Check-in app Swarm adds messages in latest update
Foursquare’s check-in app, Swarm, has just received an update that introduces a new feature, messages, in addition to making it easier to see more details about various locations.
The popular check-in application that allows users to share their location with other users of the application now allows for users to send messages to nearby friends. In addition to adding messages, a few other changes have been made as well.
YouTube makes its support for 360-degree video official
The support for 360-degree videos on YouTube that was reported earlier has become official. Starting today, content producers can upload videos that take advantage of 360-degree cameras to show all angles possible.
Viewers on the web or mobile devices can interact with the content in different ways. On YouTube’s site and through embedded videos on Chrome, viewers can click and drag to chance their angle. Those with Android devices, tablets included, can change viewing angles by moving the device around. Other devices and platforms will see the feature arrive at a later date.
Here are the 360-degree cameras compatible with YouTube:
- Giroptic 360cam
- IC Real Tech Allie
- Kodak SP360
- Ricoh Theta
You can click here for full directions on how to upload 360-degree content to YouTube.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Source: YouTube Creator Blog
Come comment on this article: YouTube makes its support for 360-degree video official
Google’s Fiber TV service not exactly off to a good start
Google launched the Fiber internet service in Kansas City, Kansas a couple of years ago. Google also launched an accompanying cable TV service along with broadband, giving users the option to ditch their cable provider and pick Google instead. A new report now claims that this service hasn’t exactly been off to a flying start with only 29,867 video subscriptions made so far.
About 20,000 of these subscriptions reportedly came from Kansas City, Missouri, the report said. In the area, Google has grabbed about 10% of the market. Kansas City, Kansas on the other hand has a slightly better marketshare of 13%, which again, is nothing to write home about.
On the whole Google Fiber TV is said to have about 0.026% of the entire U.S. TV marketshare, which tells us that Google is yet to make inroads in this area. This also means that cable TV providers in the regions don’t have anything to worry about at this point with Google barely scratching the top of the surface.
Source: Multichannel
Via: 9to5Google
Come comment on this article: Google’s Fiber TV service not exactly off to a good start
Sprint will reimburse all cancellation fees when you switch from your current carrier
If you’re unhappy with your current mobile provider and you’re stuck in one of those terrible two-year contracts, there may be an out for you. Sprint, which is now considered to be the fourth largest carrier in the US, has just announced that it will cover all cancellation fees for customers who want to switch from their current carrier. That’s right, no matter what is owed, whether we’re talking about just the early termination fee or the remaining payments you owe on your phone installment plan, Sprint will reimburse the total cost to you.
Before you get too excited, there are a few hoops to jump through first. For starters, you’ll need to turn in your current phone, in good working condition, to Sprint in order for them to reimburse you. So if you had any hopes of keeping your current phone, you’re unfortunately out of luck.
Here are the details on how this promotion works:
- Bring your number from any other carrier with an early termination fee or phone installment plan balance.
- Activate a device on Sprint Easy Pay, iPhone for Life Plan, Sprint Lease or pay full retail price with a new line of service.
- Complete an online registration www.sprint.com/joinsprint and upload a bill that shows applicable charges for reimbursement within 60 days of activation.
- Customers are required to turn in competitor phones (in good working condition) tied to the bill they submitted. To make this simple and hassle free, customers will receive a prepaid return kit in the mail.
- Award is paid via American Express Reward Card after online registration.
Sprint will reimburse you in the form of an American Express Reward Card approximately 15 days after you complete the online registration form (explained above). We’re not sure as to how long this promotion is going on, so if you’re interested, you better jump on this deal before it’s too late!
So, anyone out there taking advantage of the deal?
Apple Fixes Keyboard in iOS 8.3 Beta So Searches.Don’t.Look.Like.This [iOS Blog]
Apple has improved the design of its keyboard in iOS 8.3 to fix a long-standing issue that caused several iPhone users to accidentally tap the period key while attempting to use the space bar in Safari. The change to a longer space bar was first spotted in iOS 8.3 beta 2 within the MacRumors discussion forums, and also appears to be present in the third beta of the pre-release software.
iPhone 6 Plus users in particular have long complained about having Safari searches littered with periods because Apple did not extend the space bar to account for the extra space on the larger 5.5-inch screen, instead making the “Go” button larger. While not necessarily a bug, the design issue was an inconvenience for many users and prompted several complaints on social media and within our discussion forums. Twitter user Austin Spencer, for example, voiced his frustration rather succinctly.
