The return of Homestar Runner is imminent
Do you fondly recall anxiously awaiting a new installment of Strong Bad Email? Yeah, me too. Well, the creators of the Homestar Runner series of web cartoons are resurrecting the project following a popular April Fool’s Day episode earlier this year. In an interview on The Jeff Rubin Show, co-creator Matt Chapman broke the news that he and his brother Mike are going to dust off the characters for some new content. After determining that the faithful were still eager for more — even after the long hiatus — the duo plans to start back up at a yet to be announced date, with a site redesign and a YouTube archive on tap as well. “Maybe it was a fluke just because it was the first one we’ve done… but just based on that alone, it was enough to make us want to give it a try again,” said Chapman. With the rise of social media since the pair was last at it, here’s to hoping Strong Bad makes the leap to Twitter. If you’re not familiar, do yourself a favor and catch up before the new stuff drops.
Source: The Jeff Rubin Show
Sigourney Weaver joins original cast for ‘Alien: Isolation’ DLC
It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen Sigourney Weaver play the role of Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s Alien. Weaver takes the role once more alongside several other original cast members for two pre-order DLCs for the upcoming Alien: Isolation title. Ripley is joined by Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Parker (Yaphet Kott) and Ash (Ian Holm, likeness only), allowing you to play through two iconic scenes from the film. With the Nostromo Edition pre-order, the “Crew Expendnable” bonus content allows gamers to play as one of the surviving crew members just after Brett’s demise to entice the Alien to the ship’s airlock. Those who purchase early from GameStop are privy to “Last Survivor,” where Ripley initiates the self-destruct sequence before escaping on the Narcissus. “For some of the original cast, this is their first appearance in an Alien video game. Seeing them reprise those roles after 35 years was an unforgettable experience,” says the game’s creative lead Alistair Hope. When it arrives in October, Alien: Isolation is due for Xbox (One and 360), PlayStation (3 and 4) and PC.
Google, Dropbox, Canon and others team up to disarm future patent trolls
Patent litigation from non-participating entities (casually known as “patent trolls”) is the bane of a technology firm’s legal department. Fighting patent lawsuits from firms that subsist completely on licensing and legal action is a frustrating waste of resources, and one that often stifles innovation indirectly. Now, a new partnership between Canon, Dropbox, Google, Asana, SAP and Newegg hopes to cut off would-be patent trolls at the knees. It’s called the License on Transfer Network (LOT), and it’s a patent-licensing agreement that neuters a patent’s potential for litigation before prospective trolls can exploit it.
The companies’ plan hinges on how patent sales are handled. Companies within the LOT network can sell each other patents under normal terms — but if a participating firm sells their patents to an entity outside of the group, all other LOT members will be granted a royalty-free license to the technology. This means that if a patent is sold to a non-participating entity, LOT members will be protected from frivolous litigation. If a company never sells their patents, it is of course still free to protect it via litigation, but the group hopes the network will disarm trolls ahead of time. “As long as a company owns their patent, they retain all their rights to it,” explained SAP’s Anthony DiBartolomeo in the group’s announcement. “The LOT Network helps protect innovative patent owners from unwarranted litigation without stifling valid, beneficial uses of patents, such as cross-licensing.”
[Image credit: Brian Turner/Flickr]
Via: Re/Code
Source: DropBox, LOT Network
Electric Objects wants to put the digital art world on your wall
Digital photo frames are one of those product categories that seemed like a good idea at the time. As it turned out, no one really wanted a low-resolution LCD screen in their living room that needed to be plugged into a chunky power brick just to display pictures of their kids. New York-based startup Digital Objects believes it’s fixed that problem with the EO1, “a framed high-definition screen and integrated computer that hangs on your wall and brings art from the Internet into your home.” Or, as founder Jake Levine calls it, a screen that doesn’t “make you feel like shit.”
The EO1 is a 23-inch HD matte display that runs off an Cortex-A9 processor, more than enough to handle animated GIFs and javascript visualizations. You can load any image you want off the web, but the EO1 is really meant to be used with a digital storefront that offers images from both cultural organizations like the New York Public Library and the Museum of the Moving Image, and digitally native outlets like Digg, to.be and Giphy. But unlike previous attempts at creating a frame for digital art you can’t take images off an SD card or load them via USB. You can’t even connect a keyboard or mouse — the EO1 is meant to be accessed via the company’s iOS and Android apps.
As to whether the EO1 makes you feel like shit, it’s hard to say — the early prototypes we saw at Electric Objects’ office still laid bare the inner workings of the device, with the earliest versions running Android on a Raspberry Pi. But the final version will tuck that all away, and the thick black plastic frame and matte finish wouldn’t be out of place in an art gallery — or suburban living room. It’s a bit too heavy to hang on a single nail, though, and you’re still going to have to plug it in, albeit with a cord resembling the one from the Macbook Air.
So while we’re still not itching for a way to put our favorite GIFs on our office walls, apparently someone is — the Electric Objects Kickstarter campaign has blown through its goal of $25,000 with over $200,000 in pledges in the first day. Some have even bought into the tier where you receive five EO1 units — and we doubt they’re buying them to show off the best Oprah GIFs.
Filed under: Displays
Source: Electric Objects, Kickstarter
DEALS & STEALS: Amazon offering up to $50 off Kindle Fire tablets
Amazon is offering a limited time promotion of $40-$50 off select Kindle Fire tablets. Pitched around “Back to School” (yes, already), the deal applies to the Fire HD, Fire HDX, and Fire HDX 8.9 models. We’re quite fond of these devices and appreciate what Amazon has done in this space over the last few years. If you’re in the market for a new tablet, we suggest you consider one of these. In addition to the tablets, Amazon is discounting accessories by up 20% with up to 80% off Kindle textbook rentals.
