Supercade: inside the Louvre of arcade museums
Most museums don’t stimulate your senses with an onslaught of sounds and blinking lights. They definitely do not accept quarters as payment to fully enjoy the artwork. Despite this, the Supercade is a museum that takes great pains to restore one of the most important moments in video game history: the arcade. Owner Van Burnham’s collection of pre-1989 games are meticulously rebuilt and maintained in a climate-controlled environment. If you’ve ever sided up to a video game cabinet, placed a quarter on the seam between the controls and the monitor and uttered the words, “next game,” this is your Louvre.
Nestled in South Pasadena, California, the building that houses Supercade gives nothing to indicate that inside is one of the more impressive arcade cabinet collections in the world. The lack of visible signage isn’t a problem because it’s not open to the public. But the games need to be played and Burnham hosts special events and invites design schools to bring their students in to understand that at the core, gameplay (even when it involves only a few pixels) is key to a great game. And great — yet simple — gameplay is where this all started.
As a child, all Burnham cared about was video games. “My dad had bought me a Magnavox Odyssey when I was a kid and I was mesmerized by it,” she says. As she got older, she would spend all her free time at the video arcade: at the mall, the boardwalk, even hotels. “Wherever I was, all I wanted to do was play games,” she says.
Before there was the Supercade museum, there was the Supercade book. While working at Wired, Burnham pitched an article about the 30th anniversary of the Tennis For Two installation at Brookhaven National Labs. She went to executive editor Kevin Kelly asking him if she could do a feature on it for Electric Word, the magazine’s front-of-the-book section. But Kelly wanted her to take it further. It ended up being the book about her love of video games.
After years of writing and talking about her love of games, Burnham took the plunge and purchased a Donkey Kong Jr. cabinet. Then she bought another game. And another. And another. Now her collection is pushing 500 titles. Because it’s really a museum, many of the games being renovated get the same type of dedication to detail usually reserved for renaissance paintings.
The Nintendo Punch-Out cabinet originally shipped with a texture that more resembles a grand piano than a video game. Instead of just throwing on a coat of paint and calling it a day, Burnham stripped it down to the wood, painted it black and added nine coats of high-end automotive lacquer. “It took several weeks to get it right, but it is silky smooth with just the right luster,” Burnham said.
But it’s more than the exterior that needs work. Actually being able to play the games is the goal and it’s a moving target. You can’t just call up Nintendo or Atari and order parts for a game built in the 1980s. Hardware is always in short supply and it’s necessary to stock vintage components to keep the games going. “We try to fix the original part whenever possible, but some of these games are over 40 years old,” said Burnham.
The results are astounding. The games look and feel like they are fresh off the factory floor. Talking to Burnham, it doesn’t feel like an obsession and it’s more of a stewardship of history. Pac-Man resides next to BurgerTime. Toobin’ stands beside Star Wars. It’s like walking into a really amazing arcade in 1988. All your favorite games are there along with games you’ve never heard of.
That was the great thing about arcades; you didn’t need to throw down $60 for a new game. You made your decision after dropping a few quarters. Arcades also had a social element that current gaming culture lacks.
“It was amazing; the energy was just so intoxicating,” Burnham said. “The excitement of a new game, the thrill of getting a high score with a crowd of people watching … there really wasn’t anything else like it.”
It didn’t last. Arcades were already in trouble because of the video game industry crash of the mid-1980s, but in the 1990s, home console games were looking better than their arcade counterparts. Why go to a run-down arcade when you could play the same game at home on the couch? Arcades shut down and gaming receded back into homes with online gaming becoming the de facto means of social interaction.
Fortunately for those wanting more interaction outside their circle of gaming friends and random voices on the other end of a headset, arcades are making a small comeback. While you won’t find a Tilt in your local mall anytime soon, there are places like Barcade in New York, Brewcade in San Francisco and EightyTwo in Los Angeles. Burnham believes it’s more than just playing old games that makes these places thrive: “It isn’t just about being nostalgic about the games; it is about having fun playing them with friends and strangers. These games are addictive. Add a few drinks to the experience and it makes for a super fun night out.”
