Apple announces big plans to revamp the iMac in the not-so-near future

Why it matters to you

Apple’s promise to remain dedicated to the iMac illustrates that the company isn’t planning to get out of the desktop hardware business anytime soon and that is good news for Mac loyalists.

At a roundtable discussion held on Apple’s main campus, a surprising thing happened: Apple executives admitted their current strategy for Mac desktop hardware was flawed and promised an all-new lineup of Mac Pros and iMacs in the not-so-near future.

According to John Gruber, who attended the small roundtable discussion with some of Apple’s top executives, Apple not only has plans to revitalize the iMac lineup but is eager to illustrate that it has not forgotten about desktop Mac users.

More: Belkin’s new Kevlar-reinforced USB Type-C cable is built to last

At the roundtable, Apple’s vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller, senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi, and vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus were all on hand to discuss the company’s plans for the iMac lineup and don’t worry, the iMac isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“There’s still even further we can take iMac as a high-performance, pro system, and we think that form factor can address even more of the pro market,” Federighi said.

Apple reportedly has plans to revamp the iMac in the future but according to the execs present at the roundtable, it’s probably not going to happen this year. They were, however, eager to point out that desktop Mac sales make up about 20 percent of their overall computer sales and Apple has no plans to abandon the desktop space anytime soon.

Despite MacBooks making up the other 80 percent of its computer sales worldwide, desktop Mac sales make up about $25 billion dollars a year for Apple and the iMac is their most popular desktop system, so it’s not going anywhere.

It might be a while before we hear more from Apple about the future of the iMac, but this roundtable discussion served as a bit of a pre-announcement to reassure loyal customers who might be considering a jump to Windows.

Samsung needs you to hold your breath a bit longer for a foldable smartphone

Why it matters to you

There’s been plenty of buzz from several companies around the idea of a foldable smartphone, but it looks like that excitement may be a bit premature.

We’ve been all in a tizzy over the resurgence of the flip phone (or as they’re now called, foldable smartphones) that a number of major manufacturers have teased, and sadly, it looks like the tease isn’t over yet. Despite previous plans to debut the re-engineered Samsung clamshell as early as 2015, then 2016, and then 2017, the most recent estimate from the South Korean tech company now stands at 2019. So if you’re holding your breath … don’t.

At a recent Display TechSalon event, Samsung Display’s principal engineer, Kim Tae-woong, shattered dreams of a Christmas present involving a foldable smartphone by noting that the company is instead working hard on bezel-free displays. “Because the bezel-free display currently sells well, we still have enough time to develop [the] foldable display,” said Kim. And “enough time” apparently means around two years, as Samsung is now said to have plans to commercialize foldable flip phones at the end of the decade.

More: A foldable iPhone? Patent shows Apple is at least exploring the idea

Though we’ve seen plenty of related patents from a number of companies, including Apple, LG, and Microsoft, it seems as though the time is not quite yet right to unveil this technology to the public. And for Samsung, at least, it appears to be a strategic decision. According to Chung Won-seok, an analyst at HI Investment and Securities who also spoke at the Display TechSalon event, “Samsung Display is expected to commercialize foldable phones in 2019 because the company does not need to sell the new hardware because it is already enjoying 20 percent operating profits with bezel-free display. When the demand for bezel-free handsets slows down, Samsung will unveil the foldable display as the next card.”

And of course, a delay also gives Samsung more time to perfect certain technical challenges, which Kim admitted Samsung was still facing with regard to the new design for the mobile device.

In any case, while a foldable smartphone seems to be in our future, that future does not look so near.

Samsung Galaxy S8 vs. Galaxy S6: It’s time to upgrade

Two years on, it’s a great time to consider moving to the newest Galaxy S.

Holding over from the days of two-year phone contracts, most people choose to upgrade their phone on the same path today, even though financing plans have made it even simpler to move on to the latest devices every 12 months. The Galaxy S6 just had its second birthday, and while its hardware actually still feels quite modern, there are many parts of it that likely haven’t aged well and will have longtime owners looking for an upgrade.

