Live video streaming app Meerkat gets kneecapped by Twitter
Meerkat, a new live video streaming app, has been hobbled by the ever-frustrating Twitter. It launched just 2 weeks ago and has risen in prominence thanks to exposure at SXSW.
Meerkat works simply: log in with your Twitter account, hit the stream button, and it immediately starts broadcasting video from your iPhone onto the web and posts a link onto Twitter. The stream is only available while it’s live — once you stop, it’s gone. Ephemeral live video, if you will. It’s a straightforward service, and while it’s not yet widely used, the exposure it’s seen at SXSW Interactive has dramatically raised its profile. While you might question the value of live video streaming from anybody’s phone, it’s worth noting that the value of 140-character messages was questioned as well, and Twitter gained traction under similar circumstances at SXSW in 2007.
But Twitter didn’t rely on another service to propagate it’s own. Apparently Twitter’s not to keen on Meerkat using their service to vault into the public consciousness, and their taking steps to reign in just how much exposure Meerkat’s going to get through Twitter. According to BuzzFeed:
Twitter is cutting off Meerkat’s ability to port people’s social networks over from Twitter to its own service—the so-called social graph. That means when new users come on board, they will no longer be automatically connected to the other people they are already following on Twitter.
It’s not surprising to see Twitter doing this, even if it is disheartening. Twitter recently purchased a different live streaming startup Periscope (only available via invite right now), and has an understandable business interest in protecting their own assets and not offering a service like Meerkat free and unfettered access to everything Twitter APIs have to offer.
That’s not likely to significantly hamper Meerkat, however, as the functions to start streaming and send out tweets about your stream are not tied to “social graph” access. If anything, doing so has generated more press for Meerkat — and positive press at that, while Twitter’s bearing the brunt of the negative side of the story (just like in this very post). It remains to be seen whether or not Meerkat will see longer term success or be something of a flash in the pan.
Source: BuzzFeed
Star Wars: Commander gets rare update, now supports 512 MB phones, new features
Back in September of last year, we saw the release of Star Wars: Commander, one of the many game franchises trying to cash in on the Clash of Clans phenomenon. Since then, we have seen much in the way of updates, unlike Age of Empires: Castle Siege.
However, today a nice update has gone out. Besides adding new features, those with 512 MB phones can now get in on the action too as the game has been optimized for low memory devices.
Game of Thrones at SXSW: creating digital art with a Braavosi blade
HBO has made a habit of bringing a bit of Westeros to SXSW attendees. Last year, a virtual reality experience took folks to the top of the 700-foot ice wall defended by Jon Snow and the Night’s Watch. This year, Game of Thrones fans get to turn a photo of themselves into a digital collage of swords, crow feathers and stag antlers by swinging Arya Stark’s wooden practice sword given to her by Syrio Forel.
How’s it work? First, your photo is taken to serve as a digital canvas. Next, you proceed to a 10-foot-tall projection screen where that image is displayed, which has one of the aforementioned swords standing before it. Those swords – crafted by the show’s prop builder and identical to those used on set – have a gyro, accelerometer and Bluetooth radio embedded inside. That hardware tracks your swings and gives you all the digital destructive power you need. Once the demo starts, you’re tasked with obliterating a series of stone spheres as they appear onscreen. The resulting rock shards morph into blades, crow feathers and antlers which accumulate to create a stylized photo like the one you see above.
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-508520display:none; .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-508520, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-508520width:630px;display:block;
trydocument.getElementById(“fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-508520″).style.display=”none”;catch(e)
Once my profile picture was in the system, I stepped on stage in front of one of three stations. Sword in hand and striking the water dancer’s pose, I hacked away to my heart’s content. In practice the system feels similar to playing Wii in that it kept up with my slashing as long as I didn’t string swings together too quickly. And, of course, the sword is heavier and more unwieldy than a Wiimote. Unfortunately, my finished portrait was heavy on rock shards and had but a few feathers – and stag antlers were nowhere to be found. Zander Brimijoin, the creative director of the project, told me that with practice, you can figure out specific sword techniques to tailor the look of the resulting portrait – in essence turning Syrio’s sword into a paint brush. Clearly, I need more practice. Just so.
Filed under: Misc
iMore show 448: Apple Spring forward event wrap up!
The iMore show brings you everything you need to know about the week in iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple! On this episode — Apple’s Spring forward event Apple’s Spring forward event is over but the analysis has just begun! Serenity and Rene talk MacBook and Apple Watch FUD, Force Touch and the future, how important ResearchKit might me, women on stage, and whether our Watch picks have changed!
Show notes
Hosts
BlackBerry App Roundup for March 13, 2015
Howdy CrackBerry nation! Hope you all had an excellent week as it certainly went by quickly. This week we saw Vodafone UK confirm they will carry the BlackBerry Leap but only for business users, a BerryFlow podcast with our own EiC to close out Mobile World Congress and a way to get Adobe Flash on OS 10.3.1.
