AT&T actually wants to save you data with ‘Stream Saver’
AT&T wants to help save your data with Stream Saver.
AT&T will be rolling out a free data-saving feature for mobile customers in 2017. It’s called Stream Saver, and it will be available to most AT&T mobile customers with a data plan, including GoPhone customers. Once activated on your AT&T account, customers will have the freedom to turn the feature on and off as needed through myAT&T account settings.
From the press release:
Stream Saver lets you watch more video on your wireless phone or tablet while using less data, by streaming most higher definition video at standard definition quality, similar to DVD (about 480p). Stream Saver helps your data go further.
That means more emailing, surfing, shopping, navigating, listening to music, and of course, more video.
But like all things, you’ll want to check out the fine print. At the bottom of their release, AT&T vaguely states that Stream Saver won’t necessarily work with all video, due to the way some content owners deliver their video streams. We will likely have to wait until Stream Saver rolls out to find out which services might not be included.
This seems to be AT&T’s response to T-Mobile’s Binge On service, which lets customers stream video from specific services such as Netflix, Hulu and HBO Go without it counting towards their monthly data cap. Binge On garnered scorn from net neutrality advocates who argue zero-rated plans give an unfair edge to the major content providers. AT&T’s plan appears to avoid such controversies by treating all video streaming equally, but again we will have to wait and see which video services will and will not be be compatible with Stream Saver.
Get your mini NES Classic Edition today on Amazon at 5 p.m. ET
You can order the NES Classic Edition from Amazon today at 5PM ET, but it is expected to sell out in a flash, so get ready!
Nintendo is selling an adorable throwback console game system NES Classic Edition for a measly $60. Talk about the perfect holiday gift! It comes with 30 original titles in all of their 8-bit glory. It’s only been on sale for a few hours and it is already sold out at most retail locations.
Amazon is selling the NES Classic Edition starting at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT. Unfortunately, the largest retailer in the world will only have “very limited quantities” at launch. Amazon notes that demand is expected to be very high. The online seller will have more in stock over the coming weeks, but if you want one right away, it’s going to be tough.
So, load up the web page, set an alarm, and get your clicking finger ready. It is limited to one order per customer, so if you want more than one, you’re going to have to get some help.
If you’re worried about having to sit two feet away from your giant 40-inch television screen to play these highly pixelated games, you can always get yourself a controller cable extender like this one.
Good luck!
See at Amazon
Best Calendar Apps for Android
For simplicity, power and the best integration with various calendar sources, Google Calendar is the way to go.
Best overall
Google Calendar
See on Google Play
Google’s own calendar app has been refined over the years to a point where it’s both elegant and functional. And it’s not just for Google stored calendars, either, with support for “all calendars on your phone, including Exchange.”
Some of the nifty features on hand include a schedule view with photos and maps of places you’ll be heading to, smart suggestions on places, people and the ability to create calendar events based on reservations for things like flights and restaurants that appear in your Gmail inbox.
If it didn’t already come pre-loaded on your phone, you can get it for free.
Bottom Line: If you’re looking for a calendar that covers all the bases then Google Calendar is a top pick.
One More Thing: Google Calendar also jives well with Google Assistant, making it an especially good choice if you’ve got a Pixel or Pixel XL.
Why Google Calendar is the best
Sometimes stock is more than enough. Google’s calendar app is more than capable to handle all your scheduling needs, while keeping things simple and clean.
With the power of Google behind it, this app is smart enough to suggest titles, contacts and places as you type in your event information. It will also automatically scan your Gmail and add reservations for flights, restaurants and more if you allow permission for it. Essentially, if you’ve enjoyed using other Google products and apps, you’ll be more than happy with everything that Google has included here.
Best for email integration
Microsoft Outlook
See on Google Play
Not the first app you might think of when looking for a calendar, but the truth is that Microsoft Outlook on Android is really good. It combines your email, including Gmail, and calendars, including Google, inside one app so you can manage both in one hit.
Microsoft recently acquired the hugely popular Sunrise Calendar, and it has been fold into its Outlook apps. That combination of Sunrise smarts and Outlook power has produced something worth checking out.
Bottom-line: Microsoft Outlook is a good option if you want to access your email and calendar all in one place.