As for Supercade, the venue itself will stay private, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have a chance to see at least some of the collection. Burnham is teaming up with Giant Robot’s Eric Nakamura for an exhibition they hope to mount in Los Angeles. Plus, she has a new book and new site in the works. All of it will be completed within the earshot of Donkey Kong stomping on steel girders, Pac-Man swallowing power pellets and the Defender ship exploding into a hundred pieces — the sounds of a museum that needs to grow before the artwork it collects loses its last life.
Source: Supercade
Rosetta comet probe will continue its mission until September 2016
The Rosetta comet probe just got a new lease on life… if not a terribly long one. The European Space Agency has extended the space explorer’s mission from its original December end to September 2016. That’s only nine months, but it’ll give scientists a shot at studying Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko close-up as it flies away from the Sun for some of that period. There’s even a chance that Rosetta will get visual confirmation of where the Philae lander touched down, which hasn’t been practical with the probe’s relatively distant orbit.
Just don’t count on another reprieve. The probe will be too close to the Sun a month after the mission’s end, and it’ll have used up too much propellant to simply put the craft in hibernation and wait for the next opportunity. Instead, the ESA hopes to land Rosetta on the comet itself and effectively call it quits. Don’t be too sad, though. The spacecraft will collect data until the very end if this touchdown is feasible, so it’ll at least go out in a blaze of glory.
[Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab]
Filed under: Science
Source: ESA
Google is trying to get inside apps – how and why
The mobile revolution would never have happened without apps. Android ensured that Google was central to the smartphone trend, but mobile apps actually represent a serious threat to its dominance. As people increasingly turn directly to apps to access the Internet, they aren’t using Google’s search engine or other services.
In 2013, we spent 80 percent of our time on mobile devices in apps, and just 20 percent on the mobile Web, according to Flurry Analytics. That trend grew even more pronounced in 2014, with 86 percent of our time spent in apps. Although games are the top category, social networking and messaging apps led the field in terms of retention and number of sessions. Facebook alone accounted for 17 percent of the time spent on iOS and Android devices in the U.S. in 2014.
Google’s strategy depends on the mass market. It needs eyeballs for advertisers and big data to drive clever analytics. How does it prevent mobile apps from cutting it out? How does it retain some kind of control over the mobile web? It’s already indexing apps and extending Google Now, could the future be app streaming?
App indexing
The enduring appeal of Google as a search engine is based on its ability to return useful results, but how much of what we’re looking for online nowadays is to be found inside an app? Google’s App Indexing offers developers a way to get their apps listed in search results. They can even link to content deep within an app, and when the user taps on that link, the app will automatically load, provided that it’s already installed.
A flood of extra downloads, as users are prompted to install apps they don’t have from within search results, and return visits for apps already installed, is the carrot for developers. For Google it’s a way to keep the search results relevant and useful, but also wrest back some control of the mobile scene. Of course, as it stands, app indexing is a lot easier for Android apps than it is for iOS apps, and it’s set to get even easier in Android M.
This deep linking idea isn’t new and there are competitors offering alternatives. Facebook has App Links, which allows users to skip around from app to app without ever going near a Web browser. Apple is bringing deep linking to iOS 9. There are other solutions out there, but competition is the same old barrier to an actual standard being developed.
Now On Tap
Announced at Google I/O, Now On Tap is looking to make Google Now accessible from anywhere on your Android device. Whether you’re in an app or in the browser, you’ll be able to access relevant Now cards and query Google. It’s another way to leverage app indexing and get people using Google, even when they’re inside an app.
App streaming
Could the news that Google acquired Agawi point to another potential approach to combat app dominance? Agawi is all about streaming mobile apps and games from the cloud to mobile devices. The thin end of this wedge is the idea that Google might offer users the chance the try out apps without having to install them.
Back in the early days of Android you could install an app, try it out for up to 24 hours, and then uninstall it and get a full refund. That trial period was reduced to 15 minutes for a while, but then increased to 2 hours last year. But there’s no doubt that a trial without the need for a download, installation, and refund would be a much more attractive prospect. It’s easy to see the potential benefits for developers, for Google, and for Android users.
What if Google was to push that even further and allow you to access apps and games without ever installing them? Many apps are already reliant on Web servers, it wouldn’t be a major stretch to stream the whole thing. That would also drastically reduce the burden on the smartphone hardware and shift it to Wi-Fi and Google’s server farms. It could even enable more demanding software and games to run on low end Android devices. It potentially has the power to kill the fragmentation problem and standardize the Android experience.
