Sony gives Android O a sound quality boost

If you pick up some future Android O phone and notice that your wireless headphones sound much better afterward, you’ll have Sony to thank for it. Google has revealed that Sony is contributing a whole slew of upgrades and fixes to the upcoming mobile operating system, most notably support for its LDAC wireless audio encoding format. The technology sends three times more data through Bluetooth than typical formats, letting you listen to high-resolution audio without the usual downgrade. In other words, you won’t necessarily have to cling to wired headphones just to get pristine-sounding music.

There is one inescapable gotcha, though. While phone makers won’t have to pay a thing to include LDAC (it’ll be part of the open source Android O release), LDAC on headphones is currently limited to Sony models like the MDR-1000X. Anyone else will probably have to pay a licensing fee, and there won’t be too much incentive to pay that fee outside of high-end headphones where you’re more likely to notice the difference. Even so, it’s good to see wireless audio quality addressed on such a broad level without having to wait for a future wireless audio standard.

Source: The Verge

‘Overwatch’s’ four-legged tank hero is here (for casual players)

Overwatch’s new badass robot centaur Orisa makes her official debut today, but players hoping to climb those Season 4 ranks with her are going to have to wait. Blizzard is disabling her from Competitive mode for one week, according to the game’s official forums and Twitter account, so people can get to know her a little better first.

Like Reinhardt, Orisa’s an “anchor tank,” someone who can absorb large amounts of damage, protect teammates and rally the team behind her. Her ultimate, Supercharger, provides a 50 percent damage boost to teammates in range. Although she’s not available in Competitive mode just yet, players can test out her skills in Quick Play, Arcade mode (including custom games with the competitive ruleset) and Play vs. AI.

Blizzard is treating Orisa’s launch differently than previously-released heroes like Ana and Sombra. Those characters, released during Season 1 and Season 3, respectively, both initially struggled to find a place on competitive teams. Ana has since become a popular support choice thanks to her Nano Boost ultimate and her healing abilities. Sombra, meanwhile, has seen a bit of pro level play, but still has to fight for a spot. Delaying Orisa’s debut could give players time to develop strategies without affecting their rankings.

We’ve contacted Blizzard to find out more about their decision to temporarily disable Orisa in Competitive Play, and we’ll update this story if we hear back.

Our own Jessica Conditt took Orisa for a spin earlier today. You can check her out in this video.

Via: Polygon

Source: Blizzard

Reddit hopes new social features will keep the trolls in line

Reddit knows its old-school message board style can be a little intimidating for new users, and it’s individual user pages have never really expanded beyond a list of submitted comments and some badges — which can make it intimidating for casual redditors to keep up with real people on the service. After all, how many times has some celebrity dropped in for an AMA, only to never been seen again on the site? That will change starting today, when Reddit starts testing a new format that makes profile pages their own destination and brings the site more in line with social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

According to a post on r/modnews yesterday, “a very small number of redditors” will now be able to post directly to their own profile, rather than the old system where users could only post to communities. The new profile pages will also be redesigned to “better showcase the redditor’s avatar, a short description and their posts.” Fans will also be able to follow those testers’ profiles as if they were a subreddit, so the beta tester’s updates will show up in that follower’s front page when they sign in to Reddit. (In the past, users with big a fanbase had to resort to creating their own subreddits that others could follow.) Followers will be able to comment on profile posts, but they can’t start a new post on someone else’s profile.

The whole experience looks strikingly like a Twitter profile page — complete with banner photo at the top — and users like u/LeagueOfLegends, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and u/Shitty_Watercolour are all part of the Beta test and hosting AMAs today if you want to get a sense of the look and feel. Reddit says the profile pages are still a work in progress but anyone can nominate themselves or a buddy’s profile for inclusion in the beta test. Reddit’s own FAQs on the beta program note that users with a history of abuse may not get the new features at all, in order to prevent it from becoming “a vehicle for harassment or hate.” That said, “if all goes well,” writes moderator u/hidehidehidden, the features are expected to roll out to everyone “over the course of the next few months.”

