TECHY TECH WORLD

Most fans will agree that Game of Thrones aired one of its most powerful episodes last week, a heart-wrenching hour that featured great moments between Theon and Yara, Dany and Jorah, and of course its haunting, horrifying final moments. Spoilers follow. I’m speaking of course about the tragic turn that had Bran’s cave sanctuary invaded by the White Walkers, thanks to some poorly planned warging. The Night’s King murdered Bloodraven, Bran’s tree-bound mentor, and a few Children of the Forrest. But the saddest sacrifice of all was Hodor holding the snow-zombie hordes back as Bran and Mira escaped the cave. Further compounding that situation was the fact that Bran had warped back in time to Winterfell, and discovered that he actually triggered Hodor’s initial seizure that…turned him into Hodor. The boy started screaming “Hold the door!” repeatedly, connecting to his present-day death, and eventually the phrase simply condensed into “Hodor,” for the next forty years or so. This is signif...

If you've heard about the Amazon Echo and have been wondering what it's like to use it before committing to buying one, there's now an online tool that lets you test it out as much as you want, right in your browser. It's called Echosim, and all you need to use it is an Amazon account to log in. Once you've logged in, you can use your mouse to click and hold the onscreen button while asking Alexa a question. You don't need to use the name Alexa, you can just ask it any question and, in most cases, get a great answer back. The voice and response times are identical to what you'd experience using the Amazon Echo, making this is perfect gateway drug for the real thing. That tech taste test is even more likely to lead to buying a real Amazon Echo once you remember that with Amazon Echo you don't need to be near your computer and there's no need to press a button, you just call out requests across the room to the device. Originally developed last...

In a move that could be the biggest thing to happen to the Facebook news feed since it was introduced, it appears the social network is quietly testing a massive revamp that will add a lot more news to the feed. As seen in screenshots that surfaced on Twitter on Friday morning, Facebook is experimenting with a new layout on mobile that highlights multiple news sections, with topics such as World & U.S., Sports and Food. However, the primary (and presumably default) section is still the classic news feed we're accustomed to seeing. Facebook confirmed to Mashable that it's testing the new, sectioned news feed, in addition to the current format, though it's unclear if the feature will ever get an official launch. SEE ALSO: Google is quietly testing trending topics section for mobile search While the feature being tested isn't entirely new — we've seen some versions of topic-focused feeds in the past on iOS — the format revealed in the latest Android-based scre...

Want to know what people in Australia are doing while you’re at work? Or what the weather’s like in Portugal? Or what the club scene is like in the Philippines? Well, you’re in luck: Facebook just made doing all of that a lot easier with its new Facebook Live video map. Available via Facebook’s desktop site, the Live Video map shows you where people around the world are streaming public (but not private) videos via Facebook Live. Streams are displayed as blue dots with larger dots indicating streams with the most viewers. Hovering over a dot instantly launches its corresponding stream and shows you where people around the world are watching. So, if you hover over a popular British Live stream like Sky Sports, you’ll see lines pointing to places like South America, Germany, Japan and a host of other countries. Both the locations of streamers and viewers, however, are kept vague enough to protect their privacy. In fact, If you want to see streams from large cities like New York, for ...

Sony’s just passed 40 million PlayStation 4 consoles sold since launch in November 2013. That makes PlayStation 4 the top-selling game console in the world at the moment, over Microsoft’s Xbox One (~21 million) and Nintendo’s Wii U (~13 million). About one-tenth of those owners are new owners, as of the past few months: Sony sold just over 4 million PlayStation 4 consoles between early January 2016 and May 22, 2016. That puts sales in the neighborhood of 1 million sold every month, which keeps it locked in as the fastest-selling PlayStation game console of all time. This isn’t a new position for Sony’s PlayStation 4 — the console has been on top (in terms of sales) since it launched, more or less. There’s been the occasional blip, with Xbox One outselling PlayStation 4 here and there, but the PS4 has largely dominated sales (and the attention of millions) since it first launched in November 2013. How far ahead is Sony compared to the competition? Pretty far, at this point. We know ...

If you ask developers about their gripes with building apps for Android, the same problem comes up again and again and again: “Fragmentation.” On Android, Google’s mobile operating system, it is the smartphone manufacturers — not Google — who are responsible for pushing out software updates to users. This is in stark contrast to iOS, where Apple can push out an update to every single (compatible) iPhone in the world simultaneously. And as a result, the Android market is intensely fragmented — with numerous different versions of the OS out there. This complicates development, as the majority of Android phones end up unable to utilise the latest features Google introduces for developers. And more worryingly, it can leave millions of users open to hacking as security patches never reach them. In short: Google could build an incredible new feature for the next version of Android, but unless Samsung gets around to deciding to push the update to you, you’re never goi...

Microsoft has had a rocky few years as it tries to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung in the smartphone world. This week, it looks like the wheels are finally falling off. The company announced Wednesday it’s cutting 1,850 jobs, with 1,350 coming from its Finnish operations, known as Microsoft Mobile Oy, and an additional 500 from other regions. The move also includes a $950 million restructuring charge for the company, with $200 million going to employee severance packages. The news comes just a week after Microsoft confirmed it was selling its feature phone business to FIH Mobile and HMD Global for $350 million. Microsoft’s smartphone struggles speak to a larger issue facing potential competitors to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android: With so many consumers already embedded in one operating system or the other, creating a viable third alternative is a virtually Sisyphean task. In fact, according to comScore, Microsoft’s share of the US smartphone market is a paltry 2.7%. T...