The PS4’s first big update is almost here, check out what’s inside
Curious to know everything that’s in the PlayStation 4′s 1.70 update launching on Wednesday? You won’t have to download it yourself to find out — Sony has spilled the beans ahead of time. Some of these updates we’ve heard about before, such as the SHAREfactory video editor, 720p HD Twitch streams (that are archivable) and automatic pre-order downloads. However, we now know that there’s quite a few subtler improvements in store. You can control the default length for shared gameplay videos before saving them to a USB drive, and a toggle to dim the DualShock 4′s lightbar is included in this update. Remote Link pairing with the PlayStation Vita is now automatic, and those who hate credit cards can shop with PayPal on the PlayStation Store. All told, this is a lot more than a simple tune-up, and you’ll likely want it as soon as it hits the servers — the updated companion app for iOS is already available.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Twitter seeks to soar despite slowing adoption
When Twitter released its first earnings report earlier this year, one of the more distressing trends was that the company’s user growth is slowing, and has been for the better part of a year. That’s certainly not the kind of results you’d want from a firm that just filed its IPO a couple of months prior.
Fast forward a few months however, and it seems Twitter has recovered. In its first quarter earnings report for 2014, the social media firm says it’s grown its monthly active user count to 255 million, which is a 5.8% growth from last quarter. Earnings are also up — it made $250 million in Q1 this year, which is a whopping 119% growth from this time in 2013. Twitter is leveraging its TV partnerships as well, stating that 92 percent of users have taken action like tuning into a TV show after seeing a related tweet, and even Nielsen has found a causal relationship between TV watching and Twitter activity. So everything seems pretty rosy, right?
Well, not quite. The company is still operating at a loss (around $132 million) and that 5.8% user growth number is still really low — far lower than expected, and not as high as the 10% growth Twitter enjoyed just a year ago (Contrast that to Facebook, which just surpassed over a billion monthly users recently). To investors, that’s a worrying number, which explains why Twitter’s shares dropped by as much as 10% in after hours trading.
But it’s not as if the website isn’t popular. CEO Dick Costolo made a case in its earnings call earlier today that Twitter is actually incredibly mainstream. “We had 3.3 billion views of tweets just about the Oscars in the 48 hours after the show,” he said. He continued that if you put that number in the context of a popular YouTube network which gets about 3 billion views in a month, it’s a huge success. Twitter also saw a 26% increase of retweets and faves this last quarter, which Costolo said is a sign that new users are just as engaged as existing ones. There was also strong advertiser demand during live events like the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, which indicate that users flock to the social media site in those momentous occasions.
Therein, however, lies the rub. The company needs more than just the occasional event or television show to attract users to its flock. The Oscars don’t happen every day, and the Olympics and World Cup only come every four years. Twitter needs to be a place where people can just, well, chat about everyday things, much like how Facebook is for a lot of people. For that to happen, Twitter needs to be friendlier and more accessible. The company is already taking steps towards this with redesigned user profiles, reducing steps in sign-up and enhancing push notifications to encourage discussion and conversations. In the earnings call, CFO Mike Gupta said that user experience is still the guiding factor for the company, which we applaud, if only because that’s one of the key ways to get more users.
“We think of Twitter as this companion experience as to what’s happening in the world,” said Costolo. Now it’s time to encourage everyone else in the world to think the same.
Source: Twitter
Microsoft Research Demos Motion Sensing Keyboard with Gestures
Microsoft Research has demoed a new augmented mechanical keyboard that allows users to use motion controls either on or slightly above the keyboard to interact with their computers. The prototype was curiously made using keycaps from an Apple keyboard.
A low-resolution matrix of infrared (IR) proximity sensors is interspersed with the keys of a regular mechanical keyboard. This results in coarse but high frame-rate motion data. We extend a machine learning algorithm, traditionally used for static classification only, to robustly support dynamic, temporal gestures.
The gestures that the keyboard can recognize include traditional gestures like “pinch-to-zoom” and swiping to static gestures like holding a single finger above the keyboard to advanced gestures like turning an imaginary steering wheel.
It’s unclear whether the augmented keyboard, referred to as the Type-Hover-Swipe, could eventually turn into a real product, but it’s another step in Microsoft exploring motion control after its Kinect device. Apple, too, has been exploring motion sensing with its purchase of PrimeSense, the 3D body sensing firm that developed the technology for Kinect. The Type-Hover-Swipe keyboard is also similar to the technology of Leap Motion, who former Apple iAd chief Andy Miller worked for for close to two years.
