‘Superhot VR’ is about to get much more challenging

Superhot VR is an immersive, intense take on an already fun game, but there’s no question that it’s short when you can run out of things to do in just a few hours. Never fear, though: the creators are preparing the Forever update, which promises a number of good reasons to keep coming back to the Oculus Touch shooter. You can try to beat your best scores in both the usual bullet time mode as well as real time, and face opponents with quicker reflexes. You’ll also find a few challenges that ramp up the difficulty if the very act of dodging bullets isn’t enough for you.

Some of them are straightforward, such as having to land headshots to kill enemies or completing the game using only melee combat. However, there’s at least one over-the-top mode: if you’re up for it, you can try to finish the entire game in 10 minutes. You’re going to have to be both fast and a crack shot to have a hope of making that one. The Forever update should be available in February, so you’ll at least have some time to practice.

Source: Oculus

Apple Adopts San Francisco Typeface for Apple.com Website

As of today, Apple has started changing the typeface on its Apple.com website to San Francisco, the font it first debuted alongside the Apple Watch in 2015.

On Apple’s homepage and other web pages on the site, the San Francisco typeface is being used in many places where text is displayed, replacing the previous Myriad typeface. Bolder and easier to read, San Francisco has been used on iOS devices and Macs since iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 were introduced in 2015.

San Francisco is a condensed sans-serif that’s similar to Helvetica. It was created specifically for small displays like the Apple Watch, with extra spacing between letters to increase legibility. It also works well on larger Retina displays because of its clean design.

Apple’s website with old Myriad typeface on left, new San Francisco typeface on right
San Francisco is the first font Apple has designed in-house in many years. In the 80s and 90s, Apple used several fonts that were created in-house, but the company largely stopped making its own fonts in the early 1990s.

Apple isn’t yet using the San Francisco typeface for its entire website, but may continue the transition over the coming days.

(Thanks, Nick!)

Tag: San Francisco
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Google I/O returns to Shoreline Amphitheater from May 17-19

Now we know when Google I/O is.

Every new year brings us another year of Google I/O, the company’s annual developers conference. Not only is it the week that we’ll learn about all of Google’s upcoming projects — and Android’s future products — it’s also a time when developers from around the world can come together and learn about making better apps for Android.

Around the world, from here to there, to the most clever minds, the secret will share. #googledevs #savethedate https://t.co/YKJiAp3r3r pic.twitter.com/lhGDyvYvOW

— Android Developers (@AndroidDev) January 24, 2017

A tweet posted today by the official Android Developers account gave us clues about when the event will actually be held. Google’s Save the Date site has also had a bit of a revamp compared to last year’s neon, festival aesthetic. If you click the Go! button, you’ll be taken to GitHub, where there’s a riddle:

5 puzzles. Each gets more difficult.

5 clues. Take notes. Each puzzle is gone after it’s solved.

5 places. Think numbers.

Enter all answers at savethedate.foo.

You must know where you’ve been to get where you’re going.

The official I/O events page has also been updated with an obvious tease to check back for more details.

Turns out we don’t have to wait. Thanks to some adroit scavenger hunters (h/t Android Police) we now know that Google I/O will be held once again at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, just a few miles away from Google’s home base, from May 17 to May 19.

Last year’s conference was fraught with long lines, poor organization and a lack of hands-on products to demo, but it was a beautiful place with great facilities, so let’s hope Google fixes what needs to be fixed and we can have a great three days.

Huawei Watch 2 might arrive next month with built-in cellular data

Android Wear seems to be making a comeback this year.

Determined not to be left out of the loop, Huawei is reportedly planning to unveil a newer, sportier Huawei Watch. It’ll be called Huawei Watch 2, according to Venture Beat, and you can expect it to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. You can also expect at least one model with built-in cellular data, allowing you to get some standalone functionality with Android Wear 2.0.

• Alexa is coming to your phone: Huawei adds the Amazon assistant

The smartwatch will be able to make phone calls, but other than that, we don’t know much, because rumours are slim. It’ll be interesting to see if Huawei manages to reduce the thickness of its upcoming watch, and whether it keeps the sapphire-covered display from the original Huawei Watch. We should know more soon, as the MWC trade show is scheduled to kick off end of February.

Keep in mind Google is expected to release Android Wear 2.0 on 9 February. At that same event, it will also debut two LG-manufactured smartwatches. The timing therefore seems to be correct if Huawei really is planning to launch a new Android Wear 2.0 watch soon.

Also, Huawei does have a MWC event scheduled for 26 February.

Apple is bringing iOS’ Night Shift mode to Macs with Sierra update

If you own a Mac and are looking for ways to reduce your eye strain or even get more sleep at night, you’re in luck.

Apple’s Night Shift is coming to macOS. It’s shown up in the latest 10.12.4 beta of MacOS Sierra for Macs, which is supposed to launch alongside iOS 10.3 in the coming weeks, giving Mac users a way to automatically shifts their display colour to the warm hues.

