Samsung enlists Yves “Jetman” Rossy for latest publicity stunt
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have been out for some time now, and from what we can tell so far, sales have been quite positive. Of course, that doesn’t mean the company will sit back and let the devices sell themselves. In an effort to both advertise the Galaxy S6 and push its new “Next is now” campaign, Samsung has released a new ad featuring Swiss pilot Yves “Jetman” Rossy.
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The Jetman became extremely popular in the 2000’s when he invented an individual jetpack with carbon-fiber wings, which later led him to flying his invention over the Alps in 2008. In his newest endeavor, he’s helping Samsung showcase the Galaxy S6’s fast charging feature. Take a look at the video attached below.
The Jetman promotion isn’t the only advertisement the company is planning to release, though. As part of the “Next is now” campaign, Samsung will release an ad featuring artist Marco Brambilla on May 11th and daredevil selfie-taker Daniel Lau on May 18th. We’ll be certain to let you know when the new advertisements are unveiled.
Deal: Learn to code with the Interactive Coding Bootcamp for 92% off
Learning to code is becoming one of the more popular skill sets out there, with software developers earning a salary upwards of $75k per year. If you’d like to become a job-ready developer in just 12 weeks, we’d suggest trying out the Interactive Coding Bootcamp – currently 92% off over at the AA Deals Store.
The Interactive Coding Bootcamp will help you build a portfolio of applications using 1-on-1 interactions with some of the best mentors in the field. With this course, you’ll receive more than 33 hours of video content with live guidance from instructors to help you complete your tasks. You’ll study front-end development with HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery and frameworks like AngularJS, as well as back-end development with Ruby on Rails, Node.js, e-commerce, databases and more.
Not only will you learn to build apps with this course, but this Bootcamp will also provide job hunting assistance so you can start your career off as quickly as possible. Included in this course is a downloadable e-book on how to get hired as a full-time web developer.
If you’re interested, head to the Android Authority Deals Store link below to grab the Interactive Coding Bootcamp for just $39.
‘League of Legends’ documentary chronicles America’s eSports underdogs
Patrick Creadon wants to tell you about what he thinks is competitive gaming’s Miracle on Ice moment. And to do so, he’s employing the tool he knows best: a movie camera. Whereas before, the film director has focused on the national debt with I.O.U.S.A. or the (sometimes famous) people who love crossword puzzles in Wordplay, his latest project, All Work All Play, tackles the world of eSports. Specifically, League of Legends and two American dark horse teams quite literally going up against the rest of the world in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans packed into, ironically enough, hockey arenas.
“eSports teams don’t have the respect that they so badly crave,” he says. “These North American teams are not unlike the 1980 United States hockey team going up against Russia [in the Olympics]. Our movie really captures a similar story.”
All Work All Play follows the Intel Extreme Masters tournament’s 2014/2015 season, chronicling the event’s various stops around the globe and culminates at this past March’s $300,000 championship in Poland. Creadon and his wife, producer Christine O’Malley, chose to focus on LoL because, unlike StarCraft 2, it’s a team-based game rather than a solo affair.
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All Work All Play‘s premiere trailer.
Creadon says that because of the team-based structure, the game offers a ton of interesting components and complexity that make for interesting storytelling. Chiefly, it’s an underdog story; Korea dominates not only LoL tournaments, but also eSports in general. While teams Cloud 9 and Team SoloMid have some clout domestically, they haven’t exactly been taken seriously on the world’s stage. Hence the “Miracle on Ice” analogy.
The inherent challenge is making the subject matter approachable for a worldwide theatrical audience this July. It’s something that Valve didn’t have to worry about with its DotA 2 documentary Free to Play, which debuted on its PC-based Steam platform, iTunes and YouTube last year. Creadon doesn’t see the theatrical release as a hindrance, though. For him, it’s an advantage in a few different ways. Aside from giving him a broader audience, he sees sitting down in a theater to watch the film as a parallel to attending an eSports event.
“You’re not watching the game or playing a game on a PC; you’re going to an arena!” he says excitedly. “That’s more than half the fun: seeing it with other people who are like you that love this thing that you also love.”
A movie about video games is one thing, but eSports are a niche within a niche.
A movie about video games is one thing, but eSports are a niche within a niche. Another point of comparison is soccer: wildly popular around the globe, but still considered outside the mainstream domestically. Think about the recent backlash regarding ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd blowing his stack over the “worldwide leader in sports” (his employer) airing a college Heroes of the Storm tournament last week. It’s this sort of reaction that it seems Creadon is trying to dispel. “We’re not casting judgment; we’re trying to paint a portrait of these people,” he says.
He likens his job to that of a tour guide at a museum. Given how long he’s spent with the material and has been embedded into the scene, he thinks he knows what’s interesting and what can make the game and the story of this tournament appeal to people. Instead of just pointing his camera at the back of someone’s head as they sit at a computer playing, he worked to get inside the minds of the competitors, interviewing them off camera and recording only voice to discover what drives them and who they are as people.
