Wu-Tang Clan Frontman RZA to Lead Music Lab Session at San Francisco Apple Store

Wu-Tang Clan lead member and acclaimed American rapper RZA will host a Music Lab session at Apple’s Union Square store in San Francisco later this month. First spotted by AppleInsider, the the free-to-attend session called “Developing Your Sound with RZA” will reveal a number of techniques the hip-hop artist uses to produce his music.

Attendees at the January 22 session will begin by brainstorming and sketching out ideas to create their music story and sound profile. Then they’ll get to grips with GarageBand for iPad Pro and ROLI Blocks, which will help them learn how RZA developed his trademark beats, which revolutionized hip-hop in the 1990s.

Sadly, the session at Union Square is all booked up, but anyone interested will have other opportunities to attend the same course with a video introduction by RZA. The sessions will be offered at all Apple stores as part of the company’s new “Today at Apple” retail program, which involves locations hosting community-building workshop events. Check the link for details on upcoming events in your area.

Tags: GarageBand, Today at Apple
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Apple’s Tim Cook and More Than 100 CEOs Urge Congress to Protect Dreamers

Apple’s Tim Cook on Wednesday joined over 100 other CEOs in urging the U.S. Congress to pass a bill to protect young immigrants before the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program expires. For those unfamiliar with the program, DACA gives about 800,000 illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. at age 16 or younger work permits and protection from deportation by two-year deferral. Many of those protected by DACA have been in the United States for most of their lives.

In an open letter to House and Senate leaders, the group called on lawmakers to introduce legislation supporting so-called Dreamers by Friday, which is the deadline for Congress to pass a bill for government funding to avert a shutdown. The DACA program actually expires on March 5, but the CEO signatories say the government needs time to implement a new program before that deadline.

“We write to urge Congress to act immediately and pass a permanent bipartisan legislative solution to enable Dreamers who are currently living, working, and contributing to our communities to continue doing so,” the letter reads. “The imminent termination of the DACA program is creating an impending crisis for workforces across the country.”

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft president Brad Smith, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam were additional signatories of the letter, which cited a CATO Institute study that found ending the DACA program could cause a $215 billion decline in the gross domestic product.

“In addition to causing a tremendous upheaval in the lives of DACA employees, failure to act in time will lead to businesses losing valuable talent, cause disruptions in the workforce, and will result in significant costs,” the group wrote. “While delay or inaction will cause significant negative impact to businesses, hundreds of thousands of deserving young people across the country are counting on you to work in a bipartisan way to pass permanent legislative protection for Dreamers without further delay.”

Tim Cook has been consistent in his support for a legislative solution to protect those affected by the end of the DACA program. Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s September announcement that DACA would be phased out over six months, Cook sent an email to employees saying Apple would try to help Congress find a solution and would be working with impacted Apple employees to provide support, including access to immigration experts. Apple employs 250 “Dreamers”, Cook previously revealed in a tweet.

In December, Cook teamed up with Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch to write an opinion piece in The Washington Post about DACA, asking Congress to work quickly to come up with a solution before the end of the year. That never happened, and the government’s stance on the issue now appears to be mired in confusion.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in California issued a nationwide injunction ordering the Trump administration to maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis while legal challenges to the president’s decision go forward.

In another development this week, concerns grew among hardliners after Trump met with lawmakers during a freewheeling televised session, in which he signaled he was open to compromise and seemed to express support for a number of legislative options to legalize Dreamers.

Indeed, the president appeared to suggest that the details of a legislative solution didn’t matter to him, telling congressional leaders that he would approve whatever they sent him. “I will be signing it,” Trump said towards the end of the meeting. “I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, gee, I want this or I want that.’ I’ll be signing it.”

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.
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Facebook is Testing a New City-Specific ‘Today’ Feed for Local News and Events

Facebook is currently testing a new section of its mobile app called “Today in…”, which serves up a feed of city-specific events, announcements, and local news, according to TechCrunch.

The company is kicking off the local hub with a small batch of test markets, including New Orleans, Louisiana; Olympia, Washington; Billings, Montana; Binghamton, New York; Peoria, Illinois; and Little Rock, Arkansas. Users in those markets can access the feature via the lower-right menu button, indicated by three horizontal lines in the main Facebook app.

