Roli Blocks are fun for music making but need some fine-tuning

I’ve played instruments for most of my life, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve had less time for jamming with bands. That’s led me to consider dabbling in electronic instruments that would let me make my own compositions without needing to wrangle other musicians. Of course, both hardware and software can add up fast. (I’ve wanted Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 for years, but just can’t bring myself to drop $850 on it.)

That’s why Roli’s new modular Blocks system caught my eye. The $180 Lightpad controller is both affordable and versatile, distilling a lot of the touch-sensitive technology found in Roli’s larger Seaboard into a super-compact gadget. Your iOS device does all the heavy lifting while the Lightpad lets you perform in some unique ways. And, the modular nature of the Blocks system lets you get in at an affordable price while expanding your setup down the line.

That’s the promise, anyway, and it’s an intriguing idea. Unfortunately, after spending a week playing with Roli’s Blocks system, I’ve found an otherwise compelling concept is let down by some inconsistent hardware. (If you’re not familiar with Roli Blocks, this post lays out the basics of how they work.)

Setup

It took a lot longer than I would have liked to see this screen.

The first Lightpad that Roli sent me was a pre-production unit, and I ran into lots of trouble trying to get it to work. The recommended firmware update wouldn’t install, and without it I experienced uneven performance; basically, the Lightpad block wasn’t reliably responding to my fingers. Giving Roli the benefit of the doubt, I had a replacement sent to me that represented the sort of final hardware shoppers will receive. It worked better, but I still experienced some vexing issues.

Once again, my problems started with a firmware update. Once I connected the Lightpad block to my iPad, I tried updating the software through the Roli Noise app, but it failed more than a dozen times before it finally worked. All told, it took an hour before I could start using the system. Not a great first experience.

Playback

Things were better once I got the Lightpad working, but there’s a pretty steep learning curve here. The Lightpad’s main performance interface is either a 5×5 grid of notes (or a 4×4 grid for when you’re in drum machine mode). Each of those blocks is a pitch in the 12-note chromatic scale. Tapping a square plays the note, and you can either slide left or right to change the pitch or slide up and down to change a preset modulation effect. The Lightpad is pressure sensitive, too, so a hard press increases volume or intensity compared to a gentle tap.

It’s a system that allows for a wide degree of flexibility, which is great — to a point. The big problem I had when using the Roli Lightpad was that I rarely knew what would happen any time I tapped the block. Using what I felt was a “normal” amount of pressure usually yielded a note much quieter than I anticipated, which meant I had to jam my finger down to get a strong attack. But every so often I’d get a note much louder than anticipated, or I’d accidentally activate a modulation effect without meaning to.

I found some other problems with the interface as my testing progressed. It’s great to slide across the pad to move up and down in the scale — but not all positions on the Lightpad are created equal. If there’s a note on the right-most side of the block, there’s no way to slide up to a higher pitch; similarly, you can’t slide down in pitch from notes located on the left side of the block.

Using the up-and-down modulation feature is also imprecise for notes located in the top or bottom row of the block. If you tap a note in the middle, you have lots of room on the block to move your finger up and down, but tapping something in the top row means there’s very little room to slide your finger up and change the effect.

Even more troubling is the fact that you can still slide your finger up on that highest row of notes to change the effect — but you only have less than a half-inch to work with, which means there’s no precision. If you tap a note in the middle of the Lightpad, you have several inches on either side to drag your finger up and down to change the effect. That space is significantly reduced when playing the top or bottom row, so you can activate an effect by barely moving your finger. This is not a good thing.

Ultimately, my experience playing melodies on the Lightpad was hampered by these problems. I just didn’t know what to expect each time I put my finger down, so trying to play a repeated bass line with any degree of precision was a lot more difficult than I expected. The problem was compounded when I switched to trying to build out drum beats. For a number of the drum sounds, tapping and holding your finger down plays a pre-set rhythm (those sounds are labeled as “groove kits”). That’s all well and good, but if I wanted to try and tap out my own beat, things didn’t work out as well. Even on drum kit sounds where one tap of my finger matched up with one drum hit, the Lightpad often didn’t catch every time I touched the block.

