PlayStation VR preview: Virtual reality for the gamers

For much of its early life, Sony’s foray into virtual reality was codenamed Project Morpheus. However, in September last year, during the Tokyo Game Show, it gave its first headset the, perhaps obvious, name of PlayStation VR.

The product hasn’t changed much at all though – at least not in a way that anyone who experienced Project Morpheus before would notice. It makes it easier for us to have a decent impression of what to expect come the product’s launch later this year, and thus we feel ready to reveal our current thoughts on what is likely to be the most mass market, full VR headset, save for those that work with smartphones.

We’ve played PlayStation VR several games and partaken in some rather interesting experiences seen through the headset over the last two years. We also have some interesting ideas on whether we think it will be a success when it is finally ready for public consumption. Hopefully, that will all become clear in this extensive preview.

PlayStation VR hardware

With the exact release details still yet to be revealed, with several reports that we’ll find out more from the PlayStation VR event happening in San Francisco during GDC, it’s currently hard to pin down exactly what you’ll get in the box. We know that the headset will be included – which we’ve now seen a final build of – but as for controllers and other accessories, that remains to be seen.

What is sure is that PlayStation VR requires the use of a separate media box that will link the headset to the PS4, with a PlayStation Camera handling external motion tracking. The control system we’ve most used during demos comes in the form of two PlayStation Move controllers, the same devices launched for the PS3 a few years back – so there is a use for them after all.

We’ve also played a driving game, DriveClub, using a conventional PS4 steering wheel. And on one or two occasions, the DualShock 4 was the control device of choice.

Sony

PlayStation VR headset

Unlike its peers, the PlayStation VR headset looks like something from science fiction. It is space-age and futuristic in style, with glowing led panels and swish lines.

In addition, it fits around the head rather than feature a top strap and therefore feels a tighter on the sides and back. It is adjustable though, and the screen and processing unit is in a box that encases your eyes, much like every other VR device out there.

There is a soft rim around the eye piece and padding in the band, but, if we’re being honest, it feels a little heavier in build to the consumer Oculus Rift. Whether that stacks up when the specifications are finally released, we’ll have to see.

The headset can be tweaked to ensure the lenses are the correct distance for a clear picture by tightening the whole unit and, like many VR headsets, it is possible to wear glasses at the same time.

Technically, the screen resolution is not quite as good as others that will be available to the public this year. The PlayStation VR uses a single 1920 x 1080 Full HD OLED panel – so 960 x 1080 for each eye. Some rivals use higher resolutions and different panels for each eye.

However, by restricting the resolution – and let’s face it, the PS4 is only capable of outputting 1080p video anyway – the headset can maintain a frame rate of 120fps. That’s awesome when you consider that the Oculus Rift refreshes at 90Hz (90fps), although technically the games are likely to still run at 60fps on the console and upconverted for the headset.

Upconverted or not, on-screen action could therefore seem super smooth, even if it looks a little less crisp that on other devices. And while we’ve noticed pixels at the start of sessions, we soon forget they are there and marvel at the action instead.

Strangely, whenever we’ve experienced PlayStation VR we have always had to wear separate, third-party virtual surround headphones. That’s okay, but combining the headphones with the headset would have been a more elegant solution. With the act of putting Move controllers around your wrist, adjusting the headset and then wearing headphones, it’s quite a clumsy process you have to go through each time just to play a game.

The aid of another person is recommended, but we think it’s just about doable when alone.

The LED strip lights all over the front and rear of the PlayStation VR aren’t just for show. Like the PlayStation Move controllers, they work with the PlayStation Camera to track head position. It is here that you notice the biggest aesthetic difference between the consumer PlayStation VR headset and the previous Project Morpheus one, in that there is now an additional LED strip on the front of the visor. This should make tracking even more precise.