One more thing: Event icons are just one of the features that the Sunrise team has brought into the fold. Try typing “coffee” or “lunch” the next time you create an event and just see what happens in your agenda view.
Best design
SolCalendar
See on Google Play
SolCalendar is described as a “life management tool” and it’s not far from the truth. Besides a whole bunch of different calendars, Sol will pull in weather reports, sync with Google Tasks, supports Google Maps and Foursquare integrations, Lunar Calendars and more.
And it’s all wrapped up into an elegant and intuitive user experience that also boasts some fancy looking home screen widgets, too.
Bottom-line: SolCalendar features a beautiful design and is considered one of the best alternatives to Google Calendar.
One more thing: Use stickers to add some fun flair to your calendar.
Best overall
Google Calendar
See on Google Play
Google’s own calendar app has been refined over the years to a point where it’s both elegant and functional. And it’s not just for Google stored calendars, either, with support for “all calendars on your phone, including Exchange.”
Some of the nifty features on hand include a schedule view with photos and maps of places you’ll be heading to, smart suggestions on places, people and the ability to create calendar events based on reservations for things like flights and restaurants that appear in your Gmail inbox.
If it didn’t already come pre-loaded on your phone, you can get it for free.
Bottom Line: If you’re looking for a calendar that covers all the bases then Google Calendar is a top pick.
One More Thing: Google Calendar also jives well with Google Assistant, making it an especially good choice if you’ve got a Pixel or Pixel XL.
What is the Mannequin Challenge? Plus, the best ones on the web
A new challenge is sweeping the web, but it’s nothing like the Ice Bucket one.
It’s called the Mannequin Challenge. It’s not a contest for a noble cause, and there are no winners and losers. But these “challenges” are everywhere, and everyone – from Hillary Clinton to Paul McCartney and even Beyonce – is doing them. Here’s what you need to know.
What is the Mannequin Challenge?
The Mannequin Challenge is a short video that shows people standing completely still for about a minute. Somebody films the whole scene, winding a camera through the area and sometimes showing up-close shots of the motionless, mannequin-like people.
Where did the Mannequin Challenge originate?
According to several reports, this internet sensation all started with this video from Twitter user @pvrity___. It shows a group of high school friends from Edward H. White High School in Jacksonville, Florida.
#manequinchallenge SHARE‼️ RT‼️ pic.twitter.com/k1BqR6iZ1p
— blackie (@pvrity___) October 26, 2016
Why is the Mannequin Challenge happening?
As to why it’s happening now – that answer is unclear.
What are the Mannequin Challenge rules?
There are no official rules to the Mannequin Challenge – except, of course, everyone in the frame should be still.
Presumably, each video challenge should be unique. You can use background music, or you can make the video completely silent. You can film outside, or you can shoot inside somewhere. You can film one person, or you can capture a group of people. Rae Sremmurd’s video showed many concert goers completely still while the song “Black Beatles” served as a musical backdrop.
One challenge-taker may call out another person, prompting that person to post a video, but that’s not mandatory. And once you do create a video, you can post it anywhere: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, wherever.
What are the best Mannequin Challenge videos?
Here are some of the best examples we’ve found on the web.
#Mannequinchallenge live ????????❄️ pic.twitter.com/y0aUTIfyTn
— Swae Lee Lee Swae (@iHipsterLee) November 4, 2016
Love those Black Beatles #MannequinChallenge pic.twitter.com/aAu9umHKI7
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) November 10, 2016
Here’s our sky high #mannequinchallenge! pic.twitter.com/zFugmEIDCr
— Virgin Atlantic (@VirginAtlantic) November 11, 2016
Freezing our @WhiteHouse visit in time forever with @FLOTUS!#MannequinChallenge ???????? pic.twitter.com/iX1qaJ8qQQ
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) November 11, 2016
Don’t stand still. Vote today: https://t.co/jfd3CXLD1s #ElectionDay #MannequinChallenge pic.twitter.com/4KAv2zu0rd
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 8, 2016
That James is a real crowd pleaser. #MannequinChallenge pic.twitter.com/EwqD2z5xhy
— The Late Late Show (@latelateshow) November 8, 2016
That girl is a real crowd pleaserrrrr #MannequinChallenge #dwts pic.twitter.com/empyBNcngt
— Laurie Hernandez ➶ (@lzhernandez02) November 7, 2016
Our DJs take on the #MannequinChallenge with a little help from @MeCookieMonster ????✨ pic.twitter.com/GKR604m8ig
— BBC Radio 1 (@BBCR1) November 8, 2016
Dream Team ???? #mannequinchallenge
A video posted by Blac Chyna (@blacchyna) on Nov 10, 2016 at 2:50pm PST
Mannequin challenge
A video posted by @adele on Nov 7, 2016 at 4:48pm PST
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! #mannequinchallenge #GiantsPride
A video posted by New York Giants (@nygiants) on Nov 6, 2016 at 3:24pm PST
Soooo. This happened! Last night at @chefmichaelmina test kitchen for #internationalsmoke and they’re on to the next! @ayeshacurry congrats! #mannequinchallenge
A video posted by Wardell Curry (@stephencurry30) on Nov 6, 2016 at 1:28am PST
????????????