The question is, will you make the jump from a Galaxy S6 to a new Galaxy S8 and keep it in the Samsung family? We’ve put the phones side by side and have the information you should keep in mind when considering the move.

Hardware, specs and features

For all of the gripes about some of the internal spec choices on the Galaxy S6, you can’t argue that its hardware design has held up nicely over two years. That metal and glass exterior was a complete change of direction for Samsung in 2015, and you can clearly see its influence in the Galaxy S8 today. Of course, some things have changed and for the better: The Galaxy S8 has small bezels to fit even more display in a compact frame, the body has been rounded off to be easier to use, and the camera bump on the back has been eliminated. Samsung also moved to waterproofing and reintroduced the SD card slot right after the Galaxy S6, which were key differentiators in 2016.

You can see the GS6’s legacy in the GS8, but big improvements have been made in 2 years.

The Galaxy S6’s 5.1-inch QHD AMOLED display actually still looks great today, but display technology has continued to advance and Samsung has done an even better job on the Galaxy S8. What hasn’t changed are the characteristics of its AMOLED displays — they’re crisp, low on glare, great in bright sunlight, and exhibit punchier colors than the competition. If you have the Galaxy S6 and not the S6 edge you may be worried about the curved screen on the Galaxy S8, but there’s reason to look at this with fresh eyes as Samsung has nicely tweaked the design since 2015.

More: Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ preview

After two years of increasingly heavy apps and a few software updates the internal specs on the Galaxy S6 don’t seem quite as state-of-the-art as they did in 2015. The Galaxy S8’s new processor (a Snapdragon 835 or Exynos 8895) will beat the GS6’s chip, and the extra gigabyte of RAM helps with multitasking. Perhaps the biggest spec jump is the battery, which was a critical flaw of the GS6 — the Galaxy S8’s 3,000mAh cell, partnered with a more efficient processor and display, will outlast the GS6’s 2,550mAh.

The camera is another key differentiator in the hardware. The Galaxy S6’s 16-megapixel camera with an f/1.9 lens was a huge step up from anything the company had done before, but just like the rest of the hardware, that formula has now been applied to more modern components with improved results. The Galaxy S8’s 12MP sensor has a better auto focus mechanism, larger pixels, and sits behind a faster f/1.7 lens. If you like what the Galaxy S6’s camera can do (and it definitely still takes great photos), you’ll love what the GS8 can do with the same ideas applied to new hardware.

Software and experience

If your Galaxy S6 has been updated to Android 7.0 Nougat, you’re actually getting a great feel for the software experience on the Galaxy S8. While Samsung may take a long time to get its big platform updates out, it does do a pretty good job of bringing all of the new software design and features (within reason) back to older models with an update.

Sure, the Galaxy S8 has a few tricks up its sleeve with the camera interface, new icons, and a redesigned launcher, but the core Nougat experience is very similar between an updated Galaxy S6 and a brand new Galaxy S8. While that means you won’t have to upgrade just to see an updated interface, it also gives you the comfort to know you can get a new phone and not have to re-learn how to use its core features.

Software updates are important for security and features, and the GS6 isn’t going to get many more.

The thing is, even though you may be happy with what Nougat has brought to your Galaxy S6, there’s a good chance that that’s the last big update the phone will ever receive. At two years old, the Galaxy S6 is hitting the age where Samsung is going to cut it loose from major platform updates and perhaps only support it for a while longer with security patches. That means that going forward, if you want to stay on Samsung’s radar for updates, you’re best making the jump to the newest phone.

Moving to the Galaxy S8, you’ll also get to check out Samsung’s latest features that won’t be coming back to other phones via updates. The Bixby voice assistant is all new for the Galaxy S8, as is the new DeX desktop dock that lets you turn your GS8 into something approximating a light workstation with a keyboard, mouse and monitor. You may not be entirely sold on these features, but if you want to give them a try you’ll be going to the latest phone to get them.