The feed will be populated using a mixture of human-curated and algorithmically-plucked content, and is being spearheaded by Facebook’s Journalism Project, designed to support news literacy and to serve as a hub for journalists and publishers to learn and share. It also comes on the back of the company’s recently announced Journalism Project Initiative, which aims to build local news partnerships as one of its core goals.

This isn’t the first time Facebook has dabbled in promoting local content. Last year the social network giant introduced a separate Explore Feed that is said to use live location information occasionally to suggest posts, articles, photos, and videos from local sources a user hasn’t followed, but might be interested in.

In another attempt to establish links within local communities, Facebook recently expanded its e-commerce Marketplace service, which lets users advertize and check out region-based private and business listings for things like vehicles, properties, and household goods.

Tag: Facebook
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Former Tinder love gurus introduce Ripple, a swipe-based professional network

What if professional networking was as easy as swiping left or right on your phone? That’s the premise of the new Ripple app (not to be confused with the cryptocurrency app of the same name), which borrows many features from the company that developed it: Tinder, the dating app. But instead of matchmaking for dates, Ripple’s aim is to help you build a professional social network by quickly pairing you with others who share similar interests and attend similar events.

While the swipe-to-like (or dislike) approach is commonly associated with app-based dating, it wasn’t the case at the beginning, according to Ripple CEO Ryan Ogle, who officially unveiled the app and social network during CES 2018. The company, which is backed by the Match Group, operates independently of Tinder.

“One of the things we talked about, the discovery of new people was a big problem,” said Ogle, who was the former chief technical officer of Tinder and also worked at Hatch Labs, the incubator behind Tinder. “Before Tinder was a dating app, we talked about it not being about dating at all.”

And in professional networking, Ogle says existing systems, notably Linkedin, don’t do the things users actually want it to do. According to Ogle, they don’t help users build business relationships effectively, they don’t prioritize the right people, they don’t care about the context, and they’re static directories. With Ripple and its tools for social discovery, Ogle thinks the app is far more effective in building a professional network.

“Linkedin was created more than 15 years ago, but it’s a web-based platform shoehorned into mobile,” Ogle said. “When I go to Linkedin, 90 percent of the people are recruiters or trying to get something from me[A] vast majority of people don’t need that all the time.

“We want to build the opposite, a user-first network [and] match people with opportunities,” Ogle added. And what he means by a user-first network is that Ripple will introduce users to relevant people; help them get connected quickly and easily and get the most out of their professional network.

When you launch the app, the Ripple Feed presents you with other users that it thinks you would pair well with, based on the interests you indicated, users you are connected to, your location, events you’re attending, and groups you are part of. It can even connect you with nearby users via near-field communication, and you can quickly “face connect” by taking a photo of them (provided they’re also on Ripple) and using facial recognition. And like Tinder, you can swipe right to connect, or left to skip. Over time, the app improves its searches.

In addition, the app is designed to be an active network. Users will also see information from Twitter, Medium, and news sources that are relevant in a professional context. Ultimately, the goal is to not only get you connected quickly but also stay engaged. It eliminates what Ogle refers to as the dead space in current professional social networks, where users don’t know anything about the people they connect with.

As a brand new social network, Ripple still needs refinement. We had some issues registering an account, and we also couldn’t edit the interests we selected, which, for some reason, Ripple considers them your skills. But the bigger hurdle is getting more people to use Ripple. Ogle acknowledged that Ripple won’t be perfect at the beginning (it’s asking users for feedback to help improve the system), and, like Tinder, he believes it’s best to start with a small group of quality users.

The app is available to download for iOS and Android.

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Steam saw more than 7,500 titles added to its library throughout 2017

The PC isn’t dead — just ask gamers. In fact, look to the Steam platform, which saw the release of 7,672 PC games throughout 2017. That equals an average of 21 game releases per day. Did you see that same amount hit the Xbox One and/or PlayStation 4 in the same year? Nope.  

