New Google Camera update brings back ability to snap photos while recording video – CNET

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Tap on the new shutter button while recording video to snap a photo.

Jason Cipriani/CNET

Nexus users, it’s time to open the Play store and update the Google Camera app. Among other enhancements, today’s update brings back the ability to snap a photo while recording video on your Android device.

The same feature was spotted in the second update to the Android N developer preview shortly after its release last week by Android Police.

Once your device installs the new version of Google Camera, and you’re recording a video, just tap on the new white shutter button to take a photo. After you’re done recording, both the video and photo will be saved to your photo gallery. As is often the case when Google releases an update to its own apps, the Camera update is slowly rolling out to users. If you don’t see the update right now, keep checking the Play store.

Hearthstone expansion ‘Whispers of the Old Gods’ launches on April 26

Fans of Blizzard’s hit collectible card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft will be able to get their hands on its latest expansion pack soon. ‘Whispers of the Old Gods’ has a firm release date of April 26 in the U.S., followed by a release in Europe and Asia on April 27.

Blizzard says

Whispers of the Old Gods introduces 134 brand new, totally not corrupt cards that are sure to change your perception of the game… and the tavern… and possibly a lot of other things. The Old Gods are benevolent (we cannot stress that enough) entities of supreme power who have come to show everyone just how much fun everything can be when you relax, and stop worrying so much! Some of your favorite adversaries and allies from the tavern have already met the Old Gods, and are much, much better for it!

There’s still time to pre-order a 50 card pack for ‘Whispers of the Old Gods’ for $49.99. Pre-orders also can get an exclusive card back as a bonus. You can download Hearthstone now from the Google Play Store.

Canada’s antitrust watchdog drops investigation into Google

While Google is currently in the spotlight over antitrust concerns in other parts of the globe, Canada’s Competition Bureau has announced it has dropped its investigation into the company’s search practices. Specifically, the Competition Bureau says that it found no reason to believe Google manipulates search results to stifle competition.

From the report (via Re/Code)

Although Google frequently makes changes to the algorithm it uses to rank search results, evidence obtained over the course of the investigation indicates that Google’s changes are generally made to improve user experiences. For example, Google takes steps to demote websites that attempt to artificially increase their ranking in the search results independent of the quality or relevancy of their content. The Bureau did not find adequate evidence to support the conclusion that Google’s changes to its search results were intended to exclude rivals in Canada.

Following a three-year investigation, the win comes at a good time for Google. Though not related to search, it is expected that the European Union will soon level charges against Google over bundling apps and services with Android. That’s in addition to the charges leveled by the EU in early 2015 over Google’s comparison shopping offering.

Check out our HTC Vive unboxing!

HTC’s virtual reality partnership with Valve is finally shipping, and we’re just starting to dig in to ours. Before we get too deep into things like cellular services on the HTC Vive and what it takes to dedicate a part of your house to wandering around in what feels like another dimension, we need to address the box itself. The Vive box is enormous, and contained within is everything you need to get started and have a good time.

Here’s the unboxing and initial setup. We’ll be back soon with a whole lot more on the Vive, assuming someone doesn’t fall asleep in the thing.

Built-in Google Cast comes to Vizio’s more affordable TVs

Not content to restrict cool features to the ultra high-end, Vizio has announced that it is bringing Google Cast to two of its lower-cost TV lineups. Rolling out to retailers soon, the new M-Series and E-Series lineups will pack Vizio’s SmartCast, which is powered by the same Google Cast technology behind Chromecast.

With Google Cast built into the sets, owners can easily cast content from their phones or tablets to the TV without any extra equipment. As a bonus, the M-Series will pack the same 6-inch Android-powered remote that debuted with the higher-priced P-Series in late march.

Both the M-Series and E-Series look to impress from a picture standpoint as well. Both options pack 4K support, making the option even more affordable. Meanwhile, the M-Series also carries HDR support for even more definition.

The 4K M-Series models start at $850 for a 50-inch TV and go up from there, while the E-Series starts at $470 for the 43-inch 4K model.

See at Vizio

Intel to lay off 12,000 employees in major restructuring effort

Confirming previous rumors, Intel has announced a major restructuring that will result in 12,000 of its employees being laid off by mid-2017. That will represent about 11% of the company’s workforce.

The chip company says the move is part of its plans to “accelerate its evolution from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices.” Intel says:

The data center and Internet of Things (IoT) businesses are Intel’s primary growth engines, with memory and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) accelerating these opportunities – fueling a virtuous cycle of growth for the company. These growth businesses delivered $2.2 billion in revenue growth last year, and made up 40 percent of revenue and the majority of operating profit, which largely offset the decline in the PC market segment.

Intel is expected to take a one-time charge of $1.2 billion during the second quarter of 2016 as part of the restructuring. It is expected to result in a savings of $750 million in 2016, with annual savings of $1.4 billion by mid-2017. The majority of the layoffs are expected to happen in the next 60 days.