Sony

PlayStation VR controllers

Naturally, as the PlayStation VR headset links with a PS4 – through an external connections box, it is understood – there will naturally be some games that make full use of the fact that owners will have a DualShock 4 controller to hand. We’ve actually used one for a demo in the past (The Kitchen), and that also made use of the motion control aspects of the gamepad.

We also played a VR version of DriveClub using an authorised PS4 racing wheel and sat in a bucket seat.

However, the controllers that will be used in many VR experiences and dedicated games are the PlayStation Move motion controllers originally designed for the PlayStation 3. Finally, there’s a use for them now that 2D motion gaming itself has died a premature death.

Two PlayStation Move controllers are used more than often, to reflect both hands within a virtual world. They feature glowing LED balls on the end of each baton, which are picked up in a real space by the PlayStation Camera, and there is very little latency between movements made using them (one frame, it is said) and therefore motions are nigh-on instant in a game or interactive experience.

Each Move controller features a gyroscope and an accelerometer as well as the visual ball. There is also a magnetic field sensor inside.

It also features seven buttons in total, but the most useful one for VR purposes is the trigger on the underside. This helps game developers recognise hand closing gestures. There’s a button on the top, where the thumb would be placed, that could also be used for other gesture control.

We’ve found the Move controllers to be a bit more limited to use than the Oculus Touch or HTC Vive batons, but considering they are already available and, in many cases, already sitting in PlayStation fans’ drawers, it’s great that they can be dug out and used once more.

Pocket-lint

PlayStation VR sensor

As well as the sensors in the wands and the headset – which also has an accelerometer and gyroscope – the system requires the use of a PlayStation Camera to track the LEDs on the PlayStation VR and Move controllers.

Again, this is a device that already exists and is used by many PS4 owners already. It will likely be included in the box with the PlayStation VR helmet, but is also fairly inexpensive at around £40. It can also be used for other PS4 games and functions outside of VR and comes with a built-in microphone for voice-control and in-game chat.

There are plenty of third-party accessories already available for it too, which help mount it in a wall, top of a TV or serve as a desktop stand.

PlayStation VR release date and price

The only official indication of release date that has come from Sony so far says that it will appear in the “first half of 2016”. However, there is strong feeling that it will be officially launched during E3 in June, which runs from 14-15 with Sony’s press conference likely to be in the evening of Monday 13. It could then be available for pre-orders with shipping a couple of weeks later. That would effectively place it right at the cusp of the first half of the year.

It’s a date that is seemingly backed up by the only major leak we’ve heard about so far. In January, a Swiss retailer claimed it would be available from 30 June, before its listing was withdrawn.

The retailer also suggested that the price would be 498 Swiss francs, which directly translates as £347.

Although that might just be a wild guess by the retailer, but it’s not too unbelievable. Oculus Rift will retail for £500, but considering the PlayStation VR could also drive further sales of the PS4 and subsequently software, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Sony was to subsidise its hardware more to encourage take-up.

PlayStation VR hardware requirements

Unlike rival VR headsets – namely Oculus Rift and HTC Vive – the PlayStation VR will not require a beefy PC to run. Instead, it will work with a standard PlayStation 4 console. At least, that’s what we’ve been led to believe.

As we’ve mentioned above though, it is likely that the final consumer headset will also come with a separate processing box that will hook up to the PlayStation 4.

Certainly, a separate media box has been present at every demo we’ve undertaken, and it even looks like a mini PS4 in design. It supplies power and video to the headset, while sending motion signals back to the console.

From everything we’ve also seen so far, you’ll need a decent pair of virtual surround headphones, with third-party cans used in the vast majority of our demos. Sony might include its PS4 compatible pair, but we doubt it.

PlayStation VR games and content

Considering its roots, the vast number of demonstrations we’ve had and additional PlayStation VR software that’s been announced so far centres on gaming. While the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift have also been touted in an entertainment sense beyond games, the PS VR is seen primarily as a games accessory.

