Here’s the ‘Words With Friends’ TV show you didn’t ask for

Zynga’s Words With Friends is one of those few smartphone games that has survived for far longer than many early mobile titles — it still has a huge fan base (55 million active games at any one time) 8 years after its debut. And now, the developer wants to milk that ubiquity for all it’s worth. It’s teaming up with MGM Television on a Words With Friends game show that would translate the phone-friendly Scrabble-alike to the big screen. While the two aren’t saying much about what the show will entail, they expect to draw on the “rich social experience” of WWF and integrate pieces of other With Friends games (Crosswords With Friends seems a natural fit).

The companies haven’t estimated when the show would premiere and on what channel, although MGM brought Shazam to TV through Fox just this past May.

It’s easy to be cynical about these plans. Words With Friends might be popular, but the buzz surrounding it definitely isn’t as big as in its 2009-2010 heyday. You’re a little late to the party, Zynga. There’s also the question of how many people will really want to watch what amounts to Scrabble with a slight twist. Is it really going to make for riveting TV programming? Still, Beat Shazam has fared decently in TV ratings, a Candy Crush game show just premiered on CBS and the Angry Birds movie performed well enough to justify a sequel. A WWF game show at least stands a chance of success — it’s just unlikely to take the world by storm.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Zynga

Bear Notes 1.2.2 Update Brings Text Highlighting, Multiple Windows, and More

Popular note-taking platform Bear received an update on Wednesday across Mac and iOS that adds a number of community-requested features to the Apple Notes rival.

Top of the feature list in version 1.2.2 is the ability to highlight parts of notes in a neon color to indicate importance, by bracketing text in “::” tags.

Over on the Mac, it’s now possible to break out Bear notes into separate windows for easy reference between multiple entries, simply by double-clicking them in the notes list.

To simplify organization, Bear 1.2.2 also has a new option to edit note tags right from the sidebar and notes list. To do this on Mac, click a tag in the sidebar to view all notes with that tag, and then right-click any note and select “Remove tag (X)”. The same option can be accessed on iPhone and iPad by tapping a tag in the sidebar, swiping left on a note, and tapping More.

In addition, the app has gained some new advanced search options or “Special Search” triggers. It’s now possible to add “@today” or “@yesterday” to searches to find notes with those creation dates. The new functions join existing triggers such as “@untagged” to find all untagged notes, “@tasks” for all notes that contain tasks, and “@files” for notes that have attachments.

Elsewhere, there’s new shortcuts for quickly inputting the current date/time in various formats, a new Print Note option and note counter at the top of the notes list, while an AirDrop option has been added over on iOS Share Sheets. It’s also now possible to share notes as rich text.

Bear is available to download on the App Store for iPad and iPhone [Direct Link], as well as on the Mac App Store [Direct Link].
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Here are all the deals from Xiaomi’s third anniversary sale in India

Xiaomi is celebrating its third anniversary in India by rolling out offers on accessories.

Xiaomi’s journey in India began three years ago with the Mi 3, and the company is rolling out a series of offers to commemorate its three-year anniversary. Products like the Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4 and 4A are going up for sale later today, and there are lucrative discounts on accessories.

There’s also an hourly flash sale that will allow you to pick up the Redmi 4A for just ₹1.

Redmi Note 4

The Redmi Note 4 is going up for sale at 12 p.m., with all three configurations available. The version with 2GB of RAM and 32GB storage costs ₹9,999, the model with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage retails for ₹10,999, and the variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage is listed for ₹12,999. Considering the minor difference in cost, you’re better off picking up the variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage.

The Redmi Note 4 has aged very well following its debut in India back in January, and it is still one of the best options in the budget segment. The phone is available in three color options — dark grey, gold, and black — and I’m partial to the black variant.