Night Shift is a night mode, essentially. In iOS devices, it reduces the amount of blue light that iPhones and iPads emit during the evening hours. Studies have shown that blue light can negatively impact sleep by affecting the body’s circadian rhythm, but with the new Night Shift mode enabled, your Mac’s screen will instead shine warmer, yellower colours to effectively cut down on the amount of blue light.

• Apple shows off Night Shift mode for iPhone

Night Shift is both automatic and temporary. During the day, your Mac’s screen should go back to mimicking natural daylight. Apple is not the first company however to test such a feature or even launch it. Amazon, for instance, began offering a similar thing on its devices a few years ago via a feature called Blue Shade. According to Amazon, many studies have indicated that blue light suppresses melatonin production at night.

It’s also worth noting that there have been a few third-party apps that perform a similar function to Night Shift and Blue Shade, such as F.lux. It briefly offered a version for iOS, but Apple told the developers to shut it down, and now it’s only available for Mac, Linux, and Windows.

Night Shift has been available on iOS devices since iOS 9.3. If you want to try it on a Mac, 10.12.4 will be available for public beta testers later this week, followed by an official public launch sometime after.

Latest Samsung Galaxy S8 leak details ‘infinity’ display and more

More details on the Samsung Galaxy S8 have leaked out pertaining to its display, assistant, and more.

The Guardian has published some “exclusive” details on the upcoming flagship phone, including that it will be available in two different sizes and will feature an edge-to-edge “infinity display”. One model will have a 5-inch or so display, while the other will be around 6 inches. The form factors themselves will be smaller than their predecessors, but nevertheless, the displays will be larger and curved on both edges.

The Guardian’s sources claimed that Samsung has codenamed the two models Dream and Dream 2, and that in order to accommodate the nearly bezel-less infinity display, Samsung moved the fingerprint scanner to the rear of the device. You won’t even find a logo on the front of the phone. Other stand-out features include a 3.5mm headphone jack and the same iris scanner and “duo pixel” camera that appeared on last year’s Galaxy S7 models.

• Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 edge: What’s the story so far?

It’s unclear if the eye-scanner will be upgraded, but apparently, the camera will come with some “incremental improvements” and “built-in object recognition”. The phone will also sport a new processor built using 10nm technology, as well as 64GB of internal storage, microSD card support up to 256GB, and USB-C charging. It’ll also offer support for a new Samsung Gear VR headset and Gear 360 camera.

You can also expect the Bixby AI assistant, which will be able to recognise objects using the phone’s camera. Unfortunately, the Galaxy S8 won’t debut at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, as the latest news points to a late-March reveal.

• Samsung Galaxy S8 will not be unveiled at Mobile World

Apple Watch will dim its bright lights in Theater Mode

When Apple’s upcoming watchOS 3.2 update lands, Cupertino’s hottest wristwear will finally add a Theater Mode that will allow courteous users to avoid bothering the folks around them. Android users will note that the competition over at Android Wear already has a Theater Mode feature, but Apple’s implementation is (as always) slightly different.

For starters, placing the Apple Watch in Theater Mode will mute the sound and turn off the lift-to-wake function so the device will no longer light up should you suddenly raise your hands in the middle of Rogue One or feel the need to reach for you opera glasses. The watch will still receive notifications, but they’ll only be delivered via haptic feedback. If you absolutely must disturb the sanctity of the theater environment, tapping the screen or pressing the crown will still bring up the visual alert. In other words: Theater Mode is simply Do Not Disturb mode with vibrating notifications.

Finally, the Verge notes SiriKit is also coming to the next version of watchOS, which should open the door for Siri support in more watch apps and services. With SiriKit baked in, the device will be able to connect with Apple’s personal assistant without the need to have your iPhone handy. Apple has not given a release date for watchOS 3.2 yet, but the company might want to make sure it doesn’t brick anybody’s timepiece this time around.

Via: The Verge

Source: Apple

Apple wants to make app developers less thirsty for reviews

Apple may finally be putting an end to the annoying slew of review requests that often pop up while you’re using an app. According to Recode, the iPhone maker is working on a mechanism that limits the number of times that developers can ask for reviews and ratings to three per year.

Apple is also working on an option within the phone’s settings to disable all such requests, said Recode, as well as adding a way to let users submit ratings and reviews without leaving the apps they’re in. That convenience should encourage more user feedback, which should assuage the concerns of those who might be worried about the potential new feature. Developers depend on positive ratings to get their apps discovered in Apple’s store.

These updates will be part of an upcoming iOS 10.3 release that will also let developers directly reply to reviews within the app store, under what will reportedly be called the Reviews API. The iOS 10.3 developer beta, made available today, will also include a feature to let you use Find My iPhone to search for your missing AirPods.