I.cannot.adjust to.the.period being.over.the.old http://t.co/DcNwYiH8Jz.spot on.the.iPhone 6.Plus
— Austin Spencer (@AustinSpencer_) March 2, 2015
Apple launched its new iOS public beta testing program on Thursday, making the third beta of iOS 8.3 the first iPhone and iPad software version to be seeded to both developers and the public for testing. iOS 8.3 includes several new features, such as support for wireless CarPlay connectivity, a new emoji picker, support for Google two-step verification, and Apple Pay support for the China UnionPay network.
Everything Valve does is because of Steam
Why is Valve getting into virtual reality? Why is Valve making Steam Machines and the Steam Controller? Why did Valve make its own Linux-based operating system? Why did Valve make the Steam Controller? Why is Valve releasing its game engine, Source, for free? It’s the Steam economy, stupid!
Valve’s game store boasts “over 125 million active accounts worldwide.” How does Valve keep growing that store? By literally everything else it does. Here’s Valve president Gabe Newell explaining it to us last week at GDC 2015:
“We’re trying to build standard interfaces and standard implementations that other people can use. Because, to be honest, we’re going to make our money on the back end, when people buy games from Steam. Right? So we’re trying to be forward-thinking and make those longer-term investments for PC gaming that are going to come back a couple years down the road.”
That’s a very important point. Maybe you didn’t know, but Valve generates a ton of revenue from Steam. It’s not clear exactly how much, so here’s some context for that assertion:
- The most current numbers on Steam usage are from last week, with 125 million “active accounts” — that’s not total accounts, but accounts being used with some regularity.
- The Steam library is around 4,500 games, depending on what you count (that number excludes game add-ons and non-game software — thanks to Ars Technica‘s Kyle Orland and his Steam Gauge database for this number).
- Valve gets approximately 30 percent of each sale made on Steam.
Thirty percent! That’s not for every single game, and there are plenty of free-to-play games, so that’s not a direct “30 percent take from all games sold on Steam,” but it’s not far off. For a taste of what that number can mean, we turn to Sega’s lawsuit with THQ over the pre-order profits from Company of Heroes 2 on Steam.
As Eurogamer reported in 2013, “There were 20,755 pre-orders for CoH2 registered through Steam from September 2012 to 24th January 2013. That generated revenue of $1,345,301.29, but, as is standard, Valve takes a 30 percent cut of Steam sales, leaving publishers and developers with 70 percent — in this case $941k.”
Approximately four months of pre-orders, totaling approximately 21K copies, brought Valve over $350K in revenue at the cost of running servers and consuming bandwidth. That’s not even sales of the game, but pre-orders. And that’s a single game among thousands.
Without giving direct numbers, Newell told us, “The PC has been going gangbusters lately. Steam revenue’s up 50 percent year-over-year, which tracks closely to overall what’s happening in PC.” Operating Steam is a very lucrative business.
So much so, in fact, that Valve’s entire business is built around Steam. “But Valve’s a game developer! Why isn’t Valve making games?!” you ask with a crowbar in one hand, a headcrab hat sitting atop your dome.
The short answer is, well, Valve is making games. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and DOTA 2 are primary examples: Valve is still making games, but only insofar as they’re experiments in new models for Steam. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is, “Here’s how to make a successful free-to-player shooter on Steam!” DOTA 2 is, “Here’s how to make a successful eSports game on Steam!”
WHY HARDWARE?
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With Steam Machines/Controller, Steam VR/Lighthouse and Steam Link, Valve is making a big push into physical hardware. Why? Because it all rolls up into Steam.
You may have noticed Steam’s search functionality adding support for VR games back in December 2013. Or maybe you used Steam’s in-home streaming functionality, which started beta testing one month earlier in November 2013? Or maybe you’ve got your own gaming PC in the living room, running Steam’s living room-friendly Big Picture Mode, first introduced back in 2011?