Must See HDTV for the week of April 29th: Daylight, Vikings
You asked for them back, and here they are. We’ve returned to longer listings while we continue to tweak the format, let us know in the comments what you like best. This week we’re focusing on a new survival horror game, Daylight arriving on the PC and PS4. The game promises a procedurally generated world that will never be the same twice, as players navigate an abandoned hospital with only their cell phone for illumination. There’s also a 24 preview on Fox Saturday night before the show’s new season airs next week, the season finale of Vikings and season four of Star Trek: Enterprise on Blu-ray. Check after the break for a list of what’s new this week, and drop in the comments if you see any highlights that we’ve missed.
Blu-ray, Streaming movies & Games
- The Legend of Hercules 3D
- Space Battleship Yamato: Movie
- The Wind and the Lion
- Labor Day
- Star Trek: Enterprise S4
- Jim Gaffigan: Obsessed
- Child of Light (PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One, Xbox 360)
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4)
- Daylight (PS4)
- JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle (PS3)
Tuesday
- 30 for 30: The Myth of Garrincha / Ceasefire Massacre, ESPN, 7:30PM
- Glee, Fox, 8PM
- Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ABC, 8PM
- The Voice, NBC, 8PM
- Wizards/Bulls Game 5, TNT, 8PM
- NCIS, CBS, 8PM
- The Pioneers of Television, PBS, 8PM
- Capitals/Blues, NBC Sports Network, 8PM
- The Originals, CW, 8PM
- The Mindy Project, Fox, 9PM
- From Dusk Till Dawn, El Rey Network, 9PM
- About a Boy, NBC, 9PM
- Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge, Syfy, 9PM
- The Goldbergs, ABC, 9PM
- NCIS: LA, CBS, 9PM
- Grizzlies/Thunder Game 5, NBA TV, 9PM
- Supernatural, CW, 9PM
- Growing Up Fisher, NBC, 9:30PM
- Trophy Wife, ABC, 9:30PM
- Chicago Fire, NBC, 10PM
- Fargo, FX, 10PM
- The Game (season finale), BET, 10PM
- Playing House (series premiere), USA, 10PM
- Person of Interest, CBS, 10PM
- Awkward, MTV, 10PM
- The Listener, ION, 10 & 11PM
- Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan, BBC America, 10PM
- Game of Arms (season finale), AMC, 10PM
- Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Inside Amy Schumer, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
- Faking It, MTV, 10:30PM
Wednesday
- Survivor, CBS, 8PM
- Melissa & Joey, ABC Family, 8PM
- American Idol, Fox, 8PM
- Arrow, CW, 8PM
- The Middle, ABC, 8PM
- Revolution, NBC, 8PM
- Heat/Grizzlies, ESPN, 8PM
- Suburgatory, ABC, 8:30PM
- Baby Daddy, ABC Family, 8:30PM
- The 100, CW, 9PM
- Criminal Minds, CBS, 9PM
- Jim Rome on Showtime, Showtime, 9PM
- Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 9PM
- Modern Family, ABC, 9PM
- Mixology, ABC, 9:30PM
- The Americans, FX, 10PM
- Legit, FXX, 10PM
- Chicago PD, NBC, 10PM
- CSI, CBS, 10PM
- Nashville, ABC, 10PM
- The Ultimate Fighter, Fox Sports 1, 10PM
- Triptank, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
- Deal With It, TBS, 10:30PM
- Ali G: Rezurection, FXX, 10:30PM
Thursday
- iHeartRadio Music Awards, NBC, 8PM
- The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 8PM
- The Vampire Diaries, CW, 8PM
- The Millers, CBS, 8:30PM
- American Idol, Fox, 9PM
- Saint George, FX, 9PM
- Grey’s Anatomy, ABC, 9PM
- Reign, CW, 9PM
- Two and a Half Men, CBS, 9PM
- Surviving Jack, Fox, 9:30PM
- Anger Management, FX, 9:30PM
- Bad Teacher, CBS, 9:30PM
- Real World/Road Rules Challenge, MTV, 10PM
- Review with Forrest Macneil, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Portlandia (season finale), IFC, 10PM
- Black Box, ABC, 10PM
- Vikings (season finale), History, 10PM
- Parenthood, NBC, 10PM
- Sirens (season finale), USA, 10PM
- Elementary, CBS, 10PM
Friday
- Unforgettable, CBS, 8PM
- WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM
- Shark Tank: Swimming with Sharks, ABC, 8PM
- Whose Line Is It Anyway?, CW, 8PM
- Hart of Dixie, CW, 9PM
- Bellator MMA Live, Spike TV, 9PM
- Shark Tank, ABC, 9PM