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Modnews subreddit

Facebook and Nokia speed up undersea fiber through math

Undersea fiber optic lines are crucial to making the internet hum, but upgrading their capacity is no mean feat when you may have to replace thousands of miles of cables. Facebook and Nokia don’t think that’s necessary, though. They’ve successfully tested a technique that can boost the capacity of a fiber line by up to 2.5 times its stated capacity. Their approach revolves around Nokia’s probabilistic constellation shaping, which relies on ‘shaped’ modulation formats (i.e. a lot of clever math) to push the capacity to near the physical peak of a given connection. In tests on a 3,400-mile line between New York and Ireland, the two companies managed to wring out 200Gbps on commercial-grade wavelengths, and an even speedier 250Gbps on an experimental link.

The technology has even more headroom. Based on the efficiency of the line, Facebook and Nokia believe they can ramp it up to 32Tbps per fiber in the long run.

It’s likely going to be a while before you see these kinds of upgrades arrive in earnest, although the test runs show that it can hold up in real conditions. Whenever it does, though, the practical implications are far-reaching. The upgrade could help these fiber line operators keep up with ever-increasing internet demands without having to rip up or add to their existing lines. It could also make undersea fiber more practical by lowering the cost of bandwidth — you could see lines that weren’t viable before.

Source: Nokia

Twitter opens up Periscope broadcasts to take on Facebook Live

Twitter made it clear that Periscope was more than just a live selfie platform when it added support for professional cameras and GoPros last year. Now, the social network is ready to extend that same platform beyond its own native apps. In a post on the company blog today, Twitter engineer John Boiles announced the official release of the Periscope Producer API, which will allow external devices and third-party apps to launch broadcasts and publish them directly to Twitter.

Periscope Producer is already being put to work by media entities like PBS NewsHour and Bloomberg, but for most regular people, the API release means we should start seeing more robust third-party livestreaming apps that build additional features on top of Twitter’s existing infrastructure. Hardware like Livestream’s Mevo camera, which can replicate a multi-camera setup and live production features, for example, is now compatible with Periscope as well as Facebook Live. For more advanced livestreamers, services like Wirecast and Switchboard Cloud can now include Periscope in their mix and broadcast to Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter and others simultaneously.

Periscope has helpfully provided a list of launch partners that can currently take advantage of the new features. Other developers can apply here to be included in the beta program.

Source: Twitter Blog

Amazon Music’s iOS app infiltrates CarPlay

Amazon Music subscribers who own a CarPlay-enabled dashboard unit are in luck. Amazon’s streaming service is now available via the iOS Amazon Music app for Apple’s in-car infotainment system.

Why would you want to cruise to the sounds of Amazon Music if you’re an Apple fanboy, though? Both companies’ streaming services run $9.99 per month (or $14.99 for a family of six), and offer tens of millions of tracks. But, if you’re a Prime subscriber you get a $2 a month discount on Amazon Music. Plus it’s available on Android, PlayStation 4, Amazon’s popular Echo devices — way more places than Apple Music.

Basically, Amazon just wants you to use its service, and doesn’t care what kind of hardware you own. Getting into your dashboard is part of that formula for success. (Especially since we’re pretty sure Fire Auto won’t be hitting dealerships anytime soon.)

Apple Releases iTunes 12.6 With Cross-Device Movie Rental Access

Following a slew of new product announcements early this morning, Apple today released iTunes 12.6, the next major update for the iTunes app on Mac devices.

iTunes 12.6 introduces a “Rent once, watch anywhere” feature that lets iTunes users watch iTunes movie rentals across all devices with iOS 10.3 or tvOS 10.2.

Prior to this update, an iTunes movie was only available on a single device at a time. When a movie rented on a Mac was transferred to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod using USB, the movie became unavailable from an iTunes library until returned to the Mac.

A movie rented on an iOS device or an Apple TV was not previously watchable on other devices and could not be transferred between devices.

The wording of the release notes seems to suggest we’re going to see iOS 10.3 and tvOS 10.2 released in the very near future, as the new iTunes update pertains specifically to those releases. We could see new software as soon as tomorrow.

According to Apple’s release notes, the update also includes minor app and performance improvements.

The new iTunes 12.6 update can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free.

Tag: iTunes
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