Tech Culture

Whether he's talking about the weight of 300 billion elephants or battling Bill Nye the Science Guy for geek supremacy, famous astrophysicist and Star Talk Radio host Neil deGrasse Tyson is someone I pay attention to. I'm interested in his opinion and give it more weight than a lot of other people's. When he tackled one of the greatest sci-fi rivalries of all time, I perked up. "Star Trek" or "Star Wars"?

It's no secret Tyson is a major Trekkie, but his bountiful space love doesn't stretch to encompass "Star Wars" quite so much. Now we know why. "I never got into 'Star Wars,'" he admits in an interview with Business Insider (see embedded clip). "They made no attempt to portray real physics. At all."… Read more

Google is trying to make gaming a little better on its Android and iOS platforms with a handful of new features for developers. Chief among them is a new cloud save service, which stores game progress on Google's servers and syncs up gaming activity between devices.

Google also has a new matchmaking service, which like Apple's Game Center, can match up players for live and turn-based games. Google says this works on both Android and Apple's iOS. A demo of the feature at Google's I/O keynote crashed and burned, but the company says it works … Read more

Xbox users may be able to use gift cards and credit cards, instead of points, to purchase games and other content.

"Sources familiar with Microsoft's Xbox plans" told tech news site The Verge that Microsoft will replace its Xbox Points system with gift cards. The gift cards will let Xbox owners buy currency to purchase games and other content. Users also will be able to use credit and debit cards to buy Xbox items online.

The gift cards would work in the Windows Store and the Windows Phone Store, The Verge added. Microsoft may announce the new … Read more

Update: Syrian Internet access has been restored as of about 8:30 a.m. PT. Full story here.

Syria has again been cut off from the rest of the online world.

Internet access for the battle-torn country has been down since Wednesday, 7:01 UTC (12:01 a.m. PDT), according to an update from Internet monitoring firm Renesys. A tweet from Renesys says that BGP (border gateway patrol) is down, inbound traceroutes are failing, and DNS severs and government Web sites are down.

A tweet from the state-run Syrian news agency says that workers are trying to fix the problem … Read more

'Ij, eartHlIngh, veng SuvwI' Hol chu' tu'lu'. I'm not sure how accurate that really is, but, according to Bing, it means, "Listen up, earthling, there's a new language in town."

Bing is so excited about the new "Star Trek Into Darkness" movie that it added Klingon to Bing Translator, the translation service that usually handles Earth languages like Bulgarian, Turkish, and Polish.

Bing didn't just throw together some guttural sounds and call it done. Microsoft got together with "Star Trek" studio Paramount, the Klingon Language Institute, and Marc Okrand, the creator of the Klingon language, to do it up right.… Read more

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter has released his monthly estimates on console sales, and not surprisingly, given recent months, April didn't look too swell for Nintendo and its Wii U.

According to Pachter, who estimates console sales in the U.S. based on retail checks, Nintendo sold just 55,000 Wii U units in April, down 19 percent compared to March. The company's Wii, which has been on store shelves for years, sold 75,000 units in April, according to Pachter.

Microsoft was once again the leader in the console market in April, selling 205,000 Xbox 360 units … Read more

Big rockets like the SpaceX Grasshopper and the Orbital Antares have been in the news lately, but those are a little out of reach for the average student. That's why the Aerospace Industries Association's Team America Rocketry Challenge exists. It fans the maker flames by challenging kids to design, build, and launch model rockets.

The rocket challenge finals took place over the weekend. It was a record year for the competition's turnout, with 725 teams battling through the initial rounds. The top 100 teams participated in the final fly-off in Virginia, representing 29 states with teams from schools, 4-H clubs, and even a team made up of Civil Air Patrol volunteers.

The competition was open to students in grades 7 through 12. All the teams had one goal: build the best model rocket. The challenge was to fly an egg to 750 feet up in the air, and then parachute it back to the ground with no damage. That's even harder than it sounds.… Read more

Netflix subscribers eagerly awaiting the return of "Arrested Development" can see what's in store courtesy of a new promo trailer.

Posted by Netflix on YouTube Sunday, the 90-second spot briefly catches us up with each member of the Bluths, including Michael, Lindsay, Tobias, Gob, Buster, George Michael, Maeby, Lucille, and George Sr. And from the clip, it seems little has changed since we last saw the family that gives new meaning to the word dysfunctional.

Buster still seems as frightened of the world as ever. Gob is still hitting on women in the most inappropriate way possible. … Read more

Google+ users reading articles on mobile Web sites may now start to see recommendations to related stories.

Unveiled today, the new feature allows Web developers to add code to their sites so that users can discover more stories by that publisher on the same topic or from the same author.

As described in today's Google+ developers blog, a user reading a certain story on a mobile device will see a link toward the bottom of that story. The link suggests a related story that's been heavily shared or received a +1 on Google+. Tapping on that link brings … Read more