Snapchat reportedly acquires Bitstrips for around $100 million

Snapchat has reportedly agreed to acquire Bitstrips, the company behind the popular Bitmoji mobile app. The news, which has yet to be confirmed by either company, comes from Fortune:

Snapchat has agreed to acquire Bitstrips, the Toronto-based maker of personalized emojis known as bitmojis, Fortune has learned from multiple sources.

The report goes on to note the deal is valued at around $100 million.

If true, Snapchat’s motivations behind the reported acquisition remain unclear. However, the company has made a number of moves over the past year towards giving users more ways to customize their snaps with custom filters and the like. It’s not hard to imagine a scenario wherein Bitstrips’ expertise with helping users craft custom cartoon avatars would come in handy for Snapchat.

Oculus starts shipping the finished Rift headset

It finally happened. After nearly four years of crowdfunding, developer kits, an acquisition by Facebook and seemingly endless hype, the finished Oculus Rift headset is shipping to its first customers. Oculus chief Brendan Iribe has confirmed that his company’s initial batch of VR wearables should reach customers as early as March 28th, or just in time to make the promised March timeframe. It’s still not certain who will get the early bragging rights, but Oculus did say that Kickstarter backers will get the completed Rift for free instead of paying the usual $599 — they’re the ones who’ll laugh last.

If you got into the first wave, you’re lucky. Oculus ran out of March inventory almost as soon as pre-orders began, and purchasing one now won’t put anything on your head until July. That’s assuming you even have a PC that can handle it. Still, this is an important moment in VR history: you’re looking at the first major, home-oriented VR headset for PCs to reach the public, arriving mere days before the HTC Vive. Whether or not the Rift succeeds, computing won’t be quite the same again.

The first Oculus Rift has shipped, deliveries begin Monday 3.28.2016. pic.twitter.com/C0MMKmezun

— Brendan Iribe (@brendaniribe) March 24, 2016

Source: Brendan Iribe (Twitter)

Make your own accessories for the Steam controller

Valve wants to know what you’d do with its Steam controller if you had a chance to customize it. The gaming behemoth has released the CAD plans for it in an effort to spurn the community to put its own spin on the gamepad be it with accessories or other design ideas. All the external geometry files are available to download from the Steam Community page. “This allows you to create and share to your heart’s content,” Valve writes. “But you’ll need to get in touch with Valve is you want to sell your creations.”

From the looks of it, this should make 3D printing your own mockup pretty easy, too. As a springboard, Valve has dropped a few variations for the controller’s battery door (below) that have a cavity for holding the wireless USB receiver.

When we last wrote about the Steam controller at length, we mentioned its low-hanging face buttons and sharp plastic seams as design quirks — maybe what you come up with will feel a little better in that respect. Given Valve’s generally good graces regarding profit splitting with its community creations, it doesn’t seem like Gabe Newell and Co. would have much of an issue with you selling any accessories for the gamepad.

Source: Steam Community

Redbox is reportedly giving internet video another shot

Remember Redbox’s first stab at online video? You’d be forgiven if you didn’t. The whole affair lasted about a year and a half before low adoption and payment snafus led Redbox to call it quits. However, the company appears ready to give it another try. Variety’s tipsters have leaked details about Redbox Digital, a service that would let you buy and rent movies across PCs, mobile devices and TV add-ons like Roku boxes. It’d tie closely with both the company’s website and its existing mobile apps, and every movie you grab would count towards Redbox’s loyalty program.

The company isn’t denying that the service is in development, but it’s also stopping short of committing to a launch. In a statement, it told Variety that it will “regularly conduct tests” of new services that “may or may not” reach the public. It might be closer than that sounds, though, as the sources hear that a closed beta test might begin “soon.” The raft of screenshots and concept images certainly suggests that this isn’t just a passing fantasy.

Going digital might be necessary. Redbox’s parent, Outerwall, has been hurting as business from its signature movie kiosks falls off a cliff — it expects disc rental revenues to drop 15 to 20 percent this year. An internet service would help Outerwall reduce its dependency on physical movies. With that said, it’s not clear that Redbox Digital would stand out. After all, you can already buy or rent movies from Google Play Movies, iTunes and countless other services. Redbox would mostly be leaning on its name and loyalty program to get an edge over rivals, and those might not be enough.

