Catch up on Telltale’s ‘The Walking Dead’ in a $50 console bundle

Telltale Games’ much-lauded graphic adventure series The Walking Dead is coming to a close next year with its final season dropping sometime in Q2 2018. But to help console players catch up, the studio is releasing a $50 bundle on December 5th for PS4 and Xbox One that collects all the content released thus far.

The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series Collection will include the game’s first three seasons, plus the 400 Days anthology and the Michonne miniseries. The visuals will be getting a facelift, too, sprucing up graphics for a series that started back in April 2012. The collection will be available for physical release and digital download.

Here’s a first look at the enhanced visuals in #TheWalkingDead Collection for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Prepare for the end on December 5! pic.twitter.com/C1opZykqzZ

— Telltale Games (@telltalegames) November 1, 2017

Via: Polygon, Gamasutra

Source: Telltale Games

Google will no longer offer its flight price data to other sites

Google is getting serious about its role as a travel service. Come April 10, 2018 the search giant will shut down access to its QPX Express API that’s used by the likes of Kayak and Orbitz for airfare data, as spotted by Hacker News. This could seriously affect those sites’ customers. Travel listings are one thing, but if you’ve stored a ton of reward points with one and it isn’t able to fetch flight times and prices for your a trip next summer, that could cause some headaches.

As The Verge and TechCrunch note, there are data alternatives for travel websites including Fareportal and Skypicker. TechCrunch reports that Google is also closing down ITA’s flight-search app as of next month. Mountain View recently launched its Trips app as a way to gather all your travel data from Gmail and present it in a mobile-friendly way, so yeah, you could say this isn’t a passing interest for the company. Why? Well, mining travel data will give it another avenue for pushing ads your way.

At the same time, it’ll push people toward using Google’s own flight searches and tracking; it’s a move that’s good for Google and basically no one else. Five years ago, Google bought ITA Software, the company behind an airfare search system known as QPX, which is used by Bing Travel and CheapTickets, and airlines including American and United. At the time the Department of Justice approved the acquisition under the condition that Google would keep the API public for five years. That five years is now over.

Via: Hacker News, TechCrunch

Source: Google

iPhone X Predicted to ‘Absorb’ Up to $30B in Holiday Spending at Expense of Other Retailers

High demand for the iPhone X will drive an upgrade “supercycle” this holiday season that could see shoppers spending the bulk of their holiday cash at Apple Stores, according to a note from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty (via Business Insider).

Given the high price of the iPhone X, which starts at $999, the iPhone X could “absorb” $30 billion of discretionary spending during the holidays, impacting other retailers. Huberty believes customers will be drawn to all of the new features in the iPhone X, and will reduce spending in other categories in order to afford the device.

“Apparel is a wallet share donor to other categories, with cell phones/technology and services being two of them. We see this upgrade supercycle coupled with the very high $999 iPhone X average selling price as a significant headwind to Specialty Retailers and Department stores in the fourth quarter.”

After spending upwards of a thousand dollars on a phone, Huberty believes customers will be left thinking things like “‘I just bought a $1,000 phone last month, I don’t really need another pair of jeans.’”

Combined, Huberty believes iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus could take approximately $52.6 billion of spending away from other categories this holiday season. Given the limited supply of the iPhone X, other retailers could be impacted by sales of the device well into 2018 as Apple works to reach supply/demand balance.

Apple has not provided insight into iPhone X sales thus far, but the company has said demand for the new device, which sold out in just a few minutes after pre-orders went live, is “off the charts.”

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Apple Voices Support for Lawsuit Challenging Trump’s Decision to End DACA

Apple this afternoon joined several other tech companies to support a lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Xavier Bercerra aiming to block the withdrawal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which United States President Donald Trump said would be phased out over the course of the next six months.

Apple employs more than 250 DACA holders or “Dreamers” across 28 states, Apple VP of People Deidre O’Brien said in the company’s filing, shared by Axios.

These talented and entrepreneurial people fill important and varied roles across the company, including in operations, research and development, administration, sales and marketing, and retail. Apple and its customers have benefitted greatly from their intelligence, ambition, creativity, resilience, and hard work. These employees are important contributors to Apple’s unique culture. That unique culture enables employees throughout Apple to do the best work of their lives and excel at creating the most innovative products and providing the very best customer service.

