Twitter adds DM share button to iOS and Android

If you’re a fan of secretly sharing tweets with your friends via DM, today’s your lucky day. The Twitter apps for iOS and Android are being updated with a dedicated Message button for quicker sharing.

While sharing DM’s has been around for a while (and frankly not that difficult), the new button is an explicit call to action to get folks to send messages.

In fact, the company has been enhancing its direct messages for a while hoping to get users to stay within the Twitter universe for more than just checking news and retweeting cat GIFs.

Source: Twitter

PayPal nixes North Carolina ops center following anti-LGBT law

The passing of HB2, a law that denies protections for people who are gay or transgender, is proving to be very expensive for Governor Pat McCrory and the state of North Carolina. In the weeks following Governor McCrory signing the anti-LGBT bill into law, a number of companies, production studios and even the federal government have spoken out against the legislation. Some are pulling money and business ventures from the state, and one of the most recent is PayPal. The financial transaction company announced plans to build a new operations center in Charlotte just before HB2 passed. Today, the company killed those plans, withdrawing the project that would’ve brought 400 new jobs to the area.

“The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture,” explained president and CEO Dan Schulman. “As a result, PayPal will not move forward with our planned expansion into Charlotte.” In a blog post announcing the news, Schulman went on to explain that the company’s values include a “strong belief that every person has the right to be treated equally, and with dignity and respect.” He goes on to say that those values “compel us to take action to oppose discrimination.”

While pulling a major expansion project out of North Carolina in opposition to HB2 is admirable, PayPal doesn’t have a solid track record when it comes to welcoming all. For example, the company cracks down on folks associated with sexual content by denying service and freezing funds. It has also been known to freeze accounts accepting charitable donations and disaster relief.

PayPal isn’t the only company pulling new projects from North Carolina, either. Both Lionsgate and A&E Networks announced that they would no longer film movies and television shows in the state until the law is repealed. Lionsgate is moving a show from Charlotte to Canada for production, and its remake of Dirty Dancing that’s slated for the Asheville area could be in jeopardy as well. A number of tech CEOs have also signed letters in opposition to HB2, so we’ll have to wait an see if other companies pull business from the state as well.

Via: CNBC (Twitter)

Source: PayPal

Instagram’s big bet on video doesn’t stop at 60 seconds

Last week, Instagram surprised its users by increasing the 15-second limit of its videos to a whopping 60 seconds, a full four times longer than it was before. It had already extended the video viewing time for marketers, but last week was when the feature was introduced to regular users for the first time. It’s a pretty big leap, and according to Instagram, it was for one reason: people are watching a lot more video. In fact, the time users spent watching video on the photo-and-video sharing service jumped more than 40 percent in the last six months. But while extending the video limit was something of a no-brainer, the effort to make it happen was actually quite a large one.

For starters, the Instagram team wanted to improve video quality in general, even before the increase in video length. Ramp 15 seconds up to 60 and the problem quickly escalates. “One of the things we realized early on in the process is that the specs we were using for video was a one-size-fits-all kind of thing,” said Udeepta Bordoloi, a video engineer for Instagram. This is because when Instagram first launched video — back in 2013 — the networks were different, and the devices that people used were different. “They were not as up-to-date as we have today,” he said.

Also, back then, the team placed a hard cap on file sizes, which became an issue especially for Android phones. When a video appears in the feed, the Android app actually downloads the whole video file to the phone’s local storage, which then passes it to Android’s MediaPlayer. Aside from just a strain on bandwidth, it also presented a problem of varying quality levels. “We realized that not all videos are the same,” said Bordoloi. “If you have a video of someone talking in front of a whiteboard, those videos don’t need such a large file size. On the other hand if you have videos of somebody surfing or there’s a lot of movement, those typically have a larger file size.” This was complicated even further when the team introduced Hyperlapse, a tool that made it that much easier for users to upload action-fueled — and space-hogging — sped up videos.

Video Creators on Instagram from Instagram on Vimeo.