The number derives from the third-party Steam Spy website, which tracks Valve Software’s digital distribution platform to chart the number of active users, the paid versus free-to-play ratio, the average number of games owned by each Steam customer, and so on. The data is anonymous and only used to track these general statistics along with the overall growth of the platform. 

While that number sounds huge, part of the population stems from Steam Direct, a self-publishing platform that allows any game developer to sell its product on Steam for a $100 per-title fee. Steam Direct replaced Steam Greenlight, which relied on a voting system that determined if a game would or would not have a place on the Steam store. 

There are currently 20,489 titles listed on Steam for various platforms, including Windows, MacOS, Linux, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift (Steam Spy says 18,953). What’s interesting is that in January 2016, the number was reportedly only at 7,390 games. The big jump may be due to the introduction of high-definition virtual reality experiences, and an abundance of free-to-play games in addition to all content piling up under the Steam Direct umbrella. 

But Steam Spy’s statistics builds on all this data by listing more than 2 billion paid games owned as of December 31, 2017, and nearly 1 billion copies of free-to-play games claimed by millions of Steam members spread out across 254 countries. On the last day of 2016, Steam saw 1,582,281,094 paid games owned by its users, and 752,246,379 free-to-play games claimed by Steam members. 

Here are a few other statistics charted by Steam Spy generated from 2,019,883 accounts: 

Active users (two weeks): 

60,052,174 

Active users (total): 

287,419,120 

Playtime (two weeks): 

28:09 average
192,985 years, 8 months, 7 days (total) 

Playtime (total): 

337:36 average
11,077,305 years, 1 month, 24 days (total) 

Total games owned: 

3,180,746,575 

Average number of games owned: 

11.07 per user 

Games in database: 

18,953 

Right now, the biggest game on Steam is Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, which saw a peak usage of 2,821,337 players at the time we wrote this article, and a current player count of 1,287,806. The game is one of the 7,672 titles released during 2017, overtaking Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DOTA 2, Grand Theft Auto V, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege with the highest player count right now. 

That said, there is definitely no sign that the PC is dead. As we have seen over the last year or so, manufacturers are proving market watchers wrong with high-performance devices packing affordable prices. Even more, Steam Spy shows the PC-based platform experienced a rapid growth over the last two years, moving from 1,772 games release in 2014 to 4,207 games in 2016. We will likely see more than 9,000 new titles in 2018 alone, keeping the PC market alive and kicking. 

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Total War heads to ancient China for ‘Three Kingdoms’ in fall 2018

Creative Assembly announced the next installment in its Total War series. The long-running strategy franchise is set to be transported to ancient China for Three Kingdoms — and fans won’t have to wait very long to join the fray.

Total War: Three Kingdoms will be set in 190 A.D., at a turbulent time for the Han dynasty. As the Yellow Turban Rebellion rages on, the nine-year-old Emperor Xian rules — although he’s a mere puppet for Dong Zhuo, a warlord who pulls the strings from behind the scenes.

“It is a brutal and oppressive regime, reads the description of the official trailer. “And as Zhuo’s power grows, the empire slips further into the cauldron of anarchy. But hope yet blossoms.”

Like the other historical games in the Total War series, Three Kingdoms will use real events as the basis for its grand-scale warfare. However, it will hone in on three heroic characters that will play a key role in shaping the future of the land as various different factions vie for supremacy.

Three Kingdoms is being billed as the next major historical installment of Total War, as publisher Sega continues to expand the enormously popular property. The A Total War Saga subseries, which was officially announced in July, is a spin-off that will focus on a more specific point in history than the mainline titles.

There’s plenty more going on in the Total War franchise, too. Total War: Warhammer II has only been available for a matter of months, but we already know that it’s the second in a planned trilogy based on the beloved tabletop franchise. The free-to-play Total War: Arena was recently released worldwide, and a mobile spinoff entitled Total War Battles: Kingdom is set to drop in 2018.

This is the first official word that we’ve seen regarding Total War: Three Kingdoms outside of a tease from a Creative Assembly blog post that was published during the summer. It seems that the game must have been in development for some time, as it’s scheduled to release in fall 2018 — you can already add the game to your Steam wishlist by visiting its store page.

