Blizzard is ditching the Battle.net name
Battle.net has been synonymous with Blizzard for most of the game studio’s history, and for good reason: from Diablo onward, the online service helped usher in the concept of free, fully-integrated multiplayer matchmaking. Times have changed, however, and Blizzard is putting the Battle.net name to rest. The underlying technology will remain, but you’ll see it referred to simply as Blizzard technology. The Battle.net label is outdated in an era where native multiplayer support is “more of a normal expectation” than a novelty, the developer says. Moreover, the branding is sometimes confusing and redundant. Why does Blizzard have to treat its own service as a separate beast?
The transition should take place over the “next several months.”
It’s a sad day for longstanding Blizzard fans, but you could also say that it’s overdue. The Battle.net name is a holdover from the days when GameSpy, TEN and other third-party services were virtually necessary to join online games for those players not intimately familiar with IP addresses. They lost their main reason for being when many games started treating multiplayer as a central feature, and broadband internet access made it almost trivially easy to find and join matches.
Via: Kotaku
Source: Blizzard
Adidas shows off the first shoe made at its robot factory
Last last year, Adidas began rolling out its plans for Speedfactory, a set of robot-staffed manufacturing facilities located in Germany and, soon, the US. Today, the sportswear giant revealed the first silhouette developed through this new project, known as Futurecraft M.F.G. It’s a sleek running shoe that features Adidas’ trademark Primeknit upper and Boost midsole, similar to what you see on popular models like Kanye West’s Yeezy 350s.
While there is some human assistance during the assembly process, as shown in the video below, the majority of the crafting is done by the machines. What’s more, the design itself relies heavily on data from ARAMIS, a motion capture technology that maps an individual’s skin, bone and muscle to create a more comfortable shoe.
Adidas says the M.F.G. (aka “Made for Germany”) is only the beginning, with more products expected to come over the next few months. The company has been pushing the envelope with its Futurecraft line recently, which also includes sneakers made partially with 3D-printed materials.
Don’t hold your breath if you want a pair of Futurecraft M.F.G., though, since only 500 pairs will be available for an undisclosed price.
Listen to Monday Night Football in noisy bars – CNET
Of all of the crises faced by this great nation — and there are many — few rival the aggravation caused when you can’t hear the TV!
Suppose, for example, you’re trying to watch football at the local wings-and-beer joint, but there’s too much noise; you can’t hear the commentary, can’t hear the instant-replay results of that controversial call.
Suppose crazy Uncle Mike (who’s also mostly deaf) wants to watch his political-punditry shows at full volume while the rest of you are trying to each a peaceful (and non-political) dinner.
Let Tunity do a quick-scan of any TV at the gym, then it’ll pipe the audio right to your headphones. Handy!
Tunity
Or suppose you just want to watch TV in bed, but your spouse just wants to sleep.
For those and other situations, you need a way to hear TV audio without disturbing — or being disturbed by — others. App to the rescue!
Tunity streams TV audio to your smartphone. Available for Android and iOS, it’s a free and (mostly) effective solution.
It works like this: You simply point your phone’s camera at the TV and let the Tunity app “scan” the screen. Although the actual scanning happens very quickly, it can take a full 10 to 20 seconds for the audio to kick in. So it’s not ideal for channel-hoppers.
But it’s definitely ideal for football fans: According to the developer, Tunity will support over 95 percent of NFL games this season and all national Division I college football games.
In my tests (Comcast + iPhone 6s Plus), the app worked as advertised on major networks like A&E, ESPN, Food Network and TNT (it supports a whopping 100 channels, way more than it used to). But it had trouble with the local cable channel that airs my Detroit Tigers games.
Also, Tunity works only with live broadcasts, meaning you can’t use it with shows you’ve recorded. Even if you just hit pause on your DVR, the audio will continue, effectively leaving you out of sync until you “catch up” to the live stream.
If and when the audio lands out of sync, you can tap the fine-tune controls to adjust it.
Owners of certain Roku models know the joys of plugging a pair of headphones into the remote for silent listening. Tunity affords the same thing for live TV, but costs nothing except some of your smartphone’s juice.
This probably isn’t something you’d use every day, but when you need it? Wow, is it handy.
8 tips for using Google Allo – CNET
Is Google Allo the next big thing in messaging apps? Maybe…or maybe not. The new “smart” messaging app is actually pretty straightforward — especially if you’ve used its competitors, such as Whatsapp or Line, in the past — but it does have a few tricks up its sleeve (namely, that in-chat Google search that nobody will ever be able to do as well as, well, Google).
