Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode gets detailed, due out on Android in 2015

Last December it was announced that Telltale Games was working with Mojang on a new narrative Minecraft game. Telltale is known for their other plot-driven games that feature a sprawling narrative across five different episodes, including their own titles like The Wolf Among Us and other spin-off games that tell stories from popular franchises such as The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Borderlands. It looks like Minecraft: Story Mode won’t be deviating from that winning formula.

Telltale talked a bit about M:SM today at Minecon, detailing the plot and some of the voice actors that are on board with the project. The game is taking a different spin on Minecraft, putting the player in control of a new protagonist named Jesse that’s voiced by actor Patton Oswalt. Several other big names make up the supporting cast, so it looks like this game should hold up to Telltale’s high standards.

If you’re excited to play Minecraft: Story Mode, at least you won’t have to wait much longer. It’s slated out on all major platforms, including Android, by the end of 2015.

source: IGN

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Yotaphone devices to drop Android for Sailfish OS

Yota, a Russian manufacturer that produces the dual screen Yotaphone, has announced that it will start using the Sailfish OS on its devices instead of Android. Sailfish is an alternative operating system produced by former Nokia engineers at Jolla and based on the old MeeGo OS. Sailfish was selected after Yota also considered Samsung’s Tizen OS as a replacement for Android on their devices.

Currently Yota is selling their Yotaphone 2 smartphone and it is not clear whether the Sailfish OS will be an option on new Yotaphone 2 devices or whether Yota will make the switch with the next iteration of a dual screen smartphone. When they do make the switch, Sailfish should provide Yota will more flexibility to customize the operating system than what they are able to do with Android. The downside is that the app landscape is much smaller for Sailfish, although most Android apps should work if sideloaded.

The Yotaphone and Yotaphone 2 are unique in the smartphone market in having dual screens. The “front” screen is a typical display with the current Yotaphone 2 getting a 5-inch AMOLED full HD screen. The “back” screen is a 4.7-inch E-Paper Display, similar to Kindle devices, supporting 16 levels of gray. The back display can be configured to show information like clocks, stocks, weather and social media updates or it could display an Android app. By using the back display, battery life can be extended to up to 100 hours.

Using Sailfish will put the Yota devices into a category that comprises only 4% of the market according to IDC – smartphones not using Android or iOS.

source: Yahoo! News
via: Android Authority

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Welcome to the age of the micro-singularity

By Amber Case

Last month, over a billion people around the world suddenly knew the name and appearance of the very same woman, and simultaneously began exchanging opinions about her. And while the unveiling of Caitlyn Jenner is not news in the traditional sense, and there was no shortage of major events erupting around the globe at the same time, the Internet largely converged for several hours around discussions of who Caitlyn was, and what she stood for.

This is actually just the latest instance of what I’ve come to describe as a “micro-singularity,” which, broadly defined, happens when the world’s social Internet channels momentarily focus their awareness around a single phenomena, while it’s still happening-Émile Durkheim’s conscience collective digitally transformed into a literal entity. Recent micro-singularities include The Charlie Hebdo massacre, the llama chase, the blue versus gold dress debate, and the Boston bombing with its subsequent manhunt. Japan’s Fukushima Disaster, the Haiti Earthquake, and Michael Jackson’s death are milestones in the development of the micro-singularity.

Though we might consider the American Revolution’s “shot heard round the world” one of history’s first micro-singularities, digital technology has increased our ability to spread news. But even though they can literally impact the lives of billions in the space of several hours, our official institutions have been slow to understand what they are, how they work, or just as key, how we should deal with them.

Understanding Micro-Singularities

At their essence, micro-singularities typically bear these traits:

They’re Powered Through-and Evolving Within-Social Media

Thanks to its streamlined UI and the pervasiveness of mobile phones (most people around the world primarily engage the Internet via smartphones), micro-singularities tend to first launch on Twitter, then fan out to the other major social networks. As awareness of the triggering event reaches saturation levels, the micro-singularity generates aftershocks in the form of one or more collective responses, often via meme. So for instance, very soon after the Internet became aware of the horrific Charlie Hebdo shooting, it had also evolved a direct response that spread just as quickly: Je Suis Charlie.