Once I figured out the Lightpad’s various quirks, I could stop fighting them and just go with it, which made for a much more enjoyable experience. The learning curve comes from understanding as best you can what happens when you tap the Lightpad and keeping that in mind as you play. Things get a lot more fun after that. Instead of trying to tap out precise drum beats, I just put a few fingers down on the pad, moved them around and came out with a decent-sounding groove.

Recording

The Roli Blocks system also has a pretty robust recording system, which makes it easy to repeat any patterns you come up with. You’re given four tracks, each of which has a total of 12 slots to record a musical pattern. Once you’ve put down some recordings, you can use the Lightpad as a sequencer, tapping to switch between the different recordings and play them back in any order you choose.

The Lightpad isn’t the only block that Roli is selling right now. There are also two $80 add-on tools, the Live Block and the Loop Block. The Live Block gives you physical buttons to control a variety of features ordinarily tucked away in the iOS app. You can use it to switch between instruments, change the active octave or scale, turn on the arpeggio feature, add sustain to notes and more. This felt more useful to me than the Loop Block, which gives you access to various record and playback features. For most people, though, the Lightpad alone should be sufficient.

Wrap-up

After my time learning the quirks of Roli Blocks, I went back to the question of whether or not the Lightpad is worth my $180. There’s no doubt that it has a lot of cool music-making features, and Roli says it plans to add more sounds to the companion Noise app for iOS. The company also announced last week that the Lightpad will soon work as a MIDI controller for Mac and Windows music production apps, greatly expanding its functionality.

Right now, though, I can’t quite recommend the Lightpad. The performance inconsistencies made it a lot harder to start using the Lightpad; the time I spent trying to figure out what exactly would happen when I tapped the gadget was more frustrating than fun. And the Noise app for iPhone and iPad lets you perform and record for free without even needing additional hardware. No, the touchscreen doesn’t have the same degree of pressure sensitivity that the Lightpad has — but on a 3D-touch capable iPhone, it comes close.

However, if Roli can address the pressure sensitivity issues in a future software update, I’ll seriously consider it. Just adding the ability to adjust how much pressure is needed to activate a note would make a big difference in usability. That alone would probably be enough for me to give the Lightpad a full recommendation. As it is, I suggest checking Roli Blocks out in your local Apple Store first. Or, download the Noise app to your iPhone or iPad and see what you think. At that point you should have a much better idea if Roli’s latest will work for you as a music creation tool.

You can now transfer your old Pokémon to ‘Sun’ and ‘Moon’

In a move sure to please long-time Pokémon fans, players can now transfer old Pocket Monsters to the latest games in the series, Pokémon Sun and Moon. Updating Pokébank (Nintendo’s subscription-based Pokémon cloud-storage service) gamers are now able to easily send their favourite ‘mon from X and Y straight to Sun and Moon. For the uninitiated, this service offers a cloud storage box that can store up to 3000 different Pokémon online. You can even transfer mon to different generations of Pokémon games — all for just $4.99 a year.

In a bid to lure in fans of the original games, this update also allows one-way Pokédex transfers from 3DS versions of Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow via the included Poké Transporter app. With gamers previously unable to move monsters from their Gameboy games into the DS era, this means that fans of the original 150 can finally get to see their untouched old-school teams in 3D. As the series battles have changed dramatically over the years, once transferred, older Pokémon will gain new hidden stats that help keep them competitive.

For players who still have previous generations of Pokédexes to relocate, Nintendo have provided the handy transfer guide below.

For a franchise that spends every new iteration encouraging you to catch ’em all, the idea of having to start your Pokédex afresh each time is an exhausting one. Not only does this update alleviate that, but it also provides a great way for parents to show kids what Pokémon was like in ‘the good old days’, bridging the gap between generations of Poké-lovers.