- Hawaii Five-0, CBS, 9PM
- Continuum, Syfy, 10PM
- Blue Bloods, CBS, 10PM
- Hannibal, NBC, 10PM
- Vice, HBO, 11PM
- The Improv: 50 Years Behind the Brick Wall, Comedy Central, 11:59PM
Saturday
- A Daughter’s Nightmare, Lifetime, 8PM
- 24: Jack is Back, Fox, 8:30PM
- Orphan Black, BBC America, 9PM
- Da Vinci’s Demons, Starz, 9PM
- The Real History of Science Fiction, BBC America, 10PM
- Saturday Night Live: Andrew Garfield/Coldplay, NBC, 11:30PM
- Comedy Underground with Dave Attell, Comedy Central, 1AM
Sunday
- NASCAR Sprint Cup Series @ Talladega, Fox, 12:30PM
- Bob’s Burgers, Fox, 7PM
- American Dad, Fox, 7:30PM
- Cardinals/Cubs, ESPN, 8PM
- The Simpsons, Fox, 8PM
- Once Upon a Time, ABC, 8PM
- The Amazing Race, CBS, 8PM
- Family Guy, Fox, 8:30PM
- Everest Avalanche Tragedy, Discovery, 9PM
- Nurse Jackie, Showtime, 9PM
- Game of Thrones, HBO, 9PM
- Mr. Selfridge, PBS, 9PM
- Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Fox, 9PM
- Believe, NBC, 9PM
- Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: Mexico City, CNN, 9PM
- Resurrection (season finale), ABC, 9PM
- Turn, AMC, 9PM
- The Good Wife, CBS, 9PM
- Californication, Showtime, 9:30PM
- David Spade: My Fake Problems, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Mad Men, AMC, 10PM
- Bletchley Circle (season finale), PBS, 10PM
- Years of Living Dangerously, Showtime, 10PM
- Silicon Valley, HBO, 10PM
- Crisis, NBC, 10PM
- Revenge, ABC, 10PM
- The Mentalist, CBS, 10PM
- Veep, HBO, 10:30PM
- Robot Chicken, Cartoon Network, 11:30PM
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Join the Engadget HD Podcast live on Ustream at 8:30PM ET
It’s Tuesday, which is time for the Engadget HD Podcast and we hope you’ll join us for the live recording at 8:30PM. The latest trials and tribulations of the FCC’s attempt to regulate the internet, in what we have come to call net neutrality, is the first order of business on tonights HD podcast. We pivot from there to the all-so-related Comcast and TWC merger and slide right into our favorite regular topic, Netflix, and its opinion on the merger as well as a deal with Big Red. A few miscellaneous HD topics fill some airtime until we bring it home with what we’re watching this week. If you’ll be joining us, take a peek at the topics after the break and then get ready to participate in the live chat.
FCC Chairman Wheeler talks tough on defending net neutrality, broadband competition and paid peering deals
WSJ: FCC’s new net neutrality rules mean ISPs don’t have to be neutral
FCC claims it hasn’t abandoned net neutrality at all, opens a new inbox for comments
Comcast proposes giving up 3.9 million customers to clinch its TWC merger
Netflix gets specific about its battle with Comcast and opposition to the TWC merger
Netflix pays to play with Verizon, too
Netflix finally comes to cable boxes in the US, but probably not the one you have
Hulu Plus adds phone and tablet remote control to PS3, PS4 and Xbox One apps
Hulu attempts to block international viewers who use VPNs
Samsung’s giving you more to watch on that ridiculously expensive 4K TV
Xbox Entertainment Studios has at least 12 projects in production, committed to half
Amazon will add older HBO shows to Prime Instant Video, HBO Go to Fire TV
‘Cosmos’ brings Neil deGrasse Tyson’s moustache to Blu-ray and DVD in June
The new Engadget: It’s all about you… except when it’s about us
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
China is getting the Xbox One in September
Microsoft’s Xbox One is coming to China in September, making it the first major console release in the country since it lifted its long-standing ban on video games. This comes after the company joined forces with China’s BesTV shortly before the country reversed its 13-year old gaming ban. While that law opened the door for international companies to sell consoles in China, it did retain one restriction: games have to be approved by the Ministry of Culture before they can be sold. Now, we just can’t help but wonder what titles made the cut.
