This DIRECTV NOW promo lets cord cutters watch every March Madness game

Watch it all from nearly anywhere.

There’s no need to have a costly cable subscription in order to catch all the March Madness tournament games this year. DIRECTV NOW is offering access to three months of its service for just $30. The service normally costs $35 per month, but when you enter coupon code YESNOW3 you save $25 per month, as long as you are a new subscriber. That brings the cost to just $10 more than Sling’s base monthly package and $5 less than a single month of DIRECTV NOW would normally run, and gives you access to it for much longer.

With access to TBS, CBS, TNT, and TruTV, you should be able to watch all the games as they are being broadcasted, so you’ll know the fate of your bracket as it all goes down. Beyond being able to watch all the games, you’ll be able to catch the start of the baseball season, watch your favorite TV shows and much more.

Getting signed up for DIRECTV NOW is a simple process, but you’ll want to make sure you cancel your account before the 3 months is over or else you’ll be billed monthly at the full cost of the plan.

If you don’t already have a compatible streaming device (or want another one!), DIRECTV NOW is also offering a free Amazon Fire TV 4K when you prepay for one month of service, or a free Apple TV 4K when you prepay for three months. These ship within two weeks of your order via FedEx.

Google now owns a very important part of the next Pokémon Go

Game developers are going to be using Google Maps for a long, long time.

One of the big things that makes the Niantic games special is the way you go out into the real world to do things. Ingress and Pokémon Go both involve a heavy amount of roaming the space around you, naturally encouraging you to meet up with friends, and generally being more active. The secret ingredient to all of that is the map, which both Ingress and Pokémon Go heavily rely on to function. A lot of this data came initially from Niantic’s old parent company, Google. Over time, Niantic was able to refine some of the mapping data based on how people really walked and interacted with specific areas on the map, but that top-down map from Google powers a lot of the experience.

This year we’re going to see a whole lot more of these map-based experiences, and it looks like all of these games are powered by a new Google Maps API.

From Andrew Webster at The Verge:

Google says that its new Maps platform for games is divided into three main parts. First, and most obvious, is that developers who sign up will have access to real-time Google Maps data. As part of this, Google is also launching a new software development kit for Unity, one of the most popular game engines in the world, to make it easy to incorporate this mapping data into a game. “Our new Unity SDK does all of the heavy lifting,” says product manager Clementine Jacoby. “No Google Maps expertise needed.”

Lastly, Google is introducing a new API so that developers can create gameplay experiences around real-world locations. Jacoby says that Google will be working with developers on this aspect, helping them find “places that are appropriate, unique, and fun to play anywhere on Earth.”

This is huge for several reasons. First, no company but Google can provide this kind of information and have it be as trusted and accurate as the data you get from Google Maps. It’s the most trusted mapping app by far, and with good reason. Giving developers real-time access to this information is huge for companies eager to make their own Pokemon Go clones, a thing we’re starting to see more and more of all the time, but it also guarantees Google is the default choice for these games. Even if another company were to release a similar API for its mapping data, there’s little chance it would be used to great effect.

Imagine a real-world Stranger Things, where you could pass through portals in AR.

The video Google used to share this also offers some promise for the future. While Pokémon Go clones are certainly on the way, the video paints several pictures for alternative experiences where Maps can thrive. One thing Pokémon Go is only now starting to do better is integrate ARCore into the real-world AR experience it has created. When we look at how other developers have been using ARCore, it’s not hard to imagine games where you go to a physical place and use ARCore to pass through a portal to the next part of the game. Imagine a real-world Stranger Things, where you could pass through portals to and from the upside-down in order to unlock elements of a story. This could happen with relative ease thanks to the combination of ARCore and this new Google Maps API.

Google plans to explain this system in greater detail during the GDC conference, where we will undoubtedly also learn more about new games coming soon with this tech onboard. With the explosive popularity of Pokemon Go last year, you can bet this API is the start of a scramble to build the next big global experience.

