Put Amazon’s Alexa to work with an Echo for just $150

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with an even more affordable way to get an Echo in your home!

If you’ve been considering picking up an Amazon Echo, now is the time. Currently, you can grab one for just $149.99, which is a savings of $30. It isn’t often that we see discounts on these, so when you see one you should act on it. The Echo allows you to use your voice to do tons of different tasks that you would normally need to pick up your phone or even computer to accomplish.

You can use the Echo to control various smart home accessories, check on the local news, and even order pizza if you wanted to. Amazon has been adding new features to Alexa just about every week so it continues to become smarter and smarter. If you’ve been interested in checking one of these out and have been looking for a discount, this is the perfect way to see what all the hype is about.

Want to save even more? Amazon is selling a certified refurbished version of the smart speaker for just $134.99. You can also save $20 when buying three Echo Dots with code DOT3PACK.

See at Amazon

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Google Play to end ‘Top Developer’ program in favor of highlighting specific apps

The blue badges are going away.

Google Play is ready to retire its “Top Developer” program, soon to replace it with a new system. This is the program that currently recognizes some well-known developers with a blue badge and “Top Developer” on their app listings, presumably giving some extra weight to their apps in hopes that it will increase downloads.

In an email sent to developer accounts, Google says that it will be replacing the program with something new that will focus on individual apps and games rather than entire developer accounts. The email reads:

The Google Play Top Developer program launched many years ago to recognize developers who created high quality Android apps and games. We conducted research, with both developers and consumers, and observed a clear value and preference for the recognition of individual apps and games, instead of entire organizations.

After taking a look at our existing app recognition programs, the Google Play editorial team has decided to focus its efforts on recognizing high quality and innovative apps and games. As a first step, we will be closing the Top Developer program and removing the badging from the Play Store within 30 days. We have exciting plans to recognize more of the great apps and games you create and will be sharing updates soon.

I’m not entirely sure how much weight the Top Developer badge ever really held, though the idea of giving some sort of official recognition to good developers isn’t necessarily a bad one. We’ll soon find out what Google has in store for a new program to give the best apps their time to shine.

Blade Runner 2049′ trailer teases the replicant dilemma

If you’re still debating whether a Blade Runner sequel was a good idea, you might want to see it anyway. Unlike the teaser we got back in December, Blade Runner 2049’s first real trailer has more than vanity footage of Rick Deckard’s return. Though it’s edited to suggest Ryan Gosling’s android hunter is about to ask the veteran Blade Runner the series’ most haunting question, we’ll have to wait until the film premiers on October 6th to see whether Harrison Ford was a robot all along.

The trailer opens heavy on the nostalgia, leaning on Vangelis’ synth tones from the original film’s iconic score. We also get juicy camera pans around a rainy, neon-soaked city before some familiar androids-as-slave-labor/master-creator dialogue sets up Ryan Gosling, apparent Blade Runner of the new generation, and his search for old Deckard. There’s a lot of imagery to chew through while we wait to see if director Denis Villenueve (Arrival) pulls off a miracle following up on arguably the top science fiction film of all time.

Source: YouTube, YouTube

Ableton’s interactive lessons teach the basics of music production

It’s incredibly easy to make a music track today with all the killer tools out there. You don’t have to convince a bunch of musicians to show up in your garage to record a session, nor do you need to become a multi-instrumentalist like Prince. All you need is a decent digital audio workstation like GarageBand or Ableton Live, and you can put together your own version of a hit song in a surprisingly short amount of time. Not everyone is savvy about creating tunes with their computer, however. In order to help, the folks behind Ableton Live have a new website called Learning Music to help anyone with a web browser learn the basics of modern music production.

The interactive site has dozens of mini-lessons, including sections on beats, notes and scales, chords, bass lines and even song structure. It assumes no previous knowledge, either, making it a good starting point for the newbie producer. There are several real-world songs deconstructed, as well, including Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” Robert Hood’s “Ride,” and Beyonce’s “All the Single Ladies” to help you see music in action. Each lesson has an interactive, Ableton-live style section that gives you a space to practice the ideas in, like adding in kick drum parts or editing a melody on a piano. You can export many of these little examples into Live, as well, which turns the whole thing into an interactive advertisement for Ableton’s flagship music sequencer.

Still, if you’re new to the music production game, Learning Music is a solid option. The instruction is simple and easy to follow, and the ability to play with the knowledge could keep you coming back for more. The website joins Ableton’s book on creative production strategies and artist-led instructional production videos as the company’s push into training up a whole new generation of producers, each of whom might become customers.

Via: FactMag

Source: Ableton

Workflow for iOS Regains Chrome and Pocket Actions, Support for Up Next

Apple-owned Workflow was updated to version 1.7.4 today, re-introducing features that were removed when Apple acquired the app and adding new Apple Music actions.

For those unfamiliar with Workflow, it’s an automation tool that can be used to create a variety of workflows to accomplish tasks like creating GIFs from photos, pulling images from a website, calculating a tip, posting photos to multiple social networks at once, and much more.

When Apple purchased Workflow back in March, several actions were removed, but support for Google Chrome and Pocket has now been re-added and workflows involving those apps are now functional once again.

Along with support for Google Chrome and Pocket, today’s update introduces new actions for Apple Music users. There’s now an “Add Music to Up Next” action and a “Clear Up Next” action for automatically adding content to an Apple Music playlist.

Today’s update also includes a long list of bug fixes, which are outlined below:

– Get Distance now supports getting the distance from a specified location
– The order of items passed from a Dictionary action to Choose from List is now preserved
– Fixed getting prices for books in Search iTunes Store
– Fixed making archives with special characters in the filename on iOS 10.3 and later
– Fixed an issue where workflow glyphs in the Today Widget may be stretched and cut off
– Fixed an issue where latitude and longitude may be formatted incorrectly in international locales
– Fixed an issue where .wflow files may fail to open on iOS 10.3 and later
– Fixed an issue where improperly formatted URLs from Pinboard could cause Workflow to crash
– Fixed an issue where booleans may not update when their value is changed inside dictionary fields
– Fixed an issue where handing off clipboard content from the Today Widget or Action Extension may throw a “The file Clipboard could not be opened” error
– Fixed an issue that could cause Workflow to crash on launch
– Other bug fixes and minor additions

When Apple purchased Workflow, the Workflow team said app integrations and the Gallery would be updated on a regular basis, but a later report suggested Apple planned no more updates. Based on today’s update, which adds new features, that report was incorrect.

Though two new actions have been re-introduced, there are still features missing from the Workflow app. Maps actions are restricted to Apple Maps, and translating text only works with Microsoft’s translation services. Other previous app actions, including Uber, Telegram, and LINE, are still unavailable.
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