Of course ‘Fallout 4’ will have a ‘game of the year’ edition

Much like the sun rises in the East, Bethesda has trotted out another game of the year edition for one of its open-world role-playing games. This time it’s Fallout 4. As you might expect, it includes everything that’s been released for the game since 2015 including its six add-on mission packs. This latest version will be released on September 26th for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Official pricing isn’t available, but based on history, this probably won’t cost more than $60.

However, if you feel like spending more publisher/developer Bethesda says it’ll have limited amounts of the extremely popular Pip-Boy Edition available for $99.99 at select retailers; it sounds like the same phone holster that was available at launch. If you’re itching for something a little more functional, an officially licensed Bluetooth version of the wrist computer has been available on ThinkGeek for awhile now.

The thing is, that one costs a whopping $349.99. But, the $150 Samsung Gear S smartwatches on eBay notwithstanding, can you really put a price on making phone calls from a comically oversized chunk of plastic on your wrist?

Source: Bethesda

RCA’s new Roku TVs are dirt-cheap, if you can live without 4K

RCA is the latest brand to offer a line of Roku TVs and while they aren’t 4K, they are super affordable. Three models are included in the line — 50-inch, 43-inch and 32-inch versions priced at $499, $380 and $250, respectively. The larger two models are 1080p HD while the 32-inch is 720p.

Many recent Roku-incorporated TVs have taken advantage of Roku’s 4K capabilities including models from Insignia, TCL and Hisense and while RCA’s TVs don’t offer that level of image quality, they do have ease of use and small price tags. Each model includes a TV tuner input for access to over-the-air channels and a Live TV Pause feature. And of course, they come with Roku’s thousands of apps. RCA’s TVs also include a remote with channel shortcut buttons and the ability to stream through Roku’s mobile app.

All three models are on sale now in the US and Canada through Walmart.com and Amazon.com as well as a handful of stores like BJ’s and ABC Appliances.

Source: Roku

AMD’s beastly 16-core Ryzen Threadripper CPU is available today

We already knew a lot about AMD’s monstrous $1000 16-core 1950X Threadripper CPU (and slightly cheaper 1920X $800 12-core version), but the company released a few more details as the processors went on sale today. AMD is adding a third to the lineup: The 1900X is an 8-core, 16-thread version for $550 that’ll be out on August 31st for anyone who wants a powerful budget CPU with a base clock speed of 3.8 GHz and boost of 4.0 GHz.

Today AMD launches the highest-performance desktop processor ever with Ryzen #Threadripper. https://t.co/GUVVsPE67s pic.twitter.com/0BljUhuEvT

— AMD (@AMD) August 10, 2017

That’s even more value for AMD to brag about as the company grapples with Intel for the top-tier consumer processor crown. Soon after the former had announced its Threadripper series, Intel fired back with its 18-core i9 Extreme Edition — but given that CPU’s $2,000 price tag, AMD is still fiercely competing at half the price. If you want the leading 1950X Threadripper or the lower-powered but less pricey 1920X, you can buy them today on motherboards from manufacturers like ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI.

Source: AMD

Who needs friends when you have anonymous feedback apps

The current number one app in the iOS App Store has a curious name. It’s called Sarahah, and it’s been at the top of the Free Apps chart on iTunes for the past few weeks. The premise behind the app is that it’s an anonymous messaging service geared specifically for personal feedback. Anyone — whether they’re on the service or not — can leave comments for users without revealing who they are.

If you think that sounds like a recipe for abuse, well, you’re not alone. With such rapid growth — it now has 300 million users — Sarahah has raised concerns among parents and educators that it’ll be a haven for online bullying, especially since it’s such a hit with teenagers and young adults. But perhaps a larger question is why these anonymous apps have such appeal in the first place, and what is it that apps like Sarahah can do to keep the trolls away.

Sarahah is the brainchild of Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq, a systems analyst who originally created it as a way for employees to give feedback to their employers without fear of retribution. Tawfiq, who’s from Saudi Arabia, says the name “Sarahah” is Arabic for “honesty.” “Having anonymous feedback would facilitate communications and help people develop, so that the company can improve,” he told Engadget.

It was released to the public in November 2016 as a simple website, and gained a lot of traction in countries like Lebanon, Tunisia and Egypt in just a few months. In June of 2017, Tawfiq released the app version of Sarahah on both iOS and Android, which also marked the first time it was available in English.