You won’t have too much trouble finding your way around Google Allo if you spend a few minutes playing with it, but here are some tips and tricks you may have missed:
Edit your profile
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
At the moment, Google Allo profiles are pretty bare-bones — you can add a profile picture and your name…and that’s it. You’ll set up your profile when you set up the app, but it’s not set in stone. To edit your profile — either the picture or the name — tap the menu button in the upper-left corner, go to Profile, and tap the edit button (pen) in the upper-right corner of your picture. Edit your name or take/choose a new photo and hit Save.
Search messages by keyword
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
The search bar at the top of the Google Allo app is actually pretty handy, because it can dig through your message history to find keywords. Just tap the search icon to open the search bar and then type in the keyword or phrase you’re looking for, and results will populate automatically. Tap a result to go directly to the message with the keyword in it.
Note: The search bar currently only appears in the Android version of Google Allo.
Set up custom notification sounds
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
Custom notification sounds for specific contacts is a handy feature if you want to prioritize some messages over others. To set a custom notification sound for a contact, open that contact’s chat window and tap on their name at the top of the screen to open their profile. Here, you’ll be able to see their profile picture, name and phone number, and you will also see their current Notification sound. Tap this to bring up a list of notification sounds and choose the notification sound you want to play when they send a message through Allo.
Note: Custom notification sounds are currently only an option in the Android version of Google Allo.
Find your personal info with Google Assistant
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
Google Assistant is more than just an in-chat search tool — it’s also a personal assistant connected to your Google account. This means you can ask the assistant to find personal info, such as your upcoming flights or emails you received yesterday, and display them in the chat box. To do this, just open the Google Assistant chat and type in something like “what are my flights” to reveal upcoming travel plans (as logged in your Gmail inbox).
Disconnect your Google account
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
Google Allo automatically connects to the Google account on your device, but you can easily disconnect this account (if you’d prefer for Google Assistant to stay out of your email) or switch to a different account. To do this, tap the menu button in the upper left corner and go to Settings > Google account. Under the listed account, tap DISCONNECT to disconnect.
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
If no account is connected (or, once you disconnect), tap Google account and then tap Add account to connect a different Google account.
Events, reminders and alarms
Google Assistant can add events to your Google calendar, set up reminders and set your phone’s alarm.
To add an event to your calendar, open the Google Assistant chat and type “add to calendar.” The assistant will walk you through adding your event by asking for the event name and time and date. To see what your calendar looks like, type “show schedule.”
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
To add a reminder, type in “reminder,” and the assistant will walk you through adding a reminder. You can use natural language to add a reminder — something like “remind me to walk dogs in 20 min” will trigger a reminder. You can also type “show upcoming reminders” to see upcoming reminders that have been scheduled.
To add an alarm, type “add alarm’”(you can be more specific — e.g. “add alarm 9 am Thursday”). Type “see alarms” to open your phone’s alarm app. This feature only works in the Android version of Google Allo.
Play games
Google Allo offers both multiplayer games (that you can play with chat mates) and single-player games that you can play…by yourself, if you feel so inclined.
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
To start playing games in a chat with someone else, open the Google Assistant by typing “@google” and then type “play games.” You can play one of two games: Emoji Movies, which is a game where you guess movie titles based on a string of emojis, and Emoji Riddle, which is a game where you guess the emoji based on a riddle. Google Assistant will keep score if you’re playing with a friend.
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
To open up the single-player options, open the Google Assistant chat and type “play games.” You can play Emoji Movies or Emoji Riddles, or you can pick from a variety of other types of games, including quiz games, Google Doodle games or classic games such as tic-tac-toe or solitaire.
Block people
At the moment, it looks like anyone with your phone number can message you on Google Allo — there doesn’t appear to be a way to hide your number or make yourself unsearchable, though you can unregister your phone number completely (but doing this will also delete chats, remove you from groups, and make Allo generally unusable).
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
You can, however, block people on Allo, but only once a chat has been started. To block someone on the Android version of the app, you’ll need to find their name in your chat list and tap and hold until a menu comes up. Choose Block from this menu.
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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
To block someone on the iOS version of the app, you’ll need to open their chat and then tap their profile picture in the upper-right corner and tap View [contact’s] profile. In their profile page, you’ll see an option to block them.
How to force quit a problematic app on the Apple Watch – CNET
In the event an app on your Apple Watch stops responding, you can force quit the app instead of restarting your entire device. I’ve had to do this a number of times since iOS 10 and WatchOS 3 were released.
