YouTube Gaming launches event hubs with E3 live streams
YouTube Gaming is making live coverage of eSports competitions and other big events much easier to find. The channel is launching event hubs, starting with E3 in June. Each hub will house all the official YouTube shows and streams covering that particular tournament or expo, so you can browse them all in one page. YouTube’s E3 coverage will begin with EA’s and Bethesda’s keynotes on June 12th, followed by a 12-hour stream on June 13th. It’ll cover press conferences, live “Let’s Play” playthroughs and maybe even the free public event the expo’s holding this year. Twitch is still E3’s official streaming partner this year — and we’re covering the event, as well! — but YouTube’s hub sounds like a good place to check if you’re looking for even more videos.
Source: YouTube Gaming E3 hub
‘Ready Player One’ filmmakers want your 3D avatars
A bulk of Ready Player One takes place in a digital universe known as the OASIS, a utopian society filled with 3D models of people plugged into the MMO world. Steven Spielberg is directing the film adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel and he’s looking to bulk out OASIS with 3D avatars from digital artists around the globe. Anyone with the right skills and determination can submit a 3D avatar via Talenthouse, and Spielberg and co. will choose at least five winners to place in the movie.
The winning artists will receive $1,000 each in exchange for the complete rights to their 3D avatars. Filmmakers may also choose some models to use as background graffiti in the OASIS and those folks will receive $250 to hand over ownership. Submissions are open until June 23rd at 1PM ET (10AM PT) and the artists will be selected by July 7th.
This sounds like a splendid opportunity for digital artists everywhere, but keep in mind that this is basically a contest inside of the OASIS — and we all know how those things go.
Via: Gizmodo UK
Source: Talenthouse
The best food processor
By Christine Cyr Clisset, Michael Sullivan
This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best things for your home. Read the full article here.
After spending 40 hours researching food processors, interviewing experts, and conducting nearly three years of long-term testing, we still think the Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor is the best choice for most home cooks. With just pulse and on buttons plus a single bowl, this is one of Cuisinart’s most basic models, but it consistently chops, slices, and kneads better than any other food processor we’ve found for under $300.
How we tested
Our food processor picks (from left to right): The Cuisinart 3-Cup Mini-Prep Plus, the Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor, and the Breville Sous Chef. Photo: Michael Hession
The best models should chop vegetables and herbs evenly (without pulverizing them), grate veggies and cheese uniformly, slice cleanly, and finely grind bread crumbs, nuts, and other dry ingredients. Better-quality machines with strong motors and heavy bases will also grind meat and mix sturdy yeast doughs without skidding across the counter, unlike low-quality machines.
We tested five large food processors 10 times each, chopping vegetables and parsley, slicing tomatoes and potatoes, grating soft mozzarella, grinding bread crumbs, pureeing a particularly delicious hummus, and mixing double batches of pizza dough. We also cleaned each model’s bowl, lid, and food presser 10 times—a test that proved more revealing than we’d expected.
We tested mini choppers by making a blended salsa, a Thai curry paste, and mayonnaise, and grinding almonds. We chopped one onion in each mini food processor to gauge evenness of texture. We also chopped whole almonds and shredded soft mozzarella cheese if the chopper came with a disk for shredding.
Our pick
With just two buttons, the Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor has one of the simplest-to-use interfaces of the processors we tested. Photo: Michael Hession
The Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor does everything that a great food processor should without any unnecessary extras that would boost its price. With one bowl and only on and pulse buttons, it’s simply designed—but it works as well as or better than machines with multiple bowls and more attachments. Unlike some other models in our tests, the Cuisinart Custom’s base never shook while running, even when processing double batches of dough. The Cuisinart Custom comes with just the right number of blades and disks, and all of them will stow inside the mixing bowl, so you won’t need to store a big box of attachments. The Cuisinart Custom’s base and jar were also easier to clean than those of most of the competition.
We first recommended the Cuisinart Custom in 2013, and over the past three years, we’ve consistently liked using it. We’ve made slaws, grated cheese, blended dips, and kneaded pizza dough in it, and it has worked well. The 14-cup bowl doesn’t leak, and the controls are exactly what you need.