Through word-of-mouth, teenagers in English-speaking countries like Canada, the US and Australia started to pick it up — some even posting links to their Sarahah profiles on Instagram to attract feedback. What really skyrocketed Sarahah to the top though, was when Snapchat updated its app in July that allowed the addition of links to images. Teens linked to their Sarahah profiles in their Snaps, and voila, a viral hit was born.

Christine Garcia, an Associate and Clinical Director at the Young Adult and Family Center (YAFC) at University of California, San Francisco’s Department of Psychiatry, offers some insight into why anonymous apps like these are so enticing to teenagers. “Adolescence and young adulthood is a time when individuals are concerned about their outward facing appearance to peer groups,” she said. “This is a developmental norm as they attempt to understand and step into their various identity group memberships.”

“Anonymity is appealing for a wide-range of reasons including providing a certain sense of safety,” said Garcia about the appeal of such apps. “[They] provide a level of privacy that may not be present in other social media networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, etc. Teens want to connect […] but anonymous apps allow them to be connected and somewhat disconnected (because no one knows who they are) at the same time.”

As mentioned however, Sarahah has already come under fire for encouraging bullying. Early reviews of the app accused it of being “unsafe” and that it was a “breeding ground for hate.” One App Store review accused it as “another way for people to talk behind your back,” and another said that “What some people said to me brought me to tears.” A Google Play Store review said that a friend attempted suicide due to what was said to her on the app, and called for it to be shut down.

At the same time, the app has also received a lot of positive reviews. One user took the diplomatic approach and said “the app is not for the weak-hearted” and another simply warned that you should know what you’re getting into when you download it. Others appear to be a lot more aggressive, accusing negative reviewers as “a bunch of crybabies” and advised them to “grow a spine.”

Sarahah is certainly not the first anonymous messaging app to be used to bully. Secret, Whisper, AskFM, Kik and YikYak have all been used for online harassment in some form or other. Two of the worst cases are AskFM and YikYak, which have been accused of harassment far worse than bullying. AskFM, where you could ask users anonymous questions, was blamed for a slew of teenage suicides in the UK and Italy back in its heyday in 2012. It eventually agreed to work more closely with the attorneys general in both New York and Maryland to address the bullying. It also promised to review complaints more frequently and to remove troublesome users.

YikYak, the now-defunct localized anonymous app that was popular in high schools and colleges, was also accused as a site for vicious bullying. There were reports that female students at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia were threatened with rape and murder on the app. Racist messages and threats of gun and bomb violence were also commonplace in other colleges in the country. Yik Yak did try to amend things by creating geo-fences and adding filters around certain keywords, but it eventually was so tainted by bad reputation, it died away.

“An anonymous app can certainly increase the ability of a ‘perpetrator’ to bully since their identity is protected by the app,” said Garcia on online bullying. “Social norms, such as politeness and respect, are kept in place when we feel connected to our communities, and our behaviors are kept ‘in line’ because people know who we are, and we know everyone else.”

“Adding an extra layer of anonymity further diminishes expected social norms, and can allow bullying to occur more readily,” she added. “The social consequence of facing a person who one has bullied is essentially removed.”

Apps like these can be a good thing, however, according to Garcia. “Anonymous apps carry benefits in that they allow for safe spaces to be created, for youth to present questions and ideas to others that they may otherwise feel ashamed or embarrassed about,” she said. “However, in order to ensure that the space remains ‘safe,’ barriers to bullying behavior need to be set in place and the app itself needs to create a culture of respect, support and growth.”

“Being able to just block someone is not enough,” said Garcia. “The language of the site, who it partners with, how it advertises itself, the user experience… all of these and more need to create a culture that is anti-bully and pro-community building in order for an anonymous app to benefit.”

When asked about the steps Sarahah has taken to combat online bullying, Tawfiq provided a statement that said that the company takes the issue very seriously and had introduced several measures to address the challenge, such as the ability to block and report users and the introduction of certain word filters, which Tawfiq wouldn’t divulge. “We also monitor people’s responses on social networks and take that into consideration,” he said. He didn’t want to give full details of the measures, as he said that would lead to misuse.