Source: Recode

With its Note 7 apology, Samsung finally gets something right

After the furor over flaming phones had mostly subsided, Samsung moved to end the Note 7 fiasco once and for all. Last Sunday, Samsung mobile chief DJ Koh — followed by a cadre of technical experts — laid out exactly what caused the company’s incredibly well-received phone to fail so spectacularly. In doing so, he sought to move Samsung past the mess that had consumed it for the last five months.

As we’ve noted before, Samsung’s woes came out of nowhere and escalated quickly. The phone was announced on August 2nd, launched on August 19th and blew up for the first time (so far as we can tell) in Korea on the 24th. About a week later, Samsung halted Note 7 shipments to Korean consumers, begun its investigation in earnest, and issued a global Note 7 recall a few days after that. Meanwhile, reports of phones bursting into flames persisted, prompting the US Consumer Product Safety Commission to work with Samsung on a total US recall.

The situation seemed to settle once Samsung issued replacement units, but they weren’t completely safe either. It wasn’t long before some of them short circuited and overheated, including one that grounded a Southwest Airlines flight. On October 10th, Samsung officially halted global sales and exchanges of the Note 7, and the race to figure out what really happened kicked into high gear.

We knew the definitive answer was coming, but it was important to hear it from the people in charge. All original Galaxy Note 7s had batteries with cases that made certain electrodes prone to bending and short circuiting. Then, when those started catching fire, another supplier ramped up production of Note 7 batteries in a rush job that led to new manufacturing defects. Poor welding created miniature burrs that could cause short circuits, and some batteries produced by this second manufacturer lacked the insulation tape meant to protect the battery cells entirely.

These flaws effectively killed the Note 7 for good.

Samsung’s press conference was apologetic and thorough, with a level of disclosure clearly meant to close the book on a very dark chapter of company history. Over time, though, expect to see the narrative surrounding the company change. Samsung won’t just be the company that made exploding phones — it’ll be the company that made exploding phones but embarked on the road of redemption and still made shareholders loads of money along the way.

And really, the timing of the announcement couldn’t have been better. Koh announced the results of the investigation on a Sunday night (in the US, anyway), just days before Samsung Electronics reported its highest quarterly profits in three years. That continued success came mostly on the back of strong chip and display sales, but Samsung was quick to point out that the Mobile side still gained ground compared to last year “due to solid sales of flagship products such as Galaxy S7/ S7 edge and improved profitability of mid-to-low end models.” In other words, Samsung is still just as much a juggernaut as it always was.

Much has been made of how Samsung has to rebuild trust in its brand, but those sales numbers seem to tell a different story. For all the news stories and soundbites about exploding phones, the level of distrust in Samsung isn’t as high as some of us (myself included) expected. This sentiment is borne out in part by a survey conducted by Reuters and Ipsos just days after Samsung discontinued Note 7 production in October. Out of 7,514 American respondents, 23 percent said they would not consider buying a Samsung smartphone. Coincidentally, 23 percent of people also said they would not consider buying an iPhone, and 56 percent thought Samsung phones were as safe or safer than other smartphones.

The Note 7 fiasco was embarrassing, but far from world-shaking. Samsung needs to look contrite, but only time (and the release of some new devices) will tell us how much ground the company needs to make up. The humble, apologetic look won’t last forever, though — once the the Galaxy S8 (and possibly the Note 8) are unveiled in the coming months, the message will pivot back toward the company’s ceaseless drive for innovation. Sure, journalists, bloggers, critics and forum-goers won’t forget what happened here any time soon, but what about everyone else? How many flashy phones and glitzy ads need to be released before the world at large forgets these failures? That’s the question we’ll eagerly watch Samsung try to answer in the months to come.

BlackBerry will launch its ‘Mercury’ phone on February 25th

When BlackBerry and TCL unveiled their “Mercury” phone at CES, it was really more of a proof of life than anything. The two wouldn’t shed light on the keyboard-toting Android device’s core specs, let alone when you could buy one for yourself. You won’t be left speculating for much longer, though: BlackBerry has confirmed that it’ll formally unveil the device (presumably, including its final name) on February 25th, right before Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona. Neither BlackBerry nor TCL is providing clues, although there have been some hints of what to expect.

Like it or not, this isn’t expected to be a mid-range device: rumors have it shipping with a Snapdragon 625, 3GB of RAM, an 18-megapixel rear camera (like the Priv) and an 8-megapixel front shooter. That lines up with our experience with the prototype, which was generally snappy but occasionally choked. You may end up buying the Mercury primarily for that gesture-friendly keyboard, not because of raw performance. However, that could also make it a relatively affordable device. The price may be closer to that of the DTEK50 than higher-end hardware like the DTEK60. And it definitely won’t be the only BlackBerry phone in the pipeline, so stay tuned if you want something more powerful.

25.02.17 #MWC2017 #BlackBerryMobile pic.twitter.com/uChVjp62TJ

— BlackBerry Mobile (@BBMobile) January 24, 2017

Via: CNET

Source: BlackBerry Mobile (Twitter)