But is the necessary infrastructure in place? Can all the potential problems be overcome? It’s worth remembering that the idea of cloud streaming is nothing new, and we’ve seen various attempts to do this in gaming fail. We’re also seeing consistent improvements in processing power for smartphones, and it wouldn’t be a move that would win any fans in the hardware manufacturing scene.
Google vs Facebook
This battle to control deep linking and win dominance on the mobile Web is still about owning advertising for Google and Facebook. The social media giant is a good example of the risk to Google. If it can break out functionality from the unwieldy Facebook app, as it has been trying to do with apps like Messenger, and acquire big apps, as it has been doing with the likes of Instagram and WhatsApp, and then find a way to tie them together so users never need to hit the browser at all, then it can cut Google out.
Unlike Amazon, Facebook isn’t asking you to buy specific hardware or commit to its ecosystem. It’s threatening Google through the Play Store in a way that’s tough for Google to control or combat.
Same old strategy
When we looked at the prospect of Google bringing Android and Chrome OS together we discussed how web-based apps are more desirable for Google in the long term. App streaming might be a different route to bring apps back into the website model, since the mobile Web and browser-based apps don’t seem to be taking off in the way that some people predicted they would.
Ultimately, Google is always working to find ways to ensure that we use its services. The expansion of Google Now and app indexing looks like a smart short term move, and Google is well-placed to dominate the shift to deep linking, but will it be enough in the long term? App streaming throws up a world of different possibilities, and could lead to a future where web-based apps are baked into the platform or accessed through the browser, but live in the cloud, making downloads and installs a thing of the past.
Upcoming Android game lets you kill Super Mario once and for all
A quick look at Google Play will turn up a number of games that at least somewhat resemble the mechanics, features, and graphical style of classic titles like Super Mario Brothers, with one example being the once-big-hit Flappy Bird. Most of these games have had enough differences in their design as to allow them to pass through both Google Play and the App Store unnoticed and unchallenged, but a new reverse platformer called Kill the Plumber ran into a bit of trouble.
While the game is still set to arrive on Android July 23rd, Apple turned down the game for being too obvious of a Mario parody. The story here is pretty simple. You play a character that basically looks like a goomba. A ‘plumber’ is then jumping around you, trying to squish you, and your goal is to take him out before he accomplishes this. As the game progresses, you’ll play a variety of other types of baddies that all somewhat resemble Mario’s ghosts, thwomps, and more.
Honestly, the game isn’t meant to be taken seriously and it seems fitting that after 30 years of Mario, there are some folks that would like to finally take out that pesky plumber once and for all — Bowser sure would. This isn’t the first time a Nintendo franchise has been parodied in this manner, web games allowing you to kill the Duck Hunt dog come to mind. That said, with Nintendo planning taking mobile gaming a bit more seriously in the near future, we’re curious if they’ll let this one stand, or if Kill the Plumber will eventually be pulled from Android as well.
Based on the video footage, what do you think, was Apple right to pull the game? Do you think Google will eventually respond similarly? On the other hand, like the idea and find it a worthwhile parody?
Rumour: Samsung to release the Galaxy S7 by the end of 2015?
Samsung is in the news again today with the rumour that the Korean tech company has plans to release the Galaxy S7 in the second half of 2015. This comes on top of the earlier rumour that Samsung will skip on releasing an Edge version of the Note 5.
According to the Korean-based news outlet, Newsis, Samsung is pushing its R&D department to develop the Galaxy S7 flagship faster so it can release the handset 2-3 months earlier than usual. This would mean that Samsung would be releasing two generations of its flagship Galaxy S range in 12 months, much like Sony does rather unsuccessfully with its Z series of handsets.
It’s difficult to determine just how plausible this rumour is. I would be very surprised if Samsung were to release two generations of its Galaxy S series of smartphones in one year, especially so soon after the traditional Galaxy Note release at IFA. But could it just be that Samsung is planning on releasing the Galaxy S7 a little earlier than usual? Sure, especially if the Note 5 is released a little earlier than is usual as well. If so, we still have at least a month and a half then until the Note 5 is announced, I’m sure we are going to see even wilder rumours in the meantime.
Let’s not forget that there’s also the rumour that Samsung is planning on releasing the Galaxy S6 Plus with a 5.4 or 5.5-inch display, possibly before the Note 5 makes its appearance.
