You now have another way to watch 4K content: Google Play
One week after Hulu joined the ranks of Amazon and Netflix by streaming content in Ultra HD, Google Play has begun making the same move.
Google first made movies available on Android devices in the US five years ago, and at the time, you could only rent movies from three major studios. Now, its Google Play Movies app sells just about any movie and TV show you might want to watch – in 117 countries. You can watch those digital movies and shows not on your Android phone, but also your iOS device, laptop, TV, and set-top box.
- How to watch 4K Ultra HD content on TV and online
So, to be honest, it’s about time for the company to offer its content in 4K. Starting 6 December, Google Play Movies now offers more than 125 movies in 4K resolution in the US and Canada. You can purchase 4K movies on your Android device or the web, but you can only stream them with a Chromecast Ultra, Sony Bravia Android TV, or Xiaomi Mi Box 3.
We’re assuming support for more devices is in the works. Google said that all movies on the Play store use the VP9 codec, which means you should experience a sharp picture quality and reliable streaming.
Stand-out titles in 4K include Ghostbusters, Star Trek Beyond, Captain Phillips, and The Secret Life of Pets.
Google Play adds 4K movies to its catalog
When we reviewed the Chromecast Ultra, one of our biggest gripes was the dearth of 4K content to justify it — not even Google’s own movie store had material to watch. The company is fixing that glaring omission, though. As of now, Google Play Movies & TV carrying over 125 4K movies in the American and Canadian stores. You’ll have to buy them (no 4K rentals yet), but you can choose from big-name movies like Captain Philips, Star Trek Beyond and The Secret Life of Pets. If you own a Chromecast Ultra, you’ll even get a free movie (from a handful of approved selections) as a reward for your early adopter status.
You’ll need to own a 4K-capable device to watch, of course. Besides the Chromecast Ultra, Google is pointing to newer Sony TVs and the Xiaomi Mi Box 3 as examples of hardware that can handle Google Play’s higher-resolution catalog. This isn’t an exclusive list, of course, and Google is quick to add that 4K titles will come to other countries in the future.
Google certainly isn’t the first major video provider with 4K movies — Netflix, Vudu and Hulu have beaten it to the punch. However, this is a big deal if you thrive in the Google ecosystem. You now have a go-to place for premium 4K video right from the get-go, without having to turn to third-party services.
Source: Google Blog
‘Pokémon Go’ may get 100 new Pokémon this week
Pokémon Go is about to get bigger, according to a handful of Starbucks employee guides that found their way online early this week. The images have not been verified by Niantic, the Pokémon Company or Starbucks, but Reddit sleuths claim that verified Starbucks employees have vouched for their veracity.
“The world of Pokémon Go is about to expand with new Pokémon and a new Starbucks beverage!” the “Barista need-to-know” guide says. The flyers indicate that Pokémon Go’s second generation will kick off on Thursday, December 8th.
In November, curious fans dove into Pokémon Go’s data and found references to 100 creatures from Pokémon Gold and Silver, plus code for the shapeshifting Pokémon, Ditto. This little pink blob of a character hit Pokémon Go at the end of November.
The employee guide also outlines a new corporate partnership between Pokémon Go and Starbucks. On December 8th, the flyers say the majority of Starbucks stores across the United States will become PokéStops or Gyms, and they’ll offer a new Pokémon Go-branded Frappuccino (which is basically a Vanilla Bean Frap with raspberry syrup and whole, free-dried blackberries). The drink will actually show up as an icon in Pokémon Go, apparently.
The guide prepares baristas for dealing with an influx of Pokémon Go players, some of whom may not order a drink while collecting Pokéballs and potions. Starbucks’ advice is to “make the moment right and use your best judgement” in dealing with Pokémon Go tourists.
Corporate partnerships aren’t new territory for Pokémon Go developer Niantic, the former Google company also responsible for the mobile AR game Ingress. Niantic used sponsored locations in Ingress and it’s previously discussed implementing a similar system in Pokémon Go. The game even launched in Japan with a McDonald’s partnership.
We reached out to Niantic for confirmation or clarification on the Starbucks guides, and were told the company doesn’t comment on rumor or speculation. At least this particular rumor will be settled soon: Keep an eye on your Pokémon Go app this Thursday.
Via: Eurogamer
Source: /r/TheSilphRoad
Apple will publish its AI research
Apple isn’t exactly known for sharing its research with the world, but it’s making a big exception to that rule. Company AI director Russ Salakhutdinov has revealed that Apple will publish its machine learning research. In other words, some of the discoveries it makes behind closed doors will be available to academia. We’ve asked Apple for more details and will let you know if it can elaborate on its plans, such as whether this will apply to many of its findings, or just those it deems safe to disclose. However, the move raises a question: why open the kimono when AI is a fiercely competitive field?
