in any given industry and put them all in one room. And the results are usually amazing. We’re especially excited about the Third Annual Virtual World’s Convention being held, of course, virtually!

Perhaps the most interesting news so far is the development of a browser that will act as a sort of hub for all of your virtual world favorites. Functioning similarly to Mozilla and Chrome, this browser treats your favorite “places” as individual websites. You can create your own avatar for the browser, and then use this to visit worlds across the web. Aptly named Virtual World Web and developed by Utherverse, you can check out the registration information here.

The iPhone 5S: A Gamer’s Dream Smartphone

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the iPhone 5S is set to release September 20^th, with pre-order available since the 13^th.  Outside of the nifty new thumbprint scanner and the array of color choices (gold, black, and white) the processor used in this newest version of everyone’s favorite smartphone is a beauty: a powerful 64-bit A7.

Arguably, Apple included this in an attempt to take mobile gaming to an entirely new level. In fact at the launch event the general consensus was that this new processor opens up a whole bunch of doors for game developers and, eventually, gamers like you.

Essentially, this chip doubles the iPhone’s performance, allowing games to utilize more than the pre-iPhone 5S limit of 4 GB of RAM, thus dramatically boosting performance. Essentially, Apple is striving to create console quality games for mobiles by making the technology used in smartphones on par with those used in your favorite systems.

Outside of the upcoming influx of awesome new mobile games that developers can now create, this also means that your battery will last significantly longer, subsequently allowing you to play your current favorites in excessive amounts. Add to this the recent news that Apple is allowing a developer to create a controller device that wraps around the iPhone, and, well, we’re excited!

A New Console The Size of Your Palm

While our hearts are always with online games and virtual worlds, we love ourselves a good console. The graphics, the sounds, the fact that you can easily jump up and down with the controller in hand, it’s all pretty wonderful.

What isn’t wonderful is the sheer size of many of those things. Who wants a few massive boxes hooked up to their televisions at any given time? Nobody (if given the choice)!

The Gigabyte Brix II was introduced earlier this year, but the company is stepping things up a notch, updating the processer with a Haswell creation and the graphics with the Intel Iris Pro, Intel’s newest addition to its stellar lineup. This newest console also comes with HDMI, a mini display port output, four USB ports, built-in Wi-Fi, and a lot more. Overall, it’s smaller than your average console controller, not to mention the console itself!

So what’s the catch? You need to supply a hard drive, RAM and operating system. No, it won’t necessarily replace your console, but it can be a fantastic addition to your lineup. According to the company, it should become available around December.

Gameloft and Intel: A Match Made in Heaven

Just a quick note: your selections in the Google Play store are about to get a whole lot better. Gameloft recently announced that it was partnering with Intel to make their upcoming Android games better than ever.

So keep your eye on the Google Play Store. And with that in mind, a few new downloads for you:

New Android Games

Terraria: If you love Minecraft (who doesn’t, really?) then this FREE download is for you. Fight monsters, deal with dozens of different types of blocks, and work with over 200 different crafting recipes. The possibilities are endless, gameplay is fast, and this is one download you don’t want to pass up!

Reaper: Oftentimes RPG games just don’t work on mobile, but this is most definitely an exception. Travel, complete quests and fight bad guys, all from your phone! Oh, it’s also free as of this posting!

Let us know what you think about anything and everything in the comments below!