- Kindle Fire HD 16 GB from
$169$129 - Kindle Fire HDX 64GB from
$309$259 - Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ from
$379$339
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Gmail gets updated to v4.9, brings Google Drive file attachment [APK Download]
The hits just keep coming today don’t they. It is update Wednesday after all. We just handed you guys the keys to the Chromecast app for screen mirroring, now we have the update for Gmail. This update moves it to v4.9 and doesn’t do a whole heck of a lot. However, it is newer than the old one and that makes it worth installing.
The only visually noticeable thing, as pointed out by Android Police, is a new menu item in the overflow menu when writing an email that lets you add a file from Drive. Not huge, but something. We have also seen comments floating around that the update solved some sync issues some users were having. Not sure how true that is or not. If you don’t see the update in the Play Store just yet you can just hit the link below and go grab the apk.
Via Android Police
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That painful Brazil vs. Germany World Cup match was the most tweeted-about sports game ever
Maybe you overheard your coworkers bellowing from down the hall. Maybe you follow lots of sports fans on Twitter. Or maybe you saw a link to that Sad Brazilians Tumblr. The point is: Yesterday’s 7-1 Germany vs. Brazil World Cup match was so painful, that you didn’t even have to be watching to know Brazil was getting destroyed on its home turf. As it turns out, you probably didn’t need to be watching to join the discussion, either. According to Twitter, there were 35.6 million tweets about the match at last count, making it the most-talked-about sports game on the social network ever. And yes, that’s “most-discussed sports game, period,” not just the most-discussed football match. Which makes sense: This was no ordinary game. Germany became the first team to score five goals in the first 29 minutes of a World Cup match, and its total of seven goals is also the most scored ever during a World Cup semi-finals face-off. Just goes to show that the people like goals as much as they enjoy embarrassing losses.
Image credit: Getty
With 35.6 million Tweets, #BRA v #GER is the most-discussed single sports game ever on Twitter. #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/pRjssAZmhg
– Twitter Data (@TwitterData) July 9, 2014
Source: Twitter Data
Microsoft’s Video Tuner outfits Windows Phone 8.1 with easy clip editing
Windows Phone 8.1 users have been rather strapped when it comes to video editing apps straight from HQ, but now Microsoft is looking to lend a hand. With Video Tuner, Redmond serves up a new app that wrangles smartphone clips with the ability to apply filters, add music (non-DRM protected MP3s, natch) and apply a range of corrective adjustments — including speed tweaks. As you might expect, once the finished product is ready, footage can be broadcast directly to various social channels, with the exception of Vine. The software can save videos in the proper format for Twitter’s video stream, but there’s no direct sharing at this time. Video Tuner supports MP4 files and allows editing of video captured from the same device on which it is installed. You’ll need a Lumia handset running Windows Phone 8.1 to nab up the new offering, but it’s already available free of charge from Microsoft’s app repository for those who qualify.
Filed under: Software, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia
Source: Windows Phone Store
Microsoft not scrapping plans for retail Xbox Ones to act as development kits
Last year Microsoft announced plans to let every Xbox One become a software development kit at some point. Earlier today, Xbox Advanced Technology Group’s Martin Fuller reportedly told the audience at the Develop conference, spotted by Digital Spy, that that was no longer the case. Except that’s not quite the case. When we asked Microsoft if the comments were accurate, we were told outright: “The comments today were not accurate.” Further, a Microsoft spokesperson said: “We remain committed to ensuring the best possible solutions for developers and hobbyists to create games for Xbox One. We will share more details at a later date.”
Why’s this important? Well, for starters it’d allow anyone access to otherwise expensive development tools and thus further along the indie community, allowing practically everybody with the requisite know-how to make games for the platform. Development kits, also known as debug consoles, allow the user to play work-in-progress games on them, among other things. As the name implies, they’re typically only given to game studios, but select members of the press that need early access to a game for coverage purposes (mostly for access to preview and not-final review versions of games) get them too. While the general public likely wouldn’t have much use for the development tools this would open up, the move could be just the thing that causes the indie scene to explode on Xbox One.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Digital Spy
Chromecast app updates with mirroring support on select Devices [APK Download]
Google I/O produced a ton of new stuff that we all drooled over. Much of what was seen won’t be available until later this fall sadly. However, one feature they demonstrated for the Chromecast is finally making its way to devices. Today Google has pushed an update to the Chromecast app that enables the screen mirroring function.
If you happen to own any of the currently supported devices from the list below, you should be able to cast anything and everything that you see on your device’s screen right to your Chromecast connected TV. Google states the ‘cast screen’ feature is still beta so you can expect some conflicts here and there.
- Nexus 4
- Nexus 5
- Nexus 7 (2013)
- Nexus 10
- Samsung Galaxy S4
- Samsung Galaxy S4 (GPE)
- Samsung Galaxy S5
- Samsung Galaxy Note 3
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10
- HTC One M7 (GPE)
- LG G3
- LG G2
- LG G Pro 2
- Support for additional devices coming soon
I got the update and installed it on both my Xperia Z and Xperia Z1s and was hopeful it would at least offer the option, but no dice. Hopefully it gets more device support in short order. If you don’t see the update in the Play Store yet you can always just hit up the gappsearly link below and sideload it. Let us know if it happens to work on any devices that aren’t listed too.
Tip: You might need to restart your Chromecast device after updating. We have heard that has triggered the cast screen side menu item for a few people.
Chromecast v1.7.4 APK download
Source: Android blog via Droid-Life
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