Tawfiq has also made it possible for certain users to be verified with a checkmark, in order to limit impersonation. Right now, verification is done by simply seeing if the user is also verified on Facebook and Twitter. Tawfiq says that some verified users are simply those whom he knows in real life. “We’re still planning to set up a process,” he adds. “We want to follow regulations when requesting proof of identity.”

He adds that he hopes to prevent bullying by creating an environment of positivity. “On every user page, there’s a message that says ‘Leave a constructive feedback’ with a smiley face,” he said. “We try to foster a positive environment so that users will use it in a positive way.”

As far as what the future holds, Tawfiq is hopeful. “We want Sarahah to be a reliable trusted platform for self-development and constructive feedback,” he said. Now if only its users feel the same as well.

Moto’s chunky gamepad arrives August 25th

Motorola has announced the release date and price of its gamepad Moto Mod. On sale August 25th, the attachment costs $80 and is only available through Verizon.

The gamepad has dual control sticks, a D-pad, four physical action buttons and shoulder buttons. It also packs a 1035mAh battery that the company claims can give your phone up to eight hours of additional charge. Because it connects directly to the phone and not through Bluetooth, users shouldn’t experience any gaming lag and it’s compatible with the Moto Z line of phones including the Moto Z2 Force and Z2 Play. However, at approximately nine inches wide and an inch deep, it’s a little on the bulky side.

Motorola also just recently launched its $300 360-degree camera mod and is working on an Alexa mod. Other planned attachments include a battery extender, a charging adapter for mods and a wireless charging back.

The gamepad is available for preorder through Verizon now.

Via: The Verge

Source: Verizon

Car ownership could decline thanks to Uber and Lyft

While it may seem logical that people will own fewer cars as ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber gain more traction, there hasn’t been a way to study any potential effect. Then Uber and Lyft left Austin, Texas for about a year. A group of researchers from University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and Columbia University found that the presence of ride-sharing companies can change car ownership behavior, which could eventually lead to fewer personal cars in the future.

41 percent of those surveyed used their own cars to get around, while nine percent bought a car to cover Lyft and Uber’s absence. Only three percent took public transit while 42 percent of respondents went with local ride sharing companies that filled the gap while Lyft and Uber were gone. Austin residents didn’t rush to sell of their personal automobiles when the companies returned to the city, of course, but the study shows that personal car ownership could actually decrease as ride-sharing and autonomous vehicle usage increases.

Via: The Verge

Source: Reuters

Gnarbox turns your phone into a 4K video editing studio

It’s an overcast day in San Francisco, and there’s a drone buzzing high above the city. I’m with Tim Feess, the young co-founder of Gnarbox: a rugged portable video editing tool that pairs with an app on your phone and works with multiple cameras and memory cards. Clouds might be lingering over the skyline, but Feess is unperturbed. He’s confident that we can make a video of our afternoon that I’d not only be pleased with, but would find a cinch to create. He brings the drone down and we decide to find a more colorful spot to fly.

The promise is simple: a mobile video editing device that would handle video from multiple sources (DSLR/GoPro/drones etc) and offload all the hard work — like handling 4K video editing — from your phone, but keep the simplicity of an app. It was popular enough to earn Gnarbox over $500,000 (from nearly 3,000 backers) on Kickstarter. That was two years ago though, and mobile video editing has come a long way since. Perhaps the real question is whether that promise is still relevant in 2017?

In the past, video editing was something you consciously “did.” You opened a dedicated application, probably on your desktop, and got to work. Once you were done, you exported your project, closed the app, and sent your video wherever it was going (Vimeo, YouTube, to a client, physical media etc.). Now, there’s a generation for whom video editing is more about deciding what filter to use, and how many emojis to add to an Instagram story. The app this latter group are using is probably the same social network they are posting it to.

Gnarbox (yes, that name probably seemed a good idea at the time) helps both these groups achieve their goal. Inside the small, rugged black box is a mini PC with its own (1.9GHz, quad-core) processors, a dedicated GPU, 128GB storage, WiFi, two SD card slots (full-sized and micro) and three USB ports. There’s no display — just two feedback LEDs — but that’s where your phone comes in.

