Exploring the Windows 10 Maps app – CNET

Microsoft’s new Maps app was designed for your Windows phone, but because Windows 10 is a universal operating system, the app also comes preinstalled on your PC.

It’s actually a pretty neat app to explore — turn-by-turn directions are just one of its many features.

Here’s a look at what the Maps app has to offer.

Search

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

The Search feature is for more than just plugging in your final destination. Hit the Search icon and type in anything — an address, a city, a tourist attraction, a local hotspot or a category (e.g., “restaurants in Los Angeles”) and you’ll see real-time Bing results pop up in the left sidebar. The information you receive will depend on what you’re looking for, but Bing will pull up all sorts of relevant results, including photos, Yelp reviews and Wikipedia statistics.

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

In the most recent build of Windows 10 (Build 14295), recent searches are saved as tabs along the top of the app, and searches layer on top of one another (you’ll see recent searches in gray on your map). This is particularly convenient if you’re looking for multiple locations (e.g. you want to find the Trader Joe’s closest to Disneyland). To close a tab, hover over it and press the X button that appears.

Directions

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Directions are obviously a big part of any maps application, and the directions in the Maps app are pretty straightforward. Hit the Directions icon to plug in your current location and destination, and the app will serve up driving, public transportation and walking directions.

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

You also have the option to customize your route — drivers can choose to avoid toll roads, highways and tunnels, while public transit-takers can look for routes that offer fewer transfers or less walking time.

Favorites

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

The Favorites section is where you’ll find your favorite/starred locations. You can’t add favorites from the Favorites section; to add a favorite, you will have to first search for it in the Search section and then click the star that appears under that place’s name. You can nickname each favorite and set it as your home or your workplace (though you can only have one of each).

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

The Favorites section does have a Car location feature, which lets you add your car’s location so you remember where you parked. To add your car’s location, just click Add location and the app will log your current location, time and date. You can also add a photo (of your car or of the location; you’ll probably want to add a photo that helps you identify where your car is) and adjust the exact location on the map, in case Windows’ location data is slightly off.

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

If you want your favorite places to be even more accessible, you can pin them as tiles to the Start menu. To do this, navigate to the place you want to pin and click the pin button under the place’s name. Choose Pin place to Start or Pin directions to Start and click Yes.

3D Cities

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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Map nerds will love the 3D Cities feature, which lets you explore hundreds of cities in photo-realistic 3D imagery. To access this feature, hit the 3D Cities icon and navigate to the city you want to check out.

You can also access 3D Cities directly from any 3D-ready city map. Click the layers icon and switch to Aerial view, then click the tilt icon to see the city pop up in three dimensions. You can navigate a 3D city with your mouse by right-clicking to rotate your view and left-clicking to drag yourself around. Left-click once on a street to enter Microsoft’s version of Street View, also known as “Streetside” imagery.

3D Cities is mostly just a fun feature, but it can also be useful — I recently used it to check out the rooftop amenities of buildings I was thinking about renting in.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on February 19, 2016, and was updated on April 5, 2016 to reflect changes made in Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14295.

Nest has ‘case-by-case’ help for abandoned Revolv owners

Next month Nest shutting is down its service that powers Revolv smart home hubs, and now the Google-owned company says it’s trying to help owners of the devices. Nest bought Revolv back in 2014 but no longer sells the hardware, and yesterday word came of the impending shutdown. Today Nest Support tweeted that it’s “here to help,” encouraging Revolv users to email support for help.

We contacted Nest PR and were told that Nest has been working “on a case-by-case basis” to find the best resolution for affected users, which it says could involve compensation. There’s no word on exactly how much that compensation might be, but if you have one of the hubs, contacting help@revolv.com should probably be your next step.

Nest:

Customers with questions can contact customer support at help@revolv.com. We’ve been working with the small number of Revolv customers on a case-by-case basis since we sent out the first customer notification in February to determine the best resolution, including compensation.

Revolv owners, we’re here to help. Please get in touch so we can find the best solution for your needs: help@revolv.com

— Nest Support (@nestsupport) April 5, 2016

Source: Nest Support (Twitter)

Chromecast in a ’70s TV is wonderful and weird

You’ve no doubt seen some interesting attempts at melding vintage tech with the modern world, but few of them are likely to be as fun (and vaguely practical) as this. Gadget tweaker Dr. Moddnstine has modified a 1978 General Electric portable TV to include a hidden Chromecast, giving your YouTube videos a vacuum tube flair. It’s impressive, and not just because he managed to get an HDMI device to talk to an analog set — there’s an auxiliary audio jack (the Chromecast can stay powered while the TV is off), and it’ll even turn on and switch off automatically.