So in the move from 15 to 60 second clips, Instagram faced a few challenges. “As the video becomes larger, playback would wait even longer for the video to download,” wrote Hendri, an Instagram software engineer, in a blog post. “People on slower network connections might need to wait for a very long time before they can play.” Further, the video won’t play at all if the phone has no diskspace.

The solution, as it turns out, lies within its own parent company. Facebook has been leading the way for video encoding for awhile now and has built up a much more robust and flexible infrastructure. Since Instagram was readying itself for a massive explosion in video growth, it only made sense to combine the two. Indeed, Instagram is now migrating all of its video encoding efforts to Facebook’s own system.

With this, it’s able to build a streaming video cache so that your phone will never have to wait for a download before the video starts to play. At this very moment, all videos that are longer than 15 seconds are being encoded on Facebook’s infrastructure rather than on Instagram’s own back-end. “It’s more flexible, it can do more things, and it makes the whole process so much faster.”

It’s not just that either. The team also made a few changes to how it processed video. For one thing, they opted to go for a quality target instead of just a file size hard cap. They also figured how to decrease the file size so that the videos would load faster. “Devices became better and we supported a better video profile,” said Bordoloi. “The file size decreased by 15 to 20 percent,” he added, but quality thankfully remained the same.

The team also worked hard to improve playback on Android. “We have all the iOS devices [in our labs] to test,” said Bordoloi. “But on Android, there’s such a variation, it’s very difficult to predict. We have to keep in mind the lowest common denominator.” This, he said, is why he’s proud that Instagram works particularly well in lower end devices. From 320-pixel screens to 1440-pixel behemoths, the team has been able to provide the same quality to different sized displays, he said.

In its 60-second video announcement post, Instagram said: “This is one step of many you’ll see this year.” With all of this attention and resources heaped on just expanding 15 to 60 seconds, it’s clear that the improvements to video aren’t over just yet.

Source: Instagram

Got an HTC Vive? Now’s your chance to swim with a blue whale.

HTC’s Vive virtual reality headset has finally begun shipping to enthusiasts’ homes. But a high-end VR headset is only as good as its content. Which is why LA-based VR studio Wevr is making its Transport platform (think: Netflix for VR) available to users today. Interested VR heads can head to Steam or hit up Wevr’s own site now to download the app. The best part? Transport will debut with three key pieces of free content: the surrealistic, deep space experience Irrational Exuberance; the shifting music video perspectives of Crown by hip hop group Run The Jewels; and underwater odyssey theBlu: Whale Encounter.

Wevr’s award-winning theBlu series, which takes viewers under the sea for an intimate look at marine life, is also getting a significant update today. The studio’s making two new installments — Reef Migration and Luminous Abyss — available through Steam as a paid bundle. The Season One bundle, which Wevr says will eventually be offered on Transport, costs $9.99 and includes the original Whale Encounter that gives viewers face time with a blue whale, as well as the two new episodes.

And in order for viewers to really let the underwater VR majesty sink in, Wevr’s added two new modes to theBlu: Season One bundle so you can slow down the passage of time (and take photos) or stop it all together. If you do take the plunge with theBlu, we have a feeling you won’t be coming up for “air” anytime soon.

Producer recreates ‘The Life of Pablo’ without ever hearing it

If you didn’t know, Kanye West’s latest album was a Tidal exclusive for a pretty long time. Tidal isn’t available in Japan, and pirating music is a criminal offence with penalties as harsh as up to two years prison time for downloading and ten (yes, ten) for uploading. With no way to listen to the album, producer Toyomu decided to take matters into his own hands. He decided to make his own The Life of Pablo (TLOP).

The Kyoto-based artist headed to WhoSampled, a site which, as the name suggests, lists the samples in any song, and grabbed the lyrics off Genius. Without ever hearing the album, Toyomu then put together his take on it. Speaking to Pigeons and Planes this week, the artist said he still hadn’t heard TLOP. “I haven’t listened yet, this is no reason and meanings. It’s just a kind of feeling.”