Bottom line

After two years using a Galaxy S6, you know it’s about time to upgrade — the only question is whether or not you want to stick with Samsung or move elsewhere. There are definite synergies in moving to the Galaxy S8, including familiarity with the software, consistency with the services if you’ve been using anything tied to a Samsung Account, and of course just brand loyalty. Chances are if you kept your Galaxy S6 for two years, you actually like what it offers.

It’s time to update from the GS6 — the only question is whether you want to stick with Samsung.

If you move from the Galaxy S6 up to the Galaxy S8, you’re going to get that same high-quality metal and glass build you’re used to, now caressed into a more ergonomic curved shell with a much larger display in not much more body. You’re also getting up to speed with Samsung’s new default features, like an SD card slot and waterproofing, while also keeping wireless charging, fast charging, and a high-resolution AMOLED display. The camera has also notably improved since the Galaxy S6, with a real emphasis on being able to take great low-light photos.

Moving to a Galaxy S8 gives you the familiarity of staying with a Samsung phone, while also bringing you up into the future in terms of battery life, performance, hardware features, and of course future software updates. This is a great move to make, so long as you’re happy with Samsung and want to stay on that path.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

• Galaxy S8 and S8+ hands-on preview!
• Galaxy S8 and S8+ specs
• Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S8’s cameras
• Get to know Samsung Bixby
• Join our Galaxy S8 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint

Six ways to make the Samsung Galaxy S8 work with Windows 10

If you’re getting a new Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone, these tips and tricks can help make the device work for you alongside your Windows 10 PC.

More than most Android phones, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is quite attractive to Microsoft fans.

The Galaxy S8 has plenty of Microsoft support built right in by way of preloaded apps and the Continuum-like DeX system. Aside from all that, here are some of the ways you’ll be able to use your phone and PC in perfect harmony.

Note: This article was originally published on Windows Central.

Use Phone Companion for Windows 10 to transfer your photos

The Phone Companion app from Microsoft is a pretty easy way to go between your phone and PC. It can import all your photos from the phone to the built-in Photos app in Windows 10.

The Galaxy S8 will likely take some truly excellent photos, so there’s a good chance you’ll be using the app quite a lot. The guide linked below will help you keep organized by getting those shots off your phone and onto your PC.

How to transfer photos with Phone Companion for Windows 10

Download Phone Companion from the Windows Store

Calendar and Mail with Outlook

You could use your Outlook account with Gmail and Google Calendar. Or you could do yourself a favor and get the Outlook app for Android on your Galaxy S8.

After Microsoft gobbled up Sunrise Calendar, parts of it are slowly appearing in Outlook such as integrations with third-party services. Outlook contains email and calendar within the same app on Android, and you can also pull in mail accounts from Gmail.

Why use two apps when you can have only one that gets the job done?

Download Microsoft Outlook for Android from the Google Play Store

Samsung SideSync

Samsung SideSync is often overlooked, but it’s a really useful piece of software for Galaxy phones. It allows you to connect your phone to a PC and get your notifications, or even the entire phone display, mirrored.

It’s not like DeX, because it’s just a window that represents your phone, hooked up to the PC via Wi-Fi. But it’s pretty reliable and a nifty way to transfer files quickly without having to hunt for a cable or even touch the phone at all.

It will work better over a wired connection to the PC, though, and faster than wirelessly. Whichever way you prefer, SideSync is a great feature to have.

Download Samsung Sidesync

Use Cortana as your assistant

Samsung has Bixby on the Galaxy S8, and Google has the Google Assistant, but neither of those can boast the freedom of Cortana. By being available cross-platform, you have some elements of synchronicity between your phone and your PC with Cortana.

You can have basic notification mirroring and of course the benefits of using Cortana as your assistant on both phone and PC. If you use Cortana on your Windows 10 PC a lot, it’s a no-brainer to download it to the Galaxy S8.