Along with Apple, many other tech companies filed briefs in support of the legal challenge to prevent the end of DACA, including Microsoft, Google, IBM, Twitter, Salesforce, Dropbox, eBay, HP, LinkedIn, Reddit, PayPal, and more.

Following Trump’s decision to phase out DACA, Cook sent an email to Apple employees pledging the company’s support. Cook promised Apple would work with members of Congress to advocate for a legislative solution that will continue to protect the children of immigrants, and he said Apple is working with impacted Apple employees to provide support, including access to immigration experts.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Discuss this article in our forums

Razer Phone hands-on: a phone for gamers, and everyone

What happens when a gaming computer company buys a smartphone company? They make a gaming phone, right? Not quite! Razer bought Nextbit earlier this year, and today the company has released its first smartphone. It’s not a gaming phone, but it is a phone made for gamers. We went hands-on with the Razer Phone and here’s what it was like.

What’s the difference between a gaming phone and a phone made for gamers? According to Razer, it’s designed for anyone who wants a pure Android experience with the latest hardware, but it’s also got several tweaks that make it the best smartphone for hardcore gamers.

At an exclusive briefing in San Francisco, we spent a little time with the Razer Phone. The video above is brought to you by Joshua Vergara while I, Nirave Gondhia, have put my initial impressions together below.

We’ll kick things off with the design, where the Razer Phone takes cues from the Nextbit Robin, but adds its own flair. The Robin’s signature circular motif is present in the buttons on the side, and the front of the phone is reminiscent of the Robin as well. To add their own flair, Razer opted for a black finish on the rear, as well as green icons, giving the phone a look in keeping with other Razer products. There’s also an exclusive launch colorway comprising a black finish with a green Razer logo, that’s available for a limited time only.

The rest of the design is rather straightforward. The phone’s 16:9 display is flanked by dual front-facing stereo speakers, each with their own dedicated amplifier. These speakers use the same grille design found in Razer laptops and are designed to provide consistency and coherency between the company’s product ranges.

Like Razer’s laptops, the Razer Phone uses the best technology to offer high performance. The Razer Phone specs include a 5.7-inch QHD IPS Sharp IGZO display which is the same type of IPS LED found in the company’s laptop range.

The display is where the magic of the Razer Phone starts to happen. It incorporates two key pieces of technology from Razer’s computer range. The first is the key reason behind using the IGZO display: the Razer Phone is the first smartphone to offer a variable refresh rate of up to 120 Hz.

> 120Hz adaptive displays: are they the future or just a gimmick?

The second is Ultra Motion, which is the mobile version of NVIDIA’s Gsync feature for desktop computers. This allows the GPU to synchronize with the refresh rate and instruct the display when to render a new frame. This should make the phone great for gaming and it also means the Razer Phone offers the silkiest scrolling we’ve seen on an Android phone.

The phone also comes with a handy counter on the screen to display the current refresh rate. Its position is a little weird, but it can be disabled if needed (it might have been better in the status bar). During our brief time with it, we saw the refresh rate range from 10 Hz on the home screen all the way to 121 Hz while gaming and the result was always a fantastic experience.

120 Hz is a new feature for smartphone displays, and as a result, not all games will support the higher refresh rate. Game developers have the option to cap the refresh rate to support all displays, and for these games, the Razer Phone will only run them at their max refresh rate. The company is working with select developers to optimize popular games such as Shadowgun, Arena of Valor and Final Fantasy XV Mobile Edition to use the full 120 Hz refresh rate available on the display.

A great display experience is often let down by a sub-par audio experience, but the Razer Phone takes a different approach. The phone comes equipped with Dolby Atmos for Mobile and I think the speakers are incredible. At higher volumes, there is no distortion and the overall audio experience is simply fantastic. Granted this is just a first impression, but I left wanting this on all smartphones.

Like other 2017 flagships, the Razer Phone doesn’t come with a headphone jack, but a USB-C audio adapter that includes a THX-certified 24-bit DAC is included in the box. For those who would rather not use an adapter, Razer isn’t including headphones in the box, but will offer standalone Hammerhead USB-C headphones with a 24-bit DAC that are available for purchase separately at a cost of $79.99.