A video posted by kellyrowland (@kellyrowland) on Nov 7, 2016 at 9:13am PST
NES Classic Edition review: The best and worst of retro gaming
“I don’t want to sit on the floor while I play video games,” my buddy Josh told me. “I’m not 7 anymore.” My friend was parked just 4 feet away from my 40-inch television, playing Ninja Gaiden on the NES Classic Edition — a tiny re-creation of Nintendo’s original home game console. The diminutive game system has everything a nostalgic gamer could want: an iconic design, a built-in collection of 30 classic games and pixel-perfect emulation. But for Josh, the two-and-a-half-foot-long controller cables were a deal-breaker. It’s a shame, too: Almost everything else about the NES Classic is perfect.
In a lot of ways, the Classic is a product that feels long overdue, if only because Nintendo’s longtime rivals have been selling officially licensed plug-and-play consoles for over a decade. These devices were relatively cheap and usually came with a robust selection of each console’s most popular games. They also had a reputation for bad sound emulation, antiquated video-output technology and poor build quality. Nintendo’s take on the mini-console is late to the party, but at least it’s fashionably late: Not only does the NES Classic offer a hearty collection of the original console’s most popular games, it delivers them to your television in crisp, high-definition resolution over HDMI.
Just as you remember it, but smaller
If you’ve seen the original Nintendo Entertainment System, you’ve basically seen the NES Classic Edition. The mini-console looks almost exactly like the gray and black box Nintendo released three decades ago, albeit at a much smaller scale. The NES Classic is, in a word, tiny — it barely stretches beyond than the length of its own gamepad at its widest point, but it’s still faithful to the device that inspired it. The same horizontal grooves reach across the top of the console’s chassis, leading down to a pair of controller ports that are exactly where you remember them to be. To the left, you’ll find a familiar red LED, as well as power and reset buttons that look identical to their progenitors. Around the back are two more connections: a micro-USB port for power, and HDMI output.
At first blush, the Classic is a dead ringer for the original, but the modernization of the NES has wrought a few minor cosmetic changes. Instead of using the original NES’s controller ports, the new console has opted for Wii Remote accessory connectors. These ports are compatible with Wii Classic Controllers and a slew of third-party accessories (more on that later), but their width cuts into the “gray” area of the NES Classic front more than the original console’s controller ports did.
Despite having a perfectly molded re-creation of the original console’s cartridge slot, the Classic’s chamber lid door is purely cosmetic — it doesn’t open. Even so, the vestigial door lends itself to the nostalgic experience. It’s the details that make the NES Classic a joy to hold and play with. Even the power button feels just like the original, depressing with a deep, springy tactility that clearly defines where the “on” position is.
It doesn’t take long before you can press that power button, either — setting up the NES Classic Edition is as easy as plugging a power cable into your TV’s spare USB port (or the included wall adapter) and hooking up an HDMI cable. That’s it.