Source: Variety

Downloading ‘Dark Souls 3’ early makes the game even harder

Star Wars: The Force Awakens isn’t the only thing hitting the internet ahead of its official release this week: The latest entry in FromSoftware’s absolutely punishing Dark Souls series has as well. But rather than going to your torrent site of choice, all you need to do to access it is make a dummy account for your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One with Japan as its home region — Dark Souls 3 launched there on the 24th. You’ll still have to drop cash on the game, so if you were hoping for some nefariousness you’re out of luck here.

However, accessing this game via a loophole — DualShockers has a walkthrough — that’s oddly been open since early last console generation will work against you in a few ways. For starters, because you’re downloading the game from the Japanese digital store of your choice, it looks like menu text will be in Japanese. Thankfully, NeoGAF is already bustling with activity to help with any translation questions you might have.

The other problem will resolve itself once the game officially releases. Publisher Bandai Namco says that as of now the multiplayer bits of the game’s international version aren’t up and running yet. So, leaving trollish notes or trying to help someone out with a particularly brutal boss fight isn’t possible for now.

More than that, the game is getting a (sadly commonplace) day one patch that will “deliver further optimization” to the game. That’ll happen April 12th when the wider world has access. Need something to kill the time until then? That’s what the new trailer embedded above is for.

Source: DualShockers, NeoGAF, Bandai Namco (YouTube)

Apple Temporarily Pulls iOS 9.3 Update for Older iOS Devices

Apple has temporarily stopped offering the iOS 9.3 update for older devices like the iPad Air and earlier and the iPhone 5s and earlier due to installation issues some users have experienced. On older devices, iOS 9.3 requires users to input the Apple ID and password originally used to set up the device, which can lead to the device becoming stuck at the Activation Lock screen if the original account information can’t be recalled.

In a statement given to iMore, Apple says it is working on a fix and plans to issue a new version of iOS 9.3 in the next few days. Customers with an affected device who attempt to download iOS 9.3 during this time will not be able to install the update as Apple has stopped signing it.

Updating some iOS devices (iPhone 5s and earlier and iPad Air and earlier) to iOS 9.3 can require entering the Apple ID and password used to set up the device in order to complete the software update,” an Apple spokesperson told iMore. “In some cases, if customers do not recall their password, their device will remain in an inactivated state until they can recover or reset their password. For these older devices, we have temporarily pulled back the update and will release an updated version of iOS 9.3 in the next few days that does not require this step.”

For customers who have already installed iOS 9.3 and have gotten stuck at the Activation Lock, Apple has published a support document with steps on how to solve the issue. Apple recommends removing Activation Lock via iCloud or attempting to enter an Apple ID or password through iTunes.

Related Roundup: iOS 9
Tag: iOS 9.3
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Apple Music for Android Gains Home Screen Widget in New Update

The Apple Music app for Android devices was updated today, adding a new home screen widget that gives Android users the ability to control Apple Music playback without needing to open the Apple Music app.

The widget lets users view what’s playing, and quickly pause, skip, rewind, and favorite songs. Today’s update also lets Android users add songs directly to playlists without first needing to add them to the Apple Music, offers a way to redeem iTunes credit for membership renewal, and includes several other useful interface tweaks that should be a welcome change for Android Apple Music users.

Image via PocketNow

Now you can add songs from the Apple Music catalog to playlists without having to add it to your library. You can also:
– Control playback with a widget you can add to your home screen
– Redeem gift cards in Settings to renew your membership using iTunes credit
– See what’s playing on Beats 1 directly from the Radio tab — without having to tune in
– Tap the name of the currently playing song in Now Playing to go to the album
– See which songs are most popular on albums in the Apple Music catalog

Apple Music for Android can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store.

Tag: Apple Music
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Vizio M series (2016) Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Vizio

The successor to CNET’s favorite LCD TV of 2015, Vizio’s M series, is getting improved image quality chops and a revamped smart TV system that includes a tablet remote in the box.

The 2016 version of the M series appeared on the company’s website recently without any fanfare or pricing information. No, we don’t know when it’s coming out yet (the site says “soon”) and we don’t even know which sizes it will arrive in.

