‘Inside’ team teases its next project following company turmoil

It’s been quite the week for Playdead fans. First came some explanation for why the typically lock-jawed studio behind Limbo and Inside lost one of its cofounders last July. Then, the team tweeted out a teaser image for its next project. Absolutely nothing is known about the game other than it might have something to do with a comet and that its protagonist might be an astronaut of sorts. Oh, and it’s using a subdued color palette and stylized visual motif. Par for the course here, really.

The thing is, given the studio’s history, it could be all we see of the game for a few years. Games typically take between two to four years to develop, but Playdead’s seem to have bigger gaps between them precisely because the studio operates in silence for extended periods of time. And even during the launch window, the studio rarely does any sort of press. Founded in 2006, the Danish team has only released two games since — Limbo in 2010 and Inside in 2016. With the latter, it debuted in 2014 during Microsoft’s E3 keynote and then wasn’t heard of again until last year’s Xbox E3 keynote.

That release schedule coupled with IP ownership was purported to have caused a rift between co-founder and former employee Dino Patti and creative director Arnt Jensen, a claim Patti swiftly dismissed to GamesIndustry.biz. “However, [Patti] did confirm that the conflict lead to Jensen submitting a letter of resignation, and that the nature of that letter is what lead to the irreconcilable differences resulting in Patti’s departure.”

Thanks for your warm reception of INSIDE. Since release, Playdead founder Arnt Jensen and the team have been working on the next adventure. pic.twitter.com/RfejnH39mR

— Playdead (@Playdead) January 20, 2017

Neither party has gone into further details on the matter. As far as Patti goes it doesn’t sound like he’s leaving video games behind, though. He told GamesIndustry that he might have something to share later this year about the “different opportunities” he was exploring.

What’s more, he even retweeted Playdead’s announcement about its next project and has been doing the same for accolades that Inside rightfully garnered late last year. It scored a few from the Engadget gaming crew, with Associate Editor Nick Summers naming it his favorite game from 2016.

Speaking directly of the ending, Summers said “it elevates and already beautiful puzzle platformer into something quite extraordinary.” With the game available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, there aren’t many excuses left if you haven’t played it yet.

Source: Playdead (Twitter)

Google Home tips and tricks

Google Home isn’t just a speaker with built-in Google Search.

With it, you can control your smart home devices, cue up a movie on your TV, replace your desktop speakers, and more. To get the most out of your Goole Home, you really need to do a deep-dive into the Home app or just play around the device for a while. Luckily for you, we’ve done both, and we’ve rounded up a selection of the top tips and tricks to help you master the voice-activated speaker in no time.

• Google Home review: Better than Amazon Echo?

Google Home Assistant tips and tricks

Pocket-lint

Google Assistant is Google’s iteration of a personal assistant. It’s considered an upgrade or an extension of Google Now, as well as an expansion of Google’s existing “OK Google” voice controls. It’s conversational, too. You can ask a question and follow-up questions, and Assistant will track the conversation, determine context, and audibly respond with the right information.

Google Assistant is a stand-out feature in the Google Home speaker. You can use it to control Google Home, Pixel devices, as well as third-party services and devices. To help you figure out everything Assistant can do, we’ve rounded up some tips and tricks, which you can find here. However, if you want to learn tips and tricks unique, exclusive or specific to Google Home, read on.

• What is Google Assistant, how does it work, and when can you use it?

Google Home tips and tricks

Pocket-lint

Remember to use a wake word

Google Assistant responds to two ‘wake words’: “Ok Google” and “Hey Google”. Unfortunately, you can’t change it from these two phrases. Also, you need to say one every single time you wish to engage with Google Home (say the phrase, followed by a question or command).

Adjust settings and preferences

In the Google Home app, slide out the menu drawer from the left side of the screen, and tap on More Settings.

If you want, you can tap your name after selecting More Settings and add your home address for specific weather and traffic reports. Also, from the Personal info menu in settings, you can set a nickname that Assistant will use for you. Under Preferences, you can choose a preferred temperature unit. In the News and My Day sections, you pick various news sources, while with My Day you can select which details are included when you prompt Google Home to tell you about your day. Examples include weather, commute time, reminders, etc.

