YouTube TV will soon include MLB’s streaming service

Baseball fans looking for a way out of cable TV’s clutches might finally have their answer: MLB.tv is coming to YouTube TV. MLB and YouTube are expanding the partnership that began in 2017 to include a bunch of sponsorship extras, which largely just means a load more promotional activity before and during games, but the deal also includes bringing the MLB Network to YouTube TV from today, and getting MLB.tv on board in the near future.

Launch details are vague — no timeline has been given — but we do know that it will involve an additional fee. Currently, MLB.tv costs an eye-watering $90 a year for a single-team or $116 a year/$25 a month for all teams, so if it can rival these prices it could definitely stand a chance of drawing fans away from cable. Still, it may well be the case that both parties are waiting to see how the MLB Network performs before making hard and fast commitments about MLB.tv, but it’s a win for YouTube TV’s baseball fans regardless.

China’s first space station will hit the Earth’s atmosphere soon

There’s a space station in a decaying orbit. It’s going to fall back to Earth. And we don’t know where or when it will hit.

No, this isn’t the plot of a terrible action movie. The Chinese space station Tiangong-1 is headed for an uncontrolled reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. The European Space Agency (ESA) has been monitoring the situation; today, it delivered an update narrowing down the crash window. The space station will fall somewhere between 43 degrees North and South, but because of the angle of the Tiangong-1, it’s more likely to fall near the maximum or minimum than on the equator. The reentry time frame is between March 29th and April 9th, but the ESA notes that this is highly variable.

The reentry map for Tiangong-1, credit: ESA CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

This uncontrolled reentry wasn’t exactly part of the plan for Tiangong-1, which launched in September of 2011 and has hosted two crewed missions during its life. All craft in low Earth orbit, whether they be satellites or the International Space Station, are subject to drag from the Earth’s atmosphere. As a result, they need to occasionally adjust their orbits to prevent decay.

The problem is that Tiangong-1 stopped responding to commands back in March of 2016. It’s basically dead in space in a steadily decaying orbit, which means that China can’t instruct the 34-foot station to return to Earth and burn up over an unpopulated area of the Pacific Ocean.

The ESA notes that we will have a little bit of advance warning; they’ll be able to predict where and when Tiangong-1 will reenter a day before reentry. Estimates will still be pretty rough, though. The majority of the space station will burn up in the atmosphere, but chunks of it will survive reentry and fall to the surface. The ESA notes that, because vast stretches of the Earth are unpopulated, “In the history of spaceflight, no casualties due to falling space debris have ever been confirmed.” It’s more than likely that record will continue after this, but the situation is worth keeping an eye on regardless.

Via: CNET

Source: ESA

Jon Favreau will write a ‘Star Wars’ live-action TV series

Disney has made it clear how important Star Wars is to its new streaming service; the company is producing a long-awaited live-action TV show set in a galaxy far far away as an exclusive. Today, Lucasfilm announced who’s going to be at the show’s helm. Jon Favreau, most recently known as Happy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will executive produce and write the series. We don’t have any information on what the series will be about, when it will take place or a release date.

Favreau does have quite a few producing, writing and directing credits to his name, in addition to his work as an actor. He was the director of both Iron Man and Iron Man 2 for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He also directed and produced the new The Jungle Book movie for Disney.

There’s been some grumbling about Lucasfilm’s recent writer and director choices, which have been all white men. Many fans are eager to see the diverse universe that Lucasfilm has embraced in front of the camera on Star Wars behind it as well. While Favreau will likely do an excellent job in a galaxy far, far away, announcing yet another white male writer probably wasn’t the best strategy on International Women’s Day.

Source: Star Wars

August Announces Doorbell Cam Owners Now Have 24 Hours of Free Video Storage

Smart lock and doorbell maker August, which was acquired by Assa Abloy last October, today announced that all August Doorbell Cam Pro and Doorbell Cam owners will now have access to 24 hours of free video storage under a new subscription plan. Called the “Basic August Video Recording” subscription, users will be able to replay any moment they might have missed from the past 24 hours in the connected iOS August app.