A scene from 2013’s Intel Extreme Masters tournament in Poland.
And it seems to have been a success. The film showed at the recent Tribeca Film Festival and as Creadon describes it, general audience members were sort of slack-jawed. He tells of a conversation he had with a female member of the audience after the screening. She has a younger brother who plays a lot of video games, but who she doesn’t have much in common with. After watching the movie, she called him and they had a half-hour-long talk about LoL and why he loves it. Now, she has a better understanding of the game and why it means so much to him. “She said the movie really made her feel closer to her brother,” Creadon says. “At the end of the day, eSports is really just about people and [the movie] is really a human story.” That’s the way he sees making eSports approachable to a mass audience. Giving them something familiar to grab hold of in a foreign world is the key for him. While he understands it might not have the same impact as his past work, how those who’ve seen the film have reacted encourages him. For the game’s fans, he says it’s like catnip — they can’t get enough of it. But for everyone else? “It’s like Tron; it’s like going into a world that you’ve never been in before.” [Image credits: Patrick Creadon (lead image), Piotr Drabik/Flickr]
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Intel
Pinterest wants to turn your pinned dreams into app realities
You may have carefully crafted a Pinterest board to plan your dream vacation, but how are you going to make that trip a reality? Pinterest thinks it can help. The social site has launched an app developer platform that lets you take action based on your boards and individual pins. You could book an itinerary in a travel app based on your pinned destinations, for instance, or create a dinner board based on recipes in a cooking app. The platform is in a US-only beta phase at the moment, so it could be a while before you’re using Pinterest-savvy apps. However, it could be worth the wait if you’ve spent more time yearning for pinned goods than getting them.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile
Source: Making Pinterest
HTC drops four new One M9 promotional videos
HTC just released a few new videos this morning highlighting some of the aspects of HTC’s third generation flagship, the M9. The device, while receiving mixed reviews, has been seen has a refinement of the first two generations.
From Sense Home, HTC’s Sense 7 Blinkfeed launcher with theme/icon support, to low-light selfies, HTC is showing off everything to love about the M9. We have all four of the videos for you after the break. Enjoy.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Come comment on this article: HTC drops four new One M9 promotional videos
Here’s a look at the Esquire and Samsung Global Fashion Native campaign
It would appear that Samsung and Esquire are playing on the beauty of the new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. While the sixth generation Galaxy S devices surprised almost everyone in their unique designs and beauty, the both devices are showing the world that Samsung can, in fact, make a beautiful and close to perfect smartphone. As such, it really isn’t a surprise to see, Samsung and Esquire play on that fact.
The campaign, shows off a variety of colors of the flagship devices, paired with either a male or female model sporting clothing in similar colors. With Samsung looking to recoup some of its lost profits from last year with the new flagship, a multitude of ad campaigns should be expected. We have a gallery from the most current campaign below. Enjoy.
Come comment on this article: Here’s a look at the Esquire and Samsung Global Fashion Native campaign
Apple Urging Music Labels to Stop Licensing Free Songs on Spotify and YouTube
Apple has been leveraging its power within the music industry in an attempt to push music labels to stop licensing freemium tiers offered by Spotify and other streaming music services, according to The Verge. The company has also reportedly offered to pay YouTube’s music licensing fee to Universal Music Group if the label stops allowing its songs on the website, a popular destination for music videos.
The report claims that U.S. Department of Justice officials are looking into Apple’s business practices in relation to its upcoming streaming music service, expected to be a rebranded version of Beats Music that will debut at WWDC next month. “DOJ officials have already interviewed high-ranking music industry executives about Apple’s business habits,” the report claims.
Apple’s much-rumored Beats streaming service would naturally be a more competitive alternative over two of its biggest rivals in Spotify and YouTube if it successfully convinces music labels to force streaming services to ditch their freemium tiers. Apple’s service is expected to have lots of exclusive content, and only about one-quarter of Spotify’s 60 million customers have paid subscriptions.
Apple faces a similar probe from the European Commission over concerns that it’s persuading labels to abandon free, ad-supported services such as Spotify in Europe as well. Apple’s own Beats streaming service will reportedly not offer a free tier, requiring customers to pay a recurring fee of around $9.99 per month, similar to Spotify, Rdio and Google Play Music.
Apple’s Beats-based streaming music service will reportedly be deeply integrated into iTunes on Mac and the stock Music app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and apps will also be available for Apple TV and Android. Last month, the company seeded iOS 8.4 beta to developers with a redesigned Music app featuring new MiniPlayer, a redesigned look for “Now Playing,” global search capabilities, a streamlined design and more.
Samsung and Samsonite working on smart luggage that can check itself in
“Smart luggage” is not an entirely new concept, but Samsung and Samsonite, a purely coincidental name, are looking to make the formula much more popular with a new range of affordable and more accessible smart bags.