In the app, you’ll see every video currently on the Gnarbox, browsable by device (internal storage, memory card, USB drive and so on). All the video previews and edits you do on the phone are really happening on the Gnarbox — but it feels as if all the files are right there on your handset. Making edits is simple: just swipe down when you want to set a start point, repeat for the end point and then swipe up to send that “clip” to your reel. Repeat, add color adjustment and other effects, re-order to your liking, add music and export. You can now switch your phone off — the exporting and encoding also happens on the Gnarbox.

Feess hopes that the ability to handle 4K video and RAW images will entice pro users and that the app-based interface and ease of use will appeal to serious mobile/social video producers. At $299, the proposition definitely needs to have some sort of return, whether that’s a stunning snowboarding edit uploaded to a client right on the mountain, or a “how did they do that” cut live from back stage (in the influencer VIP, not real VIP area) at Coachella.

I’m neither on a mountain or at a huge music festival. By now we’re crossing the Golden Gate bridge, and I’m recording the traverse with my GoPro hanging out the car window. We briefly stop at a viewing point crowded with tourists, before heading to the only beach nearby that AirMap says we can launch the drone on. Essentially, we’re condensing what those Golden Gate happy-snappers might do over a few days into an afternoon.

The rugged coastline of the northern peninsula makes for some dramatic shots and a good contrast to the brick-and-mortar maze of the San Francisco skyline. With all our shots in the bag, Feess wants me to make an edit, without him guiding me. He goes to put some kit back in the car, while I sit on a bench and tinker with the app.

Gnarbox has about seven staff right now, but to look at the app you’d think the team was bigger. It’s not quite as polished as iMovie on iOS (which edits 4K, but not easily from multiple sources), nor does it quite have the flow of something like GoPro’s Quik. But the guts are there, and Gnarbox is improving the app almost weekly.

Sometimes I go to drag a clip with my finger and it sticks where it is, or I tap “back” and end up somewhere I wasn’t expecting. But accomplishing my edit isn’t hard, and the video I end up with isn’t bad for 10 minutes and no real agenda in mind. (you can see it below).

One thing I do notice is that my (already not great) phone’s battery is slipping away faster than normal. A common problem with WiFi-based accessories. The Gnarbox also gets a little warm to touch. Feess assures me this is how you know it’s working, and that the heatsink is right under the housing; it’s never too hot. There’s also a slight hiccup at the end while we try and export the video from the box to my phone. This takes a few attempts, but we eventually get it to work. I’m on Android, and perhaps my phone is too full. After I delete some files, the transfer goes ahead.

It’s one thing that a product works, but it’s another that it solves a real problem that people have. I can see how this would be useful for certain pro video producers. Those that find themselves out in the field and don’t want to bust out a laptop. I can also see that less demanding users might appreciate the ability to work fast with their files. It does double-duty as a hard back up for one. Skaters that shoot in 4K, but want an edit for sharing right away, for example, have everything they need here.

Then there’s me. I have drones and a few GoPros. I take them out often, and then, well, usually nothing happens after that. The files sit on the memory card until once every few months I have a spurt of creative motivation and at least get as far as transferring them to my PC. I can easily see how a Gnarbox would go some way to dissolving that invisible wall between my camera and my hard drive. A problem GoPro, in particular, has been trying to solve for a long time — culminating in QuikStories and its auto editing feature. GoPro’s going after the most casual user though; Gnarbox is hoping to lure in heavier users.

In the few weeks since Gnarbox has been on the shelves, the user experience has improved dramatically. The number of firmware updates since that launch suggests that Gnarbox is following the Valley habit of shipping something that works now, and build on it from there. It’s a risky strategy, but with smaller companies like Feess’, it’s easier to be nimble.

The very first time I used Gnarbox (immediately after launch a month or so ago) I hit one roadblock and quietly put it back in a drawer. After today, I can see this being something I reach for every time I head out with a camera. Even more so once key features, like using videos recorded with your phone, are added (you can do it right now, but it’s a workaround).

For me, though, the best feature of products like this is the inspiration it stirs. Between my GoPro, phone and drone I have enough lightweight gear to record vacations and day trips in ways not imaginable just a few years ago, but I rarely get that far. While adding another $299 piece of kit to that might mean more outlay, and one more thing to charge, if it results in me actually doing something with those videos — and it really feels like it might — then that spend suddenly seems like a pretty decent investment.