This isn’t easily repeatable, as you might guess. It’s not too hard to get the bevy of adapters you need to process the TV’s input signal, but it’s another matter to safely cram them into a decades-old set. And of course, the number of functioning yet compatible TVs is dwindling rapidly. However, Dr. Moddnstine is willing to show how most of the features work. We’ve embedded both the quick and long versions of his demo below, so you can check it out whether you’re just curious or determined to build a retro Chromecast viewer of your own.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Dr. Moddnstine (YouTube, short version), (long version)

NVIDIA will power the first-ever driverless race cars

NVIDIA made autonomous cars a major company focus a few years ago, but today it announced something a bit more daring at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose today. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang that NVIDIA technology would power the custom sports cars competing in the upcoming driverless racing series Roborace. Specifically, the company’s Drive PX 2 liquid-cooled supercomputer (which was announced at CES) would make up the brains of these futuristic vehicles.

As for Roborace itself, it’ll consist of ten teams, each with two of these NVIDIA-powered vehicles; the races themselves will last for one hour. The Drive PX 2 itself will work with a host of sensors, including radar, GPS, LIDAR, cameras and high-definition mapping sensors. And the more these cars race, the more the Drive PX 2 will learn and improve over time.

As NVIDIA said in its press release, each team would have identical vehicles — the only competitive advantage will come in the software each team builds to control their cars. The first Roborace series will kick off this September.

Source: NVIDIA

‘DOTA 2’ VR spectator mode may be as exciting as playing the game

The next time you want to follow an eSports tourney, you might find yourself strapping on a virtual reality headset. Valve just teased a VR spectator mode for DOTA 2 (scroll down to the video above “you’re not starting from scratch”) that gives you more information than you’re used to seeing during a MOBA match. The actual game is front and center, but look around and you’ll see details of each team’s heroes, a visually rich map and nice-to-know stats.

You’ll most likely need an HTC Vive to make this work (there’s no mention of supporting other SteamVR devices yet), and Valve hasn’t said when the feature will arrive. Suffice it to say, though, that this could be the best way to watch DOTA competitions short of flying out to see an event in person — it might even be more entertaining than playing the game yourself, at least until the novelty wears off.

Footage of VR spectator mode for #dota2 with @htcvive. Things could NOT get any more exciting today. pic.twitter.com/3f4sEfUX8U

— Robert McGregor (@ID_R_McGregor) April 5, 2016

Via: Robert McGregor (Twitter)

Source: Steam

Apple Stops Signing iOS 9.2.1, Downgrading From iOS 9.3 No Longer Possible

As of today, Apple has stopped signing iOS 9.2.1 for compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models, meaning users can no longer upgrade or downgrade to that version of iOS using iTunes. Apple is now signing iOS 9.3 and iOS 9.3.1 only.

iOS 9.3 was released to the public on March 21, and iOS 9.3.1 was released 10 days later on March 31.

iOS 9.3 has suffered from several bugs since it was released, which may have prompted some users to downgrade to the more stable iOS 9.2.1 release. An Activation Lock issue on some older devices caused Apple to temporarily pull the iOS 9.3 update for some users shortly after iOS 9.3 launched, and the iOS 9.3.1 update was released to fix a second major bug that caused apps to crash or freeze after tapping or long pressing on a web link. Both issues have now been solved.

Tags: iOS 9.3, iOS 9.2.1
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HTC Vive reviews are in, and create a fantastic place to compete

Vive day has arrived, and it looks like HTC and Valve have released something fantastic.

News that HTC and Valve would be working together to release a competing VR headset to the Oculus Rift came as a surprise. Despite the constant stream of rumors that Valve was working on VR behind closed doors, HTC seemed like an unlikely partner for this sort of project. Over the last year we’ve seen the HTC Vive go from damned impressive developer kit to retail product, with no shortage of incredibly impressive demos along the way. HTC went so far as to drive massive trucks with demo stages around the US for a while, and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who walked away from those experiences with anything but a smile on their face.

We’re just starting to ramp up our VR coverage, and will soon be pouring all of our thoughts on this category right here for you to read. In the mean time, just like with the Oculus Rift, there are three reviews that tell a great story about how this hardware is being received.

HTC and Valve have released a product that is more expensive, more complicated, and more feature complete than the Oculus Rift is right now. That last bit is important in a lot of these reviews, which are quick to remind you that Oculus has already announced curious-looking controllers to offer an experience similar to what HTC and Valve are offering. We’ve yet to see how true that is, so taking a look at the hardware as it is makes a lot more sense. For that, the folks at Road to VR have done a lot to show you exactly what it takes to fully dive into Vive ownership. A big part of that experience is addressing exactly how much space you need to get the most out of the HTC Vive, and it’s something well addressed in this review.

Read More: The UploadVR Review

A lot of noise has been made about the added cost of the Vive over the Rift, and for a good reason. A $200 difference is significant for just about any purchase, and there’s a better than good chance the Oculus controllers aren’t going to cost that much. At least for the forseeable future, the HTC Vive is going to remain the more expensive of the two big desktop-class VR solutions. That having been said, most of the folks who have spent time with both systems agree the price difference is justified by the experience. The ability to move around gives an early feeling of a Star Trek Holodeck, and there are few nerds out there who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to experience that. A great balanced perspective on this comes from Will Greenwald at PCMag, who agrees that Vive is the only way to get the full experience right now.