What’s new on Amazon Video for April 2018

No April Fools’ crap here — just great shows!

Can you believe we’re almost a quarter of the way through 2018 already? It’s closing in on us real fast. And that means it’s time to update what’s new on Amazon Video for April 2018.

There are a bunch of movies from the 1980s and ’90s that you’re not going to want to miss. Like thrillers? Basic Instinct and Internal Affairs are both on tap. I’m still partial to The Dogs of War (it was a great book, too), and if you haven’t seen Mystic River, well. …

The point is, there’s a ton of great movies coming up in April on Amazon Video. And scroll on down to see what’s still to come in the rest of March!

Amazon Prime Video has is one of the go-to destinations for on-demand content, thanks in no small part to devices like the $50 Amazon Fire Stick, the all-new $70 Amazon Fire TV, and even the $229 Amazon Echo Show.

But hardware is the easy part. Buy it once, and then use the heck out of it. What’s not quite so easy is keeping up with everything that’s new on Amazon Prime Video — because new shows are always coming and going.

Here’s what’s new on Amazon Prime Video in April 2018!

Don’t have Amazon Prime Video yet? Get a free 30-day trial!

Coming April 1

• 30 Beats (2012)
• 52 Pick-Up (1986)
• A Simple Plan (1998)
• A Suitable Girl (2017)
• Basic Instinct (1992)
• Brooklyn’s Finest (2009)
• Carrie (1976)
• Danny Roane: First Time Director (2007)
• Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
• Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
• Escape from New York (1981)
• Eye for An Eye (1996)
• Flashback (1990)
• For a Few Dollars More (1967)
• Fred 3: Camp Fred (2012)
• Fred: Night of the Living Fred (2011)
  + Fred: The Movie (2010)
• Friday the 13th (1980)
• Funny About Love (1990)
• Gamer (2009)
• Hangman (2017)
• Hellbenders 3D (2012)
• Hitler’s Bodyguard (Season 1)
• Ice Mother (2017)
• Internal Affairs (1990)
• Kickboxer (1989)
• Ladybugs (1992)
• Life Stinks (1991)
• Man in the Moon (1991)
• Marathon Man (1976)
• Married to the Mob (1988)
• Meatballs (1979)
• Merlin (Seasons 1-5)
• Miami Blues (1990)
• My Art (2016)
• Mystery Team (2009)
• Mystic River (2003)
• Paranormal Activity (2007)
• Philadelphia (1993)
• Prancer (1989)
• Project Nim (2011)
• Quigley Down Under (1990)
• Red State (2012)
• Salsa (1988)
• Shanghai Surprise (1986)
• She’s Having a Baby (1988)
• Sleepers (1996)
• Small Soldiers (1998)
• Snake Eyes (1998)
• Spaceballs (1987)
• Stand Up Guys (2012)
• Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002)
• Steel Magnolias (1989)
• Storage Wars Northern Treasures (Season 1)
• Superstar (1999)
• Tenderness (2009)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre II (1986)
• The Big Wedding (2013)
• The Conspirator (2011)
• The Departure (2017)
• The Dogs of War (1981)
• The Foot Fist Way (2008)
• The Karate Kid (1984)
• The King of Comedy (1982)
• The Marc Pease Experience (2009)
• The Phantom (1996)
• The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)
• The Replacements (2000)
• The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
• The Winning Season (2010)
• Thirst Street (2017)
• Throw Momma from the Train (1987)
• Trading Mom (1994)
• Troy (2004)
• Up in Smoke (1978)
• Uptown Girls (2003)
• Warpath (1951)
• Wayne’s World 2 (1993)
• Wishmaster (1997)
• Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999)
• Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (2001)
• Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled (2002)
• World’s Craziest Foods (Season 1)

Coming April 2

• Chavela (2017)
• Psychopaths (2017)
• The Missing (Season 2)

Coming April 5

• The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

Coming April 6

• Blame (2017)
• The Florida Project (2017)

Coming April 10

• Hours (2013)