The most likely answer: this is at least partly about attracting talent to Apple. Researchers in AI (and many other fields) like to have their work publicly shared and recognized. They’re more likely to be interested in joining Apple if they know their breakthroughs won’t be treated as trade secrets to be kept under lock and key. Don’t be surprised if Apple has more success building its AI team in the future, particularly when it wants to recruit professors and others who still want to contribute to science.
Apple will start publishing, according to @rsalakhu at #nips2016 pic.twitter.com/I0ndKKc2vB
— hardmaru (@hardmaru) December 6, 2016
Source: Hardmaru (Twitter), Thomas Kipf (Twitter)
Thieves can use web bots to guess your Visa card details
If you’ve punched in credit card details while shopping online, you’ve probably wondered how secure those digits are. According to Newcastle University, the answer is: not very. Its researchers have discovered that thieves are using web bots to guess Visa credit and debit card info thanks to a flaw in the company’s payment system. The biggest challenge is obtaining valid 16-digit card numbers, usually by buying them or using an algorithm to generate valid examples. After that, the bots find expiration dates and CVVs (that three-digit number on the back) by spreading guesses across hundreds of shopping sites, plugging numbers into fields until they hit the jackpot. While that sounds like a painstaking process, the bots can figure things out in 6 seconds.
The flaw comes through the lack of checks for this kind of behavior. While it’s bad enough that online stores often allow dozens of incorrect guesses (sometimes an unlimited amount), Visa doesn’t appear to have a system in place to check for this kind of suspicious activity. Mastercard, in contrast, would realize something was wrong in “less than 10 attempts” and shut down the potential crime, no matter where the payment processing was taking place.
We’ve asked Visa for its response. However, this isn’t just a theoretical exercise. On top of existing observations, it’s believed that this technique was used in a recent attack on UK retailer Tesco that racked up £2.5 million ($3.2 million) in fraud. As for the solution? Visa would ideally implement a Mastercard-like check for odd behavior, but the most immediate fix may come from the stores themselves. Some of the websites used for these guesses are reducing the opportunities to guess info, making these attacks more difficult. Until there’s a more permanent solution in place, though, you’ll want to keep a close eye on your Visa card statements for any unusual charges.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Newcastle University, (PDF)
This is why ‘Destiny’ studio Bungie stopped making ‘Halo’ games
Destiny is a self-contained example of 21st-century video games: It’s online, ever changing and beautifully built by a team of practiced veterans. Destiny represents the evolution of Bungie, the studio that created Halo, and it also encapsulates the shifting nature of video games as a whole. Modern AAA experiences take advantage of online functionality more than ever before, but this connected gaming ecosystem is still new for the industry as a whole. Destiny helped normalize the idea in 2014, when players weren’t yet convinced they wanted an MMO-like experience on a living room console.
Bungie stepped away from Halo and its publisher, Microsoft, in 2007, in order to push forward in the industry rather than be tied to a franchise that had found success at the start of the century, according to community manager David “DeeJ” Dague. Today, Destiny has millions of active unique players per month, which Bungie keeps entertained via steady online updates and sprawling seasonal events.
“This has been the dream state that Bungie has envisioned for themselves for a long time,” Dague says. Bungie developers wanted to create a game they could consistently update, and they wanted to be able to respond to players’ desires in real time. Sparrow racing is a good example of this adaptability: Players naturally began racing their floating speedsters around Destiny’s worlds, so Bungie took the hint and added races to the game itself.
“We actually took it and turned it into a six-player death race through enemy territory, but we draw a lot of inspiration from the players,” Dague says. “Because Destiny is always online, always connected, we can reach out to where they thrive and we can give them new things to do. This is why we stopped making Halo games, this is why we wanted to envision a brand-new world that would enable us to do these sorts of things.”
Sparrow racing is back in The Dawning, the latest seasonal event for Destiny: Rise of Iron, which will be live from Dec. 13th to Jan. 3rd. The Dawning also features scoring for Strike events, new quests and, of course, new weapons, goodies and gear.
Rise of Iron is the latest expansion for Destiny, landing on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 this past September. This is another benefit of building an online game: Bungie not only gets to release a constant stream of new content but also charge players for every expansion. Rise of Iron, for example, costs $30, and that’s on top of the base game plus its three previous expansions. This ensures that a steady stream of cash flows into Bungie and publisher Activision throughout the year.