Under the new Basic plan, users will also get access to saved clips of all activity captured by the Doorbell Cam, and be able to download and share saved videos. This plan will be included for free with the purchase of August’s Doorbell Cam devices.

If users need more video storage, the Premium Video Recording plan has up to 30 days of storage for $4.99/month or $49.99/year. More information on the distinction between the plans can be found on August.com.

“We believe video recording is such an important feature for video doorbells that we are adding 24 hours of video recording, for free, with both of our Doorbell Cams,” said Jason Johnson, CEO of August Home. “Now if you miss a motion notification or experience a porch pirate walking off with a package from your doorstep, you can access and review the stored video from the August app.”

The August Doorbell Cam Pro, which launched in October, integrates with the company’s HomeKit-compatible Smart Lock Pro so that users can verify who is at their front door and allow them entry into their house, all from an iPhone. At CES in January, August also announced an expansion of its in-home delivery service August Access, competing in the same market with Amazon Key.

Today’s reveal of a new free video storage tier for August Doorbell Cam users appears to be a move to remain competitive in the connected doorbell market. Ring, a similar video doorbell and camera company that was acquired by Amazon recently, offers a few features for free to its users, like smartphone notifications, live-streaming video, and two-way audio. However, without a Ring Video Recording plan (starting at $3/month, $30/year per device) users who miss alerts or live events can not review video footage.

Tag: August
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Apple and Tim Cook Celebrate International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day, which recognizes the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

Apple is celebrating the day by highlighting a selection of songs, movies, TV shows, books, and podcasts created by, about, or inspired by women across Apple Music, iTunes, and iBooks, as it did last year. Look for featured banners in the iTunes Store or tap on the Browse section in Apple Music.

Apple CEO Tim Cook also tweeted a quote from Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education, as mentioned in her autobiography I Am Malala. Yousafzai became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at the age of 17 for her struggle against the suppression of young people’s right to an education.

“There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.” — Malala
Thank you to all of the inspiring women I work with at Apple, and to every woman who fights for equality. #InternationalWomensDay

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 8, 2018

Apple has also been hosting Today at Apple sessions in Singapore in celebration of women who inspire the community, and at its Marché Saint-Germain store in France tonight, the company will be hosting a recruiting event, billed as an evening of inspiration, participation, and celebration.

In addition, there’s an Activity Challenge that tasks Apple Watch users with doubling their Move ring today in return for a set of still and animated stickers that can be sent to friends and family members via iMessage.

Tag: International Women’s Day
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Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick forms investment fund

Uber’s controversial ex-chief has created an investment fund called 10100 to oversee both his for-profit and non-profit projects. Travis Kalanick has announced 101000 (pronounced “ten-one-hundred”) on Twitter and talked about how he’s made investments, joined boards and worked with both businesses and non-profits over the past few months in an effort to find his next venture. As for what kind of projects the fund will manage, Kalanick says he plans to focus on large scale job creation, real estate and ecommerce investments, as well as emerging tech businesses in China and India. His non-profit endeavors, on the other hand, will be all about education and city development.

Some news… pic.twitter.com/urFBrb9aCV

— travis kalanick (@travisk) March 7, 2018

Kalanick stepped down from Uber after a particularly turbulent period and due to pressure from the ride-hailing firm’s shareholders. It was just one scandal after the next for the company in 2017: a New York Times report exposed the company’s greyballing tool used to prevent regulators from catching rides in locations where Uber has no permission to operate.

There was also another Uber tool called “Hell” that would send more passengers to drivers who also drive for Lyft in an effort to convince them to work exclusively for Uber. The company’s rampant misogynistic and toxic culture also came to light after a former engineer detailed all the harassment she suffered while she was with Uber in a blog post. Her revelation led to a probe that culminated in 20 sexual harassment-related terminations.

It’ll be interesting to see what kind of culture Kalanick’s 10100 would develop. At Uber, he was known for encouraging an “always be hustlin’” mentality and even praised the Hell program for embodying Uber’s “hustle” culture.

Source: Travis Kalanick (Twitter)

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus review: Excellent, not monumental

When my mom asked if she should upgrade from her Galaxy S8 to an S9, I struggled to find an answer. After spending about ten days with Samsung’s latest flagship, I’m still torn. Besides the fact that I’d rarely recommend people upgrade from a year-old phone in general, this generation of the S series also lacks any thrilling new features.

