Amazon’s first third-party Alexa partner adds style to your kitchen

The first accessory that makes use of Amazon’s Alexa platform is now available. The Triby is a small portable speaker that has access to Alexa’s voice services, can make VoIP phone calls and is even magnetic so it can stick to your fridge when you don’t want to hold it. Additionally, the speaker can get the news, set alarms, play your favorite Spotify playlist, and even draw and share doodles and texts from your phone to its always-on display.

Triby is the first non-Amazon accessory that uses Amazon’s Alexa service to become available to purchase. The speaker will retail for $199, but right now it has an introductory price of just $169. You should be able to enjoy up to two days of battery life per charge, and you will need to use the Triby companion which is available on both Android and iOS.

See at Amazon

LG G3 is finally being updated to Marshmallow on AT&T

AT&T is rolling out Marshmallow for the LG G3 in the U.S. We’ve received a handful of tips from owners who have received the update notification, which then bumped their respective handsets up to Android 6.0. Thankfully the wait is finally over and you should receive a similar alert on your AT&T G3 soon enough.

If you haven’t yet received the update alert, be sure to give it a number of hours to fully propagate through the system. You can always perform a manual update check by heading into Settings, About phone and check for update.

• Join the LG G3 discussion on our forum

We can’t see any mention of Marshmallow for the LG G3 on AT&T’s support website, so this could just be the start of the rollout and we may have a little while to go before everyone on the network receives the sweet release.

Thanks to everyone who tipped us!

New York Times partners up with Google to deliver another 300,000 Cardboard viewers

The New York Times and Google have teamed up once again to fire out more Google Cardboard viewers. The companies plan to roll out 300,000 new units to digital subscribers of the news outlet. This move is in conjunction with “Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart,” a VR experience set to be published on the NYT.

This particular film enables viewers with the headset to fly over Pluto, stand on the surface and view its moons on the horizon.

“The film was narrated by science reporter Dennis Overbye and produced by Jonathan Corum, Graham Roberts, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas and Evan Grothjan from The New York Times graphics desk. The original music was scored by Graham Roberts and performed by Jessica Ferri, Mio Kanehara, Daniel Ambe and Nobuki Momma, who were recorded using a 360° microphone to allow the sound to travel with the viewer’s movements.”

The subscribers selected for this batch of Cardboard viewers were chosen based on the duration of their memberships. The joint move by the New York Times and Google aims to help get people involved with virtual reality using nothing more than their smartphone. Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart will be published on May 19 on the NYT VR app, which is available for both iOS and Android.

Press Release

THE NEW YORK TIMES TO DELIVER 300K GOOGLE CARDBOARD VIEWERS TO DIGITAL SUBSCRIBERS

Distribution to Coincide with Release of VR Film, “Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart”

NEW YORK, April 28, 2016 — In partnership with Google, The New York Times will distribute 300,000 Google Cardboard viewers to its most loyal digital subscribers next month in conjunction with the publication of “Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart,” a stereoscopic virtual reality experience that brings viewers to Pluto.

The New York Times’s film allows the viewer to fly over Pluto, soaring above never-before-seen rugged mountains and bright plains, and stand on Pluto’s unique surface as its largest moon hovers over the horizon.

The New York Times worked with the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the Universities Space Research Association to build accurate three-dimensional virtual worlds from data collected last year by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.

The film was narrated by science reporter Dennis Overbye and produced by Jonathan Corum, Graham Roberts, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas and Evan Grothjan from The New York Times graphics desk. The original music was scored by Graham Roberts and performed by Jessica Ferri, Mio Kanehara, Daniel Ambe and Nobuki Momma, who were recorded using a 360° microphone to allow the sound to travel with the viewer’s movements.

Digital-only subscribers selected for this distribution were chosen based on the duration of their subscriptions. As part of the collaboration with Google, The Times delivered one million Google Cardboard viewers to home delivery subscribers in November 2015. The cardboard viewers are simple to use and allows anyone to experience virtual reality with a smartphone.

“Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart” will publish on May 19 in the NYT VR app, which is free and available for download in the Google Play and iOS App Stores. The app now supports video streaming. The NYT VR app has had more than 600,000 downloads since it debuted in November 2015. Users can also go to the NYT YouTube channel to view the video or visit youtube.com/360 for other immersive virtual reality content.

HP Chromebook 13 has MacBook specs for a fraction of the price

HP has unveiled an addition to its Chromebook range that offers similar spec to the recently released 2016 model of the MacBook.

However, it costs almost a third of Apple’s computer.

The HP Chromebook 13 starts at $499 (£342) while the entry-level superslim MacBook begins at $1,299 in the States.

Like the Apple device, the Chromebook 13 sports a sixth generation Intel Core M processor and USB Type-C connectivity. It also has around 11 hours of battery life (11.5 claims HP).

It even goes one better with RAM, being available with up to 16GB of on-board memory.

The screen size is bigger too, at 13.3-inches. Its resolution if 3200 x 1800.

There are Bang & Olufsen speakers and the chassis is just 12.9mm thick. The Chromebook weighs 1.29kg (the MacBook is just 0.92kg).

But price and screen size aside, the major difference between the new HP laptop and Apple’s is that the Chromebook 13 is exactly that, a Chromebook.

Much cheaper it might be, but it is dependent on an internet connection and is far less supported with software and applications than Windows 10 and OS X equivalents.

Still, if you’ve always hankered after a Pixel but could never afford one, the Chromebook 13 could be the more affordable option you’ve been craving.

READ: Chromebook Pixel review

LG Stylus 2 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 5: What’s the difference?

LG announced the Stylus 2 smartphone at Mobile World Congress back in March and it is now available exclusively through O2 in the UK.

The device arrived alongside the X Series of smartphones, as well as the flagship LG G5 and while its specs aren’t groundbreaking, it does have a couple of surprises up its sleeve.

We have put it up against the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 to see how the two phablets with their stylus pens compare.

LG Stylus 2 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 5: Design

The LG Stylus 2 features a metal frame with a plastic removable rear and measures 155 x 79.6 x 7.4mm. It’s a very light device for its size, hitting the scales at 145g and it comes with a pen that slots neatly into the device when not in use.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is a more premium looking device to the LG Stylus 2, featuring an all-metal body with a glass rear. Its solid design measures 153.2 x 76.1 x 7.6mm, meaning it is smaller than LG’s device, but heavier weighing 171g. Like the Stylus 2, the Note 5 also comes with a pen that sits comfortably within the device when not in use.

LG Stylus 2 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 5: Display

The LG Stylus 2 has a 5.7-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1280 x 720. This puts its pixel density at 258ppi, which is pretty low for a smartphone and especially a device of this size. A Full HD resolution would have been preferable.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 has the same size display as the Stylus 2 at 5.7-inches but Samsung opts for Super AMOLED as the technology rather than LCD. It also puts a Quad HD resolution in the Note 5, which delivers a pixel density of 518ppi.

AMOLED display tend to be more vibrant than LCD, with richer colours and blacker blacks but they can also be more unrealistic. The Note 5 will offer sharper and crisper images than the Stylus 2 though, and while it isn’t always noticeable, at double the resolution there should be a visible difference between these two devices and their displays.

LG Stylus 2 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 5: Camera

The LG Stylus 2 features a 13-megapixel rear camera with auto focus and an LED flash. On the front, you’ll find an 8-megapixel snapper.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 has a 16-megapixel rear snapper with optical image stabilisation and an aperture of f/1.9. The front-facing camera is a 5-megapixel sensor, also with an aperture of f/1.9.

Samsung offers the higher resolution on the rear camera, while LG takes it on the front but as many of us know, a good smartphone camera doesn’t just come down to megapixels. The processing power is a big factor too and Samsung has consistently proved itself in its latest generation of devices from the Note 4 onwards. The camera in LG’s G5 is excellent, but whether the same will be said for the Stylus 2 remains to be seen for now.

LG Stylus 2 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 5: Hardware

The LG Stylus 2 features a quad-core 1.2GHz processor under its hood, supported by 1.5GB of RAM. There is 32GB of internal storage, a microSD slot for further storage expansion and a 3000mAh battery to keep things ticking along. It’s also worth mentioning that the LG’s battery is removeable.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 has an octa-core processor, supported by 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. There is no microSD support on the Note 5 so once your device is full, it is full, but it has the same battery capacity as the Stylus 2 at 3000mAh, even though it is not removable in the Note 5.