See at Flipkart

Redmi 4 and Redmi 4A

The Redmi 4 is a great option if you’re looking for an entry-level phone. Offering a 5.0-inch 720p display, Snapdragon 435, 13MP camera, and a massive 4100mAh battery, the phone certainly has a lot going for it. It is available in three configurations, with all variants going up for sale today — the base model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage costs ₹6,999, the variant with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage retails for ₹8,999, and the model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage will set you back ₹10,999.

Ideally, you’re better off getting the version with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage. If you’re eyeing the model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage, a better option would be the Redmi Note 4.

See at Amazon

If you’re in the market for a device that offers the most value for your money, then you should take a look at the Redmi 4A.

See at Mi India

Mi Max 2

Xiaomi’s largest phone to date is also one of its best. The Mi Max 2 has a huge 6.44-inch Full HD display, which is ideal for viewing videos and movies on the go. It has dual speakers, a chassis made out of anodized aluminum, and Snapdragon 625 under the hood. There’s 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage, a 12MP camera at the back, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, and a 5MP front shooter.

Read: Xiaomi Mi Max 2 review

The best feature about the Mi Max 2 is the massive 5300mAh battery, which ensures that the phone lasts at least two days on a full charge. For ₹16,999, you’re getting a lot of phone for the asking price.

See at Mi India

Accessories

• Mi Air Purifier 2 – ₹9,499 – ₹3,500 off
• Mi Wi-Fi Repeater 2 – ₹799 – ₹200 off
• Mi Router 3C – ₹1,299
• Mi VR Play headset – ₹999 – ₹300 off
• 10000mAh Mi Power Bank 2 – ₹1,199
• 20000mAh Mi Power Bank 2 – ₹2,199
• Mi Headphones Comfort – ₹2,699 – ₹300 off
• Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro HD – ₹1,799 – ₹400 off
• Mi In-Ear Headphones Basic – ₹549 – ₹50 off
• Mi Selfie Stick – ₹599 – ₹400 off
• Redmi 4 accessories – 25% to 57% off

What are you guys interested in picking up during the sale?

See at Mi India

The OnePlus 5 has an update coming to fix its scary 911 reboot bug

If there’s one thing your cellphone really needs to do, it’s work in an emergency. A couple of days ago, however, one owner of the OnePlus 5 made two attempts to call 911 only to have his phone reboot both times. Other posters on Reddit observed the same error, which one commenter said came from an issue caused by using anything other than the stock Android dialer. Tonight, OnePlus issued the following statement:

We have been in touch with the customer and have tested a software update that has resolved the issue.

We will be rolling out the software update shortly.

I had to dial 911 on my OP5 yesterday (saw a building on fire a few blocks away) and both times I tried my phone rebooted on me. from oneplus

The original poster has already tested a version of the software update and says it resolved the issue on his phone. There’s no word on exactly when the fix will go out, but for such an important safety element we hope it arrives soon.

Source: r/OnePlus

Former Dreamworks exec’s ‘New TV’ pitch: 10 minute episodes

Over the years Jeffrey Katzenberg has gotten behind ideas big (Dreamworks 3D animated movies) and small (AwesomenessTV, an online video company backed by Dreamworks and Engadget parent company Verizon), but his next idea combines the two. As profiled by a Variety feature story, the idea for “New TV” (working title), appears to be: put Hollywood budgets behind short-form videos ready to be digested in 10 minutes-or-less chunks. The kind of money we’re talking about is $125,000 per minute, more than 10x what’s usually spent on mobile.

While Katzenberg’s own firm is incubating the idea, he’s apparently looking to secure as much as $2 billion in funding to get the idea off of the ground. Everything’s still up in the air (maybe these videos are intended for mobile, maybe VR, maybe some other new catchy thing), but so far it’s mostly talk. Of course, with the executive’s track record, it’s possible the talk will turn into something real, soon.