Another way you can get to settings: Open the hamburger menu (the three lines in the upper corner) and look for the Devices option. You’ll see your Google Home listed. From there, open its menu by tapping the three dots in the upper left corner and choose Settings. Everything you need to adjust or change about you’re Google Home is there.

Give Google Home a new name

Under settings, go to Name, and from there, you can rename your Google Home whenever and how often you like.

Connect third-party services

Google Home relies on third-party services to provide you with a richer experience. Think of these services as apps that you can access on the speaker. At launch, Google Home’s services were limited to Uber. Now, the full list of services ranges from WebMD to an animal quiz. To find a full list of supported services, open More Settings > Services. From there, tap on the service you want to connect to your Google Home.

Keep in mind Google Home doesn’t hold a candle to Amazon Alexa in terms of connected apps – not yet anyway. But it does play well with Pandora, TuneIn, Google Music, Spotify, YouTube, and even Netflix and Uber. You can also use it to control smart home products from Nest, Philips Hue lights, and Smart Things. It also supports Cast, so you can use it in conjunction with Chromecast to send content to your TV.

Use the Google ecosystemTo get the most out of Google Home, use Google’s other products. It’s designed to work with products many people frequently use, such as Google Calendar and Google Keep. When combined with Google Home, you can make Assistant a true personal assistant. It can check your schedule, set reminders, add items to your shopping lists, and more — and all with a simple voice command.

Reset Google Home

To conduct a factory reset and restore your Google to a good-as-new state, hold the microphone button for about 15 seconds. From there, you can link it to a different Google account using the Google Home app. Remember, it doesn’t allow you to set up multiple user profiles.

Reboot Google Home

What do you do when some gadget stops working? You restart it, or “reboot” it. So, of course Google included this in the Home app. Just open the Home app and then select Devices > Menu > Reboot. That’s it.

Touch your way through things

Aside from your voice, you can control Google Home with your touch. Tap the top of the speaker once to awaken your Google Home or to pause and play a broadcast. You can also slide your finger along the centered circle at the top to change volume.

Mute the mic

If you want to stop Google Home from “always-listening”, look for the button on the back of the speaker. It’s the only button, and it has a microphone on it. Press it and Home will turn off the microphone (four amber lights will light up on top). Press it again, and it’ll tell you the microphone is on. When it’s on, Google Home is in the always-listening mode and will listen for and respond to your commands.

You can Google thatGoogle Home is basically Google.com.

Want to find a grocery store in Sacramento? Need to convert ounces to cups? Curious how old Donald Trump is? Ever wonder what the capital of Florida is? Google Home can be your assistant and set an appointments, but it also doubles as a search engine. Remember, you can also ask follow-up questions. Google Assistant will always remember the topic or subject in your string of questions.

Check your activity

Under More Settings, scroll to the bottom and tap the My Activity option. A website will open with everything Google Home (and Assistant on your phone) has recorded. You can sort by date and time, play back exactly what Home heard, get details, and delete them.

Set up Guest ModeYou can set up a guest mode to let anyone connect to your Google Home once they enter a four-digit PIN provided by the app.

Cast movies or audio to a TV

If you have a Chromecast device, go to More Settings in the Google Home app, tap on TVs and Speakers, and then tap the plus sign in the bottom right corner of the screen. The Google Home app will search for voice-supported TVs on the same Wi-Fi network as your Google Home. From there, you can ask Google Home to play Netflix movies and TV show or even YouTube videos.

You must connect third-party services — like Netflix — to your Google account using the Google Home app (Settings > More Settings > Videos and Photos). After doing this, you can simply say things like “Okay Google, play House of Cars from Netflix on TV”. You can even also Google Home to pause playback or rewind a minute to something you might’ve missed.

