With live 360 video Facebook should focus on cameras not content
360 cameras exist. YouTube already supports livestreaming in the immersive format. Yesterday Facebook finally opened up its popular Live service to the 360 videos too. But not for everyone. Right now it’s just select pages, with National Geographic kicking things off today. Officially, then, 360 livestreaming is going mainstream. But, if the the new world of live, spherical video is to succeed, livestreaming needs to get easier, with a home on a major social network.
YouTube has already made headway in this space, but much like how video streaming didn’t gain traction with the broader public until Meerkat and Periscope (and then Facebook) piped it direct into your friends’ feeds, 360 needs the immediacy of social to succeed. To do that, it needs hardware that’s easy to use and a seamless app experience.
If you go to Google and search “how to livestream 360 video on mobile” you’ll get a slew of results, but frankly, very few of them are appealing. I’ve played with several 360 cameras, but it wasn’t until I tried the new iO from Giroptic that I realised how sucky the livestreaming experience with those other cameras was. Giroptic makes streaming to YouTube in 360 barely more than a button push. The quality is decent for a device of this size, and social sharing is baked right into the app. Regular streaming/Facebook Live on mobile just requires a smartphone, so never had this hardware problem to figure out.
For many of us, our cellphone is our primary camera (in as much as it’s probably the camera you have on you right now). For conventional streaming, whether that’s on Facebook, YouTube, Periscope or even Instagram the humble smartphone has everything you need — a camera and an internet connection.
360 video, on the other hand needs a dedicated camera. Current products like Ricoh’s Theta, or Samsung’s Gear 360 might pair with your phone, but don’t currently provide an elegant solution for streaming live. The camera needs to be able to stitch in real time, have the bandwidth to shuffle video off to the internet, and an effortless way for users to do that.
Giroptic’s iO isn’t perfect, but it’s edging closer to the sort of thing live 360 video needs. As it connects to the lightning port, you’ll need to hold your phone upside down (no biggie, but it takes the edge off the seamless experience), but that does free up your WiFi connection. Despite being smaller than other products, it’s still a widget stuck to your phone. Though short of phone makers adding a 360 cam to their handsets, that’s something we’ll have to live with. There’s also no current Android solution (though the Insta360 Air might fill this gap).
What the iO does have going for it, is the all important live stitching, and that ridiculously easy way to start broadcasting live (at least for YouTube so far). This is basically the same simplicity that makes going live on Facebook so popular right now.
A frictionless experience is also way more important for Facebook than YouTube. Facebook itself knows this. In yesterday’s announcement about the National Geographic content it reminded us “Live video on Facebook gives people an immediate, authentic window into what’s happening in the world right now.” It’s much harder to be immediate and authentic when trying to connect something over WiFi direct, or when the camera is hanging off your laptop with a USB cable. But those are things you’re likely more okay dealing with for your studio-based YouTube or Twitch channel (even if that studio is your bedroom).
One of the key selling points for vanilla Facebook Live is that it’s a way to reach all your friends. YouTube might be where you go to follow channels and enjoy non-live videos, but the social networks are a direct feed into your social circle, and that’s an important difference. For this reason, the hardware part of it needs to be as near to being as part of your phone as possible.
Facebook’s app is already on millions of phones, just adding a button to “go live” makes sharing video in real time incredibly tempting, exciting almost. The authenticity Facebook speaks of naturally follows, whether it be the levity of Chewbacca Mom, or the tragedy of Falcon Heights. These same moments could happen on YouTube, of course, but the sticky grip of the social feed is a well carved channel for sharing and consuming. For 360 video to have the same impact as live sharing with regular video, we can’t wait for our devices to pair, or hope our friends are following us on YouTube.
Let’s not forget that Facebook is way more invested in 360/VR video than other social networks. What’s weird is that Facebook has already designed a camera for VR video, it just went totally the other direction. Unveiled at the F8 conference earlier this year, the “Surround 360” is a pricey solution aimed at professional creators.
There’s also the whole “why do I want to stream in 360 anyway?” thing. Of course, it’ll always remain a more niche way to share moments than flat video, but often it takes a new technology to hit a wide audience before it finds its voice. Just look at the myriad ways people use Twitter, or how users took ownership of Snapchat for evidence of that.
Unlike Facebook’s high end product, Giroptic’s modest dual camera setup won’t serve up 8K per eye (instead you’ll get a modest 2K sphere), but as the the company pointed out to me, ironically social users are usually more forgiving when it comes to streaming quality. There are some barriers that neither Facebook or camera-makers can surmount though, and that’s the bandwidth required for streaming 360 video. Giroptic, for example, currently needs a solid 4.5Mbps connection for live video.