I’m not going to fault Samsung for that, though. It’s basically impossible to dream up revolutionary new technology every year. And sometimes it’s the small improvements that count. But with the Galaxy S9 and S9+, none of the new additions are must-haves. That’s not to say these are underwhelming devices — the Galaxy S flagships are still among the best Android phones around.

Cameras

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s start with what’s new. This year’s updates revolve around the cameras. The S9 and S9+ are by and large the same phone, barring size, memory and the fact that the Plus has two rear cameras while the regular S9 just has one. The S9+ (which I spent the bulk of my time with) is also the first Galaxy S phone to sport a pair of cameras on its back, which adds features like Live Focus and Dual Capture.

The setup here is basically the same as on the Note 8, with a wide-angle primary camera and a telephoto partner for close-ups. The regular S9 doesn’t have this hardware, but it can still add artificial depth of field to your shots via Samsung’s Selective Focus software, which isn’t a shabby alternative. The difference between portraits shot with the two isn’t big enough that you should shell out for the Plus just for the camera. You’re really just missing the Dual Capture tool (which snaps both wide-angle and close-up shots simultaneously) and the ability to frame your shots more tightly with the telephoto lens.

The most interesting of Samsung’s new camera features is Dual Aperture, which is available on both S9s (only in the wide-angle option on the Plus). This supposedly mimics the way the human eye works. When you’re in a dark environment, the lens opens up to a wide aperture of f/1.5 to let in more light, just like our irises do. If the scene is bright enough, the camera defaults to f/2.4, which offers more clarity. In Pro mode, you can decide which to use, but you can’t pick f-stops in between.

For those who like shooting on auto and letting the phone do the thinking, this means you can get brighter shots at night or in dark rooms. You’ll sometimes find details blown out at f/1.5, but in general, the larger aperture is good at letting you capture what otherwise might have been a dim, noisy mess. Focus can get a bit soft at f/1.5 compared to at f/2.4, but to the untrained eye, the difference is negligible.

The new, wider aperture is now the largest available on a smartphone and gives those who prefer manual control more room to work with. You can then tweak things like ISO or shutter speed to avoid noise and motion-blur. Those who have the skill or patience to tweak those levels should consider shooting primarily in Pro mode.

Samsung added dedicated RAM to the S9’s image sensors to process multiframe noise-reduction more quickly. I easily fired shot after shot in the dark, and the S9+ never slowed down, unless I was testing its ability to keep up by hitting the button nonstop like a deranged shutterbug. The pictures also turned out relatively clear, although details like building edges are often muddy. You’ll only really notice those artifacts when you zoom up close. Because of these small blemishes, though, pictures from the Pixel 2 and iPhone X generally appear crisper than the S9’s.

Galaxy S9 Plus (left) versus the Google Pixel 2 (right).

Something that the S9s do that the Pixels and iPhone can’t do yet is shoot super-slo-mo at 960 frames per second. For the most part, people don’t need such a high framerate — the 240 fps on the previous generation is perfectly adequate for scampering pets or skateboarding tricks. And as fun as the 960 fps clips are, trying to record them requires some finesse.

You can use auto mode, which switches to slo-mo when it detects motion in a particular area of the frame. This means you’ll have to aim your phone just right, which is fine for orchestrated setups like throwing peanut M&Ms into a friend’s mouth or popping a firecracker. But for unpredictable subjects, it’s less likely to work.

You can also manually trigger slo-mo, which lets you press a button to capture up to six 0.2-second bursts in extreme-slo-mo during an ongoing recording. This method is slightly easier to control, but it still requires you to predict when something worth slowing down is going to happen.

I had the same complaint when Sony introduced this feature in the Xperia XZ Premium last year, but neither company has implemented a reliable way to record ultra-high-frame-rate video. Which begs the question: Is this feature really useful? Probably not, but still, it’s there if you want to show it off.

Just note that, as is usually the case with footage at such high shutter speeds, you’ll need a ton of light to capture anything that looks remotely decent. Most of the clips I recorded indoors or in anything less than bright daylight looked kind of janky.

