Google Play Music’s New Release Radio is available for all users

Google has officially announced New Release Radio, a station on Google Play Music that provides users with a daily selection of new songs they may like based on their listening history. The feature has actually been out in the wild for almost a month now, but originally it was positioned as an exclusive for Samsung users (though neither Google nor Samsung made an official announcement).

Now, Google is saying that it was “gathering feedback” from Samsung users before officially rolling it out to everyone — but the screenshots we saw from users on Reddit last month clearly called it a “Samsung exclusive” feature. Oddly enough, Reddit also quickly discovered a workaround for people who didn’t have Samsung phones to try the station — I got it working on my iPhone with no fuss.

It’s still not clear whether or not this was always the plan or if Google and Samsung changed course after the confusing rollout of New Release Radio in June — we’ve reached out to Google and will update this post with anything we learn.

Regardless of the back-and-forth here, we’re glad to see New Release Radio available for all Google Play Music users. It’s a smart addition to the service that matches up with some new music discovery features Spotify and Apple Music have offered for a while — and it would have been a shame if only Samsung owners could use it. The jury is still out on whether New Release Radio is as good as Discovery Weekly, but pretty much anyone using Google Play Music should enjoy giving this new station a spin.

Source: Google

Xbox Live update makes co-op live streams a reality

Xbox Live keeps adding and updating features in response to its multiplayer community. Last year, the service added support for “clubs” along with improved friend-finding options. According to Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, Live users will get a host of new tweaks today as Microsoft’s gaming division adds quite a few new features to its console and mobile apps, including custom Gamerpics, the ability to stream your games with up to two friends and a way to tie a single controller to your login to make it easier to sign in and play. The Xbox mobile apps get a few additions as well, including new ways to look for groups and to browse the titles in your Game Pass subscription, and users can now create their own Killer Instinct tournaments.

Previously, Xbox owners had to choose from pre-defined images for their player photo Gamerpics. With the new update, you can upload any digital image from your console, Windows 10 PC, or mobile phone to use as your on-screen avatar or club profile and background image. Nelson urges you to “keep it clean,” though, as everyone can see what you upload.

Xbox’s Mixer (née Beam) is the platform’s game streaming system. With the new update, you can now stream along with up to two other people, called co-streaming. “With co-streaming, you and up to three of your friends can broadcast together to create a shared, multi-view experience on Mixer.” You can invite any other user (or your whole game party) to co-stream on your console and stream together in perfect harmony.

Xbox owners will also be able to connect a single controller as their default sign in device. When you turn on the linked controller, the console will sign into that account. This could make it much easier in a multi-account household where everyone has their own controller, for sure. Killer Instinct fans can now create their own custom tournaments via Live’s Club system, too.

The mobile Xbox apps are also getting updates, including more exposure for “looking for group” (LFG) messages. When you create a LFG from any game hub on the console, you can share it out to the Activity Feed or a pre-defined group of friends via Messages. In addition, mobile users can browse all the titles they’ve subscribed to with Xbox Game Pass. You can install the games to your console from within the app, too. You can now set your region on your phone to match that of your Xbox console, which gives you access to the content from different regional Xbox stores. Finally, the Xbox app for Android gets a bonus feature: Chat Bubbles. When a new message arrives, a new chat bubble will appear on your phone, no matter what app or game you’re currently using. It’s a handy way to keep on top of your Xbox messages and Club chats.

Source: Microsoft

‘Deadpool’ and ‘Logan’ Comic-Con editions pair Blu-ray with vinyl

San Diego Comic-Con runs from July 20th through the 23rd and today, Fox Home Entertainment announced it will have some exclusive merch available in limited quantities. New editions of five of its films will include vinyl copies of their soundtracks along with Blu-ray, DVD and digital HD copies of the films themselves. Logan, Deadpool, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Rise of the Planet of the Apes are the films getting special treatment and their packaging features brand new cover art.

