Apple’s Beats 1 Radio Station Launches in Singapore
Apple’s 24/7 online radio station, Beats 1, finally went live in Singapore on Tuesday, almost two years after Apple Music first launched there (via Mashable).
The availability of Beats 1 – which does not require an Apple Music subscription to listen to – is notable for a country in which iPhones usually launch the same day as in the U.S., and where Apple’s streaming music service has proved very popular since its debut in 2015, when it went live in over 100 countries worldwide.
The lack of Beats 1 in Singapore until now has been a source of frustration among users, given that the station has been streaming to other countries in the region, such as Thailand and the Philippines, since that time.
At present, Beats 1 remains unavailable in the Bahamas, Bahrain, Burkina-Faso, China, Egypt, Jordan, the Lebanon, Mozambique, Namibia, the UAE and Qatar.
Tags: Apple Music, Beats 1
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Pokémon Go Trading and Real-Time Player Battles Coming Soon, Says Niantic
Pokémon Go fans waiting for a new reason to resume their engagement with the hit augmented reality title may have reason to cheer. According to MacRumors sister site TouchArcade, two features that were sorely missing in the game’s original incarnation – real-time player battles and Pokémon trading – are said to be coming “soon”.
John Hanke, founder and CEO of Pokémon Go developer Niantic, revealed in an interview that both co-operative trading and player vs player battles are in the works, although their introduction is likely to be staggered via a series of updates, in what he called “an abbreviated form”.
The omission of the two features around launch time was said to be down to the daunting server issues the company experienced shortly after the debut of Pokémon Go last summer. Hanke revealed that if the company hadn’t been so busy trying to keep the servers online, at least one of the features would likely have been in version 1 of the game.
“It’s going to be done soon,” Hanke told Waypoint. “It is what it is. I’ll take the massive wave of hysteria we enjoyed, and just deal with the fact that it’s caused us to take a bit longer to get the rest of the features up. We’re really happy to make our users happy.”
Tag: Pokémon GO
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The 12 Best Video Conferencing Apps for Teams
In 1884, eight years after Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson had the world’s first phone call, industrialist John Jacob Astor IV published his predictions for the 21st century. Along with ill-fated predictions of steel-covered roads and the discovery an anti-gravitational force, he also foresaw video calls.
“Telephones have been so improved that one person can speak in his natural voice with another in any part of the globe, the wire that enables him to hear also showing him the face of the speaker,” wrote Astor. Wires aside, that prediction came true.
Video calls came in starts and fits. The earliest came from AT&T’s labs in 1927, with a room full of equipment. Public videophone booths were available by the 1970’s, and in the early 1990’s you could buy a video phone for around $1,000.
Then, apps and wider bandwidth came, and video calls and conferencing became more ubiquitous–as long as you had a decent internet connection and a capable device, that is. Today, if you’re shopping and want advice from a friend, a video call is only a couple taps away. If you need to interview or consult with a dozen people who live in another city, you can do so face-to-face without leaving your desk. Sometimes, FaceTime is clearer and cheaper than a “normal” phone call.
And yet, team video calls can still be an exercise in frustration, with delayed video, glitchy graphics, and batteries drained in minutes. We know.
As a fully remote team, Zapier relies on video conferencing to hold team meetings, share ideas, and check in on each other. We’ve tried a lot of video call apps—and have suffered through one too many terrible calls. And so, after trying nearly two dozen video conferencing apps, we’ve settled on the ones that consistently work well.
Here are the best apps to make a video call whenever you want, including the brand new Amazon Chime and our team’s long-time favorites: Zoom, Appear.in, and Hangouts.
| App | Icon: | Best for: | Free for: | Plans from: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appear.in |  |
Quick, small group chats in a browser | 8 users | $12/mo |
| FaceTime |  |
One-to-one video calls that feel as simple as a phone call | 2 users | N/A |
| Gruveo |  |
Receiving one-to-one video calls in your browser with a dedicated line | 2 users | $12/mo |
| Slack |  |
Making a call directly from team chat | N/A | $8/mo |
| Zoom |  |
Reliable, clear group video calls | 50 users | $14.99/mo |
| Google Hangouts |  |
Quick calls from Google Calendar | 25 users | N/A |
| GoToMeeting |  |
Professional video conferencing and webinars | 3 users | $19/mo |
| Amazon Chime |  |
Jumping on a call right on schedule | 2 users | $150/mo/user |
| BlueJeans |  |
Video conferencing from any device | N/A | $19.95/mo |
| Rabbit |  |
Showing a video to a group | 25 users | N/A |
| Pexip |  |
Presentations across multiple video conference systems | N/A | $25/mo/user |
| Join.me |  |
Collaborating in a call | 10 users | $20/mo |
| Cisco WebEx |  |
Working around a virtual whiteboard | 3 users | $24/mo |
This autonomous flying taxi will start picking up passengers this summer, apparently
Why it matters to you
If something like this ever gets off the ground, it could revolutionize the way we move around our cities.
