Warner Bros. is making its own Harry Potter mobile game

Hogwarts is officially going mobile. From next year, Potterheads — and muggles, should they wish — will be able to create their own characters and experience life as a Hogwarts student in officially-licensed game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. As a witch or wizard you’ll progress through school years just like Harry et al, participating in the magical classes such as Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions, with Hogwarts’ iconic professors at the helm.

There’s been no shortage of Potter-themed games on the market (including Niantic’s augmented reality take) but this is the first that comes with Warner Bros’ official seal of approval. It’ll launch under the company’s Portkey Games label, which is dedicated to games inspired by JK Rowling’s magical wizarding world. The game no doubt comes as a result of huge, sustained demand from the fandom, which makes no secret of its stickler for canon, so the game creators have got their work cut out for them. It’ll be available next year (date TBC) on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon Appstore.

Less than 1 percent of Android phones are running Oreo

Android fragmentation! It’s a problem as old as time itself. (Just kidding. But my gosh I’ve been writing about it for a long time.) Yesterday, Google released some fresh platform data explaining how many devices are running each version. Android 8.0, as you might expect, is struggling with a measly 0.5 percent share. Google’s latest Pixel phones run the software, but otherwise it’s hard to come by. There are some outliers, of course — the quietly impressive HTC U11, for instance — but most are still shipping with a variant of Android Nougat. Which is, well, hardly ideal for Google.

Android 7.0 and 7.1 have a combined share of 23.3 percent. Respectable, but still behind 6.0 Marshmallow (29.7 percent) and Android Lollipop (26.3 percent). The figures are hardly surprising, though, given Android’s messy ecosystem of carriers, phone manufacturers and chipset providers. The sheer number of models, combined with their ageing hardware, makes it difficult for companies to keep everything up to date. Most flagships get an upgrade or two, but the bulk of mid range and low-end handsets are abandoned as soon as they leave the factory. It’s this lack of support that ultimately slows firmware adoption and increases fragmentation.

Which is a shame, because Android Oreo (now on 8.1) is a solid update. Notifications are much improved and the picture-in-picture mode is useful if your phone has a large screen. There’s also “Project Treble,” a behind the scenes push to accelerate Android updates. It’s not a huge leap over Android Nougat, but it’s one everyone deserves to have when they buy a new phone. Fingers crossed more devices start shipping with it soon.

Source: developer.android.com

Nintendo has already sold over 10 million Switches

That didn’t take long: Nintendo has already sold over 10 million of its hybrid home/portable console, the Switch. If you’re keeping track at home, that’s roughly one million consoles sold every month since March. By comparison, Sony’s PlayStation 4 took around ten months to hit that number back in 2014. “This December in Japan we are planning to ship more units than ever before so that even more consumers can purchase and enjoy Nintendo Switch,” Nintendo said in a press release.

In October, Nintendo announced it expected Switch sales to beat out its predecessor’s sales (the Wii U) in the span of a year. And last month, the company said it’d start ramping up production to keep up with demand beginning next April. Need more evidence of the Switch’s popularity? Super Mario Odyssey apparently sold more than two million copies in three days. Yeah, it’s safe to say that Nintendo has its groove back.

Source: Nintendo

France gives ‘Make our Planet Great Again’ grants to US scientists

France has backed up statements that it’s willing to reward America’s climate researchers now that the US has backed out of the Paris global warming accord. President Emmanuel Macron handed out 13 of 18 “Make our Planet Great Again” grants worth millions of euros to US-based scientists. “You will now settle in, develop projects, enrich French, European research, because we’ve decided to give even bigger resources and to fully recognize what you are doing,” Macron said in a speech at Paris startup hub Station F.

The grants bear a name that’s an obvious joke on Trump’s “make America great again” jingoism, and Macron hasn’t been shy about saying that they’re a direct response to the Paris pullout. “The U.S. did sign the Paris Agreement,” he told CBS. “It’s extremely aggressive to decide on [your] own just to leave.”

Research from the first group of winning researchers will focus on clouds, hurricanes and pollution. France and German will jointly launch a new competition next year and fund around 50 projects to the tune of about €60 million (around $70 million).

Originally limited to US scientists, the competition was opened up to non-French researchers around the world, to the dismay of some French scientists. Macron has also been criticized by researchers who say the money could be better used for France’s state-funded higher education system.

Despite that, the recipients were elated. France’s grants “gave me such a psychological boost, to have that kind of support, to have the head of state saying I value what you do,” US winner Camille Parmesan told the AP. She’ll work in the Pyrenees mountains, studying how human-caused climate change influences wild animals.

Macron said that the Trump’s move at first caused consternation, but ended up energizing the movement. “It’s a deep wakeup call for the private sectors and some of us to say, ‘Wow, so we have to react,’ ” he said. “If we decide not to move and not change our way to produce, to invest, to behave, we will be responsible for billions of victims.”