Last year, 20th Century Fox skipped Comic-Con after teasers for Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse exclusive to the event were leaked the year before. But it’s back this year and some of its anticipated reveals include sequels to two of their special edition film packages. Trailers for both Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Deadpool 2 are both expected to be unveiled at the event.

For those not attending Comic-Con, Twitter will be exclusively livestreaming opening preview night and you can catch coverage of the rest of Comic-Con on Twitter as well as through IGN. Limited quantities of the five films will be available for purchase at the Fox Fanfare Booth.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

BMW drivers can’t escape work thanks to in-car Skype access

In the age of after-hours company emails, working lunches and constant connectivity, the one place you can escape is your car, right? Not so fast, easy rider. With help from Microsoft, BMW has installed Skype for Business in select vehicles running BMW iDrive, the company’s infotainment and mobility system. Just a few months ago, BMW added Microsoft’s Office 365 tools to BMW’s iDrive, so certain Bimmers really are turning into (very) high-speed offices.

BMW isn’t the first company to unveil Skype-ing on the road, as that honor goes to Volvo. The feature allows users to join meetings via voice or screen taps, receive alerts about an upcoming Skype call, and be notified if it’s cancelled. “Microsoft Exchange will also integrate calendars, to-do lists and contacts using the car’s voice and navigation systems,” Microsoft said in a press release.

BMW is going all in on Microsoft business tools, with support for Office, Exchange and now Skype for Business. That service will roll out in Germany, France and the UK, and BMW will ponder expansion to other markets like North America afterwards. It should hit most 5-series vehicle with iDrive, but Microsoft or BMW didn’t specify exactly which vehicles would get the feature.

Using such tools while driving is not a great idea, but it would be fine for passengers and the driver if he pulls over. Conducting a hands-free call is legal in most states and nations, but as the Mythbusters crew proved several years ago (above), doing so makes you arguably more dangerous than a drunk driver.

However, it could prove very handy once Level 3 self-driving, which allows drivers to take their eyes off the road, arrives. And that future barreling towards us — Audi recently unveiled its 2019 A8, the first vehicle on the market with that level of autonomy. If you’re planning on chatting and working on some complex spreadsheets while the car drives itself, though, don’t forget the Dramamine.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Microsoft

Net neutrality supporters sent over 5 million emails to the FCC

Yesterday, activists advocating for a free and open internet rallied individuals to submit over two million comments and millions of emails and phone calls to the FCC in support of Net Neutrality. Popular sites across the web, from Yelp to Pornhub (and Engadget!), urged users to contact the federal agency and Congress with a singular message: Don’t let internet service providers create faster and slower connections to boost their profit margins.

Internet advocacy nonprofit Fight For The Future tallied the participation numbers, which are still climbing: Five million emails and 124,000 calls to Congress, while protestors actually visited twenty Congressional offices. The two million comments made to the FCC almost tripled the previous record made during the “internet slowdown” advocacy day on September 10th, 2014.

Even if they didn’t take action, tens of millions of users saw the messages plastered across the web. Big sites and services like Reddit, Twitter, Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb and Amazon all either urged advocacy or pointed users to sites like BattleForTheNet.com, which supplied premade form letters to fire off to the FCC and routed users to their Congressional representative’s phone number.

The stock message to the agency, echoed by statements from Google, Facebook, Dropbox, YouTube and internet advocates, is simple: Don’t do anything. During the Obama administration, the FCC officially classified the internet a utility, meaning ISPs (in theory) can’t limit users’ speed or access to sites. Shortly after he was appointed by Trump, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai started vocalizing his disdain for Net Neutrality, calling his agency’s previous support of it a “mistake.” Whether yesterday’s activism changes his mind is a question for tomorrow.

Source: Fight For The Future

Climate change is making it harder for airplanes to take off

We already know that climate change might make air travel more turbulent. But now it looks like it will impact it in an even more drastic way: A new study in the journal Climatic Change examines how rising air temperatures will affect airplanes’ ability to take off. And the results aren’t promising.