Remember that tiny flying taxi that caused a buzz at CES 2016? That’s right, the egg-shaped contraption that resembles a kind of giant quadcopter.
Well, it seems the simply named “184” vehicle is ready to take to the skies this summer, ferrying paying passengers around the Emirati city of Dubai, according to an AP report.
Developed by Chinese firm EHang, the 184 takes its name from having one passenger, eight propellors, and four arms. Perhaps there should be a “0” too, for zero pilots. Yes, this particular bit of kit operates sans driver.
It’s for real, apparently
The plan for EHang’s autonomous flying machine was announced this week by Mattar al-Tayer, the head of Dubai’s Roads & Transportation Agency.
Perhaps wary of sketpics in the room scoffing at the idea of an over-sized, multi-rotor, person-carrying copter going into service anytime soon, al-Tayer added, “This is not only a model – we have actually experimented with this vehicle flying in Dubai’s skies.”
The remarkable aircraft requires no skills or effort to operate. You just climb inside, tap your destination on a digital map, then sit back and enjoy the view. There’s no joystick to handle, no levers to mess with, and no buttons to press.
The 184 stands at about 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) tall and weighs around 440 pounds (200 kg). Battery powered, it can fly for around 30 minutes at an average cruising speed of 62 mph (100 kmh).
More: Uber wants to beat traffic jams with its own multi-rotor flying machine
The company’s CEO, Hauzi Hu, said last year that it’s been “a lifetime goal … to make flight faster, easier, and more convenient than ever.”
Hu said his unique machine has the potential to make “a global impact across dozens of industries beyond personal travel,” adding, “The 184 is evocative of a future we’ve always dreamed of and is primed to alter the very fundamentals of the way we get around.”
And it’s not just Dubai’s government that’s taken a shine to the 184. In May 2016, authorities in Nevada revealed a plan to support Guangzhou-based EHang to test its aircraft with a view to launching an aerial taxi service in the state.
Whether the 184 really does have any hope of getting airborne as part of a full-fledged taxi service is anyone’s guess, but the company has invested so much time and money in the plan that we’d like to think it could be flying along the Las Vegas Strip or over the Burj Khalifa at some point in the not-too-distant future.
But would you get in it?
Amazon takes on Skype and Hangouts with its own video conferencing solution
Chime is an easy-to-use video conferencing tool powered by Amazon’s cloud platform.
Amazon Web Services has launched Chime, a cloud-based video conferencing service aimed at businesses. Available on Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac, Chime allows users to quickly set up meetings, offering VoIP and video calling, instant messaging, and screen sharing. The feature-set is similar to that of Hangouts, and Amazon is also targeting Skype for Business — which runs on Microsoft’s own cloud-based Azure ecosystem — with its video conferencing software.
Chime’s base version — called the Basic Edition — lets two users communicate via chat, call, or video for free.The Plus Edition comes with Active Directory management, 1GB of messaging space per user, and the ability to add an entire e-mail domain for $2.50 per user per month. The Pro Edition introduces video calling and screen sharing as well as unlimited VoIP calling, and costs $15 per user per month.
Amazon has partnered with Level 3 to bundle Chime into the Tier 1 telecommunications service provider’s collaboration solutions. Internet telephony provider Vonage will also start offering Chime’s Pro Edition to its business customers at no additional cost. Integration with Level 3 and Vonage will kick off in the second quarter of 2017.
Amazon is also offering a 30-day trial that lets you try out Chime Pro without having to add a credit card. After 30 days, you’ll be switched to the basic tier, or you can continue to use the Pro Edition features by paying for a subscription.