Coming April 12

• I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2009)
• Saturday Church (2017)

Coming April 13

• Bosch (Prime Original, Season 4)

Coming April 15

• Fame (2009)

Coming April 18

• Aida’s Secrets (2016)

Coming April 23

• Red Rock (Season 3)

Coming April 24

• Vikings (Season 5)

Coming April 25

• The Vanishing of Sidney Hall (2017)

Coming April 27

• All or Nothing: Dallas Cowboys (Season 3)
• Little Big Awesome (Prime Original, Season 1A)

Previously, on Amazon video …

Here’s what was (or still is, depending on when you’re reading this) new on Amazon Video in February:

Coming March 1

• 1984 (1985)
• A Feast at Midnight (1997)
• A Guy Thing (2003)
• A View to a Kill (1985)
• Amelie (2001)
• Antitrust (2001)
• Bad Influence (1990)
• Bad News Bears (2005)
• Billy the Kid (2013)
• Body of Evidence (1993)
• Breakdown (1997)
• Bye Bye Birdie (1995)
• Captivity (2007)
• Carriers (2009)
• Chaplin (1992)
• Criminal Law (1989)
• Dance Academy: The Comeback (Purchase only, 2017)
• Die Another Day (2002)
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
• Dreamkeeper (2003)
• Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
• F/X (1986)
• F/X 2 (1991)
• Fatal Instinct (1993)
• Finder’s Fee (2003)
• Fire with Fire (2012)
• Fluke (1995)
• For Your Eyes Only (1981)
• Forces of Nature (1999)
• Goldeneye (1995)
• Hackers (1995)
• Hanoi Hilton (1987)
• Hart’s War (2002)
• Home of the Brave (2006)
• Human Trafficking (Season 1)
• I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)
• Imagine That (2009)
• Jeff Who Lives at Home (2012)
• Jennifer 8 (1992)
• Kingpin (1996)
• License to Kill (1989)
• Little Ghost (1997)
• Moonraker (1979)
• Mr. Majestyk (1974)
• National Lampoon’s Dirty Movie (2011)
• National Lampoon’s Dorm Daze 2: College @ Sea (2006)
• On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
• Regarding Henry (1991)
• Southie (1998)
• Sprung (1997)
• The Accused (1988)
• The Color of Magic (Season 1)
• The Devil Inside (2012)
• The Doors (1991)
• The Infinite World of H.G. Wells (Season 1)
• The Living Daylights (1987)
• The Million Dollar Hotel (2001)
• The Music Never Stopped (2011)
• The Secret of N.I.M.H. (1982)
• The World is Not Enough (1999)
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
• XXX (2002)
• XXX: State of the Union (2005)
• Young Adults (2011)
• Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)

Coming March 2

• Brad’s Status (Prime Original, 2017)
• Dance Academy: The Comeback (2017)

Coming March 3

• The Nut Job 2 (2017)

Coming March 6

• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

Coming March 8

• Aftermath (2017)

Coming March 9

• Power Rangers (2017)
• Sneaky Pete (Prime Original, Season 2)
• The Remix (Prime Original, Season 1)
• The Tunnel (Season 2)

Coming March 10

• November Criminals (2017)

Coming March 14

• Tommy’s Honour (2017)

Coming March 15

• LOL (2012)

Coming March 17

• Crooked House (2017)

Coming March 20

• Father Figures (2017)
• Insidious: The Last Key (2018)
• The Greatest Showman (2017)

Coming March 26

• Let There Be Light (2017)
• The Durrells in Corfu (Season 2)

Coming March 27

• All the Money in the World (2017)
• The Little Hours (2017)

Coming March 30

• The Dangerous Book for Boys (Amazon Orignial)

Coming March 31

• A Suitable Girl (2017)
• Bitter Harvest (2017)
• Flames (2017)
• Ice Mother (2017)
• Imperium (2016)
• The Blue Lagoon (1980)
• The Departure (2017)
• Thirst Street (2017)

Updated March 14, 2018: April’s listings are in!