Source: Variety

Lenovo reveals AR headset and other ambitious AI concepts

You might know Lenovo for its laptops and Yogabooks, but the electronics maker is apparently used to conjuring up some pretty far-out concepts much more exciting than a 2-in-1. At its third annual Tech World innovation summit, it has revealed not just a couple of new Yogabook colors, but also the concept products it’s most proud of, including an augmented reality headset and a smart speaker-projector. Lenovo envisions the daystAR headset as a standalone vision processing unit with a 40-degree field of view. It doesn’t need to be connected to a phone or a PC, and the company expects developers to use its homegrown AR platform to create apps for the device.

Next in the list is SmartCast+, which is supposed to boast a lot more capabilities than the speakers with voice assistants of today, such as Amazon’s Echo and its own Echo clone. If the smart speaker-projector ever becomes a real product, Lenovo wants to give it the ability to recognize sounds and objects, as well as to deliver AR experiences by projecting images onto a wall or a screen.

Lenovo is also eyeing the creation of an AI assistant called CAVA that’s smarter than Siri and Alexa. The company wants to use deep learning to create facial recognition systems and natural language understanding technologies for the AI. That way, CAVA can truly understand your messages and make recommendations based on what you tell it. If you tell CAVA that you have a meeting in two hours, for instance, it can automatically check the weather and traffic conditions to tell you when to leave.

One of the last two concepts Lenovo showed off is the SmartVest, an ECG-equipped piece of clothing that can monitor your heart rhythm 24/7. The other one is the Xiaole customer service platform that can learn from interactions with customers in order to make each conversation more natural and personalized.

Lenovo says it sees cooking up concepts as an important part of its R&D process, because it lets the company explore and push boundaries. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that any of them will become real products. We’d sure love to take those headsets and speaker-projector for a spin, though — we’ll just have to keep an eye on Lenovo’s future releases.

Acer Swift 3 Review

Research Center:
Acer Swift 3 SF314-52-557Y

Affordable laptops no longer suck. Once derided for thick design, terrible displays, and batteries that lasted only a couple hours, the modern budget laptop has transformed into a sleek, beautiful device. It’s hard to go wrong with an Apple MacBook Pro 13, Dell XPS 13, Microsoft Surface Laptop, and many others. But, as our Acer Swift 3 review will prove, it’s not just expensive flagships that have improved.

We first saw the Swift 3 almost a year ago at IFA, Europe’s biggest electronic show. It took its time getting to widespread North American release, but it’s now easy to find – and easy to afford. Entry level models start as low as $480. Our review unit, with a Core i5-7200U processor, , 8GB of RAM, and 256GB solid state drive, has an MSRP of $650. Shop around, and you can probably snag it for $600.

That looks like a good deal at a glance, but does it hold up to closer scrutiny? Let’s find out.

Generic, but suave

The Acer Swift 3 looks like a $1,500 laptop built in 2013. That may sound like an insult but, at this price, it’s more of a compliment. At .7 inches thick, and 3.3 pounds, this Acer looks and feels substantially heavier than the Dell XPS 13, but it’s not far off a MacBook Pro 13. Brushed aluminum covers the display lid, and the lower half of the laptop is also metal, which gives the system a robust, premium feel.

It’s also generic, and our review unit’s inoffensive silver color does nothing spice up the Swift 3’s appeal. Gold is also available, but it’s difficult to find anywhere besides Acer’s own website. If not for the Acer logo, the Swift 3 could be mistaken for a laptop from Lenovo or Asus. The interior, also clad in silver metal, is no more distinct.

Expecting a $650 laptop to push the limits of design would be unfair, of course, and the Swift 3’s workmanlike look is not a problem. A full metal chassis is not guaranteed at this price, and even laptops that opt for it don’t always feel sturdy. You’ll find flex in the Swift 3’s metal if you go looking for it – a strong press to the center of the laptop is all that’s required – but it isn’t noticeable in normal use.

Though the Swift 3 looks and feels great for a budget laptop, it has at least one serious aesthetic competitor in the Asus Zenbook UX330UA. That laptop weighs just 2.6 pounds and is just a half-inch thick. It’s slightly more expensive at $700, but that’s not much of a gap. While the Swift 3 looks like a premium laptop that’s a few years old, the Zenbook is on par with premium laptops being sold right now.