Now on to the more important topic of the day. It is time to bring you this week’s picks for all your passionate BlackBerry addicts out there. You can find each app and game I’ve rustled up for you by clicking through the gallery below. If your favorite did not make the cut this week, remember you can help by offering your suggestions at the end.
Tower UP DX by EntrwicklerX
Seeking an enjoyable tower game to take a quick break during the day? Tower UP is just that. The object of this game is to stack the floors of your building as high as you can all while trying to line them properly. This is a cute and entertaining game with nice graphics. How high do you think you can go? There are two versions with which to find out. An ad supported version that you can download for free or an ad free version for $0.99.
Lumia Denim update rolling out to more phones in the Middle East
Microsoft continues to expand the reach of the Lumia Denim firmware update. Over the past 24 hours or so we have received a number of tips stating that Denim is rolling out to a number of smartphones in many countries in the Middle East.
Moto E LTE 2015 review
In 2014, Motorola gave everyone who cares about how much smartphone you can get for $120 something to be excited about. Perhaps more important is that the company demonstrated there is a right and wrong way to address the budget phone market, and most of the players in this space had absolutely been doing things wrong.
Enter the original Moto E.
That, however, was last year. Within the last 12 months, several manufacturers have truly stepped up their game in the budget phone space, leaving Motorola with two options — push forward and continue being a dominant force in this market, or get lost in the mix. Motorola’s answer to this particular challenge is the new 2015 Moto E.
And this time, it’s got LTE.
Listen to Luke Bryan on Xbox Music or watch the latest Hunger Games on Xbox Video
Every week, new stuff drops on Xbox Music and Xbox Video that it becomes hard to keep up. Well, that’s where we come in handy. Every Friday we’ll highlight some of the hottest albums and singles on Xbox Music. We’ll also let you know what movies and television shows just dropped on Xbox Video for your viewing pleasure. It’s the weekend, and we’ll help entertain you.
Here’s a transcript of Tim Cook’s surprise Mad Money call
Apple CEO Tim Cook surprised Mad Money anchor Jim Cramer on the air Thursday with a sweet tenth anniversary wish for the show, which turned into a lively seven-minute conversation about ResearchKit, Apple Pay, and the Apple Watch. Below is a transcript of their conversation.
Cramer: Let’s take a call: go to Tim in California. Tim.
Cook: Hey Jim, I’m calling from Cupertino, California, to be exact. This is Tim Cook at Apple, and I want to congratulate you on ten great years of Mad Money.
Cramer: Wha — wow! That’s even cooler. I want to congratulate you for running the greatest company on Earth and for creating such amazing wealth and the best products on Earth — for everybody! You have done a remarkable job, Tim, I am honored that you’re calling in.
Cook: It’s the great team here that does it. Jim, you’ve been a champion for American innovation, and of course Apple feels the same way, and we love the fact that you highlight innovation as the centerpiece of your show.
Cramer: Well, you know what, you make us proud and you do such incredible, incredible innovation yourself, every time. You know I am totally involved with what you’re doing for the phone, but of course for the watch, and for the ResearchKit! I basically am looking at your company as being the health company of the future. I’m looking at you as being the credit card company of the future. They really are the great growth areas that you’re in charge of, Tim.
Cook: You know, it’s really incredible. Since, uh, in the first 24 hours of ResearchKit, we’ve had 11,000 people sign up for a study in cardiovascular disease through Stanford University’s app. And, to put that in perspective, Stanford has told us that it would have taken normally 50 medical centers an entire year to sign up that many participants.
So ResearchKit is an absolute gamechanger.
Cramer: I think that this is the most — but people don’t understand why you absolutely have to have this device [the Watch], which is why I can’t — I can’t wait until it comes out.
I also am focused on the fact, Tim, that your product for retail, uh, with Apple Pay, is by far the best. I have to believe that given the banks, given Visa, given MasterCard, it’s perfectly realistic to believe that the customers will demand it from every major retailer in the world. Do you think I’m right?
Cook: I totally think you’re right. You said last year, I think, when it first came out, that it would take the country by storm, and it’s doing it. We’ve already got 700,000 locations accepting Apple Pay, and by the way, we really want to add your Bar San Miguel to the list.
Cramer: Tim! [laughing] Tim! You’re too much!
Cook: And if you do that, I am joining you there for dinner.
Cramer: You are too much! [laughing] Tim! I’ve gotta ask you, Tim. We always hear that the company, it’s so big, whatever. I mean, I think that you’re — I look at your company, and I think it’s not that expensive, you’ve got the best balance sheet in the world — country, company, doesn’t matter.
You know my mantra: People should own Apple, not trade it. D’you think that, eventually, people will understand what I’m talking about?
Cook: I think eventually they will, yes. I mean, y’know, for people that have owned the stock for ten years or so, our stock price ten years ago when you started Mad Money was less than six dollars on a split adjusted basis. And so you can bet that those people are extremely happy right now.
