Halloween Google Doodle treats searchers to Magic Cat Academy game a day early and other top stories.

• Halloween Google Doodle treats searchers to Magic Cat Academy game a day early

  

  Google’s Halloween doodle arrived a day early this morning – giving trick-or-treaters extra time to beat Google’s Magic Cat Academy game that now resides on the homepage. Players are instructed to draw simple shapes on the screen to scare away ghosts creeping toward Momo, the cat-magician casting spells at the center of the game. According to the Google Doodle Blog, the development of the game involved four different teams – art, engineering, production, and an “extra help” group that produce..

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• Oops! EA Games And Origin Blocked An Entire Country Over US Embargo That No Longer Applies

  

  Gamers in Myanmar suddenly found themselves unable to access their EA PC games because EA and Origin blocked the entire country over U.S. embargo matters. The ban on the Southeast Asian country prevented Origin players from accessing any of the games they'd bought via EA's digital service, including the freshly launched Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1. Players simply hit an "Access Denied" message when trying to log into Origin, with no other explanation for their ban. Frustrated gamers quickly t..

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• Apple is ditching its iconic startup chime with the new MacBook Pro

  

  While the Apple product line has changed drastically since 1998, there’s one thing that has remained the same: the chime that signals that your computer is booting up. But with the new MacBook Pro, the distinctive, F-sharp major startup chime is no more. The change was first noticed by Pingie.com, which spotted that a specific FAQ page for the updated MacBook Pro no longer mentioned the sound, and confirmed its disappearance on a working version of the laptop. The startup chime has been a fix..

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• Toyota engineers say they have finally tamed volatile lithium-ion batteries

  

  (Reuters) – Engineers at Toyota say they have tamed volatile lithium-ion battery technology, and can now safely pack more power at no significant extra cost, giving the Japanese automaker the option to enter the growing all-electric car market. While rivals including Tesla Motors and Nissan Motor Co began adopting lithium-ion battery technology nearly a decade ago, Toyota has largely held back due to concerns over cost, size and safety. Lithium-ion batteries can be unstable and have been blamed..

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• 'Skyrim Special Edition' Audio Problems: Bethesda Promises Fix, Hopes To Launch Update This Week

  

  Bethesda is hoping to release an update for Skyrim Special Edition next week, in light of problems users have started reporting about the game's poor audio quality. Skyrim Special Edition was released for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC last Friday, a nostalgic flashback trip to Bethesda's widely acclaimed and meme-spouting game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, released back in November 2011. Now that the game's out for a couple of days, Bethesda might have made the special edition just a tad bit to..

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• Steam Halloween Sale is On! Grab the Chance to Get Favorite Game Titles at Super Low Prices!

  

  The Steam seasonal sale is now open for gamers. It offers big discounts for purchase of numerous game titles, but for a limited time only. (Photo: Ricky Rays/YouTube Screenshot) Steam Halloween Sale is just the right thing for the season's trick or treat tradition. Everyone would want to take advantage of this offer as big price reductions for popular video games await avid gamers. Most of the horror-themed titles have the most discounts so players must not pass up this seasonal sale event...

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• Vine Stars' Secret Plan to Save App: Give Us a Million Dollars

  

  After months of declining user numbers, Twitter announced that it was killing short-form video app Vine on Thursday. To explain the platform’s stagnation, some might point to its failure to attract the hundreds of millions of casual users that drive growth on similar apps like Snapchat and Instagram. Vine’s own former stars, however, have a simpler answer: We asked for a bunch of money and they said no. Twitter is discontinuing its Vine and killing off the mobile app. RIP, Vine. The ..

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