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Top games to play with friends on smartphones

There are several games on both of my iOS devices at any given time from just about every genre. But there are only a few games I go back to on an almost daily basis and that's because they are fun, addictive, and a great way to keep in touch with friends and family.

These "casual" games are turn-based and require you to connect with a friend to start playing -- there is no single-player option with this collection. They have also been around for a while, but that's kind of the point: these are the games I continue to play because it only requires a couple of minutes to take my turn and send it to a friend. While it is sometimes a pain to go in and complete my turns (especially when life gets busy), the overall experience of competing with your friends and family is a good one and acts as a way to stay connected, even in our busy everyday lives.… Read more

NASA's futuristic X-48C hybrid wing-body plane takes flight

NASA said today that its experimental X-48C hybrid wing-body airplane took flight for the first time.

A remotely powered prototype that's housed at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert, the X-48C is thought to be the future of efficient, long-haul aviation.

The plane is known as a hybrid wing-body because it's essentially a cross between a flying-wing design and a conventional plane. NASA and its partners in the U.S. Air Force, Boeing, and Cranfield Aerospace are confident the aircraft will offer users long-term fuel efficiency, fuel capacity, … Read more

In Mojave, the world's most exciting planes take flight

MOJAVE DESERT, Calif.--It's hard to imagine a more complete -- and impressive -- collection of aviation facilities and aircraft anywhere on the planet than the one in this vast, arid, wide-open wasteland northeast of Los Angeles.

Thanks to its endless amounts of dry, flat terrain, useless to most people, and the fact that there are only a few ways in -- vital for security -- the Mojave is, and has long been, the beating heart of the aviation world. It's here that Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier. And where Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne ushered in … Read more

Navy's new ship sails the seas on half the gas

SAN DIEGO -- The U.S. Navy spends a fortune every year on energy, so for a ship to complete a deployment having burned through just half the cash it had available for fuel is a very good sign of things to come.

For some time, the Navy has been saying many of the right things about its plans to go green, starting with a major biofuels initiative. And though a recent Wired report claims that the servicewide efforts have lost steam, the performance of the USS Makin Island could well be a bright spot.

As part of Road Trip 2012, … Read more

Great Big War Game: Bigger and better

Rubicon has done it again with Great Big War Game, the sequel to the wildly successful Great Little War Game. In this newest installment of the turn-based strategy game, you are again the bird's-eye-view commander of a comical, yet brutal military.

If you aren't familiar with this particular style of game play, you get one turn to move your units and wage attacks before passing off to your opponent to do the same. The strategy comes in as you attempt to attack your enemy, while still maintaining a safe enough distance to avoid being attacked yourself. As you … Read more

Facebook less trusted than Amazon, Google, survey says

People don't go to Facebook to shop for necessities, or even for luxuries, so it's not surprising a survey released today found that folks don't want to share their personal data in return for service on the social-networking site.

The survey -- done by Placecast, a location-based marketing firm -- found that U.S. adults are more than twice as likely to trust Amazon than Facebook with personal information. The firm aimed to gauge Americans' comfort with relinquishing private data in exchange for receiving marketing promotions offline, online, and through mobile devices.

Sixty-six percent of U.S. … Read more

Truly a Great Little War Game

If patience is not one of your strongest traits, then perhaps a turn-based strategy game is not for you. Otherwise, sit back, and get ready to be consumed for hours by the chesslike pace of this Great Little War Game.

In GLWG, you are the bird's-eye-view commander of a comical yet brutal military force. You get one turn to move your units and wage attacks, then it's your opponent's turn to do the same. The strategy comes in as you attempt to attack your enemy, while still maintaining a safe-enough distance that you avoid being attacked yourself. … Read more

Google search goes private in Firefox 14

The bottom line: Firefox 14 is a worthy expression of Mozilla's ideals. The browser is competitively fast, sports a minimalist look, and includes some excellently executed features. Unfortunately for the 'fox, that describes most of its competition, too.

Please note that the First Look video below is still applicable to Firefox 14, as is this Firefox How To collection, even though it features Firefox 4.

Review: For those of you who spent last year away from the Internet, it's the year that Firefox went from annual major-point updates to a Chrome-style quick-release cycle. How quick? A new major … Read more

At NASA Dryden, the futuristic X-48C gets ready to fly

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.--If you want to know what the future of airplane design looks like, you might have to make your way out to the middle of the Mojave Desert.

Tucked away inside a nondescript warehouse building at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center here, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, Boeing, and Cranfield Aerospace are working on an entirely new kind of plane, one which they hope could someday revolutionize aviation.

Known as a hybrid wing body, the plane design, which NASA describes as a cross between a conventional plane and a flying wing design, is … Read more

Getting schooled with the Air Force's elite test pilots

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.--He might be the most famous airman in the history of the U.S. Air Force, and he's a graduate of the Test Pilot School.

In 1947, Capt. Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier, hitting Mach 1.0 in a Bell X-1 rocket plane 42,000 feet above this Mojave Desert outpost. And today, to commemorate the import of the event that ushered in the supersonic era, the aircraft hangs from the ceiling in the entryway of the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Yeager … Read more