Do you think that Samsung will release the Galaxy S7 later this year with the Note 5 making its appearance in August? And where exactly does the Galaxy S6 Plus fit in? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Source: Newsis & DigiTimes
Via: PhoneArena
Come comment on this article: Rumour: Samsung to release the Galaxy S7 by the end of 2015?
Watch Urbane LTE impressions: LG’s little known WebOS experiment
When LG announced its pair of rounded, metal-made smartwatches earlier this year, all attention was focused on the WiFi only model that made use of Android Wear. The standard Urbane has already been discussed and dissected to death in the media, though very little is known about its sibling. But LG’s mysterious marvel, the Urbane LTE, is very much a real product. It’s also a product that has been out for some time now, though in a rather nontraditional sense.
Introducing the Urbane LTE
“LG Watch Urbane LTE” is a mouthful. It’s also quite possibly one of the biggest paradoxes of the year, for it’s a smartwatch from a major OEM that includes a cellular radio for calls and data (not unlike the Gear S), is designed for Android, and yet it runs… a version of Web OS, LG’s relatively new acquisition from HP (which HP itself acquired from Palm).
First off, there are a few caveats to offload:
1. The Urbane LTE is sold as a carrier-exclusive device in South Korea, and exclusively on LG’s own U+ network.
2. The Urbane LTE has an embedded SIM which means that you can not insert yours. This is not unlike the Gear S which Verizon sells.
3. The Urbane LTE is expensive. At the time of purchase it was sold at just over $500.
4. The Urbane LTE doesn’t have a leather band, rather it has a thick plastic one. The design itself is quite stylish, but there is a sense or irony that with the extra cost of LTE comes the replacement of premium leather with a cheaper material.
Before starting this piece in earnest, please be aware that I have not used the Android Wear Urbane. To this end, I can’t make a value judgement about battery life comparisons between the LTE model and its WiFi-only Android Wear sibling.
What’s with WebOS?
Ring my bell: everything from the app selection to menus try to make use of a circular interface, sometimes with much success, sometimes not.
First, let’s clarify one thing: the operating system of the Urbane LTE is based on WebOS, but LG actually calls it “LG Wearable Platform OS.” We don’t know the reason for using this stuffy moniker, but we do know in fact that it’s a version of WebOS – LG confirmed it to us at MWC and the name “WebOS” appears in the Japanese version of the companion Android app (but not in the English version).
The software works much like Android Wear, but with the inclusion of circular designed navigational menus in key places. Honestly speaking, the ring interface is quite cumbersome if not downright infuriating (at times) to use. Your input is frequently rejected, which causes either a mistake or else nothing to happen. A perfect example of this is selecting a time zone. The device wants you to scroll through the list of what must be every single time zone in the world, and the movement is incredibly laggy, almost as if the entries were streaming over a 2G connection. Take a look at this image to get an idea of what happens should you move your finger too quickly:
This blurry mess is exactly what you will see if you try and navigate long lists too quickly. The Urbane LTE simply can’t handle the task despite such simplicity.
Another frustrating circular-shaped interface problem is setting the brightness. While touching the quick setting button will allow you to select from four preset levels, if you want to manually set the backlight level, it means touching the perimeter of the phone at the set percentage you want, with 12:01 representing the lowest setting and 12:00 representing 100%. This sounds fine on paper, but in practice it’s rather annoying because your finger is much larger than the tiny granular elements of the UI and thus precision is lost. In a very real way, the Urbane LTE is it’s own worst enemy, simply because the device uses a (small) circular screen, and because the bezel around the screen is elevated. The Samsung Gear S, for example, works much better, as does the Apple Watch for that matter.
While the clock setting is much more precise given the spaced out nature between numeric values, the brightness menu isn’t.
The main menu is a little better, thanks to the presence of large circular icons as can be seen below. Simply rotate your finger in a circular motion and the list will cycle through all the installed apps. Given that this product is sold exclusively through a mobile carrier, it also means that there is a sizable amount of bloatware installed on the device, not to mention other carrier-specific settings and menus. Again though, there is an incredible amount of lag involved in the process, something that might have been acceptable in 2010, but in 2015 where mobile phones have 4GB of RAM and even TouchWiz is smoothing to silk, this wearable feels like it fell into a time warp. Hopefully LG will eventually make significant improvements with the WebOS build (which, despite several updates, is still on version number 1.0).