The study, conducted by researches from Columbia University, NASA and the Logistics Management Institute, constructed models based on the five most popular aircraft and nineteen major airports around the world. The study says, “We find that on average, 10–30% of annual flights departing at the time of daily maximum temperature may require some weight restriction below their maximum takeoff weights, with mean restrictions ranging from 0.5 to 4% of total aircraft payload and fuel capacity by mid- to late century.”

The problem is in the density of the air: When air warms, it becomes less dense and more expansive than colder air. This means that in order to take off in warmer temperatures, an airplane needs to be at a higher speed than if, all else equal, it were taking off in cooler temperatures. As air temperatures rise, flights will need to have longer runways or weigh less in order to take off.

The researchers note that they tested both small and large aircraft in their models, and both were affected by higher temperatures. There are going to be some real repercussions for this; airlines are going to cancel and reschedule flights more due to excessive heat, and airlines will have to start investing in infrastructure to extend runways. Additionally, less weight on an airline means fewer passengers and baggage, so you can count on ticket prices and check-in bag fees increasing in the medium-term futures.

Via: The Verge

Source: Climatic Change

FanDuel and DraftKing’s merger is just a fantasy after all

Facing a formidable legal challenge by the Federal Trade Commission, online fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel announced on Thursday that they have cancelled their planned business merger. The decision was made “in the best interest of our shareholders, customers, employees, and partners,” FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles said in a statement.

The companies, the two largest such sites on the internet, initially announced their plan back in November. They reasoned that doing so would result in “operational efficiencies and cost savings” that would “accelerate its path to profitability.” Had the merger gone through, the combined business entity would have controlled 90 percent of the daily fantasy sports market. However, the FTC was having none of that talk and voted 2-0 to block the merger back in June.

This is the latest in a string of financial and legal setbacks for the betting sites. They’ve faced strict regulation from Texas to Washington and, just last year, were hit with a $12 million settlement from the state of New York over alleged false advertising claims.

But just because they’re now going it alone doesn’t mean that either company will be folding anytime soon. In fact, DraftKings CEO Jason Robbins is downright bullish regarding his firm’s financial outlook. “We have a growing customer base of nearly 8 million, our revenue is growing over 30 percent year-over-year, and we are only just beginning to take our product overseas to the billions of international sports fans we have yet to even reach,” he said in a prepared statement.

Source: ReCode

‘Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom’ delayed until January 2018

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch brought the unique beauty of a Studio Ghibli movie to North American PS3s in 2012. The gorgeous RPG was slated to get a sequel, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, this coming November, but it looks as if we’ll have to wait a bit longer. In a video message on publisher Bandai Namco’s Twitter feed, Akihiro Hino, CEO and President of developer LEVEL-5, explained the delay and apologized deeply to fans. It’s not a huge wait, though, as the new launch date is set for January 19th of next year.

“We have decided that more development time is required in order to deliver the full Ni no Kuni II experience to our fans,” Hino said in the video. “I deeply apologize to those who have been looking forward to the game’s release. Please rest assured, however, that we will continue to strive to provide a deep and satisfying single player experience that our fans can look forward to enjoying.”

Ni no Kuni II has been postponed until Jan. 19, 2018. Watch this video from the President of LEVEL-5 Inc. for details on the delay and more. pic.twitter.com/E5jHoxTzer

— Bandai Namco US (@BandaiNamcoUS) July 13, 2017

Gaming delays are fairly common, especially with massive games like Ni No Kuni II. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 has been pushed back from a fall 2017 release to spring 2018. So has Monolith Productions’ Middle-earth: Shadow of War, now set for October 10th of this year, a seven-week delay. It’s better to have a fully-baked game after a bit of a wait than end up with a title released too soon, like EA’s troubled sci-fi RPG, Mass Effect: Andromeda or DICE’s war sim, Battlefield 4.

Source: Bandai Namco/Twitter

Mt. Gox chief claims innocence ahead of Bitcoin trial

At one point, the Mt. Gox exchange facilitated 80 percent of the world’s Bitcoin transactions. That was, at least, until 2014 when someone absconded with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the digital currency — as well as an additional $28 million in cash — from the exchange’s accounts. Authorities in Japan have since fingered the site’s chief executive, Mark Karpeles, as the caper’s culprit. However, as his trial got underway on Thursday, the 32-year old French national declared his innocence, per Reuters.