Gaming like it’s 1985 (but better)
Nintendo’s diminutive retro console boots up in less than five seconds and presents users with what might be the most straightforward, easy-to-use menu the company has ever created. Save for a few bells and whistles, the NES Classic Edition’s menu is little more than a horizontal scrolling list of 30 of the system’s most revered titles — an alphabetical smorgasbord (see the full list below) that runs from Balloon Fight to Zelda II: Adventure of Link. Pressing select will sort the list by publisher, title, multiplayer, recently played, times played and release date, but there’s not really enough games on the list that it needs sorting options. Simply scroll left or right until you find something you like, and press start.
| The NES Classic Edition game library | |||||
| Balloon Fight | Bubble Bobble | Castlevania | Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest | Donkey Kong | Donkey Kong Jr. |
| Double Dragon II: The Revenge | Dr. Mario | Excitebike | Final Fantasy | Galaga | Ghosts and Goblins |
| Gradius | Ice Climber | Kid Icarus | Kirby’s Adventure | Mario Bros. | Mega Man 2 |
| Metroid | Ninja Gaiden | Pac-Man | Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream | StarTropics | Super C |
| Super Mario Bros. | Super Mario Bros. 2 | Super Mario Bros. 3 | Techmo Bowl | The Legend of Zelda | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link |
Playing classic Nintendo games on the mini-console is almost like having a revelation — if you’ve only ever played NES games on official hardware, you’ve never seen them look this good. Complex pixel patterns and shading that would traditionally be obscured by the blurry glow of a CRT television simply pop with detail over the Classic’s HDMI connection. Colors that once blurred together are now distinct, pulling out details like the whites behind Megaman’s eyes, or the expression on a zombie’s face in Castlevania. The Classic outperforms the Wii, Wii U and even the original NES in terms of visual quality. It’s about time, too: Nintendo has been offering classic NES games on its Virtual Console service for a decade, and until now they’ve always looked terrible.
It’s true. For some reason, Virtual Console games on the Wii and Wii U suffer from muted colors, dim contrast and a gross, blurry overlay. It’s a problem classic Nintendo fans have been aware of for years: NES games simply look better on PC emulators and third-party consoles like the Retron5 and RetroUSB AVS. The NES Classic finally closes that gap, offering an official solution for playing classic Nintendo games that can compete with the best efforts of unofficial (and sometimes legally questionable) competitors.
More important, the Classic’s high-quality emulation shows that Nintendo is finally getting serious about its digital archive of old games — if its cheap plug-and-play game console looks this good, maybe Virtual Console games on the Nintendo Switch won’t look half bad, either.
If crystal-clear pixels aren’t your thing, the Classic can accommodate. Pressing the “reset” button returns you to the main menu, where you can select from three different display modes: a “pixel perfect” setting that draws games at their native resolution; a wider, but still sharp, 4:3 presentation; or a robust CRT filter designed to simulate the blur and scanlines of an old television set. These are all pretty standard filter modes in the retro-gaming scene, but the NES Classic’s CRT mode is particularly impressive — most emulators are content with overlaying a dim layer of scanlines and calling it a day, but the Classic’s subtle blurring and pixel-distortion effects really sell the illusion. Technically, this feature makes every game look “worse” — but worse in a way that looks, well, sort of right.
Even more nostalgia can be found in the menu’s manual section — well, sort of. The game-manual icon doesn’t actually call up a list of video-game instruction booklets so much as it displays a QR code and URL that will take you to them. It feels a bit like a cop-out, but following the link is worth it. Not only does Nintendo’s NES manual website feature full digital manuals, but it also has high-resolution scans of the original printed booklets that came with each game. They’re pretty complete, too: The scanned manuals for Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda include original artwork and huge maps of each game’s overworld. It’s just a shame this content isn’t also built directly into the system. Some games, like Startropics, can’t be finished without special hints that were included in the game manual. Forcing players to access the web to beat a 30-year-old video game is a little weird.
The NES Classic’s menu has one more special feature, and it’s an important one: Suspend Points. Think of it like a bookmark feature — Suspend Points (or “save states,” as they’re commonly known) allow you to pause the game at any moment and save it for later. This can be used to add save functionality to games like Metroid and Ghosts and Goblins, or to allow you replay a challenging part of a game over and over until you get it right. It’s sort of like cheating, but it’s worth it: Some of these old games are really hard.
The fatal flaw
The NES Classic is almost perfect, but there’s a reason this review started with one of my oldest friends sitting on my floor, groaning. Josh and I (remember Josh?) marveled at the attention to detail in the Classic’s chassis as we hooked it up to my HDTV. We geeked out over its controller — a dead ringer for the square gamepad that shipped with the original Nintendo Entertainment System. We were, frankly, beside ourselves with the product — until we noticed the NES Classic controller’s cable. At just 2.5 feet long, it was too short to reach the couch.