With fans still waiting to hear details about Pokémon GO’s long-awaited Sun and Moon connectivity, this update bodes well for players of the mobile game. While yet to be confirmed, this update should also reassure those hoping to be able to transfer mon from Sun and Moon to the rumoured Poké​​​​​​​mon Stars for Nintendo Switch.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to dig out my old DS cartridges and begin rebuilding the super squad.

Source: The Pokemon Company

With your help ‘Apocalypse Now’ could become a video game

Apocalypse Now was a landmark achievement of cinema. Garnering near-universal praise since its 1979 release, director Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War epic has left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape, launching countless careers and impacting just about every form of entertainment since. Especially video games. Now, a veteran group of developers wants to put you in Captain Willard’s (Martin Sheen) boots as he hunts Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) in the jungle and witnesses the horrors of war first-hand.

Concrete details are scarce, but the Kickstarter pitch is as follows: It’s a psychological horror game that will “blend a cinematic narrative with roleplaying game mechanics.” This doesn’t sound like a typical run-and-gun first-person shooter at all. What’s more, you’ll be able to make choices that diverge from the movie’s narrative, said decisions will cascade and supposedly result in a story that’s pretty unique for each player. Lofty goals, to be sure, but if any development team can pull it off, maybe it’s this one.

Veterans from Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numeria, Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity have a hand in the project. Given how well received (and crowdfunded) the first two in that list are especially, coupled with help from Coppola himself and his American Zoetrope production company, Apocalypse Now might deliver an interactive experience the movie deserves.

The game is still a ways out, with early access planned for 2019 to coincide with the movie’s 40th anniversary and a full release scheduled for 2020. Before that, however it needs to reach its $900,000 crowdfunding goal. The source material was infamously caught in production hell, with its hardships depicted in the documentary Hearts of Darkness. Martin Sheen had a heart attack on-set, directing and editing the movie damn near broke Coppola, a typhoon destroyed sets and Marlon Brando showed up to work extremely overweight.

Video games aren’t immune to these sorts of problems either, especially crowdfunded ones. Just ask DoubleFine Productions, for instance. A behind the scenes doc will be available for folks pledging $65 and up, but in this case, the developers not tempting fate seems like a good idea.

You’re already broken, and the mission is just starting. Is it too late for redemption, or will you surrender to darkness? Your choice. pic.twitter.com/K3vUxMSFHM

— Apocalypse Now (@apocnowgame) January 25, 2017

Source: Kickstarter

Japan Display battles Samsung’s OLED with curved LCD screens

One of Apple’s main screen suppliers, Japan Display Inc. (JDI), has revealed a 5.5-inch LCD smartphone screen that can be bent like OLED displays from Samsung and LG. While not quite as flexible and thin as OLED, the “Full Active Flex” 1080p screen could be used in phones with curved screens like the Galaxy S7 Edge, the company told the Wall Street Journal. LCD is a lot cheaper than OLED, so you could see a lot more curved phone designs when it starts manufacturing the panels in 2018.

Since LCD displays usually have a glass backing, it’s been difficult to curve them until now. Japan Display got around that issue by using plastic for both side of the liquid crystal layer. That allows not only a flexible screen, but could also help “prevent cracking from occurring when the display is dropped,” the company said. It also hopes to adapt the screens for other products, including car displays and laptops.

Japan Display also told the WSJ that it has launch customers for the screens, though it wouldn’t say whether Apple or any other company was among those. Rumors of an OLED iPhone have been bubbling up recently, but some analysts think that all the OLED suppliers combined couldn’t meet Apple’s needs until at least 2018. If Cook and company decided to try curved screens, however, the LCD models from JDI now give them a future option besides OLED.