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These are the 7 best horoscope apps for iOS and Android

Are you into astrology? It’s not as gimmicky as it might sound — after all, we all need a few words of encouragement every now and again. If you truly believe in the celestial bodies above, or you just like to have fun with horoscopes, having the right app will save you from having to look up your horoscope on the internet. If you’re looking for daily readings, or simply want to know what your future might hold in relation to your sign, then the best horoscope apps can help.

If you’re searching for love, take a look at this astrology based dating app.

TimePassages

TimePassages, one of the most popular astrology apps, is now a free app that you can use right on your iPhone. Astrology charts let you discover the meaning behind your sun, moon, and rising sign. You can also find out if someone is compatible with you using the compatibility meter which shows you the potential for love or even the likelihood of successful business relationships. The app is free to use with in-app purchases starting from $1 and going up to $10 for an unlimited pass.

Download now for:

iOS

Horoscoper Club

This is a great astrology app that allows you to play quizzes online and challenge friends. You get your free daily horoscope on love, career, health, and more. You can get instant advice using Tarot Cards, but the app also gives you access to numerology, moon phase, Mercury retrograde, and zodiac compatibility. This app also has an instant messaging feature to let you chat in real time with one friend or even create group conversations. Subscription packages range from $2 up to $45 for a 12-month premium package.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Chaturanga Astrology

Unlike most horoscope apps, Chaturanga actually allows you to chat with an astrologer. You can ask the first question for free, but if you want to ask additional questions, you’ll have to buy a pack or pay for each individually. The app also specializes in a variety of topics, including relationships, career, and business. It’s even compatible with the Apple Watch, even if you’re an Apple aficionado.

Download now for:

Android iOS

iHoroscope

iHoroscope allows you access to daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly horoscopes. The app also allows you to chat with a psychic, and if you ask questions, you’ll receive your answers in mere minutes. Apple Watch integration is just an added plus.

Download now for:

Android iOS

The DailyHoroscope

If you just want an in-depth app that allows for different types of horoscopes, then The DailyHoroscope might be the app for you. The app provides you with your daily horoscope, along with access to yearly Chinese horoscopes, your zodiac compatibility, and even a druid horoscope. This app is also compatible with Android devices, as well as the iPhone and iPad.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Horoscope and Tarot

This app lets you see your daily, weekly, and monthly horoscope. It also provides a daily tarot reading and lets you ask an astrologer questions. The app even features several games — including Mood Ring and the Magic Love Ball — and supports the both English and Spanish languages.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Astrolis Horoscopes and Tarot

This app uses the position of the planets to provide your horoscope, giving you quick insights into your future career and love life. You can also personalize the app so that it gives you your horoscope immediately upon launching, which saves you from having to navigate to the appropriate screen. The app provides tarot readings, too, which you can then share via Facebook, Twitter, and email.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Are you looking for more apps? Check out our picks for the best apps for Android and the best apps for iPhone.

Update: We added TimePassages and Horoscoper Club.

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The best mice of CES 2018

If you’re in the market for a new mouse to dominate opponents or simply wow your co-workers, the Consumer Electronics Show is a great place to see what is coming soon.

Here we list the best mice at CES 2018, all of which target the PC gamer. Manufacturers range from Cooler Master to Mad Catz to Razer, some of which provide their own take on Logitech’s wireless charging solution that hit the market in early 2017. 

Cooler Master MM830 

Highlights

Hidden D-pad buttons 

RGB illumination 

Built-in OLED screen 

Sensitivity up to 24,000DPI 

Pixart 3360 optical sensor 

Release date: Q2 or Q3 2018 

Price: TBD 

Cooler Master’s upcoming mouse is unique because it includes a “hidden” D-pad under the thumb consisting of four, low-profile buttons. Perfect for MMOs and MOBA games, your thumb will never need to leave the surface as it maneuvers to all four buttons: Just “rock” your thumb up, down, left, or right for actuation. These buttons are configurable through the company’s desktop utility. 