Read More: The PCMag Review

More feature complete doesn’t necessarily mean better, especially when it comes to the individual VR experiences being offered. Instead of a dedicated VR UI like the one seen on the Oculus Rift, Valve floats your Desktop Steam client in front of you to interact with. This is a familiar setup for most, but not exactly the most VR-friendly experience out there. It does give Vive owners a significant selection of content to play with, but the chances you’ll find something that isn’t quite finished or is short enough to almost be considered a tech demo can’t be ignored. Polygon’s Ben Kuchera does a fantastic job breaking down the big experiences for the Vive, but also highlighting the ways in which Valve struggles to enforce VR-friendly policies with the content you have available to you.

Read More: The Polygon Review

As a first generation room-scale VR experience you can actually have in your home, it looks like HTC and Valve have delivered something decent out of the box. It also looks like there’s plenty of room for refinement, and that’s something the folks at Oculus currently have over HTC. The biggest takeaway from these reviews, especially when you compare them to the reviews for the Oculus Rift, is that there is no clear winner between the two right now. More than anything, it means there’s still so much room for these products to improve and compete with one another.

With no clear “winner” in VR right now, these two companies and several others are going to continue to fight for your attention with new and more interesting ideas. We’ll have a lot more for you on the HTC Vive as we start to dig into this system ourselves.

How much time do you spend gaming?

Access to games has only grown over the years. Once you could only access games with a computer, or a console. However now we can play a game pretty much whenever we want to, across plenty of different devices. From the Xbox One and it’s plethora of triple A titles, to games like Ingress or Angry Birds that we can access from our phones.

With all of that in mind, we want to know how much time you spend gaming. Is it a part of your everyday routine, or just something you sneak in during your commute? We’ve given you 5 options in this week’s poll. “I don’t play video games”, “I do most of my gaming on the weekend”, “I play for a few hours every week”, “I play for at least an hour every day”, “I am always playing some kind of game”.

How much time do you spend gaming?

Let us know how much time you spend gaming in the comments below!

OxygenOS 2.2.1 for OnePlus X brings security patch update and bug fixes

The OnePlus X is now receiving an update to OxygenOS 2.2.1. Unfortunately, if you were hoping for an upgrade to Android 6.0 Marshmallow, you’re out of luck as OxygenOS 2.2.1 mostly contains some bug fixes and a security patch update.

Here’s everything that’s new in the latest OnePlus X update:

• Fix for data leak while roaming experienced in some regions
• Fix for microphone being muted when using Google Hangouts
• Fix for app drawer not launching when google search bar is hidden
• GMS 3.0 upgrade
• APN update to support Tigo carrier
• Security patch update
• General bug fixes and optimizations

The update is part of an incremental rollout, so it will take some time to reach everyone. However, if you own a OnePlus X, you can manually check for updates via the Settings menu.

Facebook needs to support VR photos yesterday

The social destination for a significant part of the connected world is missing a critical feature in the world of 360-degree content.

Not a day goes by right now where I don’t see a new 360-degree virtual reality video on Facebook. They show up in my browser on AutoPlay like every other Facebook video, but the increased animation and text invites you to participate in the video experience by either clicking and dragging the video with your mouse or moving around with your phone to see the whole video. Whether it’s flying as a co-pilot with the Blue Angels or some kids running around in a park, these videos are capturing the attention of users all over the world. Check out the comments section of any VR video on Facebook and you’ll see a handful of people who have never seen anything like this before. It’s fantastic, and there’s no denying that people want more.

With the implementation these videos clearly being such a huge success, why hasn’t Facebook stepped up to the plate with matching VR photo publishing?

Whether you’re packing a Ricoh Theta S, the new LG 360 CAM, or you have a healthy obsession with taking Photospheres or VR Photos through Google’s camera apps, you know that taking VR photos is a lot of fun. Taking that 360-degree photo has gotten a lot easier over the last year, but sharing those photos hasn’t really changed. Google supports these VR photos natively in Google Photos, and if you’ve taken a great photo of a special place you can share it with Google Maps to be included in their Street View service, but there aren’t a ton of other options for sharing these photos with people who aren’t right next to you.

Support from Facebook is a big deal.

Facebook has demonstrated a desire to work with this new form of video, and received quite the response in the process. But if you try to upload a VR photo to Facebook you’ll get a rectangle with your sphere stretched and contorted to fit. It’s not a pretty picture, and there’s not a ton you can do about it.

This is what you get when you upload a VR photo to Facebook.

While it’s not a huge shock that Facebook didn’t jump at the opportunity to support Google’s Photospheres, the ability to publish directly to Facebook from Ricoh and LG for video means there’s been some support offered to these third-party hardware options. Facebook’s video stitching and compression systems are unique to Facebook, so it stands to reason that a lot of the same work could be applied to photos, right?

Support from Facebook is a big deal. It’s a guaranteed way to increase the adoption rate of just about any platform, and with existing video content coming from every corner of the internet — including adult entertainment and live sporting events — it’s clear the concept of VR video is catching on. Facebook brings parts of this video to everyone with a web browser or smartphone, and the addition of photo support will give more users the ability to publish their own 360° experiences.