Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 9:38PM 
Class leading luxury and comfort with sportiness to satisfy discerning drivers.
Text and photos by Don Halliwell
This week I was treated to some time in the recently restyled 2017 Mercedes-Benz C 300 sedan. Naturally, I was inspired enough to collect my thoughts and snap a few photos, which I can’t wait to share with you in the review below.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 8:53PM 
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
Looks like it isn’t just Facebook who’s taking cues from Snapchat. Apple looks to be creating an “avatar editing environment” which has a design an editing process that looks so eerily similar to Bitmoji. To be fair, the patent was filed back in 2011 but we can’t help compare the similarities. With Apple upping the game on its iMessage service, perhaps it’ll make sense for them to develop more features for it—including a 3D avatar model. As seen in some diagrams, it shows you can edit everything from hair color, eye color, skin color, etc. Based on the patent, though, it just won’t be used for chatting. It could also have applications in gaming, eye-tracking, and responsive action. Think of it as something you can use in virtual reality.
We don’t know if Apple will make use of the feature but there is a sense of ridiculousness in trying to patent this kind of feature. Bitmoji isn’t exactly new. Plus, if you remember avatar creation has been around for a while. Yahoo Avatar, anyone? Either way, let’s see what Apple decided to do with this.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 7:37PM Chris Prendergast, a Toronto-based science teacher, takes his love for robots, guitars, and hands-on learning to create what’s considered the world’s first attachable guitar amplifier. Called JamStack, the 10-watt speaker can attach to the bottom of your guitar and have you strumming within minutes. It’s capable of delivering sound in both high and low volume levels and with the use of your smartphone, you can access effects from apps such as AmpKit. With its portable size, you can take it anywhere with you and play when you want. With it in high demand, there seems to be a waitlist on the product’s Kickstarter page. If this interests you, you might want to sign up now.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 1:19PM The much anticipated Halo Wars 2 strategy game is now available for Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs through the XBox Play Anywhere program.
"On behalf of the Strategy Games team inside 343 Industries, we’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work on Halo Wars 2 and for the patience of fans who waited so long to get their “ALL UNITS” on again. We want to thank our partners at Creative Assembly for their deep respect to the Halo universe and for challenging us to expand on that universe. We also couldn’t have done this without Blur Studios and their ability to see Halo even more clearly than we did at times. And we have to pay respects to the foundation laid by everyone from Ensemble Studios when they made that great first transition of both Halo and consoles to real-time strategy gaming," Dan Ayoub, Studio Head of Strategy Games Development for Microsoft said.