To navigate this menu, simply move your finger in a circular gesture on the screen. Truth be told, I’d have preferred navigation a la the Apple Watch, with the rather large “crown” button.
The actual watch navigation centers around the three buttons on the right side. The center button, the crown, is used to access the main menu or return to the watchface. The upper button is used to access quick settings as seen below: the default settings can be seen on the left image and includes Bluetooth, WiFi, Brightness, Silent Mode, Volume, and Data Transmission. The second image is the second screen (activated by pushing the center of the Quick Settings ring) and contains NFC, Airplane Mode, Eco Mode, Driving Mode, GPS, and Voice Input. Finally, below the crown we have the bottom button, basically a “back” key that usually has no function except when several layers down into the OS menus. The last two pictures show the System Update and System Info; pressing Back would return to the upper layer of system settings.
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In all honesty, having used the Apple Watch for about a week last month, I would much rather have seen LG make use of the Urbane’s crown in a similar fashion as to what the “fruit” did. Turning a dial would have been much easier to navigate through the various menus, or at least have served as a viable alternative for those who found the touch-based navigation too cumbersome. This is hardly a deal breaker per se, but at the same time I haven’t been wildly eager to play around with some of the settings that require significant scrolling.
Some (very incomplete) battery life impressions
Now, because LG only sells the Urbane LTE on one carrier in Korea, I wasn’t really able to test the device the way it was meant to work. Because of the construction of the device, you can’t just pop in a different SIM and get cellular connectivity. So that means I relied on Bluetooth and WiFi whenever I needed to sync it.
If I didn’t turn on Bluetooth or WiFi at all, the Urbane LTE can get about three days of use out of the thing before having to recharge. Yes, I realize what you’re thinking, “that defeats the entire purpose of having a smartwatch” and indeed it’s a valid point to make. While the Bluetooth connectivity trials I’ve made between the watch and my phone have yielded results that were somewhat better than those on Android Wear devices I used in the past, the fact that I couldn’t use LTE means that I can’t really comment on the battery life of the device.
One other thing that needs to be said about Bluetooth syncing: notifications on the watch also seem to suffer a delay, at times in upwards of 15 seconds or more, but the reason is not clear to me.
Also related to battery life is the fact that the Urbane LTE uses the same always-on screen feature as Android Wear, but it seems there are major issues with either the sensor calibration or the software, as the watch often fails to wake when my arm is raised, requiring multiple attempts to complete a very simple task.
Intelligent design
As we have already reviewed the standard, Android Wear-toting Urbane, I’m not going to touch upon the physical design of the wearable in great detail. Suffice to say that the device looks much better in person than it does on any press render that LG has put out, and several friends of mine have came to the same conclusion. It’s a very thick watch and somewhat heavy, given the use of metal, but at the same time it doesn’t look gaudy or weigh down my wrist. I would suppose a thin leather band might also reduce some weight as opposed to the thick piece of rubber the LTE model comes with.
Gasp at the clasp: while it looks nice enough, the LG Urbane LTE’s choice of a thick rubber band as opposed to the luxurious leather included in the Android Wear (WiFi-only) model is a curious decision at best.
Why the Urbane LTE comes with a rubber band is beyond my capacity for understanding. Considering the device actually costs substantially more than the standard WiFi version, one might expect it to have an element of extra-premium potential, all the more so given that its using a somewhat “experimental” OS that LG is testing out (assuming one might call WebOS experimental, and Android Wear not). Still, it’s quite thick and well-made so the watch feels firmly attached to the wrist. It can also be adjusted to a wide range of different lengths.
What truly surprised me though, was just how impressively integrated and intelligently designed the Urbane LTE is… on the Android side of things. The LG Watch Manager (made exclusively for the Urbane LTE) app is just fantastic, quite possibly the best smartwatch companion app I’ve used to date.
You can change the watch face design , of course, or the numeric design, or even the clock hands. You can save the finished theme for quick selection layer. Other features include the ability to send files on your smartphone to the watch, at least music or pictures. The few songs I transferred took a rather long amount of time to download to the Urbane LTE, which was a bit frustrating. I’m not sure if this process works faster on the Android Wear platform, in which case it would seemingly be an issue with WebOS’ file management. Take a look at the interface and some of the features:
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In my opinion, LG has created a piece of software that is far, far superior to that of Samsung’s Gear Manager, and looks far less gaudy no less.
