Toys-to-Life Franchise Gets iOS Card Game With Skylanders Battlecast
Hugely popular toys-to-life business Skylanders announced its first mobile card game on iOS yesterday, as its seeks to further penetrate the $1.2 billion digital card market.
Officially launched by parent company Activision Blizzard, Skylanders Battlecast takes the traditional formula established by the former’s wildly successful Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and injects a grab bag of classic RPG elements into its cartoonish game environment.
Players control a team of three characters and compete with another group in turn-based combat. Each character represents one of eight different combat elements, and players can change which character takes the lead role for each round, which affects which cards can be played. The goal is to knock out the opposing group by casting spells with cards and directing characters to attack individual opponents.
As with most card games, Skylanders Battlecast is free to play, but expanding card collections requires players to spend money to buy the game world’s virtual currency. A 22-card “battle pack” for instance costs 1,400 virtual coins, or $14.99 in real terms.
Skylanders also lets players buy packs of physical cards which they can then import into the game world using their device’s camera. The scheme works out cheaper than buying digital cards, with $4.99 for booster packs and $9.99 for battle packs.
Mobile card games have experienced seemingly unstoppable growth in recent years, with Activision Blizzard’s Hearthstone reportedly earning $20 million a month. Translating the toys-to-life Skylanders franchise into the digital arena will likely drive even more growth for the parent company as it seeks to reach a new audience.
Skylanders Battlecast is a free download for iPad and iPhone on the App Store. [Direct Link]
Tag: Skylanders Battlecast
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Kanex Launches GoPower USB-C Battery Pack for MacBook
Kanex has introduced a new GoPower rechargeable 15,000 mAh USB-C battery pack capable of delivering one full charge to the 12-inch Retina MacBook.
The slim aluminum battery pack also has a traditional USB port that can provide multiple charges to iPhones, iPads, and other USB devices.
USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A cables are included for charging the GoPower itself. A four-LED status indicator lets users know the power level of the battery pack based on 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent, and 100 percent intervals.
Kanex has also included a built-in circuit protection board with priority charging detection technology that enables pass-through charging to plugged in devices when the battery pack itself is plugged into a power source.
The battery pack’s USB-C output is 5V at 3 Amps, while its USB output is 5V at 2.4 Amps.
GoPower retails for $99.95 on Amazon and Kanex’s website.
Related Roundup: Retina MacBook
Tags: battery pack, USB-C, Kanex
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook (Buy Now)
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iPhone 7 screen protector and cases spotted in the wild, new model will not be major refresh
It has been rumoured for a while that the iPhone 7 will not be a massive revolution in design terms to the iPhone 6 and 6s. Instead, it will continue the slim, rounded aesthetic we have seen for the last two generations.
Now we have further proof that could be the case. Literally.
During the Computers Unlimited Exposed event in London, Pocket-lint was told that a series of case designs and a glass screen protector made by Cygnett were not for the iPhone 6, but the iPhone 7. We took photos naturally.
If true they show that the iPhone 7 will look almost identical to before. Indeed, all the case designs that we were told were for the iPhone 7 looked to be wrapped around an iPhone 6s when you could see the handset. This suggests the size will be very similar.
READ: Apple iPhone 7: What’s the story so far?
The screen protector, which is designed to stick over the front of a phone to make the glass more sturdy, shows two sensor holes above the front microphone instead of one.
There are reports of some iPhone 6s models having two sensor holes, but this is very rare and we’re not 100 per cent sure as to why. Nor can we work out why Apple would want two sensors on a new device rather than the usual one.
We do advise an element of caution in believing that these are genuinely for an iPhone 7. We were told they were genuine, based on iPhone 7 design specs, but cannot corroborate that claim officially.
One thing’s for sure, this isn’t the last leak we’ll see or hear about on the build up to September.
READ: Apple iPhone 7 in pictures: Renders and leaked photos gallery
Driver caught sleeping at the wheel as Tesla Autopilot drives for him
The future of cars might be here, or the future of next-level marketing. A driver was caught, not driving, but sleeping at the wheel of his Tesla Model S as it drove for him.
The Tesla Model S Autopilot system works both at speed on motorways and slowly in stop-start traffic. This video, apparently shot from another car in the traffic, shows the Tesla driver sleeping against his seatbelt. This appeared on the Reddit Tesla Motors community.
While this is technically possible, it’s hard to imagine someone would nod off completely. When Tesla was asked about the video, by Tech Insider, it responded with this statement:
“Tesla Autopilot is designed to provide a hands-on experience to give drivers more confidence behind the wheel, increase their safety on the road, and make highway driving more enjoyable. Autopilot is by far the most advanced such system on the road, but it does not turn a Tesla into an autonomous vehicle and does not allow the driver to abdicate responsibility. Since the release of Autopilot, we’ve continuously educated customers on the use of the feature, reminding them that they’re responsible for remaining alert and present when using Autopilot and must be prepared to take control at all times.”
While there has also been a video of a Tesla dodging a truck that swerved into its lane, there have also been fails. Some have reportedly swerved into traffic, exited the highway too soon or in one case even had the Autopilot knocked out by a large moth.