Cast photos to your TV

Google Home can’t just control Netflix or YouTube on your TV, it can also control Google Photos, Google’s free cloud photo storage service. Just link up your account in the Google Home app under settings, and then say “Okay Google, show me photos of my pets on TV”. The service is able to tag and recognise people, things, and places, so it’s able to smartly serve up whatever you ask for.

Ditch your desktop speakersGoogle Cast is built directly into the Chrome browser. So, when you click the cast button in the corner of Chrome, you can look for your Home device, select it, and then cast audio from your computer to/through Google Home.

Set your music source

Google Home can play music from several sources, such as Play Music, Pandora, Spotify or YouTube Music. To set your default source, head got to More Settings in the Home app, then choose Music (or choose Music from the sidebar), and link an account and select it as the main source

Manage a family shopping list

You can automatically add things to your shopping list, which means it’ll be added to a note in the Google Keep app for iOS or Android, just by saying something like: “Okay Google, add coffee to my shopping list”. The list can only be associated with the primary account holder.

You can add collaborators to this list so they can access it though; simply select the three-dots button in the right corner of the list, select “collaborator,” and invite other family members to the list.

Play podcasts

All you have to do to hear podcasts is ask. Say “Okay Google, Play This American Life” to hear the most recent episode of the show. If you should pause it, the next time you ask for that podcast, Google Home will pick up where you left off.

Find your misplaced phone

Can’t find your home? Google Home can locate the device — if you link it with a service called IFTTT. Use this recipe (requires an IFTTT account) so that you can automatically call your number when you say “Okay Google, find my phone.”

Turn off the lights

Google Home can control internet-connected appliances around your home, such as lightbulbs like Philips Hue. You can not only turn those on and off, but also say things like “Okay Google, turn the living room purple” to change their colour. But Google Home is a voice-controlled hub for all your smart devices. You can also leverage IFTTT recipes to get the most out of Home and your devices, but that’s not required.

Set an alarm

This might seem obvious but… Google Home can replace your alarm clock. Say “OK Google, set an alarm for 5 minutes” or whenever, and you’ll hear a nice tune and see a circle of lights on the top of Google Home when the alarm goes off.Hear about your day

You can ask Google Home “tell me about my day” to get an audio report of your calendar, your morning traffic commute, the weather, and any reminders. You can also customise your report to exclude certain things, such as the weather. At the end, you’ll get a news briefing. But first, to do any of this, you’ll must connect services like your Google Calendar using settings in the Google Home app.

Google Home Easter eggs

Pocket-lint

Looking for some fun things to do with Google Home? While these are technically Google Assistant easter eggs, you’ll find that they really give your Google Home some personality:

• Say “I’m feeling lucky” to start up a multiplayer game show.
• Say “Give me a random number between (x) and (y)” to hear a random number between the two – with beeping sounds to boot.
• Ask it to “Roll (insert number)-sided dice”: It’ll give you a random number, complete with sound effects.
• Say “(Contact name) is my (relationship)” to ask Assistant to associate certain relationship information with a contact for future reference.
• Say “Good morning” to hear a rundown of your day’s agenda, along with the current weather and news.
• Say “Send a message to (Contact name) on (messaging service like WhatsApp)” to dictate a message to a contact.
• Say “Wubba lubba dub dub” to get Assistant to respond with: “Are you in pain? How can I help?” or “Sorry, I don’t speak Birdperson” (a reference to the show Rick and Morty).
• Say “Beatbox” to hear a clip of someone beat-boxing.
• Say “sing a song” to hear a horrible, brief song.
• Say “Read a poem” to hear a random poem from Google search.
• Say “Tell me a joke” to hear an age-appropriate joke from Pixar.
• Say “F*** you” to submit a bug report.

Samsung can’t use in-box warranty to kill Galaxy S4 lawsuit

Oh Samsung. When the company isn’t busy recalling cellphones and washing machines for being safety hazards, it’s busy fighting its customers in court. In 2015, Daniel Norcia contended that he was misled by Samsung about the capabilities of his Galaxy S4. Specifically, its speed, performance and memory capacity, according to Consumerist.

