Karhoo takes its taxi-comparison app to more UK cities
Six weeks after its launch in London, Karhoo is taking on the rest of the UK. The ride-hailing app, which lets you compare different taxi companies simultaneously, is yet another alternative to Uber, Hailo and Kabbee. The difference is that Karhoo wants to be an open platform, presenting a range of prices, vehicles and estimated arrival times so that you can make an informed decision. Any company, aside from Uber, can theoretically sign up and have its fleet listed inside Karhoo’s iOS and Android apps. That includes black cab, minicab and executive car hire providers.
Karhoo is slowly rolling out in the following cities: Nottingham, Derby, Leeds, Bristol, Bradford, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Brighton, Stoke on Trent, Belfast, Manchester, Glasgow, Leicester and Birmingham. It’ll go international with New York and Singapore this summer.
Today’s expansion gives Karhoo considerable reach in the UK, which is important if it’s to gain traction as a viable Uber alternative. The company does have a few advantages over its ferocious and well-funded rival — you can pre-book a ride through the app, for instance, and there’s no surge pricing to worry about it. Karhoo’s battle is still a tricky one, however. It needs to get the word out, which is easier said than done, while undercutting its rivals and keeping the traditional taxi industry on side.
Instagram’s expansion continues as it tops 500 million users
With 1.6 billion users, Facebook is used to big numbers. Even Whatsapp has one billion people using it every month. Instagram, on the other hand, isn’t quite as big as its counterparts, but that doesn’t mean it’s not expanding at a decent clip. In a short blog post today, the photo-sharing service announced that it now has 500 million registered users, adding 100 million accounts in nine months.
In the past, Instagram hasn’t shared how active its users are, but for this milestone it’s making an exception. Of the 500 million Instagrammers already signed up to the service, 300 million use the app every single day. They’re not all from the US, either, with four out of every five users interacting with the app from outside the country — up five percent from September 2015.
Although Instagram’s growth is pretty uniform — adding 200 million users in the past 18 months — the Facebook-owned app hasn’t yet reached its peak. The service has become home to countless musicians and A-list celebrities, who are often the subject of hilarious brand promotion fails. However, the platform has also become a legitimate place for companies to interact with their followers and sell their wares.
Source: Instagram Blog
Twitter stretches Vines and video posts to 140 seconds
Starting today, Twitter users will get just as many seconds of video as they do characters of text. According to an announcement, Twitter is opening up 140-second videos to everyone on the service. Likewise, some Vine creators will also be able to expand outside the snappy six-second limit with a new Beyond the Vine feature that allows the shorter clips to serve as trailers for a longer, two-minute video.
On the Twitter video side, some “select publishers” will actually have access to 10-minute videos, so don’t be surprised if you start seeing entire John Oliver segments popping up in your timeline. The longer video clips come with their very own fullscreen viewing mode, similar to what Facebook and YouTube’s mobile apps already offer.
Explore more videos and Vines that are lighting up Twitter. Our new viewing mode will let you watch more with a tap. pic.twitter.com/XyBaes37T7
— Twitter Video (@video) June 21, 2016
As for Vine, the standalone app will now offer some content creators the ability to link their traditional six-second clips to longer videos with a “Watch more” button in the lower right corner. These longform Vines, as it were, also open up the canvas to full, widescreen videos and not just the vertical, square crop we’ve gotten used to. And a new feature is getting carried over from Periscope as well: double tapping a video now makes hearts fly over the screen.
Finally, because all of this is obviously in service of the almighty ad dollar, Twitter says the company will be expanding the monetization options they rolled out through Open Amplify last year. And, if you’re already famous, Twitter is rolling out a new app called Engage today, which should help you interact with all your rabid fans.
Nest can slash people’s energy use during peak prices
In California, energy companies have to switch all customers to Time of Use (TOU) rate plans by 2019. Under TOU, energy prices change throughout the day — it won’t be easy to monitor rates and adjust cooling and heating manually every hour or so. To help users stick to their budget, Nest is introducing a new feature called “Time of Savings.” The service shares customers’ TOU rate info with Nest, which then auto-adjusts itself to reduce energy consumption during the most expensive periods. Nest will only change the temperature by a degree or two, though, and users will have to tweak it themselves if they want to save more money.
According to Nest’s announcement, the feature will only be available to its energy partners’ customers, since companies have to be willing to share TOU rates with the thermostat maker. At the moment, the only people who can access Time of Savings are SolarCity subscribers, but Nest says it’s already in talks with other energy providers not just in the Golden State (including Southern California Edison), but across North America.