Source: Reuters

Honda and Toyota are still backing Hydrogen fuel-cell cars

Toyota, Honda and Nissan are partnering with eight industrial firms to make a fresh push on hydrogen refuelling stations in Japan. The group wants to build 80 stations within the first four years of the partnership — which is expected to last a decade — with nine in operation by March 2018. The plan would nearly double the 91 stations currently in the country.

Japan’s carmakers have made big strides with fuel-cell cars in recent times. Toyota launched the Mirai, the first for the mass-market, in late 2014, while Nissan last year announced its plans to develop fuel-cell technology using plant-based ethanol. The problem, predictably, is cost. A Mirai car costs 6.7 million yen ($59,000), which is nearly double the price of a comparable electric car, while hydrogen stations can cost as much as 500 million yen ($4.4 million) to build. As such, there are only around 2,200 fuel-cell cars in Japan.

The partnership, which also involves Tokyo Gas, oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan, gas maker Iwatani and the Development Bank of Japan, aims to drive down the costs involved in building hydrogen stations, and should also bolster their lobbying power to push for looser regulations around the technology. The government set a target in 2016 to increase the number of fuel-cell cars in Japan to 40,000 by March 2021, so with the industry otherwise stalling, this partnership could be the catalyst needed to bring the technology mainstream.

Source: Honda

Apple iMac Pro goes on sale December 14th

Apple vowed to ship the iMac Pro in December, and it’s making good on that promise. The company has confirmed that its workstation-grade all-in-one will be available on December 14th. It has yet to reveal the exact configuration options, but the $4,999 ‘starter’ model ships with an 8-core Xeon processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of solid-state storage and a Radeon Vega graphics chipset with 8GB of RAM. You can option it with up to an 18-core Xeon, 128GB of RAM, a 4TB SSD and a 16GB Vega chipset, although video creator Marques Brownlee notes that you’ll have to wait until the new year for that 18-core beast.

Developing…

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: Apple

iMac Pro Available to Order December 14, Starting at $4,999

Apple today announced the iMac Pro will be available to order on Thursday, December 14. Pricing starts at $4,999 in the United States.

iMac Pro is a powerful, top-of-the-line workstation designed for professional users with demanding workflows, such as advanced video and graphics editing, virtual reality content creation, and real-time 3D rendering.

“iMac Pro is a huge step forward and there’s never been anything like it,” said John Ternus, Apple’s VP of Hardware Engineering.

The all-in-one desktop computer has a 27-inch Retina 5K display within a sleek space gray enclosure. Apple also includes a space gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, Magic Mouse 2, and Magic Trackpad 2 in the box.

Apple said the iMac Pro is the fastest and most powerful Mac ever, at least until the modular Mac Pro is released.

The machine can be configured with up to an 18-core Intel Xeon processor, up to 4TB of SSD storage, up to 128GB of ECC RAM, and an AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics processor with 16GB of HBM2 memory.

The high-end performance is made possible by an all-new thermal design that delivers up to 80 percent more cooling capacity than a traditional iMac.

With four Thunderbolt 3 ports, the iMac Pro can drive two 5K displays or four 4K displays at 60Hz simultaneously. It also has a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, four USB-A 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Other tech specs and features include a 1080p front camera, stereo speakers, four microphones, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.2.

Apple previewed the iMac Pro at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The news, together with the modular Mac Pro, helped alleviate some criticism that Apple was no longer focused on professional users.

Apple has yet to provide exact pricing details on a configuration-by-configuration basis.

Related Roundup: iMac Pro
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iPhone X Clones Begin Surfacing in China With Notch-Inspired Designs

Apple’s iPhone X has been out for over a month, and this week a few companies based in China have unveiled new smartphones that are clearly taking design inspiration from Apple’s tenth-anniversary device. The first was created by LEAGOO, which is based in Shenzhen, and in an email the company called it the “LEAGOO S9.”

The company sent MacRumors images of the LEAGOO S9 today, showcasing the front of the smartphone and a piece of hardware that dips into the screen at the top, providing the same visual design of the iPhone X’s “notch.” The device also has very trim bezels, rounded edges, and a vertically orientated rear camera system that slightly protrudes from the back.

The LEAGOO S9
Key differences between the LEAGOO S9 and the iPhone X include the S9’s physical buttons, which all appear to be located on the right of the device, and a rear-facing fingerprint sensor. The iPhone X was long rumored to potentially include such a sensor, but after the launch of the new smartphone Apple’s hardware engineering chief Dan Riccio said the reports were never true. The bottom bezel on the front of the S9 appears to be larger, but it’s unclear if this is software-related or not.

The internal specs and other aspects of the software — besides the lock screen — are not currently known. It appears that the LEAGOO S9 will also copy some of Apple’s “ear” software bar layout, although the Shenzhen company has slightly reordered the Wi-Fi, cellular, and battery indicators.