The next time you find yourself staring at a watch app that won’t load, or is behaving oddly, try this:
- Press and hold the side button (the button just below the Digital Crown) until the shutdown screen appears.
- Let go of the side button, then press and hold the Digital Crown.
After a few seconds, a brief animation will return you home screen of your watch. The end result is the app being closed. This process is specific to WatchOS 3. Earlier versions of WatchOS required you to hold in the side button until the shutdown screen appears, then release and press it again. With WatchOS 3, the side button now activates the new Emergency SOS mode.
Editors’ note: This post was originally published on April 27 2016, and has been updated to clarify the new process with the release of WatchOS 3.
7 ways to remove a stubborn jar lid – CNET
At one point or another, everyone faces a jar lid that simply won’t budge. Whether you have a hankering for salsa, jelly or pickles, these tricks can help you pop the top on any jar lid that puts up a fight.
Give it a whack
Sometimes jar lids get stuck due to an extra strong seal from the factory. To break that seal and make removing the lid easier, you can turn the jar upside down and whack the bottom of it with the palm of your hand. If there is enough room for the contents of the jar to shift, this will send it all to the lid and might break the seal.
Warm water
Taylor Martin/CNET
If you’re having trouble removing a stuck lid, you may only need some warm water to remove it.
Try placing the jar lid under the faucet in your kitchen sink and turning on the hot water. Keep it there while the water warms up and continue holding it for at least 30 seconds after the water has turned hot. Alternatively, you could fill a bowl with hot water and place the jar upside down in the water, leaving it there for around 30 seconds.
The hot water will help expand the metal lid (more so than the glass), making it easier to remove.
Hair dryer
Another option for heating the lid is using a hair dryer. Set the hair dryer to high heat and blow the hot air over the lid for 30 seconds to a minute. This will also warm up the lid and will help it release much easier.
Tap above the threads
If you’re dealing with a more sticky food, such as jam or preserves, the food can stick to the threads and cause them to lock up over time. Giving the lid a few taps around the rim (directly over the threads) with a wooden spoon or the pommel of a kitchen knife can help break the threads loose.
A spoon or butter knife
Taylor Martin/CNET
Rather than tapping on the top of the lid to break loose the threads, you can also try using a thin, narrow object, like a spoon or butter knife, to slide under the lid and gently pry the lid out enough to break the seal. This method should be used as a last resort, as using something to pry against the glass could cause it to break, potentially ruining anything inside the jar.
A can- or bottle-opener work well as pry tools for this method, as well.
Silicon trivet
Jars often have slick metal lids. Sometimes, all you really need is something that will give you a better grip. For this, look for something nearby that is rubber or silicone.
You can try draping a textured hand towel or a silicone trivet over the lid for better friction. You can also use a rubber cleaning glove or even try stretching a rubber band around the outside of the lid. All of these will give you a better grip on the lid, making it easier to twist off.
Duct tape
Taylor Martin/CNET
Finally, you can give yourself more leverage by creating a makeshift handle out of duct tape. It won’t be pretty, but it will make the lid easier to remove.
Start by tearing off a piece of duct tape approximately 8 inches long (20 centimeters). I ended up needing to double-layer the duct tape — a single layer couldn’t handle the stress of pulling. Apply a couple inches of the tape to the circumference of the lid and press it firmly into place, folding the tape onto the top of the lid. Fold the excess tape in half to create a handle. Rotate the jar so that the handle makes a 90 degree angle with the tape attached to the lid. Then, hold the jar steady with your non-dominant hand and, with your dominant hand, pull the makeshift handle towards you.
This should create a twisting motion and the lid should pop off. Just be careful, as the lid will sometimes come off rather violently, which can cause a big mess.
Best MicroSD Card For Android
Behold: The best tiny cards for storing your stuff.
microSD cards, where they’re supported, are a great way to add extra storage to an Android phone or tablet. You can easily offload photos, videos and music to the external card, thus freeing up valuable internal space for apps. And certain Android 6.0 and above phones even let you plug in a microSD and use it to directly boost your storage for all things — including apps.
But the microSD standard has been around for longer than Android, and not all cards are equal. So we’ve rounded up the best out there.
Best top-tier
Samsung EVO+ 256GB
See at Amazon
Samsung’s very-highest-of-the-high-end microSD card isn’t cheap. In fact, it’s the priciest on this list. But you’re also getting a winning combination of performance and storage capacity, with 90MB/sec write speeds and 95MB/sec reads, and an enormous 256GB of space.