Source: Japan Display

Bethesda’s chilling ‘Prey’ reboot arrives on May 5th

Bethesda’s creepy Prey reboot has a release date: May 5th, 2017. It’s a divisive game, throwing out the work that Human Head Studios did on the now cancelled Prey 2. In its place, Arkane Studios has developed a chilling sci-fi horror game set on a 60s-inspired spaceship. You play as Morgan Yu, a human researcher living on board the Talos 1. Of course, everything turns sour, and you’re soon left fighting for your life against an alien race called the Typhon. Thankfully, some strange experiments have left Yu with a collection of devastating and constantly evolving powers. Game on.

To mark the new release date, Bethesda has put out a fresh gameplay trailer. It’s a slick video showcasing the black, smokey Typhon monsters and Yu’s expansive combat abilities. You get a sense of the space station too, which feels like a successor to Bioshock’s Rapture. There’s a hint of Dead Space to the plot as well, with one character proclaiming: “If just one of those creatures gets back to Earth, we’re lost.” Sound familiar? Despite its obvious inspirations, Prey is shaping up to be one of our most anticipated games this Spring. It’ll be out on Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Source: Prey (YouTube)

The best personal blender 

By Lesley Stockton

This post was done in partnership with Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best homewares. When readers choose to buy The Sweethome’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here.

After spending 20 hours researching two dozen personal blenders and testing 10 models with an expert in our test kitchen, we think the NutriBullet Pro 900 Series offers the best balance of power, simplicity, convenience, and price for most people. We pureed almost 25 pounds of frozen fruit, hearty kale, fibrous ginger, gooey peanut butter, and sticky dates into thick smoothies to come to this conclusion.

Who should buy a personal blender

A personal blender is a convenience item for the dedicated smoothie lover who’s short on time in the morning. If you want to quickly make a morning smoothie and run out the door without having to wash a blender pitcher and lid, a personal blender is for you.

Personal blenders are also good for small jobs like making sauces and dressings, but their motors aren’t as powerful as the ones found in our full-size blender picks. If you want an all-around kitchen workhorse that can puree soups and sauces, and make multiple rounds of frozen margaritas, you should consider getting a full-size blender.

How we picked and tested

From left to right: NutriBullet Pro 900, NutriBullet, Cuisinart CPB-300, Jamba Juice Quiet Shield, Vitamix S-55, Nutri Ninja, Tribest PB-150, Bella Rocket Pro, Bella Rocket. Photo: Michael Hession

The perfect personal blender is powerful, hands-free, and simple to use. We looked for blenders with a small footprint to accommodate small apartments and dorms or people who don’t want a lot of countertop clutter. A sturdy cup with a secure travel lid is a major plus, especially for commuters. Finally, we scoured user reviews to get a read on durability and long-term reliability.

To see how these blenders could handle a thick smoothie, we blended frozen bananas, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and juice for the recommended running time of each specific model. If any blender couldn’t make a puree in that amount of time (usually one minute) or the base began to get noticeably hot, it was disqualified.

The Nutribullet Pro blending a shake of dates, frozen banana, ice, and almond milk. Photo: Michael Hession

For round two, we blended curly kale and water, then strained the mixture through a fine sieve. We evaluated the amount of solids and fibers as well as particle size. To see if these blenders could tackle tough fiber, we made a smoothie with ½-inch-thick pieces of ginger and frozen peaches (all the smoothies from this test had noticeable fibers). We also made a hearty shake from dates, banana, peanut butter, ice, and almond milk. Dates are difficult to puree into a smoothie, and we found that each of our picks could handle the task.

After blending each smoothie, we attached the travel lid (where applicable) and gave each tumbler a vigorous shake over the sink to check for leaks. We also tried to drink thick smoothies from the opening in the lids. We also took decibel readings while the blenders were full and running because we read some complaints about the motors being too loud. For more on how we picked and tested, see our full guide.

