Steam Family Sharing exits beta, lets your borrow all of your friends' games

One of the inherent drawbacks of digitally distributed games is that you can't loan them out to friends, but Steam has rewritten the rules a bit. Now that Valve's Family Sharing feature is out of beta, pretty much anyone can authorize another user --...



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Apple is reportedly launching iOS in the Car next week with Ferrari, Mercedes and Volvo

Apple's iOS in the Car has been a long time in coming -- we first heard about the automotive interface last June, and it still isn't ready despite the presence of relevant code in recent iOS 7 builds. The wait may soon be over, though, as the...



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Google's 'show me the menu' search brings the most important restaurant info up first

No matter how good the food is, it seems like many restaurants hide the most important info (what's cooking, and how much does it cost?) under a slew of sub pages, outdated Flash interfaces or bizarre PDF scans of printed pages. Google Search users...



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App lets you attach digital messages to real-world objects... for fun?

For those who don't know, Project Tango is a Google-built prototype smartphone jam packed with Kinect-like 3D sensors and components. One of Mountain View's software partners involved in the project, FlyBy Media, has built what it's calling the first...



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EA Sports told the NCAA it was using real players in its college football titles -- back in 2007

Back in September, EA Sports announced that it would shutter its NCAA Football series after losing support from the college sports governing body and due to ongoing legal spats. As part of that news, the video game studio said that it had settled its...



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Daily Roundup: Ashton Kutcher designs smartphones, March Madness on WP8, and more!

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all...



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Adobe backs ConnectED Initiative, sends free software to schools

Microsoft, Apple, Sprint and Verizon have already shelled out millions to help the president bring high-speed broadband to schools and amp up the role technology plays in education. Now Adobe's on the bandwagon too, and it's bringing along gobs of...



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Engadget Podcast 386 - 2.28.14

With most of the regular crew away, Terrence decides to call in some heavy-duty reinforcements. Richard joins us with critical insights into HD and the Netflix bottleneck debacle. Meanwhile, Brad is perfect for a providing a rundown of the best from...



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Samsung's Galaxy S5 is coming to Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile

Long gone are the days of prepaid carriers being stuck with low-end smartphones. Need proof? That's easy: Sprint has announced that both Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile will carry Samsung's Galaxy S5 in the second quarter of the year, or sometime...



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Camera deals of the week: 2.28.14

As winter begins to slowly depart here in the States, some of us here at Engadget are anxious to get outside and shoot some spring-like stills. What's that? Oh, you are too? Well, we've collected a handful of discounted camera options this time...



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Mt. Gox exchange faces US lawsuit over Bitcoin losses

Remember how the discovery of a botnet took much of the value out of the Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange, leading it to declare bankruptcy? Yeah, investors aren't happy about that -- and they're now demanding compensation. One of them, Gregory Greene, has...



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Engadget Eurocast 055 - 2.28.14

Ah, the joys of innocence. Jamie didn't know there was a Lego Movie, but Dan is here to fill him in on the details and deliver his thoughts on how it's the antithesis of Toy Story's rigid plot. The conversation then turns to Amazon's rebranding of...



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FIFA 14 is now available for Windows Phone footie fans

Windows Phone owners no longer have to watch from the sidelines as their friends battle for supremacy in FIFA 14. EA has released a native version of the free-to-play soccer (aka football) title for Microsoft's platform with the same on-the-pitch...



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Lenovo and Ashton Kutcher team up on special edition phones, due out this year

If at first you don't succeed... iterate, iterate, iterate on Android? After signing on Ashton Kutcher as a product engineer -- and then going on to release a pair of poorly received tablets -- Lenovo is dusting itself off. A marketing executive told...



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Nissan's camera-equipped rearview mirror provides a clear view in low light

Rearview mirrors aren't always as useful as you might like -- bright headlights, weather or a basketball team in the back seats can make it tough to see what's behind you. None of those should be a problem once Nissan's new Smart rearview mirror...



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Apple's new US promo gives Apple TV buyers free $25 iTunes gift cards

Color us intrigued. Apple seldom offers discounts on any of its devices outside of Black Friday, and yet it just launched a short, US-only promotion (PDF) that gives Apple TV buyers free $25 iTunes gift cards to jumpstart their media libraries....



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The Engadget Podcast is live at 12PM ET!