You can listen to (and buy) the album, called Imagining “The Life of Pablo,” over at Bandcamp. Every track evokes its inspiration just through sharing sample, but as far as matching Kanye’s album goes, it’s hit and miss. “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 2,” and “30 Hours” are pretty uncanny in arrangement, while the album is an experimental but experimental affair, with plenty of robotic voices reading Kanye lyrics.

<a data-cke-saved-href=”http://toyomu.bandcamp.com/album/iii-imagining-the-life-of-pablo&#8221; href=”http://toyomu.bandcamp.com/album/iii-imagining-the-life-of-pablo”>印象III : なんとなく、パブロ (Imagining &quot;The Life of Pablo&quot;) by TOYOMU</a>

Via: HighSnobiety, The Fader

Source: Toyomu (Bandcamp)

Apple Maps Expands Transit Data to Montreal

Apple Maps has been updated with all-new transit data in Montréal, providing users with bus and subway routing and trip planning in Canada’s second most populous city. The public transit information is supplied by the French-speaking city’s public transport agency Société de transport de Montréal (STM).

Montreal Metro subway and STM bus directions are available throughout Greater Montreal, including the main island and throughout the suburbs of Blainville, Boucherville, Brossard, Châteauguay, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Laval, Longueuil, Repentigny, Saint-Jérôme, Saint-Lambert, and Terrebonne.

Montreal is the second Canadian metro area to support Apple Maps transit after Toronto. However, as we reported last June, transit data actually extends to many cities throughout Southern Ontario, including Barrie, Mississauga, Oakville, Oshawa, Peterborough, Burlington, Hamilton, Guelph, KWC, York Region, and Niagara Region.

Other cities with Apple Maps transit directions include Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sydney, and multiple Chinese metro areas. Transit mode was added to Apple Maps as one of the headline features of iOS 9 last year.

(Thanks, Olivier!)

Tags: Apple Maps, Canada, Transit, Montreal
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Sony’s PlayStation Remote Play Feature Expanding to Mac and PC Tomorrow

Sony today announced plans to bring the PlayStation 4’s Remote Play capabilities to the PC and Mac through an update that will be released tomorrow. With the update, PS4 owners will be able to play games remotely through a PC or a Mac.

Remote Play is a feature that lets the PlayStation 4 send audio and video to a peripheral device, but it was previously only compatible with Sony’s handheld console, the PlayStation Vita, the PlayStation TV set-top box, and select Sony smartphones and tablets. Remote Play has been around since the PlayStation 3 and the PSP, but Sony has never made an effort to expand it before.

The decision to bring Remote Play to PCs and Macs comes after Microsoft introduced a remote gameplay feature for the Xbox One, allowing Xbox games to be played using a PC that runs Windows 10. Sony’s feature is more robust as it also works with Macs and it works remotely — the Xbox game streaming feature requires a connection through a home network.

Sony makes Remote Play compatibility a requirement for all PlayStation 4 games that don’t use peripherals, so most users will find that their entire PS4 game catalogs can be streamed to a Mac or PC.

On Macs, Remote Play will work with the latest versions of Apple’s OS X operating system, OS X 10.10 Yosemite and OS X 10.11 El Capitan. On PCs, the feature is compatible with machines running Windows 8.1 or 10 or later. A single DualShock 4 controller can be connected to a PC or Mac via a USB cable to serve as the gameplay controller for Remote Play.

Games can be played in several resolutions and at several frame rates, adjustable based on Internet bandwidth. Resolution defaults to 540p, but can be changed to 360p or a max of 720p. The default frame rate setting is 30fps, adjustable to 60fps.

Remote Play will be available as soon as the PlayStation 4 is updated tomorrow. Once the update goes out, Mac and PC users will be able to download the software to enable the feature from the PlayStation Remote Play website (download is not yet live).

Tags: Sony, PlayStation
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Adjust your phone or tablet’s audio balance for better listening – CNET

My daughter, who is deaf in one ear, likes to watch movies and listen to music on her iPad. On long road trips or while she’s in the same room with her little brother, she uses headphones. But she uses them a bit differently than most.