Sniper Elite 5 confirmed as Sniper Elite 4 hits the shelves
Sniper Elite 4 is out now for Xbox One, PS4 and PC, and it has received glowing reviews across the board – including our own here. It’s no surprise, therefore, that Rebellion has at least one more up its sleeve.
Jason Kingsley, co-founder and CEO of the developer told Pocket-lint that there will definitely be a Sniper Elite 5: “We’d be insane not to do another sequel. We haven’t started on anything, we have no plans. But just from a strategic point of view it makes complete sense,” he said.
But fans needn’t put a mark in their calendars quite yet.
“When is it coming out? I can’t tell you. When will it start? I can’t tell you. Where will it be set? I can’t tell you that, I really don’t know. I’d like to tell you that we’re super efficient and we know the next three, but we don’t. I can tell you that there are more stories to tell in World War II, a lot more,” he added.
- Sniper Elite 4 review: Super sharp-shooter enters the big league
- Dredd TV show for Netflix, Amazon or HBO: “We are strongly moving in that direction”
The most likely outcome, therefore, is that Sniper Elite 5 will continue with lead character Karl Fairburne’s assignments in World War II, although future instalments could deviate.
“We could go into the past. I quite like the first World War. Somebody even suggested Sniper Elite set in the Middle Ages where you’ve got a long bow – that’s interesting. A Robin Hood equivalent of Sniper Elite,” he revealed.
One thing’s for sure though, Rebellion doesn’t currently have plans to ape the Call of Duty franchise, which is, ironically, heavily rumoured to be heading back to World War II itself.
“If we went too modern, we’d have to modify a lot of the gameplay,” explained Kingsley.
“There are remote drones, GPS and all that sort of stuff. There’s some fantastic technology to grapple with – I’m not saying we’ll never do that – but a lot of the game development changes then.”
It would certainly change the low-tech, stuck-behind-enemy lines dynamic.
“You could play as an autonomous, flying, sniping drone taking potshots at people across the landscape,” he joked.
Sniper Elite 4 is out now and you can get the console versions from Amazon.co.uk via the links below:
- Buy Sniper Elite 4 for PS4 here
- Buy Sniper Elite 4 for Xbox One here
It is also available on Steam for PC owners:
- Buy Sniper Elite 4 for PC here
Scientists release huge set of exoplanet-detecting observations
If you’ve always wanted to find exoplanets, now’s your chance to help. A team of scientists from MIT, Carnegie Mellon and other universities have released a huge dataset containing 61,000 individual measurements of more than 1,600 nearby stars. All the measurements came from two decades of observations made by the HiRES spectrometer, which is mounted on a 33-foot telescope at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, using a technique called radial velocity method. Simply put, the scientists used the tool to detect the tiny wobble stars make in response to the gravity of an orbiting planet. Thus, the dataset contains the date, the star’s velocity, the error on that velocity and measurements of its activity during that observation.
Jennifer Burt, a team member from MIT, said they realized they just don’t have enough members to be able to process all the data. That’s why they also pointed to the open source software you can use, along with a tutorial on how to use it. The scientists themselves have already begun looking through the observations and found over 100 likely planet candidates.
Among all those candidates, they’ve confirmed the existence of one exoplanet orbiting GJ 411, the fourth closest star to our sun. This discovery is consistent with scientists’ belief that the smallest planets orbit the smallest stars. Since GJ 411 only has 40 percent of our sun’s mass, the planet itself is quite small and can travel around its host star in merely 10 Earth days.
Considering the dataset has over two decades of measurements, it could lead to a lot more exoplanet discoveries. The team hopes other researchers combine the data with their own to find new planets or to launch new studies designed to look more closely into potential candidates.
Source: PhysOrg, Carnegie Science, The Earthbound Planet Search
Amazon Launches Call and Video Conferencing Platform ‘Chime’
Amazon’s push into the services space continued today with the launch of Chime, a new online VoIP call and video messaging platform aimed at business users.
Apart from video conferencing and chat messaging, Amazon Chime allows users to host or join virtual meetings with a single click, and share content and screens across multiple platforms, including Mac, Windows, iOS and Android devices.
Amazon is pitching Chime as a more reliable, higher quality alternative to existing VoIP services like Microsoft’s Skype, with a focus on making core communications services – voice calls, video conferencing, screen sharing, and instant messaging – easily accessible within a unified interface.