This processor’s base is heavy, so we’ve found that keeping it on the counter to use often is the best approach. Over the years, the jar has gotten a bit scratched (perhaps because we’ve stored the sharp blades inside the jar). We’ve also noticed on other Cuisinart models that the plastic on the S-blade attachment discolors slightly with prolonged use. However, we haven’t tested the Cuisinart Custom long enough for this to happen. Overall, we still really like using this machine.
Great for small batches
The chop and grind buttons on the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus move the blade in opposite directions. Photo: Michael Hession
If you want a processor for little batches of vinaigrette or mirepoix, we really like the 3-cup Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus. It chopped onions more evenly than the other models we tested it against. On top of that, its seamless plastic membrane buttons were easier to keep clean, and its handled jar was more convenient to use. We also think this model is the most convenient, idiotproof tool we’ve found for making small batches of mayonnaise (as long as you’re using a recipe formulated specifically for a food processor). And it’s a great option for people who can’t or don’t want to invest in a $200 machine. You couldn’t make bread dough or shredded salads in it, but you could grind or chop small batches of herbs or nuts and do other tasks that would be more tedious by hand.
Great for power users
The Breville Sous Chef performed best overall in our tests, but it is very large and has more attachments than most people need. Photo: Michael Hession
The Cuisinart Custom is a great value for the amount of performance it offers, but if you plan to use your food processor several times a week, or you need a more powerful machine to cook for large groups, or you use a scale for most recipes, consider investing in the 16-cup Breville Sous Chef. Its 1,200-watt motor and its smart design save you time in use and cleaning; in fact, despite its many accessories, it was the easiest to clean of all the models we tested. That said, if you use a food processor only occasionally, the Breville’s high cost probably outweighs its benefits. And given that it’s huge—over 18 inches tall and nearly 20 pounds—you’d need a big kitchen if you want to keep it on the counter.
Should you upgrade?
If you have an older machine that still works well, stick with it. But if your current machine’s motor base is so lightweight that the appliance stutters across the counter when in use, you’ll appreciate a model with a heavier build. And if your processor is 11 cups or smaller but you cook for more than two, you might prefer a model with a larger bowl.
If you often make things like homemade mayonnaise, vinaigrette, or small batches of bread crumbs, you might want to pick up a mini food processor—even if you have a full-size version. A mini model will process smaller quantities more efficiently, and its diminutive size means it’s easier to move around a counter and to store and clean.
This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.
‘Mirror’s Edge Catalyst’ and the long shadow of a cult classic
“It’s a game that’s built a lot on momentum and forward movement and not stopping, reaching almost a zen-like thing.”
That’s how DICE Design Director Erik Odeladhl describes his latest game, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. It stars Faith, a freerunner, as she sprints, slides and leaps around a stark-white futuristic urban sprawl. The city is her playground. On top of a skyscraper, Faith builds up speed and swings onto a thin ledge, where she seamlessly dashes and jumps, rolling onto the roof of the next building and always running, running, running. For many fans, this constant motion is what the series is all about.
But Odeladhl’s favorite part of Catalyst involves no movement at all.
“I find it extremely nice to just climb up somewhere really, really high up and then just stand still there and actually just look at the city,” he says. “Since it’s been part of my life for so many years now, I’m basically really, really happy seeing the city and seeing that it works and everything is connected. That’s a big thing for me.”
Odeladhl is one of the masterminds behind DICE’s new game. He pitched Catalyst as a reboot, he helped conceive the City of Glass and he decided everything would be larger with a nonlinear narrative. He holds Faith’s future in his hands.
“She’s a truly unique heroine,” Odeladhl says. “First, the fact that she’s a heroine — she’s not your standard game hero. But she’s also so far removed; she’s not a cliche and she’s got a very unique look.”
The original Mirror’s Edge, released in 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, is a cult classic. Its hordes of fans are hungry for more freerunning, and they have specific requests for the new game. Essentially, they want more: more freerunning, more city to explore, more characters to interact with and more story to absorb.
It’s Odeladhl’s job to provide these things in Catalyst, while also retaining DICE’s own creative vision for the game. Luckily, Odeladhl knows what the series’ long-time hardcore fans want — because he’s one of them.