Based on the numbers, the Note 5 is going to be the more powerful device, especially with over double the RAM but the lack of microSD might put some off. Battery life is likely to be within a similar range for both devices but the removability within the LG is a useful option. The Stylus 2 also has DAB radio on board so if you are a keen radio listener, this might be the feature that sways you.

LG Stylus 2 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 5: Software

The LG Stylus 2 arrives with Android 6.0 Marshmallow with LG’s software over the top. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 launched with Android Lollipop but it has since been updated to Marshmallow.

Samsung’s device also has the company’s own software over the top of Android so both the Note 5 and Stylus 2 will offer different user interfaces and experiences. Both offer software to complement the pens that come with them though.

LG Stylus 2 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 5: Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 takes the crown in the majority of departments based on the numbers, although not all. The Note 5 is the smaller of these two devices, it has a sharper, crisper display, a higher resolution rear camera and more powerful hardware.

The LG Stylus 2 is the lighter of the two devices however, while also offering a higher resolution front camera, a removable battery and microSD for storage expansion. It also has DAB radio for those the want it.

The Stylus 2 is the cheaper of the two devices as well and given the Note 5 isn’t available in the UK, for those that want a smartphone with a pen, LG is one of your only options.

SpaceX wins its first military launch contract

Elon Musk has been fighting to be treated with the same level of respect as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, and it looks like his persistence has paid off. Reuters is reporting that the US Air Force has handed SpaceX a contract worth $83 million to launch the next GPS satellite into orbit. It’s a big deal, because until now, only Lockheed and Boeing (through the United Launch Alliance) have been permitted to fling objects into the heavens on the Air Force’s behalf. The launch will take place in May 2018 from Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket, although while Musk has won the battle, he might also be well on the way to winning the war.

Back in 2014, the US Air Force awarded a contract for 26 rocket launches to ULA, the space joint venture from Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Musk believed that SpaceX was able to offer a better deal, and was peeved he wasn’t even allowed the chance to bid for the business. Shortly afterward, Musk launched a lawsuit to try and block the contract, alleging that there was something fishy about the contract process. Namely that one of the officials in charge of awarding the deal was subsequently handed a cushy job at the ULA. It didn’t take long for red-faced bodies at the Pentagon to agree that it needed to improve “the competitive landscape” for “national security space launches.”

Reuters is also suggesting that the ULA might not be able to compete with SpaceX and its ability to make space launches progressively cheaper. That’s not much of a surprise, since the company has struggled in recent years to deal with its upstart rival. Part of this is down to the fact that its Atlas V rockets use Russian-made rocket engines, which are cheap and reliable but politically inconvenient. In the wake of the occupation of Crimea, the US imposed trade sanctions on Russia that preclude ULA from sourcing its engines.

Last week the Motley Fool published a report that said that something might be rotten in the state of the ULA more generally. Former executive Brett Tobey apparently told students at the University of Colorado that it simply couldn’t compete with SpaceX. He reportedly said that it was because of the way his former company’s pricing structure was laid out, representatives were prohibited from quoting under $125 million. Even worse is that when the subsidiary costs are also included in the calculation, the price of a ULA launch is closer to $200 million. In addition, the firm has announced that it’ll cut jobs, and could let anywhere between 375 and 500 employees go between now and 2017.

By comparison, SpaceX is riding high after showing that its Falcon 9 rocket can land on a platform after being shot into space. Reusable rockets is going to massively reduce the cost for each launch, and should help make journeys into the heavens that much cheaper. In addition, Musk is pledging to get the first SpaceX capsules to land on Mars by 2018, an ambitious goal, but one that he’s uniquely equipped to see to reality.

