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(credit: CableLabs)

Next-generation cable modems that can deliver multi-gigabit speeds have been certified by CableLabs, the cable industry's research and development lab.

The new modems use version 3.1 of DOCSIS (the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification), cable's answer to fiber Internet speeds. The first DOCSIS 3.1 certifications were earned by Askey, Castlenet, Netgear, Technicolor, and Ubee Interactive, according to the announcement by CableLabs. The group's testing confirms that the modems comply with the new DOCSIS spec.

DOCSIS 3.1 reduces network latency and will enable "high-speed applications including Virtual and Augmented Reality, advanced video technologies such as Ultra High Definition 4K television, tele-existence and medical imaging, and gaming," CableLabs said.

This Amiibo can stay usable proudly standing while still inside its box.

The eternal question for the modern Nintendo collector: Do you leave that hard-to-find Amiibo in the box to maximize its long-term value, or do you take it out so you can actually scan it to unlock new features in select Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games? Thankfully, players don't have to make that decision with Yacht Club Games' new Shovel Knight Amiibo. It was purposely designed to be usable even while it's still in its packaging.

Shortly after the US launch of the Shovel Knight Amiibo last week (and the early December launch in Europe), sites like Siliconera and YouTubers like Nintendaan quickly discovered the NFC readers in the Wii U and New Nintendo 3DS can scan the figure even while it's still in its packaging. That makes it different from every other Amiibo released so far, all of which include a small piece of protective material to prevent the base from being scanned from inside the box.

Some assumed Shovel Knight's lack of a protective covering was an oversight or a cost-saving measure implemented for the new Amiibo, which is the first to be produced by a third-party outside of Nintendo itself. But Yacht Club games recently told Polygon that the design is actually an intentional decision.

Choice Provisions

The interstitial art between rounds of Tharsis is pretty sick.

4 more images in gallery

A lot of dread accumulates during an average playthrough of new digital board game Tharsis. To some extent, the feeling is fostered by the game's lonely, hopeless setting on an interstellar outpost. In other ways, it's thanks to the zillions of disasters that befall the astronaut crew you're attempting to help dig their way out of seemingly endless crises. A lot of virtual death comes along the way, yet the game itself is incredibly approachable thanks to a mix of board and dice game mechanics—as if Yahtzee met the resource-management world of games like Alien Frontiers.

Sheer accessibility is possibly this game's scariest aspect. As in, we're addicted, and we're not sure if that's a good thing. It's fair to call Tharsis's combination of punishing difficulty, strategic depth, and hair-pulling emphasis on luck the devil's triad—the kind of game you might find while walking through Satan's most brimstone-loaded casino. We're ever so thankful that the designers didn't attach any microtransactions to its nearly impossible journey to Mars. Otherwise, we may be broke.

Having the pilot for dinner

The game opens aboard the space station Iktomi, staffed with experts in fields such as engineering, medicine, and piloting, en route to the first manned landing on Mars. Each gameplay session begins with an unexpected meteor destroying a vital station compartment weeks before the landing date, which sends the rest of the four-person crew on a dizzying, 10-round journey to keep both the ship functioning and its crew members alive.