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There will be no more updates on this blog.
This blog will continue to serve as a repository for News Stream content from before April 2015.
Mario on your smartphone won't be what you think
Nintendo finally gave in.
On Monday Nintendo announced a tie-up with Japanese mobile gaming firm DeNA that will place Nintendo characters in all-new games for smartphones.
That distinction is key: Nintendo is not bringing its older, existing games to mobile devices. It is creating all-new games specifically for those devices.
It means you still won't be able to play the original Super Mario Bros. on your smartphone.
You know what? That's a good thing. FULL POST
Is it Pebble's Time to shine?
It's hard to talk about the Pebble Time without mentioning the Apple Watch.
Pebble, the pioneers of the smartwatch, unveiled their latest product just before the world's most valuable company is about to enter the market.
But I feel like there's room for both products. FULL POST
Earth Primer's fun lessons
Steve Jobs wanted the iPad to herald a revolution in textbooks.
In his biography of the late Apple co-founder, author Walter Isaacson said Jobs saw textbooks as another market ripe for disruption by releasing digital versions on the iPad.
Digital textbooks usually include dynamic elements, like pictures or video clips. Chaim Gingold has taken that to the next level with "Earth Primer", an app that teaches you about our planet by letting you play with an interactive model of it.
"Earth Primer" allows you to summon rainclouds to send streams of water cutting through mountains to demonstrate how erosion works instead of just telling you. You can also raise the sea level, create glaciers, even move continental plates around - all to explain the inner workings of the Earth.
Watch Gingold tell Kristie why he created the app in the clip above.
WWII veteran describes horrors of Buchenwald
Rick Carrier was barely out of his teen years when he helped save tens of thousands of lives. If there is anyone fit to be called a hero, it's him – and a very unassuming one at that.
Carrier was the first American to stumble across the Nazi-run Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany on April 10, 1945. It was his twentieth birthday. The next day he returned with reinforcements, and helped liberate Buchenwald.
At 90 years old, the World War II veteran's recollection of the sights, smells and emotions at the very moment he helped liberate the camp are just incredible.
Listen as he shares his story with Kristie Lu Stout.
Getting the rest of the world online
For millions of people in developing countries, smartphones represent their chance to experience the Internet for the first time.
But one entrepreneur says the swipes and taps we take for granted on a touchscreen device aren't intuitive for users with no experience.
Watch the video above to see Hassan Baig explain how he's trying to help people use the Internet on mobile devices for the first time.
Game Faces: Cosmo Wright
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of my favorite games ever. I feel like I should know everything about the game, since I've finished the roughly 20-hour main storyline several times over the last 16 years.
I realized how little I knew when I saw Cosmo Wright finish the game in under 20 minutes.
FULL POST
A mission close to Yao Ming's heart
It’s no secret that Yao Ming is tall, but in person – he’s larger than life.
And it’s not just his height that’s impressive. He has one of the biggest hearts of anyone around.
Between his professional basketball career – to launching his own wine label – Yao Ming’s interests have run the gamut.
But he’ll tell you, working to save endangered animals is especially meaningful to him.
“I feel they have a personality – just like us,” Yao said of the rhinos and elephants he met during a trip to Africa two years ago. “Some are very funny. Some are very shy. They have a good memory too – and know the people who treat them very well.”
20 years of PlayStation
I remember the first Sony PlayStation.
I remember thinking that "PlayStation" was a very silly name.
I remember wondering how Sony could possibly compete with Nintendo and Sega.
I remember looking at the oddly-shaped controller, with weird contoured grips that surprisingly felt good in your hand.
I remember playing Ridge Racer for the first time.
Ferguson puts focus on U.S. racial divide
The situation in Ferguson, Missouri is a reminder of the deep racial division in America.
Protesters in Ferguson and across the United States feel that Michael Brown was singled out by police because of his race.
CNN contributor L.Z. Granderson says there is a lack of trust between minorities and police, as well as a lack of empathy between blacks and whites in the country.
It's a problem he's experienced way too often.
"I've lost count the number of times I've been pulled over by a police officer," he tells me from Ferguson. "The first time that an officer pulled a gun out on me, I was 12 years old. He told me I looked like someone."
"We're talking about a 30 year gap in my life in which I continue to look like someone that police are interested in," Granderson says. "I have never committed a crime. I have never been prosecuted. But I keep feeling I am being persecuted."
Here's Granderson on the racial divide in America and the anger surrounding the Ferguson grand jury decision.
Take a listen. It's worth your time.
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