The Razer Phone is powered by a flagship specs list that includes a Snapdragon 835 processor, Adreno 540 GPU, 64 GB of expandable storage (with adoptive storage for the microSD card) and 8 GB of RAM. The Razer Phone makes all 8 GB usable by the user, unlike other devices, which tend to reserve a percentage of RAM for system processes. The processor can also be overclocked above the out-of-the-box speed, for those who want to really push this phone to its limits.

The whole package is powered by a monster 4,000 mAh battery, coupled with software optimization, which promises to keep you powered for days. The optimizations include clocking down the frame rate on the home screen depending on your usage. While we weren’t able to test the battery life, the capacity is certainly on the higher side of flagship devices and we’d expect this to last for much longer than others, especially when gaming.

There’s also an internal heat pipe that helps to keep the thermal temperature lower when gaming and Razer claims this phone has the best thermals at high performance of any Snapdragon 835-powered smartphone. It’s a bold claim and while we haven’t been able to test it, it’s definitely one we’ll be addressing in our full review. The phone comes with a large 24-watt charger, it the first smartphone to support Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0+.

Like most modern flagships, the Razer Phone comes with dual 12 MP rear cameras; one wide and one telephoto. The wide-angle lens comes with f/1.75 aperture while the telephoto lens offers f/2.6 aperture. Both lenses come with Phase Detection Autofocus and there’s also a dual-tone LED flash. We weren’t really able to test the camera but we’ll bring you a full look in our upcoming review.

On the software front, the Razer Phone runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with a planned upgrade to Oreo set to land in spring 2018. Considering the past history of updates from Nextbit, it’s not surprising that the Razer Phone isn’t running the latest Android OS, but we’re hoping the update won’t be too far behind.

That said, the phone runs as close to stock Android as possible with a few customizations to make the most of the unique hardware. These include the ability to set a frame rate cap of 60, 90 or 120 Hz as well as change the display resolution to 720p, 1080p or the full QHD. There’s also a Game Booster app that lets you customize the frame rate, resolution and processor clock speed on a per-app basis so you can fully tweak the experience for each of your favorite apps without making global changes that affect the overall experience.

The biggest software change is a partnership with popular launcher Nova. The Razer Phone comes with the premium version of Nova Launcher preloaded free of charge, and Razer has tweaked the experience for its phone. This version of Nova Launcher comes with Google Assistant and the Google Now home page built in.

Razer also plans to launch a new theme store that brings more customization than traditional themes. Once launched, the new themes will allow designers to customize the dialer, icons, quick settings, wallpaper, ringtones, notification settings, calculator, clock, icon packs and all the default preloaded non-Google apps. The theme store can also apply themes to Nova launcher.

I’m not much of a gamer, but the Razer Phone has definitely caught my attention. From my limited experience, I’ve seen how mobile gaming can often stutter and provide a somewhat jarring experience.The Razer Phone seems to make this a thing of the past. Indeed, gaming with the Razer Phone reminds me of the smooth experience offered by my console of choice (the Xbox One S).

The variable refresh rate ensures a super smooth experience and this is a feature I’d love to see on every Android smartphone.

Razer says this is a phone made for gamers— not a gaming phone— and it shows. The company also says this could be the ultimate phone for landscape use, which often involves media, and given the spec list and overall experience, I’d have to agree. The display is sharp. The audio is incredible. That 4,000 mAh battery with USB-C Power Delivery will likely go a long way to ensuring you’ve always got a charge. More than anything, the variable refresh rate ensures a super smooth experience with no dropped frames. This is a feature I’d love to see on every Android smartphone.

Of course, an hour with a smartphone isn’t enough to truly understand its unique quirks but this brief time with the Razer Phone has left me wanting more— a lot more, in fact. In a year when a lot of smartphones have become homogenous, the Razer Phone stands out for sticking to its guns and absolutely nailing the areas that Razer set out to conquer. The result is arguably one of the best newcomers to the Android smartphone space in a long time.

In a year when a lot of smartphones have become homogenous, the Razer Phone stands out for sticking to its guns. The result is arguably one of the best newcomers to the Android smartphone space in a long time!

Stay tuned for a full review of the Razer Phone in the coming weeks but in the meantime, what did you think of the Razer Phone? Do you plan to buy one? Is a variable refresh rate, excellent audio, flagship internals and large battery enough to convince you to buy this phone? Are you a Razer laptop user? If so, would you buy this phone for gaming? Let us know your views in the comments below!