Instead of playing audio to both sides of her headphones, we set it up so that all audio is redirected to her left ear. Both iOS and Android let you adjust the audio volume balance between the left and right channels as well as enable mono audio to ensure no sounds get lost in the process.

iOS audio balance

In iOS 9.3, head to Settings > General > Accessibility. Scroll down to the Hearing section and you’ll see a slider for left/right balance. Move the slider to the side where you would like to increase the volume level.

For many audio sources, stereo sound features different sounds and levels in the left and right channels. With mono sound, you’ll hear the same sounds in both channels. Above the volume balance slider on the Accessibility page in Settings is a toggle switch to enable Mono Audio.

Enlarge Image

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Android audio balance

You’ll find these audio settings in a similar place on Android. On Android 4.4 KitKat and newer, go to Settings and on the Device tab, tap Accessibility. Under the Hearing header, tap Sound balance to adjust the left/right volume balance. Below that setting is a box you can tap to check to enable Mono audio.

For owners of the Samsung Galaxy S4 (or later), a setting called Adapt Sound gives you even greater control of your audio output. Not every music app supports the feature, but it does work with Samsung’s built-in music app and Google Play Music.

To set up Adapt Sound, put your headphones on and find Adapt Sound in the Sound section of Settings. It will play a series of beeps and sounds at different frequencies, similar to a hearing screening you might have experienced in school growing up. You answer whether you can hear each sound, and the app will then adjust the strength of certain tones and frequencies to help you in areas where you may be deficient.

My settings

For my daughter, we enabled mono audio and moved the balance slider all the way to the left, which is her good ear. If you move the volume slider to one side without selecting mono, you lose any audio that is specific to the other side.

A good way to check your volume balance settings is playing the song “Money” by Pink Floyd. In the beginning of the song, the cash register sounds pan back and forth between the left and right channels.

HP Spectre Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

HP continues its march toward premium PC territory with the new HP Spectre, which the company calls “the world’s thinnest laptop.” So far, the numbers stand up. According to HP, the 13-inch Spectre is 10.4mm thick, while Apple’s iconic MacBook Air is 17mm thick, as is the Lenovo LaVie (which can claim to be the world’s lightest 13-inch laptop). The 12-inch MacBook and the recent Razer Blade Stealth both clock in at 13mm thick.

When we get down to a few millimeters, one might think it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but a 17mm laptop feels very different from a 13mm laptop, and based on my short hands-on time with the HP Spectre, a 10.4mm laptop feels different from both of those.

Dan Ackerman/CNET

A bold color scheme also helps the Spectre stand out, ditching the usual silver/grey for a dark, smokey gray, with bold gold accents.The entire hinge is a bright, jeweled gold, which just draws more attention to its unusual design. To avoid unnecessary bulk, the hinge has moved in from the very rear edge, and is instead inset by a tiny bit. It’s a design we’ve seen on a handful of laptops over the years, although usually on much larger systems. That hinge is aluminum, as is the laptop’s lid, while the bottom panel is carbon fiber. HP says the mix of materials serves to give the Spectre the right balance between weight and stiffness, especially in the lid. At 2.45 pounds, this isn’t close to being the lightest 13-inch laptop ever, but it’s still very easy to pick up and carry around.

Inside the body, according to a deconstructed version of the system I was able to look at, a standard laptop battery is flattened down into multiple separate very thin cells, to fit across most of the bottom footprint. HP also uses smaller fans to pull air in and through the laptop, rather than exclusively pushing hot air out. It’s a version of a cooling scheme from Intel which it calls hyperbaric cooling.

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Compared with other very thin, very light laptops, such as the 12-inch MacBook or Lenovo LaVie, the keyboard on the HP Spectre really stands out as excellent. The keys feel a little shallower than on a more full-size 13-inch laptop, but this is a standard island-style keyboard that won’t have the learning curve of something like the MacBook.

The only display option is a 1,920×1,080 full HD non-touch screen. Other slim laptops add higher resolutions and touch, and Windows 10 still really works best when you can combine a good touchpad with a touch screen. HP says it’s to keep the lid as thin as possible, which includes a Gorilla Glass top layer over the display. A legitimate calculation, no doubt, buy it’s also very tough to sell an ultra-premium laptop these days without touch (unless you’re Apple).

