GOOGLE'S NEXUS 6P AND 5X WIN SOME LOVE

The reviews are out for Google's Nexus 6P and 5X, unveiled late last month, and they can be summed up in two words: Love them!

They're described as "the best Nexus devices ever produced" and "Google's answer to Apple's iPhones," but those tired phrases are rolled out with every new Nexus or flagship Android smartphone, so what else is new?

The camera, for one. The phones' cameras apparently are a big improvement over previous Nexus cameras.

Speed and the improved security offered by the fingerprint sensor are other plus points.

Google and its partners -- Huawei for the 6P and LG for the 5X -- finally havenailed the camera and battery life -- two of the features that traditionally have been weak in Nexus devices, wrote Ron Amadeo for Ars Technica.

SXSW MAY PUT ONLINE HARASSMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT

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SXSW Interactive might include a daylong event on combating online harassment, Re/code reported Tuesday.

The news followed SXSW's cancellation of two planned panels that were expected to focus on opposite ends of the Gamergate debate.

Threats of on-site violence spurred the decision to cancel both panels, according to SXSW officials.

Caroline Sinders of IBM Watson, Katherine Cross of the CUNY Graduate Center, and Randi Harper, founder of the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative, were slated to speak at SXSW in March during a session titled "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games."

Even if the event organizers should reinstate "Level Up," the participants have not decided whether they would speak at SXSW, Harper told Re/code.

The other cancelled session, "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community," was sponsored by the Open Gaming Society.

In the week following the announcement of the two sessions, "SXSW has received numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming," said Hugh Forrest, the director of SXSW Interactive, in explaining the cancellation decision.

SXSW takes pride in offering a place for diverse ideas and people, but preserving the "sanctity of the big tent" requires keeping the dialogue "civil and respectful," he said.

"If people cannot agree, disagree and embrace new ways of thinking in a safe and secure place that is free of online and offline harassment, then this marketplace of ideas is inevitably compromised," said Forrest.

Nintendo's Miitomo Smartphone 'Game' Fails to Charm Investors

Nintendo shares fell 9 percent on Thursday, and partner DeNA's stock dropped 15 percent after Nintendo announced that it would wade into the mobile waters next year with social mobile app Miitomo.

Based on the Mii digital avatars made popular by the Wii, Miitomo will seek to connect players through trivia, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima said in an investors conference call, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The app, due to launch next March, will be a free-to-play game that will include add-ons that people can buy. Players will engage in social trivia with friends and new acquaintances

Sony Talks VR and 2016 Games in Paris

While Microsoft has been driving home the potential hits it has for the holidays, Sony has sat silent. That changed this week at Paris Games Week, when Sony set the tone for the next year or so by touting 21 games, mostly exclusives, poised to redefine the PlayStation 4 experience.

It's what PlayStation fans have been waiting for -- a listing of completely new games. Sony had been focusing on minting indies and HD remasters.

At its first-ever appearance at Paris Games Week, the company put on a console-selling show that evidenced the potential of the latest PlayStation and the upcoming PlayStation VR headset.

Sony provided updates on previously announced games Street Fighter V(PS4/PC), Uncharted 4 (PS4), Wild (PS4), Star Wars: Battlefront (all consoles and PC) and others. There was even a commitment to release procedurally generated space explorer No Man's Sky (PS4/PC) -- that'd be June 2016.





The Highs

The company also announced several new games, two of which Mike Schramm, head of the qualitative analyst team at EEDAR, found especially compelling. That's the pair of Gran Turismo Sport games, the next entry in the hallmark series, and Quantic Dream's Detroit: Become Human.

Gran Turismo Sport will tie in several special events with real-world honors from the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. Detroit: Become Human is a sci-fi saga with androids from the studio that developed Beyond: Two Soulsand Heavy Rain.






"Sony also featured some impressive gameplay from Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn, two games that were previously announced. Both gameplay sessions featured some new and interesting details, from Wild's different shamanic powers in its vast, open world to Horizon: Zero Dawn's trapping gadgets and its item and crafting systems," Schramm told TechNewsWorld.






Some of the biggest news wasn't released in a singular announcement: PlayStation VR, previously code-named "Morpheus," is a serious contender in next year's virtual reality war, and Sony has the software to see the VR headset succeed, according to Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

SXSW May Put Online Harassment in the Spotlight

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SXSW Interactive might include a daylong event on combating online harassment, Re/code reported Tuesday.

The news followed SXSW's cancellation of two planned panels that were expected to focus on opposite ends of the Gamergate debate.

Threats of on-site violence spurred the decision to cancel both panels, according to SXSW officials.

Caroline Sinders of IBM Watson, Katherine Cross of the CUNY Graduate Center, and Randi Harper, founder of the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative, were slated to speak at SXSW in March during a session titled "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games."

Even if the event organizers should reinstate "Level Up," the participants have not decided whether they would speak at SXSW, Harper told Re/code.

The other cancelled session, "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community," was sponsored by the Open Gaming Society.

In the week following the announcement of the two sessions, "SXSW has received numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming," said Hugh Forrest, the director of SXSW Interactive, in explaining the cancellation decision.

SXSW takes pride in offering a place for diverse ideas and people, but preserving the "sanctity of the big tent" requires keeping the dialogue "civil and respectful," he said.

"If people cannot agree, disagree and embrace new ways of thinking in a safe and secure place that is free of online and offline harassment, then this marketplace of ideas is inevitably compromised," said Forrest.

Walmart Catches the Drone Delivery Bug

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Walmart on Monday filed a request with the Federal Aviation Administration to begin deploying commercial drones to transport goods from outside vendors to its distribution centers, as well as to customers' homes.

The company, which has been testing drones in indoor flights, wanted an exemption in order to deploy small unmanned aircraft systems, wrote Shekar Natarajan, Walmart vice president, logistics strategy, in a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. Its goal was to create a more efficient delivery system to move merchandise.

"With this application, Walmart seeks to continue its role in not only making the present distribution system more efficient, but also to conduct research and development to support the future extension of that distribution directly to customers by using UAS for deliveries to customers at Walmart facilities, as well as to consumer homes," explained Natarajan.

Using Tech to Fix the Horrid US Political Debates

I Watched with interest last week's Republican debate and realized very quickly that whatever that was on my TV, it sure as hell wasn't an actual debate. The idea is for us to be able to compare the qualifications and positions of a variety of candidates and then make a more informed choice -- but if every candidate is asked a different question, then how do we compare the answers?

Also, wouldn't the best debate require having all of the candidates on stage? It often seems that the candidates are all debating folks from the other party who aren't in the same room they are.

Seriously, wouldn't this work better if it were more like a good job interview? First you have a set of focused events, during which you ask pointed questions about individual backgrounds. Then you put the folks who survive that process on stage, and ask about how they'd apply their skills to real problems. From that group, you choose the best.

It seems strange that Americans likely put more rigor into hiring a gardener than in selecting the next leader of the free world. Tech could fix that.

I'll close with my product of the week: the TiVo Bolt, which is clearly the best DVR ever built -- and it has to be to compete with the cord-cutter solutions