Somebody turned Snapchat’s dancing hot dog into a mobile game
Okay, it’s not like anybody was clamoring for more of that absurd dancing hot dog Snapchat added to its filter options. But this is the internet — don’t ask, and ye shall receive anyway. Somebody took it upon themselves to cash in on the hype and make a simple platform-hopping app game featuring the boogie weenie. And it’s actually kind of hard.
As a bootleg production cribbing Snapchat’s monstrous creation, the game is unpolished and likely pulling some degree of IP theft, so who knows how long it’ll stay up on the app store. It’s also chock full of obnoxious ads that salt your wounds by regularly popping up after you die. Which is frequently. As we said, the game — in full Flappy Bird style — is punishingly hard. If that kind of masochistic play is up your alley, download it now for iOS or Android.
Via: Mashable
Source: Dancing Hotdog! (iOS), Dancing Hotdog! (Android)
US Army expects to take down planes with anti-air lasers
Forget shooting down drones with vehicle-mounted lasers — the US Army is ready to take on the bigger machines. Space and Missile Defense Command chief Lt. Gen James Dickenson has revealed that the Army is preparing lasers that are ten times more powerful than the ones in testing now, at between 50kW to 100kW. That kind of wattage is strong enough to take down aircraft, and might even throw missiles off their targets by confusing their sensors. They won’t necessarily require gigantic trucks like they do today, either.
The first test, with a 50kW laser, is due to take place in 2018 using an upgraded version of the HEL-MTT (High Energy Laser – Mobile Test Truck) vehicle you see above. In 2022, however, the Army expects to test-fire a 100kW laser on a more nimble platform, such as an armored personnel carrier. That’s when it gets interesting — the Army could easily keep laser weapons at the front line to protect against attack helicopters. They’d only need line of sight to ruin an aircraft’s day.
Of course, there’s a catch: 100kW still wouldn’t be enough in some circumstances. It wouldn’t be very effective against head-on missile attacks, since the laser wouldn’t have enough time to punch through the missile’s (usually strengthened) nose. You’d need an array of laser-toting vehicles to be sure that you could consistently knock out threats. This is a start, though, and enemies might still be wary of attacking if they know an invisible beam could ruin their day.
Via: Popular Mechanics
Source: Breaking Defense
Apple Names Isabel Ge Mahe as New Managing Director of Greater China
Apple today announced that Isabel Ge Mahe, the current vice president of wireless technologies, has been made the vice president and managing director of Greater China. In her new role, Mahe will report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams.
According to Apple, Mahe, who has led Apple’s wireless technologies software engineering teams for nine years, will provide leadership and coordination across Apple’s China-based team.
“Apple is strongly committed to invest and grow in China, and we are thrilled that Isabel will be bringing her experience and leadership to our China team,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “She has dedicated a great deal of her time in recent years to delivering innovation for the benefit of Apple customers in China, and we look forward to making even greater contributions under her leadership.”
As VP of wireless technologies, Mahe has focused on the development of cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, and location and motion technologies for nearly all of Apple’s products. She has also previously been in charge of the engineering teams developing Apple Pay, HomeKit, and CarPlay, and she has worked closely with Apple’s R&D team and carrier partners to bake China-specific features into the iPhone and iPad.
She has overseen the addition of QR Code support in iOS 11, SMS fraud prevention services exclusive to China, and the feature that allows Apple customers to use a phone number as an Apple ID.
In a statement, Mahe said she is honored to represent Apple in China. “Everyone at Apple is proud of the contributions we make to the communities where we do business, and I am looking forward to deepening our team’s connections with customers, government and businesses in China to advance innovation and sustainability,” she said.
China has become an increasingly important market for Apple over the course of the last few years, and Mahe’s appointment comes as the company struggles to maintain iPhone sales momentum in the country. In the second quarter of 2017, revenue in China was at $10.7 billion, down from $12.5 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Mahe will begin working in her new position, which is based in Shanghai, later this summer.
Tag: China
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Password Manager LastPass to Debut New Family Plan Later This Summer
Popular password management LastPass today announced plans to introduce a new family plan, LastPass Families. The new plan is designed to allow up to six family members to store and access all of their passwords and documents from any device.
With LastPass Families, family members can share access to bank accounts, credit cards, and more, for every day use or in case of an emergency. According to LastPass, each individual family member will have access to unlimited shared folders with family members, emergency access, and a family dashboard where the family manager can add and remove members. Family members will also have a private, personal vault for storing passwords that are not shared.