All of these initiatives serve one purpose: Extend the reach of Steam. The hardware Valve just announced, from its $50 game-streaming box (Steam Link) to its VR headset collaboration with HTC (the Vive), all directly rolls up into Steam. It’s the one common denominator among all these variables, and Valve’s been setting up foundations for this push across the past several years.
Steam Machines and the Controller couldn’t exist without Big Picture Mode (and now, SteamOS), just as Steam VR doesn’t make much sense without a store already populated with VR games. Steam Link is a physical extension of in-home streaming tech you could already be using.
The good news is that, while this all serves to make Valve richer, all these moves achieve the parallel goal of serving the PC gaming community at large.
As Newell puts it: “[There’s] lots of hardware innovation: 4K and 5K monitors, G-Sync, 140Hz monitors. And all that’s driving what’s going on. So from our point of view, we sit back and say, ‘What’s going to be helpful? How can we keep PC gaming moving forward?’”
“Hardware and software pushes into streaming, VR and living room PC gaming from the company that owns the largest digital game service in the world” is apparently Valve’s answer.
Don’t miss the rest of our coverage from GDC 2015! Check out our events page right here.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Wearables, Internet, Software, HD, Alt, HTC
Carphone Warehouse launches the LG G Flex 2 in the UK
British mobile phone retailer, The Carphone Warehouse, has today launched LG’s second-generation curved, self-healing smartphone, the G Flex 2, in the UK. The handset is available to purchase on a 2-year contract through Vodafone for £34.50 per month, or for £529 outright on a pre-paid plan.
As for as internals go, the G Flex 2 is a beast of a device packing a 5.5-inch curved P-OLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable internal storage, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing shooter.
Straight out of the box, the device runs the latest build of Android 4.4.4 KitKat with LG’s Optimus user interface plastered over the top. The handset is, however, expected to receive the much-anticipated and eagerly-awaited Lollipop update when it’s finally distributed by the South Korean company sometime later this month.
If you live in the UK, like the sound of the G Flex 2 and want to pick one up — hit the source link below.
Source: The Carphone Warehouse
Come comment on this article: Carphone Warehouse launches the LG G Flex 2 in the UK
NSFW: ‘Power Users’ need to shut up
I’ve had quite enough of “power users” who think they’re too good for the new MacBook.
I’ve been using a Mac for 30 years. I got my first one in 1985. I sell Macs on the weekends and write about them during the weekdays. I am, by any definition, a “power user.” Yet I detest that term, and I react viscerally whenever I hear someone else use it.
So it’ll be no surprise at all that I rolled my eyes this week at every proclamation from self-described “power users” who lament the direction of the new MacBook from Apple. I’m so excited about it I can barely contain myself. But then again, I was the same way about the new Mac mini when it came out last year. Because it’s a great $499 computer, no matter what “power users” think.
From complaints about the Intel Core-M processor to the color choices to the decision to use USB-C, it seems that anyone with skin in the Mac game has found something to pick on regarding the new Macbook. I think it’s all utter bullshit.
I think it’s all utter bullshit.
The thing that spec monkeys need to remember is that most people don’t care about what they care about. Most people buying new computers aren’t interest in how many cores a CPU has or how many GB of RAM or storage it has. Very few of the people I sell computers to have more than a passing interest. They want to know what the computer can do. What problems it solves for them.
From that perspective, the MacBook is already a success: It provides an up to date, modern OS X Yosemite user experience. It emphasizes wireless connectivity through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth — something many consumers already have ample experience with on their iPhones and iPads. It’s loaded with the software most users need to get started: Everything from a web browser to email, data management apps for contacts, calendars and so on. And it’s well-integrated into an ecosystem millions of iPhone and iPad users already depend on to store their data and make it available in the cloud. iCloud, more specifically.
There’s a peculiar brand of solipsism I see exhibited on the Internet almost every time I log on: The fundamental belief that if a product is not right for me, anyone who likes it must be wrong.