It’s still early days for this kind of technology with little legislation and no fully self-driving system available yet. But the future of driverless cars is edging ever closer, fast. Soon everyone could be asleep at the wheel, legally.
READ: Tesla: Everything you need to know about Model 3, Model S, Model X, and more
ISS’ expandable module has a shield that protects it from debris
You had a lot of questions when we wrote about NASA gearing up to inflate BEAM on the ISS. Does it inflate like a balloon? What if it gets hit by micrometeoroids then? Does it protect against radiation? While there are many things we won’t know for sure until the end of BEAM’s two-year testing, NASA’s and Bigelow Aerospace’s Reddit AMA and Facebook Q&A could answer some Q’s floating around your head. To start with, the team clarified that BEAM isn’t an “inflatable.” Its walls don’t stretch like a balloon — they’re incredibly stiff and are “several times stronger per weight than metals commonly used in space applications.” When the ISS crew expands the module on Thursday, the process could be more accurately described as “unfolding” rather than “inflating.”
The team added that the module has a thick layer of Kevlar-like materials that acts as its debris shield. If a micrometeoroid hits it, for instance, it becomes trapped in those laters without penetrating the structure all the way through. Bigelow Aerospace said the company performed hypervelocity impact testing here on Earth by pelting projectiles flying at a speed of 7 kilometers per second at it. Based on the team’s tests, they concluded that its debris shield is as tough as, if not better than, the space station’s debris shield.
Besides answering questions about the module’s toughness, the team also revealed that BEAM can last up to five or more years in outer space. The experimental model, which is as big as a small bedroom, can’t be reused and can only be deployed once. Also, astronauts won’t have to wear spacesuits when they check in on experiments inside BEAM and assess its condition twice a year.
The ISS crew will help the team collect data on radiation, thermal and micrometeoroid impacts. If the module proves to be as tough as the team believes it is, then expandable habitats like Bigelow Aerospace’s bigger model called B330 could be used on Mars or as spacecraft’s living spaces for deep space missions in the future. NASA TV is airing BEAM’s expansion live on Thursday, May 26th, starting at 5:30AM Eastern time. The space station crew will introduce air into the module through a small port, after which they’ll activate BEAMs’ internal tank system. It could take up to two hours for the module to completely unfold, though, so you may want to have some snacks at the ready.
.@Blkwooly @andyweirauthor @BlairBigelow @BigelowSpace Their materials are proprietary, but pretty sturdy stuff. Think “kevlar vest++”
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) May 24, 2016
Source: Reddit AMA, ISS (Facebook)
Mom behind most-watched Facebook Live video visits its HQ
It’s only been a few months since Facebook opened up live video streaming to everyone, but with over a billion daily users the emergence of a massive hit was inevitable. Late last week an odd yet charming video stream of Candace Payne amusing herself by trying on a Chewbacca mask went viral, and currently stands at 143 million views with more than 3 million reshares. According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg that makes her video the most-watched Facebook Live video ever, and just that quickly, she’s on the company campus riding bikes with guess who — Chewbacca.
Most importantly for the social network, beyond selling out the masks at Kohls, she’s kept its live streaming feature in the news cycle for days. She’s made appearances on The Late Late Show with James Corden and Good Morning America, and even if a viewer didn’t stick around to watch the whole video on Facebook, they’ve probably heard about the feature by now. Twitter’s Periscope live streaming and even YouTube Live have been around longer, but Facebook’s massive audience — and algorithmically driven feed — may give it an edge in being able to promote its platform.
Source: Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
Microsoft kills what’s left of the old Nokia
Last week, Microsoft sold off what remained of Nokia’s feature phone business while Windows Phone’s market share slid below a single percent. Now, the company has taken what’s clearly the last step in correcting Steve Ballmer’s decision to purchase the mobile world’s former number one. The Verge has secured an internal memo from Microsoft’s Terry Myerson saying that the company will cull 1,850 jobs, 1,350 of which are in Finland. The company has also recorded a $950 million impairment and restructuring charge on its balance sheet, of which $200 million will be severance payouts to those employees.
The job cuts are, essentially, rinsing the company of almost all of its obligations towards the smoldering remains of Nokia. Microsoft went to pains to state that the firm’s Finnish sales vision are protected, with the cuts entirely focused on Microsoft Mobile Oy. As CEO Satya Nadella says, the company is focusing its phone efforts where it has “differentiation — with enterprises that value security, manageability and our Continuum capability.”
When Microsoft sold off its feature phone business, it put out a weirdly-worded statement that only affirmed a commitment to “support” Windows Phone devices. The implication being that it was done actually building handsets itself, and will instead let third parties like Acer, HP and VAIO take over. Alternatively, it’s rumored that Lumia as a brand is done, and the company will instead build a mobile device from its more successful Surface division.
“This in fact describes what we are doing (we’re scaling back, but we’re not out!), but at the same time I don’t love it because it lacks the emotional impact of this decision.”