The long and short of it is that Samsung didn’t want to go to court and instead wanted to force the claim into private arbitration — essentially, a non-public dispute resolution.

The Korean company says (PDF) that the warranty sheet in the phone’s box stripped Norcia’s right to a trial, stating that said sheet forbids class action lawsuits and requires “all disputes with Samsung arising in any way from this limited warranty or the sale, condition or performance of the products shall be resolved exclusively through final and binding arbitration, and not by court or jury.”

An appeals board basically pointed and laughed at the Korean tech juggernaut saying that customers don’t need to opt-in to a warranty because they aren’t the ones selling the device. As Consumerist notes, at this point it’s a matter of contract law because Norcia’s dispute involves the handset’s advertised performance.

For every possible defense Samsung had, the court hit back with a counter-argument. It’s entirely possible that the case could reach class-action status and everyone who had similar S4 complaints could receive compensation. On the other hand, Samsung could file an appeal of its own should such a case reach the Supreme Court. We’ve reached out to Samsung for more information and will update this post should it arrive.

Source: Consumerist (1) (PDF), (2)

Unfollowing @POTUS could be difficult right now

While we just learned of the detailed transition plan for Obama Administration social media accounts, things aren’t going quite as many users expected. Currently, many people have reported that despite unfollowing (or, in some cases, apparently never following) the @POTUS account on Twitter, they checked their accounts and are suddenly following it. According to company CEO Jack Dorsey in a series of tweets, what’s happening is an automated process plotted out by the Obama team.

What should be happening, according to @Jack, is that Twitter is replaying a series of actions from a snapshot it took at 9AM, transferring @POTUS followers to the new @POTUS44 account where Barack Obama’s history is archived and the new, fresh @POTUS as well. This was mentioned in the transition plans back in October, explaining that both accounts would end up with the (then 11 million or so) followers. The problem is that if you’ve unfollowed (or even blocked) since, it will apparently take time to catch up, and hasn’t completed yet.

@kristapley @keithcalder investigating. Script was to move POTUS to POTUS44 and new POTUS. Shouldn’t follow if there was never a follow

— jack (@jack) January 21, 2017

@taradublinrocks @3LWTV @SteveScalise @POTUS @WhiteHouse looking into this. We timestamped at 9a as planned (per post)

— jack (@jack) January 21, 2017

It’s unclear if everything is working exactly as planned, but it’s apparently still occurring right now. As it stands, if you’d like to follow or unfollow @POTUS, @FLOTUS or any of the other top-level White House accounts and took action on that within the last day or so, it may be better to wait until tomorrow and see where things stand. Or, you could keep flipping the switch and see what happens. Either way, this is the first transition of the social media era, and it doesn’t appear to be living up to user expectations. We’ll see if things are done in a similar way the next time there’s a change in the Oval Office.

@GlennF @edbott @POTUS if you unfollowed it will replay. Just taking time.

— jack (@jack) January 21, 2017

Source: Jack Dorsey (Twitter)

Researchers use ultrasound to push helpful RNA inside cells

Scientists at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have been able to push strands of RNA (ribonucleic acid) into colon cells using bursts of ultrasound waves. The treatment, thanks to how RNA can reprogram the production of proteins, dramatically reduced levels of a protein that’s found only in colon cells during inflammatory bowel diseases. It caused inflammation inside mice test subjects to almost disappear — and without any side effects.

Carl Schoellhammer, the study’s lead author, said that the team “saw tremendous knockdown of those proteins.” Parts of RNA, short-interfering RNA, can turn off specific genes. Typically, these treatments don’t work inside the gut as RNA gets broken up into molecules on its way to the affected area. Using ultrasound as a delivery method means this doesn’t happen, as it gets inside cells so quickly.