On this week's episode of the Engadget Podcast, Terrence sits alone in a closet studio piled high with ancient gadgets that no one will ever use again. Palm Pres, Kins and Zunes appear to be his only friends -- Joseph and Ben have "more important...



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March Madness Live app dribbles its way to Windows Phone 8 this year

This year, Windows Phone 8 users can watch all 67 NCAA men's basketball games too, now that the March Madness Live app has arrived (there's also a new app for Windows 8, if the browser doesn't cut it). The streaming app was previously available on...



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Sony to reportedly offload its old Tokyo HQ for some quick cash

It appears Sony isn't quite done selling off assets in a bid to reverse its financial losses. Just weeks after it sold its VAIO PC business, the company is reportedly in talks to offload another one of its properties: its former headquarters in...



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Virgin Media pushes its fiber broadband top speed to 152Mbps

If, like Aaron Paul, you've got a Need for Speed, then Virgin Media's latest news is probably up your alley. The company has announced that it's pushing its top fiber broadband speed up from a 120Mbps all the way up to 152Mbps over the next 12...



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Popular Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy protection

When the lights went out on Mt.Gox earlier this week, it wasn't entirely clear what was going on. Was the exchange about to be straightened out by another backer? What would happen to customers' coins? There were some big questions that needed...



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Xbox One update preview adds new audio, Kinect options and a fix for UK TV

Xbox One owners who received a special ticket in their inbox are already testing out next month's update, and they've already uncovered a slew of tweaks. Beyond the multiplayer / party system changes and Twitch streaming we'd heard about, fans with...



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Report: Less than one percent of mobile gamers responsible for half of all in-app purchases

With the runaway success of Candy Crush Saga, it's perfectly natural to wonder just how many people are dropping coin in freemium mobile games. One firm's answer, however, might surprise you. A very small number -- 0.15 percent, to be exact -- of...



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Google Barge bids farewell to San Francisco, to make Stockton its new California home

Still think of the Google Barge as a wacky idea from a company that makes more money than it knows what to do with? Well, Mountain View will soon prove that a floating building has its merits: for one, when the company gets in trouble with...



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Netflix engineers experiment with bump-based video sharing and sleep tracking

Netflix uses its internal Hack Day competitions to encourage new thinking around its streaming video service, and its latest event has produced a few clever experiments that we wouldn't mind seeing in finished apps. One of them, Netflix Beam, uses...



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Hulu sells its Japan operations to a local broadcaster, licenses brand name and tech

Hulu started the expansion of international video streaming services before its competitors Netflix and Amazon, but now it's taking a step back from operations overseas. New CEO Mike Hopkins announced one of his first big moves in a blog post,...



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Pieces might be falling into place for a Minecraft movie from Warner Bros.

Prepare thyselves, Minecrafters. Earlier today, Deadline reported that Warner Bros. had acquired the rights to turn the indie phenomenon Minecraft "into a major motion picture." The popular franchise has apparently already drawn "huge interest" from...



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Daily Roundup: Apple explains Touch ID, Google's modular phone and more!

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all...



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Google Hangouts 2.0 for iOS gets iPad tweaks, 10-second video messages

Google Hangouts just jumped a full version number on Apple hardware -- its first major update since adding voice calls late last year -- and 2.0 has more than just a new iOS 7-ready approach. The new app is "fully optimized" for the iPad, and...



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Chrome's hands-free voice search is coming to everyone, no add-on required

If you've wanted hands-free Google voice search (à la Android's Now Launcher) on the desktop, you've so far had to install a Chrome extension. No more -- the company has released a Chrome beta that builds the feature into the browser. Any time you...



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Instapaper update for iOS lets you send media to your Kindle and TV

Instapaper's already broad device support has just grown a little bit broader. The service's updated iOS app lets you send articles to Kindle for reading on one of Amazon's devices, and you can push videos to your big-screen TV through AirPlay. Even...



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Google Trends is now, finally, a screen saver

The flying toasters and infinite space your sleeping computer's been living with are being retired. No, After Dark isn't being resurrected and, well, does Windows even come with a screen saver built-in anymore? It's Google, and specifically the...



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Google's new web gallery helps you find public map data

A number of organizations offer public map data through Google Maps, but finding it can be tricky -- if you even know it exists. That may not be an issue now that Google has just launched its Maps Gallery. The web portal showcases location info from...



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Amazon is reportedly working on a music-streaming service

Amazon does much more than dominate the online-shopping space. With its Prime instant video service, complete with original series and exclusives, the company has taken on Netflix -- and it looks like challenging Spotify and other music services is...