Mt. Gox was originally based in Tokyo, hence the trial venue location, and filed for bankruptcy protection there, citing a flaw in its security scheme that enabled someone to make off with 850,000 Bitcoin. However, Karpeles was in trouble with the law even before the theft. He’s been indicted for a pair of fund transfers that took place in 2013: one that saw cash from a Mt. Gox customer be funneled into his personal account and another wherein an account in his name on the exchange had its balance mysteriously increased.

“I swear to God that I am innocent,” he reportedly told the court. Prosecutors, however, allege that Karpeles spent the $2.7 million he supposedly stole on software licensing rights and a custom-made bed.

Source: Reuters

Altered Beast (Review)

SEGA now offers a large collection of games on the Google Play store and amongst them is Altered Beast. Altered Beast first appeared in the arcades in 1988 as a standalone arcade cabinet but later came to the SEGA Genesis. The arcade version was more detailed and ran more smoothly when compared to the home version. Unfortunately Altered Beast on Google Play is an emulation of the lesser quality Genesis version. The game is still a cult favorite of the “SEGA kids” that grew up with the SEGA Genesis home console.

A classic game that may create a beast out of you… from the frustrating difficulty

Playing as the beast

Altered Beast on the Google Play store plays virtually identical to the home version, with the biggest difference being the lack of physical buttons to press. SEGA chose to do a transparent overlay of the directional pad, Start button, as well as the A, B, and C buttons. Surprisingly this works much better than I expected as I had very few issues with controlling my character, and as a bonus, Altered Beast supports many standard Bluetooth controllers.

During 2015, SEGA began removing select titles from the Google Play store as a precursor to launching the ‘SEGA Forever’ game service on mobile. Some reports have indicated that the emulation through SEGA’s current mobile offerings suffers from the use of Unity on the ports. Through my game sessions, it was quite difficult to detect any differences in framerate, sound or graphics and Altered Beast seemed to play very close to the original Genesis version.

As was true to the original, the gameplay is simple but challenging. Fight off the undead and other beast-like enemies to unveil the next location. Bosses will appear at the end of some levels and are designed to take multiple lives, as this was originally an arcade game meant to munch quarters. SEGA fans of yesteryear may enjoy revisiting this classic, but most gamers won’t find much meat to chew on here.

A fluff-ball of features

Altered Beast is supported by the ‘SEGA Forever’ platform which works both in Android and iOS. SEGA Forever is a new service advertised as a “free” gaming platform for classic games on mobile devices with add-on features that have an added expense. Altered Beast is free to play, but contains ads throughout the game which can be disabled by paying the $1.99 fee. Paying two bucks to disable the ads is highly recommended, as it also adds the feature to save your game-state at any time during play.

Now you can get rabies while playing Altered Beast on your mobile device

As mentioned previously, Altered Beast supports Bluetooth controllers but does not offer settings to remap buttons or check pairing status for said devices. Within the settings, there are options to invite friends from Facebook to try the game, a button to turn the music off or on, as well as a ‘send message’ feature that apparently goes directly to SEGA’s support team.

A lacking package

SEGA’s Altered Beast is a game that brings back memories for some, but not always good ones. On the one hand, this is a full re-creation of the Genesis classic that is hampered slightly by sub-par emulation and the Genesis version’s slow gameplay and dated graphics and sound. Surprisingly, the sound reproduction is spot on, but with this being the Genesis port, the sound is far from great. Visually the menus are laid out nicely and it’s very easy to get from page to page.

The overall settings and features in Altered Beast are somewhat lacking, but get the job done

Considering SEGA has the SEGA Forever platform, we could see advancements in the future, but as it stands now, there’s not much of a punch from this beast. While the asking price is still low, you’d be better of finding a stronger emulator on another platform–especially if it was for the original arcade version.