They’re Organic, Subjective, and Rarely Initiated by Traditional Organizations

Micro-singularities will occasionally emerge around official, planned events such as the State of the Union or the Oscars; more typically, however, they emerge from the grassroots, powered by what most interests or concerns an aggregate of social media users. For this reason, celebrity related events are just as likely (if not more so) to trigger a micro-singularity, than a “hard news” event. (And even people disinterested in a particular celebrity will find themselves impelled to publicly express an opinion, even if it’s just annoyance.) Cataclysmic weather events, such as tsunamis and earthquakes, are just as likely to cause a micro-singularity, as everyone within the affected region and everyone connected with them can launch a cascade of awareness that rapidly encompasses the world. And as we saw with Justine Sacco’s unfortunate Tweet before flying to Africa, a single individual can trigger a micro-singularity.

They Shape The Reaction of Offline Media and Institutions

Most people around the world are not active Internet users, still getting their news through traditional offline media channels; governments and other legacy organizations also tend to process and respond to major events offline. Consequently (and ironically), the micro-singularity shapes the way these institutions react to the triggering event. For television and radio networks, the very existence of the micro-singularity itself becomes news (“Today the Internet flared up due to…”), while government agencies will sometimes send out actual press releases or hold physical press conferences directly responding to it. (Often hours or even days after it first occurs, a glacial reaction in Internet time,)

This final feature illustrates the challenge we now face: Our traditional institutions are still ill-equipped to deal with micro-singularities now, let alone in the next decade, as billions more join the Internet via low cost smartphones, and micro-singularities become even more frequent, pervasive-and, potentially, hazardous.

Better Preparing for Our Micro-Singularity Age

As micro-singularlties become a more engrained part of our daily life, our major social groups will gradually adapt to account for them. However, there are strategies we can implement now, so we’re better prepared sooner rather than later:

Micro-Singularity Emergency Protocols

An action plan is especially important for authorities to have in hand, ready to deal with a variety of micro-singularities which have historically led to real world social disruptions. Immediately after the Boston bombing, for instance, Reddit and other Internet communities pinned blame on an innocent person (who had, in fact, drowned weeks before), and little was done to slow down the promulgation of this misinformation. (And mobs using social media to locate truly guilty suspects aren’t particularly appealing, either.) For this reason, this emergency protocol should include plans to locate and protect the subject of a hostile micro-singularity.

Better Social Network Architecture

Twitter and the other key social nodes should immediately add filters and other architectural features to enhance the virtues of micro-singularities, while minimizing their negatives. For instance, Twitter’s “Trending” feature helps highlight the emergence of new micro-singularities, but fails at giving readers a fuller, more comprehensive view of them. And to prevent riots, mob rule, and other real life externalities, trending topics should automatically come with breaking systems-for example, when users attempt to post real life addresses in relation to a trending topic, Twitter could pop up a dialog, warning them of the potential consequences.

Agile, Online, Non-Hierarchal Organizations

The micro-singularity has turned industrial age hierarchy upside down, with our elected officials and corporate/cultural leaders often the last to know when one has been triggered, or why it has. They need to be part of the conversation as they happen, where they happen. All too often, however, the people in direct control of an organization’s social media channels often have the least institutional power, and must kick any response they might make (however important) up the approval chain, waiting precious hours before they can even publish it. Social media can no longer be the province of poorly paid interns, but a core node of every organization; they must learn to respond quickly and authoritatively, but with less top-down control.

Simply put, since the era of the micro-singularity Is less hierarchical and more democratic, institutions must learn to take on those qualities-or find themselves left behind.

[Illustrations: Ken Schulze via Shutterstock]

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Filed under: Internet

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