EA’s The Secret Life of Pets: Unleashed combines cute animals with match-3 gameplay
With The Secret Life of Pets movie just around the corner, it makes sense for there to be a mobile game released ahead of screenings. EA is hitting both Android and iOS with a new match-3 game within The Secret Life of Pets universe. In The Secret Life of Pets: Unleashed, players will be able to enjoy the same style of gameplay experienced in other popular titles with the added bonus of seeing colorful personalities from the film.
As well as matching various shapes and colors on-screen, players will also be able to embark on pet adventures while attempting to climb their way to the top of the leaderboards. Secret pet moments are locked away until perfect matches are achieved, which will fire out special abilities like a flock of helpful Parakeets or a tile-exploding Rainbow Ball.
To celebrate the release of both this new title and the film it is based on, there will be a special event in Los Angeles on June 29 from 11 a.m. PST for a day of “My Dog and Me Match 3 games, prizes and more.”
Wind Mobile is turning into a good telco alternative for Western Canadians
If you’re in the (western) market for a new plan, it’s time to consider Wind Mobile.
As of today, Wind Mobile has completed its network upgrades in all of its Western Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton. With those upgrades, the company claims speeds and coverage have been drastically improved, along with perhaps the most important metric — latency.
The realization comes after Wind announced that it has completed upgrades in Edmonton as part of a drastic overhaul to its equipment that began in December in partnership with Nokia Networks. Now the company, which is owned by Shaw Communications, moves onto its biggest and most expansive market, Southern Ontario, which includes the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, Barrie, Windsor, London, Niagara Region, and Peterborough. It’s unclear how long it will take to make the upgrades in its biggest region.
It’s been difficult to ascertain just how much improved Wind’s network is in Western Canada, but some new data has shown that it is at least five to 10 times faster than its previous performance. According to Calgary-based blog Crackmacs, users can expect average download speeds of over 5Mbps and upload speeds of over 1.5Mbps, with the former spiking as high as 15Mbps depending on the day. In contrast, my Wind SIM in Toronto consistently offers me speeds of 0.3Mbps to 1Mbps down and 0.05 to 0.3Mbps up — not exactly fast.
Worse are my ping times, which spike as high as 800ms, according to my own tests. The Crackmacs data shows a huge latency disparity in Calgary of between 50ms and 250ms, but even at its most lossy it is in line with many 3G networks around the country. In other words, Wind’s network should be considerably more competitive, even at these comparatively slower 3G speeds, once the cross-country upgrades are complete.
Even as it limps towards an LTE rollout, Wind Mobile’s upgraded network, combined with its enormously attractive plans, such as one that offers 10GB of local data and 1GB of roaming data for $60 per month, is very compelling.
This week’s ‘T-Mobile Tuesdays’ offers extended through Friday
While not nearly as bad as its first week, T-Mobile’s weekly “T-Mobile Tuesdays” promotion hit some hiccups again this week. To make sure customer can get in on the deals, T-Mobile has announced that it will extend “most” of this week’s gifts through Friday.
T-mobile COO Mike Sievert took to Twitter with the news:
Wow #TMobileTuesdays is HUGE today! Thanks for patience if it was slow. App’s running normally now AND we’ve made most gifts good thru Fri!!
— Mike Sievert (@SievertMike) June 21, 2016
To recap, this week’s deals included a free Lyft ride up to $15, a $20 coupon on the MLB Shop, a free Vudu rental and a free small Frosty from Wendy’s. T-Mobile customers could also enter to win a pair of MLB Shop gift cards and a chance to go to the MLB All-Star game.
So, if you had trouble redeeming any of the gifts on offer today, you now have through Friday to get your swag.
Google Play Music adds proper podcast section for Android Auto
One missing ingredient for podcasts in Google Play Music has been when you get in your car and fire up Android Auto. A recent update has changed that.
You’ll now find a “Podcasts” section at the bottom of the top level of menu items. Tap it and you’ll see the shows you’re subscribed to, in order of what was most recently updated. Top a show to start playing the most recent episode. And … that’s it. To get to a different episode you’ll have to hit the track list. It’s a little clunky maybe, but it’s a welcome addition.
And while we’re here, may we suggest a certain Android podcast you should subscribe to …
All About Android Auto
- Getting started with Android Auto
- List of compatible phones and cars
- Android Auto news
- Apps that work with Android Auto
- Join the Android Auto discussion!
Unicode 9.0 is now official with 72 new emoji
Unicode 9 is now official, making standard a whole new set of characters and — yes — new emoji. In fact, in addition to 7,500 new characters, Unicode 9.0 has added a total of 72 new emoji to the standard. New additions include emoji ranging from an avocado and a clown to animals like a gorilla and bat. In the graphic below, put together by the folks at Emojipedia, you can take a look at all 72 new emoji.