Recent updates have allowed access to the lock screen, and because it’s Android, it’s a simple process to make Cortana your default assistant.

Download Cortana from the Google Play Store

Set up OneDrive camera backup

OneDrive is a terrific cloud storage service to use, particularly if you’re also an Office 365 subscriber with that 1TB allowance to fill. The OneDrive app for Android is nicely done, but one feature you should look at enabling is the camera backup.

While moving photos to your PC en masse with Phone Companion is good, if you want to back up to the cloud, you’ll have a two-stage process. By enabling it in the OneDrive app for Android, any new snaps you shoot with that awesome camera will be auto-magically sent up to the cloud for you.

OneDrive is also preloaded on the Galaxy S8, so if it’s anything like recent devices you’ll likely get some free storage added to your account for two years, as well.

Time to relax

If Groove is your music service of choice, not only did you choose well but you’ll have a solid experience with the Android app. And if Xbox is your preferred console, the old Smartglass app has now been replaced by the newer Xbox app.

Neither are completely on par with their Windows counterparts, and the Xbox app, in particular, lags behind. But both are important parts of the Microsoft ecosystem, so it’s good to know you won’t have to relinquish either by using a Galaxy S8:

Download Groove Music from the Google Play Store

Download Xbox from the Google Play Store

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

• Galaxy S8 and S8+ hands-on preview!
• Galaxy S8 and S8+ specs
• Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S8’s cameras
• Get to know Samsung Bixby
• Join our Galaxy S8 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint

Apple confirms new iMacs are coming this year

Apple has taken the somewhat unusual step of pre-announcing some products that it’s working on, which includes a refreshed iMac desktop lineup that will ship later this year. 

• Apple iMac with Retina 5K display (2017) review: Pixel-packed powerhouse

Speaking at a round table discussion, Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of marketing said the company is going to think about the pro user when designing the new computer, too. 

“We’re going to begin making configurations of iMac specifically with the pro customer in mind”, he said, although just what constitutes a machine for pro users could be argued. Schiller didn’t give away what features the new iMac would come with, nor did he comment on speculation of an iMac Pro name.

But if you thought the idea of an iMac Pro would include a touchscreen for the first time, Schiller is more than happy to quash those dreams right away. He said: “Touch doesn’t even register on the list of things pro users are interested in talking about”.

“They’re interested in things like performance and storage and expandibility”. 

Microsoft clearly thinks differently, as it announced its iMac rival, the Surface Studio, towards the end of 2016. The Surface Studio features a huge 28in touchscreen which is on a hinge, and is targeted at designers, drawers and content creators.

• Microsoft Surface Studio vs Apple iMac: What’s the difference?

The iMac is already a powerful machine, and has evolved from a consumer computer to one that is used by professionals worldwide. Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of software engineering said: “The original iMac you wouldn’t have thought of as remotely touching pro uses.”

“But today’s 5K iMac in its top configurations? It’s incredibly powerful. Tasks that previously would have required the Mac Pros of old are now being well addressed by today’s iMac.”

But even with the power the current iMacs already hold, that clearly hasn’t stopped Apple wanting to further enhance their capabilities. Apple didn’t give much away about the rest of the iMac lineup, though, instead choosing to focus solely on the pro edition. 

We expect the new iMac lineup to follow a similar design language to previous models, primarily an all-in-one design and no doubt slathers of aluminium. For now we can only speculate, as Apple remained tight-lipped. 

Engadget giveaway: Win a Product Red edition iPhone 7 courtesy of Speck!

There’s been plenty of chatter lately about the new Product Red edition iPhone 7, which finally breaks free from the muted metallic lineup with its brilliantly colored exterior. From what I’ve seen around NYC, though, you’d be well advised to protect any new phone or suffer the all-too-ubiquitous cracked screen. Case and bag maker Speck has just the thing to protect and show off this brightly hued handset, its clear Presidio iPhone 7 case.