LastPass plans to launch LastPass Families later this summer, but customers can sign up now to get early access to the feature. All LastPass Premium customers will also get a chance to try LastPass Families for free for six months.
LastPass Premium is priced at $12 per year, but family pricing has yet to be announced.
Tag: LastPass
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Doomfist is set to punch ‘Overwatch’ off a ledge on July 27
Why it matters to you
Doomfist is the most anticipated hero yet to join the ranks of Overwatch heroes, so console players in particular are eager to try him out.
Doomfist, long-speculated to be the next character coming to Blizzard’s blockbuster hero shooter Overwatch, will officially join the game on July 27 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. After being announced earlier this month with a badass anime short, Doomfist has been active on the PC Public Test Realm server for several weeks, but this will mark the first time that console players get to put on his powered-up gauntlet.
Doomfist has been a part of Overwatch lore since the beginning. In the newly released behind-the-scenes video, developers relate how Blizzard vice president Chris Metzen gave the name as an example for the sorts of villains they needed to come up with, and everyone found it so evocative that it stuck. His gauntlet appears in the game’s first cinematic trailer, in which heroes Winston and Tracer fend off Widowmaker and Reaper’s attempt to steal it from a museum for the then-disbanded Overwatch organization. Evidence of Doomfist also litters the Numbani map, which features posters of him in the starting area and his eponymous fist on a car as the payload to be defended.
Players started seriously expecting Doomfist to join the roster earlier this year, leading to a fan campaign to cast football-player-turned-actor Terry Crews in the role, with which the actor himself (a professed PC gamer) was involved. Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan shut down speculation that Doomfist was imminent at the time, since the next hero then was in fact the tank Orisa. Doomfist has finally followed as the 25th hero in the game’s roster, and we’re very excited to play with him.
We’ve already fooled around with Doomfist in the PTR server, and can confirm that he’s a blast to play. As his name suggests, Doomfist is an offense hero that’s all about punching with his huge, robotic fist. His secondary attack (and perhaps signature move) is the Rocket Punch, in which he charges up and blasts forward in a straight line, fist first, knocking anyone he hits back (and doing extra damage if they slam into a wall, which leaves a radius of gnarly cracks).
He can also uppercut enemies directly in front of him high up into the air, jumping up with them to follow up with a slam attack that throws Doomfist forward a bit, stunning and pulling enemies in front of him on the ground in toward him. Dealing damage with any of his special fist abilities also has an added benefit of giving him temporary armor. His primary weapon, perhaps his most underwhelming feature, is knuckle-mounted shotgun blasts on his smaller hand, which carry four charges and regenerate about one per second. Lastly his ultimate ability sends Doomfist up into the air, giving him a targeting reticle to choose a place and slam down, damaging anyone beneath.
He’s a lot of fun to play, and his punches are very viscerally satisfying to land. As a highly mobile, up close fighter he’s sort of like a beefier Genji. The developer video talks about how he’s sort of an ode to 2D fighting games, which feels apparent in the different ways you can combo his abilities together as the situation demands. His high mobility and up-close punishment make him a natural fit for the so called “dive comp” wherein teams use heroes like Winston and Lucio to aggressively jump onto the enemy team and focus them down.
He’s not a tank, so it can be risky to throw him around recklessly behind enemy lines without support. Wielded strategically, however, Doomfist will be exceptionally good at getting in the enemy team’s face and forcing them to deal with him.
Start-up app Enke puts its self-destructing videos on the map
Why it matters to you
You can find out what’s going on nearby with the geotagged videos on Enke, as long as other users are uploading content anyway.
Short video clips are the basis for tech like Snap’s Spectacles and the now defunct Vine, but one start-up is literally putting video clips on the map. Enke is a new iOS app that allows users to see what’s happening nearby by arranging 10-second video clips on a map.
The videos are time-stamped and disappear after 24 hours, allowing users to see what’s happening around them that day. Content is sorted by category, including food, night life, and shopping, allowing anyone to explore what’s happening nearby.
Enke founders Ivan Dodd and Sheran Gnanapragasam say they envision the app creating a platform for anyone to see what’s going on at any particular area before deciding where to go. The idea originally started as a way to explore nearby bars and clubs, but the pair quickly realized the app could encompass a much larger range of events.