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Engadget HD Podcast 387 - 2.27.14

The HD news heap has reached a toppling point, so Ben and Richard get to work sifting through all the insanity from the past week. One of the major talking points is the streaming bottleneck of Netflix's content on various service providers. This...



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Hands-on with Samsung's vastly improved Tizen OS

Samsung's device lineup may still be heavily dominated by Android, but change is in the air. Tizen, the open-source OS it jointly develops with Intel, now powers the company's three new Gear wearables, and smartphones are coming later this year. We...



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Federal Reserve has no authority to regulate Bitcoin, according to Chairwoman

Well, it doesn't appear that the Federal Reserve will be stepping in to regulate the volatile virtual currency Bitcoin any time soon. According to the new Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, the central banking system has no authority over Bitcoin. In...



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SugarSync for Android gets more offline features, full-resolution media uploads

Cloud storage service SugarSync has updated its Android app with quite a few nifty features. For starters, the application now allows any file to be saved to your device or SD card card -- a feature that will come in handy when you don't have a...



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The next mobile imaging war won't be waged over megapixels

For the past several years, improvements in smartphone cameras have followed the "more megapixels" mantra. Samsung's Galaxy S5 is up from 13 to 16 megapixels; Sony's new Xperia Z2 packs a 20.7-megapixel Exmor model; and Nokia's Lumia 1020 with...



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Rent a New York City apartment by the hour for... well, it's up to you

Sometimes, New York City can be unbearable. Sometimes, you just need a break. Breather wants to offer you that break, in a variety of "beautiful, practical spaces" that are available by the hour. Think of it like a rentable, temporary office. Sound...



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What to expect from the first generation of Ubuntu smartphones (hands-on)

The Ubuntu Touch smartphone OS has come a long way, but it still has further to plod before it's ready for market - all Canonical will tell us that it hopes to see an Ubuntu phone before the end of this year. Nevertheless, now that some phone...



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Sorry, shredders: Tony Hawk's new game is a mobile-only affair

After Tony Hawk's massively popular Pro Skater game series faded into the sunset (and the Ride/Shred series lit that sunset ablaze with nuclear warheads), the world went a few lonesome years without a new Tony Hawk title. 2014 is apparently the year...



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Catch Pokémon on Netflix starting March 1st

Look, we get it. You've got a fever, and the only prescription is more Pokémon. We've all heard it before. Thankfully, this time there's a solution: the majority of the Pokémon animation suite is coming to all Netflix territories on March 1st....



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Dish Explorer for iPad can now recommend shows and turn on your TV

If you own one of Dish's Hopper DVRs and have ever been stumped as to what to watch next, you'll want to grab the latest version of Dish Explorer for the iPad. The new app now recommends shows based on your viewing habits; watch a lot of crime dramas...



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ABC to stream the Oscars for the first time, but only for select viewers

ABC will be streaming its live coverage of the Oscars this weekend for the first time ever, but there are some important caveats. First, the awards show will only be viewable through Watch ABC on the web or through ABC's iOS and Android apps, both of...



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Facebook discontinuing its Messenger for Windows app on March 3rd

It looks like Facebook is getting a jump on spring cleaning. Three days after shuttering its @facebook.com email service, the company said it's killing off Messenger for Windows. Though the Windows desktop app won't be discontinued until March 3rd,...



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Moov's fitness tracker works as a personal trainer to improve your workouts

There are quite a few fitness trackers out there now that all do exactly the same thing: monitor how much you move. While there are tons that can tell you you're not moving around enough, there isn't really anything out there that focuses on the...



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British spy agency reportedly collected millions of webcam images from Yahoo users

Britain's surveillance agency, GCHQ, hasn't fared much better than the NSA these past several months; the latest leak shared with the Guardian claims that Britain has been collecting millions of webcam images from Yahoo users. What's more, it appears...



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Your smartphone's WiFi hotspot might double as a disaster rescue beacon

When disasters strike, communication services tend to go down; you can't simply call for help or share your location online. However, engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology have found a way to use a smartphone as a...



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BBC head wants all iPlayer users to pony up the licence fee

The BBC's budget is getting squeezed, and as such, everyone who uses its service is going to be made to pay up. Lord Hall, the BBC's Director-General, has announced that he's pushing to close the famous iPlayer Loophole, adding around £72 million to...



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