Ben Bixby, Nest’s director of energy and enterprise business, said in a statement:
“The California Public Utilities Commission has mandated that the state’s major utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison – move their residential customers to TOU rates by 2019. This means millions of California homes will be billed for energy differently in just a few years. Working with our energy partners, we designed Time of Savings to help customers manage these changing pricing schedules and make it easy for them to use less energy without sacrificing comfort. We’re excited that SolarCity is our first partner to offer Time of Savings and Nest is working with regulated energy providers across North America to offer this new service.”
Source: Nest
Engadget giveaway: Win a Robin ‘cloud phone’ courtesy of Nextbit!
In case you weren’t paying attention, the unique Nextbit Robin phone launched earlier in the year and this week, two lucky readers will get one of their own. The company’s founders and staff have a storied work history spanning Android, Cyanogen, Motorola and more, leading to the development of the Robin. It runs Nextbit OS, which is a subtly skinned version of Android 6.0, but its key strength is the cloud (OK, and the design). You get 32GB of onboard storage paired with 100GB in the cloud and the system tracks habits and offloads photos and unused apps according to your usage. There’s a fingerprint sensor conveniently located on the power button to save a step and it sports a 5.2-inch 1080p display with Gorilla Glass 4. This particular giveaway is a limited edition “mintnight” combo color, so as unique as the Robin is, two winners will get one that’s even more so. All you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this eye-pleasing device!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
- Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
- Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
- Winners will be chosen randomly. Two (2) winners will each receive one (1) Nextbit Robin “cloud phone” (Mintnight special edition (in Midnight box), GSM: T-mobile/AT&T, 32GB built-in, 100GB online).
- If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
- This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Engadget and AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
- The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
- Entries can be submitted until June 22nd at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
Tumblr officially joins the live video party
It’s official: today, Tumblr joins Facebook, Twitter and Amazon as the latest platform to add live video streaming. In a post on Live Video dot Tumblr dot com, Yahoo’s quirky social network laid out the crucial details.
Although the Tumblr app itself doesn’t include a livestreaming feature, users can post live videos from a number of different third-party streaming apps like YouNow, Kanvas, Upclose, and YouTube, with even more expected in the future. (There’s a tiny bit of setup involved.) Live video posts can also be reblogged like any other post, meaning your beautiful, livestreaming face can spread virally across Tumblr, complete with hierarchical quotations below. If someone you follow is streaming live, that post will be pinned at the top of your dashboard so users can immediately see who is live when they log in. Finally, any videos you shoot are archived on your Tumblr with the platform’s native player, so followers can return to play them back later.
As Engadget noted yesterday, Tumblr is celebrating the launch of Live Video with a suitably zany hour and a half of live programming today, starting with “Opening remarks live from the surface of Mars” at 4 PM ET, followed by notable Tumblr blog Things Organized Neatly spending at least 10 minutes “organizing things neatly” for your in-the-moment enjoyment. There’s also a two-hour countdown to launch starting at 2 PM ET, and users who follow livevideo.tumblr.com will get a notification when the new streams go live.
Finally, TechCrunch notes a number of media partners like MTV, the Huffington Post and about a dozen others are already signed on to stream live events and content.
The best air conditioner
By Liam McCabe
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 five summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we’ve learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. It cools as efficiently and effectively as any of the latest ACs with an equal Btu rating, and compared with other window ACs at this price, it’s easier on the ears and gives you more control. The LG is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too.
How we picked and tested
The air conditioners we tested in 2016. (Note: Stacking them in this way does not constitute a proper installation.) Photo: Liam McCabe
For this guide, we focused on 8,000-Btu window air conditioners because it’s the most popular size at retail, which implies that it’s what most people need. These ACs are suited for spaces between 300 and 350 square feet, roughly the size of a comfy living room or large master bedroom. We tracked down about 30 current-model window air conditioners with that cooling capacity. Then, based on specs, features, price, and our experience with older versions of some models, we settled on seven finalists.
We focused on noise as the primary distinguishing factor. Window air conditioners are all pretty damn loud these days—and louder than they used to be. But some models are easier on the ears than others, and we heavily favored air conditioners with a lower operating volume and a smoother frequency response.
The other way we judged our finalists was the level (and quality) of user control they allowed. One important area where window ACs can differ is their fan vents, which control the direction of airflow. If you sleep near your AC, you’ll want to be able to point the cold air away from your body, or at least away from your head. But some models have blind spots where airflow can either never reach or always reaches. We also considered the number of fan speeds, extra cooling modes, and the depth of remote control.