Where to buy the HTC 10 in the United States

You’ve got a few options for buying the HTC 10 in the United States. And they are …

The HTC 10 is the best smartphone we’ve seen from the manufacturer in years. Of that there is little debate. (It says so in our comprehensive HTC 10 review, after all.)

And so now you’ve got the tough question ahead of you. Where to buy the HTC 10? In the United States, you’ve got a few options. We’ll walk you through ’em.

Buy HTC 10 directly from HTC.com

This may be your best option, for a lot of reasons. First is that if you buy from HTC, you’ll have a SIM-unlocked device that can be used with T-Mobile or AT&T — or any other GSM-compatible operator, actually. No mucking about with unlock codes. Just pop in your SIM and go.

And HTC also is selling the phone with an unlockable bootloader, which is important to those who like to tinker with the software on a phone. Wanna hack on the HTC 10? This is the phone to get.

And if you buy from HTC you’ll also not get saddled with any of that carrier bloatware you’ll find when you get a phone from one of the country’s major operators. That, in our opinion, is probably the biggest factor.

The HTC 10 retails for $699 (though we’ve already seen $100 discounts) and is available in silver or gray. If you’d prefer to finance the phone, HTC.com offers PayPal credit financing for 12 months.

See at HTC

Buy HTC 10 from Verizon

Verizon is the first of the U.S. carriers to offer the HTC 10. (A fact it’s quick to tell you.) And it’ll be available for preorder starting April 29. We don’t yet know exactly when it will be available, and we don’t know the final price.

But we do know that if you switch your service to Verizon they’re throwing in three free months of HBO NOW, and will throw in up to $650 to pay off your old contract.

See at Verizon

Still to come …

We’re still waiting on more information from T-Mobile and Sprint (AT&T won’t be selling the phone) and will update this post when we’ve got it.

HTC 10

• HTC 10 review
• HTC 10 specs
• These are the HTC 10 colors
• Our first photo and video samples
• Meet the Ice View case
• Join our HTC 10 forums

HTC
Verizon

Metallica, Muse manager decries YouTube as ‘the devil’

Once again, a member of the music industry has come out against YouTube, accusing the video site of harming the music industry. Peter Mensch, who manages musical acts such as Metallica, Muse, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, said that the site’s current, ad-based business model, is not sustainable, noting that it’s difficult to get people to pay for content they already get for free on YouTube.

From the BBC:

“YouTube, they’re the devil,” he told a BBC Radio 4 documentary on the music business. “We don’t get paid at all.”

He said the site’s business model, in which artists make money by placing ads around their music, was unsustainable.

Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s Chief Business Officer responded to Mensch’s comments, noting that artists who make agreements with YouTube see better returns. Instead, Kyncl says, maybe detractors should look at contracts between artists and labels.

Responding to Mensch’s comments, YouTube Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl suggested artists were not seeing YouTube payments because of the agreements they had with their record labels.

“It really depends on what is the flow of the money from us to you,” he said.

All of this comes as part of a new documentary on the music industry, created by BBC 4 in the UK. The rhetoric against services like YouTube and SoundCloud has intensified recently, and it’s thought that YouTube’s licensing agreements with major record labels is up for renegotiation at some point this year.

Art and technology collide in new VR Chrome experiment

The Google Chrome team is always cooking up interesting new experiments, and the latest, called Virtual Art Sessions, is a neat foray into merging art and technology. With Virtual Art Sessions, you can watch six artists compose works inside of a virtual 3D Space. Each piece is interactive, allowing you to pan, rotate and zoom in 360 degrees to get a better look at each work.

As for the tech behind experiment itself, Google says that it makes use of V8 Javascript Engine. From the Chrome Blog:

Virtual Art Sessions makes use of Google Chrome’s V8 Javascript engine for high-performance processing power to render large volumes of data in real time. This includes point cloud data of the artist’s physical form, 3D geometry data of the artwork, and position data of the VR controllers. It also relies on Chrome’s support of WebM video and WebGL to produce the 360° representations of the artists and artwork – the artist portrayals alone require the browser to draw over 200,000 points at 30 times a second.

For more on how the art was created, be sure to check out the “behind the scenes” video above. And to interact with the experiment, head to the Virtual Art Sessions page in Chrome.

What is your favorite new phone of 2016?

We’re only a couple of months into 2016, and it’s already been a great year for phones so far. Mobile World Congress back in February gave us the Samsung Galaxy S7, and more recently we got to see the launch of the HTC 10. With plenty of shiny new phones for you to play with, it begins to beg the question. Which new phone is your favorite?

Whether you have your eye on specs, taking great photos, or a battery that will keep you going, there is a brand new phone out that can help you out. With so many great options choosing just one can be difficult, but it’s what we’re asking you to do in the poll. This week we’ve got 5 options for you in our poll: “Samsung Galaxy S7”, “LG G5”, “HTC 10”, “Sony Xperia Z5”, and the “Huawei P9.”

What is your favorite new phone?

Are you a diehard fan of a new phone? Not a fan of 2016’s new smartphones? Be sure to pop into the comments and let us know.