This protective shell cleared the 8-foot drop test with honors, offers scratch resistance and its custom-engineered material resists UV yellowing, since many users tend to walk around with their phones out and, you know, beach selfies. Speck has provided us with one of these enviable iPhone 7 handsets and a clear Presidio case to keep it safe for one lucky reader this week. You get up to three chances at winning this prize by entering in the Rafflecopter widget below. Don’t let that stop you from making a purchase, however, the Product Red edition profits go towards raising awareness and fighting HIV/AIDS.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
• Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) Special Edition Product Red Apple iPhone 7 and one (1) Speck Presidio clear iPhone case.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
• This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Engadget and AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
• The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
• Entries can be submitted until April 5th at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!

Samsung’s in-house OS is a security nightmare

Samsung’s Tizen platform might give the company the technological independence it wouldn’t have if it stuck to outside software like Android, but it’s apparently a security disaster. Researcher Amihai Neiderman tells Motherboard he has discovered 40 unpatched vulnerabilities in Samsung’s operating system, exposing many of its smartphones, smartwatches and TVs to remote attacks. Reportedly, it’s the “worst code” the expert has “ever seen” — it was designed by a team that had no real understanding of security concepts, and makes mistakes that virtually anyone else would avoid.

A key example is the Tizen Store. While the portal does authenticate to make sure that you’re only installing approved apps, there’s an exploit that lets you take control before authentication kicks in. Use that and you can send whatever malware you want to a device. Samsung is also inconsistent in its use of encryption, often foregoing that protection at the very moment it’s most needed. And did we mention that many of the flaws appear to have been introduced in the past 2 years, so they weren’t just inherited from legacy code?

Neiderman says he disclosed the flaws to Samsung months ago, but didn’t get more than an automated response until recently. The tech giant, meanwhile, says it’s “fully committed” to working with the researcher and points to its SmartTV Bug Bounty program as an example of efforts it takes to patch holes. Don’t be surprised if many of the immediate vulnerabilities are fixed before long. However, the findings suggest that the company also needs to rethink the very basics of Tizen’s security strategy if it’s going to keep you safe going forward.

Via: The Verge

Source: Motherboard

Mercedes and Bosch want you in a self-driving taxi ASAP

Mercedes parent Daimler has put aside its own project to develop a self-driving car and will now collaborate with automotive supplier Bosch. The two companies plan to deliver fully autonomous “level 5” tech by the “beginning of the next decade,” with a focus on city driving and autonomous car-sharing. “It will allow people to make the best possible use of their time in the vehicle and open up new mobility opportunities for people without a driver’s licenses,” Daimler said in a press release.

The company depicts the future in a fanciful image (above) with self-driving buses, a bicycle tower and its own crazy F015 self-driving car concept. Another (below) shows how you’ll call a vehicle via an Uber-style app, then be picked up and delivered to your destination without even seeing a human being (“my dream — fast transport without having to talk to people,” says my colleague).

Despite already being a leader in self-driving tech, Daimler teamed with Bosch to keep its place in the fast-moving a autonomous vehicle game. It figures working with Bosch “should ensure the earliest possible series introduction of the secure technology.” The goal is as little as three years out, but it’s roughly the same timeframe promised by Ford, BMW, GM, Waymo and others.

Consolidation elsewhere in the industry likely forced Daimler’s hand, too. For instance, Intel recently purchased former Tesla supplier MobilEye for $15.3 billion, while Bosch teamed with NVIDIA to develop its own tech. Other players include Silicon Valley firms like Google’s Waymo division and Intel, automakers including Ford, GM, Renault-Nissan and Tesla, and ride-sharing firms like Lyft and Uber. That’s not to mention individual suppliers like Velodyne, which makes the Lidar systems used by Waymo and others.

As USA Today noted last month, Navigant Research ranks Ford as the company with the best shot at releasing level 5, fully independent self-driving cars first. The automaker is closely followed by GM, Renault-Nissan and, yes, Daimler — before it even teamed with Bosch. Waymo, which was the first company to attempt a self-driving car, ranked seventh, Tesla 12th and Uber 16th.