These are our thoughts on some of the games we’ve tried so far. We’re not sure whether any or all will be launch titles, and there have been several others announced that we’re yet to try. These should give you some idea, however.

Capcom

PlayStation VR: The Kitchen

The Kitchen became one of the biggest talking points of E3 2015 – at least amongst the people who had experienced it or witness someone else doing so. Rather than an actual game as such, it’s a proof of concept by Capcom that quite literally had our hearts racing more than if we had spent twenty minutes cross-training.

You start tied to a chair in a manky, dirty basement, with another man tied up on the floor next to you. You can look around but have limited view – behind you especially as you’re tied to a chair. It’s very Saw or Hostel and quite frankly petrifying. We thoroughly enjoyed it (no spoilers here as you might get to have a go yourself some time) and although we mostly smiled through the showing, others screamed.

It is genuinely that scary.

PlayStation VR: The London Heist

Based on the ages old PlayStation game The Getaway, The London Heist is a British gangster caper that is coming later this year.

The demos available to us so far included two specific sections of the game – one in a getaway vehicle being pursued by gangsters and the other in a mansion where you are trying to steal a precious gem.

The best of the two was the one that had us sat in the passenger seat of a car racing away from a bank job, while being set upon by motorbike riders and other enemies in SUVs. We had to dispatch them by shooting an in-game Uzi, and pick up and reload magazines of bullets along the way. One particular aspect we loved was the ability to open the car door and physically look out behind the car to dispatch enemies behind us.

The other level was played from a standing position, with the ability to duck behind a desk as enemies fired upon us. We could peer out and fire back at them. Heaven knows what it looked like to people in the real world, but it was great fun.

CCP

PlayStation VR: EVE: Valkyrie

Like Oculus Rift, EVE: Valkyrie is expected on PlayStation VR too. It’s a space combat game where you are the pilot of a nippy fighter craft.

There is much to rave about with EVE: Valkyrie, but as we found whenever we played the game briefly on Rift, much of the time during our PS VR EVE demo was spent marvelling at the fact we could see a virtual pair of legs in the cockpit of the ship.

This helps ground the experience. By seeing parts of yourself in the virtual world, it helps the illusion that you are really there.

Naturally, the zipping around blowing enemies away impressed too, but initially we suspect you’ll be just as amazed at the ambient details CCP has included.

Pocket-lint

PlayStation VR: DriveClub

Sony decided to exhibit at Paris Games Week in October last year rather than the earlier Gamescom in Germany and we got to have a 15 minute session on DriveClub as seen through the headset.

Strangely, we’d never twigged how good a driving game could be in PlayStation VR beforehand, but it seems such a natural fit. It’s obvious really.

Whether you like DriveClub in its existing 2D form or not, it becomes a very different beast through a PlayStation VR headset.

We played it while sat in racing seat and behind a decent steering wheel and pedals accessory, but a lot of the experience would have been as fun even with a DualShock 4. Certainly, the instinctive things we found ourselves doing would have been the same.

Anyone who’s befriended us on PS4 or Xbox One and have raced against us at any driving game will know that we want to barge our way through other cars in a dash for superiority. However, when playing with the headset on, we started to be much more respectful to the vehicles around us.

The opponents seemed much more tangible and therefore realistic, so when they slowed down to take a corner, rather than using them as a steering barrier we actually slowed down with them, attempting to avoid contact.

Another strange, more real-world driving effect the VR experience had on us helped us corner much more effectively. When any driver is about to take a corner in a real car, they will look towards the direction they are about to travel – something not feasible in a conventional racing game.

We did so all the time, which also allowed other instincts to kick in. We hit the brakes much sooner when approaching a corner, and accelerated much more quickly when exiting. Basically, we became better racing drivers.

Sony

PlayStation VR: The Playroom VR

Let’s be honest, Playroom on PS4 – which was one of the included launch titles that worked well with the PlayStation Camera – was a bit meh. It was fun to muck around with for a while, but seemed more like a tech demo than a game.