The two aim to provide luggage with embedded microprocessors that can be tracked through GPS, which you may appreciate if you’ve ever lost a bag at an airport, and can offer anti-tampering alerts to warn you if someone has attempted to open your bag. Presumably, Samsung is getting involved to provide the mobile link to your luggage and will be providing much of the behind the scenes software, while Samsonite will be looking to integrate the technology into some of its existing bags or a new range.
‘Smart luggage will be able to communicate with you but it needs to be able to do much more than just give its location’ … ‘We are working with Samsung to create something that is more than a gimmick.’ – Samsonite chief executive Ramesh Tainwala
Furthermore, Samsonite is working with airlines on a self-check-in feature, which will automatically provide the airport with baggage information to ensure the correct destination and airline, and to check the bag’s weight against any limits. Talks with Emirates, Lufthansa and KLM Air France are said to be in the works.
If you’re looking for something even more futuristic, the firm is also working on a project to develop ‘self-propelling’ luggage. But it’s not really that practical yet, as the engine takes up a third of the bag’s space and weighs 20 kilos!
Get a closer look at your network speed with nPerf Speed Test
There are only a few big names when it comes to Internet speed tests. Speedtest.net, for instance, is a name many people know and trust. However, there is another speed test app that you should know about called nPerf Speed Test and we’re going to take a look at it right now.
Functionality
nPerf Speed Test tests not one, but three different metrics. It’ll test your Internet speed including upload, download, and ping. It can also test your browsing performance by opening a slew of websites and seeing how long each one takes. It’ll conclude the test with a YouTube streaming test that streams video at 260p, 360p, and 720p to see how long it takes to load, how much data is used, and buffer time if there is any. This far more testing than your traditional speed test and it makes nPerf feel like a real all-in-one kind of test.
Once the app has completed its workout, you’ll see the total results of the test along with an aggregate score. Your score can be compared to other ISPs and shared with others if you wish. The app is able to discern what kind of connection you have (3G, 4G, WiFi). On the History page in the app, you can also see and keep track of where you did you speed tests on a map so you can compare speeds based on your location.
In the Settings, you can tweak your experience to a degree. You can set things like your network type, bitrate units, default test, language, background style, and whether or not to record your GPS location. There is also an option to set a warning to let you know you’re about to reach your data plan limits (if you have limits). The developers also claim to use less than half of the data for their tests that other test apps use.
Design
nPerf’s UI is fairly straightforward. The interface is simple to understand with Holo-style hamburger menus so navigation is simple and reasonably predictable. It is very simple to use. You select your test type and hit the go button. Then you sit around and wait.
The design itself is colorful and enjoyable. The buttons are large and easy to see and nPerf manages to look good without overdoing it. Animations were fluid in our testing although we’re sure you’ll see some stutter on older devices.
The Good
Here’s what we liked about nPerf Speed Test:
- Doesn’t just measure speed like most competitors. It also measures streaming performance and website loading performance as well. The app also measures averages along with maximums for more metrics than most competitors.
- It’s very simple to use. You can run a full test as soon as you open the app or choose an individual test in the hamburger menu by tapping in the top left corner.
- The ability to map where you do your speed tests, review testing history, and compare to other ISPs and phone services are pleasant extra features for those who are seriously into network testing.
- The design is very clean.
- Contributing your speed test data to nPerf also helps them compile information like this from France where they can put together graphs and charts about what carriers do the best.
- According to nPerf developers, their official website will soon host coverage maps and network data performance.
- nPerf uses dedicated and optimized servers for a more accurate speed test.
The Bad
Here’s what we didn’t like so much:
- nPerf has a function to warn you when you’re about to reach your data plan limits. For instance, if you have a 1GB plan, you can have it warn you when you’ve used 800MB. Android has this functionality built right into the OS so we didn’t see a real need for this feature. It’s not bad, just redundant.
- Like most benchmarks, you probably won’t be using an app like this every day.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this is a very solid Internet benchmark app. The various levels of testing give it more of a real-world feel and the design is simple enough for anyone to use. It has a few features that aren’t really needed or necessary, but they can be easily turned off if you don’t want them. If you’re interested in trying it out for yourself, click the button below!
Google doubles free trial period for Play Music All Access
If you’ve been looking to test out Google’s Unlimited All Access music service, then now is the perfect time. Google Play Music has temporarily doubled the length of the free trial offered to new members from one to two months. No extra costs or strings attached.
Unlimited All Access grants you full access to the 30 million plus strong Play Music library, with free streaming of as many songs and radio stations as you like, all without advertisements. However, the deal is only valid for new subscribers, not renewals, and seems limited to certain regions. North America is covered, but I’m still only offered the standard 30 day free trial here in the UK.
To grab the offer, simply head over to the Play Music store and you should see reference to a 60 day offer when you want to try-out the service, just like in the image below. If you choose to stick with the service after the two month trial is up, you’ll be charged $9.99 per month thereafter.
Alternately, Spotify is offering 3 months of its Premium membership program for just $0.99 right now, which then scales up to $9.99 per month as well.
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