The Uber finding seems reasonable, considering the trouble it’s had. However, a Tesla Model X has arguably done the most convincing autonomous demo, driving from an engineer’s home to Tesla’s head office, and parking, with no assistance at all.

There are currently, of course, zero robotic, human-free taxis on the road, and that won’t change until the tech is nearly perfect — something that could be harder than experts expect. Even by 2020, you likely won’t see cars zipping around with no one behind the wheel as depicted by Daimler — that’s when you’ll know the future has really arrived.

Source: Daimler

‘Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ makes open world games exciting again

At this point, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has become a video game phenomenon. Much has been said about how it’s a new take on the dusty old Zelda formula, or on how it represents a fresh direction for Nintendo in general, by buoying its new Switch console. But Breath of the Wild deserves just as much credit for how it subverts and reaffirms the power of the open world.

There are two key hallmarks of the open world genre: There is a big map to freely traverse, and there’s a lot of stuff to do on that map. It’s a formula that’s been refined over the past few iterations of Grand Theft Auto, Assassin’s Creed, Elder Scrolls and Far Cry, among others of that ilk. Over time, these open worlds have become increasingly cluttered with gameplay to-dos: waypoints, mini-games, races, collectibles, camps to clear and chunks of the map to color in. The result is that they tend to blend together into a mélange of similar gameplay beats. The location itself ends up becoming secondary: Whether you’re in steampunk London or in GTA’s funhouse version of Hollywood, you’re basically chasing the same waypoints and obsessively collecting the same shiny thingies.

But Breath of the Wild dumps most of this typically calcified open world stuff, and replaces it with a different kind of video game pleasure: the joy of exploration. So much of Breath of the Wild is, for me, finding a route up a cliff face, or stopping to watch the sunrise, or just listening to the whistle of the wind and the scurry of critters in the brush.

Breath of the Wild sets the stage for this meditative experience first and foremost through its map. It’s clear and functional, complete with useful topographic rings (contrast that against, say, Horizon Zero Dawn’s colorful but unhelpful paint smear). The map is also, at first, blessedly free of icons; aside from the odd waypoint, the only markings on it are the ones you choose to put there yourself. (I should note that I’ve chosen to turn off the mini map.)

The seemingly minor decision to restrict what the map communicates — which at first feels like it’s grating against common practice — was a fundamentally crucial one that puts the player into the exploratory mindset. This is not a game where you chase a glowing chest icon. Instead, this is a game where you discover an interesting geographical feature on your map and then have to find a way to get there, only to discover it leads to a puzzle you can’t quite solve right now. So, you mark the location with a “star” to come back to later. After several hours of exploration, you’ve charted out a chunk of the world. Your map isn’t a long Ubisoft-style to-do list; instead it’s a record of where you’ve been, and a reminder of places to return.

Traversal is the key gameplay mechanic in Breath of the Wild -– even more so than the combat mechanic. The stamina wheel gamifies the traversal process: because stamina is a finite resource, the player is forced to plan a route and make decisions on the fly about how she is going to reach an interesting point she’s staked out on the map. The traversal mechanic also cleverly interacts with the robust weather, temperature and physics systems to both aid and undermine you. Oh, you can’t ascend this mountain anymore because it’s raining and now the surface is slippery. Maybe wait out the weather, or glide over to another peak to find a better route. Wait, you can catch an updraft from this side of the canyon and get yourself halfway there. This satisfying interlocking of mechanics and systems keep the focus of the game on the open world of Hyrule itself.

And what a world it is. All the clever maps and polished traversal mechanics would mean nothing, if it wasn’t a world worth exploring. But Hyrule is bristling with clever secrets and gems tucked away in the landscape. Nintendo has always been adept at this kind of touch — be it scattering heart pieces around in Ocarina of Time, one of its first major “open worlds”, or even just putting hidden blocks in Super Mario Bros. — but it’s on supercharge here in Breath of the Wild. There always seems to be another puzzle, another blastable wall, another village, or another Shrine just over the horizon.