At low frequencies, ultrasound waves make tiny bubbles in a solution which later burst, pushing drugs and/or RNA into cells. During the group’s tests on mice, those that received RNA through ultrasound saw a sevenfold to tenfold reduction in inflammatory protein levels, with inflammation nearly disappearing. The researchers noted no adverse side-effects, while RNA delivered without an ultrasound-powered nudge had no effect on the mice. This technique could be used to treat both other gastrointestinal disorders as well as diseases in other parts of the body. RNA treatment could be used to reprogram protein production in cancerous cells, for example.

The researchers have formed a company called Suono Bio to develop the tech, and are planning to develop a treatment method for inflammatory bowel disease in humans– if it passes the requisite clinical trials. The team is also working on miniaturized devices that would carry drugs or RNA, as well as emit its own ultrasound waves, for delivery to the stomach or other parts of the GI tract. “Eventually we think we will get to a fully ingestible capsule for the oral delivery of almost anything,” added Schoellhammer.

Source: MIT

The Vine Archive will keep the videos looping forever

Vine won’t be going away after all. The six-second video service that gave the world “on fleek” and an enthusiastic community of homegrown celebrities will live on in the Vine Archive, a time capsule dedicated to the site’s all-too-brief four year lifespan.

The Vine Archive takes over the Vine.co URL, but with a handy index page to help you navigate the millions of archived video loops. If you’re just here to browse, Vine has helpfully broken things out by categories like Sports, Animals, Art and Comedy, but the real news here is that Yeet never has to stop dancing and we’ll always be back at it again at the Krispy Kreme.

Unfortunately, there’s no longer an easy way to embed a Vine, so they’re more or less frozen in six seconds of amber on their individual archive pages. Videos embedded in old pages will still play “while the archive is available,” but the loop counts, likes and re-vines are all stuck in time as well. If you’re a fan of the format, you can still shoot loops with the Vine Camera app, but you’ll have to post them straight to Twitter. And if you’d rather not have your clips live on in perpetuity, you can still delete your account.

Via: Vine on Medium

Google aims to make Android the safest mobile platform in the world

Safer apps make for a safer phone.

Google’s new Security for Android Developers page has a pretty bold statement as it’s tagline:

Our goal is to make Android the safest mobile platform in the world. That’s why we consistently invest in technologies that bolster the security of the platform, its applications, and the global Android ecosystem.

Google is pretty transparent when it comes to Android security, and the past year or so has seen media outlets pick up more and more of what they are doing. It’s important and interesting to know what’s going on when it comes to things that threaten your privacy and finances through your phone. It’s equally important and interesting to read about the things being done to keep us safer from them.

One place where Google is being more visible is best security practices for the people who build the apps we love to use. The new Security for Android Developers page is a great example.

Making essential information more visible is a key step to more secure apps.

It’s a portal for developers to read everything they need to know and how to do those things in order to make their apps as safe as they can be. Google has always had this information available at the Android Developers site, but the new landing page is friendly and shows you exactly what you would be looking for when writing a secure Android app. The resources available are a great way for anyone in the business to understand the how and why when it comes to mobile security, and then gives examples of how to incorporate the best practices. This means better apps, and making it easy for developers is a great move.

Things that threaten our privacy and data aren’t ever going to go away. In fact, many analysts feel that we’re going to be seeing even more of it done in sneakier ways. Anything a big tech company can do to assist developers in fighting them is welcomed.

LG G6 might come with Google Assistant (and maybe even Alexa)

LG’s next flagship might be getting coveted feature: Google Assistant.

Oh, and maybe Amazon Alexa.

Currently, the only phones with Google Assistant are the Google Pixel and Pixel XL. If LG were add Assistant to the upcoming LG G6, it would make LG the first brand outside of Google to use the Assistant. But that’s not all: LG Electronics is also open to cooperating with Amazon.

• LG G6: What’s the story so far?

And all this is according to Business Korea. We’re not sure whether this means both services would be featured in the phone. For now, it seems like Assistant is looking most likely. However, LG has been embedding Amazon’s Alexa into several home appliances, which were unveiled at CES 2017, so this wouldn’t be the first collaboration between the two. Also, Huawei Mate 9 is a phone that features Alexa.