Dell’s Inspiron 13 5000 is another common competitor. Available only as a 2-in-1, it’s more versatile, but it’s also even thicker and heavier than the Swift 3. The same is true of HP’s Pavilion x360 13-inch. Also only available as a 2-in-1, it too is thicker and heavier than Acer’s Swift 3.

Here, have a another port

The Acer Swift 3 puts its somewhat bulky frame to good use. Its flanks boast three USB Type-A ports (two USB 3.0, and one USB 2.0). That’s joined by a USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 1 port, full-sized HDMI, a combo microphone/headphone jack, and an SD card reader. A separate, proprietary charger is also included to charge the battery, as the USB 3.1 Type-C port can’t juice the battery.

Acer Swift 3 SF314-52-557Y Compared To

Microsoft Surface Laptop

Dell XPS 13 (Kaby Lake)

Asus ZenBook UX305

Toshiba Kirabook (2014)

Asus Zenbook UX301LA

HP Envy x2

Dell XPS 13

Dell XPS 12

ASUS Zenbook Prime UX32VD

Sony Vaio S Premium 13.3-inch

Lenovo ThinkPad X230

Asus U36Jc

Sharp M4000

Toshiba Dynabook SX

Sony VAIO C1MW PictureBook

Wireless connectivity includes 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

We can’t complain about the selection. It offers one more USB port than the Asus Zenbook UX330UA, and a full-sized HDMI rather than mini-HDMI video connection. Many competitors lack USB 3.1 entirely.

Big keyboard, big touchpad, and a half-decent fingerprint reader

Acer opted for its standard island-style keyboard on the Swift 3. The layout, marked by rounded key caps, substantial space between each key, and small function keys, is found on numerous Acer laptops across multiple price points. Though it’s often a drag on the company’s expensive laptops, it feels right at home on a mid-range device.

Touch typists will be happy to hear the keys offer excellent tactile feedback and long travel. It’s not the best keyboard by any stretch, but it’s well suited for longer typing sessions. The laptop’s large palmrest is helpful for comfort, as well. Most of the Acer Swift 3’s competitors, including the Asus Zenbook UX330UA and Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1, also offer a solid typing experience. None we’ve recently tested have proven much better or worse than the others but, surprisingly, they’re better than some more expensive laptops, like Apple’s MacBook Pro 13.

Surprisingly, typing is better than some more expensive laptops, like Apple’s MacBook Pro 13.

A backlit keyboard arrived standard on our review unit. That’s not uncommon for a laptop in the Swift 3’s arena, but also not guaranteed. The backlight itself is mundane, with just two levels of brightness and uneven lighting through many keys. Still, it gets the job done.

The touchpad is mundane, but large, with a pleasantly smooth texture. It supports all Windows Precision Touchpad features and, thanks to its large surface, offers plenty of space to swipe and touch. Here it has a small advantage over the Asus Zenbook UX330UA, Dell Inspiron 13 5000, and most other competitors. The Swift 3’s peers usually have a smaller touchpad surface, or one that’s less enjoyable to touch.

A fingerprint reader with Windows Hello support is included. Unlike the Asus Zenbook UX330UA, which unfortunately put the fingerprint reader on the touchpad itself, the Swift 3 places it on the far right of the interior, where it’s out of the way until needed. It works well though, like most Windows fingerprint readers, it sometimes needs a few swipes to work. The Dell Inspiron 13 5000 and HP Pavilion x360 13-inch don’t offer a fingerprint reader.

An accurate, but dull, 1080p display

A 13-inch 1080p, non-touch display came standard on our review unit. That resolution has, thankfully, become normal even for mid-range laptops. That’s good, because 1,366 x 768 resolution – which was more common just a couple years ago – is a big step down.

