Super Bowl LI (2017) ads and teasers: Intel, Mercedes, Budweiser, GoDaddy, and more

Ahead of the New England Patriots facing off against the Atlanta Falcons, tonnes of big-budget adverts have begun hitting the air.

The Pats beat the Steelers in the AFC Championship game, while the Falcons beat the Packers in the NFC Championship game. Now, the two teams are headed to the Super Bowl LI on 5 February. This will be the Falcon’s second Super Bowl appearance, where as the Pats are on their ninth. Every year, many Super Bowl commercials release ahead of the game, but most premiere during the game on Sunday.

Here are some of the better adverts that companies have spent millions on for the Big Game. Keep in mind some of them are teasers meant to get you pumped for the actual commercial’s release (because, apparently, there’s people who get excited about that). If you want to know when and where you can watch the action unfold in real-time, check out Pocketlint’s Super Bowl LI guide.

Best Super Bowl LI commercials and ads

Avocados From Mexico

Bud Light

Budweiser

Buffalo Wild Wings

Febreze

Ford

GoDaddy

Intel

Kia

Lexus

Mercedes-Benz

Mr. Clean

Skittles

Snickers

Squarespace

TurboTax

Wix.com

Yellow Tail

Facebook is making a set-top box video app for premium TV content

Soon, you’ll be watching video on Facebook from your TV.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is developing a “video-centric app” for set-top boxes, including the Apple TV, so it can put video content from the social network on screens in the living room. It would also help Facebook get into video advertising. Facebook’s been embracing video a lot over the past couple years, with a high-quality upgrade to its video platform and the introduction of live broadcasting.

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Facebook’s upcoming set-top box video app is actually one of many projects it is working on as part of its ongoing “video-first” efforts. Facebook, which sits only behind Google as the largest digital advertiser, wants to better compete against TV ads. It’s currently testing a new video ad product and has even talked with media companies about licensing TV programming so it can make premium content available on television sets.

The Wall Street Journal said the US TV ad market is a $70 billion business, and that video ads command more of a premium than the text/image ads currently found in Facebook’s news feed, which is also quickly running out of room for ads. Facebook likely wants to tap into advertisers’ marketing budgets for TV ads and sees its availability on living room screens as being essential to achieving that goal.

Facebook’s set-top box app, which is under development, won’t contain “non-video content”. It’ll be a home for finding original, premium content that Facebook currently is trying to get from major studios. And Facebook will eventually sell video ads against that content.

Google opens the code for Chrome on iOS

Google’s Chrome browser has been open source from the get-go (through the Chromium project), but not on iOS. Apple demands that browsers use WebKit instead of their own rendering engines, so Google couldn’t just use its typical code base and call it a day. However, that all changes today: Google has added the iOS Chrome code into Chromium. Developers who want to build on the iOS app, or just poke around looking for security holes, should now have an easy time seeing what makes it tick.

This should also speed up the development of Chrome for iOS, Google adds. As all of the company’s usual Chromium tests now apply to the iOS code, it’ll be easier to implement cross-platform features. You won’t have to be a programmer to benefit from the open source move, in other words. This promises more frequent updates that will help the iOS browser more closely match its Android counterpart.

Source: Chromium Blog

Disney’s Club Penguin will relaunch as a mobile app in March

After 11 years online, Disney’s kid-friendly social network Club Penguin will shut down at the end of March, to be replaced by a new mobile-only version called Club Penguin Island. The site originally launched in 2005 before Disney bought it up two years later and devoted considerable resources towards making the platform a safe space for kids to play games and chat online. When it launches on March 29th, Club Penguin Island will carry over the same philosophy to a new standalone mobile with an updated look plus new features, games and quests to engage with.

Unfortunately for the tweens who have spent considerable time and energy building up their Club Penguin presence, players won’t be able to bring their memberships or their virtual items and property over to the new version, but Disney has opened up pre-registrations for Club Penguin Island so kids can go ahead and reserve their usernames before the app goes live. In the meantime, the site will be celebrating a “Waddle On” goodbye party starting on February 1st and current members can keep playing until Club Penguin sunsets on March 29th.

As TechCrunch reports, Club Penguin’s web traffic has been on the decline since it peaked around 12 million users in 2013. As of last month, the site was down to about 5.5 million monthly visitors and the launch of Club Penguin Island hopes to recapture some of that audience while bringing the next class of elementary schoolers online. The market for kids’ spaces is also much more crowded than it was back in 2005, and Disney will be competing directly with services like Lego’s Lego Life social network, also aimed at that under-13 demographic.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Club Penguin, Club Penguin Island Pre-registration

Coin shuts down its payment services on February 28th

You knew Coin’s payment tech wasn’t long for this world when Fitbit bought the company in 2016, and now the end is at hand: the Coin team is shutting down its payment services on February 28th. ITs signature universal credit card devices will keep working as long as they still have battery power, or about 2 years after activation. However, the mobile app will stop working after that date — you can’t change cards on the device if they’re due to expire. Nearly all support is going away (outside of deleting accounts), and you’re already out of luck if you need a warranty exchange.

It’s a quiet end, but you probably won’t see too many people lamenting Coin’s fate. Fitbit’s upcoming payment-friendly smartwatch will likely be more convenient than pulling out a card. And even if you have no interest in Fitbit’s hardware, there just isn’t as much desire for a tech-savvy card as there was when Coin made its debut back in 2013. Tap-to-pay technology has exploded in the years since then, and Samsung Pay can work at those stores that still depend on magnetic stripe readers. If you can just use your phone or watch, why bother reaching for a card in your wallet? Coin was appealing for a while, but its moment has passed.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Coin

SoundHound wants to take on Google and Amazon in voice AI

When it comes to voice recognition software, SoundHound is definitely not as big a name as Google or Amazon — yet. SoundHound has raised $75 million in support of its efforts to create artificial intelligence systems capable of recognizing complex human voices and commands, Bloomberg reports. Samsung and Nvidia, two companies that have previously partnered with SoundHound, were among the investors.

