The holidays are officially upon us, so in between all the last-minute shopping, and gift wrapping, and caroling, and egg nogging, and traveling, let's get down to some community news:
Over the holiday break, we will be doing our best to get to all the incoming Public Access articles that have been submitted but our turn around time will be unavoidably longer. Expect it to take at least two or three days to hear back on articles you've submitted for approval. Normal article editing schedule will resume on January 2nd.
A quick note to Public Access users who have accepted a topic suggestion: Please change the title of your article from the title of the suggestion! Articles cannot be published with the same title, so if more than one person submits an article with the title of the topic, it results in an error message.
Over in the comments section, a lot of people have asked me about the badges next to users names -- you might have seen a star with the words 'influencer' or 'leader'. This simply means that individual comments, shares or likes comments frequently. Essentially, it indicates involvement in the community so if you'd like to see one next to your name be sure to comment, share and like others comments.
That's it for this week, have a great holiday everyone!
Looking for something to read? Check out:
Breslin Borland took us all to school on how to conserve more energy on our tech hardware with some handy tips and stats. While I am strict about unplugging my chargers when I'm done, I had no idea that game consoles used that much energy, so thanks Breslin!
Meanwhile, Anna Johansson looked to the future of 3D printing arguing that the technology hasn't plateaued but is instead headed for increasingly levels of adoption, with newer materials and more focus on integrating the technology into printing repair parts.
Lastly, Amelia Wong gave us a compare-and-contrast piece on the differences between smartwatches, and feature watches, broken down into categories. And she included some original photos, which was a nice touch!
Looking for something to write about? Mull over:
Aaron Souppouris' article on AR 'stealing' the year away from VR provoked a lot of thoughtful arguments and comments so we thought you would like to weigh in too: Was this the 'year of VR'? Wny or why not? Did AR 'steal' it away? If so, how?
Jon Fingas discussed Apple's Mac lineup and the 'great desktops' that the company still has on the way, prompting us to wonder: How long, ideally, would you want your hardware to last? Desktop PCs, laptops, smartphones -- how long do you hold on to your tech and how long do you think your hardware should last?
We have had a really good time writing our end of the year articles, with the "Best of" pieces being a particular staff favorite. Now that we're waving goodbye to the last days of 2016, pick your best of: Best games, best tech, best app, best wearable, etc.