However, on PlayStation VR, it could become something quite different.

Spattered with virtual reality mini-games, something tells us it might be an included title with the headset itself. Certainly the one game we’ve played from the collection – Cat and Mouse – seems like the sort of thing you’d get out to show the whole family how a VR headset can enhance experiences.

In it, the person wearing the headset is a robot cat and there are four other players are mice. The mice must run around collecting cheese while the cat hides behind a net curtain.

By looking at a specific mouse and lunging forward, the headset wearer can catch them and stop their cheese stealing exploits. The mice thought, who each use conventional controllers, can hide under cans or other household packaging until the cat disappears again.

It’s definitely fun and the simple gameplay means anyone can have a go. It won’t be the main driver for VR though, we feel.

PlayStation VR: Current challenges

In its PlayStation VR headset Sony has a distinct advantage over Oculus and HTC/Valve with their respective devices; it already has a vast user base with the equipment needed to run it.

The other companies both require consumers to own beefy PC setups, which can cost many hundreds if not a thousand pounds to invest in. The PlayStation 4 is a fraction of that price and there are already 36 million units in households worldwide.

Of course, the number of those that belong to people interested in virtual reality will be far smaller than that, but to have such a massive potential audience to entice puts Sony in a very strong position.

What it will boil down to though is price. While the Oculus Rift is pricey, at £500, and the HTC Vive will likely be in a similar ballpark, they are both pitched at audiences who are used to paying top dollar for the best experiences.

Many PC gamers are willing and often able to splash out the cash on their hobbies.

The PlayStation 4 is a cheaper alternative all-round and therefore has more mass market appeal. There are undoubtedly plenty of fervent gamers with PS4s who are willing to spend big, but to make PlayStation VR a success, Sony needs to aim it at a wider market.

That makes the price point an essential part of the equation. If we’re to see VR take off in the way we’d hope this year, it could be down to the price tag Sony puts on its headset. That really could make the difference.

First Impressions

Of all the virtual reality headsets that are coming out this year, PlayStation VR won’t be the most technologically advanced or even be best supported in software terms. It will though be the one that will have the most eyes on – both figuratively and literally.

That’s because, rather than aim at a dedicated minority, it is designed for the biggest majority in gaming at present. PS4 fans are many and varied.

For that reason, it’s the most exciting prospect for us. We already have the equipment needed to run it and setup should be simple.

Most of the games we’ve seen so far are also designed for a simpler form of VR – in most of them we’ve been sitting – so we won’t even need a massive play area to get the most from it.

Yes, we would rather a higher resolution screen, like Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, but VR for us is a living room entertainment experience and shouldn’t be confined to a bedroom or study.

That’s where our PS4 is based and that’s why PlayStation VR is a different prospect. We’re just crossing everything for a reasonable price point.

AMD’s most powerful GPU yet is built for VR

AMD has just launched the liquid-cooled Radeon Pro Duo, a graphics card that boasts a lot of superlatives. With 16 teraflops of computing power, it’s the fastest single-slot graphics graphics card available, according to the company. At $1,500, it’s also the most expensive Radeon card ever and consumes 350 watts (via three eight-pin power connectors), meaning it could add $10 a month to your electric bill if you game all day, every day. Despite the high-end specs, however, AMD is not going after gamers, but VR content creators.

“With its LiquidVR SDK … [the] platform is aimed at most all aspects of VR content creation: from entertainment to education, journalism, medicine and cinema,” according to the company. At the same time, it says that the board’s power and DirectX 12 support will let you game “at maximum fidelity while off work.” The card will be particularly well suited to stereoscopic VR, since the two GPUs (each with 4GB of VRAM for 8GB total) can be efficiently mapped to each eye with LiquidVR and other tech.

