Tech News Roundup – 7

Not all tech news makes the cut, kids – it’s a tech-eat-tech world out there. Fortunately, week by week, we’ll be salvaging some of those news stories and putting them all into one place, every Sunday. That’s right, we’re working on our day off for you keen tech readers – all ‘thank you’ emails welcome.

Now, for the Tech News Roundup this week:

Announcements:

rock simulator

Rock simulator – Ahhh, simulators. For years, you’ve given us tantalising experiences of bus driving, aircraft piloting and, more recently, prancing around as a goat. Now, thanks to Steam’s Greenlight service, it appears the next thrilling entry in this franchise is… playing as a rock. We expect Patrick Star to be a supporting star.

iPad ‘love’ attachment – In what may be our most awkward news announcement yet, we’re going to let the original article from The Independent do the talking: “Fleshlight’s Launchpad, which allows users of their flashlight-shaped, vagina-like toy to plug it into the back of an iPad in order to ‘fully immerse themselves’ in whatever they’re watching.” Yikes.

Microsoft Android phone – After acquiring the rights to Nokia’s handheld devices, the monopoly company can now celebrate the launch of their first Android phone. The X2 boasts a more powerful battery, 1GB of RAM and a front-facing camera, for the selfie-taker in all of us.

Samsung Gear Live smart watch – Using Google’s Android Wear hardware, the Gear Live is pretty much a tech wizard’s dream, displaying some pretty impressive features. Or at least we think they are, considering we’ve never owned a smart watch.

Releases:

shovel knight

Shovel Knight – When we picture knights, we instinctively think of skilled swordsman, possibly armed with a shield, who may or may not shout ‘NI!’. Admittedly, an 8-bit version with a shovel as a weapon wasn’t on our list – but thanks to Yacht Club Games, we’re happy to add it to it. Play as Shovel Knight now on WiiU, 3DS and Windows PC.

Google Glasses on sale in the UK – We once advertised the cool specs to be on sale on Tech News Roundup with a ghastly ‘$’ sign. Expect to see a lovely ‘£’ more often, as Google Glasses are now on sale in the UK. Hurrah for no longer having to use PayPal!

Sniper Elite 3 – If you miss the camping days as a sniper in Call of Duty multiplayer, get practicing again… sorta. Rebellion’s latest entry in the Sniper Elite series “takes players to the unforgiving yet exotic terrain of WW2’s North Africa conflict in a battle against a deadly new foe”. Oh, and did we mention it has a pretty gory ‘Kill-Cam’? For your sadistic pleasure, gamers.

YouTube update – This year’s VidCon gave YouTube users many reasons to celebrate, thanks to the addition of many new features. Amongst them were 60fps playback capabilities, an Audio Library and a YouTube Creator studio. To bathe in more update goodness, you can find them here.

Sales:

chromebook

Star Wars: The Old Republic – Summer Pass – Despite it already being free-to-play, we know a good bargain when we see one. The summer pass of Bioware’s expansive MMO is now 33% off, priced at £24.99, giving you a four month subscription pass to almost anything its universe can offer.

Steam summer saleValve’s sale, infamous for leaving our wallets empty and our libraries full, continues its onslaught of daily deals, flash sales and community choice collections. Thankfully, it ends today, so you can spend the summer working your way through the ridiculously-sized back catalog.

GOG summer sale – Meanwhile, just to tempt you that little bit more, GOG have their summer sale. The difference? It’s ‘DRM-free’, whatever that is. The similarity? It also ends today!

PC World cheap Cromebook – If you’re looking for a cheap-as-chips laptop for next year, we may have found you the perfect fit. In PC world’s summer sale, the Chromebook 11-1126UK Wi-Fi, which comes in white, is priced at a mere £179.99. If you want it as a package deal, with a red sleeve and a Chromecast, that still only comes to £218.98.

Special Mention:

google_cardboard

Google Cardboard – In this modern day and age, full of its sophisticated hardware and sci-fi thingymajigs, we’ve come to expect the best of technology. Now, the best has finally arrived – and it’s made simply out of cardboard. Yes, cardboard. That and a pair of lenses, some Velcro, a couple of magnets and a Cardboard app. Thankfully, it’s only a joke. However, it Rock Simulator is anything to go on, we expect this bad-boy to become a pitiful reality.