Newton’s simple-is-better email app gets a calendar counterpart

The Newton app is a quality (if pricey) email client that offers simplicity on the surface and intelligence underneath, but it has at least one glaring flaw: that design philosophy doesn’t carry over when you need to check your schedule. The Android app had a calendar feature, but it was bolted on. You might not have to make that trade-off for much longer. The developer has introduced a separate Newton Calendar app for iOS, and it continues that less-is-more strategy while adding some thoughtful touches. Most notably, you don’t have to wade through the usual forms to add an event — you tap the date, type in the time and title and you’re set.

There’s also a helpful option to notify someone when you’re not going to arrive on time, and a schedule view (not entirely unique) to show when you have a free slot. And not surprisingly, the app will support both Google-based calendars (including Google Apps) and Microsoft’s Exchange.

Newton Calendar only exists in a preview form right now, but we’re told it should be widely available in the near future. And in case you’re wondering: yes, your $50 per year subscription for the full-featured email app will cover Calendar as well. That’s still a steep price, but it might be easier to swallow knowing that you’re getting two full-featured apps.

Source: Umesh Gopinath (Medium)

Apple Retail Stores Offering iPad Pro ‘Sketch Walks’ in Celebration of Urban Sketchers 10th Anniversary

Apple is offering a series of “sketch walks” hosted by well-known artists to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Urban Sketchers, a global community of artists that are dedicated to on-location drawing.

Many artists who are members of Urban Sketchers have adopted the iPad Pro as a drawing tool of choice, including Uma Kelkar from San Francisco, Rob Sketcherman from Hong Kong, Don Low from Singapore, and Omar Jamarillo from Berlin, all of whom will be teaching the sketching classes.

A member of Urban Sketchers for over four years, Rob has been creating artwork exclusively on iPad for just as long, and began drawing on iPad Pro in 2015 when it was introduced.

Rob says, “the flexibility [iPad Pro] offers fuels experimentation with line, texture and look, allowing any number of iterations. It’s also very forgiving, expelling all fear of the dreaded blank page and of potentially ‘ruining sketchbooks’ in case an experiment goes awry.”

All of the 10th anniversary sketch walks hosted by Urban Sketchers artists will take place on Thursday, November 30 at Apple retail locations around the world. Don Low will teach in Singapore, Rob Sketcherman will teach in Hong Kong, Uma Kelkar will teach in San Francisco, and Omar Jaramillo will teach in Berlin.

Celebrate the 10th anniversary of Urban Sketchers with artist Uma Kelkar, and explore how to free yourself from the notion of art as an exact science. She’ll demo her free-flowing process, which sets aside space, proportion, and even gravity to tell a complex story in unexpected ways. And you’ll practice sketching overlapping vignettes to tell your own unique story with iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.

Each class requires customers to bring an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil, along with comfortable shoes. Walks range from 0.5km to 2km.

Apple also offers several other classes dedicated to drawing and sketching on Apple devices, all of which are part of its “Today” program. The Today program allows Apple retail stores to offer classes on a wide range of subjects, providing help and instruction for customers of all skill levels.

Related Roundup: Apple StoresTags: Apple retail, Today at Apple
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Alleged ‘Fortnite’ hacker’s mom fights anti-cheating lawsuit

The fight against people cheating in online games is getting ugly. Specifically, Epic Games is suing 14 year-old Caleb Rogers for allegedly modding the game and causing the developer to lose profits from his activity in the free-to-play “Battle Royale” mode for Fortnite. Rogers’ mother filed a letter with North Carolina’s US District Court saying that Epic “has no capability of proving any form of modification” because her son merely installed cheats he downloaded from Addicted Cheats, versus altering the game’s source code himself.

The cheats in question were apparently aim-bots (similar to cheats Ubisoft has battled in The Division and Rainbow Six: Siege) that cost between $5 – $15 per month, according to Kotaku. The lawsuits began in October, but the age of one of Epic’s targets has only recently come to light. There are a few other wrinkles to that as well.

In the elder Rogers’ response letter (PDF), she writes that:

“Furthermore, Epic Games Inc. has released the defendants name publicly, therefore allowing news articles and different online publications to obtain his name and in turn release additional information. Referencing State of Delaware House Bill No. 64 it is illegal to release under age individuals’ personal information by any agencies.”

This, along with the fact that the gaming juggernaut is suing a 14 year-old, strongly suggests that Epic had no idea who it was suing. Rogers’ mom asserts that the game’s EULA states Fortnite should only be played by people who can enter “legally binding contracts under applicable law,” and failing that, need to obtain consent from an adult. Yet, there’s no age drop-down or consent tick-box on the form. She says her son never got her permission to play. Contract law generally prohibits entering into a business agreement with a minor, which would more or less make Epic’s claims null and void.