With respect to intelligent design (planning), I must tip my hat to LG for getting one thing right: device pairing. Given that I test various different phones, it goes without saying I have ran into one major problem with Android Wear: every time you want to pair a wearable with a new device, all the data is deleted from the old one. Amazingly, LG has actually considered this and allows you to pair the Urbane LTE with a new device sans deleting the memory. While it will be removed from the previous phone or tablet it was paired with, switching back would just require a quick repairing Bluetooth authorization. This means that any songs or pictures and whatnot you’ve transferred will still be on the device.
One last pet peeve is the mildly frustrating reminder that the Urbane LTE needs to be activated each time it’s restarted. Given that I don’t have a contract with LG U+ for it, let alone reside in South Korea, it’s something that is never going to disappear. Thankfully opting not to activate the watch allows it to (seemingly) work uninhibited.
Ecosystem
Watch LTE is clearly an experiment by LG and so it’s no surprising that there isn’t a real ecosystem to talk about. There is a small number of apps available through the Watch Manager app, many of them supplied by LG. Don’t expect anything resembling the variety and richness of the Android ecosystem, or even the Android Wear ecosystem, for the matter. You get some productivity apps, a few games, communication apps and of course many watch faces.
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Wrap up
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The LG Watch Urbane is a fascinating product for several reasons, perhaps the largest being WebOS, and the second being the fantastic level of connectivity that LG included. It’s every bit as integrated as Samsung’s Tizen, and that’s what really counts. Of course there are several strikes against it as well, namely the laggy software, the embedded SIM, and the high cost of the device.
LG has made no small effort to maintain the device’s existence as an “experimental” product, and truth-be-told the retail device still feels like it in many ways, at least the hardware. Software wise, the Android application is top-notch. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this potential product line: will WebOS become a true competitor for Android Wear, or is LG just timidly trying to hedge its bets?
Todoist releases an update, includes huge Material Design makeover, themes, and new features
Today, to-do list app Todoist has announced a huge update to its Android app. It’s a much larger update than you would usually expect from an app that’s getting updated to Material Design. In fact, Todoist has overhauled the entire application with the goal of making everything simpler and more colorful. That means on top of a new design, there are also some new features.
Along with adding new features, Todoist has also worked to make existing features work faster. The result is an application that feels almost entirely different from its predecessor. Here is a list of the new features:
- Quick add with natural data parsing – What this essentially means is the application will now read what you type and just know what information it needs to add. For instance, you can add labels, due dates, etc directly into the task field and the new Todoist app will automatically add the due date, labels, etc to the areas it needs to be added.
- Start and end dates – This was an existing feature in the Todoist app already but the feature has been revamped so you can be far more specific with things like recurring tasks. These operations are also easier to add to any task.
- Create sub-tasks while quickly adding tasks – One of the more complex features of Todoist is the ability to create sub-tasks inside of tasks. In the revamped version of Todoist, this is also easier as you can just swipe left or right on the drag handle and it coverts the new task into a sub-task.
- Add collaborators while adding projects – Todoist admitted that this was one of the more cumbersome features in prior versions of the app. The entire process has been simplified to a single step where you can add collaborators as you create projects.
- Complete design overhaul – The app received a lot of color in the update and it shows on every screen in the app. It should also be pointed out that all buttons now have labels and are laid out in a consistent fashion making them easier to find.
- Themes – Todoist has not only given the app a burst of color with Material Design, but you can also change the color. For now, Todoist has 10 themes available including red, tangerine, sunflower, clover, blueberry, sky, amethyst, noir, graphite, and neutral.
- Swipe gestures – There have also been some swipe gestures added to the app. Swiping right will mark the task as complete and swiping left will allow you to schedule a task. The swipe gestures are also color coordinated. Swiping to the right for complete will show green while swiping to the left to schedule will be dark yellow.
- Enhanced full-add screen – In Todoist, you can add quick tasks or you can add tasks using the full-add screen. The full-add screen has been overhauled to make it easier for you to input data about that task such as due date, labels, notes, etc.
Todoist is one of the better to-do list applications on Android already and the slew of new features and designs only helps to solidify that position. As a whole, the app will work mostly as it did before and existing users won’t have to change how they do things. The update seems to simply make doing those things a bit faster.