Sonos promises Alexa-powered Spotify controls by December 21st

Sonos made a big hubbub about its first voice-controlled speaker a few weeks ago, which makes the Sonos One not having Alexa support for Spotify out of the box all the more suspect. That will change by December 21st as the speaker company says it will push an update enabling “full voice support” for Amazon’s digital assistant before the self-imposed deadline. Meaning, it could be around seven weeks longer before your free Echo Dot will take advantage of everything a Sonos speaker can offer. It isn’t clear if this is the timeline for Alexa control on older Sonos speakers. At the moment, you can only start music with either the Sonos or Spotify apps. Oh well; this is the future we live in. The update should be out in time for your winter solstice playlist, at least.

Via: The Verge

Source: Sonos

Spider silk could be the secret ingredient behind next-gen hearing aids

Why it matters to you

Two billion microphones are sold each year. Technology that utilizes spider silk could help make them way more accurate.

It may sound like something out of the  straight out of a Spider-Man comic, but researchers at New York’s Binghamton University have found that spider silk can help improve the quality of microphones for hearing aids and other devices.

Ultra-sensitive spider silk is capable of picking up the velocity of air instead of just its pressure. Because it is so thin, it can move with the air when hit by soundwaves, receiving infrasound at frequencies as low as just 3 hertz. To put that in perspective, it’s like hearing tectonic plates moving during an earthquake. The spider silk could actually be so good for hearing that spiders use it, when spun into webs, for listening to what is taking place around them.

The Binghamton researchers have found a way to translate this ability to pick up the direction of airflow into an electronic signal that can be used in microphones. This involves coating the spider silk with gold, and then placing it in a magnetic field to obtain an electronic signal — thereby making it into a makeshift microphone that can operate across an impressive range of frequencies.

“This provides an alternate way to make microphones that will enable directional microphones to be incorporated in hearing aids and other small devices, that will sound dramatically better than those that exist today,” Ronald Miles, a professor in Binghampton’s department of mechanical engineering, told Digital Trends. “Today’s miniature directional microphones sound bad because their response varies strongly with frequency. They tend to lose low-frequency sounds and respond mostly to very high-frequency sounds. Our technology will enable the creation of directional microphones that have audiophile quality. We’ve shown that their frequency response is flat from 1 Hz to 50 kHz. This has not been possible until now.”

While it’s still a work in progress, the researchers have already built prototypes and made recordings to show that their web-based technology works effectively. According to Miles, the tech could be incorporated into any system that uses small microphones, such as hearing aids, cell phones, and computers. Since around 2 billion microphones are sold each year, and nearly all portable electronic gadgets contain one or more, this could turn out to be a major development. A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Between this work, its application in helping nerves regrow after damage, and its role as super-strong shields, spider silk may well have our pick as 2017’s most exciting material.

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How to take the perfect Portrait Mode selfie with the iPhone X

Why it matters to you

Avid selfie artist? You may want to check out the iPhone X, because you can use Portrait Mode with the selfie camera.

With each new iPhone release comes excitement about the updated camera. This year’s iPhone X does not disappoint, and it introduces something new over the still fresh iPhone 8 Plus — Portrait Mode on the selfie camera.

Portrait Mode, first released on the iPhone 7 Plus, is a camera feature that blurs the background of a subject, for a DSLR-like photograph. With the iPhone 8 Plus, Apple debuted Portrait Lighting, which added an extra layer on Portrait Mode, allowing people to mimic studio lighting.  With the iPhone X, you can now do all of that on the selfie and rear cameras.

We should note, it’s not quite the same. In our initial tests, we’ve found it’s not as good as the rear camera — it blurs edges of hair a lot more frequently than Portrait Mode on the rear camera. The selfie camera on the iPhone X takes advantage of the same 3D mapping and depth-sensing technology utilized by Face ID, which unlocks your phone after recognizing your face.

While some photos may be a little blurry or feathered around the subject, the photos definitely look more professional than your average selfie.

Taking a Portrait-Mode Selfie

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

To open the camera on the iPhone X, you can either open the camera app, or swipe down from the top of the screen for the Notification Center and swipe left. Once you have the camera app open, you need to select the front-facing camera by selecting the icon at the bottom right corner of the screen.

Tap Portrait, and now you can press and hold the scroll-wheel to choose a Portrait Lighting effect. Your options are studio light, contour light, stage light and stage light mono. Each of the lighting options in portrait mode affects both the subject and the background. When you’ve selected the one you want, tap the shutter icon.

