The 10 video games that defined the 2010s

The games industry has undergone several serious changes in the last few years. So whered these changes come from? I wont lie to you: trying to rank influence is really difficult. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. The game compounds its Sisyphean difficulty with dense-if-obscure lore that encourages fans to replay and pick apart the story. Minecraftis able to maintain its fanbase specifically because its got something for everyone....

December 26, 2019 · 3 min · 440 words · William Russell

We forced an actual designer to review our writers’ DIY article images

But not at TNW. Here, were all about DIY article images. 40% off TNW Conference! And sometimes guess what the hell the articles about. Specifically, we got in animator, photographer, games designer, and all round good guy James Wragg. it’s possible for you to check outhis work here, andgive him a follow on Twitter here. Without further ado, lets find out what he had to say! This beautiful bit of design is from a piece entitled We analyzed Pablo Escobars brothers folding phone promo video....

December 26, 2019 · 2 min · 332 words · Robert Hicks

Over a decade later, I’m still fascinated by Techno Viking

More than a decade after its release, Im still fascinated by the notorious Techno Viking video. Theres something indescribably captivating about it. I find myself watching the clip at least several times a year. I can give a shot to explain it, but its mystery evades writing. Every little detail in the video simply falls perfectly into place, as if it was staged. Where do I start? Bear with me throughout this synopsis or scroll down to watch the actual video first....

December 24, 2019 · 3 min · 489 words · Deanna Moore

The 10 most important phones of the 2010s

iPhone 4 (2010) Few phones were ever as hyped as the iPhone 4. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. It was the first to use HDR, revolutionizing what we though mobile cameras were capable of. Galaxy Note (2011) You probably know why the Galaxy Note is on this list. But now such a display would be considered diminutive. The Galaxy Note was the gear that helped us realize we could get real work done with our phones....

December 24, 2019 · 1 min · 202 words · Peter Roberts

The psychology behind why people believe in curses

This Strictly curse is not helped by the shows demanding schedule, long practice hours, and intimate dancing. Strictly is not the only modern curse featured in the media of late. Thecurse of the Tour de Francereturned, with the failure of a French rider to win thecycling race. Hopes that Julian Alaphillippe would this year end the 34-year drought were dashed. Meanwhile, the rapper Drake has been linked to a series ofsporting failuresover the years....

December 24, 2019 · 3 min · 631 words · Kristopher Bryan

Why we need to get back to Venus

Just next door, cosmologically speaking, is a planetalmost exactly like Earth. Thats a question that preoccupies an ever-growing number of planetary scientists, and motivatesnumerous proposed Venus exploration efforts. Im a planetary scientist, and Im fascinated by how other worlds came to be. The surface of Venus as seen in these reprocessed perspective image panoramas from the Soviet Venera 13 lander. Don P. Mitchell, CC BY-SA A once-blue Venus? It’s free, every week, in your inbox....

December 24, 2019 · 2 min · 376 words · Kristin Maldonado

2019’s juiciest crypto drama: The saga of OneCoin’s $4B ‘cryptocurrency’ scam

As far ascryptocurrencyscamsgo, OneCoin is probably the one that rules them all. US prosecutors have alleged that thePonzi schemeraked inapproximately $4 billion, defraudinginvestorsfrom all over theglobe. InChinaalone,law enforcementagentsrecovered 1.7 billion yuan(US$267.5 million) and prosecuted 98 people. Dr Ruja Ignatova, thescams spearhead, has been missing since 2017. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sebastian Greenwood, herco-founder, wasextradited from Thailand to the USfollowing anoperationinvolving theFBIin November 2018. It claimed to work like any othercryptocurrencywhosecoinsare generated through mining and can then be used to make globalpayments....

December 23, 2019 · 2 min · 314 words · Todd Holmes

How I used app store optimization to get my game downloaded 2M times

So I decided to develop a mobile game. But the path to success looked nothing like the original plan. What product should I create? It’s free, every week, in your inbox. I immediately decided that I wanted to make a game. This was an opportunity to revisit this old hobby. I spent two weeks identifying and studying popular game niches in app stores. Make an arcade game about trucks.2. Launch it on Google Play....

December 23, 2019 · 4 min · 668 words · Allison Becker

How to design better buttons

A button is an interactive element that results in the action described on it. If it says save on a button, clicking it will most likely save something. Its also one of the most important interactive elements of any digital product. It can lead to a purchase, download, send, among other important actions. The more our button looks similar to what we associate with buttons, the better. This is why a rectangle (or a rounded rectangle) is always the safest choice for a button....

December 23, 2019 · 3 min · 503 words · Brenda Floyd

9 things I learned building my first PC (that I wish I knew before)

I had long thought about it, but I could never justify investing in a desktop PC. Im better off buying a beefy laptop, I kept telling myself. But I was wrong all along. 40% off TNW Conference! Youll still have to do most of the legwork yourself. I cant stress this enough. For instance, sometimes itll make sense to splurge more on a CPU, while skimping on a GPU. I ended up doing that myself....

December 22, 2019 · 3 min · 538 words · Johnny Morris

How Cold War rivalry helped launch the Chinese computer

It was the summer of 1959, and the United States needed a Cold War to win. In 1957, the Soviet bloc scored a major technological victory with Sputnik 1. The next year, Chinas Communist leadership launched the sweeping, and ultimately devastating, Great Leap Forward. In the spring of 1959 in Cuba, Fidel Castros guerrillas forced president Fulgencio Batista into exile. The US needed to recapture the momentum and demonstrate that it was still at the helm of world affairs....

December 22, 2019 · 2 min · 408 words · Andrew Fisher

Humans should get the credit for AI-made art

This jazz album is considered Coltranes masterpiece the culmination of his spiritual awakening and sold a million copies. Kim, a 20-year-old Princeton sophomore, was in a rush he had a quiz the next morning. We must now embrace either to wrestle or to caress computer art. In industry, there is blunt-force algorithmic tension Efficiency, capitalism, commerce! versus Robots are stealing our jobs! But for algorithmic art, the tension is subtler....

December 22, 2019 · 3 min · 476 words · Mandy Powell

These were TNW’s favorite tech purchases of 2019

Now, there are plenty of great gift guides around on the internet. I bought them in an instant, and I come to cherish its value so much. I travel a fair bit for work and to explore places. Those journeys include a lot of flights, buses, and trains. These rides can be quite noisy, and itd be impossible to take a nap without noise-canceling headphones. Also, I listen to a ton of music when Im at home or when Im traveling....

December 22, 2019 · 2 min · 320 words · Matthew Fletcher