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Netflix won’t reward kids with ‘patches’ for watching TV

Last week, reports surfaced that Netflix was testing a sort of rewards program wherein children could earn “patches” for watching shows like A Series of Unfortunate Events and Fuller House. While the patches didn’t come with any additional benefits and didn’t unlock new content, some expressed concern that it would encourage children to watch too much TV. The feature was just a test with no guarantee of a full launch, but Netflix has now told us that the feature won’t be seeing a wide release. A spokesperson for the company told us today, “We’ve concluded the test for patches and have decided not to move forward with the feature for kids. We test lots of things at Netflix in order to learn what works well — and what doesn’t work well — for our members.”

The patches test came out as Facebook was facing heated criticism for its Messenger Kids app. Advocacy groups have asked the company to pull the app because of its encouragement of more screen time and social media engagement.

Facebook knows it must do more to fight bad actors

Not everything at SXSW 2018 was about films or gadgets. A few blocks away from the Austin Convention Center, where the event is being held, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) hosted a number of panels for its Innovation Policy Day. In a session dubbed “Fighting Terror with Tech,” Facebook’s Lead Policy Manager of Counterterrorism, Brian Fishman, spoke at great length about what the company is doing to keep bad actors away from its platform. That doesn’t only include terrorists who may be using the site to communicate, or to try to radicalize others, but also trolls, bots and the spreading of hate speech and fake news.

It’s no secret that Facebook (along with other social media giants) are under the microscope of governments all around the world, as their platforms continue to be used to promote hateful, abusive and dividing content. Fishman said that while Facebook is now being more transparent about these issues, and also creating tools to counter terrorism, harassment, trolls and bots with AI and human sleuths, the company still needs to do more.

“As good as algorithms can be at surfacing potentially dangerous content, there’s a lot of nuance here,” Fishman said. “One of the risks is that we want to be very aggressive at taking down content, but we want to protect the ability of our users to speak about controversial issues, to speak sometimes in contentious ways, and so to make some of those nuanced calls you really need human beings.”

Facebook Lead Policy Manager of Counterterrorism, Brian Fishman (second from left to right), speaks at SXSW 2018.

The effort to have actual people, not just automated systems, monitoring and reviewing for any potentially abusive content is key to Facebook and others like Twitter and YouTube, especially as their algorithms have proven to be flawed. That’s one of the reasons governments are calling for these sites to be more closely regulated. Last year, Germany introduced a law that will impose hefty fines on social media platforms, including of course Facebook, if they fail to remove harmful content such as hate speech in under 24 hours.

Many like London Mayor Sadiq Khan fear that government regulation on companies like Facebook is a bad path to go down on, as it could hinder innovation. But, he said during a keynote at SXSW, that they also can’t be above the law and that with the resources and skills they have, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube should be doing more to tackle these issues. “We have to do a better job to reassure users and governments,” Fishman said “and that’s something that I’m thinking about and working on.”

Catch up on the latest news from SXSW 2018 right here.

Anyone can make Facebook Instant Games

Facebook’s Instant Games technology hasn’t exactly taken off (there are less than 200 games to date), but that’s because it’s been in closed testing. Now, it might have a chance to grow: Facebook has opened the Instant Games platform to all developers. Anyone can build HTML5-based web games designed to run in Messenger or your News Feed, whether you’re on desktop or mobile. They’ll have ways of making money from and promoting games, too, including ads (sorry, folks) and cross-promotional links.

Creators don’t have to start from scratch: Facebook already has a number of recommended game engines to use with the platform.

Games have clearly been a mainstay of Facebook for a long while. The Instant Games tech is really a logical extension of the social network’s strategy. It makes games (and importantly for Facebook, the ads that run alongside them) available in more places, and eliminates the long load times you sometimes see with more conventional games. No, this isn’t likely to upend the conventional game market, but it could make gaming decidedly more accessible.

