Dick’s Sporting Goods is the latest retailer to price match Amazon

In what’s yet another sign of the shifting retail landscape, Dick’s Sporting Goods is now matching prices from Amazon and other competitors online. The new program, aptly named “Best Price Guarantee,” is a necessary move by the company to compete with ecommerce giant Amazon and retailers like FinishLine, Footlocker, Target and Walmart. In addition to that, Dick’s will also start price-matching sportswear brands, most of which are clients, including Adidas, Nike and Under Armour.

It’s worth noting that the company did match lower prices before at its retail stores, but this didn’t include places such as Amazon.com — at least not officially. As of today though, whether you’re at a physical location or the Dick’s Sporting Goods site, you can get the best deal so long as the product you’re buying is an identical match. That said, do keep in mind it won’t work during special sales like Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Via: Sara Germano (Twitter)

Source: Dick’s Sporting Goods

Adobe Lightroom for iOS Gains New Pressure Sensitive Selective Brush Tool

Adobe today updated its Lightroom apps for the iPad and the iPhone, introducing a new selective brush, a details tab, a refreshed interface for the iPad, and enhanced support for features like the Apple Pencil and 3D Touch.

Both Lightroom for iOS and Lightroom for iPad feature a new Selective Brush tool, which can be used to selectively paint enhancements on any part of an image. On the iPhone, the Selective Brush takes advantage of 3D Touch for pressure sensitivity, and on the iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil can be used for the same effect. The Selective Brush works with exposure, brightness, clarity, and more.

Adobe has also added the ability to selectively erase linear and radial gradients for a wider range of effects, and there’s a new Details Tab that offers global control over sharpening and noise reduction. On the iPhone, there’s also a new “Show Highlight Clipping” feature available when using the in-app camera that displays overexposed areas to allow users to adjust exposure before capturing a photo.

For the iPad version of Lightroom, Adobe has introduced an entirely new interface that’s designed for the larger screen of an iPad.

Lightroom can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [iPad: Direct Link] [iPhone: Direct Link]
Discuss this article in our forums

Most popular Android apps this week: Game Studio Tycoon 2, Chrooma Live Wallpaper and more!

The Google Play Store is filled with many apps, which is great for consumer selection, but can often make app discovery difficult. Some apps just never make it to our homescreen. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of this weeks hottest Android apps that have most likely gone under the radar or are so new that they haven’t had enough downloads to be featured or make it onto a top list.

Game Studio Tycoon 2
App Info: Welcome to the next generation of game development! Game Studio Tycoon 2 puts you in the place of an independent game developer during the early days of the gaming industry. Play through 50 years of gaming history and develop on over 40 different platforms! Expand your studio along the way and hire up to 16 employees! Free

Chrooma Live Wallpaper
App Info: Perfect with the new Android Marshmallow material design style! Gorgeous palettes moving smoothly on your background.Palettes will change every time you come back to your main menu. Free

Rider
App Info: Get ready for some flippin’ action! Perform insane stunts while you cruise through the never-ending world of Rider! Grab your motorcycle and start flipping like a maniac! Free

Pixelation Icon Pack
App Info: The best Pixel inspired style featuring exclusive all-new designs from forthcoming Android releases. $0.99

Loner
App Info: ‘Loneliness is a kind of beauty, a quiet experience.’ LONER is a very simple game, no attributes, no upgrade, or even no score, what it wants to bring you, is only purely tranquillity and loneliness. LONER tells the story of a lonely journey of a pilot, in the journey, you would understand his past and his pursuit. Free

If you like these apps then drop us a comment below with your thoughts. Also if you have spotted a new app that you think is worth a mention, leave a comment below with your suggestion and we’ll be sure to check it out.

Lightroom for iOS adds 3D touch-powered selective brush tool

If you’re into editing photos on your mobile device, you probably have the (free!) iOS or Android version of Lightroom. Today, Adobe announced quite a few new changes to the iOS edition of the app.

The most exciting update is the selective brush, a feature users have been asking for. With it, you can selectively change and enhance parts of your image. For users with 3D Touch or the iPad Pencil, you can increase or decrease the effect simply by how much pressure you apply (or don’t) to the screen. You can also erase both radial and linear gradients selectively.

Lightroom’s interface has also been completely redesigned for iPad, as Adobe acknowledges that more and more photographers are leaving their laptops behind in favor of tablets. The goal is to take advantage of the larger screen of the iPad Pro without sacrificing performance. Users also can fine tune photographs even more in the new Details tab, with added global control over sharpening and noise reduction.