If it seems absurd to imagine one smartphone running two voice assistants, consider what Sonos’ CEO said to Variety on Friday. He wants Sonos speakers to feature not only Amazon Alexa, but also Google Assistant and any other voice assistant available on the market. But who knows how that would actually work – let alone whether the different partners would even consider such a thing.

• Mobile World Congress 2017: Nokia, Sony, Huawei smartphones and more

LG is also rumored to use Google Assistant to power its next line of Android Wear smartwatches, which are also set to unveil next month at the Mobile World Congress show. Either way, Pocket-lint will be there to tell you as it happens whether the phone and watches get Assistant.

Kickstarter shuts down sketchy Adoptly campaign

About a week ago, a brain-dead campaign hit Kickstarter. Adoptly promised that adoption was “just a swipe away” through its Tinder-style app that let you find adoptable children. It was a terrible way to frame such a service, and something about the whole situation just didn’t make sense, despite assurances from the company that it was legit. Apparently, Kickstarter also feels that something is amiss here: the Adoptly campaign was just suspended.

In this situation, all funding is returned to the backers (in this case, 16 backers had pledged a total of $4,000 thus far) and the decision cannot be reversed. Kickstarter doesn’t say why it suspends projects, but its list of reasons includes a variety of reasons around misrepresentation that seem to be appropriate here.

In all liklihood, this decision won’t affect the outcome (assuming Adoptly was real to begin with). The campaign had only made $4,000 off of a $150,000 goal, so funding was unlikely to happen to begin with. Earlier this week, The Verge noted that most of its team was unable to be found on social media, LinkedIn or other places that you’d expect to find startup founders.

A Kickstarter spokesperson noted that the company doesn’t comment on individual suspensions and pointed me to the aforementioned list of reasons a campaign can get shut down. While the Kickstarter has been suspended, Adoptly’s website remains up, at least for now.

Source: Adoptly (Kickstarter)

Trump at 2AM: The new Oval Office in virtual reality

Donald Trump stands before me with a grim look on his face, lightly leaning against the Oval Office’s Resolute desk. Moonlight pours in through the office’s rear windows as a phone quietly rings. It’s 2am, and something has happened — and a new President holds the weight of the world on his shoulders. I’m looking at this surreal, frozen scene through the lens of an HTC Vive. It’s a free virtual reality experience called “Wide Awake,” and it tells a simple, concise story: no matter who Donald Trump was before or what you may have thought of him, he’s now the guy who answers the phone when shit hits the fan.

Staring at the President’s visage through virtual reality is a little like visiting a wax museum. Donald Trump stands unmoving, frozen in time — but his face looks like it could spring to life at any moment. The VR experience’s description boasts that virtual Trump is the “most photo-realistic human you will see in virtual reality today,” and he really is. Standing at the President’s official height of 6’3, virtual Trump towers over me, his face creased with intensity. His left knee bends slightly off the ground.

As the phone rings, it’s hard to tell if he’s sitting back in reflection, or preparing to spring off the desk into action. The ambiguity seems intentional. “We see Trump in VR as art,” co-creator John MacInnes explains. “A tableau vivant, in the American tradition of artists like Edward Hopper in painting, Gregory Crewdson and Cindy Sherman in photography.” Indeed, Wide Awake serves as a living picture — it’s as frozen as a painting, but a light in the player’s hand gives them some control over how the scene looks. And while the subject is frozen, the world around him isn’t. The ringing phone continues to add tension to the scene. Who is this new president? What is his reaction to a middle of the night emergency?

The work doesn’t answer this question — it merely offers a view of public service the average citizen will never see. Someday soon, Donald Trump will be awoken by a midnight call and rush to the West Wing. He’ll be called upon to make life and death decisions most of us can scarcely imagine.

The experience was actually created before the election, but was only released to the public on the Vive store on the dawn of Donald Trump’s inauguration. It has more impact this way, portraying a definite future instead of a potential one. It’s also an incredibly surreal experience to have just minutes after the President is sworn in.

Source: Macinnes Scott, VivePort