The app was developed using Google Firebase alongside Google Places and Maps. All content is user uploaded — users upload a 10-second video, tag a location, and post. Each user’s video becomes a map of what’s happening, and since the videos disappear after 24 hours, the platform aims to display only current events that are likely still happening.
The video clips are paired with other details on the location, including ratings, hours, and contact information for businesses at any tagged location. The app also lists how many users are attending the event. The app’s mix of reviews and static content with always-changing shots of what’s going on that same day is what sets Enke apart from other location based apps, the developers said.
“We realized during development that there were a number of scenarios Enke would be useful for that fell outside the original scope of what we wanted,” Dodd said. “Some of those uses would require functionality we hadn’t originally thought to build-in.”
Expanding the app’s scope beyond the night scene meant the development took about twice as long as the team originally anticipated, but increased the program’s potential user base.
The start-up is privately funded by both founders. Dodd formerly worked with Jet.com while Gnanapragasam owns the development firm Ardent Peak.
Available free on iOS, the start-up plans to release an Android version before the end of the year.
China’s cybersecurity crackdown has taken aim at WhatsApp
Why it matters to you
Communication via WhatsApp has just been made much more difficult for users in China, continuing a dangerous trend for social apps in the region.
Reports have emerged out of China that the government’s strengthened cybersecurity laws have claimed yet another victim: WhatsApp. The Facebook-owned messaging app, known for its worldwide reach, has been at least partially blocked, according to The New York Times. The move has crippled users’ ability to send photos and video, and even hampered texting as well.
While the government has shown no reservations in the past in shutting down Facebook and Twitter inside its borders, WhatsApp managed to outlive both of them. While the app isn’t necessarily as popular in China as it is elsewhere in the world — Tencent’s WeChat dominates in the region with an estimated 500 million users in China alone — it is particularly handy for international communication as well as its built-in encryption feature.
Facebook was blocked by the government in 2009, and Instagram faced a similar fate in 2014. With WhatsApp’s prospects also looking grim, the social giant is in danger, more than ever before, of being completely forced out of China. The company attempted to repair the relationship beginning in 2014, but has backed off over the past year.
Why the sudden attack on WhatsApp? Recently passed cybersecurity laws in China require companies that provide software in the country to register with the government and store data on local servers. Meanwhile, users are required to use their real names in social applications. The government has consistently justified the measures, colloquially termed “The Great Firewall,” as necessary to curb cyberterrorism.
While the disruption of the messaging app is emblematic of a wider policy, it is fairly clear that WhatsApp was specifically targeted. Nadim Kobeissi, an applied cryptographer at Symbolic Software, confirmed as much to the Times.
“According to the analysis that we ran today on WhatsApp’s infrastructure, it seems that the Great Firewall is imposing censorship that selectively targets WhatsApp functionalities,” Kobeissi said.
WhatsApp, of course, isn’t alone. Even WeChat users haven’t had total success sending and receiving messages and media. The government has also cracked down on virtual private networks, or VPNs, which are commonly used to route internet traffic to servers in other countries, and earlier this month, mobile carriers in the nation were ordered to cease all access by February 2018.
Casio ProTrek Smart review: Adventure watch
Casio gets a lot more attention than some other watchmakers on the MrMobile channel, and that’s because it’s one of the few companies doing something different with Android Wear. Last year, I reviewed the company’s feature-packed but pricey WSD-F10 outdoor smartwatch, and this summer’s sequel has ditched the clunky model number for a (slightly) streamlined brand name.
Much else is familiar though; the ProTrek Smart keeps the chunky frame, water resistance and the high price point – not to mention the confusing lack of both a heart rate monitor and an ambient light sensor. But there’s one major addition that puts the Casio ProTrek Smart firmly in “what last year’s model should have been” territory: baked-in GPS.
Does the addition of standalone navigation make this colossal chronometer worth its price tag? Tune in for the Casio ProTrek Smart Review by MrMobile to find out!
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Huawei Watch 2 Classic review: Leather is better
With the Huawei Watch 2 Classic, a metal body and leather strap make all the difference.
It’s no secret that we weren’t big fans of the Huawei Watch 2, a plastic-and-ceramic successor to a metal legacy that left us feeling dejected and a little confused over the company’s seemingly half-baked plans for wearables.
Well, after having used the Huawei Watch 2 Classic for some time, I can safely say the issue lies largely with branding and marketing than with the series itself. While the Classic is by no means a true visual successor to one of 2015’s best Android Wear devices, its use of actual metal around the frame and replaceable 22mm bands certainly gets it close.