“It’s pretty hard to find people who actually like the technology they use for meetings today,” said Gene Farrell, Vice President, Enterprise Applications at AWS in a press release. “Most meeting applications or services are hard to use, deliver bad audio and video, require constant switching between multiple tools to do everything they want, and are way too expensive.”
Amazon Chime is available for free in a basic version, which includes video calls for up to two people. Price plans for Chime start at $2.50 per month, with a higher tier plan of $15 per user for the addition of video and screen-sharing, among other features.
Amazon will hope that its new VoIP service can replicate the company’s success in the cloud services space, but challenges lie ahead. Whereas AWS built its dominance early on in a relatively nascent market, Chime goes up against established players from day one. Chime for Mac and iOS are available to download here.
Tags: Amazon, Amazon Chime
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Eddy Cue: Apple ‘Trying to Do Some Things’ to Combat the Spread of Fake News
Apple is actively working on ways to ensure its content delivery services are robust enough to stand up to the challenge of “fake news”, according to Apple’s senior vice president of software and services, Eddy Cue.
Cue made the comments during a wide-ranging interview at the Code Media conference on Monday evening. Echoing comments recently made by CEO Tim Cook, Cue said that technology companies have a special responsibility to members of the public, most of whom now depend upon personal devices to receive their news. With that in mind, Cue said that while there was no simple way to counter the spread of fake news, the company is working on methods to reduce its dissemination.
“We want Apple News to be available to everyone, but we want to vet and make sure that the news providers are legitimate. We’re very concerned about all of the news items and the clickbait from that standpoint, and that’s driving a lot of the news coverage. We’re trying to do some things in Apple News, we’re learning from that and we need to share that together as an industry and improve it.”
Fake news has been a trending topic since last year’s U.S. Presidential election, with companies like Facebook making loud statements about the action they have taken to bring the quality of articles to users’ attention.
Last week, Tim Cook admitted that fake news is “one of today’s chief problems” and that “we have to give the consumer tools” to deal with the challenge. Companies like Apple should “filter part of it” before it reaches the public, he said, but in a way that avoids “losing the great openness of the internet”.
Tag: Apple News
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Fancy a trip to space? A smartphone game could get you there for free
Why it matters to you
Pricey tourist trips into space will be out of reach for most of us, but here’s a chance (OK, it’s a long shot) to bag a ride for free.
Thanks to tech, it’s easy to get an idea of what it must be like to spend time on the International Space Station (ISS). We can already explore the satellite’s interior and see how the astronauts live – how they make a coffee, wash their hair, and even use a space toilet. We can also enjoy those breathtaking views of Earth several hundred miles below.
So how do you like the idea of actually visiting the ISS? For free.
This is the extraordinary offer recently announced by a Finnish space industry company, and here’s the fun bit: A smartphone game will be key to getting you there.
Thanks to a crowdfunding campaign that quickly blasted through its €1.5m ($1.6m) target, the idea is on track to become a reality.
The mission is the brainchild of space media company Cohu Experience, which has designed the plan with space commercialization company Axiom Space and two education firms, GeekTime reported.
Collectively known as Space Nation, the team is developing a smartphone app featuring a bunch of training exercises for wannabe astronauts. Aimed for release in the fall, gamers who fancy the idea of a trip to the ISS will have to battle through intelligence quizzes, reasoning tests, and various other challenges to score points.
The top-performing 130 players will have the chance to attend a two-week bootcamp. And that’s where things get serious.
There you’ll have to take on a range of physical tests to ensure your body is up to the challenge of a trip into space.
The best 12 competitors will then face a demanding 12-week training course in the U.S. or Europe, after which one lucky guy or gal – and a runner-up in case of any subsequent issues with the winner – will be selected.
More: Enjoy an astronaut’s view of Earth with this 360 video
In the coming years, Axiom is hoping to attach a new facility to the ISS that’ll become independent when the space station is decommissioned. The plan is to operate astronaut missions of up to two months at a time, as well as week-long tourist trips, with the contest winner offered a seat on one of the launches.
Commenting on the contest, Cohu Experience founder Kalle Vähä-Jaakkola told GeekTime that the upcoming app should be useful for everyone who tries it, helping players “with nutrition, health, fitness, creative problem solving, critical thinking … and teamwork.”
It could also be your free ticket to space.
AIVAnet 