On the whole, the additions to the S9s don’t give the new flagships a significant edge over the competition or their predecessors. But the new tricks don’t take away from the already-solid cameras that have won the S series much acclaim over the years, either.

Bixby

Even with Bixby, most of the changes revolve around the camera. Samsung’s digital assistant is primarily getting improvements to Bixby Vision, including better integration into the camera. Just tap a button on the viewfinder to bring up Bixby, and you’ll find a row of little icons at the bottom to switch modes.

Three modes have been added: Live Translate, Food and Makeup. The first uses Google to translate foreign words in real time and came in handy when we were in Barcelona. The S9 helped me make sense of Spanish menus and warning labels, although it was useless without an internet connection. Of course, you also don’t need Bixby to do this; you can just install Google Translate (and that works offline).

Meanwhile, Food mode will identify the dishes you point your S9 at and provide a calorie estimate, which you can add to your S Health log with a tap. This is useful in theory, but most of the time Bixby failed to recognize the delicious meals I was about to dig into. It mistook fish filets for ravioli, thought a can of Estrella was a pack of Lays and couldn’t even identify a bowl of instant ramen. The one time it worked, aside from during our hands-on, was when it identified a plate of cut-up steak as “flank steak.” It’s hard to tell what affects Bixby’s accuracy here, except that more complex dishes with mixed ingredients tend to trip up the AI more. I know that, at this stage, I wouldn’t trust the S9 to offer a reliable calorie count.

Bixby mistook fish filets for ravioli … and couldn’t even identify a bowl of instant ramen

Finally, there’s Makeup mode which, admittedly, has limited appeal. But for those of us who are more cosmetics-obsessed, this has potential. It’ll overlay lipsticks, blushes, eyeshadows and eyebrows on your face in real time, and you can click through to buy or learn more about a product you like. Sounds nifty, except it’s just not comprehensive enough. Makeup aficionados like myself probably already use apps like YouCam Makeup or Meitu to see what colors we like, and those offer far more color and product options than Bixby does right now.

Long story short, the Bixby updates are nice, because you can conveniently access them from the camera. But you can also install third-party apps to get the same results, or sometimes better.

Intelligent Scan

Another update that has to do with the camera is “Intelligent Scan,” which is sort of a take on Apple’s FaceID. It’s more of a refinement of the Note 8’s iris scan method, though, which Samsung admitted works well in low-light but struggles when it’s bright out.

To make it easier to unlock your phone with your face regardless of your surroundings, Intelligent Scan will first try to identify your irises. If that fails, it will look for your face. You can also set Face Unlock, iris scanning or the fingerprint scanner as your primary unlock method if you prefer, or have them all enabled at the same time.

In general, Intelligent Scan worked very quickly, and I usually got into my S9 with little trouble. But because I set up my biometrics with makeup on, I sometimes had trouble getting into the phone first thing in the morning.

AR Emoji

A more polarizing feature debuting in the S9s is AR Emoji — or augmented-reality emoji. You’ve probably seen these online by now: animated talking heads that vaguely resemble people you know. Some find them creepy; others, fun. So far, I’m leaning toward the latter.

It’s easy to create an avatar. Just snap a photo of yourself facing forward, and the phone generates a digital version of you that can be tweaked and customized with various hairstyles and outfits. But after testing it on a bunch of my colleagues, it’s clear Samsung’s software isn’t perfect. Some people look uncannily like their avatars, while others look like cartoon stock photos. With some styling, though, you can usually get pretty close.

After you’re satisfied, save the emoji, and the S9 generates a set of animated reaction GIFs featuring your avatar, which you can insert in any chat app that supports AGIF (including Messages, Messenger and WhatsApp). These are cute at first and feel more personal than regular emoji. But over time, I got used to seeing the same few expressions, and the novelty wore off.

To mix things up, you can send a video of yourself talking through your emoji — much like Apple’s Animoji. Instead of mapping your expressions onto a generic graphic like a robot or a turd, Samsung lets your avatar do the talking. This would be a fun feature, except the S9 struggles to pick up facial movements. When I smiled into the front camera, my emoji cringed. When I tried to wink, my emoji suddenly developed an odd lazy eye and squinted like a belligerent drunk.