Josh stared at me in disbelief. “This is ridiculous,” he told me. He’s right. The NES Classic makes 8-bit Nintendo games look gorgeous on modern televisions, but its controller cables are too short to allow players to enjoy them from a comfortable distance. Maybe, we mused, it’s part of the retro experience: the truncated wiring forced us to sit cross-legged on the floor, just like we did when we were kids — but we weren’t comfortable, and were too close to the 40-inch television to really take-in the whole screen.
As we played, the short cable seemed to be a compromise between inconvenience and historical accuracy. Because the NES Classic’s controller is an almost exact reproduction of the original NES gamepad, it lacks a home button to call up the menu. This means the player needs to be within an arm’s reach of the console’s “reset” button at all times. If the controller had a longer cable, we would have had to stand up and walk across the room every time we wanted to load a Suspend Point, change the screen setting or switch to a new game. That’s equally ridiculous.
Without a doubt, this is the NES Classic Edition’s greatest flaw — but what makes it worse is how entirely avoidable it was. The mini-console’s controller uses the exact same connector as the Wii Remote accessory port, which means it supports the Nintendo Wii Classic controller. That gamepad actually has an even shorter cable, but that’s not the point: The Classic controller has a home button, and that home button works on the mini NES. By choosing not to add a home button (and a longer cable) to the NES Classic Edition gamepad, it made the entire experience bad enough to spoil the system for a lifelong Nintendo fan. “I really want this thing,” Josh told me. “But, man, that controller cable.”
Adamant fans can close the gap with cable extenders and third-party controllers, but for Josh, it was just too much. At $60, the NES Classic offered a great value. At $60 plus the price of a bunch of accessories to make it easy to play in his apartment, the NES Classic was suddenly kind of a pain in the ass.
Wrap-up
The NES Classic Edition is everything it promised to be — it’s a tiny version of Nintendo’s most iconic home video-game system, complete with 30 fantastic games, excellent emulation and more than enough nostalgia to satisfy any adult who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s. Even so, it’s not perfect. Frustratingly short controller cables make it hard to use comfortably in a modern living space, and its nonexpandable library means that you’re stuck with the collection of games it comes with. If your favorite NES game isn’t already on the console, you’re out of luck.
If you can deal with those issues, however, the Classic is an incredible value — and a great gift for the 30-something geek in your life.
New emoji will include a woman with a headscarf
Unicode, the controlling group behind the emojis populating our phones and computers, has been working to make emoji more diverse in recent years. A whole host of skin colors have been added, and Google recently proposed adding more options for working women. In the latest draft of new proposed emoji for Unicode 10.0, there’s another sign of the times: the next emoji release should include a woman wearing a headscarf (known as a hijab when worn by Muslim women).
It’s a logical addition — for women who wear them, the hijab is a big part of their visual identity, and Unicode’s been working to make it so all people see themselves in the various options they offer. In addition to the face wearing a headscarf, there will also be two options showing the scarf as a loose item of clothing as well as in a “ghost” form where there isn’t a face visible.
There’s no word on when Unicode 10.0 will be released, but there are plenty of new emoji coming in the 9.0 release which is expected to arrive soon. Among those are a shruggie guy, facepalm and selfie emoji. One might argue the hijab should have been added before these, but at least it’s coming eventually. As for what else may arrive with 10.0, we can look forward to a flying saucer, a pretzel, some dinosaurs and a zombie, among many others.
Via: The Telegraph
Source: Unicode
Apple’s iOS support app surfaces in the Netherlands
Reports of an Apple support app began making the rounds a year ago and now it looks like the company may be close to an official launch. The software is now available in the Dutch App Store, but our editors have confirmed the switch hasn’t been flipped for iOS users in the US, UK or Hong Kong. We’ve reached out to Apple for more information on availability and we’ll update this post if we hear back.
The app serves up product information and tips to help with any minor issues. It also helps you schedule a repair appointment at an Apple Store or with an authorized third-party who can assist with a more serious problem. There’s also the ability to chat, email or schedule a call with a support technician. You can view your recent support history to keep track of things as well.