“Personally, I’ve always felt we were doing the right thing,” he says. “But you’re always worried. You never really know if you’re doing the right thing until people actually play the game. There’s a lot of heritage with Mirror’s Edge; it was very well-received, and it’s also a very unique title. And we wanted to build on that uniqueness; we wanted to create something that was true to the first game but improved upon it in a lot of areas.”
Odeladhl joined DICE in 2006, when Mirror’s Edge was in production, but he was brought on to build Battlefield games. He caught glimpses of Mirror’s Edge around the office, and when he finally got his hands on it in 2007, he was hooked.
“I immediately wanted to work on that game,” Odeladhl says. “But it didn’t work out that way.”
He ended up building Battlefield 3 and the 2010 installment of Medal of Honor before he was offered a chance to join a group working on the new Mirror’s Edge. Odeladhl and his team pitched the game to studio executives as a reboot with a vast, open city and nonlinear storyline. They wanted a clean slate in a fresh world with plenty of space for players to freerun. It wouldn’t have guns, it would feature asynchronous multiplayer modes and Faith would reprise her role as the star.
Catalyst hasn’t changed much from that initial pitch.
“We wanted to not just create a new game but actually to build a world with a big city, the City of Glass, where you free-roam as a player, but also a world with a history and a future — political conflicts and that type of stuff,” Odeladhl says.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst has been delayed twice since its announcement. First it was pushed back from February to May of this year, and then from May 24th to June 7th (more of a two-week hiccup than a full-fledged delay). The original setback was because Odeladhl and his team requested extra time, and the second was to incorporate feedback from the game’s closed beta.
Even though it resulted in a small delay, the beta went extremely well from Odeladhl’s point of view.
“When you release games, and the internet being the internet, there’s always some negativity,” he says. “But I actually looked and I could find very little of it. That, to me, was the most surprising thing.”
Fans have waited a long while for a new Mirror’s Edge installment, but it hasn’t been in vain. Catalyst exists only because the proper amount of time has passed, allowing technology to catch up with DICE’s goals. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One finally boast enough memory and processing power to support a city on this scale (without generating a million loading screens).
“We literally couldn’t have built this game on the older consoles,” Odeladhl says. “It would have been a different game.”
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst would also be a completely different game if it was built from scratch for virtual reality. As an immersive first-person freerunning experience, it seems like an obvious candidate for VR, and series fans haven’t been quiet about that. Odeladhl and his team have certainly talked about Mirror’s Edge in VR, but it’s simply not in the cards — or the code — right now.
“The thing with VR is that it requires you to design and build for VR from the beginning,” Odeladhl says. “It’s very hard to port an experience. … Mirror’s Edge could very well work in VR, but we wanted to focus on the body awareness of a standard game now.”
DICE will release Mirror’s Edge Catalyst on June 7th, offering Faith another chance to prove the value of first-person freerunning. The City of Glass is complete and ready to be conquered; its buildings stand sleek and tall. And on top of one towering structure stands Faith, completely still, surveying the city that Odeladhl and DICE built.
World’s first 3D-printed office opens in Dubai
The world’s first 3D-printed office building opened this week in Dubai, Reuters reports. The 2,700-square-foot, single-story building was built in just 17 days using a gigantic, 20-foot tall 3D printer and a special mix of concrete, fiber reinforced plastic and glass fiber reinforced gypsum.
Although the “printer” was massive at about two stories tall, 120 feet long and 40 feet wide, it only needed one staffer to make sure it was functioning properly. The rest of the 18-person construction crew consisted of installers, electricians and mechanical engineers who completed the job for a mere $140,000 in construction and labor costs — or about half the price of a comparable structure built with conventional methods. Of course, the building is more than just another gold star in the UAE’s ultramodern playland — it will also serve, appropriately enough, as the temporary headquarters for the Dubai Future Foundation. Next year, the structure is scheduled to become the home of Dubai’s Museum of the Future.
“This is the first 3D-printed building in the world, and it’s not just a building, it has fully functional offices and staff,” the UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Mohamed Al Gergawi said. According to Gergawi, Dubai plans to have 25 percent of the buildings in the emirate built via 3D printing by the year 2030.