The second iPhone X clone was made by Boway, based in Hangzhou, China, and marks the company’s first foray into consumer electronics after building printers and cutting machines for over 20 years. Boway’s smartphone series is actually called “The Notch,” and like the LEAGOO S9 it looks very similar to the iPhone X, as seen in images surfacing on Chinese social network Weibo (via Forbes).

The Notch includes trim bezels on the left and right sides of the smartphone, although in some images it appears to pack in thicker bezels on the top and bottom than both the S9 and real iPhone X, which could again be software related. Otherwise, The Notch has a rear-facing fingerprint sensor, vertically orientated camera system, and also comes in other colors like red.

Boway’s “Notch Series” smartphones via Forbes
It’s unclear which type of components are included in the cloned smartphones’ notches, but since both of the devices clearly use a form of biometric security that recognizes fingerprints and are believed to lack facial recognition, their copying of the iPhone X’s notch is most likely for aesthetic reasons. Apple’s notch packs in an infrared camera, flood illuminator, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, speaker, microphone, front camera, and dot projector — all of these components work to provide users with features like Face ID and Animoji.

Specific prices of the smartphones have not been confirmed, but these types of devices are traditionally sold at fairly low price ranges to compete with the many other low-cost smartphones on the Chinese market. Hardware imitators have long been around copying Apple’s design styles, and sometimes even include laptops that are visually similar to MacBook, like Xiaomi’s Mi Notebook Pro. Earlier in December, Apple won a trademark case based in Europe against Xiaomi, preventing the latter company from registering its “Mi Pad” tablet device as an EU trademark because the name was deemed too similar to Apple’s iPad.

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Apple builds excitement for future releases with App Store pre-orders

There’s always plenty of excitement when it’s time to pre-order a new iPhone, and now Apple wants to bring a similar level of prerelease anticipation to the App Store. It has introduced a pre-order system for forthcoming apps, where any upcoming release can be reserved ahead of its launch day in the store. When the big day arrives, you’ll be sent a notification saying the app is ready for download.

While this is the first time Apple has made pre-orders available as an option to all app publishers, it’s not the first time an app has been teased this way ahead of launch. Last year, Nintendo ran a pre-order campaign for Super Mario Run before its eventual 2017 release. Now, pre-orders can be added to any app for publication in the App Store, including those made for MacOS and Apple TV.

How will it work? You’ll find a basic version of the app’s main page inside the App Store, complete with details on the app itself, a release date, and how much the app will cost. Although you’ll commit to buy the app at this point, you won’t actually pay until the day of release. If you have automatic downloads activated on your phone, the app will arrive during the first 24-hours of release without you doing anything. A message will also be sent to say it has been released, if you can’t wait for the auto download.

If the price changes during the pre-order period — which can run anywhere from two to 90 days — you eventually pay whatever price was lowest. If you decide at any time you don’t want the app anymore, there is a cancelation option. To find pre-orders your device will need the latest iOS 11.2 version of the operating system, tvOS 11.2, or MacOS 10.13.2 or later.

Apple is a little late to the app pre-order party. Google has been providing a pre-registration option since 2015, when it launched the feature to push the official movie tie-in game Terminator Genisys: Revolution. It operates the same no obligation style, where orders are paid upon release, and can be canceled beforehand.

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Insert Stormtroopers into your life with Google’s new AR stickers for Pixel

Packed with the latest hardware and equipped with possibly the best single sensor camera on a smartphone, the Pixel phones are Google’s answer to the high-end smartphone market. As such, they get a good amount of love from Google itself. The latest update Pixel owners can expect to see on their smartphone adds a whole bunch of fun Augmented Reality Stickers to the Pixel camera app.

Announced via Google’s blog, the update allows users to add animated characters and emojis directly into the scene in front of them, via their Pixel’s camera:

You don’t have to travel to a galaxy far, far away to team up with characters from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, like BB-8, a stormtrooper, or a porg. You can play around with Eleven, the Demogorgon, and your other favorite characters from Netflix’s Stranger Things; use Foodmoji and 3D Text stickers when you’re feeling hungry; or shoot a celebratory video at your New Year’s party with AR balloons and champagne.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Inserting a character is as simple as tapping to enter the AR Mode in your camera app, choosing a sticker pack, and dragging-and-dropping them into the scene. Once there, you can resize, rotate, and move them as you see fit. Characters inserted into the scene will stay where you’ve placed them, even if you move the camera away, and they will interact with other characters placed into the same area. Once you’ve captured your scene, you can easily share the picture or video with your friends on social media. Sticker packs currently include stylized characters from Stranger Things, Star Wars, and various different emoji and food-based stickers.

The update will be rolling out as a part of Android 8.1 Oreo on Pixel phones, and will be coming to all Pixel phones “over the coming days.”

This update comes as a part of Google’s drive to add more virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) content to Android. Google’s Daydream VR aims to bring VR to even more Android devices, and Pixel smartphone cameras also gained some added brains with the addition of Google Lens; a smart lens that can identify landmarks and provide history, or save information from business cards.

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