Android users, don’t worry: Lightroom hasn’t forgotten about you. They’ve rebuilt the entire app from the ground up to make it faster and more efficient, as well as to make it actually look and feel like an Android app. Both iOS and Android updates are available for download now.

Source: Adobe

Multi-colored fonts coming to Illustrator in next update, Adobe says

Why it matters to you

Graphic designers won’t have to switch back and forth between Illustrator and Photoshop to use multi-colored fonts — including the emoji font — once the next Illustrator update launches.

Adobe Illustrator is an industry standard for creating graphics — but creating fonts with multiple colors still requires going in and manually adjusting each letter. That’s about to change, however, as Adobe is working to add support for multi-colored fonts to the next update. In a blog post published on Monday, July 17, the company shared plans for Adobe Illustrator multi-colored fonts, using a format called OpenType SVG fonts, which is slated to be available in the next software update.

The update will allow for fonts to be added to the system that have different colorations for each character — and even parts of each character. Adobe says a prime example of the feature is Gilbert Font, a multi-colored font (pictured above) designed in honor of Gilbert Baker, the designer of the LGBTQ flag. Each character is a different color, with some characters even sporting four different hues. For many letters, the different pieces that make up the font are different colors, with a transparent section where the segments overlap, such as where the loop of the lower-case b meets the line.

OT-SVG fonts can have different colors gradients and even patterns all inside a single letter or grammatical symbol, Adobe says. The format is ideal for text with heavy graphics, such as creating a font with floral decor or with the sheen of a metallic surface. Unlike PNG letter graphics, the OT-SVG file format is typically favored because the letters can be any size without pixelating.

To celebrate the compatibility of the new font format, Adobe is expected to include a few OT-SVG fonts for free when the update launches. Adobe says EmojiOne (which is already available inside Photoshop) is a fun, colorful font that will be part of the new options.

While the font type is already compatible with Photoshop, the feature will be launching inside the next version of Illustrator, though Adobe doesn’t say when the update is expected to become available to users. Photoshop added multi-colored font capabilities last year, at the same time the program added emojis and a tool to find similar fonts. At that time, the update included two free colored OT-SVG fonts.

Future chatbots will be able to argue with you enough to help change your mind

Why it matters to you

Argumentative chatbots take us one step closer to AI that can simulate human intelligence.

Artificial intelligence tools like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa don’t really try and change your mind too much, but maybe they should!

That is the idea behind new research being carried out by Dr. Samira Shaikh, an assistant professor in Cognitive Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Department of Computer Science. She developed a smart chatbot that’s goal is not just to carry out a conversation with users, but to actually engage them in arguments and counterarguments with the specific aim of changing a person’s mind.

“ Alan Turing’s question: ‘Can machines think?’ was one of the fundamental questions that interested me as I began my research in AI and natural language processing,” Shaikh told Digital Trends. “My goal in this work was to see if we could inch a few steps closer to answering Turing’s original question by merging the insights from social psychology and cognitive science with AI. I wanted to see if certain elements of human communication can be recreated effectively by an algorithm — and I chose the human behavior of persuasion specifically since it is nearly ubiquitous in human communication. This is a problem that needs solving along the way to achieving true machine intelligence.”

As we noted, chatbots that argue with you regardless of your query is not likely to find too much favor with customers, but Shaikh says there are still times such a tool may be useful.

“Sure, there are use-cases where you would want the agent to explore only a certain subset of topics, but there will still be potential for persuasive behavior in these scenarios,” she continued. “The conversation with an intelligent agent could center on topics including politics and social issues, or what brand of paper towels to buy next.”

Looking further into the future, as chatbots take on new roles as carers and confidantes, an argumentative AI could be incredibly useful. For example, it may be able to help you prepare for a job interview, or for lawyers to better hone arguments for a court case.

“This persuasive behavior is based on the theory of planned behavior, a well-established theory of social influence,” Shaikh said. “I adapted this theory to my work, where the communicator is attempting to persuade the receiver by sending them tailored messages and certain behaviors that are triggered in the agent depending on what has happened so far the conversation. Humans can do this quite effectively, generally speaking, the only difference is that in my framework, the communicator is a computer agent.”

Shaikh said her argumentative chatbot is fully operational and is being tested in a variety of scenarios designed to see if it can change a person’s mind. A preliminary paper on the work is published in the journal AI Matters.

Future chatbots will be able to argue with you enough to help change your mind

Why it matters to you

Argumentative chatbots take us one step closer to AI that can simulate human intelligence.

