EPIC

Last week, Apple announced that its App Store is approaching 50 billion app downloads. In celebration of the milestone, Apple is giving away a $10,000 App Store gift card to the lucky person who initiates the 50 billionth download.

As part of the celebration, Apple listed the top 25 apps -- both free and paid -- for iPhone and iPad. None of the apps listed is particularly surprising (especially to someone who studies the most-popular list every day), but one thing that did strike me is that a lot of the all-time best sellers still sit near the top … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--If you could play high-end, 3D games in your browser at the same speed as on a console, would you? Here at the annual Game Developers Conference, the maker of Firefox revealed a plan to get you to do just that.

Mozilla's current holy grail is getting the mix of HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS that powers the modern Web to run apps at speeds that rival native code, the operating system-dependent languages underpinning apps on iOS, Android, Windows 8, and other proprietary systems.

The not-so-secret weapon in Mozilla's plan is something called ASM.js, said Director of Engineering Vladimir Vukicevic. "It's a dialect of JavaScript that can optimize [code] much better. It's around two times as fast," he said.… Read more

Comic books and soda seem to go together pretty well. That's why Epic Comics has a soda-dispensing machine. But it's not just any soda machine, it's a Tardis. I'm assuming, in this case, T.A.R.D.I.S. stands for "Time And Relative Dimensions In Soda."

The Orlando, Fla., comic book store admits it hasn't tried to use the soda Tardis to travel back in time to bring back Crystal Pepsi or Surge, but it is allowing its fans to vote on what the machine will hold. The current lineup includes five different carbonated drinks, each with a different "Doctor Who" actor assigned to it.… Read more

Gears of War: Judgment has turned at least one aspect of game creation on its head, according to a behind-the-scenes video about the upcoming game for Xbox 360.

The 7-minute video sheds light on how the shooting game's co-developers, Epic Games and People Can Fly, integrated the two lead writers early in the game's creation -- instead of adding dialog and conversation later in the process.

Rob Auten and Tom Bissell, the lead writers for the fourth iteration of the game, spent a year creating 20,000 spoken lines for Judgment, which they estimate clocking in somewhere near 100,000 words. There are only about 17 minutes of cinematic cut scenes, so a lot of the dialog occurs during gameplay. Players can also increase the difficulty of levels in Judgment, and these experiences contain different script material for enhanced replay value. … Read more

It's turning out to be a bumpier road than expected for high-profile iPad game Infinity Blade: Dungeons.

The game, which was previewed onstage by Epic Games as part of Apple's debut of the third-generation iPad last year, now faces further delay following the closure of Impossible Studios, the team put in charge of the project.

Epic today said that it's closing the 6-month-old studio and laying off its team, a move that means another delay for the unreleased game.

"When former members of Big Huge Games approached Epic last year, we saw the opportunity to help … Read more

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This week on Crave, we take a look at the deadly do-it-yourself Iron Man Laser Gauntlet and monkey around with Apps for Apes. After playing with monkeys all day, maybe we should consider washing our hands with ManHands manly scented soaps. Our favorite one: Urinal Mint.

… Read more

The work-in-progress game title used to demonstrate the graphical power of Apple's latest iPad may not be ready until Apple debuts the iPad 4.

Infinity Blade: Dungeons, the top-down, dungeon exploring meets finger swashbuckling hybrid that Epic Games demonstrated live on stage at the third-generation iPad's unveiling in March, is now said to be in ongoing development, with no firm release date.

The reason? Developer Impossible Studios, which Epic put together in early August from former employees of Big Huge Games, has been "busy adding their great ideas to the game," according to an interview with … Read more

Memo to bloggers: If Samsung offers to fly you to an event, make sure you have your own return-trip ticket.

According to a detailed story in The Next Web, some time back Samsung reportedly reached out to some mobile-tech bloggers in India and offered to fly them to the IFA 2012 conference now under way in Berlin. One of the bloggers -- Clinton Jeff of New Delhi -- said he made clear that he would only attend the conference as a reporter, and that he would not be doing any promotional work for the company. Samsung reportedly had no issues … Read more

Middle-earth buffs now have something to rejoice about -- Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson announced today that his movie adaptation of "The Hobbit" will be a trilogy rather than the previously announced two-part sequel.

He made the announcement on Facebook, saying that while he was editing the first and second movies in the series, he realized how much of the story was being left out.

"We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life," he wrote. "All … Read more