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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

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Xbox One: A family-focused console that goes beyond gamingMicrosoft’s Xbox One is the clearest example of the firm’s belief that game consoles must offer far more than games to succeed in a digital world.

Even the device’s name, which is admittedly a bit discordant for the third model in the Xbox line, hammers that point home. The “one” hints at the fact that Microsoft is looking to unify home entertainment around its console and make a clean break with old expectations about what a console should be.

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The Switch: What will happen to truck drivers when self-driving vehicles take over?Google's test vehicles for its self-driving technology are a Lexus and a Prius. That suggests that Google sees self-driving as a technology for passenger cars. But self-driving technology will almost certainly affect industry and commerce first. And through that process, we'll be able to get a first taste of what the future holds before it actually hits us.

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On Leadership: For whom the bell curve tollsThe news that a corporation is overhauling the way it does performance reviews usually only matters to the employees who work there.

But it’s much more than just a trivial H.R. change when that company is Microsoft, and when the overhaul includes axing a longstanding and controversial tactic. Rather, this could very well be an obituary for one of the corporate world’s least popular workplace practices.

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Innovations: Implanting jewelry in your eye: When being ‘unique’ goes too far.If the concept of Lasik eye surgery makes you queasy, then you’ll want to stop reading right now. A New York television station has the story of a woman who had a heart-shaped piece of platinum embedded in her eye.

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The Switch: Inside Valve’s plan to revolutionize the world of video gamesJust before Halloween, an employee at video game developer and online distribution giant Valve tweeted that the firm's most popular game, Defense of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2), would not have the seasonal event "Diretide." The time-limited game mode with Halloween elements such as virtual candy collection was a big hit on its first run in 2012. This time, Valve's imaginative fans felt tricked.

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Xbox One: Review roundupReviews are in on Microsoft’s Xbox One, and the verdict is that the console is a strong platform on which to bring gaming into the future. But it’s not without its flaws.

We’ve put our own review up, noting that the Xbox One’s major strength is its non-gaming functions, particularly its ability to hook into the television and switch to streaming video apps. Picking between the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 is largely a matter of philosophy: Sony has gone for a purer take on the console, where the core focus is on gaming, while Microsoft has planted its flag in this broader approach.

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