That’s more than you’ll never need in a smartphone, and the high read/write speeds will help if you’re shooting lots of 4K video on a high-end phone like the Galaxy S7 (as too will that enormous capacity.) Better still, it’s water, temperature, X-ray and magnetic proof, so you needn’t worry about it getting damaged while you’re out and about.
Best value – capacity
PNY Elite 128GB
See at Amazon
If you want a nice high storage capacity without breaking the bank, PNY’s UHS-I 128GB card is a good option — $34.89 gets you a staggering amount of storage, and with pretty fast read speeds to boot — up to 85MB/s. It’s about the lowest price we’ve seen for a 128GB card, and a great way to free up a ton of space on your phone or tablet.
What’s more, you can pay an extra $10 at checkout and get an OTG reader thrown in too.
Best value – speed
Lexar Professional 1000x 32GB UHS-II/U3
See at Amazon
If speed is more important — for example, if you’re using Android’s Adoptable Storage feature to keep apps on your SD card — you might want to give this Lexar card a shot. It uses UHS-II flash memory and boasts read speeds of up to 150MB/sec. The capacity isn’t the greatest, but if you’re up for paying $14 more you can double your capacity to 64GB.
The Lexar card also comes with a USB reader for plugging into your PC.
Best Balanced
SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB UHS-I/U3
See at Amazon
This SanDisk card won’t break the bank at a little under $45, but offers a great balance of speed and capacity. 64GB should be enough for most people’s photo, video and offline music needs, while the card’s speed rating offers up to 90MB/sec writes and 95MB/sec reads.
The card also comes with a full-sized SD adapter, for plugging into a laptop or camera.
Break the spell with these Beauty and the Beast wallpapers
Beauty and the Beast is one of the greatest animated movies of all time (don’t worry, Ariel, you’re still #1 in my heart!). 2016 marks the 25th anniversary if its release, which Disney has celebrated by releasing a special edition on Blu-ray, DVD, and for the first time, digital! After you go grab it from Google Play and sing along, bring some of that magic to your home screen with these beautiful wallpapers!
The enchanted rose is one of the most iconic symbols in Disney, and the subject of no small number of works. While this one does have black bars at the top and bottom, it’s too beautiful a work to deny (besides, that’s why we can zoom in wallpapers). The glow off the bell jar, the petals scattering, the magic dripping down from above… makes a girl go weak at the knees.
The Enchanted Rose by Tigermint
“I want adventure in the great wide somewhere! I want it more than I can tell!”
If this line never called to you as a kid or an adult, then you can get out. Belle was a strong, intelligent, woman who stood up for herself and those important to her, but the trait I most loved in her was that desire to be more, to find more, to escape her comfortable little corner of the world for something more exciting. This bright wallpaper also has a lot of clear sky above our dreaming princess with plenty of space for icons.
This Provicial Life by alicexz
Belle’s dress has been beautifully portrayed in so many styles and lights, but this soft, fuzzy piece gives a beautiful simplicity and grace to it, and to the princess wearing it. The cobwebs playing over the frame and the soft lighting throughout the work make it a wallpaper that works exceedingly well.
Also, can I steal that dress? No? Fine….
The West Wing by Elf-in-mirror
The magic of the Beast’s transformation is breathtaking, but it’s merely a taste of the magic to come. See, the spell may have been broken by Belle admitting that she loved him, but the spell on the castle and the enchanted objects wasn’t broken until Belle acknowledged and accepted her prince in his ‘new’ form. Kisses have broken spells many a time in Disney fantasies, but none are so literally magical as the one shared by Belle and Prince Adam.
It’s you by YoriNarpati
Gaston is an amazing musical number for kids and adults alike, but it gains new levels of brilliance and bluster as an adult as you start to get the subversive tones of the song. Gaston is basically the manliest of men to ever grace a Disney film, and that gutsy glory is now on display at the Magic Kingdom, where Gaston has his own larger than life statue in the fountain outside his tavern. It’s a beautiful fountain and a beautiful dark image by Disney Parks Blog, and as always, Pierrot le Fou is right by his side… or in this case, under his side.
Gaston
Slap a Pebble Time to your wrist for just $90 right now!
Right now you can pick up a Pebble Time smartwatch for just $90 at Amazon, a savings of $60 from its regular price. If you aren’t a fan of the current Android Wear watches and still want something to deliver notifications to your wrist, this is worth checking out. The Pebble Time is the first smartwatch from the company that offers a color display and its new Timeline OS. Pebble has also introduced a number of activity tracking and health functions in the watch, making it part fitness tracker part smartwatch.
