Following a public investigation and pressure from activist groups, Apple has banned the use of two dangerous cleaning chemicals linked to leukemia and potential nerve damage. The use of benzene and n-hexane in its Chinese facilities drew anger from groups such as China Labor Watch and Green America - 18 of the company's factories weren't using the chemicals, while four were. However, the four factories were reportedly using the chemical solutions within safe limits, but decided to impose the ban anyway.

Apple was called out in the past when a factory used N-hexane, which evaporates faster than alcohol, reportedly led to 137 employees being hospitalized.

"This is doing everything we can think of to do to crack down on chemical exposures and to be responsive to concerns," said Lisa Jackson, Apple VP of environmental initiatives, in a statement to the AP. "We think it's really important that we show some leadership and really look toward the future by trying to use greener chemicals."

Both Microsoft and Sony were reportedly running some game demos at Gamescom 2014 using powerful custom-built PCs to display console games. Live game demonstrations of "Ori" and "Blind Forest" crashed to the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, and the PCs appear to be powered by NVIDIA instead of AMD GPUs, according to reports.

It's not uncommon for game studios, even when promoting console games, to use PCs to help enhance the demonstration experience for attendees. However, even if the game is available on all next-generation consoles and the PC, gamers will often call out the studio if graphics and gameplay don't replicate what was originally shown to them.

During public demoes, companies are tasked with providing lightning-fast gameplay mixed with pretty graphics to entice gamers and media. It seems both companies have been caught doing this over the past few years, eager to demonstrate their latest and greatest console games - but using PCs instead of their own products to get the job done.

A group of researchers from a university in British Columbia came up with a very odd, yet very cool project called hitchBOT. The idea was to make a robot of sorts, put it on the side of the road, and see if it could hitch a ride across the country. This isn't the sort of bot that can't walk on its own, but it is computerized enough to interact with the people who help it.

So far, the bot has hitched numerous rides and ended up in some interesting places. It has hung out with folks on summer vacation, a rock band, and wound up at a wedding. During the wedding hitchBOT reportedly interrupted the groom's thank you for coming speech to say it likes to make friends.

HitchBOT began its cross-country trip on July 27 after being left on the side of the road near the Halifax airport. The bot has been taking photos and sharing them online as well as tweeting during its trip. The bot is expected to end its trip at the Victoria Open Space Gallery next week.

Researchers around the world are working on robotics to make them able to operate on their own and perform complex tasks. In the US, a group of engineers has designed a swarm of 1000 tiny robots that are able to shuffle their way into specific shapes when told to. Each of the bots is given an image of the shape controllers want and then they work together to make the shape.

It's not a fast process; it reportedly takes about 12 hours for the bots to take the desired shape. This is the largest swarm of robots to ever be used in a study of this type. Researchers from the group behind the project say that each of the bots is identical and have the exact same program.

The throng of robots is inspired by cells that form organs or ants that are able to build bridges to span water. The team hopes that knowledge gleaned from this study will help develop self-assembling tools and structures in the future. Each of the little bots is 3cm across and said to be about the size of a sushi roll and each has three straight legs. Commands are given using an infrared light overhead and a sensor on the robots.

Ubisoft is in a tough spot with PC gamers right now, but is the company finally starting to see the light? Probably not, but it is promising that it is trying to focus more on the PC, in the form of simplified DRM activation, and a better commitment to multi-platform releases.

During an interview with MVC, Ubisoft's European boss Alain Corre said: "We listen to feedback from players and continue to adapt accordingly. For instance, we switched to a simple, one-time activation for our PC games; a standard practice in the industry. We're also doing our best to bring our games to PC at the same time as the console versions".

We should begin to see the fruits of Ubisoft's labor in its upcoming titles, two of the biggest releases of the year: Assassin's Creed Unity, and Far Cry 4. Corre has said that the company is seeing an increase in revenue from the PC side of things, with its PC market growing from 11% in 2013 to 15% this year. Corre continued: "We recognise the importance and needs of PC gamers, and want to continue to improve how we create and support games for PC. We are committed to improving the optimisation of our games for each platform on which they're released, including PC".

Sprint will reportedly cut prices with an announcement set for next week, as the No. 3 wireless carrier tries to catch up to Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son recently tasked new CEO Marcelo Claure with pointing the company in the correct direction following a failed bid for T-Mobile.

Claure replaced Dan Hesse last week, and is interested in dropping prices, boosting the company's wireless network, and trying to cut operational costs.

"In the short term, our success will come from our focus on becoming extremely cost efficient and competing aggressively in the marketplace," Claure recently said. "The management team has been working closely with the board to outline the future strategy of the company."

During an interview with Joystiq at Gamescom, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said that the three-year cycle that the Call of Duty franchise finds itself in, is something its audience is used to. But even though we see a game released every year, we have three studios working on the franchise at all times.

Hirshberg explained: "That extra year of development time, particularly with the new consoles and the more powerful hardware, has really paid off thus far to iterate, innovate and try new things. To find out which things didn't work and have the freedom to fail in the creative process, so what goes on the disc is the best ideas".

It's interesting to see that the company knows it has the ability to fail, with Hirshberg continuing: "The thing that the three-year development cycle allows is these games have gotten so ambitious, we're packing so many different modes of play onto the disc. The things that started off as flyers, like zombies or co-op became their own whole games". Hirshberg says that even though the franchise is annualized, the structure it has for Call of Duty sees that the quality of the series is sustainable. He finished off by saying "Activision has a narrative that doesn't match the reality, which is quite potent".

Flash Memory Summit 2014 - Newisys displayed two data center storage systems at the show this year, both with a focus on density. The new NDS-2600 and NDS-4600 allow data centers to add large volumes of storage with as little rack space as possible.

Here is a face you've seen on the pages of TweakTown a few times. It's Michael Schuette, formally of OCZ fame. Michael has taken his wealth of knowledge to Sanmina, owners of the Newisys brand.

Michael is no stranger to the cutting edge. Here we see one side of the new Newisys NDS-2600, a 2U server that features 30 2.5" drive bays on each side of the system. As you can see in this image, the system is still on rails so it slides in and out of the server rack for service easily.

Michael J Fox's charity, the Michael J Fox foundation, has partnered with Intel to examine how wearable technology can be of benefit to people with Parkinson's disease.

Michael J Fox founded the charity after he was diagnosed with the disease. Its cause is not known and there is no cure, however, the symptoms, such as shaking and trouble with co-ordination, can be treated to a degree. The wearable tech will be used to unearth more data, for example, by recording the movements of patients and volunteers. An accompanying smartphone will upload this data to an Intel system, which will then dedicate data scientists to the project.

Ex Intel boss Andy Grove has acted as adviser to the foundation since he was also diagnosed with the disease. Chief executive of the foundation, Todd Sherer, said, according to the BBC: "This opportunity really will allow us the chance to uncover novel breakthroughs in Parkinson's disease by truly understanding how people are living with the disease today, how are they responding to treatments, what are their unmet needs."

Although it didn't set the box office alight in the manner that Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures had hoped, the green light has officially been given for a sequel by Warner, along with a very specific release date of June 8, 2018.

Director Gareth Edwards hasn't been confirmed to return to direct the sequel, however the 2018 release date has presumably been set as to allow him to helm the as-yet untitled 'Star Wars' spin-off for Disney, which releases in 2016.

With a budget of $160 million, the $500 million worldwide return was generally seen as a disappointment, especially off the back of a strong critical response (including our review here), along with a solid cast led by 'Breaking Bad' star Bryan Cranston.