OtterBox Launches New uniVERSE Case Compatible With Accessories From Olloclip, Square and More
OtterBox today announced the launch of a new uniVERSE Case System, featuring a versatile OtterBox-branded protective case that’s able to be used with accessory modules from a range of companies like Square, Polar Pro, SanDisk, olloclip, Seek Thermal, and more.
Available for the iPhone 6/6s and the iPhone 6 Plus/6s Plus, the uniVERSE Case System combines a slim but protective OtterBox case with a slotted rail system for attaching accessories. There’s a removable back accent plate covering the rail when the accessory modules are not in place, and there’s also a grooved edge inside the camera opening for attaching camera accessories.
“Innovation in the mobile technology world continues to evolve, and smartphones are at the center of this evolution,” said OtterBox CEO Jim Parke. “OtterBox is bringingtogether industry giants and cutting-edge innovators to create acustomizable mobile ecosystem. With uniVERSE Case System, consumers don’t have to compromise premium protection to use the amazing array of accessories that are changing how we use our phones.”
Alongside OtterBox, a number of companies are announcing new accessories designed for the uniVERSE case system. Olloclip, one of OtterBox’s first partners, is releasing its first 4-in-1 Lens kit compatible with a third-party case. Priced at $79.99, the 4-in-1 quick change Lens accessory for the uniVERSE Case features Fisheye, Wide-Angle, 10x Macro and 15x Macro lenses.
The Olloclip Lens set works with both the front and rear-facing cameras, fitting over the OtterBox case. It comes with two wearable pendants so it’s always on hand even when not in use and can be purchased starting today.
Other accessories compatible with the OtterBox uniVerse Case include a Square Contactless and Chip Reader ($49.99), the SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive ($59.99 to $119.99), the Nite Ize Vent Mount Kit ($39.99), the Goal Zero Slide Battery ($59.99), the Seek Thermal Compact Camera and Seek Case ($249), the Influx Wi-Fi Booster ($39.99), and more.
The uniVERSE case for iPhone 6/6s and 6/6s Plus can be purchased from the OtterBox website starting today.
Tags: olloclip, Otterbox
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Review: Promise Technology’s ‘Apollo’ Offers Private Cloud Storage for the Whole Family
Cloud-based services like iCloud and Dropbox are useful because they make documents, photos, and other media easily shareable and accessible anywhere, but there is a downside — that content is stored offsite on an unknown server not under an individual user’s control.
With Apollo, a new personal cloud device launching today, Promise Technology aims to combine the cloud’s ease of use with the security of local storage. The Apollo, Promise Technology’s first consumer-facing product, is also the first network-attached storage option for families and small businesses, designed specifically to allow for multiple individuals to share dedicated storage space.
The Apollo, priced at $299, is being sold exclusively through Apple.com and in Apple retail stores starting on June 7.
Design and Specs
Apollo is a 4TB network-attached storage device, which plugs into a router to connect to a home (or small business) Wi-Fi network. The Apollo is compact and sleek looking, with an aesthetic that easily matches Apple’s own line of devices. Made from a clean white plastic, the Apollo measures in at 5.6 inches by 7.5 inches and it is 2.4 inches thick with a rectangular shape.
As seen in the photo below, it’s not much taller than an iPhone 6s Plus, and it’s similar in size to many home cable modems and routers. It includes a Gigabit Ethernet port, a USB 3.0 port (for plugging into a computer and for attaching an additional hard drive for backing up the Apollo), 1GB RAM, a 1GHz Marvell ARMADA 380 CPU, and the aforementioned 4TB SATA hard drive. In my testing, the Apollo was quiet during operation.
With its small size, the Apollo fits well on a desk, media stand, or shelf, allowing it to be discretely placed wherever a router is located. It is small enough that I was able to stash it behind my TV set where it wasn’t visible.
The Apollo will need to be connected to a router through an included Ethernet cable and plugged into a power source. Setting up the Apollo was straightforward — I plugged in the necessary cables and then followed a setup process through the iOS app that involved creating an account and establishing a connection. The Apollo can be set up using any of the available apps.