Like the Watch 2, the Classic is equipped with a bunch of top-notch specs for a modern smartwatch, including a super-sharp 1.2-inch OLED panel at 390×390 pixels, a Snapdragon 2100 processor, 768MB of RAM and 4GB of storage (which can be used to store and play music offline), a heart rate sensor, a GPS radio, IP68 water resistance, and a 420mAh battery that’s quoted for two days (but is closer to a day and a half).
All it lacks compared to the Watch 2 is an integrated LTE radio and eSIM, which provides 4G service with a compatible carrier.
But here’s what you gain: a much more attractive and “public-friendly” timepiece that, at just 60.5 grams, is considerably lighter than much of the competition. And while I don’t love the fake chronometer bezel that doesn’t spin despite looking like it should, overall I find the Huawei Watch 2 Classic extremely easy to wear, and quite enjoyable to use.
Android Wear 2.0 was worth the wait.
Of course, it comes with Android Wear 2.0 included out of the box, which took some time getting here but the wait was worth it: this is a much more polished experience than what debuted in 2014. Google took its time to figure out exactly what was needed from its nascent wearables ecosystem, and the result is a platform that can stand on its own — with GPS you can take this running sans phone and record a run while listening to locally stored music — but is best when paired to an Android phone.
The Huawei Watch 2 Classic does come equipped with a quick release mechanism for its included leather band, which is appreciated since the inclusion of a second button on the right side and a GPS radio primes the watch for running, which doesn’t go so well with the leather strap.
Huawei’s included Workout app, which launches with a press of that bottom button (say that five times fast!), is quite impressive, though Google Fit Workout and Runtastic were also included on my version.
Any other app that isn’t included can be downloaded directly from the now-local Play Store, a move that, as mentioned, brings additional independence to the Android Wear platform.
In reality, the only real differentiation here is something I’d rather try to overlook: the watch faces that don’t fit at all with the Watch’s aesthetic. They’re garish and skeuomorphic and feel out of place on this still-sporty metal design. Instead, I’d recommend diving into the deep, deep library of available third-party watch faces.
Of course, notifications are still Android Wear’s strong suit, and the Watch 2 Classic performs that duty with aplomb. Without delving too deep into the app or workout side of things, I was able to stretch the Classic’s battery life to just over a day and a half.
The Huawei Watch 2 Classic makes up for the missteps of the mainline Watch 2, and that’s good enough for me to keep it on my wrist for the next little while. I prefer to it the gargantuan size of the LG Watch Sport, and though I could live without the fake chronometry around the admittedly large bezels, the fundamentals are excellent.
At close to $360 on Amazon right now, this is not a small investment, but if you’re looking for a high-end Android Wear watch in 2017 with a GPS and a reasonable footprint, the Huawei Watch 2 Classic is your best bet.
See at Amazon
Doomfist is here for the punching on July 27th
Doomfist is the most anticipated new character to hit Overwatch since the game landed one year ago, and players finally know when they can get their hands on him: July 27th. Doomfist is the fourth addition to the roster, but he’s been in the game’s lore from day one. His golden glove was featured in the first trailer for Overwatch, teasing an extremely powerful, punching villain — and that’s exactly what players will get later this month.
Doomfist has five main abilities, plus a temporary shield that generates when he does ability damage. He has a short-range hand cannon, an airborne uppercut move, a “Hulk smash!” kind of ability, a rocket punch that charges up and flings people into walls, and finally an ultimate move, where he jumps into the sky and comes crashing down, hurting any nearby enemies.
Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at Overwatch’s newest hero!
Doomfist arrives: 7.27.2017
Learn more ↪️ https://t.co/SgzOdU0Nlb pic.twitter.com/ZVUg9al3St
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) July 18, 2017
In the game’s story, he’s a 45-year-old mercenary based in Nigeria, real name Akande Ogundimu. Akande is highly intelligent and charismatic, the heir to a successful prosthetic-technology company, and a martial arts master. He’s also intent on engulfing the world in war.
With his cybernetic enhancements and a powerful gauntlet, Doomfist is a designed to be a damage-dealing offense character, rather than taking on a tank, support or defense role. The most recently added character, a tank hero named Orisa, hit the game in March and we took her for a spin live on Facebook. Before that, players got the hacker Sombra (offense) and the healing sniper Ana (support).
Source: @PlayOverwatch
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