On the other hand, that makes the card an odd duck, since AMD says its FireGL cards — which can run up to $4,000 — are the choice for professional use. Like the FireGL, the Pro Duo’s drivers will be validated for content creation applications like Adobe’s After Effects and Premiere Pro CC (assuming you’re okay with OpenCL rather than NVIDIA’s Cuda). At the same time, a single GPU card like AMD’s $650 R9 Fury X — which has 8 teraflops of power — might be a better choice for gaming. That’s because dual GPU and SLI cards have performed worse than expected in recent AAA titles.

AMD also announced its “Radeon VR Ready” GPU certification program, aimed at helping consumers select graphics cards for virtual reality PCs. The program, which HP has already pledged to support, will allow PC manufacturers to guarantee systems for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets. The Radeon Pro Duo is AMD’s first graphics card certified for the program.

The product is competing against not only high-end gaming GPUs, but also workstation-class cards like the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 or AMD’s own FirePro W9100. As such, it may be ideal machine for building and then testing VR titles. At $1,500 it’s a tough sell for gamers against some formidable single-GPU gaming cards like NVIDIA’s Titan X or (two) R9 Fury X cards, though. We should see how it stacks up in the real world soon, as the Radeon Pro Duo will arrive early next quarter.

Via: Anandtech

Source: AMD

Engadget giveaway: Win a OnePlus 2 smartphone!

The once elusive OnePlus smartphones have finally broken free of their invite-only status for those eager to score one. Although a relatively new name on the scene, the company’s top-tier OnePlus 2 offers some heavy hitting specs. On the outside, it boasts a 5.5-inch, 1080p display and a sandstone-textured back, with optional panel upgrades spanning bamboo to Kevlar. Under the hood, it runs OxygenOS (a lightly skinned version of Android) with a Snapdragon 810 processor, 4GB of RAM and a capacious 64GB of storage. There’s also a 13-megapixel camera, USB-C for charging and data, and a fingerprint sensor to keeps things secure. This week, OnePlus has provided us with a pair of its OnePlus 2 handsets for two lucky readers to enjoy. All you need to do is head down to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning. There’s good news for everyone, though. After a recent price drop you can pick one up for just $349.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Uber’s food delivery service gets a dedicated app in US cities

You no longer have to head to Canada to make full use of Uber’s food delivery service from your smartphone. The UberEats app is now available on Android and iOS in a handful of US cities, starting with Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. More cities are also on tap in the near future, including Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, New York, Seattle and Washington in the US as well as Melbourne and Paris. Wherever you are, the experience remains the same: you’re ordering food from partner restaurants with an emphasis on speed (Instant Delivery items show up in less than 10 minutes) and simplicity. If delivery rivals like GrubHub aren’t cutting it, there’s a good chance that you’ll have an alternative soon.

Source: Uber Newsroom

New York prescriptions go digital to combat opioid abuse

On March 27th, New York State residents will no longer need to decipher their doctor’s terrible handwriting, thanks to a switch from paper to electronic prescriptions. The new phase is part of a 2012 law called I-Stop aimed at slowing the massive prescription medication addition problem. According to the state officials, the number of deaths related to Oxycodone, Hydrocodone and other opioid meds nearly quadrupled to 1,227 between 2004 and 2013.

A big part of the problem is handwritten doctor “scrips,” which are hard to track and can be changed or forged. “Paper prescriptions had become a form of criminal currency that could be traded even more easily than the drugs themselves,” attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman told the NY Times. “By moving to a system of e-prescribing, we can curb the incidence of these criminal acts and also reduce errors resulting from misinterpretation of handwriting on good-faith prescriptions.”

By moving to a system of e-prescribing, we can curb the incidence of these criminal acts and also reduce errors resulting from misinterpretation of handwriting on good-faith prescriptions.

Patients must first choose a pharmacy where the prescription will be sent or pick from a list provided by the software. That created some controversy, as folks can no longer shop for the cheapest deals or shortest waiting times. During trials, however, problems were few and patients reportedly liked the fact that prescriptions are sent to pharmacies ahead of time. Nations like Australia, Canada and many parts of Europe are either mulling or have already implemented similar systems.