Functionality
Apollo is a network-attached storage device, which means the files uploaded to it are available anywhere an Internet connection is available, much like a full cloud-based service like Dropbox. Uploading and streaming content from Apollo is restricted by your home Internet speeds, so file transfer and streaming speeds are not always going to match speeds downloading from a cloud service.
The Apollo works across multiple platforms, with apps available for PCs, Macs, Android, and iOS devices, and it can be used to share, store, and back up any type of file. Video and music files can be streamed from the Apollo directly onto your devices, while photos and other files can be viewed or opened on compatible devices. For example, if I upload a Pages document to Apollo from my Mac, I can then access it on the Apollo app on my iPhone and open it up in the Pages iOS app for editing.
Apollo is perfectly functional for a single user, but it also supports up to 10 users, so it works as a cloud sharing platform for the whole family or for all of the members of a small business. Every person who uses the Apollo gets their own dedicated storage space, which can be set up through the app by the primary user, established as the first person that connects to the Apollo.
Every user is given completely private storage access and no one else can view or touch the files that are uploaded, including the Apollo’s primary user, so it’s just like each person having a personal Dropbox account, but stored locally. Apollo settings and account creation are controlled by the owner, but individual users have full access to everything else — uploading files, downloading files, and sharing files. In my experience, the multi-user setup worked flawlessly.
All Apollo users can share files uploaded to the Apollo, either with other Apollo users through a private link or with any person (even a non-Apollo user) with a public link. When uploading a file and creating a public link, it can be messaged, emailed, or sent via AirDrop to any contact and it will be available for 30 days. Users will see a browser page with a link to a zipped file, and the Apollo supports public link file sizes up to 1GB.
All file transfers to and from the Apollo are fully encrypted, using the same encryption built into Promise’s professional line of storage devices. With shared files and folders, Apollo members can leave comments on files, making it ideal for sharing commentary on photos or collaborating on documents.
As mentioned above, file transfer speeds are limited by your home connection. I have a home connection that probably matches the speeds the average user has access to, with 120MB/s for downloads and 6MB/s for uploads. When sharing a file with someone from the Apollo, their download speed is limited by my upload speed.
With a 1GB test file, it took approximately two minutes to upload to the Apollo from my computer, but when I shared the link with a coworker, it took 40 minutes to download. Comparatively, it took me 30 minutes to upload a 1GB file to Dropbox, and only 90 seconds for my coworker to download. With Dropbox, downloads aren’t hindered by my upload speeds once they’re on the company’s servers. As another speed example, it took just about 15 minutes to upload the entire camera roll from my iPhone, about 2,300 images.
There are a lot of network-attached storage systems out there, each with varying degrees of complexity. Apollo is designed to be as easy to use as Dropbox, with a simple setup process and apps that are straightforward and basic. Getting the Apollo set up and using it was definitely simple, so anyone who’s savvy enough to use Dropbox or iCloud is going to be able to use Apollo.
It’s not so simple that I could buy it for my mom, but it’s not as complex as something like a Synology NAS, and Promise is offering 90 days of phone support, a 2-year warranty, and chat/online support.
Because it’s designed to be simple, the Apollo is lacking in features. It’s basically a place to dump, share, and store files. There’s a feature that supports automatic camera roll backups from iOS devices for each user, but there are no other bells and whistles like tools for automatically backing up files on the Mac (there’s no support for Time Machine), accessing content from a browser, editing files directly on the device, or setting up automatic file downloads or website hosting, all things that are possible with more advanced devices.
Software
The Apollo can do a lot of useful things, but it is hindered by the software Promise has designed to go along with it. I used the Apollo with a dedicated Mac app and an iOS app, both of which I thought were disappointing. Dedicated apps are the only way to access Apollo’s content — there is no web option.
The Apollo Mac app is a simple file viewer, displaying all of the content that’s been uploaded to Apollo. It has four sections: Files, Favorites, Photos, and Videos, and that’s the total extent of the organization on Apollo, aside from the folders you create yourself, and there are no options for sorting based on date, file size, file type, or other metric.
Every photo uploaded to Apollo, for example, is visible through the Photos section and organized in a grid by date, but there are no viewing options beyond that. I can’t sort by file name, I can’t scroll through photos, and I can’t search for specific photos, making it impossible to find anything. Photos are organized on numbered pages and to sort through them, I have to click through each page. It’s tedious, time consuming, and makes browsing through photos unpleasant.