What’s more, the Apple Support app also lists all the devices tied to your account. If you’re not sure of an exact model number and other information someone will need to help you, you have easy access to those details with this new iOS software. The app will also help you find answers and articles that are specific to the products you own, which will hopefully cut down on time spent searching for a fix.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: App Store (Netherlands)
Boom’s supersonic jets will pick up where the Concorde left off
Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl wants passengers to break the sound barrier. Since the demise of the supersonic Concorde passenger jet, commercial airline’s haven’t offered a quicker alternative to fly from point A to point B.
The Boom team wants to resurrect the speed of the failed Concorde without the issues that eventually doomed the plane. The aircraft used an incredible amount of fuel, was extremely loud even before it hit the speed of sound and it was prohibitively expensive costing $10,400 (£8,292) for a single round-trip ticket between New York and London.
We chatted with Scholl about his company, the working prototype it’s building and how you’ll be able to fly from New York to London and back in the same day.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Tell me a little bit about Boom, about your plan for supersonic jets.
So the backdrop on this is 60 years after the dawn of the jet age we’re still living in the jet age. We haven’t improved travel for like half a century. It’s kind of embarrassing. Our phones are getting better, computers are getting better, and we’re about to get self-driving cars. Sure our airplanes have gotten safer and they’ve gotten more efficient, but they haven’t gotten any better at their basic job of making the world and easier place to access.
If you look back in history, we had supersonic travel with Concord, yet we never took it mainstream. It was too expensive to be affordable to most people.
What we’re doing, in essence, is taking that last 50 years of fundamental progress with aerodynamics, materials and propulsion and building and aircraft that’s more efficient than Concord so that supersonic travel can become routine for a lot more people.
I know one of the issues with Concord was… It might as well have ran on coal. It was burning through so much fuel because it was supersonic flight. Will Boom use less fuel or use fuel more efficiently.
We’re using fuel way more efficiently. Concord was the best technology of the 50’s and 60’s. The engines had afterburners on them which is literally like dumping raw fuel into jet exhaust to get a bit more thrust. The afterburners look cool, but they’re loud and they use 50 percent more fuel for 20 percent more thrust. Today we have a very different jet engine technology called turbofan, it’s what’s on every major commercial airliner today, it’s significantly more fuel efficient and also quieter.
It’s a similar story with aerodynamics and materials that are of a lighter weight. That all adds up to dramatically more fuel efficiency. On the other hand, once you make enough profit in fuel efficiency you can get the ticket prices down to the point where a lot more people can afford to fly. At Concord there were only ever a dozen built planes. It was a finished product with no economy to scale. But when you make tickets more affordable then you get economy to scale and it’s a virtuous cycle instead of a vicious cycle.
You’re going to launch something in late 2017. What will that be?
They way we’re approaching this is that we’ve done the high level design for the first passenger aircraft. It’s a 45 seat airplane, that goes mach 2.2. It’s a 2.2 times the speed of sound that’s two and a half times faster than anything else out there today. But the first thing we’re actually building we call the XP1, the supersonic demonstrator. That’s what we’re officially unveiling on November 15. It’s a 1/3 scale version of the whole airplane that proves out all of the key technology to make this practical.
The full scale, taking passengers airplane, is a few more years out.
Tell me a bit about Richard Branson’s involvement.
The back story there is Richard has been passionate about improvements in air travel for decades. He tried to buy Concords for Virgin I think on two or three separate occasions and couldn’t get those. Part of the motivation for Virgin Galactic is he wants to see higher speed point-to-point travel. So we were able to get in touch with him and his team and said, “hey, we have a way to do this. It’s not decades off, it’s zero breakthroughs away from being practical and it’s more efficient and economical than Concord ever was.” Of course he was very excited by that.
Where will the November 15 event be held?
At our hangar just south of Denver at Centennial Airport. My roots are Silicon Valley. But, Silicon Valley is not specifically the best place to build a new airplane company so we moved to Denver. We got a hangar with a long test runway and direct access to test airspace and that’s where we’re building and flying the first airplane.
In Denver, because of that test airspace, do you have access to the talent that’s going to help you bring this together or were you pulling a lot of people from Silicon Valley?
People have come from all around the country to be a part of this. That’s actually one of the things I’m most proud of. We’ve put together a really fantastic team that has the chops to go out and build this.