SoundHound already has Houndify, a proprietary AI technology capable of interpreting complex speech and other audio. The latest $75 million investment will go toward expanding this system into new territories and devices. In particular, the company is planning to grow its business across Asia and Europe.

SoundHound CEO Keyvan Mohajer told Bloomberg he wants to place his voice-recognition AI in third-party IoT devices. This way, device manufacturers won’t have to build their own AI systems and they won’t need to rely on products from Google, Microsoft, Apple or Amazon. These companies offer closed systems that remove control from the device-maker, Mohajer said.

“We don’t have an agenda to hijack your product,” he said. “If you use Amazon, you lose your brand, your users. You have to ask your user to log into their Amazon account, they have to call on Alexa, and all the data belongs to them.” He promised that companies wouldn’t lose control over their customers or data if they implemented SoundHound’s technology.

This all seems like good timing on SoundHound’s part — 2017 is poised to be huge for voice-recognition technology in IoT devices and beyond.

Source: Bloomberg

Production on ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is finally underway

Thanks to delays at the network, CBS’ latest addition to the small screen Star Trek canon obviously didn’t make its scheduled release date of January 2017. But there’s some good news from the network today: production has officially begun on the set of Star Trek: Discovery.

Production has begun on the next chapter. #StarTrekDiscovery is coming to CBS All Access. https://t.co/b1uni2YyKp pic.twitter.com/19pmY4JBFd

— Star Trek: Discovery (@startrekcbs) January 31, 2017

While the fact that the cameras have started rolling on the bridge of the USS Discovery is obviously good news for fans of the franchise, CBS noted earlier this month that there’s no set premiere date for the show at the moment. “It’s more important to do this right than to do it fast,” the company said at the time, noting that the streaming-only format and the network’s All Access platform have freed the team from a normal delivery schedule.

On the other hand, more details about the show’s story arc have been slowly escaping from the network’s containment field. In November, CBS cast Michelle Yeoh as the show’s main character and the Lt. Commander of the titular starship. In January, the team also revealed that James Frain will play a younger version of Spock’s father Sarek, the Vulcan astrophysicist and ambassador to the Federation.

Chevy stops making the Spark EV following the Bolt’s arrival

It’s hard not to take a look at the Chevy Bolt and ask: why on Earth would anyone buy the Spark EV over this? And GM feels the same way, apparently. The automaker has confirmed to Detroit News that it quietly ended production of the Spark EV in summer 2016, about 3 years after it hit the scene. The company hasn’t explained why besides saying that it will “build on the great experience of our electrification program,” but it’s not hard to see why — the Spark just wasn’t as compelling as the Bolt and other modern electric cars.

Aside from its tiny size, the Spark’s biggest limitation was its 82-mile maximum range. The Bolt, with a 238-mile range, is much more practical if you want to do more than commute to work. It has newer in-cabin tech, too. And while the Bolt is thousands of dollars more expensive even after tax credits (the Spark started at about $26,000), it’s hard to say that the savings would be worthwhile given what you’re losing. It won’t shock you to hear that only 7,400 Spark EVs have been sold since 2013, while GM expects to have sold 1,800 Bolts by the end of January.

With that said, this leaves the Chevy badge with precious few electric choices. The Bolt is the only pure EV in the lineup, and the Volt plug-in hybrid won’t help much if you’re determined to avoid using gas. It’ll likely be a long while before Chevy treats EVs as more than niche products and gives you a range of body styles.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Detroit News

Samsung will unveil something at MWC on February 26th

Samsung just sent out its invites for the Mobile World Congress 2017, however, unlike previous years, the big news is what won’t be there. As a knock-on effect of the whole Galaxy Note 7 mess, its introduction of the flagship Galaxy S8 is delayed from its usual February reveal to (likely) March. Still, Samsung has a show to put on and sent out this curious image to pique our interest.

We’re not sure what it shows, and your guess probably hinges on whether you think the marker in the center is a home button or a USB-C port. Of course, this being the “Mobile” event, and considering the devices already ruled out, it could be some new (albeit oddly-shaped) Galaxy Tab. Whatever it is, you have a month to get your guesses in.

Source: Samsung

Apple CEO Tim Cook: We Have a ‘Toe in the Water’ Testing Original TV Content on Apple Music

During today’s earnings call covering the first fiscal quarter of 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about Apple’s next moves when it comes to the television, such as original programming, where the company has been experimenting with content for its Apple Music service.

Cook didn’t have too much to say on the subject, but he said Apple has a “toe in the water” and will see how things play out going forward. Cook believes the media industry will continue to evolve as the cable model breaks down, perhaps leading to new opportunities.

In terms of original content, we’ve put our toe in the water doing some original content for Apple Music, and that will be rolling out throughout the year. We’re learning from that and we’ll go from there.

He went on to say that the Apple TV has gone a long way in the year that it’s been available for purchase, and has provided Apple with a “clear platform” to “build off of.” Earlier in the call, he said Apple now has 150 million paid subscriptions for first and third-party services, and that’s an area where Apple “participates economically” by providing the platform.

Apple is working on several shows that will be used to promote Apple Music, including Carpool Karaoke, a reality television series based on James Corden’s Carpool Karoke bit during the “Late Late Show,” and “Vital Signs,” a drama that will star Dr. Dre. Neither show has an air date as of yet, but as Cook says, they’re coming soon.

Cook ended the question by saying “With our toe in the water, we’re learning a lot about the original content business and thinking of ways we could play in that.”

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Tags: Tim Cook, Apple Music
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