The same is true of the videos tab, and I’m not sure why, but there is no tab for music, so there’s no simple way to aggregate all music files into one place except through user-designated folders.
When uploading content, there’s a pop-up progress window, but it does have a tendency to freeze up when attempting to upload a lot of files at once. When that happens, there’s no way to check syncing progress because once the window is closed, the app doesn’t have another method for keeping tabs on transfers. There’s also no time estimate for uploads on the Mac app. Everything I dragged to the Apollo Mac app uploaded successfully, with the exception of a 50GB folder that completely stalled. There is a 30GB size limit for each individual file uploaded to the Apollo, and folders can support up to 30,000 files.
Apollo’s iOS app is basically the same as the Mac app, with an identical layout. I can scroll through content on iOS, though, so the user experience is better despite the fact that there are still no organizational and sorting options for content. With the iOS app, there’s an option to automatically back up the camera roll, syncing all files to the Apollo whenever they’re taken. Camera roll syncing is one-way only – deleting files from the camera roll won’t delete them from Apollo once uploaded.
Both the iOS and Mac apps support multiple video and audio files, so content can be streamed in the app. I tested .MKV, .MOV, .MP4, and .MP3 files and most of these played well directly on my Mac or iPhone from the Apollo apps. Apollo officially lists .MOV, .MP4, and .M4V as supported on iOS devices.
Video controls are rudimentary, limited to pausing and fast forwarding/rewinding, but videos do play (both at home and when away) as long as you’ve got a decent Wi-Fi connection. This isn’t my preferred method for watching videos when away from home, but it works in a pinch.
Apollo’s Mac app also installs a sync folder accessible through the Finder. Files put into this folder will automatically sync to the Apollo, and all files added to the Apollo (from the iOS app, for example) will sync to the folder. Folders do not sync automatically, but can be set to sync through selective syncing options. Dropbox users will be familiar with the behavior of the syncing folder.
iOS 8 or later, OS X 10.8 or later, and Android 4.4 or later are required to use the various apps. On Windows machines, the Windows app is compatible with Windows 7, 8, Vista, and 10, and while basic at the current time, it is being updated with new features in the future.
Bottom Line
For small businesses and families that want the option to easily share files in a safe, secure way, the Apollo is a useful device. At home, it’s a good way for multiple family members to share photos, music, videos, and other media types so that content is always accessible to everyone wherever they are, and it’s an alternative to cloud services that are ultimately going to be more expensive. At work, it’s useful for collaboration.
The Apollo is priced at $299 for 4TB of storage space, which is cheaper than Dropbox or iCloud after 2-3 years. Dropbox charges $99 per year for 1TB of storage space, while Apple charges $9.99 per month for 1TB. With 4TB of storage, there’s plenty to share among several users.
Apollo is functionally identical to many online cloud storage services, so it’s best to think of it as a private version of Dropbox or Box rather something like a NAS running DiskStation. It’s going to meet the needs of someone looking for a cloud storage replacement or extra backup option, but if you want something beyond what Dropbox can do, the Apollo may be a disappointment.
During my testing, the Apollo worked well. It was easy to use and it did what Promise said it would. Aside from some hiccups when attempting to upload massive folders, file transfers were smooth, it stayed online, and my files were accessible through the Mac and iOS apps.
I was unimpressed with the Apollo apps, mainly due to the lack of search and the inability to sort and view my files in a useful way. Such a simple file system is fine for a small number of files, but when you have a couple of terabytes of content uploaded to the Apollo, it gets a lot more frustrating. Luckily, software is easy to fix, so I’m hopeful the Apollo apps will improve over time to meet customer needs.
Pros:
- No storage fees
- Easy to set up and use
- Data transfers AES256 encrypted
- Multi-user support
- Public and private sharing available
- Can back up Apollo through USB port
Cons:
- Only 4TB capacity available
- Functionality is basic compared to other NAS options
- No search
- Poor file organization
- Software needs improvement in general
How to Buy
Apollo can be purchased from the Apple online store and from Apple retail stores for $299 on June 7.