Getting the perfect iPhone X Portrait Mode selfie will take a little time and patience. Lighting conditions and backgrounds can make a huge difference. Luckily, you can edit the photo in the Photos app to try different lighting filters, or turn off Portrait Mode completely.

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Cricket Wireless has two sub-$50 phones: ZTE Overture 3 and Alcatel QuickFlip

Why it matters to you

Looking for a super-cheap phone? Cricket Wireless’ new phones will be in your price range.

Cricket Wireless is making it a little easier to get a decent phone at an ultra-low cost. The company has announced two new phones available on its network — the ZTE Overture 3 and the Alcatel QuickFlip, two phones that come in at under $50.

As the name suggests the Alcatel QuickFlip is actually a flip phone — and as such it’s really targeted at being someone’s first phone or at those looking to have a simple device they can use to call and text friends and family. It offers a 2.8-inch display and 4G connectivity, along with a 1,350mAh battery — which may not sound like much, but should be enough to power your phone for quite a while, given its size.

Perhaps more interesting is the new ZTE Overture 3, which comes in at $50 and, unlike the QuickFlip, has a smartphone form-factor. Cricket Wireless is actually offering the phone to free for those that switch from another carrier — though current customers can get it for the aforementioned price of $50.

So what does the Overture 3 have to offer? Well, it offers a 5-inch display, along with a five-megapixel rear-facing camera, and HD Voice capabilities. It also has support for an FM radio. Apart from that, however, we don’t really know too much about the phone, except that it will be available on November 10 and that it seems to be a pretty decent choice for those looking for an ultra-budget device. There aren’t a ton of devices available for under $50, but as companies expand their offerings into new markets, we are seeing more super-cheap phones.

Of course, if you do like the phone, you have to either be on Cricket Wireless or be willing to make the switch. Thankfully, Cricket has some pretty decent prepaid plans. For example, you could pay $30 per month for unlimited talk and text and 1GB of data, or you could pay double that for unlimited talk, text, and data. That is not bad, especially when the likes of Verizon offer unlimited data for $75 per month, or $85 if you don’t want the company to limit your speed in times of high congestion. If you want other phones on Cricket Wireless, the company recently announced that it’s offering the ZTE Blade X.

In any case, both of the phones will be available from Cricket Wireless starting on November 10. The QuickFlip will cost $30, while the Overture 3 comes in at $50.

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Focos gives dual lens iPhones post focus effects, custom bokeh — for free

Why it matters to you

While dual-lens iPhones have background blur options built-in, Focos allows users to customize the effect or refocus after the shot is taken.

The Portrait Mode on dual-camera iPhones brought that DSLR-like background blur to smartphones but there is a whole lot more you can do with two lenses. Focos is a free iOS app for dual- camera iPhones, including the 7 Plus, 8 Plus and X, that expands that Portrait Mode with custom effects and even the ability to refocus the shot after you take it. The app launched on Tuesday, October 31.

Developer by Xiaodong Wang, the same developer that created MaxCurve and Colorburn, Focos takes the data from those two separate lenses and gives iPhone users more than just some background blur. The tool works with existing photos shot through the native camera app’s portrait mode, along with offering a camera in the app itself for more features.

The app allows users to customize the look of that bokeh, including a dozen different shapes to turn out-of-focus light into besides just a circle, an effect similar to a DIY method of cutting out a shape and placing it over a DSLR lens. Along with giving that bokeh some shape, photographers can choose to create a swirly bokeh instead, imitating another technique that can also be created with the right DSLR lens, along with more choices like “creamy” and “bilinear.”

While the customizable depth-of-field is nice on its own, the depth map opens more possibilities inside of Focos. The app also allows photographers to adjust the focus after the fact thanks to that depth map. A bad focus is one of the factors that traditionally cannot be edited with software, but recent techniques to over capture the scene at multiple focal points brings the feature outside of light field cameras, including several Panasonic cameras. Apple themselves patented the feature back in 2015 but have not integrated the option into the native camera app.

The depth information from those two lenses also opens up new filters in Focos, including weather-themed options to make it look like the image was shot in the rain, snow or fog. The app also integrates video tutorials to show users how to access all those features.

Focos is now available as a free download from the App Store for dual-camera devices with iOS 11 or later.

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