This is the crux of why AR Emoji seem creepy. Your expressions tend to be more hilarious and wonky than accurate, and generally fail at conveying the emotion you’re intending. Obviously, AR Emoji are a novelty, and frankly, it’s hard to imagine they’d be anything but. In my week with the phone, I barely sent any, other than to show off how ridiculous they are.

Everything else

In addition to camera-related upgrades, Samsung introduced a new audio setup this year. The S9 has stereo speakers — one firing down from the bottom edge and one forward from the screen. This boosts the S9’s volume, making it easier to hear what people are saying in your videos and games. It definitely helped when trying to share funny YouTube videos in a crowded restaurant.

For those of you who like watching trailers and movies on your phone, you may also appreciate improved audio quality thanks to the Dolby Atmos-enhanced virtual surround sound. But honestly, I didn’t find it radically different except for the boost in volume.

Samsung also tidied up the phone’s face, masking the array of sensors above the screen and trimming the bezels. These changes are subtle, and you wouldn’t notice them without putting an S9 directly next to an S8. More immediately noticeable is the new location for the fingerprint sensor, which now sits comfortably within reach below the camera, instead of right up next to it. Hallelujah!

Something else you won’t catch until you’re actually using the phone is the new Snapdragon 845 processor. Just on benchmarks alone, the S9s generally performed almost twice as well as the Pixel 2, although, to be fair, Google’s phones are using last year’s CPU.

Like previous Galaxy S flagships, the S9 Plus handles multitasking well. I had no problem jumping between the Bixby Vision, Instagram and Gallery apps, or creating AR Emoji after AR Emoji. Multitasking with split-screen windows was also smooth, and I breezed through several satisfying rounds of Tekken. The only lags I encountered had more to do with waiting for Bixby to finish thinking than general performance.

The Snapdragon 845 is also supposed to squeeze about 30 percent more life out of the battery than last year’s 835. Anecdotally, this seems about right. The S9s have the same size batteries as the S8s, but generally last at least a day-and-a-half before throwing up a low-battery alert. In the 10 days or so that I’ve had the S9+, I still haven’t had time to run a formal battery test, but we’ll be sure to update this review with the numbers once it’s complete.

The competition

It doesn’t feel fair to compare the S9 and S9+ to the usual suspects. After all, the Pixel 2, iPhone 8 and LG V30 are last year’s phones, using slightly older (and slower) processors. As some of the first phones to pack the Snapdragon 845, the S9s have a clear speed and power efficiency advantage.

The only other phone that sports that chipset is Sony’s Xperia XZ2, which can record 4K HDR video. That’s a feature Qualcomm touted highly, but strangely enough, the Galaxy S9s don’t appear to offer. It’s a significantly different phone from the S9, though, with a greater focus on multimedia consumption than photography. We also haven’t fully tested it. For now, if you’re deciding between the two, it’s best to hold off until we can properly review the Xperia.

Another phone to consider is the LG V30S ThinQ, which is a strange follow-up to last year’s V30. It adds AI camera features that help you take better photos by identifying what you’re trying to shoot and automatically changing the relevant settings. It also adds a “bright mode” that uses an algorithm and merges pixels to brighten a scene. It’s hard to tell how effective this is yet — our hands-on showed no significant benefits from having that mode on. What’s strange about the V30S is that, barring a RAM boost, its hardware is no different from the original V30. You don’t even get a new CPU and the accompanying performance improvements.

Wrap-up

I had hoped that, after exhaustively going over all the ways the S9 is new, I’d find the updates here to be more significant. But I still don’t. The new camera features aren’t must-haves unless you plan on shooting in darkness a lot, and you can get basically all the new Bixby stuff by installing third-party apps. Plus, Samsung plans to roll out the Bixby updates to S8 and Note 8 owners eventually.

But even though these changes feel incremental, the S9s are still strong flagships. If you’re looking to upgrade from an older Android phone, these are worth considering thanks to speedy performance, capable cameras and long-lasting batteries. As the first flagships launched in 2018, the S9s are competent, if unexciting. It’ll be more interesting to see how they measure up to flagships from Apple and Google later this year.