Giroptic’s camera has a few kinks it needs to iron out. The stitching is good, comparable to Ricoh’s and Samsung’s, but the app I was shown was still in beta, and not quite ready for prime time. The current launch date is January 17th though, so there still a little time. The iO will sell for $249 (on par with Samsung Gear 360 and Ricoh Theta) which isn’t in the impulse-purchase territory, but it’s far more palatable than the multi-thousand dollar rigs from Nokia, GoPro and (relatively affordable) Orah. The real a-ha moment though, was that this is how streaming should work for 360.
I asked Facebook about its plans for bringing live 360 video to everyone, and the response was predictably coy, with a spokesperson simply telling me “We’re starting with a few partners so that we can test and learn from them as we work to create the best experience possible for people and Pages alike.” For now, though, all the pieces are finally there, but if Facebook wants to make 360 video go mainstream (and there’s every indication it does), it could do worse than follow Giroptic’s lead and tackle the camera problem. Be sure to know the content will follow.
Photoshop is ready to put your MacBook Pro Touch Bar to work
When Apple replaced the physical function keys on the new MacBook Pro with a swipe-friendly Touch Bar, the company touted its ability to make edits with apps like Final Cut Pro and Photoshop a breeze. While the new laptop has been available for a few weeks now, today Adobe announced that its flagship photo-editing app is ready to play nice with the machine.
As part of an update to Photoshop that’s available now, Adobe’s custom support for the OLED touch panel means you’ll be able to use that space above the keyboard to help with adjustments to your image and design files. The company says in addition to giving you quick access to tools, it’s also handy for providing a contextual next step based on the task you’ve just completed. In other words, the app will display the item you’re likely to need next to keep your workflow moving along.
Adobe also says that the Touch Bar makes adjustments that can be cumbersome with a keyboard or mouse a bit more comfy. It’s easy to see how any behaviors that employ sliders would benefit from the integration. Touch Bar functionality inside Photoshop is divided into three sections: Layer Properties, Brushes and Favorites.
The Layer Properties tab will give you access to things like blend modes, scrubbing through the file’s history, placing Smart Objects, clipping layers and more. For Brushes, a slider allows you to adjust color, size, hardness, opacity and flow with just a finger and a swipe. Last but not least, Favorites brings the items that you use most to the Touch Bar so you can get at them quickly. Tools like full screen mode and flipping the canvas horizontal or vertical are examples of the options here.
Adobe explains that it will “continue to evolve” Touch Bar support, so perhaps we’ll see even more features down the road. For now, you can get started with what’s already here by updating to the latest version of Photoshop via Updates from the Help menu inside the app. When you need a break from work, Doom and a piano are waiting for you.
Source: Adobe
Facebook debuts a ‘parent portal’ to stop online harassment
Even ignoring the past few months’ deluge of fake news or its ongoing inability to enforce its own community guidelines, Facebook has long had a problem with harassment, trolling and other unscrupulous behavior. Children have died due to the abuse they endure on the social network. That’s why Facebook on Tuesday debuted its new Parents Portal, part of the site’s Safety Center, to help adults help their kids not be complete tools while online.
The portal includes a section on the basic workings of the site — like how to sign up, add friends and post content — as well as a listing of common terms and user actions. Though, honestly, it reads more like something a teen would show their tech-phobic relatives because the family decided it’d be cute if Grandma got on Facebook for her last Christmas.
It also includes a section of condescending “parenting tips” like “let your child know that the same rules apply online as apply offline” or “try to be a good role model” and “trust yourself”. Normally, this practice is known as “not raising your kids to be obnoxious monsters” but these are the times in which we live and people apparently need to be reminded.
The Expert Advice section, on the other hand, is actually quite helpful. It includes external links to a number of family safety and advocacy groups around the world — a number of which helped develop the portal’s content. Of course, the easiest way to ensure that your kid doesn’t have to deal with abuse on Facebook is to simply not let them have a Facebook account. Besides, all the kids are on the Snapchats anyway.
Source: Facebook Newsroom
‘Orcs Must Die’ developers are plotting to enter eSports
Competitive online games are a rapidly growing industry, driven by the explosive popularity of eSports. Titles like League of Legends, Dota 2, Call of Duty and Overwatch dominate the professional gaming scene, and studios across the globe are implementing competitive modes in their games. Robot Entertainment, the studio behind the tower defense series Orcs Must Die, is no different.
“I can’t tell you everything, obviously, but we’re always working on some maybe head-to-head competitive style gameplay with this,” Orcs Must Die Unchained designer Jerome Jones says. “We have to figure out the right way to do it. … We’ll have to figure out our little niche, but we are definitely working on those types of things.”
For Robot, the “right way” means keeping the series’ lighthearted tone alive while adding eSports elements to the core game.