Our pick
The LG LW8016ER is the best affordable AC for a home office or living area because it’s quietish, gives you more control than others, and tends to cost less than its competition. Photo: Liam McCabe
The LG LW8016ER is the window AC you should probably get, especially if it’s for an office, den, or other room where you won’t be sleeping. Though for some people, it’ll be fine in the bedroom, too. Its price is fair, and this model is widely available, so you’ll have no trouble running out and grabbing it for a decent price on short notice—for instance, in the middle of a heat wave, like when you’re probably reading this article. Compared with other ACs at this price, it’s quieter and hums along at a lower pitch, so it’s easier on the ears. And though AC controls aren’t rocket science, this one offers a greater level of flexibility in total than most of its competitors, covering all the little details—from the fan’s directional controls and outdoor-air vent to the dehumidifier mode and removable drain plug.
Affordable, available, and a bit loud
A close look at the fan blades on the Frigidaire—our previous pick—a solid window unit that’s a bit loud compared with the units we’ve found this year. Photo: Liam McCabe
If our main pick is sold out, grab the Frigidaire FFRE0833S1, our former top pick in this guide. It’s a little bit louder and higher-pitched than our new pick, but it’s an equally capable performer that’s usually around the same price. The Frigidaire is also a little bit easier to install because it’s smaller and lighter.
Quieter but pricier
The Haier Serenity Series ESAQ408P is a great AC for a bedroom because it’s much quieter than its competitors. Photo: Liam McCabe
If you’re installing an air conditioner in your bedroom, or you just value peace and quiet in any other room, treat yourself to the (relatively) hushed performance of the Haier Serenity Series ESAQ408P. It gets quieter than any other window air conditioner we tested, offers tons of control, and is relatively easy to install.
If you need a portable
The Haier HPN12XCM is the least-worst portable air conditioner we tested. It runs quieter, rolls around easier, and looks better. Photo: Liam McCabe
Though a window (or wall) air conditioner is almost always a more effective, efficient way to control a room’s climate, sometimes a portable is the only kind of AC that fits your space. So if you need one, we think that the Haier HPN12XCM is the best portable air conditioner for most people. It offers the best combination of cooling comfort, intuitive control, portability, and quiet operation among its competitors.
If the Haier is sold out or its price jumps, the LG LP1215GXR is a good alternative.
The right air conditioner size for you
Measure the square footage of the room you need to cool, then look at this Energy Star chart to find the appropriate cooling capacity, as measured in British thermal units (Btu). For most people, it’s as simple as that. You won’t always be able to find an AC with the perfect Btu rating, so you might have to round up. For example, nobody makes a 9,000-Btu window AC, so a 10,000-Btu window AC is the next-best option in that case.
Don’t fall into the trap of buying a significantly under- or overpowered air conditioner. Smaller units cost less, so you may be tempted to size down if you’re looking to save a few bucks. But an underpowered AC will run constantly, trying and failing to get the room down to the target temperature and a comfortable humidity. If you get a unit that’s too big, it can leave your room feeling clammy because it reduces temperature faster than it removes moisture from the air.
Need to cool multiple rooms? It’s more effective to get several smaller air conditioners and put one in each room than to buy one big unit. Sure, you’ll have to spend more money to buy two 6,000-Btu ACs than you would to buy a single 12,000-Btu AC. But you’ll get much more accurate, comfortable climate control when you use the right machine for each room.
This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.
Twitter has a new app to help celebrities chat with fans
To help celebrities, public figures and other influencers more actively engage with their audiences, Twitter has a new standalone app that offers some helpful insight. The appropriately named Engage app is divided into three main sections to break down the social info. FIrst, there’s a section that lets you know when someone verified follows or mentions you alongside tweets from the most loyal fans and accounts that are followed by several of the your followers. That’s also a an “Understand” section for the analytics numbers for showing likes, retweets, mentions, impressions and more.
For details on individual tweets, the “Posts” tab offers more specific numbers. The Engage app doesn’t feature a timeline though, as it’s meant to compliment the flagship social software with all the analytics info. Unlike other apps we’ve seen that offer these post numbers, Engage will be open to all users and not just verified accounts. It’s a similar concept to Facebook’s Mentions app which helps “public figures” stay on top of their internet image, only this time it’ll be available to anyone on Twitter. As for Engage, it’s heading to the iTunes App Store today. Sorry Android fans, this one’s iOS only.
Via: The Verge
Source: Twitter
Brain-like computers may now be realistic
Power consumption is one of the biggest reasons why you haven’t seen a brain-like computer beyond the lab: the artificial synapses you’d need tend to draw much more power than the real thing. Thankfully, realistic energy use is no longer an unattainable dream. Researchers have built nanowire synapses that consume just 1.23 femtojoules of power — for reference, a real neuron uses 10 femtojoules. They achieve that extremely low demand by using a wrap of two organic materials to release and trap ions, much like real nerve fibers.
There’s a lot of work to be done before this is practical. The scientists want to shrink their nanowires down from 200 nanometers thick to a few dozen, and they’d need new 3D printing techniques to create structures that more closely imitate real brains. Nonetheless, the concept of computers with brain-level complexity is that much more realistic — the team tells Scientific American that it could see applications in everything from smarter robots and self-driving cars through to advanced medical diagnosis.