In addition to the new emoji, Unicode 9.0 brings character support for “lesser-used languages” that include:
- Osage, a Native American language
- Nepal Bhasa, a language of Nepal
- Fulani and other African languages
- The Bravanese dialect of Swahili, used in Somalia
- The Warsh orthography for Arabic, used in North and West Africa
- Tangut, a major historic script of China
For much more, you can check out the different variations of each new emoji glyph added in Unicode 9 at the Unicode website. And keep in mind that these have only been finalized as part of the Unicode 9.0 standard, and you’ll have to wait until Google brings them to Android.
VLC 2.0 is here with network playback, reduced permissions, and so much more
Popular cross-platform media player VLC has picked up a major update to version 2.0 that brings a slew of new features. Network playback is now live, with support for DLNA, Windows network sharing, UPnP, NFS, FTP, and SFTP protocols. The media player has also cut down on the number of permissions it requires, only needing access to media files.
VLC is also a unified package now, allowing you to switch between phone, tablet, or the Android TV interface according to your liking. Other features that have made their way into version 2.0 include multi-window support, video playlists, playback history, ability to download subtitles, pop-up video view, and compatibility stretching back all the way from Android 2.2 to Android N:
- 2.0 introduces a large number of features, notably network disk browsing (Windows shares, UPnP, NFS, FTP, SFTP…), favorite folders and URLs, video playlists, popup video, new permissions support, subtitles download, rewritten notifications and control, and a rewritten history.
- The Android TV and Android versions were merged, so that every device can optionally get the updated Android TV interface.
- Finally, it should be faster to decode and playback all video types.
The laundry list of changes make what is already a feature-rich media player one of the best available for Android. Hit up the badge above or head to the Play Store to download VLC 2.0. What’s your preferred media player? Let us know in the comments.
Android Apps on Chrome: How to give your Chromebook an app-vantage
At its I/O conference in June this year, Google finally confirmed plans to bring Android apps to Chrome OS products. That means that soon you’ll be able to fling Angry Birds from a catapult on your Chromebook and download a shedload of other apps you’d normally find on your smartphone or tablet.
What is it?
Put very simply, it’s the ability to download and install apps from the Google Play Store onto your Chromebook. Once enabled, Chromebooks with the capability to support Android apps will have a Google Play Store app. Opening that reveals an app store that looks virtually identical to the one on your phone.
Which apps can I install?
Once the Android app support for Chrome moves out of its beta/development phases, you’ll be able to download and install almost any Android app. Some apps, of course, are restricted by hardware and won’t run on a Chromebook. SMS apps or any apps that need access to carrier-provided text messaging (WhatsApp as an example) won’t run on a Chromebook. Neither will apps that need GPS or apps that need a rear camera. Thankfully WhatsApp does have a web version which you can access from any browser, which connects to your phone.
Still, you’ll be able to download apps like Microsoft Word, Netflix, Skype and many others that don’t run natively on Chromebooks currently.
There are perhaps a couple of downsides here. In its current state, Android apps can’t be resized onscreen, so you end up with a full screen single app a lot of the time, just like you do with most Android smartphones. Secondly, Chromebooks aren’t known for having much storage space, so having apps installed will undoubtedly take up some valuable space on some of the lower capacity models.
Which Chromebooks are compatible?
As of right now, the only Chromebook with Android app support is the Asus Chromebook Flip, and even then it’s only supported if you are on the developer channel of Chrome OS and have the latest version installed.
Within the next few weeks, Google will add support for the 2015 Chromebook Pixel as well as the Acer Chromebook R11. Later on this year, and on to next year, support will be added for dozens of other Chrome OS powered laptops. You can find the entire list here and it contains Chromebooks from all of the most popular manufacturers – including Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba and HP among many others.
How do I get it?
If you’re a regular consumer running the public version of Chrome OS on your Chromebook, the short answer is: you can’t, not yet.
Android apps on Chromebook is still very much in its development stages and you can only get access if you have a specific Chromebook running on the developer channel of Chrome OS. You can switch, but it’s not recommended for someone who uses their Chromebook day-in and day-out for the majority of their computing work.
If you’re a developer and you have Chrome OS version 53, you just head to the “About Chrome OS” page in your settings and make sure the “Android Apps” option is selected.
How do I join the developer channel?
As mentioned, the only way to get access currently is by joining the developer channel on Chrome OS. Before doing so, remember that developer channel software is pretty unstable. It’s very experimental, and is what comes before “beta”, meaning there is a much higher chance something won’t work properly.
If you want to switch to the dev channel despite the likely instability, you can do so by heading to the bottom right corner of your home screen, and open up the settings. You’ll see a small link on the settings page that says “About Chrome OS”.