The state of Minnesota also enacted an e-prescription law, but New York’s has more teeth — physicians there who don’t comply can be fined or jailed. As a result, hospitals are now rushing to register for the program and complete the extra security steps required to prescribe controlled opioid-based medications. If there are technical problems are other unusual circumstances, however, doctors can still write out scrips by hand, so don’t completely forget how to read their hieroglyphics.

Source: NY Times

You could name Android N in Google poll: Napoleon, Nachos and Nougat options

The next iteration of Android 7.0 N has been released in the form of a developer build, much earlier than usual. As such a name hasn’t yet been unveiled and it looks like Google wants you to decide.

Using the Google Opinion Rewards app the company has begun trawling its users for opinions on names that could work. The system works by offering choices which allow for one option to be picked. So plenty of naming possibilities have been revealed by Google.

Shockingly the front-running name on the interwebs, Nutella, doesn’t even appear as an option. Instead there are even savoury snack choices in the list. This makes sense as Google has always maintained Android names simply need to be “tasty treats”.

The options on the list for Android N 7.0 include Napoleon, Nut brittle, Nachos, Nori, Noodles, Nougat and Neapolitan ice cream.

You can download the app now to hopefully be given a chance to cast your vote. Although Google does use these polls to target specific users and markets so there is a chance you won’t even see this poll. But it should be worth a try.

We still like the Nutella name, but maybe it’s a bit too obvious for Google’s tastes now?

READ: Android N preview: Everything you need to know about Android N

ICYMI: Smart pill dispenser, Kodak’s new app and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: Kodak is launching a new app at SXSW for friends and family to share their key moments with one another, and according to the company, it’s free of ads and data collection or tracking. It’s promoting the new social platform by touring with an interactive display that takes a moment you love from your camera roll, having you describe it out loud so a team of people behind a curtain can curate the things you said about that photo and set it to music — all while you watch it spin in a kaleidescope-like room full of mirrors.

Meanwhile IBM showed what sort of work its cognitive computing system Watson can give to professional bike riders by creating a VR experience that mimics a race across America.

And the medical tech area at SXSW showcased the Hero smart pill dispenser plus a wine filtering stick designed to allow people who get headaches from red wine to drink it pain-free.

Finally, our last SXSW show from the road is wrapping up in the best of Austin ways: With a pedicab tour of the city and tacos. We had tuna tacos with Thor the wonder biker, which we can’t recommend enough. And as always, please share any interesting science or tech videos, anytime! Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag to @mskerryd.

‘Gone Home’ follow-up ‘Tacoma’ pushed back to 2017

Fullbright, the studio behind the critically acclaimed Gone Home, has delayed its new game Tacoma. The sci-fi mystery was penciled in for the second half of this year, but it’s now been pushed back to 2017.

The reason for the delay is quality control. Tacoma has been in development for two years now, and was pretty far along (and enjoyable) when we tried it out last summer. It played out similarly to the narrative-driven Gone Home, but added additional gameplay in the form of gravity-based puzzles, and more than a little of System Shock’s eerie tension thrown in for good measure.

Fullbright says it sent a playable Tacoma build out to some trusted developers shortly after the summer demo, who confirmed its feelings that it needed to “rework a number of the core assumptions” it had made about the game. It then made a lot of changes, specifically to the story and gravity mechanics of the game. After sending out a new build to the same group, it feels these amendments have improved the experience significantly.

Unfortunately, this six-month rework has pushed the entire project back. Fullbright’s giving itself “an additional six-plus months” to complete Tacoma. It’ll now land on PC and Xbox One — it’s a console exclusive for Microsoft’s platform — in Spring 2017.