Via: Scientific American
Source: Science Advances
‘Outlast 2’ drops you in a desert for a fresh batch of nightmares
The Outlast 2 demo made me jump and shriek in the middle of the E3 show floor, in Microsoft’s rowdy Xbox space where I was surrounded by swashbuckling pirates, roaring racing games and joyous fans. With my clammy fingers gripping an Xbox One controller, headphones hugging my ears, Outlast 2 sucked me in. Its setting, a pitch-black northern Arizona desert, was impressively immersive — not to mention accurate to the actual Supai region that inspired it. I should know; I’ve backpacked through the area (and now I may never do so again).
The Outlast 2 demo is horrifying, wonderful, gruesome and downright marvelous — in a bone-chilling kind of way.
Outlast 2 stars investigative journalists Blake and Lynn Langermann, a husband-and-wife team who set out on a mission to uncover the truth behind the murder of a pregnant woman known only as Jane Doe. The search leads them to the Arizona desert’s northern Supai region, an area nestled in the Grand Canyon and filled with towering mountains, rust-colored dirt, prickly cacti, massive waterfalls and sparse yet hearty vegetation. It’s gorgeous (when it’s not infested with murderous demons).
The demo opens with Blake and Lynn speaking over a helicopter’s communication system, but their words quickly turn to screams as the copter spins out and crashes into the desert below. Blake survives, glasses, camera and all, and he cries out for Lynn in the midnight desert landscape. From a first-person perspective, Blake begins scouring the land for Lynn, eventually running into a series of ramshackle houses and barns.
Some of the buildings are dimly lit, but other areas are completely engulfed in blackness. Just as in the original Outlast (which I adored), Blake can use his camcorder’s night vision to see in the dark, lending a majority of the game an unearthly, eerie green glow. Also mirroring the first installment, night vision quickly drains the camera, sending Blake on a constant, frantic hunt for fresh batteries. This is on top of the constant, frantic hunt for Lynn, and Blake’s desperate attempts to outrun the violent demons and townsfolk occupying the small desert town. Outlast is a brilliantly panicky franchise and from what I’ve seen, the sequel proudly continues this trend.
The tiny, scattered town is rife with religious imagery and bloodshed. Crosses hang from the doorways and under one canopy, flies swarm around a pile of blood and dismembered limbs. Dead bodies litter the village. Blake spots townsfolk as he searches the houses and shacks, though at first they simply stare at him with glowing green night-vision eyes and then fade silently into the night. After a while, though, they begin to chase Blake, intent on killing him. He screams for his wife and he hears horrified shrieks in return.
Blake runs. At one point, I direct him straight into a cactus and it actually does damage, slowing him down for a second while he recovers. His breaths huff in my ears as he becomes more panicked and bodiless whispers assault my senses, sending shivers down my spine. The townsfolk have flashlights and Blake hides from their beams in a corn field; the town is walled off in certain places, subtly nudging players in the correct direction while imparting the illusion of choice in an open world.
Eventually, Blake stumbles across a well. As he peers into it, tongue-like tentacles emerge from the black pit and suck him down. He ends up in a vent system with a deep, malicious voice ringing in his ears. The demonic voice laughs as he crawls across the thin metal, peering backward every now and then with a single button press as other voices join the tunnel of terror. The vent eventually falls and Blake emerges in a well-lit classroom covered in crosses and posters glorifying Jesus. He’s landed in a Catholic school.
As if Catholic school weren’t terrifying enough, the hallways are dark and filled with shifting, shooting shadows. As Blake walks along aisles of lockers, black silhouettes materialize and disappear right by his sides, until eventually the entire hallway is overrun with ghostly energy, lockers banging open and closed in a riotous cacophony.
Blake is familiar with this school and he makes his way into another hallway, where he begins screaming for Jessica, a young girl he once knew. She runs by, a small girl in a prim school uniform, and Blake runs into the hallway, only to see her body hanging from the ceiling. It’s sucked up by demonic hands and tentacles as Blake yells her name.
Soon after, Blake finds himself back in the high desert, running from the townsfolk once again — and from something much more sinister. As the tall, gangly men with flashlights hunt him down, their voices creeping ever closer, Blake runs directly into an otherworldly figure — a woman with a horrifying, lifeless face and a giant homemade axe-like weapon. Blake falls on his back in front of her and she brings the weapon down hard between his legs. He looks down as she rakes the axe head back, leaving behind a bloody mess where Blake’s crotch used to be. Fade to black. Outlast 2 demo complete.
Similarly, my Supai hiking career may also be complete.
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