Recode has published a copy of the internal memo, in which Terry Myerson explains that the company is scaling back, but is refusing to abandon mobile altogether. He also mentions that Microsoft will continue to “develop great new devices,” although that’s no indication that it’ll manufacture them off its own back. A bigger part of the firm’s focus, however, will be to “embrace other mobile platforms with our productivity services,” or getting its apps and services available on Android and iOS devices.
Via: The Verge
Source: Microsoft, Recode
Wrio Keyboard for iOS Claims up to 70% Faster Typing Speed
Swiss startup Wrio has launched a new keyboard app for iOS which claims to speed up typing by between 20 and 70 percent compared to standard Qwerty layouts.
The developers of Wrio say they achieved this typing feat by throwing out the rulebook that says keys should be square, and instead adopting a honeycomb-like layout of hexagonal keys. This allows individual keys to be a little larger than usual, which reduces the incidence of mistyped characters.
Users will notice there’s no typical spacebar in the Wrio keyboard either. This functionality is divided into two single space keys at the centre of the layout. The delete key has been removed, and users swipe from right to left to delete a character, holding the swipe at the end to continue deleting characters.
A swipe right restores deleted characters, and holding the swipe restores multiple characters. And instead of relying on shift keys which have also been removed, swiping up on a character types a capital version of it.
Eight of the most commonly used punctuation symbols can be found in two primary keyboard keys, which serve up a secondary symbol with a hold, a third with a hold and swipe up, and a fourth with a hold-swipe to the right.
Elsewhere, holding down on a key invokes any accented variations available for the character, while a new double-function key takes users to the secondary keyboard and swiping up on the same key takes them to the emoji deck.
Wrio also supports 30 languages, and boasts a custom user dictionary that learns what languages are regularly typed and makes predictions based on usage patterns.
The developers claim that after one or two weeks, users should be familiar enough with the Wrio keyboard to start making significant gains in typing speed over traditional layouts.
Wrio currently costs $2.99 on the App Store as part of a limited “40 percent off” introductory offer, and is available for iPhone and iPad. [Direct link]
Tag: Wrio keyboard
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A smart toothbrush just won Intel’s maker-themed reality show
Last month, Intel the tried to make inventors cool. The company brought tinkering into prime time with the debut of America’s Greatest Makers, a reality TV competition on TBS where 24 teams of inventors have been competing for a $1 million prize. Intel’s involvement means two things. For starters, CEO Brian Krzanich is one of the main panelists. Also, to even qualify for the competition, all of these projects had to incorporate Intel’s button-sized Curie module, which was designed to power the coming wave of connected objects.
Seven weeks later, those 24 teams have been whittled down to five, with the season drawing to a close tonight. The winner is Grush, a three-person team whose smart toothbrush works with a mobile game to help children brush their teeth more thoroughly than they would otherwise. It’s the sort of product that would be right at home at Intel’s futuristic CES booth.
Grush’s smart toothbrush isn’t entirely a novel idea: we’ve seen smart utensils like this vibrating fork, while toothbrush giant Oral-B has been making Bluetooth brushes for years. But Grush is interesting not just on account of how it worked, but who it was for. Using built-in sensors, the toothbrush can tell how you’re holding it, and therefore what areas of your mouth you may or may not be reaching. Using the Curie module’s on-board Bluetooth radio, the brush then sends that data to a companion app, which turns the whole act of brushing into a game: you don’t “win” unless you hit every tough-to-reach spot in your mouth.
The product is the brainchild of pediatric dentist Anubha Sacheti, futurist Ethan Schur and inventor Yongjing Wang, whose PhD in physics makes him the most engineering-literate of the three. As parents (and in Sacheti’s case, dentists), they began with the problem that many people have bad teeth, and that folks tend to learn bad habits early on — not least because kids don’t like brushing their teeth to begin with.
Team Grush actually filmed the season finale back in March, which means they’ve been keeping their victory a secret for around two months now. The first order of business: celebrating. But “we need to jump from celebration mode back to makers mode,” Schnur says. Next up, the company needs to actually put out a product, or at least get one ready for public demos. In fact, the next time we hear from Grush might well be at CES, where the team hopes to join CEO Brian Krzanich on the stage during his annual Las Vegas keynote. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be getting hands-on with the toothbrush then. You know, unless a Curie-powered “adrenaline dress” proves too distracting.
AT&T’s prepaid GoPhone plans get 1GB of extra data
AT&T definitely isn’t being stingy with data on GoPhone these days. In the wake of healthy improvements over the past year, the carrier is raising its data caps by 1GB across the board as of May 27th. If you’re on the $45 plan, you’ll get 3GB of full-speed data to play with instead of 2GB; roll with the $60 plan and you’ll get 6GB instead of the current 5GB. You’ll still get $5 off your bill if you agree to automatic refills, to boot. While this isn’t the absolute lowest price you can pay for gigs’ worth of data (just ask T-Mobile users on the coveted $30/5GB plan), it’s a solid bargain if you need unlimited calls and texts at the same time.
Source: AT&T
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