Several other small, but crucial decisions keep the exploration engaging. The lilting, unobtrusive music is secondary to the soundscape of nature: the whistling wind and the occasional whip-poor-will take precedent over a manipulative orchestral score, enhancing the sense of place. Nintendo also made a smart decision to give many of the natural features formal names, visible once you’ve unlocked that section of the map. Even little copses have enticing names (like “Midla Woods” or “Bubinga Forest”), though they may not reward you with anything more significant than a Korok seed (Breath of the Wild’s sole version of the Ubisoft collectible). Sometimes, a forest might not have anything more notable than interesting bugs hidden under the brush — not unlike actual real-life forests.

Thematically, this creates a meditative feel to Breath of the Wild’s open world. Most open world games, because of how their map is designed and how their gameplay systems interlock, end up with a colonialist bent to them, with Mass Effect: Andromeda and Ghost Recon: Wildlands being two high-profile recent examples. In Wildlands, you’re stalking the landscape to hunt and kill the evil locals lurking behind the waypoints. In Andromeda, you’re harvesting resources from your maps to, literally, feed your colony. But there are very few of these exploitative metrics in Breath of the Wild; even after dozens of hours exploring Hyrule, all you’ve gained is knowledge of the land (and some critters in your pouch). Even the enemies, which are set up in the game’s fiction as demonic spirits, will respawn and repopulate. Hyrule is, ultimately, untamable. All you can manage to do is know it.

In this way, Breath of the Wild ends up sharing more with “walking simulator” games than with the likes of Far Cry. At times, it feels much like “Proteus”, an early walking simulator that leans heavily on discovery. The burgeoning walking sim genre receives a lot of flak from the wider gaming community, but if Breath of the Wild is placed in the pantheon of that genre– perhaps as its apogee — it reveals just how much zen-like wonderment these fantastic, impossible digital landscapes can provide.

Breath of the Wild is exactly the kind of “open world” that video games sorely need: an expansive, hand-crafted landscape there to be observed and discovered, rather than conquered.

Microsoft’s Sprinkles app is better at captioning selfies than you

Microsoft is surprisingly invested in making oddball camera apps for the iPhone. First, it launched a selfie-enhancing camera and then followed that up with Pix, a camera that uses AI to make sure you get the best pictures of other people you might be shooting. But now Microsoft has released its goofiest camera app yet: Sprinkles. In yet another example of a big tech company essentially ripping off Snapchat, Sprinkles lets you make your selfies more fabulous with captions and stickers. But it also mixes in Microsoft’s face detection software and AI learning for a few semi-unique features, as well.

Once you shoot a photo, Sprinkles will offer you a few suggestions based on what it sees in the picture. For selfies, it’ll offer you up some automatic “photo booth” style props using face detection. It can also guess your age, a trick that Microsoft’s been showing off for some time now. Other options include having it match your face with that of a celebrity or offering some default captions based on the content of the photo, your location or the day of the week (for some reason this app has a real beef with Tuesday). Some of the options are based on seeing a face, with captions to match.

If you want to get more custom, you can write your own captions; as expected, there are a handful of different fonts and colors you can use. You can also drop emoji and stickers into your photos. There’s a pretty detailed sticker search option that offers a few suggestions based on what’s popular and what it detects in your photo. Those suggestions don’t feel terribly relevant at first glance, though. Sprinkles identified one selfie I shot as a “close” photo (because it was close to my face) and the resulting suggestions for stickers and emoji were basically nonsense, including umbrella and mailbox emoji.

Still, this app is just meant for goofy fun so I’m not going to be too hard on it. Being able to swipe through some suggested edits for your pictures is definitely fun, although Microsoft will need to increase the variety it is showing off pretty quickly or else this app will be a one-trick pony. If you want to give it a shot yourself, it’s live in the App Store now.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: iTunes App Store