Cramer: Well, everyone’s thrilled with what you’ve done. When you come to work every day, I know you come in hungry — the competition, are you feeling like that you’ve kind of left it behind, or are you just every day, do you come in and say, “Someone might have a better mousetrap”?
Cook: We’re always paranoid. We live paranoid, and we always want the very best products, and if we’re not beating someone else, we’re trying to beat the thing that we have currently shipping. Everybody here lives on the edge.
Cramer: Do you think — well, do you think that… y’know, people are worried about the world, people worry about Europe, people worry about currency. Are we being, are those just the kinds of things that Wall Street worries about, and if you’re at home, or you’re watching, you own a hundred shares of Apple, you should just be thinking that Tim Cook and the team are ready for pretty much anything the world might throw at us?
Cook: Currency’s clearly a problem, but frankly the best companies will figure out a way to manage it.
Cramer: And I regard your company with the highest ideals and the greatest manufacturing. I know every day when you come to work I feel you must think that you have a stewardship you’ve got to fulfill because of Steve Jobs. I want you to know that we — that you have far exceeded what ever — anyone, I think, could have done, but you still walk in his footsteps. How do you feel about the legacy?
Cook: You know, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Steve, and he is still the core part of Apple, his DNA is deep in the company. His office is still next to mine with his name on the door.
And the values that he placed in here, and sort of the spirit — that we are here to make the very best products in the world that enrich people’s lives — that is still the centerpiece of this company.
Cramer: And do you think that there are — I know that from Walter Isaacson’s book, that there really, that the pipeline that you’re using really, is, while it definitely had good things from Steve, a lot of these devices are yours and your team’s, aren’t they?
Cook: Oh, absolutely, yes. We’re now, y’know, quite a ways away from, unfortunately, his passing, and so there’s uh, there’s been a lot of things that have started in creation after his passing.
Cramer: Let me ask you about where you think things are going — I know that the car, the home — do you think of them as connectivity/social mobile cloud connectivity? Do you feel as though these are the next frontiers, or is there a frontier that I’m missing, I’m not thinking big enough?
Cook: Well, I think that those are two big ones that you’ve talked about. I think that Health may be the biggest one of all, because for years, people have depended on strictly someone else to determine their health. And now these devices — in essence — empower people to manage and track their own health and fitness. And so I think that market is probably significantly underestimated.
Cramer: Well, let’s go there, because I know my cardiologist, well, he’s working on the Stanford project, knows about it, and told me that it’s within our lifetime that we will have your watch, and your watch will show whether my blood pressure spiked — which it did, by the way, when you called, because I had no idea you were calling.
But we will have, from your watch, diabetes, maybe blood pressure, maybe even cancer detection because of the great access through you have, and because of the HealthKit — do you think this is within the realm of our lifetime?
Cook: Oh, I absolutely do. I absolutely do. And, y’know, discovering and curing some of these diseases will push our life expectancy much longer than it currently is, and we’ll be able to enjoy Mad Money fifty years from now.
Cramer: [gasps] Aw, Tim. Well, Tim, I gotta tell ya, I am deeply honored that you called in, I think that you’re the best we have, maybe the best that’s ever been. Thanks so much, Tim Cook.
Cook: I really appreciate that, yeah, Jim. You say that “Some people want to make friends, I just want to make money,” but let me tell you, you’ve made at least one friend in me, and I wish you all the best. So happy anniversary.
<!–*/
.video-frame padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; width: 100%; position: relative;
.video-frame iframe width:100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0;
/*–>*/
DIY Chrome App Builder launches on the Chrome Web Store
Google has launched a unique little tool on the Chrome Web Store that will allow you to quickly create apps for Chrome OS. That may sound a little simpler than it actually is, which is true; all the tool actually does is package up a web link into an easy set of files that can be uploaded as a Chrome app. You’ll still have to have some kind of web page or web app, and that takes more than a little know-how.
With that being said, the Chrome App Builder is very useful in certain circumstances. Since it creates a self-contained window with only four buttons (home, back, forward, and refresh), it’s ideal for an environment where you only need or want access to one specific site or app, and you don’t want there to be an easy way to navigate away from it. Think along the lines of the little computers you see in stores sometimes that only let you browse that company’s website.
The only drawback here is that for the app to go into that “kiosk” mode where you can’t navigate anywhere else, it’ll have to be installed on Chrome OS. The apps still work on Chrome browsers, Windows, OS X, and Linux, but you’ll lose that locked-in mode, for better or worse. It’s definitely not something everyone will rush out to download, but you can still get some use out of it if you know what you’re doing.
If you want to play around with it and build some Chrome apps for yourself, hit the link below.
source: OMG Chrome
Come comment on this article: DIY Chrome App Builder launches on the Chrome Web Store
AIVAnet 