While the resolution is acceptable, the display came up short in other areas. We measured a maximum brightness of 242 nits, with a maximum contrast ratio of 540:1. That’s not bad, but the Asus Zenbook UX330UA hits 315 nits with a maximum ratio of 940:1. That’s a big improvement over the Acer Swift 3, and certainly gives the Asus an edge.

Color gamut was a weak point, too, as the Swift 3’s display can show only 67 percent of sRGB, and 50 percent of AdobeRGB. Almost every recently tested laptop can render more than 70 percent of the AdobeRGB laptop, including the Zenbook, which scored 74 percent.

You’d be hard pressed to tell the difference these scores represent in real life, but the Swift 3 is the least expensive of these laptops.

There’s some good news, however. Despite its poor color gamut, the Acer Swift 3 turned in a respectable average color error of 2.34. A lower score is better in this test. The Zenbook UX330UA had an error of 2.56, and the last Dell XPS 13 we tested with a 1080p display hit 2.65. You’d be hard pressed to tell the difference these scores represent in real life, but the Swift 3 is the least expensive of these laptops.

We also recorded a gamma value of 2.2, which is exactly where we’d like to see it. A gamma value that is off can result in a screen that looks too bright, or too dim, depending on which way the score goes. Most games and movies are mastered for a gamma value of 2.2, so this score is spot-on.

Sitting down in front of the Acer Swift 3 shows a display that adds up as the numbers suggest. It looks fine, but it’s not the best. Scenes look true to life, without dull or unrealistic color, but the low contrast ratio and poor brightness make it difficult for images to pop. Glare can be a real problem, too, because the screen has a glossy coat, and the display’s maximum brightness isn’t high enough to combat the glare.

Speaking softly

A pair of downward-facing speakers give the Acer Swift 3 its voice. They were good within their limited range of volume, and only distorted when pushed, such as music that combines vocals with heavy bass. In this respect, they’re on par with the Asus Zenbook UX330UA, Dell XPS 13, and most other 13-inch laptops. The maximum volume was rather low, however, so the laptop has trouble in noisy environments.

A good vintage of Core i5

While the Acer Swift 3 is available with several different processors, our review came with the Core i5-7200U, an incredibly common dual-core chip that can be found in laptops priced from $500 to $2,000. Of course, its value is always superior in less expensive laptops, and the Acer Swift 3 maximizes its performance potential.

Acer’s laptop did well in Geekbench 4, where it beat the Asus Zenbook UX330UA and Dell XPS 13 in both single-core and multi-core test. Only the Lenovo Yoga 720 13 proved slightly quicker.

The Swift 3 also held up well in Handbrake, a video encoding test, where it came in second place. The Handbrake result is important because it shows how the laptop handles heavy load over time. Some laptops, like the Asus Zenbook UX330UA, throttle performance as they heat up, but the Acer showed no sign of that.

These results show Acer’s affordable laptop can easily keep up with laptops that are more expensive, and perform well for a system in its price range. In truth, most people don’t need anything more than what the Swift 3 offers.

The fastest hard drive we’ve seen in a budget laptop

Our review unit’s 256GB solid state drive is great to see in a $650 laptop, but Acer didn’t stop there. The drive in our unit is an Intel 600p connected over PCI Express. Most laptops that offer solid state drives in this price bracket user the slower, older SATA connection, which limits performance.

The benefit of Acer’s decision can be seen in how it competes with the Asus Zenbook UX330UA. While both have the same size of drive, and sell within $50 of each other, the Swift 3 more than doubles the Zenbook’s write speed performance. It also beats the Zenbook by about 100 megabytes per second in read speed performance.

There are faster drives, of course – much faster. The Lenovo Yoga 720 13 is an example. The MSRP of that review unit was $980, however, putting it in a different league. Acer’s Swift 3 keeps up admirably for an affordable laptop.

