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Chrome OS gets updated with smaller apps list and option to save directly to Google Drive

The biggest change? Custom wallpapers.

Xbox Live beta registration reopens with a limited number of new slots

Microsoft is opening up its second round of registrations for the company’s Xbox Live fall dashboard beta program today. After filling all available slots for the beta within hours back in July, Microsoft is making 500,000 places available to eager testers this time around. Registration is now open and testers will have to agree to a non-disclosure agreement to participate in early beta testing. 

Nintendo Power magazine to cease publication after 24 years

After more than 280 issues and 24 years in print, Nintendo Power magazine will cease monthly publication, according to a report from Ars Technica citing a source.

Current publisher Future US is reportedly planning to end its run on the Nintendo enthusiast magazine which it assumed licensed control over in 2007. Ars Technica’s source indicates that Nintendo was “uninterested” in renewing its publishing contract with Future or “in taking part in a number of digital initiatives” the publisher deemed necessary for the “long-term health of the brand.”

Normalize photo app for iPhone and iPad sets out to destroy all filters

#nofilter

NASA posts a Wiggle in the Gravel. Mars GIFs: the future!

DNA paternity tests come to you with the ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ RV

The “Who’s Your Daddy” RV is looking to make DNA paternity tests a bit more of an impulse purchase. The colorfully-wrapped vehicle attracts fathers who aren’t certain that the child in their hands is their own, and after a $299 to $575 purchase, a quick cheek swab, and a three-day waiting period, they can get the answer.

laughingsquid:

Commodore 64 Users and Their Computers – Photos From the 1980s

DARPA’s new AIR robot can pick up objects with its inflatable arm

The softer side of robotics

Neal Stephenson interview: Kickstarter, swordfighting, and the big novel’s staying power

Noah Davis talks to author Neal Stephenson:

People like big stories. You get unmatched bang for the buck writing stories. The bang in this case is being able to plant a big universe and a lot of powerful images inside a reader’s head. The buck in this case is that there’s one person working alone without needing any special tools. That’s not going to change. They may be delivered in different ways, on e-readers or whatever, but they will be around for a long time.

Read on!

Comiket: shopping for underground manga at the world’s biggest comic book event

A little over a week ago, I and 550,000 others took the train to Tokyo’s Big Sight convention center for the largest comic book-related event in the world. But what’s sold there isn’t back issues of X-Men, or even Shonen Jump for that matter. The three-day Comic Market (shortened to Comiket or even Comiké if you prefer) is the country’s — and consequently, the world’s — biggest market for self-published comic books and magazines, called doujinshi. This year, some 45,000 independent publishing groups or “circles” were lucky enough to get half of a folding table from which to hawk their works — amateur books, many only a few pages, spanning every theme you could imagine.

Jawbone Jambox now available in over 100 customizable color configurations, still $199.99

Taste the rainbone

Announcing: Vergecraft Realms

I am pleased to announce Vergecraft Realms: the next chapter in The Verge’s Minecraft experience. After the community overwhelmingly voted in favor of a server reset — with exactly 75% of respondents voting “yes” — we have decided to start fresh with a new suite of plugins and server rules. It’s hard to believe how much incredible stuff people have contributed since the original world launched back in March — including an insane Mega-Pyramid, a cruel and unusual dungeon, and too many player projects to count. To Vergecraft’s veterans: we salute you.