On the About page, if you look closely, you’ll see a “More info…” link, you should click that and then you’ll see new options show up on screen. One of the new buttons says “Change channel…”, click that and select the “Developer – unstable” option, and click “Change channel” to confirm.
Once you’ve gone through all these steps, the Chromebook will begin downloading the latest developer channel version of Chrome OS for your device. It takes a couple of minutes, and then you can reboot.
Once again, the developer channel is unstable, so please be sure you’re okay with the risk. If you’d rather have a stable, completely consistent Chromebook, just wait until the apps are supported on the stable channel. You may have to hang on for a few months, but it’s worth it if you like things to work properly.
If you try it and find that it is too unstable for you liking, changing it back to the stable channel is achieved by following the same instructions as above, but select “Stable” instead of “Developer – unstable”.
Impressions
It’s clear from looking at the current state of Android app support on Chrome OS that we’re still some way from it being a publicly available, consistent feature. It’s not ready for the public and only works on one device running a very temperamental version of the operating system. It’s probably going to be a few months at least until you get your hands on it, but it’ll soon come around, and when it does, Chromebooks will suddenly become far more useful.
Hasselblad’s X1D is a medium-format mirrorless camera
Yes, the rumors were true: Hasselblad has been working on a world’s first type of mirrorless camera. Today, the Swedish company officially took the wraps off of its X1D, a compact shooter with a massive 50-megapixel, medium-format CMOS sensor. That is the largest sensor we’ve seen on a mirrorless camera to date, opening up the category to a whole new class of enthusiasts. What’s also impressive is how light the X1D is, weighing only 725 grams (roughly 1.5 lbs) without a lens attached.
Other notable features include an XGA electronic viewfinder, a 3-inch (920,000-dot) touchscreen, 100 to 25,600 ISO range, dual SD card slots, GPS, WiFi and USB 3.0. Those specs are, more or less, what you would expect from a mirrorless camera in 2016. That said, video is limited to 1080p at 30 fps — that’s bad news for those who want a 4K shooter with substantial depth of field. Meanwhile, the X1D can capture stills at impressive shutter speeds (60 minutes to 1/2,000th of a second) and up to 14 stops of dynamic range, with support for both RAW and JPEG formats.
Couple all of that with the large medium-format sensor and you have yourself a powerful mirrorless camera. Hasselblad built two all-new lenses (45 and 90mm) for the system, though there will also be an optional adapter to make it work with the twelve Hasselblad H System lenses. The X1D is set to hit stores in August for a whopping $8,995, while the lenses cost $2,295 and $2,695 for the 45mm and 90mm, respectively.
Unicode 9.0 is now official with 72 new emoji
Unicode 9 is now official, making standard a whole new set of characters and — yes — new emoji. In fact, in addition to 7,500 new characters, Unicode 9.0 has added a total of 72 new emoji to the standard. New additions include emoji ranging from an avocado and a clown to animals like a gorilla and bat. In the graphic below, put together by the folks at Emojipedia, you can take a look at all 72 new emoji.
In addition to the new emoji, Unicode 9.0 brings character support for “lesser-used languages” that include:
- Osage, a Native American language
- Nepal Bhasa, a language of Nepal
- Fulani and other African languages
- The Bravanese dialect of Swahili, used in Somalia
- The Warsh orthography for Arabic, used in North and West Africa
- Tangut, a major historic script of China
For much more, you can check out the different variations of each new emoji glyph added in Unicode 9 at the Unicode website. And keep in mind that these have only been finalized as part of the Unicode 9.0 standard, and you’ll have to wait until Google brings them to Android.
VLC 2.0 is here with network playback, reduced permissions, and so much more
Popular cross-platform media player VLC has picked up a major update to version 2.0 that brings a slew of new features. Network playback is now live, with support for DLNA, Windows network sharing, UPnP, NFS, FTP, and SFTP protocols. The media player has also cut down on the number of permissions it requires, only needing access to media files.
VLC is also a unified package now, allowing you to switch between phone, tablet, or the Android TV interface according to your liking. Other features that have made their way into version 2.0 include multi-window support, video playlists, playback history, ability to download subtitles, pop-up video view, and compatibility stretching back all the way from Android 2.2 to Android N:
- 2.0 introduces a large number of features, notably network disk browsing (Windows shares, UPnP, NFS, FTP, SFTP…), favorite folders and URLs, video playlists, popup video, new permissions support, subtitles download, rewritten notifications and control, and a rewritten history.
- The Android TV and Android versions were merged, so that every device can optionally get the updated Android TV interface.
- Finally, it should be faster to decode and playback all video types.
The laundry list of changes make what is already a feature-rich media player one of the best available for Android. Hit up the badge above or head to the Play Store to download VLC 2.0. What’s your preferred media player? Let us know in the comments.
AIVAnet 