Via: The Verge

Source: Fullbright

Android N for phones is promising, but not for the faint of heart

Last Wednesday, Google threw us all for a loop by pushing out an Android N Developer Preview well ahead of its I/O developer conference. We already dug into what this preview build means for tablets like the Pixel C, but that’s only part of the story. The only thing left to do was to throw N onto a sacrificial Nexus 5X and spent a few days getting a feel things on the small screen. Long story short, while most of you should steer clear, the preview offers a tantalizing — and feature-packed– peek at Google’s refined vision of mobile computing.

Getting started

There are some thrills to be had by rolling up your sleeves and pecking commands into a Terminal window, but really: You should just enroll your compatible devices in the Android Beta program. Not only does the process take mere moments to get started (I swear, I got the update notification in less than a minute), you’ll also get access to over-the-air updates as they’re released. Google has never, ever made it this easy to install its unfinished software; hopefully, this is a trend that sticks.

Before we go any further, it’s worth reiterating one crucial fact: You should not use this build as your daily driver. For every surprisingly nuanced feature you’ll find, there’s at least one potentially deal-breaking bug lurking in the shadows. Dialog boxes were squished to the point of illegibility, preventing some apps from working properly. Other apps just crash out of nowhere. Chrome simply refused to work after acknowledging it was connected to my Google account. I couldn’t listen to a single voicemail.

If you do take the plunge, be sure to install N on a spare device; the preview works on the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus Player, the Pixel C and the, uh, General Mobile 4G. If we’re lucky, the inclusion of that low-end Android One device means Google will bring the preview to more gadgets soon.

New look, new notifications

Besides the new stock wallpaper (a fetching violet landscape), the first thing you’ll probably notice is Google’s revamped approach to notifications. How could you not? Pulling down that shade reveals denser, more tightly packed information — Marshmallow’s spacious cards are gone. Everything looks crowded because multiple notifications from the same app are bundled into a single stack. The shift in design makes individual notifications harder to parse at a glance; it’s one of the rare visual missteps on display. More importantly, notifications now allow you to take action without popping into the app proper. Over the weekend, I saw this mostly with YouTube and Hangouts notifications — I was given the option to watch new videos later or respond directly to messages, respectively.

Night Mode, which turns parts of the interface dark, is back after we got a feel for it last year, and accessing it is as arcane as ever. You have to hold down the gear icon in your Quick Settings panel until it starts spinning — let it go after a while and you’ll be granted access to your device’s System UI Tuner. Turns out, Night Mode is a hell of a lot smarter this year, with options to change the interface’s tint (think of it as a built-in version of F.lux or Twilight) and automatically turn on depending on your location and time of day. It doesn’t universally turn the mostly-white interface gray, just parts of it. In fact, the change is most prominent in your device’s Settings — hopefully, this feature gets more spotlight and darkens more of the UI before Android N’s launch. As a fan of reading in bed (and screwing up my sleep schedule as a result), I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Oh, and despite some recent reports, the standard Android app launcher is still here. That’s not to say it won’t disappear before N properly launches — this is a crazy-early build, after all — but for now it’s business as usual.

The joys of multi-tasking

Android N’s multi-window mode is a big deal. It’s one of those features that makes more sense on bigger screens, but the whole thing feels surprisingly elegant even on smaller devices like the 5X. Tapping the Recent Apps button brings up a familiar stack of cards, but grabbing one and dragging it to the top of the resizes the app window to half its normal height, leaving the app switcher active in the bottom pane. Tap another app et voilà, you’re split-screen multitasking on an Android phone. Even third-party apps — Twitter, Spotify, Weather Underground — that haven’t been reconfigured to work in split-screen usually work as intended. (Although the system does throw up a warning just in case things are a little wonky). There’s a catch, though! While you can drag the divider to peek at more information in either app window, you can’t resize those windows all willy-nilly. The best you can do is make one of the apps use two-thirds of the screen. Curiously, this limited resizing works when the phone is vertical — resizing in either orientation works fine on tablets.