Note: Promise Technology provided an Apollo to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received.
Tags: Promise Technology, Apollo
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Twitter to Drop Handles and Media Attachments From 140-Character Limit
Twitter announced today that it will be making a number of expected changes to simplify tweets over the coming months.
First and foremost, when replying to a tweet, Twitter handles such as @MacRumors will no longer count toward the 140-character limit. Media attachments, like photos, GIFs, videos, polls, and Quote Tweets, will also no longer be counted.
The changes should provide Twitter users, including brands and websites, with more characters for actual text and article headlines.
Meanwhile, new non-reply tweets that begin with a username will now reach all of a user’s followers, eliminating the need to use the “.@” convention to broadcast a tweet widely. Last, Twitter users will be able to Retweet and Quote Tweet their own tweets.
Twitter expects the changes to have a significant impact on tweets, so the microblogging service aims to provide its developer partners with time to make any needed updates to products built using the Twitter API.
Tag: Twitter
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Apple TV’s Universal Search Adds Support for NBC
The universal search functionality on the latest Apple TV recently saw NBC added to the list of content providers included in results in the United States. The addition is part of an ongoing expansion that most recently saw CBS added last month.
Universal search on the Apple TV allows users to search for content using Siri or text entry and see a list of providers offering a given movie or TV show. For providers that offer only certain seasons of a show, those limitations are reflected on the results screen.
With the addition of NBC, apps for all four major U.S. networks are now included in universal search, as well as iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Disney’s suite of TV channels, Showtime, PBS, Starz, Nat Geo, and FX. In most other countries, only iTunes content is currently supported, while Netflix is also supported in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Neutral)
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Pebble 2, Time 2, and Pebble Core Launch on Kickstarter
Pebble today launched a Kickstarter campaign for two new fitness-focused smartwatches, and an all-new cellular-connected wearable.
Pebble 2, the first major upgrade to the original Pebble smartwatch, features new built-in sleep, step, and heart rate tracking functionality alongside existing phone, text, and information notification capabilities.
The iOS- and Android-compatible smartwatch retains an always-on high contrast black and white display that is readable both indoors and outdoors. The watch also features an anti-scratch lens coating, built-in microphone, up to weeklong battery life, and water resistance up to 30 meters.
Pebble 2 is compatible with over 13,000 existing apps and watchfaces, and runs an updated version of its Timeline operating system that enables customizable one-click actions that, for example, make it easier to send a text message, call an Uber, or check your calendar right from your wrist.
Time 2 is Pebble’s premium smartwatch featuring a stainless steel design, built-in heart rate monitor and microphone, and color e-paper display that is more than 50 percent larger than its predecessor and has up to 80 percent more pixels to see twice the text. The battery lasts up to 10 days on a single charge.
Time 2 adopts many other Pebble 2 features and is compatible with iOS and Android.
Pebble Core is an all-new Android-based lightweight, cellular-connected clip that allows runners to leave their smartphones behind, yet still conveniently stream music from Spotify, track their pace, distance, and location with GPS, record voice notes, and even send an emergency SOS if needed.
Pebble Core supports both Wi-Fi and 3G cellular networks using a micro-SIM card, while both Bluetooth and wired headphones can be connected. The wearable provides up to 5 days of battery life based on 45 minute workouts and can be charged using the included USB cable or an add-on wireless charging pad.
Pebble 2 starts at $99 on Kickstarter in flame, aqua, black, white, and lime and begins shipping in September 2016, while Time 2 starts at $169 in black, gold, and silver and is slated to ship in November 2016. Pebble Core starts at $69 in black-red and begins shipping in January 2017.
Pebble has already well exceeded its $1 million fundraising goal, with limited early bird and regular pledge tiers still available on Kickstarter. The Pebble 2, Time 2, and Core will each cost $30 extra at full retail price once the crowdfunding campaign is completed at the end of June.
Pebble also introduced Pebble Core for Hackers and new Pebble Health tools and features.
Pebble’s existing smartwatch lineup includes the Pebble Classic, Pebble Steel, Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel, and Pebble Time Round.
Tags: Pebble, Pebble Time, Pebble Core
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