If you are looking for a new wrist gadget, be sure to check this $60 savings out. Which color will you buy? Let us know in the comments!
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Samsung going to great lengths to force return of recalled Note 7s
Samsung is taking unprecedented steps to convince customers to return recalled Galaxy Note 7s.
“Most Canadians are extremely supportive of how we’ve handled things,” says Paul Brannen, COO and Executive Vice President of Samsung Canada, in a Toronto board room.
He’s talking with reporters in 15-minute sessions, hoping to quickly cut to the essential truth of the issue: Samsung Canada has handled the Galaxy Note 7 recall better than any other region. He conveys this without saying it, noting that Samsung has managed the return of 70% of the nearly 22,000 outstanding devices, and already has the inventory to replace that number and more with phones containing updated, safe battery cells.
Samsung and its carrier partners plan to issue a software update to all Note 7 units that will make it very clear which devices are safe for use.
The number is certainly smaller than the one million-plus that needed to be corralled in the U.S., but Brannen is emphatic that his team took the appropriate steps between the stop-sell order on September 2, the publishing of a recall replacement form on September 6, and the official Health Canada recall on September 13, to earn the support and trust of the Canadian public.
“We’ve had a lot of long nights, and not a lot of sleep,” he says, referring to a so-called “Tiger Team” of lawyers, public relations, and logistics personnel convened to ensure that the recall process was implemented in the correct order.
Now, after just under two weeks into the replacement cycle, Samsung Canada and its carrier partners plan to issue a software update to all Note 7 units that will make it very clear which devices are safe for use, and which still need to be returned. As we’ve already heard from other regions, including the U.S., Note 7 units with certified safe battery cells will have a green battery indicator in the notification shade, along with a new green battery icon in the phone’s power menu.
The update, which will be issued on September 21, will roll out simultaneously to all carriers, and will not be optional: users will be reminded to install it every three hours until it is applied. After installing, the remaining 6,600 or so Note 7 users stubbornly holding onto their old devices will see warnings and reminders to return the phone to Samsung Canada every time they start up or shut down.
“The goal is to have 100% of the affected devices replaced,” says Brannen, “and these steps are the way to ensure that happens.” That Canada was the first to ship replacement units to customers, and has the lowest number of complaints of all the regions that were selling the Note 7 before it was recalled is a bright spot in this largely negative experience, but Brannen assures me that the Note brand, and Samsung’s long-term health, are salvageable.
“We’ve had very few people [get a refund] and say they don’t want the device anymore,” he says. Even fewer have exchanged their Note 7 units for Galaxy S7 models, which is an option for those who don’t want to wait. “Note users are probably the most loyal customers there are,” says Brannen.
It’s unclear whether the recall will negatively affect the long-term perception of Samsung as a trustworthy company
Some analysts dispute the notion that most Note 7 users are deciding to wait for replacements. While Canadian carriers had new stock within a week of the recall, early reports out of the U.S. suggest that the Note 7 recall was a boon to early iPhone 7 Plus sales, though without Apple releasing any first-weekend sales numbers this year it’s difficult to know for sure.
It’s also unclear whether the recall will negatively affect the long-term perception of Samsung as a trustworthy company; a number of airlines, which have banned the use of the Note 7 based on orders from the FAA and Transport Canada, were mistakenly calling for the shut down of all Galaxy-branded devices prior to liftoff, though Brannen assures me that such occurrences were rare, and have since been corrected.
More: How to exchange your recalled Galaxy Note 7 in Canada
“Many people laughed at us when we came out with the [original] Note,” he continues. “Now people upgrade to a new model every year.” While Brannen only speaks for the Canadian market, his comments are similar to those of Tim Baxter, President and COO of Samsung America, who soberly addressed affected Note 7 owners in a video last week. “At Samsung, our highest priority is our customers,” said Baxter. “With battery defects in some of our Note 7 phones, we did not meet the standard of excellence that you expect and deserve. For that, we apologize.”
Indeed, the Canadian market is well ahead of its U.S. counterpart in acquiring and replacing Note 7 units, but their messages are the same: customer safety is the number one priority, so if you haven’t done so already, shut down your phone and return it.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
- Galaxy Note 7 recall: Everything you need to know
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
- The latest Galaxy Note 7 news!
- Here are all four Note 7 colors
- Complete Galaxy Note 7 specs
- Join the Note 7 discussion in the forums!
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