Amazon may finally bring its full retail business to Brazil

In 2017, Amazon Brazil started allowing third-party sellers to list their items on the website. Apparently, though, that could’ve been just the beginning of the e-commerce titan’s expansion in the biggest retail market in Latin America. According to Reuters, the company held a meeting with a bunch of manufacturers in Brazil last week to discuss its plans on stocking and selling goods — everything from consumer electronics to perfume — itself. It follows a previous Reuters report, which says Amazon is looking to rent a warehouse just outside of Sao Paulo.

The tech giant reportedly plans to buy directly from manufacturers and to resell the products in the country. Reuters also says that Amazon will use its own transportation and call centers in Brazil for customer service and will store its goods in its facilities in Greater Sao Paulo. Amazon has neither confirmed nor denied the report but told the publication that it has been holding “hundreds of meetings with potential vendors and suppliers about its business in Brazil and possible future plans” over the past five years.

Amazon selling products directly in Brazil doesn’t sound farfetched, considering it’s been expanding its operations in other regions, as well. Just before 2017 ended, the company opened its Marketplace in Australia, selling more than just e-books in the country.

Source: Reuters

‘H1Z1’ eSports league will stream solely on Facebook

H1Z1 has had to fight hard for time in the spotlight with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite hanging around, but it might have a way of grabbing attention. Twin Galaxies’ H1Z1 Pro League has unveiled an exclusive deal that will stream all digital content on Facebook. It has an official home, too — it’ll be situated in Las Vegas’ Twin Galaxies eSports Arena, with Caesars Entertainment as the official venue and entertainment partner. The first season starts April 21st with 15 teams (including well-known outfits like Cloud9 and Luminosity) competing in two splits of 10 weeks each, with the championship due in the fall.

Yes, you could argue that this is a shrewd move for a title that has been overshadowed as of late. According to Steamcharts, the game had an average of 7,162 active players on Steam as of February versus 1.39 million for PUBG. However, it also shows how the eSports industry is evolving. This is the first time a game developer (Daybreak) and an independent league operator (Twin Galaxies) have worked together — numerous other leagues are either fully independent or run by the studios themselves. That’s leading to a unique governing structure with an independent commissioner, company representatives and team representation. Players also get a “bill of rights” and a concrete revenue model that makes clear how they’ll be paid.

It’s likewise the first time a league has picked Las Vegas as its host city, which is notable given ongoing efforts to turn Vegas into an eSports hub. There’s no certainty that other leagues will follow suit, but it wouldn’t be shocking if they watched the H1Z1 Pro League to see if it’s worth establishing roots in the area.

Source: H1Z1 Pro League (Facebook)

PS4 Pro update finally makes more games look better on 1080p TVs

The latest PlayStation 4 software update is here, and it gives Pro consoles the ability to make games look better, even if you’re playing on an older TV. PS4 version 5.50 comes with a supersampling mode for the Pro console, which shows games at a higher resolution and with four times the amount of visual and color info than usual. The output upgrade was designed to reduce jagged edges and to ultimately make images look sharper and clearer. In addition, the latest update adds shortcuts for music playback: square for volume control on Spotify and the Media Player and triangle for play or pause.

That’s not all version 5.50 can offer, though. You can now also use images from a USB stick as a custom wallpaper and as a Team Logo or a tournament page background. If you’re a parent, the new Play Time Management feature within Family Management will allow you to control when and how long each child can play. For instance, you can limit your kid to an hour of playtime during weekdays, and only between 5 to 7 PM. During weekends, you can give your kid permission to play for, say, four hours between 12PM and 8PM.

You’ll now find new tabs within the Library that makes it easier to organize and find your stuff. The Quick Menu now has a drop down custom friends list, as well, giving you an easy way to see who’s online. Version 5.50 also allows you to permanently delete old notifications and to schedule events directly from the tournament page. Plus, it adds a PS VR icon next to games on your list that’s compatible with Sony’s virtual reality headset. The update is rolling out today and will probably be ready to download and install next time you look.

Source: Sony PlayStation