Google Play Games no longer needs a Google+ account
Google’s plan to scrub Google+ requirements just went one step further. Sometime this year, Google Play Games will no longer require a Google+ account to function — you can just use a basic Google account to start playing. You won’t get nagging permissions requests, and the new approach will sign you in for every game you have rather than one at a time. That should make life much easier, especially if you didn’t want personal details linked to your game sessions.
The transition shouldn’t create any problems for you unless a game goes out of its way to use specific Google+ features (which, let’s face it, isn’t likely). One thing’s for sure: at this rate, Google+ is quickly being reduced to just a social network, rather than the seemingly inescapable catch-all internet service it was originally meant to be.
Via: The Next Web
Source: Android Developers Blog
Pokemon’s Super Bowl ad is the very best
We’re still a few weeks out from Super Bowl 50, but we’ve already been blessed with one of the most absurd — and amazing — ads of the season. To commemorate the franchise’s 20th anniversary, The Pokemon Company shelled out millions of dollars to create a Super Bowl ad that’ll run at the beginning of the game’s third quarter. Go ahead, take a moment to wrap your head around that one. We’ll be waiting.
Today saw the release of the ad’s extended cut — created by an LA-based agency called Omelet — and it does a damned fine job burying the lede. For the first forty seconds, you’ll see a diverse crew of young people inspired to dream big and work hard (which in this case involves playing speed chess and getting psyched for a football game). Better still, these scenes are accompanied by the same punchy, aggressive drumline percussion that seems to wind up in every other high-minded sports apparel ad during Super Bowl season. The only real hint that you’re watching something a little different is a sign above a locker room door that proclaims “LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS,” a nod to the old-school theme song you’re probably already humming now. And after all that? A guy steps into stadium, Pokeball in hand, staring down a Gyarados, a Magneton, a Charizard and a Mega Lucario. Things just got real.
While it would’ve been nice to have another core series game to go celebrate this milestone, you’ll at least have another chance to play through the classics. Nintendo confirmed that Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow will land in the eShop on February 27, just a few weeks after one animal-themed team triumphs over another in a grand show of sportsball acumen.
Source: BusinessWire
It looks like Google wants to make its own VR hardware
Google is going all-in on virtual reality hardware, if a few recent job postings are anything to go by. Road to VR spotted a handful of consumer-focused VR jobs up for grabs at Google, including a Hardware Engineering Technical Lead Manager, Consumer Hardware and a PCB Layout Engineer, Consumer Hardware. Both of these titles at one point ended with “Virtual Reality,” though Google has since replaced that phrase with the more vague, “Consumer Hardware.”
The Lead Manager position includes the following description: “Our consumer hardware team is working on revolutionizing how people interact with their hardware and looking for engineers to make that a reality. We want to open new ways to interact with devices and create a natural, seamless interface the world’s information.”
Job listings do not always point to a full-blown business plan, but Google has already demonstrated a vested interest in VR. The company launched its Cardboard initiative in 2014 and it has a mysterious partnership with augmented-reality company Magic Leap. Google recently picked up some new VR talent, too: Former Vine boss Jason Toff just left Twitter to join Google and work on VR. Plus, this is Google — cutting-edge technology is kind of its thing.
The decision to leave Vine was hard. I love the team, am so proud of what we’ve done and know there are incredible things ahead for them.
— Jason Toff (@jasontoff) January 25, 2016
Via: 9to5Google
Source: Road to VR
The next political speech you hear may be written by an AI
Humanity has made huge advancements in chatbot technology over the past few years. Artificial Intelligence systems can now imitate Philip K Dick, write convincing thinkpiece pitches and even pass the Turing test. However, they’ve never quite gotten the hang of political speechwriting and, in some cases, wind up sounding downright subhuman. However, a team from University of Massachusetts, Amherst announced on Monday that they have built a robotic writer able to pen passable political sentences.
The Amherst team designed their AI using Google’s n-gram technique, wherein the computer searched for sequences that include a given (“n”) word to learn how it fit into the sentence syntax. It did so across more than 4,000 floor speeches delivered during 53 US Congressional floor debates. After crunching nearly 50,000 sentences, the AI can now write a convincing political argument from as little as five “seed” words such as:
Mr. Speaker, for years, honest but unfortunate consumers have had the ability to plead their case to come under bankruptcy protection and have their reasonable and valid debts discharged. The way the system is supposed to work, the bankruptcy court evaluates various factors including income, assets and debt to determine what debts can be paid and how consumers can get back on their feet. Stand up for growth and opportunity. Pass this legislation.