Our pick

Photo: Michael Hession

Out of the models we tested, the NutriBullet Pro 900 has the best balance of power, ease of use, and price. It blended everything we threw at it without straining. The Pro comes with a secure-fitting travel lid, and the large cup has a blending capacity of 24 ounces. It’s also the only blender we tested that includes two blade assemblies (when ordered through Amazon). With a 5½-inch-diameter footprint, it’ll tuck away neatly on most kitchen counters, and its 15-inch height clears standard upper cabinets. The NutriBullet Pro comes with a limited one-year warranty, but a four-year extended warranty is available.

The NutriBullet Pro had no problem blending thick, spoonable smoothies. Our banana-berry smoothie came out lump-free. The kale puree wasn’t the finest blend we saw, but it wasn’t as fibrous as the kale from the Nutri Ninja. The NutriBullet blended dates well, leaving only a few small, pleasantly chewy pearls in the bottom of the cup that didn’t clog the straw. None of the personal blenders did an exceptional job on fresh ginger fiber, but that’s an extremely tough thing to break down.

The NutriBullet’s travel lid screws on tight, and a hinged plastic cap snaps over the opening to make it easy for commuters to travel without the risk of spilling all over themselves. We shook the sealed cup over the sink and saw no leaks. We will test the effectiveness of the travel lid long-term to see how it fares in a backpack or a tote on hectic commutes.

A small, durable blender

Photo: Michael Hession

The Tribest PB-150 is a durable, no-frills personal blender. We like the Tribest for its tiny footprint and minimal clutter. At 16 ounces, the blending cups are smaller than those on both the NutriBullet and Breville blenders, and the travel lid doesn’t have a seal, so you can’t throw it in a bag. The Tribest made thinner smoothies than our top or upgrade picks because it required more liquid to get a consistent puree. That said, we think the Tribest will make a good companion appliance to a full-size blender for handling smaller tasks.

A sleek and powerful blender

Photo: Michael Hession

In our tests, the Breville Boss To Go delivered the thickest, silkiest smoothies. It’s super powerful and easy to use out of the box. The Breville is the only one of our top picks that has a metal base and driveshaft. Because the Boss To Go is brand new in the US—it debuted in 2016—it doesn’t have a ton of user or editorial reviews at this time. However, we feel confident about this recommendation because of Breville’s reputation for making quality appliances and from our own testing experience. At around $160 at the time of writing, it’s a splurge, but if you want sleeker design and velvety smoothies, it’s the one to buy.

This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

Note from The Sweethome: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.

Trump’s plans for the EPA will stifle scientific research

Donald Trump’s war against the environment continues. Yesterday the administration froze all grants and contracts at the EPA. It also barred the agency from sharing information with the public and the press as well as remove all references to climate change from its website. Now, NPR (which is also on the president’s chopping block) reports that the administration plans to review any research coming out of the EPA on a “case by case” basis. This would effectively turn the White House into a gatekeeper standing between the EPA’s research and the taxpaying public who fund it.

According to Doug Ericksen, head of communications for the Trump administration’s EPA transition team, who spoke with NPR on Tuesday, scientists working for the EPA will likely have to undergo an “internal vetting process” during the transition period.

“We’ll take a look at what’s happening so that the voice coming from the EPA is one that’s going to reflect the new administration,” Ericksen told NPR. He did not specify on how long the rule would be in place. “We’re on Day 2 here… You’ve got to give us a few days to get our feet underneath us,” he incorrectly stated — it’s Day 5 and the transition team has had since November 9th to get its act together. Trump’s EPA nominee, Scott Pruitt, who sued the agency more than a dozen times during his tenure as Oklahoma Attorney General, is still awaiting confirmation.

This new procedure would fly in the face of the agency’s scientific integrity policy, which has been in place since 2012 and prohibits “all EPA employees, including scientists, managers and other Agency leadership from suppressing, altering, or otherwise impeding the timely release of scientific findings or conclusions.” But then again, the Trump transition team has already signalled that long-standing rules — as well as the definition of “facts” and basic decorum — are open to reinterpretation.