“One of the things that’s important to me is to maintain our humor and our feel,” Jones says. “It’s a very different game. Back when Orcs Must Die came out, we sort of created the genre, a third-person tower defense game. So now we want to stay special, if you will.”
Orcs Must Die has been a quiet staple of the video game industry since 2011, when it debuted on Xbox Live Arcade and Steam. Back then, it was the new game from a handful of Halo Wars veterans who had found themselves out of a job when Microsoft suddenly shut down Ensemble Studios a few years prior.
These seasoned developers gathered under a new banner, Robot Entertainment, and they started building a new kind of tower defense experience. Orcs Must Die pioneered the idea of a new player perspective for tower defense games — third person rather than top down — and it was a hit.
Robot Entertainment has been chugging away ever since. Its portfolio includes Hero Academy and Echo Prime plus three Orcs Must Die games. The most recent one, Unchained, is currently in open beta on Steam. Today Robot employs about 100 people in Plano, Texas.
The Orcs Must Die games are Robot’s bread and butter, and they’ve evolved over the years to keep up with advances in console technology and online connectivity. The original 2011 game was a traditionally priced single-player experience; the sequel added a two-player cooperative mode; and Unchained is a free-to-play, online, three-player orc-killing festival.
There is a hole in the eSports market that Unchained might be able to fill: There are no tower defense games on the mainstream circuit. Robot has the opportunity to be a pioneer once again.
The studio isn’t sharing any concrete plans about a potential foray into eSports, but the conversation is happening, according to Jones:
“You gotta figure out the right way to play this game competitively. We gotta figure out the right thing to do. We’ve got ideas and we’re definitely talking about it.”
Canada-led effort would require more locally-made digital media
If the Canadian government has its way, you could see a lot more locally-produced material from your favorite online media services — at least, outside of the US. It’s leading a campaign that would create a global consensus on domestically-made digital content, giving governments the justification for laws that require funding and promotion for homegrown media. Services like iTunes and Netflix would have to back movies and music created in your corner of the world, rather than supporting them when it’s convenient.
The country’s Heritage Minister, Mélanie Joly, kicked off the effort on December 12th with a UNESCO presentation. It’s unclear how other UN member states took to the speech, but Joly has stressed that she doesn’t want to antagonize companies or engage in harsh protectionism. This wouldn’t be about keeping masses of American content out so much as getting American companies to “participate in our system,” the minister says.
The question is, would such an effort help even if Canada gets what it wants? Digital law expert Michael Geist points out multiple problems with the strategy. Services like Netflix thrive precisely because they aren’t bound by as much content regulation as conventional media outlets. While catalogs still vary from country to country, you can generally assume that you’ll see a common online library wherever you live. The UN is also a “poor fit” for content regulation, Geist adds.
And most importantly, there’s a dirty secret: in the case of Netflix, a lot of that content already is produced in Canada. Orphan Black (shown above) is made in the country, as are ARQ, the upcoming Anne of Green Gables series and numerous other titles. Other shows use at least some Canadian resources, such as A Series of Unfortunate Events and Inspector Gadget. It’s possible that Canada could benefit the least from its own campaign, and that its initiative would have only a limited effect in other regions.
[Thanks, Kristy]
Source: The Globe and Mail
Apple Discounts Beats Pill+ Speaker and Beats EP Headphones
Amid a significant delay of its newest BeatsX headphones, Apple is offering a discount on two other Beats products, the Beats Pill+ Speaker and the Beats EP On-Ear Headphones.
The Beats Pill+ Portable Speaker, which comes in White, Red, and Black, is available for $199, a discount of $30 off the regular $230 price tag. Apple’s Beats EP On-Ear Headphones are also discounted by $30, dropping the price from $130 to $100. The Beats EPs are available in Blue, White, Black, and Red.
Apple’s discount is rather unimpressive, as several third-party retailers regularly offer the Beats Pill+ and the Beats EP at that price point or lower. Amazon, for example, has the Beats Pill+ for $200, and Walmart and Best Buy both sell the Beats EP for $100.
Rumors earlier this week suggested Apple’s BeatsX wireless headphones, introduced in October, would not ship out for two to three months. Apple confirmed rumors this morning with a website update that lists a February release date for the new earphones.
Originally meant to ship in the fall of 2016, the $149 wireless BeatsX headphones feature the same Apple W1 chip used in the AirPods, which also saw delays. Apple planned to ship AirPods in October, but needed “a little more time” before releasing them.
AirPods finally became available for purchase this morning with delivery dates as soon as next week, but limited supplies caused them to quickly sell out. AirPods purchased now will not ship out to customers until mid-January.
Tag: Beats
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