It’s not built for gamers (of course)

Want to game? Then you shouldn’t buy a laptop like the Acer Swift 3, which uses Intel HD 620 integrated graphics. This graphics solution, bundled with most Intel Core processors, can play many modern games, but can’t play them at a reasonable framerate.

Acer’s laptop is not alone here. Every laptop with Intel HD 620 graphics suffers from the same shortfall in gaming performance. Compared to its peers, the Swift 3 is at no disadvantage.

We fired up Civilization VI at 1080p and minimum detail to see how the laptop performed in the real world. The game spat out an average of 16 frames per second in its graphics benchmark. That’s barely playable.

A mediocre battery leads to mediocre battery life

The Acer Swift 3 is a 13-inch laptop, which means it’s easy to carry around all day. However, at seventh-tenths of an inch thick and over three pounds, it’s heavier than the lightest laptops in its class. The Zenbook UX330UA, as mentioned, is 2.6 pounds and a half-inch thick.

A 49 watt-hour battery is crammed inside the chassis, which we find a little disappointing. It’s not small, but it’s also not that large. The size of the Swift 3 makes us feel that a larger battery could’ve been crammed inside.

Our battery life results show the consequence of the mid-sized battery. While the Acer’s endurance is respectable, lasting almost seven hours in our web browsing loop, it’s far off the leaders of the class. Asus Zenbook UX330UA, which had a 57 watt-hour battery, tacks on a couple hours of life in the same test. Dell’s XPS 13 also lasts longer thanks to its 60 watt-hour battery though, to be fair, it’s much more expensive.

The Acer Swift 3 also came up short in our video loop test, which repeats a 1080p video until the laptop turns off. Though its score of 10 hours and 22 minutes isn’t bad, it does fall one to two hours short of most competitors. The Asus Zenbook UX330UA endured more than 13 hours, giving it a clear lead.

Warranty information

The Acer Swift 3 ships with the usual one-year warranty against defects. That is typical for a laptop, no matter the price. A longer warranty can be purchased through Acer Care Plus, or through a third-party warranty company.

Our Take

Acer’s Swift 3 doesn’t look great, but it nails the fundamentals at a surprisingly low price. We’re most surprised by its performance, which matches far more expensive laptops. This laptop deserves your attention if you need an affordable yet capable machine.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes – the Asus Zenbook UX330UA. That laptop, which won a Digital Trends Editor’s Choice Award, is thinner, lighter, more attractive, and lasts longer on a charge. It remains our go-to pick among affordable 13-inch laptops. However, the Acer Swift 3 does beat it in performance, and has better connectivity.

The Dell Inspiron 15 5000, and potentially 7000, are also strong competitors. Those systems offer many of the same features, and the 7000 series offers 2-in-1 versatility. Past Inspiron laptops have suffered below-average battery life and, in some cases, poor display quality. Dell options in this price range usually lack a solid state drive, which is a major problem.

HP’s highs and lows are similar. The company offers several competing models, including a 2-in-1, the Pavilion x360. Yet you’ll be hard pressed to find one with a 256GB solid state drive for $650.

How long will it last?

Surprisingly, this affordable laptop is extremely well equipped for the future. It has a fast processor, plenty of RAM, and a quick, reasonably large solid state drive. Absent accidents or defects, this laptop should last five years or more.

Should you buy it?

Yes, if you don’t want the Zenbook. Acer’s laptop is not as portable as the Asus, and doesn’t feel as modern, yet it’s hard to argue with the Swift 3’s performance, connectivity, and bargain pricing. While not our first pick among 13-inch systems, the Swift is a good alternative to Dell’s Inspiron and HP’s Pavilion.

Hack into a world of cyberpunk horror next month in ‘Observer’

If you think things are unendurably awful in the world today, maybe don’t play Observer when it hits PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Mac and Linux on August 15th.

Observer follows one of the darkest paths at humanity’s feet, imagining a 2084 where corporations are the highest authority and much of society lives in Blade Runner-esque squalor. In Poland, Detective Dan Lasarski is tasked with hacking into the minds of murderers and degenerates, witnessing their crimes in twisted detail, first-hand.