The biggest surprise is that this very slim laptop doesn’t rely on Intel’s lower-power Core M line of processors, as seen in products such as the 12-inch MacBook and Samsung Galaxy TabPro S. Instead, the Spectre will use current-gen mainstream Intel Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, along with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

Dan Ackerman/CNET

My initial impressions of the HP Spectre are that it looks great, and I especially like the new take on the HP logo, which should start turning up on other premium products from the company; the keyboard was especially impressive for such as slim laptop; and the inclusion of Core i-series processors will help this feel like a system powerful enough to use all day, every day. Just be ready to jump fully into the world of USB-C, the new multi-purpose data, power and accessory connector. The Spectre has three USB-C ports along the back, one of which needs to act as a power connection, but no other ports.

The HP Spectre will be available to preorder online on April 25, from HP.com and Best Buy’s BBY.com site, starting at $1,169 in the US (international prices and availability have not been announced yet). It will be available in Best Buy retail stores from May 29, in a configurations starting at $1,249.

Also new from HP this week, the 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch HP Envy clamshell laptops are getting some minor upgrades. Both feature slightly slimmer designs, edge-to-edge glass over HD or 4K displays and sixth-gen Intel Core processors. The 15-inch version of the hybrid HP Envy x360 also gets HD or 4K screen options and up to a sixth-gen Intel Core i7 with optional Intel Iris graphics. It will also offer an option for the new AMD FX 9800/Radeon R7 CPU/GPU combo, making this the first PC with one of AMD’s new 7th-gen A-series processors.

Zepp 2 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Zepp

I’m a data junkie. I love being able to see huge amounts of data about myself recorded on a tracker, and analyzing that data to improve my life or make me a better athlete. But not everyone is like this, and some people may not be comfortable with self-coaching.

That’s where the new Zepp multisport tracker comes in.

The Zepp is a small sensor you attach to your golf glove, or baseball or softball bat. It has two accelerometers and two gyroscopes that are used to measure metrics such as swing speed, vertical angle, backswing and more. All that information is then transmitted over Bluetooth to your Android or iOS device, where you can analyze the data, view a 3D 360-degree visualization of your swing and receive personalized coaching to help improve your game.

Zepp

This is Zepp’s second tracker. The original model was slightly larger and could track golf, baseball, softball and tennis, with the latter missing this time. The new model is also smaller than the original, and adds an additional gyroscope for improved tracking and upgraded Bluetooth Low Energy for better connectivity and battery life. The company has said the tracker should last up to 8 hours.

The new Zepp sensor is being offered as part of a kit for either golf or baseball costing $150, £130 or AU$250. The sensor itself will work with either sport, although you will have to purchase a special $10 mount accessory to switch from one to the other.

I had a chance to test the sensor at Chelsea Piers in New York last week. I’m not a golfer and I haven’t played baseball in years, but I was impressed. The tracker registered all of my swings with both a baseball bat and a golf club, and within seconds the data was visible in the Zepp app on my Android phone.

Zepp

For golf, I could see information on my swing speed, tempo, backswing position, club plane and head plane. Most of these terms really didn’t mean that much to me, but the app actually helped. Not only did it provide detailed descriptions of each data point, it also highlighted the areas that needed the most work. In this case that was my swing speed, tempo and backswing.

I then viewed 360-degree images of my swing and noticed my form was off. I checked out one of the app’s Smart Coaching videos to see how my swing should look, and wouldn’t you know it, within the hour my form and overall golf game had improved greatly. My backswing went from 98 degrees to 226 degrees, and my swing speed increased from 48 mph to 70 mph. While the Zepp worked, it didn’t hurt that I had an actual golf instructor next to me to help with the demo.

While I didn’t spend that much time with the Zepp, it has me intrigued. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play golf, but I haven’t been taught the basics. The Zepp isn’t cheap, but it’s certainly more affordable than hiring a personal coach. And it’s not just for beginners. The Zepp could be appealing to anyone who wants to improve their golf game or at-bat stats, especially those who like to geek out over heaps of data.