Torrent Freak notes that while the younger Rogers didn’t mod the source code himself, he did broadcast himself using the cheats on YouTube, showed others where to download them and then asked for donations from viewers. Epic pointed out that the video is key here, and led to the lawsuit in the first place. How’s that? Rogers apparently filed a DMCA counterclaim once YouTube took it down.

An Epic spokesperson told Engadget the following:

“This particular lawsuit arose as a result of the defendant filing a DMCA counterclaim to a takedown notice on a YouTube video that exposed and promoted Fortnite Battle Royale cheats and exploits. Under these circumstances, the law requires that we file suit or drop the claim.

Epic is not okay with ongoing cheating or copyright infringement from anyone at any age. As stated previously, we take cheating seriously, and we’ll pursue all available options to make sure our games are fun, fair, and competitive for players.”

Meanwhile, Epic potentially faces litigation from PUBG Corp over the similarities between PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite’s “Battle Royale” mode.

Via: kotaku

Source: Torrent Freak

Amazon’s latest toolkit helps you quickly create VR apps

Amazon probably isn’t the first company you think of when it comes to augmented or virtual reality (with a few exceptions), but it’s determined to change your mind. The internet giant has unveiled a developer service, Sumerian, that promises to simplify creating AR and VR apps — and general 3D apps, for that matter. You can drag-and-drop objects to quickly create 3D scenes, produce animated AI-driven characters (powered by AWS cloud services, naturally) and script interactions between the user and other objects.

When you’re done, you can package your apps for multiple big platforms. Sumerian-made code will run on any web browser that can handle WebGL or WebVR, but it’ll also play nicely with Google Daydream, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and iOS devices. Support for Android’s ARCore is coming soon, too.

This probably isn’t going to satisfy developers who have exacting needs (particularly game studios), but that’s not really the point. This is more about making AR and VR app creation easier for companies that don’t necessarily have the expertise and resources of a dedicated software developer. They can whip up a training space or a VR shopping helper without having to worry about code. It helps Amazon’s bottom line by driving people to AWS, of course, but it could also lead to seeing AR and VR in more places.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Amazon (1), (2)

The best audio gear to give as gifts

Maybe there’s an audiophile on your list, or maybe you’re shopping for someone who recently acquired a new phone and could use something better than the pack-in headphones. Either way, we have a slew of recommendations in the audio gear section of our holiday gift guide. On our list you’ll find smart speakers from Google and Amazon alike, along with Sonos, whose new “One” speaker includes Alexa built in, with Google Assistant support coming soon. When it comes to headphones, our selections run the gamut from the affordable (Jabra’s Move headset) to the high end (Bragi’s Dash Pro wireless earbuds and these noise cancelling headphones from Sony), with a couple mid-range options in between.

Rounding out the list, we have a soundbar, drum machine, synth app, the Amazon Echo Show and one of our favorite portable Bluetooth speakers. Find all that and many more items in our holiday gift guide, at the link below.

Source: Engadget Holiday Gift Guide 2017

Shell will build 80 high-power EV charging stations across Europe

This year, Royal Dutch Shell has put more of a focus on EVs, adding charging stations to a handful of its UK gas stations and acquiring NewMotion — a Netherlands-based company with 30,000 charging points to its name. Now, as Reuters reports, Shell has committed to building 80 high-power charging stations throughout Europe by 2019.

The plan is in partnership with IONITY — an EV-focused venture between BMW, Daimler, Ford, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche that was announced earlier this month. IONITY aims to launch 400 high-power charging stations across Europe by 2020.

For EVs that can handle a 350 kW charging rate, the high-power stations will be able to charge them in just five to eight minutes. Some of the major concerns that limit both how many people buy EVs and how far they’re willing to travel with them are long charging times, too few charging stations and battery limitations. Shell and IONITY’s charging station expansion begins to address those first two issues. As for the last one, carmakers like Porsche and Honda already have vehicles in the works that can take advantage of these high-power charging stations.

Shell’s 80 stations will be built in Belgium, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Via: Autoblog

Source: Reuters

HTC’s U11 is one of the first non-Google phones to get Android Oreo

Unless you have a Google-branded phone or are willing to jump into a beta test, you probably haven’t had an easy upgrade path to Android Oreo. However, it seems like they’re starting to trickle out: HTC is releasing an Oreo update for the unlocked U11 on November 26th (that’s today, if you’re reading this when it’s fresh). There’s no timetable for carrier-locked models just yet, but the company’s Mo Versi has promised that Sprint’s U11 will get a taste of Google’s cookie-branded OS “soon.”