However, Rise of Iron marked a shift in Bungie’s approach to Destiny. The September expansion did not come out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Destiny, and it’s not going to. Until this point, Destiny had been the same game across modern- and last-generation consoles.
“We actually reached the point where, in order to add on to the world of Destiny, we were going to have to start to take away,” Dague says. “So it was PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that we sort of froze the state of the game where it was at that time. It’s not receiving any updates.”
Destiny will continue to live and evolve on Xbox One and PS4, but last-generation players are frozen in a pre-Rise of Iron galaxy. Roughly 5 percent of Destiny players are on Xbox 360 and PS3, Dague says.
“They’re still important to us, we still sustain the game on those platforms, but instead of degrading the player experience and starting to remove missions or destinations, we decided to keep it the way it was and continued to add to it on the modern decks,” he explains.
The definition of a modern gaming console is changing as rapidly as Destiny itself: Sony just launched the PS4 Pro, a 4K-capable console, and Microsoft is poised to drop its own beefed-up version of the Xbox One, codenamed Project Scorpio, next year. Dague didn’t comment on a potential 4K version of Destiny, though upgrading for these platforms would make sense for a franchise that’s all about taking advantage of the latest and greatest console gaming specs.
Destiny is a living game. It’s a far cry from a series like Halo, which still conforms to a traditional release model — the same one Bungie used when it created the franchise in 2001. Destiny evolves with players and with the industry, giving Bungie ample opportunity to constantly improve the experience.
“This is us living the dream,” Dague says.
Tweet emoji at Google, get directions to nearby tacos
Add emoji to the many languages Google can understand. Starting today, if you tweet an emoji at Google, the company’s Twitter account will reply back with a link to a relevant local search result and a celebratory GIF.
If you were hankering for some tacos, for example, you could just tweet “🌮 @google” and wait for a reply. The company says it supports 200 emojis so far, along with some “easter eggs,” according to Mashable. It’s not exactly useful — it’s much easier to just type actual letters into Google — but it’s a fun feature that could distract your friends for a few minutes. It could also be a way for Google to get a sense of what emoji people actually use for whenever they implement emoji support in its search apps.
We speak emoji. Let’s talk. 🙌 #KnowNearby pic.twitter.com/HjIMs3KPKe
— Google (@Google) December 6, 2016
@Devindra You were looking for babaganoush recipes right? Here’s a few: https://t.co/awzEqdsMAJ
— Google (@Google) December 6, 2016
@Devindra Need a breath of fresh air? https://t.co/y4o1t0lpit #KnowNearby pic.twitter.com/TnD7TdWyrL
— Google (@Google) December 6, 2016
@Terrortola Let’s give ’em something to taco-bout. https://t.co/MKVjm8oYWm #KnowNearby pic.twitter.com/fCEX1WfJ6O
— Google (@Google) December 6, 2016
The feature isn’t completely foolproof. It won’t be too long before you run into simple emoji that Google should really get the hang of. For example, my expression upon reading about this news for the first time:
@Devindra 🤐 Hmm. Try another emoji! Hint: #KnowNearby
— Google (@Google) December 6, 2016
Source: Google
VR treadmill creator cancels pre-orders outside the US
Virtuix’s Omni treadmill is very alluring to virtual reality fans who want freedom to walkwithout the fear of tripping over cables or running into walls. However, it’s also massive and complex… and that’s forcing the company to scale back its ambitions. Virtuix is telling its Kickstarter backers that it’s cancelling all Omni pre-orders outside of the US, as the logistics of shipping the treadmill are just too much. It’s not just the 175-pound, 48- by 43-inch shipping package that’s the problem — it’s honoring regulations and maintaining enough replacement parts to handle a global audience. The initial plans to ship worldwide were “naive and unfeasable,” the startup writes.
The company is at least going the distance to compensate international customers who’ve just had their years-long dreams crushed. In addition to refunding what supporters paid, it’s prorating the refunds to the tune of an extra 3 percent per year, compounded monthly. Virtuix isn’t ruling out international plans entirely, either. Its international presence will be limited to public spaces like arcades in the near term, but it wants to cater to other countries when it can.
This cancellation is something of an edge case in the crowdfunding world. Most of these startups are shipping far smaller or simpler products that won’t face nearly as many headaches. Even so, it’s a reminder that crowdfunded projects are frequently full of lofty promises made by entrepreneurs that don’t know what their finished product will look like, let alone how they’ll get it to customers using limited resources.