The update is scheduled to go live today but we imagine the roll-out will take a bit of time. If you already have Todoist, just wait for the update to come to you. If you like what you see and want to give Todoist a try, you can download it using the button below. If you want to learn more, check out the press release, also below.
Todoist’s Material design update has been highly anticipated by its millions of Android users. Considering the depth of Todoist’s Android renovation, the programming and design of the app have taken the better part of a year. “We’ve made radical changes to nearly all the screens inside the app– their design is both stunning and bold. We’ve also rewritten most of the app’s UI to bring it up-to-speed with the latest technology, to be faster and buttery smooth”, says Gonçalo Silva, Todoist’s Head of Android. It has been an extensive process that will undoubtedly prove to be worth the wait.
Today, Todoist’s Android community will truly be able to get more done, in less time, with less effort, on a much more visually inspiring platform. Regardless if you are a power user who delves into Todoist’s every robust feature, or if you simply enjoy using Todoist as a basic checklist, you will see vast improvements that will help you achieve your most important personal and professional goals.
To begin, you will now be able to personalize your Todoist experience with 10 new colorful themes that will brighten the previously grey backdrop of the app. Love the outdoors? Try the Sky-blue theme. Or enjoy an uplifting boost of color with the Tangerine theme. Todoist for Android is no longer just a powerful, utilitarian software– today, for example, you can open the left menu and see your avatar and your Karmaprogress bathed in a theme that reflects your personality and ambitions.
Beyond the cosmetics of Todoist’s Material design update, users will now enjoy new features that give more power and seamlessness to their task and project management. Though ease-of-use was paramount when Todoist’s Android team took to redesigning the app, technical prowess was never sacrificed. This harmony between technology and usability has resulted in a simplified experience for the user and can be seen in the beautifully executed Material transformations and animations.
Some of the most useful and novel features being released today include:
•Quick add with natural date parsing: Type important task information like due dates, labels, and priorities directly into the task field on your Android device. The intelligent in-line adding will automatically recognize, highlight and properly categorize all the details for you. The new date parsing– one of the most advanced in the world– is available in 14 languages and supports over 300 rules per language. This means that you can input almost any combination of details whatsoever into Todoist, and the app will know exactly what to do with it.
•Start and end dates: Date input for Android has been completely revamped to include start and end dates that will allow you to add even your most complicated recurring due dates. For example, you can now create a task to“read three chapters every Sunday starting August 1st and ending November 15th”.
•Create sub-tasks while quickly adding tasks: Now, it’s possible to organize complex projects directly from your Android device. Just swipe left or right on the drag handle during the quick-add, and you will be able to instantly convert the new task into a sub-task. This makes it incredibly easy to manipulate the hierarchy of the sub-tasks and parent tasks within a project.
•Add collaborators while adding projects: Previously, this was a cumbersome, multi-step process– you had to add a project, select it, tap the sharing option and then add collaborators. With today’s update, you can immediately add new collaborators while creating a new project.
•A brand new navigation menu: This menu has been completely redesigned and beautifully optimized for Material’s visual language. In addition, Todoist’s Manage mode is now much more straightforward and intuitive– all buttons now have labels and are consistently located at the bottom of each sublist.
•Enhanced full-add task screen: Enjoy a gorgeous, full-screen UI that makes it much easier to visualize your task’s most important details like due date, priority, and labels. Task hierarchy is also more accessible on this screen– now, you have the option to select a parent task for any given sub-task that you want to create.
•Swipe to complete and schedule: With today’s update, a swift swipe to the left will let you schedule a task, while a swipe to the right will render a task complete. This action has also been redesigned according to Google’s Material gesture guidelines– the swipe background is now color coordinated to match your intention: green to complete, and dark yellow to schedule.
•Complete redesign: No stone has been left unturned in this update– every single screen and action in Todoist for Android has been totally redesigned under Google’s Material design specifics and tenants.
•Colorful themes: Personalize your to-do list with Todoist’s first ever color themes– there are 10 to choose from including Todoist red, tangerine, sunflower, clover, blueberry, sky, amethyst, noir, graphite or neutral.
For more details about Todoist for Android’s Material design update please visit http://www.todoist.com/android.
