Fully Charged: Nintendo's figurine-shaped plan to save the Wii U, tech giants back net neutrality, and the web service that knows your photo's fake

Nintendo planning Skylanders-esque figurine platform

It’s been a rough 24 hours for Nintendo, considering its dismal earnings report, but the publisher is already hinting at its next moves to get back into the black. Most notably, the company plans to launch the Nintendo Figurine Platform for both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

Like Skylanders and Disney Infinity, the platform will utilize plastic toys with embedded NFC chips, which can communicate with compatible games. Nintendo intends to offer numerous titles that utilize the same figures, which can be read with the Wii U GamePad or a new infrared reader for 3DS. The platform is expected to launch on Wii U later this year and 3DS in 2015.

Expect more details on the Nintendo Figurine Platform at the E3 conference next month. Nintendo also announced Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Pokemon Omega Ruby for 3DS yesterday, with both Game Boy Advance remakes due out in November. Who needs innovation when you’ve got tried and true monkeymaking concepts?

[Source: Polygon]

Google, Facebook, and more form coalition against FCC’s proposed net neutrality changes

Ever since Netflix cut a check to Comcast to ensure speedy streaming, net neutrality advocates have been extra vocal about the threats against an open Internet. Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission in the United States hasn’t been listening, as it’s considering a proposal that will essentially clear the way for future such deals for preferential traffic treatment.

Top tech companies are urging the FCC to reconsider, however, as a letter drafted yesterday by the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Yahoo, and more than 100 others asks the Commission to continue protecting net neutrality without compromise.

Whether or not it will sway the Commission’s decision is to be determined, but it’s certainly heartening to see so many giants (many of them competitors) working as one. Oh, and no Comcast on that list? Total shocker.

[Source: The Verge]

Why you should care about net neutrality

The fundamental principle of net neutrality is that all data should be treated the same by the government and by ISPs, no matter where it’s from or what device you’re using to access it. The reason it’s under scrutiny right now is that proposals under review by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) threaten to jeopardise net neutrality by allowing ISPs to throttle or block access to certain sites and services and speed up access to others, effectively creating walled gardens for their users or forcing them to pay extra for access they currently take for granted.

An example might be an ISP with a commercial tie-up with Amazon that has a vested interest in slowing Netflix speeds to a crawl, thus dissuading you from using the service. Apply such a principle to other sites and services – Spotify, Sky Now, Stuff.tv – and you have a web that seems a much worse place to be. It would be a jump back to the bad old days of WAP and 3G, whee you could only access movie news if it was Orange-branded movie news (for example).

Granted, these proposals are a US concern, and a greater issue for US citizens as their choice of braodband providers is heavily restricted compared to the UK’s (for many, it’s Comcast or naught). But the last thing we need is a precedent to be set whereby we’re forced to choose our own broadband providers based on whether they’ll let us watch HD videos on Youtube or not.

Izitru helps detect doctored photos

If a photo on the Internet seems too good to be true, then it most likely is—thanks to the incredible proliferation and ease of use of programs like Photoshop. However, if something seems amiss but you can’t quite tell, simply enlist Izitru to do a little detective work.

The new web service lets you upload any photo, which is then vetted to alert you as to whether it’s been modified or remains in its original state. Izitru also then hosts the image and provides a trust rating, so you can share it while imparting a little bit of extra confidence in any viewers.

[Source: The New York Times]

About

Andrew writes features, news stories, reviews, and other pieces, often when the UK home team is off-duty or asleep. I'm based in Chicago with my lovely wife, amazing son, and silly cats, and my writing about games, gadgets, esports, apps, and plenty more has appeared in more than 75 publications since 2006.