Via: Road To VR
Source: Kickstarter (backers only)
Chinese Consumer Group Complains of Spontaneous iPhone 6 Fires, but Apple Blames ‘Physical Damage’
As Apple’s iPhone 6s is facing scrutiny in China over a battery issue that causes unexpected shutdowns, a Chinese consumer group has complained of a separate problem with the iPhone 6 – spontaneous battery fires.
According to the The Wall Street Journal, the Shanghai Consumer Council says it received eight reports from Chinese users claiming their smartphones spontaneously caught on fire, but Apple inspected the devices and says “external physical damage” is to blame.
Apple said it analyzed the affected phones and found that the fires followed “external physical damage.” The company encouraged customers with issues to visit an Apple store or contact company support.
“We appreciate that customers are more concerned than ever about the performance and safety of batteries in their mobile devices,” Apple said in a statement.
Given that the iPhone 6 has been available since 2014 and there have been no notable reports of device fires, Apple’s physical damage explanation rings true. With the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which had a true faulty part leading to fires, reports from around the world started flooding in just weeks after the device was released.
Complaints from Chinese consumer groups over iPhone 6s battery problems led Apple to introduce a repair program for iPhone 6s devices that unexpectedly shut down, and Apple has gone out of its way in China to explain the issue and assure customers that it is not safety related.
Apple’s repair program will see it providing new batteries to customers with iPhone 6s devices primarily manufactured between September and October of 2015. Just today, Apple expanded the repair program to encompass a small number of customers “outside of the affected range” who are also experiencing shutdowns.
On its Chinese site, Apple explained that the iPhone 6s shutdown issue was caused by exposure to “controlled ambient air” during the manufacturing process, which caused the battery to degrade faster than a normal battery.
Next week, Apple plans to introduce a diagnostic tool that will allow it to gather information and better manage battery performance levels to prevent shutdowns. With iOS 10.2 nearly ready to launch, it’s likely the diagnostic capability will be included in that update.
As Apple’s third largest market after the United States and Europe, China has become increasingly important to Apple over the last several years. Apple has made an effort to introduce a number of retail stores in the country, and it has made a $1 billion investment in Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing.
Despite its efforts, Apple has struggled in China. In Apple’s third quarter earnings report, revenue in China was down 33 percent year over year, dropping from $13 billion in 3Q 2015 to $8.9 billion in 3Q 2016.
Chinese officials have said Apple is “too deeply established in the country’s core industries,” and along with recent trouble over its iPhones, Apple has also struggled with its iTunes Movie and iBooks Store in China, which were shut down by Chinese administrators in April.
Related Roundup: iPhone 6s
Tag: China
Buyer’s Guide: iPhone (Buy Now)
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Apple’s Single Sign-On Service Now Live
Apple today officially launched Single Sign-on, the service designed to allow cable subscribers to sign in once with their cable credentials to gain access to all cable-restricted content in iOS and tvOS apps.
Single Sign-on is limited to the United States, and according to a support document, is available for the following providers: CenturyLink Prism, DirecTV, Dish, GVTC, GTA, Hawaiian Telecom, Hotwire, MetroCast, and Sling.
While Single Sign-on was introduced and tested in the tvOS 10.1 and iOS 10.2 betas, the feature was remotely released today to all iOS 10 and tvOS 10 devices. Using Single Sign-on does not require one of the betas, and is instead immediately available to all iPhone and Apple TV users running iOS 10 or tvOS 10.
With Single Sign-on, customers with a supported provider will use the Settings options in iOS or tvOS to sign in with their cable credentials. From then on, when accessing a supported app that requires a cable subscription, the app will ask to use the saved sign-on credentials.
To get to Single Sign-on on iOS devices, open the Settings app and scroll down to “TV Providers.” The process is the same on the Apple TV – open the Settings app and choose the TV Providers option to sign in.
Most cable channels and content providers offer individual apps on the Apple TV and iOS devices, but still require cable authentication before users can access content. Prior to Single Sign-on, customers were required to enter their credentials in each individual app, a frustrating and time-consuming process.
Single Sign-on will play a key part in the upcoming “TV” app that’s set to debut in iOS 10.2 and tvOS 10.1. The TV app serves as sort of an Apple-designed television guide that lets customers find new content and keep track of what they were watching across multiple devices.
At the current time, Single Sign-on is available to a limited number of customers, but its availability will expand as Apple signs the necessary deals with cable providers. Single Sign-on also requires apps to implement support for the feature, and many apps have not yet introduced Single Sign-on support.
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