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft
Source: Xbox (YouTube)
Google Glass can now tell when you take calls using only your phone
Google isn’t done upgrading Glass this month just because the KitKat update is out the door. It’s rolling out another release this week that should be huge for frequent callers and photographers. The wearable tech will at last be smart enough to know when you’re using your phone to make or receive a call, even when Glass itself is idle; you won’t miss out on a chat just because the eyepiece is sitting on your desk. It’ll also be possible to back up photos and videos when away from WiFi, and you can clear those shots from your timeline when you’re done. There should be more voice commands to accommodate third-party apps, as well. It’s not clear exactly when the update hits, but it should give the surge of new Glass owners one more thing to look forward to.
Filed under: Wearables, Google
Source: Google Glass (Google+), Google Developers
Your fingerprint unlocks LastPass on the Galaxy S5
On any other phone, you’d have to type in the master password to access all your other passwords stored on LastPass — including the iPhone, where Touch ID gets you into your phone and iTunes account, but stops there. But on Samsung’s Galaxy S5, all you need to do is swipe your finger across the home button, now that the password manager’s Android app has been updated to work with the device’s biometric scanner. To set that up, you’ll first need to type in your credentials like everyone else, and then activate fingerprint authentication for future use. It’ll be a lot faster to add or change entries with the feature in place, and in some ways, fingerprint authentication is more secure than using a complex master password. We just hope you have no bitter enemies that’ll go as far as to make a fake finger to sabotage your digital life.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Source: LastPass
FCC Chairman Wheeler talks tough on defending net neutrality, broadband competition and paid peering deals
Word of a new FCC proposal for net neutrality that could allow ISPs to discriminate between traffic on a “commercially reasonable” basis caused an uproar last week, and now Chairman Tom Wheeler has more to say about it. In a new blog post titled “Finding the Best Path Forward to Protect the Open Internet” he addresses many of the concerns raised about the rules some have suggested would effectively kill the concept of net neutrality, as well as other problems like a lack of competition between broadband providers and the interconnect deals Netflix has complained about reaching with ISPs like Comcast and Verizon. Wheeler called preserving the Open Internet “a priority” for the FCC, and claims “all options” are on the table — including reclassifying internet providers so they can be regulated like phone companies or other utilities, a measure encouraged by consumer groups like Public Knowledge and Free Press.
According to the chairman, the current proposal that’s on the table for commentary exists to get something enforceable in place soon. Other choices, in his view, mean ignoring the court’s previous ruling on net neutrality, or going in a whole new direction that could be tied up in courts for years. Saying “I won’t hesitate to use Title II” (reclassification), if ISPs abuse the new rules and jeopardize the next Google or Amazon (Netflix was not mentioned) may put some more meat behind them. He claims that if anyone attempts to degrade the service of many for the benefit of few, the FCC will do everything it can to stop it. Now, we wait and see if that will mollify critics or satisfy Congress when he goes in front of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications on May 20th. Other issues the FCC is dealing with include those interconnection arrangements Netflix’s Reed Hastings is so concerned about, and transparency requirements the chairman says will uncover any bad practices by ISPs like the ones Comcast and Verizon have been accused of.
[Image Credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: FCC
You can now use Chromecast to share your Google Drive Presentation
Google’s inexpensive dongle can do a lot of things. Whether it be streaming music or a variety of video programming, the Chromecast is capable of handling it all — and don’t forget live TV is coming soon, too. But while having these entertainment options is nice, sometimes you have to be, you know, productive. Thankfully, it looks like you can start using the $35 dongle to send some of your work to a separate screen near you.
As spotted by Android Police, Google has quietly added an option within Drive that lets you push your Presentation to Chromecast. We looked into it ourselves and can confirm that said feature is indeed there, via the “Present on another device” menu. Technically, you could already do something similar by simply casting the entire browser, but this gives you an alternative that’s actually optimized for Presentations. And don’t be surprised by the fact there hasn’t been a formal announcement, since Google’s been known to do things unexpectedly from time to time. Either way, you can give it a try now — just be sure to have the Cast extension installed, as you’ll need that in order for this to work.
Source: Android Police
AIVAnet 