Artificial intelligence tools like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa don’t really try and change your mind too much, but maybe they should!

That is the idea behind new research being carried out by Dr. Samira Shaikh, an assistant professor in Cognitive Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Department of Computer Science. She developed a smart chatbot that’s goal is not just to carry out a conversation with users, but to actually engage them in arguments and counterarguments with the specific aim of changing a person’s mind.

“ Alan Turing’s question: ‘Can machines think?’ was one of the fundamental questions that interested me as I began my research in AI and natural language processing,” Shaikh told Digital Trends. “My goal in this work was to see if we could inch a few steps closer to answering Turing’s original question by merging the insights from social psychology and cognitive science with AI. I wanted to see if certain elements of human communication can be recreated effectively by an algorithm — and I chose the human behavior of persuasion specifically since it is nearly ubiquitous in human communication. This is a problem that needs solving along the way to achieving true machine intelligence.”

As we noted, chatbots that argue with you regardless of your query is not likely to find too much favor with customers, but Shaikh says there are still times such a tool may be useful.

“Sure, there are use-cases where you would want the agent to explore only a certain subset of topics, but there will still be potential for persuasive behavior in these scenarios,” she continued. “The conversation with an intelligent agent could center on topics including politics and social issues, or what brand of paper towels to buy next.”

Looking further into the future, as chatbots take on new roles as carers and confidantes, an argumentative AI could be incredibly useful. For example, it may be able to help you prepare for a job interview, or for lawyers to better hone arguments for a court case.

“This persuasive behavior is based on the theory of planned behavior, a well-established theory of social influence,” Shaikh said. “I adapted this theory to my work, where the communicator is attempting to persuade the receiver by sending them tailored messages and certain behaviors that are triggered in the agent depending on what has happened so far the conversation. Humans can do this quite effectively, generally speaking, the only difference is that in my framework, the communicator is a computer agent.”

Shaikh said her argumentative chatbot is fully operational and is being tested in a variety of scenarios designed to see if it can change a person’s mind. A preliminary paper on the work is published in the journal AI Matters.

Snapchat update adds a color-changing brush, lets you record longer videos

Why it matters to you

With the update, not only are you able to record longer videos but you have more creative power over your snaps.

A few months ago, Snapchat introduced “limitless” snaps — snaps that don’t have a time constraint along with looping videos — as well as the “magic eraser” that removes objects from photos. More recently Snap Map and the ability to create custom geofilters straight through the Snapchat app were added as well. On Tuesday, the company tacked on yet another new update — multi-Snap recording and the Tint Brush — allowing users to easily record more content and edit the video afterward.

By holding down the capture button on the app, users can now record up to six 10 second snaps in a row. The new Tint Brush inside the Scissors tool changes the color of your shirt, hair, or any other object you’d like. The multi-snap recording feature is rolling out on iOS first and will soon be available for Android, but the Tint Brush is launching for both operating systems right away, TechCrunch notes.

Prior to the update, users would have to pack 10 seconds of video into one snap — choose whether they would like to post it, save it, or delete it — and then go back to filming more clips. With the new multi-snap feature, users can instead continue to film continuously for 60 seconds. While the snaps will post in chronological order, you can choose to delete particular clips before posting the video to your story or sending it out to friends.

The Tint Brush — which can be accessed by tapping on the Scissors icon in the menu on the right of the snap — allows you to replace the colors of anything in the video. By outlining the subject and choosing a color, the new feature uses machine learning to fill in space without compromising any important details. You can do anything from changing the color of your top or a piece of furniture to the shade of your hair.

It is clear Snapchat might be attempting to not only encourage more creativity when editing snaps, but the company is also clearly trying to branch off from being known as the disappearing photo app. Sixty-second videos may only be the start of Snapchat’s push to increase our content consumption on the app but it could also be the key feature that brings them ahead in the ongoing battle with Instagram, for now, at least.

New video from NASA reveals New Horizons’ beautiful Pluto flyover

Why it matters to you

The digital flyover gives viewers a new way to experience everyone’s favorite ex-planet.

It’s been two years since NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sent back images from its Pluto flyover, depicting never-before-seen features like the dwarf planet’s now iconic “heart.” Last week, a team of scientists from the mission released detailed maps of Pluto and its moon, Charon, along with new digitally rendered videos created using topographical data collected during the spacecraft’s flyovers.