Source: Gnarbox

Netflix takes on JFK in ‘The Crown’ season two December 8th

Netflix has announced the premiere date for season two of The Crown — December 8th — and has released the season’s first trailer. The season begins with the British army fighting an illegal war in Egypt and ends with a scandal that takes down Queen Elizabeth II’s third prime minister.

This will be Claire Foy’s last season playing the queen as the series plans to use different actors throughout the six-decade storyline that it aims to cover. Michael C. Hall and Jodi Balfour are new faces this time around, depicting John F. Kennedy and wife Jackie. Matthew Goode is also a new addition and he plays Princess Margaret’s husband Antony Armstrong-Jones, aka Lord Snowdon.

The first season of The Crown won two Golden Globes and two SAG awards and has been nominated for 13 Emmys including outstanding cast, outstanding drama series and lead actress in a drama series.

You can check out the season two trailer below.

Source: Hollywood Reporter, Netflix

‘Are Aligned’ turns VR into a party game anyone can enjoy

There’s no doubt that VR can be an isolating experience. When you’ve got a headset and headphones on, you’re effectively blocked out from the world. That’s something developer Danny Dang wants to fix with Are Aligned, a virtual reality party game he developed during Viacom Next’s Music + VR Fellowship. He’s hoping to recapture the magic of a party mainstay like Twister by merging together VR with a game anyone can hop into on a whim.

The concept is simple: One player wears an HTC Vive, while up to four others hold plastic balls in different colors (which contain small Vive Tracker accessories). The person in the Vive, who can see where all of those players are in VR, then has to direct everyone to place their toy balls in specific locations, represented by large floating orbs in virtual space. As you can imagine, hilarity ensues.

Like any great party game, Are Aligned is all about communication. The VR wearer has to be incredibly clear about where everyone needs to go; just pointing people to a specific spot isn’t enough. Meanwhile, the players have to pay attention to all of the instructions, hold their toys in place, and avoid colliding with each other. It never gets to a point where you have to balance your limbs precariously, like Twister, but there is plenty of running around, especially when the key location ends up in an odd spot, like along a floor.

Are Aligned shares something else with beloved party games: It’s incredibly easy to pick up. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of things when you’re the VR lead, but for everyone else, it’s just a matter of holding their toy balls and following instructions. I saw several groups run through the game while having a blast during Viacom’s demo day, with little downtime to learn the ropes.

During my own play-through, I was struck by just how polished the game was. Its graphics were simplistic, but clear enough for me to understand what I needed to do while wearing the VR headset. It also handled motion tracking very well; it’s a great example of the unique experiences developers can build with HTC’s Vive Tracker. On the non-VR side, I thought it was clever how the plastic ball mould housed the tracker. It feels like a toy, not a piece of high-tech equipment, which is key to getting players comfortable with the game.

As he was developing the game, Dang says he learned to kill his darlings. “Don’t settle for the first working version,” he said during his demo presentation. “Keep pushing until it breaks, then bring it back.” The game’s polish came from plenty of experimenting. Originally, he had the non-VR players where wrist straps that held the Vive Trackers, but he quickly realized that was a bit cumbersome. It made more sense to make the trackers more toy-like and approachable.

Looking ahead, Dang doesn’t have any plans to release the game publicly. The game’s audience is fairly small at the moment, since you’d need a Vive and several trackers to experience it. As it is, Are Aligned is an intriguing demo that shows off the potential for multiplayer VR to move out of headsets.

Snap is still struggling to add new users

Snap Inc just dropped its second-ever quarterly earnings report, and the picture is as bleak as expected. The young company continues to struggle to grow its pool of users, despite adding new features in the past few months like the Snap Map and launching its stable of original shows. Its revenue for the year is about $181 million, but overall it reported losses of about $193 million after taxes.

Just like it did last quarter, Snap added a measly percentage of new daily active users (DAU) — just 4 percent (or 7 million new users) this period compared to 5 percent (8 million new users) the first quarter of the year. Its total DAU now stands at 173 million, which is still a far cry from Instagram Stories’ 200 million users as of April this year.

It’s likely that Snapchat is seeing growth slow because of the aggressive copying of its features from rivals Instagram and Facebook. But a recent acquisition could prevent future ripoffs. Snap’s earnings call is happening in just 20 minutes, and we will update this post once we hear more about its plans for the rest of the year.

Source: Snap