A virtual reality game that’s good for you and scientist approved

It’s fitting that the morning I first experienced Deep VR at the Tribeca Film Festival, billed by its creators as a meditative virtual reality experience, I was already approaching peak anxiety levels. At 9:30AM, I was behind schedule (for reasons beyond my control) and huddled in a claustrophobic installation space made all the more overwhelming by various camera crews and the booming soundtrack of a heartbeat from the far corner. So when I first strapped the HTC Vive onto my head and a snug-fitting sensor around my diaphragm, I braced for the worst, assuming I’d be hit with a wicked bout of VR sickness. How wrong I was.

Guided by a circular reticle that expanded and contracted along with the movements of my diaphragm, I floated gracefully through a Tron-like underwater world shaded by cool blues, cheerful pinks and relaxing purples as low-poly models of marine life swam about. It took only about 10 seconds or so for the game’s breathing-based control scheme to become intuitive, at which point I’d become so engrossed in gliding through the environment and surrendering my mental state to the fuzzy murmur of binaural beats soundtracking it, that I’d forgotten about Tribeca and the media frenzy around me.

In truth, I only took off the headset because I knew I had to make way for other journalists, not because I was ready to end my play session. When I did, Owen Harris, the video game designer who originated the concept for Deep VR, was delighted: According to Harris and his Dutch co-creator Niki Smit, I’d officially stayed in the experience longer than any other viewer who’d demoed it.

“We want to help teach people these breathing techniques so that they can then manage these conditions outside of the game,” says Harris of Deep VR’s intended stress- and anxiety-reducing goal. “… This is a technology that exists within all of our bodies that costs no money [and] that we have all have access to.”

Deep VR’s therapeutic properties are no accident. Harris originally developed the game as a concept for Oculus’ first development kit, the DK1, seeking an escape from depression and the personal and professional stresses he was experiencing at the time. Back then, Deep VR was merely a crude proof-of-concept lacking in an appealing visual design, binaural beats, deep breathing modeling and color psychology.

“When Oculus finally arrived, I was just really excited about building spaces to just be in,” says Harris. “Spaces that were just kind of outside of this world. So the first things that I was building were simply star fields and spacescapes to meditate in.” Soon enough, though, Harris realized he could build out the experience by incorporating deep breathing exercises.

Both Harris, who’s based out of Dublin, Ireland and Smit, who handles the visual design and hails from the Netherlands, owe Deep VR’s evolution (and their long-distance partnership) to one person in particular: Paulien Dresscher. It was after a serendipitous meeting with Dresscher at an expo for interactive visual and performing arts, where Harris had shown off an early version of Deep VR, that he was put in contact with Smit. Dresscher, who heads up the MediaLab at Cinekid, a Dutch media festival focused on children, had remembered a meditation-focused game about “being a tree,” called Bohm, Smit had created several years earlier. She insisted the two get in touch over Skype and the rest was VR kismet.

Harris’ early conversations with Smit helped shape Deep VR’s current polished look. But the demo shown off at Tribeca is only a preview of what the pair have planned. Through a partnership with Isabela Granic, a professor of Behavioural Studies at Radboud University in the Netherlands, Deep VR will become more than just a calming escape for VR enthusiasts; it’s now the basis for a psychological study that aims to alleviate anxiety in children.

Though Harris and Smit hadn’t consulted behavioural researchers during the initial design phase of Deep VR — they did, however, make great use of Google — Granic says the duo’s work was scientifically sound. “They nailed it so beautifully,” says Granic of Deep VR’s skillful use of sound, color and breathing techniques.

With a year-long grant to fund her research, Granic’s already completed a pilot study on a group of over 100 young people (ages 8 to 20) comparing the relaxation effects of Deep VR versus exposure to scuba diving videos. She says the early findings will be presented at CHI 2016, a leading computer-human interaction conference. But Granic’s involvement with Deep VR will extend beyond just using the game in controlled studies. Her findings will also inform future iterations of the game’s design and, eventually, its sensor.

Deep VR will become more than just a calming escape for VR enthusiasts; it’s now the basis for a psychological study that aims to alleviate anxiety in children.

Granic says that research and development-based process will move forward in two phases: The first will involve modeling or the ability to use subtle design cues to teach deep breathing techniques. Work on this phase has already begun and will see Deep VR include animals for the viewer to follow that ascend and descend in accordance with necessary deep breathing rates. In essence, their movements will show the viewer how to breathe and relax.