The Pluto flyover starts in the highlands southwest of a nitrogen ice plain called Sputnik Planitia and passes over Sputnik’s western border toward Cthulu Macula, a region dotted with impact craters and scattered mountain ranges. Flying north, the video passes over Voyager Terra, a region of rough highlands, and head southward to Pioneer Terra, marked by deep pits. The journey ends in a flyover the eastern region of Tartarus Dorsa.

Charon’s flyover is perhaps less anticipated — few people are as sentimental about the moon than they are about Pluto — but it’s no less impressive. Approaching from the same angle as New Horizons, the journey drops down to observe the Serenity Canyon, turning north to fly over Dorothy Gale crater (named after the Wizard of Oz protagonist) and Mordor Macula (named after the black land in The Lord of the Rings). Heading south, the film passes over Oz Terra (notice a pattern here?) and concludes at Vulcan Planum and the Clarke Mountains, a unique feature described as mountains within a moat.

“This is a feature that has geologists stunned and stumped,” Jeff Moore, who leads New Horizons’ Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team, said in a statement in 2015.

Neither Pluto nor Charon looked to New Horizons exactly as they appear here in these movies. For one thing, the viewers vantage point is much closer in the video than the spacecraft had itself. The topographic features have also been emphasized two to three times to make them more visible to the viewer. The bodies’ surface colors have also been enhanced to make them pop.

The last data recorded by New Horizons during its flyby Pluto was received on October 25, 2016. Since then the spacecraft has maneuvered to do a flyby of a Kupier Belt object — 1 billion miles beyond the orbit of Neptune — on New Year’s Day 2019.

Damen support vessel yacht New Frontiers leaves deck open — bring all your toys

Why it matters to you

If you love basketball or street hockey, you could play both on this yacht’s deck.

There’s one thing you can generally count on with superyachts: They usually have room for a literal “boatload” of passengers and crew. But you won’t find loads of guest quarters on the recently launched Damen support vessel yacht New Frontiers, according to Boat International.

Damen is a Dutch-based international shipbuilder. The company’s yacht division is one of many including seagoing transport vessels, inland shipping, public transport, defense and security, and much more. Damen ships include full displacement and multihull designs, often with the operation and crew superstructure toward the bow, leaving the rest of the boat for passenger or material transport.

New Frontiers is only the 11th Damen support vessel yacht. The ship’s concept is to act as a base of activity that could very likely take place in other locations, rather than just staying on the yacht. The vessel’s name aptly reflects its versatility and potential.

Damen commercial director Rose Damen said, “You can’t put this vessel into one category or another — and that reflects exactly the wishes of our clients.”

“They want their holiday to be about freedom and spontaneity — whether it’s a weekend dive adventure trip away from their superyacht or enjoying two locations at once linked by helicopter,” Damen continued, “it’s all about unforgettable experiences.”

New Frontiers was put on the water July 10 and is scheduled to be finished in September in time for its public debut at the Monaco Yacht Show on September 27-30.

New Frontiers is 55.3 meters (181 feet) long. It’s a full-displacement yacht with a 9.25-meter (30-foot) beam. Top speed is 20 knots and the cruising range is 5,000 nautical miles at 16 knots. Three cabins, one of which is a main deck master suite, can accommodate six guests. That’s a small guest list compared to most yachts in this size range. Maximum crew capacity is 20.

New Frontiers’ open spaces are its defining characteristics. In addition to a 538-square foot sundeck aft of the yacht’s wheelhouse, the wide open 2,045-square-foot aft deck is the owner’s play or work space. The deck can handle a 3,700-kilogram (8,157-pound) maximum take off weight (MTOW) helicopter, which means it could handle a fully loaded Airbus H145 helicopter, an aircraft used in rescue, law enforcement, and offshore missions.

Airbus Helicopters, Anthony Pecchi

There’s plenty of space on the deck for an array of superyacht-scale water toys. If needed, the deck crane can lift or launch up to 12 metric tons (26,456 pounds), which is more than enough capacity for a personal submarine. For example, the Triton 3300/6 six-passenger exploration submarine good for more than 10 hours underwater at depths up to 1,000 meters is well-within the deck crane’s capacity.

Triton Subs

New Frontier’s deck isn’t restricted to such serious air and sea toys. You could set up a couple of basketball hoops, or street hockey or soccer nets and have reasonable space for games. You would do well to put bumpers around the perimeter to keep the players aboard and be sure you have plenty of extra balls or pucks.

The Damen support vessel yacht New Frontier’s most impressive feature is that, while you may not be interested in any of the above uses, you could employ the spacious deck for many purposes, switching around at your pleasure.