Our chief engineer, Joe Wilding is certified for multiple passenger aircraft with the FAA. Our head of propulsion owned the front half of the engine in the joint strike fighter, and that’s a supersonic engine design. Our ergonomists came from Gulf Stream where he owned their entire supersonic aero program. We just hired a systems guy from SpaceX who previously owned the entire second phase of the Falcon 9 and contributed to the key technology for making it possible to have the first stage of the rocket. I could keep going like this, it’s an all star team.
One of the great things about working on an ambitious mission is you can attract the best minds on the planet to come help you make it real. In a way that makes it a harder thing and actually easier.
When you first approached these people, did you have to talk them into joining Boom?
There was a critical moment early in formation of the company where we had half a dozen candidates for the first couple roles in the company. We flew them all out to Silicon Valley and some VC friends gave us some conference tables and a room for a couple days. We had in the room; the inventor of the first personal jet, the chief engineer from the Virgin Galactic Spaceship 1 and Spaceship 2, the chief engineer for Adam Aircraft, I could keep going. It was a really good room of people and we sat down and said, “let’s tear this apart and let’s figure out is this really possible.”
The conclusion that we came to was what we’re talking about doing is feasible with technology that’s already been proven on other aircraft. There’s no, well we have to go get unobtanium or we have to get something out of the lab. What we’re basically doing is taking the best technology, the state of the art technology and bringing it to a new design that gives it a really different capability for travel. The comments during the session were things like, “airplane ideas from internet guys usually aren’t any good but this one actually makes sense.”
So you brought the team together and hashed it out, make sure that it was a viable plan?
Yeah, we tore it apart. You could tell from sitting in a room with a bunch of really bright accomplished people who really, really knows their stuff who you want to work with. We hired two people out of that room, they became our chief engineer and our CPO.
Is there any concern about finding passengers who want this sort of service?
I haven’t meet a single passenger who wouldn’t like to get there in half the time. It’s a tremendous amount of passenger excitement for a better travel experience and more being there and less getting there.
To give you some concrete examples, this isn’t just about, “oh let me save an hour here or an hour there.” This is about what you can do in a day. From New York to London is three hours and 15 minutes instead of seven. So if you’re on the first flight of the day you get to London in time to make a late afternoon meeting. You can go out to dinner, hit the pub and catch a return flight and be home in time to tuck your kids into bed. So we’re saving you at least an entire day. It’s saving you a night in a hotel. It’s saving you having to sleep on an airplane which sucks.
Free The Vote: A game developer’s journey to political activism
We all have a tipping point. There’s a moment when we hear about one more act of violence or one more slight against people in our community, and all of the injustice we’ve witnessed in a particular situation suddenly coalesces into clear conviction. At this moment, we can’t sit silently and watch anymore. We are compelled to act.
Dain Saint’s tipping point was the shooting death of both Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two black men who died at the hands of police officers just one day apart from each other in July.
“I couldn’t do nothing, but I didn’t know what to do,” Saint says. To gather his thoughts, he wrote a post on Medium titled We Can Be Better. It’s a call to action and a raw, eye-opening take on the state of trust, fear and empathy in America. As a black engineer living in Philadelphia, Saint himself is realistic but filled with optimism, and so is his blog post.
Along with the Medium article, Saint designed a T-shirt campaign featuring the phrase, “We can be better” in all caps, large black letters cascading down the front of a white shirt.
“It was essentially a campaign against apathy, promoting the idea that we can fix our problems, but first we have to believe they are fixable,” Saint says.
The blog post and T-shirt campaign took off.
“It turned out to resonate more than I expected,” he says. “The day that article went live, someone saw me wearing the shirt and yelled out of an Uber to tell me they’d read the article. Crazy odds, but it was incredibly encouraging.”
The response surprised Saint, but considering his history in Philadelphia, it makes sense. Saint is a staple of the Philadelphia game development scene as one half of the independent studio Cipher Prime. He’s a co-founder of the Philly Game Forge, a collaborative space for local game developers and artists that, unfortunately, had to close down this summer. It was a wildly successful venture that spawned a game development hub in Philadelphia, but funding ran dry and the doors were closed for good in July.
The Game Forge’s closure helped spark Saint’s motivation to do something bigger with his life and his time. Something like the We Can Be Better campaign.