Looks like we’ll soon be able to add politicians to the growing list of jobs that robots are going to take.
[Image Credit: Getty]
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Cornell University Library
RotoView PDF Reader brings gestures to mobile document viewing [Review]
As a college student, I find myself opening PDF documents on my phone quite often. From class syllabi to assignments to event flyers, PDFs tend to be one of the most frequently used document forms around campus. So when I began to explore RotoView PDF Reader, I wondered what set it apart from other apps like Google Docs or Polaris Office. As the name suggests, Rotoview offers a different approach for viewing PDFs, especially content-rich documents.
Function & Features
Many of the documents kept on my smartphone are content-rich — that is, each page of a PDF contains a large amount of text and/or photos, forcing me to zoom in to read specific lines. Admittedly, I have gotten frustrated with other PDF readers after zooming in, because I am forced to drag around the document to reach a different part of the page. The developers behind RotoView sought to fix that annoyance by implementing gesture-controlled scrolling within a PDF document.
Essentially, RotoView (which is also the name of the gesture feature within the app) can be enabled or disabled in a few ways. Once enabled, users can tilt their device up, down, left, or right, to move the document around. For the most part, the gesture control works as well as can be expected. It is a bit wonky at first, but after some adjustments to the sensitivity in the settings, I finally found a happy medium between scrolling speed and angle sensitivity.
Once RotoView is enabled, moving within a document is fairly self-explanatory. I did get slightly frustrated once I found a particular place in a document, as any movement of my smartphone caused the viewfinder to scroll elsewhere. I found an option built into the app that disables RotoView after a number of seconds without movement (the number can be adjusted, as with most features in this app), and I immediately put it to use.
I was pleasantly surprised to see all the adjustment options built into RotoView, as some device accelerometers are more sensitive to certain angles. It is worth noting that RotoView will not work unless the user is already zoomed into a page of a PDF.
The RotoView gestures also include a page-scrolling feature, which I found very useful for multiple-page documents like a class syllabus. By moving the viewfinder all the way to the left or right side of a page and holding it there for a second,users can get to the next or previous page within the PDF. A small arrow will appear before the page switch is made, so the user isn’t surprised when they suddenly find themselves on another page.
This gesture also works with PDF documents that show pages above and below each other, rather than to the left or right. It is worth noting that the page gesture can be disabled in settings.
The main gesture feature is enabled with an up-and-down shake of the device, a caveat to an otherwise fluid system. I lost track of the number of times I shook my Galaxy S6 up and down at every imaginable angle before the app finally recognized that I was trying to enable the gesture. While the sensitivity for this shake-to-enable feature can be adjusted, I have yet to enable it on the first or even third attempt.
RotoView also brings a feature called Continuous Scrolling to PDF viewing, and I actually found myself using this more often than that standard RotoView feature. Continuous Scrolling is essentially the same as the main gesture, except that the former is enabled with a long-press anywhere on a zoomed-in document. Once it is activated, the gesture scrolling will work as long as the user’s finger remains on the screen.
All the features mentioned above are great for PDF viewing, but what about PDF editing or annotating? RotoView seems to have an answer to this question, with integrated annotation options. Within a PDF document, users can enable several different annotations, such as drawing a square, circle, straight line, or freehand line. I took the liberty of showing what each of these looks like in the screenshot above.
There is also an option to select text and highlight it, underline it, strike through it, or underline with a squiggly line (as in, this word is misspelled). I used the highlight feature quite a bit with class schedules, highlighting test dates and assignments. Finally, users can add a small note anywhere on the page, as seen on the left side of the photo above. Of course, the colors for all these annotations can be changed to whatever your heart desires.
Design
The overall look and feel of RotoView PDF Reader leaves more than a little to be desired. Outdated color schemes and highlights were definitely not in keeping with more recent Lollipop and Marshmallow design trends. For those of you who have been around long enough to remember it, the colors and icons of RotoView actually remind me of Android version 4.0, called Ice Cream Sandwich. With light blues and blacks throughout the app, it’s clear that RotoView may be in need of a serious design upgrade.