PC sales are slipping, but Mac sales have grown. They’ve consistently tracked positive growth compared to PC market share for almost a decade. But there’s a ceiling on the number of people who are going to buy the Macs that are available today.
That doesn’t make the PC any less relevant. I use Windows; I just recently built a custom Windows PC. There’s still a lot to recommend the PC. PC manufacturers continue to sell millions of units from quarter to quarter. The market may be changing, but it’s still a very viable market.
Apple has created an opportunity sell Macs to a new audience.
Apple has only been able to sell however many Macs it’s sold to a slowly increasing audience. They needed to shake the tree a bit and come up with a new way to sell Macs. More than that, Apple has created an opportunity sell Macs to a new audience.
Smartphones existed before the iPhone. Tablets existed before the iPad. Yet Apple managed to will new markets into being for both these products by driving demand for them and by creating a satellite market of apps and accessories for them, inspiring other companies to do the same.
Ultimately, the best way to make the Mac even more successful is to create an entirely new market for the Macintosh that’s never existed before. And that’s precisely what Apple’s doing with the new MacBook. So if it’s not for you, power user, it’s not for you. Doesn’t matter. Lots of people are going to want it.
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Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ Car Research May Be Headquartered at Leased Sunnyvale Campus
Apple’s “Project Titan”, its secretive and much-rumored electric car project, may involve a campus leased by Apple last year that is located in Sunnyvale, California, just a few minutes from the company’s main 1 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, reports AppleInsider.
According to “two people with knowledge of the project”, the company has been receiving shipments that may be related to the project’s development at the Sunnyvale address, though it remains unclear if that location is indeed the headquarters of the car project.
According to one AppleInsider source familiar with “Titan,” many of Apple’s new auto-related hires, including recruits from Tesla, have been working out of the Sunnyvale campus. This person claims that some of the projects underway there have been kept “very secret” within the company.
It is said that the “Titan” development building itself is codenamed “SG5.”
Apple’s presence at the campus is not a secret, but AppleInsider believes Apple is linked to another company quietly operating at the site, likely as a front for Apple’s more secretive efforts. That company, SixtyEight Research, claims to be a market research firm, but there is little public evidence of any actual operations in that field. Instead, the building where SixtyEight Research is listed as a tenant has seen city permits issued for construction of an “auto work area” and a “repair garage”.
Photo of SixtyEight Research’s offices (Source: AppleInsider)
SixtyEight’s affiliation with Apple could not be confirmed, but Apple does have a long history of using shell corporations and deceptive methods to hide its secret projects. Aside from a barren website, there is scant other information about SixtyEight — lending more credence to its use as a front.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to surmise that SixtyEight could play a role in allowing Apple to purchase and import automotive equipment and tools without drawing any suspicion. Apple, after all, is the biggest company in the world, and has been known to force engineers to use false names in the past when visiting suppliers to avoid unwelcome attention.
A visit to SixtyEight’s offices by AppleInsider was met with frosted opaque glass and security cameras, with a note pointing those looking for the company offices to a three-story building in the complex leased to Apple.
Much of the evidence is circumstantial, but there definitely appear to be some curious circumstances at Apple’s Sunnyvale campus. Apple’s car project is reportedly still in the early stages, but the company is said to have committed to building a team of up to 1000 employees with a goal of launching a car around 2020 if the project proves promising.
Sprint will eat all costs to switch from another carrier in limited time deal
Sprint on Friday announced a new, limited time promotion designed to lure customers away from other wireless providers. Starting immediately, Sprint will cover all of the costs associated with breaking a contract with your current cell phone carrier. That’s right, not just the early termination fees, but also any balances owed on a smartphone installment plan.
As you might expect there are a few things the subscriber must do in order to qualify for the credits, including turning the (good working condition) handset over to Sprint. Customers need to port their number and sign up for a Sprint Easy Pay, iPhone for Life Plan, or Sprint Lease plan. Alternately, you can also pay full retail price for the device.
Sprint has a website set up for registering and uploading of your bill; you’re paid in the form of an American Express card within roughly fifteen days of successful registration.
The post Sprint will eat all costs to switch from another carrier in limited time deal appeared first on AndroidGuys.
AIVAnet 