“It was incredibly emotional, sort of the end of an era,” Saint says. “I’ve been saying all year that 2016 feels like it’s being written like a TV show desperate for ratings, and in my own life, the Game Forge closure was like my own personal shocking midseason finale. It led to this period of harsh introspection, like completely rethinking what’s important to me now that I’m in my 30s.”
We Can Be Better is the name of Saint’s larger campaign to replace fear with hope and action across the United States, but on its own that’s a fairly vague goal. So, Saint distilled these ideas into an actionable and relevant campaign: Free The Vote.
Free The Vote is a movement designed to convince businesses and the government that employees deserve paid time off to vote.
“We started talking about what issues we could realistically tackle, where the root of the problem was, and what was most relevant to now — and voting was a natural fit,” Saint says. “When we learned that 33 percent of people don’t vote because it conflicts with work, Free The Vote became a very natural project to pursue.”
Saint approached the creation of this campaign like a game jam, something he has plenty of experience with. Game jams are fast-paced challenges that ask developers to create a functioning game in a restricted time period like 24 or 48 hours. Recalling this sense of urgency helped Saint focus on the important aspects of Free The Vote.
“Don’t spend forever trying to get everything done right, spend your time getting things done,” he says. “Shoot, then aim, right? I know I haven’t run these campaigns perfectly, but I also know that if I waited until everything was perfectly aligned I’d only just now be really getting started. And the process of trying has helped crystallize my priorities in a way that just thinking about it never would have.”
Saint found help from the local development community, too, including from Cipher Prime co-founder William Stallwood, who helped design the Free The Vote site. It’s a striking, professional-looking page with large graphics and a concise message.
Rallying the rest of the local developer community was easy, Saint says. Plenty of developers helped with outreach, putting Free The Vote in touch with companies and individuals who might be interested in participating. Other developers provided ideas about how to use the cloud-communication platform Twilio in an upcoming We Can Be Better campaign.
“The Philly tech scene is pretty tight-knit — enough of us colonized North 3rd Street that the city officially designated it N3rd street,” Saint says. “So I could always find more people willing to listen, participate and spread the word.”
It’s going well so far. By Election Day, Saint and Free The Vote convinced 20 companies to close their doors so their employees could get to the polls. Plus, he’s in talks with the City of Philadelphia, which happens to be the region’s largest employer.
“Bureaucracies are notoriously slow-moving beasts, so even though we weren’t able to get the city fully on-board in time for this election, the fact that we’re moving forward gives me great hope for the future,” Saint says.
Free The Vote’s goal is even more pertinent after Election Day. Following Donald Trump’s surprise win over Hillary Clinton, there’s a conversation circling online and on televised news networks about the number of people who actually voted this cycle. Initial statistics show that roughly 57 percent of eligible voters actually cast their ballots by November 8th, while 43 percent didn’t vote. Free The Vote wants to close that gap.
Even though the campaign is off to a good start, there’s plenty of room for growth.
“I’m disappointed that we didn’t get as many hourly wage employers as we’d hoped,” Saint says. “A big motivator for Free The Vote was realising the choice between working and voting is painfully real for people without the security of a salary, and we’ll be focusing on ways to make that more realistic for companies moving forward.”
Free The Vote’s ultimate goal is for Philadelphia to become the first city in the United States where Election Day is a holiday, and Saint will continue to fight for that future. But, now that the 2016 election is over, the larger We Can Be Better campaign will shift its focus “to healing the divides this campaign season opened up — giving people the tools to listen, collaborate, and take action,” Saint says.
He published another We Can Be Better blog post on November 9th, one day after the election, titled Let’s get to work. It’s hopeful, and urges readers to eschew blame in favor of self-reflection and action.
These are words that Saint himself takes to heart. In fact, it’s the very foundation of We Can Be Better.
“I try to follow a philosophy of relentless self-improvement,” Saint says. “I’m always looking for ways to be a better person, even if I don’t always succeed. And that process is really painful — you have to really dig in and confront things about yourself that you don’t ever want to think about. So We Can Be Better came about when I realized that, for as much as I’ve always talked about wanting to make the world a better place, I never really did anything about it. It was just talk.”
Now it’s action.
AIVAnet 