Opening the app brings you to a list of all the PDF files saved on your local storage. Interestingly, the list doesn’t seem to be organized in a certain way. The files are not listed by date or alphabetically, nor are they prioritized by which was opened most recently. After digging through the settings, I found no way to implement any kind of organization in the main list. This is more of a nuisance than a deal-breaker, especially for users who have more than a few PDF files on their device.
A small settings icon at the top brings back those old Android design notes again. The options are actually fairly extensive, with even more choices enabled if you choose to purchase the $0.99 premium upgrade (which I recommend). The same design flows through the settings, and it serves as another reminder that function over form is certainly the name of the game for RotoView.
Within a PDF, the optics are only slightly more pleasant. A scrolling thumbnail view of the pages in the document sits at the bottom of the screen, and it disappears after a second or two. The menu bar at the top does the same once you zoom in, but it can be quickly called upon with a simple tap anywhere on the screen.
Conclusion
Even without the premium upgrade, the gestures and features packed into this app are outstanding. With a bit of tinkering, users can get some great usage out of RotoView. Despite this, an outdated design does bring the app down a few pegs. A refreshed look with Lollipop design cues would launch this app into contention with some of the most-downloaded document viewing apps currently available on the Play Store.
The bottom line is that RotoView PDF Reader is a solid app that gives users an alternative way to view content-rich PDFs on their smartphone or tablet. Where it lacks in appearance, it makes up in function. RotoView PDF Reader is available for free from the Google Play Store, with a $0.99 in-app premium upgrade that enables saving annotated PDF files. The upgrade also disables ads within the app itself.
Google Play Store: RotoView PDF Reader
The post RotoView PDF Reader brings gestures to mobile document viewing [Review] appeared first on AndroidGuys.
[TA Deals] Name your price and get the tools needed to develop apps
Because you’re scouring app stores and downloading so many of them, I think there’s a pretty good chance you’ve thought about designing and releasing your own app. The roadblock, of course, is that you’ve got little experience in coding and you wouldn’t have a firm grasp as to how your app can be monetized. So let’s get you set up with the Mobile-First Developer’s Bundle on Talk Android Deals. It’s a very special package that contains everything you’ll need to go from zero to hero in making apps for Android and iOS devices. And beyond developing them, the bundle teaches you what’s needed to monetize apps.
We’re bringing the Mobile-First Developer’s Bundle to you at your price. This is a Pay What You Want deal!
This is what’s packed into the bundle:
- Learn Android Development from Scratch ($99 value)
- Learn Swift Programming Step by Step ($99 value)
- Learn to Build Mobile Games Using Unity 3D ($149 value)
- Projects in HTML5 ($199 value)
- The Ultimate Android Course for Complete Beginners ($499 value)
- Learn iOS 8 Mobile App Design & Make Top Money ($199 value)
- Create a Native App for Your WordPress Website in 8 Days ($149 value)
- Mobile Apps Design in Sketch 3: UX & UI Design from Scratch ($199 value)
- Monetize Your App: Major Advertising Networks ($49 value)
- The Complete Android Lollipop App Development Course ($99 value)
Despite offering an extremely high value, we’re allowing you to pay exactly what you’d like to bring home the Mobile-First Developer’s Bundle. Paying any amount, no matter how small it is, will get you the last two items mentioned in the list above while beating the average price paid unlocks everything else.
The deal also benefits charity as 10% of the proceeds go to Save the Children, a nonprofit supporting children in need around the world. More than $17,000 has been raised at the time of this post’s publishing and you can have your name put atop the Giving Leaderboard by donating one of the largest sums.
Come comment on this article: [TA Deals] Name your price and get the tools needed to develop apps
Daimler CEO Impressed by Silicon Valley’s Progress on Automobile Projects
The CEO of German automotive company Daimler, Dieter Zetsche, may have given a small update on the progress of the long-rumored Apple Car (via Reuters). After visiting with about 70 companies in total on a trip to Silicon Valley, Zetsche told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag [Google Translate] that “these companies can do more and know more” about the automotive process than he previously thought. The CEO never specifically mentioned Apple by name, however.
“Our impression was that these companies can do more and know more than we had previously assumed. At the same time they have more respect for our achievements than we thought,” Zetsche told the paper.
Zetsche referred to a few “concrete talks” that were had while he visited California, but he of course couldn’t specifically refer to the content of any meeting he had while he was there. Apple hired former Mercedes-Benz R&D President and CEO Johann Jungwirth in 2014, which began the initial wave of rumors pointing towards the Cupertino-based company’s future entry in the automobile market.