The HTC 10, U Ultra and U11 Life are also in line for Oreo at an unspecified later point.

Oreo isn’t a gigantic update. Its most conspicuous improvements are a prioritized approach to notifications (and notification dots for app icons), picture-in-picture video, a redesigned Google “feed” and new emoji. Many of the big improvements are under the hood, such as a framework that separates third-party software from Android’s core and should streamline future OS upgrades.

Still, this gets the ball rolling on Oreo’s adoption beyond Pixel and Nexus devices. Just 0.3 percent of active Android devices are running Google’s latest and greatest as of this writing, which is lower than the percentage of people using Gingerbread — a version released in 2010. While HTC isn’t going to be as influential in expanding Oreo’s adoption as heavyweight rivals like Samsung, LG or Huawei, it could represent an important nudge in the right direction.

Via: The Verge

Source: Mo Versi (Twitter 1), (2)

SodaStream’s new concentrate lets you mix your own champagne

SodaStream has been inching its way into the adult beverage scene for a little while now and today the company announced that it’s launching its take on champagne. Sparkling Gold is a new concentrate from SodaStream that supposedly tastes like a fruity Riesling and when mixed by the recommended one part concentrate to five parts sparkling water, it contains 10 percent alcohol by volume. Each bottle has enough concentrate for up to 12 glasses of DIY sparkling wine.

Previously, the company also designed a smart SodaStream setup geared towards mixing a slew of cocktails and last year, it launched its Beer Bar that let users mix their own light beer. Most people will probably (rightly) be skeptical of sparkling wine-flavored syrup. But the company says that in taste tests, 76 percent of people said Sparkling Gold was good or very good while only 67 percent and 56 percent of tasters said the same of popular champagne brands Veuve Clicquot and Moet & Chandon, respectively.

Sparkling Gold will only be available through Germany’s SodaStream online store for a limited time. In a statement, SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum said, “Fun and exciting concentrates give more users the opportunity to enjoy and even indulge in festive beverages this holiday season… Cheers!”

Source: SodaStream

‘Black Mirror’ trailers preview episodes, leave out release date

Netflix continues to drive internet fans of the Black Mirror series crazy by releasing buzzy new trailers, while still not saying when we can actually watch the damn thing. The first one is for Arkangel, an episode directed by Oscar-winner Jodie Foster, showing the hazards trying too hard to protect your precious snowflakes. After a mother (Mad Men’s Rosemarie DeWitt) briefly loses her daughter, she elects to use a new type of tracking technology called “Arkangel” that, obviously, only makes things worse.

The other is called Crocodile, starring Deep State’s Kiran Sonia Sawar. Sawar is apparently a doctor trying to help a man dredge up memories of a car crash, seemingly with the help of a machine. “Memories can be subjective,” she tells him creepily. “They may not be totally accurate and they’re often emotional.”

In other words, the series looks to continue amp up the Outer Limits/Twilight Zone vibe that we all loved in the first three seasons, while posing some existential questions. “How do you exercise responsibility?” Arkangel producer Annabel Jones asked The Independent earlier this year. “How do you ensure you give your child independence in a world in which you can have a lot of control?”

So, we’re excited already, but when is Black Mirror’s fourth season actually going to drop? According to Netflix’s recent December programming list, it looks like it won’t come until next year. That means it might pop up around the same time as Amazon’s Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams anthology (January 12th, 2018), which would butt two similar shows against each other. Anyway, given Netflix’s recent flood of publicity, it’s hard to believe we won’t hear an announcement about the release date very soon.

Source: Netflix (1), (2)

Apple’s All-New Downtown Brooklyn Store Opens Next Weekend

Apple today announced that it is opening an all-new retail store in Downtown Brooklyn next weekend following several months of construction.

300 Ashland
The store is located in the new 300 Ashland building in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, with an official address of 123 Flatbush Avenue. The grand opening will occur Saturday, December 2 at 10:00 a.m. local time.

The store will be Apple’s second in Brooklyn alongside its Williamsburg location opened in July 2016. It will also be Apple’s 11th store in New York City, with seven locations in Manhattan, one in Queens, and one on Staten Island.

The store is situated near the LIRR’s Atlantic Terminal and Barclays Center, home to the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the NHL’s New York Islanders.

Apple has also announced that its store in the Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo has temporarily closed for renovations. Apple recommends customers visit its nearby Omotesando store during the modernization process.

In related news, Japanese blog Mac Otakara claims that Apple is planning to open a store in Kyoto, Japan by 2019, and possibly two other stores in Tokyo in time for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in the city.

Apple Downtown Brooklyn is the company’s 499th retail store location around the world if the new Visitors Center at Apple Park is included.

Related Roundup: Apple StoresTags: Japan, New York City
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