Vizio’s representatives declined to give us any additional information beyond what’s on the web site now.

According to the site, the new M series will pack many of the same features as the P series, which was announced Wednesday and starts shipping March 27. We suspect the M series will be cheaper, in the area of $1,500 for the 65-inch size. Here’s what we know.

Vizio M series features

• Full-array local dimming with 64 zones
• HDR compatible with Dolby Vision support
• 4K resolution
• Includes free Android tablet remote (6-inch screen)
• Google Cast compatible

Those are some pretty impressive image-quality specifications. The M series halves the number of local dimming zones on the P series, but 64 is still an impressive number (more zones generally leads to improved image quality), and twice as many as the M had last year.

HDR is another high-end picture enhancement new for 2016, although it remains to be seen how Vizio will handle support for Dolby Vision’s competitor, the HDR10 format found, among other sources, on 4K Blu-ray discs. One difference between the P and the M, judging from the website, is that the M series doesn’t get the “Ultra Color Spectrum” feature, so I doubt its coverage of the P3 color space used for HDR will equal the P series’ 96 percent.

The Vizio site indicates in a couple places that the tablet included with the M series has a 720p resolution screen (compared with a 1080p screen on the P series), but in another table on the site all of the M series tablet specs are listed as “coming soon.”

Just like the P series, the M does away with a traditional onscreen menu system in favor of the Google Cast feature and the Vizio SmartCast app.

See my write-up of the P series for more details.

Vizio’s site also lists a new 2016 version of the less expensive E series. Here’s how the series break down:

Vizio’s 2016 4K TV lineup

When we find out more information, we’ll update this article.

One of Apple’s first TV shows will be about apps

Apple’s foray in to the world of original programming doesn’t stray from the company’s skill sets. Today it announced that it was teaming up with TV executives Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens, and rapper Will.i.am to produce a show about the app economy.

Don’t expect a wacky sitcom revolving around hilarious developers. The show will be unscripted and sounds more like a documentary than the HBO show Silicon Valley. It’s not the first show to come out of Cupertino. The company is also working with Vice on a six-part documentary called The Score.

Apple’ senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddie Cue told The New York Times, Silverman brought the idea to Apple. No word how Will.i.am will be part of the show, but the entertainer has long been interested in technology and launching smartwatches and he’s lent his voice to animated movies and TV shows including Rio 2 and The Cleveland Show.

Apple didn’t share any information about the show’s production schedule, where it’ll be available to watch or when it’ll actually launch. Cue made sure to note that Apple won’t become a production company anytime soon which might squelch some of the rumors about Dr. Dre appearing in a scripted show produced by the iPhone maker.

Source: The New York Times

Shazam for iOS Can Now Add Songs to Apple Music Playlists

Popular music discovery app Shazam has been updated to version 9.4.1, gaining the ability to add songs to an Apple Music playlist. With the new version of the app, Shazam can connect to Apple Music and add songs that are discovered right to an Apple Music playlist without leaving the Shazam app.

For those unfamiliar with Shazam, it is a popular app that is able to identify music that is playing, offering up song titles, music videos, and more.

The new feature requires iOS 9.3, as the update enabled the ability for third-party apps to access Apple Music playlists. To use the feature, Shazam will need to be given permission to access and connect to Apple Music through the settings section of the app.

Once authorized, a song recognized by Shazam can be added to a playlist by tapping the “+” symbol in the upper right of the app. Songs can also be played in Apple Music, used to start a radio station, or opened in iTunes. Songs added to Apple Music are listed under a “My Shazam Tracks” playlist. Today’s update also gives Apple Music subscribers the ability to listen to a song in full without leaving the app.

The new version of Apple Music is here – and it makes for an even better Shazam experience! Once you’ve upgraded to iOS 9.3, connect to Apple Music in Shazam settings and you’ll be able to:

– Add any Shazam track to any of your Apple Music playlists.
– Find all your Shazams conveniently saved to a ‘My Shazam Tracks’ playlist in Apple Music.
– Listen to any song in FULL, without leaving Shazam!

Shazam can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Shazam
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