In August, Daimler — the parent company of Mercedes-Benz — mentioned that it remains open to “different types” of collaboration with Apple in regards to automotive projects. Some of the recent rumors surrounding the “Apple Car” involve Apple’s registering of various auto-related domain names, with a possible launch date of 2019 for the vehicle.
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Apple Forecasted to Report Record Holiday Quarter Amid Concerns of Slowing iPhone Sales
Apple will announce its first quarter earnings tomorrow for the 2016 fiscal year, a three-month period that ended December 31, 2015. Financial analysts predict Apple’s quarterly revenue will range between $74.6 billion and $82.4 billion, but some market watchers are unsure if Apple will top the record 74.5 million iPhones it sold in the year-ago quarter, due to perceived lower iPhone 6s sales.
iPhone 6s sales concerns might be more evident in Q2 2016, however, as Apple’s newest products and services, including the Apple Watch, Apple Music and the new Apple TV, coupled with the busy holiday shopping season, fuel projections that Apple will again report the most profitable holiday quarter in not only the iPhone maker’s nearly 40-year history, but of any company ever.
Apple’s guidance is between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion in quarterly revenue, while the consensus among professional analysts is around $76.5 billion.
Fortune has compiled a list of predictions from both amateur and professional analysts, along with Apple’s guidance in orange.
Apple has never experienced a year-over-year decline in iPhone sales, so the next few quarterly earnings results will be interesting to follow. MacRumors will be providing live coverage of Apple’s Q1 2016 earnings conference call with CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri on Tuesday at around 2:00 p.m. Pacific (5:00 p.m. Eastern). The earnings report will be released around 1:30 p.m. Pacific (4:30 p.m. Eastern).
Discuss this article in our forums
‘The Martian’ VFX reel shows how they put Matt Damon on Mars
If you want a reminder of why The Martian was nominated for a best visual effects Oscar, check out this highlight reel from MPC, the lead VFX company for the film. While the film was shot in an actual desert (southern Jordan, to be exact), director Ridley Scott still needed plenty of CG assistance to bring the story to life.
It’s particularly intriguing to see how MPC helped make The Martian look as if it was actually shot on Mars, thanks to some color and landscape tweaking. The reel also shows off some more subtle effects, including the glass and reflections for Damon’s helmet. Naturally, there are spoilers, so avoid this video if you haven’t seen the film.
[Photo credits: Twentieth Century Fox]
Via: io9
Blinkbox Music’s user database was just sold to… JD Sports
Of Tesco’s three ailing digital Blinkbox services, its e-book store appeared to be the only one that would go gently into that good night. Eventually, it did, while Blinkbox Movies found a new owner in TalkTalk (which finally got ’round to rebranding the service earlier this month), and Blinkbox Music was snapped up by appropriate suitor Guvera. Since the Australia-based streaming service took the reins, however, things have gone from bad to worse.
Blinkbox Music went into administration after Guvera failed to offload it onto another buyer, and now it’s being stripped for recyclable parts. That’s led to the latest development, whereby old subscribers have been notified that ownership of the Blinkbox Music customer database, which includes contact details, has been transferred to none other than high-street tracksuit retailer JD Sports.
Guvera originally seemed like a good fit for Blinkbox Music. The company’s homegrown service was similar to Tesco’s in that it offered free, radio-style playlists and additional features through paid subscriptions. Guvera already had a presence in 20 countries including the US, but less than sixth months after acquiring Blinkbox Music, the company sent the subsidiary into administration after a brief and unsuccessful attempt to turn its fortunes around.
Guvera is currently facing a £10 million class-action lawsuit backed by most of the roughly 100 employees who lost their jobs as Blinkbox Music went under, allegedly without any warning or redundancy pay. That lawsuit drew attention to the Blinkbox Music database — which reportedly contains the details of between two and three million users — since it’s perhaps the only asset still held by the defunct service. Or it was, at least.
As Music Business Worldwide spotted, old subscribers were informed on Friday that the database is now under the control of rather strange recipient JD Sports. We’ve asked the retailer what it intends to do with all those contact details, but the announcement email suggests promotional spam is what Blinkbox Music users can expect from the transfer. The email itself does, however, provide a link to opt-out of further comms before JD Sports starts making use of its newly acquired database.
Source: Music Business Worldwide
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