In addition to assigning D-pad commands, the software can be used to assign functions to the wheel, customize the RGB illumination, and set the DPI levels ranging up to 24,000 dots per inch. The “durable” PBT chassis also plays host to a built-in OLED screen with a 96 x 94 resolution so you can add a team logo or unique design directly to the mouse itself. This screen is presumably programmable through Cooler Master’s desktop software. 

HP’s Mike Nash on why new Spectre x360 15 is thicker, much more powerful

HP’s CES 2018 and late 2017 announcements include a couple of firsts that show off the company’s willingness to take chances on brand new technology. Its Envy x2 was the first detachable tablet announced that will leverage Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 ARM processors for long-lasting, always-connected computing, and it’s recently added an Intel version. And, its updated Spectre x360 15 beat packs in Intel new 8th-gen Core with Radeon RX Vega M graphics.

Mike Nash, HP’s Chief Technologist and VP of Customer Experience, Personal Systems, is high on HP’s ability to respond to customer requirements with modern computing solutions. And he had plenty to say as he stopped by Digital Trends’ booth at CES 2018, and discussed HP’s notebook and more.

First up was a discussion of HP’s first Always Connect PC based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 ARM processor, the Envy x2 detachable tablet, with Nash specifically touting the machine’s ability to remain connected to the internet and receive data while lasting for 16 hours or more on a charge. He also touched on the Intel version of the Envy x2 that brings greater performance, while maintaining around 12 hours of battery life.

Nash went on to discuss some of the differences between the ARM and Intel versions, including HP’s decision to offer both in response to customer requests. He provided an overview of each, discussing relative strengths, and touching on what a buyer needs to consider in making a good choice between the two.

Next, Nash discussed one of the first convertible 2-in-1s to pack in Intel’s new Kaby Lake-G chips, which mate an eighth-generation Intel Core i7 CPU with AMD’s Radeon RX Vega M GL GPU. The 15.6-inch 2-in-1 promises gaming performance falling somewhere between the Nvidia GTX 1050 and GTX 1060 GPUs, with all the abilities of a pen-enabled notebook that converts to a (large) tablet for handwriting and drawing.

If you’re wondering how HP makes its decisions on how to design its notebooks to meet customer needs, then this is the video for you. You’ll learn more about how HP listens to its customers, while picking up additional details about each of HP’s newest notebooks.

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From smartphone to notebook: Razer’s Kevin Sather gives scoop on Project Linda

Razer is best known for its iconic black gaming PCs and accessories. The company has recently branched out into smartphones, releasing a device that’s unsurprisingly optimized for gaming with a fast 120MHz display to ensure a smooth gameplay experience. Now, Razer has unveiled Project Linda, a concept dock that allows the Razer smartphone to morph into a notebook.

Kevin Sather, director of product marketing systems for Razer, stopped by our booth to talk about Project Linda and give some insight into how and why the product developed. Regarding the how, Sather focused on the wealth of design experience that Razer had accumulated in building its premium gaming notebooks, along with its experience in creating the Razer smartphone itself.

The why? It just made sense to put those two together and make a product that the market might appreciate. It didn’t hurt that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 CPU provides some serious power that could be put to better use than simply powering a smartphone. In terms of creating a solid Android-based notebook experience, Sather spoke to the company’s decision to use the Centio desktop environment, and he provided an overview of how that experience made sense for Project Linda.

In our initial assessment, we found Project Linda compelling as a notebook, with a pleasant keyboard and a solid design. We were less certain about the usefulness of using the Razer smartphone as an LCD-based touchpad, at least in terms of how the concept has so far been designed and programmed. Sather spoke to that question a bit, touting Razer’s past experience with utilizing dual displays on a notebook and promising more functionality to come.

Sather also talked about the Razer smartphone, highlighting the company’s desire to create something special for gamers and also for media consumers. The 12MHz display is one aspect, an immersive audio experience is another, and Razer rounded things out with support for both HDR10 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1. That combination of features would make for a solid notebook experience.

There’s no word yet if or when Project Linda will become a product you can actually purchase. It’s possible that Razer will utilize Project Linda to test new features and functionality for the company’s notebooks and accessories. But if it does make its way to the market, it could be one of the more interesting solutions for converting a smartphone into a notebook.

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