‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ tribute games reflect a mascot’s fall from grace
It’d be an understatement to say that the Sonic the Hedgehog game franchise hasn’t held up well over time. Sonic was once nearly as big as Mario, but a long string of bad titles (with exceptions) ruined his rep — you’re more likely to spot him in dodgy fan fiction and internet memes than a popular game. And the homebrew developers from Arcane Kids know it. They’ve built the Sonic Dreams Collection, a batch of tiny tribute games for Macs and Windows PCs that acknowledge the Sega mascot’s fall from grace. It masquerades as a leaked set of Dreamcast protoypes, but it’s really a nod to the weird places Sonic fandom has gone in the 21st century. There’s a “Sonic Movie Maker” where the hedgehog calls you his dad, and “My Roommate Sonic…” well, let’s just say it turns romance stories on their head.
You’ll probably finish playing the whole collection in minutes. However, it’s uncanny at recreating both the vibe of crude fan art and Sega’s turn-of-the-century zeitgeist, that sense that the Dreamcast would usher in a brave new era for the blue hedgehog and his friends. In that light, it’s worth giving Sonic Dreams a spin just to see the contrast between the 1999-era optimism and the grimmer, stranger reality circa 2015.
Via:
Boing Boing
Source:
Arcane Kids
Tags: arcanekids, dreamcast, fanfiction, gaming, mac, nostalgia, sega, software, sonic, sonicdreams, sonicdreamscollection, sonicthehedgehog, videogames, windows
Apple Shares New Apple Music Ads: ‘All the Artists You Love and Are About to Love. All in One Place.’
Apple today released a series of three Apple Music ads focused on how the service helps users discover artists. The first ad is a 60-second spot highlighting a number of artists and sharing Apple’s motivation for creating Apple Music, ending with the tagline “All the artists you love and are about to love. All in one place.”
Music has never had a bigger place in our lives. To have access nearly all the music in world at our fingertips is remarkable. And yet, there needs to be a place where artists and fans can discover one another. Where the entire experience, from playlists to radio to new releases, is powered by people who live and breathe music. A place that brings you the artists you love, as well as the artists you’re about to love. That kind of place would be pretty great. And that’s what we set out to do with Apple Music.
Two other ads are artist-focused 30-second spots, with one featuring James Bay and the second featuring Kygo.
As with the longer general “Discovery” spot, the artist ads are shot in black and white and end with the new tagline, but the artist ads include no spoken content, focusing only on the artists’ work and then briefly overlaying a representation of their Apple Music pages with the Connect feature highlighted.
ASUS ZenFone 2 update patches Stagefright vulnerability, adds many improvements
Every manufacturer is working on sending out patches for the Stagefright vulnerability, but so far everything we have seen is very much focused on that specific issue. ASUS is not wasting time as they release the patch update for the ZenFone 2, along with plenty of other improvements.
The latest update takes the software to version 2.20.40.59_20150807. Aside from adding the Stagefright patch, ASUS introduces a bevy of new features with this update. Here are some of them.
New features
- Add Hands up
- As phone is ringing, hold phone in portrait mode and lift to touch the ear to answer the phone.
- Added Mobile Manager app which has six major functions:
- Data usage: Controls the apps’ data usage
- Notifications: Manages annoying notifications
- Auto-start Manager: Manages auto-start apps running in the background
- Boost: Boosts memory
- Power Saver: Provides various battery modes to extend the battery life
- Virus Scanner: Scans virus and malwares
- Add Flip cover function
- Add new Clock theme
- Add VIP icon in Clock view for SMS/email/missed call
- Add timer reminder
- Add charging reminder
- Add Cover View function
- New clock theme
- Allows detail checking of everyday events in Calendar view
- Supports Spotify on Music app
In addition, the manufacturer has included a very long list of bug fixes and optimizations. These include improvements to the UI, launcher, WiFi, camera, and many other elements. You can always refer to ASUS’ official release note to catch all the details.
The update is available to ZenFone users now, so go ahead and check your settings if a notification hasn’t graced your screen yet. Have any of you gotten this update yet? How is it treating you?
Airbnb staff will always call police when you’re in an emergency
When you rent a place on Airbnb, you’re always taking on some risk. You’re trusting a stranger to house you, after all. However, the home-as-hotel company is learning the hard way that it should help out if you’re in trouble. Airbnb is responding to the reported sexual assault of a guest in Madrid by “clarifying” its policy on emergencies, according to the New York Times — staffers will always have to call the police if you tell them that there’s a crisis. The Madrid victim’s mother was told to call the cops herself, which may have cost valuable time and allowed more trauma.
Airbnb argues that the inappropriate response stemmed largely from a policy conflict. The firm always wants to report crimes in progress, but it also wants sexual assault victims to report attacks when they’re comfortable with the idea. In this situation, an indirect call was bound to create a problem — especially when the mother called a second time to report the assault after the fact. From now on, an in-progress emergency always takes priority.
The company says that it “can learn a lot” from what happened and vows to do better. While that’s likely going to happen, the assault underscores how Airbnb’s safeguards are minimal compared to the conventional hospitality business. Many hotels not only have dedicated security teams, but will send security to check on guests the moment someone reports a concern. Even with the smarter policy in place, there’s only so much services like Airbnb can do if things go horribly awry.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz]
Filed under:
Internet
Source:
New York Times
Tags: accommodation, airbnb, emergency, hospitality, internet
AIVAnet 