The second part of the study will fold exposure therapy into the mix, an addition that will shift the overall tone of Deep VR from sedative to mildly and purposefully frightening. “When people are anxious, what you do is systematically desensitize them,” says Granic. “You bring them closer to the things they fear while they are being taught these deep breathing, relaxation techniques.” Granic didn’t specify just how this would manifest in Deep VR other than to say these elements would be scary, but ultimately therapeutic.

Granic’s academic hand isn’t the only guiding force shaping the future of Deep VR. Harris and Smit say they intend to evolve the game’s visual and aural design. The pair want to make the game’s soundscape more interactive so that specific environments correspond to specific brainwave frequencies and ambient music. They also hope to nail down an affordable, consumer-ready sensor design that can be used as a controller for a variety of games and are considering a Kickstarter campaign to fund it.

If Harris and Smit get their way, Tribeca will be the last festival stop it makes. The two are keen to release the game to Steam VR and other VR platforms sometime this year with all of the research-backed improvements they hope will have a “meaningful impact on people.”

“I think it’s great to just have a conversation around mental health and the struggles that we all have with that,” says Harris. “In my own country of Ireland, as well as all over the world, there’s massive problems with that and yet people are still embarrassed or shy to talk about their own struggles. Every week we get emails of people sharing their stories with us and how they’re excited about us being able to bring this game so that they can see if it has an impact on their life in the same way it’s had an impact on ours.”

Image credits: Owen Harris/Niki Smit

Comcast buys DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion

The rumors are true: Comcast subsidiary NBCUniversal announced it has snapped up DreamWorks Animation in a $3.8 billion deal. It’ll give Comcast access to successful animation properties like Shrek, Kung-Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon, which should complement the NBCUniversal franchises Despicable Me and Minions. And, in a strange twist, the acquisition will also reunite DreamWork’s Animation with its live action sibling, which was rebranded as Amblin Partners last year and already has a distribution deal with Universal.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, and Comcast says it doesn’t foresee any regulatory opposition. Once everything is settled, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg will step down and serve as chairman of DreamWorks New Media, and he’ll also be a consultant for NBCUniversal.

Source: NBCUniversal

Time-bending FPS ‘Superhot’ heads to Xbox One next week

The unique shooter Superhot is coming to Xbox One on May 3rd. Ostensibly an FPS, the broad pitch is “time moves only when you move,” but that’s not quite accurate — when you’re standing still, things just move very slowly. You have to clear highly stylized levels of polygonal enemies using whatever tools you’re given, while avoiding their one-shot-kill attacks. That’s easier said than done, and as the challenges get tougher, you’ll die a lot. Eventually, it plays out more like a puzzle game, with a few pre-determined paths leading to victory.

Superhot hit PC, Mac and Linux back in February, and was received very well. It was supposed to come to Xbox One a “few weeks” after the PC release. There have obviously been some issues to work through on the game’s route to Microsoft’s console, but with those overcome, Xbox One owners will be able to experience a truly individual game for themselves

Via: Kotaku

Apple Maps Expands Transit Data in New South Wales, Australia With TrainLink and Bus Routes

Apple Maps has recently been updated with all-new transit data for New South Wales, Australia, allowing iOS users to navigate the area with the new addition of the NSW TrainLink line as well as bus stations. Before the update, only rail directions for Sydney Trains were available. Sydney, and now New South Wales as a whole, are still the only areas in Australia with Transit information available.

Image via Mac Prices Au
NSW TrainLink provides residents with transportation throughout New South Wales, and even extends above and below the states borders, to cities like Melbourne in the south and Brisbane in the north. The new transit additions should help tourists out, as well, since New South Wales also houses the popular destination — and most populous city in the nation — Sydney, Australia.

Transit directions became a helpful feature with the introduction of iOS 9, and has since expanded to be supported in 16 cities around the world. Including Sydney, Transit directions can be found in Seattle, Austin, Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Montreal, Toronto, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. There are also a few dozen cities in China that include Transit directions in Apple Maps.

(Thanks, DrHampton!)

Tags: Apple Maps, Transit
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