About TodoistOne of the first task-management softwares available on the market, Todoist– launched in 2007– is a powerful to-do list app for personal and group productivity that lets users manage tasks from their email inbox, web browser, desktop, or mobile/wearable device. Todoist is available in 20 languages and on 16 different platforms and is used by over 4.5 million people (many from Fortune 100 Companies like IBM, Oracle, and HP) who have completed more than 182 million tasks in over 30 million projects. Todoist, a champion of lean startup principles, is built by a chiefly virtual team that spans 16 different countries and five continents.
Apple Music Royalties During Free Trial May be Lower Than Expected [iOS Blog]
After posting an open letter to Apple on her Tumblr page about Apple’s free streaming policy for its upcoming music service, popular artist Taylor Swift managed to get the company to change course — Apple now planning to pay artist royalties during its three-month free trial period of Apple Music. But, thanks to a new statement provided to The Wall Street Journal, it appears artists’ satisfaction with the policy change could become turbulent again, with the Cupertino-based company suggesting the royalty rate during the free trial period will be somewhat lower than normal.
Apple declined to say how much it plans to pay during the trial period, though it said the rate will increase once customers start paying for subscriptions. In the first three months of the service’s life there will be no subscriber royalty rate on which to base the rates. The company could find other ways to calculate a rate and is expected to share its plans with music companies soon.
Apple risks raising the ire of Ms. Swift and others if it comes in with what would appear to be a lowball offer.
Attempting to ballpark Apple’s possible payment rate for the free trial, The Wall Street Journal compares the Apple service to Spotify’s free, ad-supported option, which they point out pays royalties of “about one-fifth of the subscription service.” Last December, that was essentially 0.14 of a cent for each listen in the United States, which Spotify had to pay a grand total of $5.8 million for its free tier alone for the month.
If Apple goes in under its traditional 71.5 percent revenue sharing policy — which is likely to happen given the wording used when speaking to the WSJ — it could still end up paying out millions of dollars to the various artists, songwriters, and producers that Swift became the defacto figurehead of after Apple listened to her letter over the weekend.
Although, as the WSJ points out, some in the industry appeared content with the original free trial period policy, given Apple’s promise of an above-industry standard of 71.5 percent royalty payment, compared to the basic 70 percent payed out by competitors such as Spotify and Google. Apple has yet to comment any further on the issue, but its shifting viewpoint on the topic, so close to Apple Music’s launch, is undeniably an impressive feat for Swift.
ICYMI: An accident impeding big rig, hoverbikes and more
Today on In Case You Missed It: The hoverbike of your Star Wars dreams is actually being built but sad faces all around, it’s being made for the U.S. Department of Defense before you suckers get to try it out; too many car accidents in Argentina inspired Samsung to make a digital display on the back of semi trucks to show other cars what’s happening on the roadway with front-facing cameras; and researchers built a boat that gives lower fuel consumption based on a design change that mimics a part of a whale’s tail.
Important side note we found while googling this story: Avoid ever getting this close to a real whale’s tail.
From the cutting room floor: We really wanted to bring you the story of this sneaky beer storage in the great outdoors, unfortunately we could not explain how it was done to our satisfaction. We’re also left annoyed for and with the guy that proudly shows it off, since now every out-law and crap neighbor he has knows where the spare beer is too. Dude. You blew it.
Let the team at Engadget know about any interesting stories or videos that you stumble across by using the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd.
Filed under: Displays, Misc, Peripherals, Transportation, Science, Internet, Samsung
Videophone lets kids call Grandma but not surf the web
Want to encourage your kids to stay in touch with family, but don’t trust them with a smartphone? A product called the ILY family phone from startup Insensi may do the trick. It’s designed to help young ‘uns place video phone calls to anyone else who also has either an ILY or the iOS or Android app. Calling couldn’t be simpler — they just tap the recipient’s picture on the main page of the color touchscreen. Video and voice calls can be made over the internet via your WiFi network, or you can place regular phone calls by plugging it into your landline.
Kids can even send pictures or create them with an included app, but there’s no browser or other way to access the internet. And that simplicity is the point — it’s intended to give kids a way to call without exposing them to the dangers of the wider web. We don’t have any specs yet, but if the $200 price tag doesn’t give you pause, pre-orders are opening soon, with shipping expected by this fall.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets
AIVAnet 