Source: NPR

NYT: Trump is still relying on his unsecured Android phone

Donald Trump is officially in the White House, but he hasn’t actually given up his trusted Android phone, despite major security concerns and reports to the contrary last week. The New York Times claims that Trump is still using his old device — which was outed as a Samsung Galaxy phone last year — over the warnings of some of his aides.

A quick glimpse at his official Twitter account also makes it clear that his most explosive tweets are still coming from “Twitter for Android,” which has been generally been a sign that he’s writing them himself. Meanwhile over at the official @POTUS account, we’re seeing less hyperbolic tweets from Twitter for iPhone, which is a big hint that they’re coming from an aide. It was hard to imagine that Trump would give up on his Twitter addiction entirely, but it’s still surprising to see that he’s still relying on his same combative tone, even though he’s officially President.

If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible “carnage” going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

Given how much attention Trump paid to Hillary Clinton’s private email server, you’d think he’d be careful about opening himself up to similar scrutiny. Of course, tweeting from a personal account is different from storing potentially confidential emails, but Trump’s Android phone is still a dangerous vulnerability. We don’t know if he’s actually dealing with government information on the device, for one, and it’s a pretty obvious data goldmine for hackers and thieves. And even if Trump enabled biometric authentication and device encryption, his old Android phone still wouldn’t be up to the security levels required for his position.

Source: New York Times

T-Mobile slams DirecTV Now in free Hulu offer

T-Mobile recently offered DirecTV Now for a year free to AT&T subscribers who switched to its T-mobile One plan, and now says it will offer Hulu Limited, too. In one of the more John Legere-esque news releases yet, the company took the opportunity to lambast its rival, using critical quotes that called DirecTV “a total disaster,” a “complete mess,” and more. “It turns out DirecTV is barely watchable … so every former AT&T customer who took us up on our offer now gets a free year of Hulu on us,” Legere said in a statement.

Even for the Uncarrier, its an odd move offer a service to customers and then rip it to shreds. Maybe it truly thinks that DirecTV Now is that bad; as Variety notes, AT&T’s streaming service has suffered several outages, but those could be chalked up to growing pains. But then, using a free service as a new and interesting way to insult a rival certainly fits with Legere’s modus operandi.

The new offer is for Hulu’s $7.99 Limited service, not the higher price premium offering, but it’s still a pretty good deal on top of DirecTV. The streaming data doesn’t count toward your cap but, as before, you’re limited to 480P video unless you’re willing to pay an extra $25 per month for the “HD add-on” option. If you use more than 28GB per month, the company may seriously curtail your speed until the next billing cycle, too.

Via: Variety

Source: T-Mobile

Facebook Continues Copying Snapchat by Testing Out ‘Stories’ Update in Ireland

After copying Snapchat inside of Instagram with last year’s “Instagram Stories” update, Business Insider today learned that Facebook is gearing up to launch the exact same feature in its mainline Facebook mobile app. Now called “Facebook Stories,” the social media company is bringing over the same circular user interface to its main app for users in a small test in Ireland, letting them post images and videos that automatically disappear after 24 hours.

Facebook Stories appear at the top of the Facebook app, similar to where Instagram Stories have received top billing in the photo-sharing app. The new feature is said to work “identically” to Instagram’s update, so users can snap a picture or video, edit it with a few filter and sticker options, and friends can tap through each post within the day it gets posted.

Facebook has been focusing on its photo and video features in its iOS app for a while now, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg last year saying that the company plans to launch a camera-first experience that changes status updates from simple written posts to dynamic photos and videos. Through selfie filter tests, holiday updates, and live-streaming add-ons, the company has already begun to make progress towards launching a fully-featured, photo-centric update to the main Facebook app.

After directly becoming a competitor to Snapchat with Instagram Stories, Instagram reported the gain of 100 million users in the second half of 2016. For now, Facebook Stories remains a test of its own in Ireland, but the “new format” will be arriving in more countries in the coming months, according to a Facebook spokesperson.

Tags: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat
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