“When you receive a mysterious message from your estranged son, a high-level engineer for the almighty Chiron Corporation, you journey to the seedy Class C slums of Krakow to investigate,” the story goes. “But as you hack into the unstable minds of criminals and victims to look for clues, you are forced relive their darkest fears. How far will you go to discover the truth?”

And, speaking of Blade Runner (we totally were, promise): Rutger Hauer, the actor who played villain Roy Batty in the 1982 film, is Detective Lasarski in Observer.

Observer is a first-person nightmare from Bloober Team, the studio behind acclaimed horror game Layers of Fear — so you know things are going to get creepy. We got our hands on the game at GDC, and reveled in its psychological thrills and unapologetically dystopian vibe. Cyberpunk has returned.

See the first ‘Blade Runner 2049’ VR tie-in at Comic-Con

It’s been a good few months for Blade Runner 2049 fans, what with the three amazing trailers already out for the upcoming reboot from director Ridley Scott. Now, we’ve got a new VR tie-in for the film, as Oculus plans to debut “Blade Runner 2049: Replicant Pursuit” at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego on July 21st. While crummy VR tie-ins are fairly de rigueur these days, Blade Runner seems like a pretty great fit for a VR experience, at least thematically. The “experience,” created for Samsung’s Gear VR, is the first of a planned trio of Blade Runner content, with each episode from a different developer.

In this first installment, you’ll get to pilot one of the “spinner” police cars and track down a rogue replicant. The episode was created by Turtle Rock Studios, formerly Valve South, the folks behind Left 4 Dead, Evolve and the VR scare-fest Face Your Fears. If you’re headed to Comic-Con, you can check out “Replicant Pursuit” in a replica of Blade Runner‘s White Dragon Noodle Bar. The installation is open to the public from July 20th through the 23rd, so even if you don’t have a convention badge, you can line up and check out the futuristic action.

The Facebook-owned company plans to release two more interactive Blade Runner installments for both Gear VR and Oculus Rift closer to the film’s October premiere. Oculus promises that the future episodes will “expand the overall story for a transmedia encounter,” so keep your eyes peeled until then.

Source: Oculus

Christopher Nolan is no fan of Netflix’s movie strategy

Don’t expect Christopher Nolan to produce a Netflix-only magnum opus any time soon. In an interview, the Dunkirk director says he chooses not to work with Netflix over what he sees as a “bizarre aversion” to supporting theatrical movies. The streaming service’s insistence on simultaneous online and theatrical releases is “untenable,” Nolan says, and seems to be in use as a kind of “leverage against shutting down theaters.” Amazon’s approach, where it gives theaters a 90-day run before streaming, is “perfectly usable” in his view — why not go with that?

The stance isn’t exactly coming out of left field. Like Quentin Tarantino, Nolan is a staunch defender of film and the classic movie theater experience. He wants movies like Dunkirk to “make you feel like you are there,” and to him that means a theatrical release. You aren’t going to get that watching on your TV, he contends. That’s debatable (it’s not hard to get a large TV, and Nolan will watch Blu-ray movies at home), but it’s easy to understand the logic. And it’s important to stress that this isn’t a bitter grudge against Netflix. To Nolan, it’s just a question of the internet company making a “more admirable” investment in movie projects than it does now.

The problem, of course, is that Netflix is unlikely to be swayed by Nolan’s arguments, no matter how nuanced they are… at least, not so long as the company is attracting millions of new subscribers. It primarily sees theatrical releases as adding prestige to its streaming business, particularly when it makes them eligible for awards. Where Nolan is interested in maximizing the dramatic impact of his work by using an ‘ideal’ format, Netflix is largely interested in making its projects accessible to as many people as possible. Those are frequently contradictory goals, and you’re unlikely to see the two parties shake hands unless one of them has a change of heart.

Source: IndieWire