More surprising than Google bringing this feature to phones is how well it actually works. I tested a handful of apps that I use everyday on the 5X. While some of them (here’s looking at you, Apple Music) just refused to work, the rest did a fine job adapting to their new, smaller windows. And by “fine,” I mean they ran nice and smooth, even when I was fiddling with both windows simultaneously. Part of that is a testament to how fast Android N feels in general. It’s buttery. Despite non-final software and the Nexus 5X’s mid-range brains, general navigation just felt fantastic and UI animations were noticeably quicker. If anything, it makes the current state of Android on non-Nexus phones seem even more grim — Google just keeps making Android faster while companies such as Samsung just keep covering it up.

There’s more at play here than just futzing with two apps at the same time. Google has baked some new functionality into its humble Recent Apps key — double-tapping it takes you to your last used app, and tapping it while looking at your stack of running apps cycles through them. One nice touch: A little countdown appears on each app card when you switch through them like this, and you’re dropped into an app when time runs out. I’ll admit, I prefer the text-based trail of breadcrumbs iOS uses to take me back to previously opened apps, but Google’s approach is fast and functional in its own right.

Under the hood

If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t spend much time in your phone’s settings, well, I sort of envy you. For the rest of us, Google not only tweaked how settings options are laid out — it also decided to show off pertinent information without making you click into another section. For one, you’ll find notifications of sorts at the top of the page — in my case, they usually told me that Do Not Disturb was turned on. (What can I say? I hate talking to people on the weekend.) Just below those blaring banners are suggestions for tasks you might want to tackle, like changing your wallpaper. All the usual headings (wireless & networks, device, etc…) are just beneath that, but the sections within them offer up quick stats such as how many apps are installed, how much storage is being used and more. Sure, it’s a small change, but it’s one that makes understanding your phone just a little less daunting.

Android Marshmallow saw the introduction of Doze, a power management system that shuts down background services when the phone hasn’t been touched or moved in a while. This year, Doze seems to have gotten even smarter — Google says Android N tries to conserve the battery when the screen is off, but the phone is still in motion. It’s too early to definitively say how much better Doze is, but here’s a telling anecdote: After unplugging the phone on Friday, it survived long enough to navigate me to a meeting on Monday morning before giving up the ghost.

Everything else

I’ve used all of the above pretty frequently since Google dropped Android N, but there’s much more to see in this build — especially when it comes to dev-friendly features. Consider the following (non-exhaustive) list of features Android N brings to the table:

• You can display your emergency info (name, blood type, allergies and more) on the lock screen.
• A new feature called Data Saver stops all background data syncing unless you’re on WiFi.
• Android TV will get a picture-in-picture mode, just because.
• Google’s Project Svelte helps Android N run on lower-end devices, thanks to improved memory management.
• Heads-up, PR people: Android N makes it dead-simple to block calls and text messages from specific phone numbers.
• You can set certain apps to always connect through a specified VPN (nice for you corporate types).
• A “display size” option in the accessibility settings lets you tweak the size of fonts and on-screen interface elements.

Yahoo Games is shutting down in May

Yahoo Games, part of many people’s early online gaming experience, has been on its deathbed since 2014 when the company started killing old titles. Now, Yahoo has decided on when it plans to lay the old casual gaming portal to rest, a month after it first announced that it’s shuttering the website along with other products. On May 13th, 2016, Yahoo Games is going the way of the dodo. Those who want to experience it one last time for nostalgia’s sake can still play, but note that it stopped accepting in-game purchases on March 14th.

Those who still play religiously will have to talk to the games’ publishers about transferring anything they bought. Yahoo even asked those publishers to conjure up a transition plan for players before the shutdown date. Besides Games, the company is killing even more products as part of its quest to focus on its core offerings. The other services going down with the gaming portal are Livetext, some of Yahoo’s regional media properties (like Yahoo Astrology in the UK), as well as its BOSS APIs for developers.

Via: US Gamer

Source: Tumblr, Yahoo Games