Source: Facebook for Developers

SteamVR’s auto resolution knows what your GPU can handle

Valve updated SteamVR today with a new feature that automatically adjusts your headset’s resolution up to what your GPU can optimally render. This should function like autofocus, taking the decision-making out of the user’s hands and reassuring developers that their content is being enjoyed at the best resolution. But it could also make VR more accessible, since it also auto-selects settings on lower-performing GPUs, letting experiences run more smoothly on more affordable machines.

Whether boosting or lowering resolution, the process is simple, according to Steam’s blog post: SteamVR runtime measures your GPU’s speed and instructs applications to render at a resolution appropriate to its power. For users with graphics chips that can’t render their headset’s native resolution, SteamVR will down-res it (but not lower than the Vive or Rift’s native resolution).

It’s good to see SteamVR moving past adding digital tchotchkes to improving features, like adding support for Windows Mixed Reality headsets and a YouTube 360 video app. The new autoresolution is live in beta, so you’ll have to opt in (find SteamVR under Tools in the Steam Library and right-click to find ‘beta’ in properties).

Via: Road To VR

Source: Steam

Pedometer++ Developer Shares Data on Apple Watch Adoption Rates Across All Models

David Smith, the developer behind the popular Pedometer++ app for iPhone and Apple Watch, today shared some interesting user data that offers insight into Apple Watch adoption rates, and specifically, how quickly he’s seen Apple Watch Series 3 adoption grow.

Smith looked at data collected from August 1, 2017 (a month before the debut of the Apple Watch Series 3) to March 14, 2018. During that time, he’s seen rapid growth in the number of active Pedometer++ users who have an Apple Watch Series 3, and a steady decline in users who have an Apple Watch Series 0 or an Apple Watch Series 2, both of which are now discontinued.

Just under 35 percent of Pedometer++ users now have an Apple Watch Series 3, while around 24 percent have an Apple Watch Series 0, down from more than 40 percent in August of 2017.

According to Smith, he’s been keeping a close eye on Apple Watch Series 0 usage rates because he’s hoping that Apple will soon drop support for the original Apple Watch, which he describes as a “bit painful” to develop for.

It is just slow and honestly a bit painful to develop for. Even basic things like deploying your application to the watch can take uncomfortably long amounts of time. In daily use the Series 0 is probably “good enough” for many customers, especially with the speed/stability improvements added in watchOS 4, but as a developer I can’t wait until I no longer have to support it.

By contrast, Smith says the new Apple Watch Series 3 is “a delight to work with” because it’s fast, capable, and has LTE functionality that allows for new kinds applications. Smith is hoping watchOS 5 will drop support for the original Apple Watch, which is why he tracks falling Series 0 usage rates, but he does admit that the device is still adequate for many users who just need basic functionality.

When watchOS 5 launches, presumably this September, the original Apple Watch will be more than three years old, and Smith believes, that based on current trends, Series 0 usage could be as low as 15 to 20 percent in his Pedometer++ app, which presumably is reflective of overall usage rates.

For comparison’s sake, Apple ended support for the original iPhone, released in 2007, in 2010 when the fourth-generation version of iOS was released. Support for the first-generation iPod touch, also released in 2007, ended with the same operating system update.

Apple ended support for the first-generation iPad, released in 2010, with the launch of iOS 6 in 2013.

Apple clearly has a history of ending support for first-generation devices after a few years, but it’s not yet clear if the company will do the same for the original Apple Watch. Some of the original Apple Watch models, which were offered in 18-Karat gold, were priced at up to $17,000, so Apple could have unhappy customers when support for the device eventually ends.

For more of Smith’s Apple Watch adoption analysis, make sure to check out his full blog post.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Apple Adds New ‘Families’ Section to its Website With Tips for Parents

In the wake of urging from investors to do more about smartphone addiction among children, Apple has added a new “Families” section to its website that outlines parental control tools and information that parents should be aware of.

The mini site is broken into several sections that highlight a range of kid-friendly features that Apple has put into place like app recommendations, in-app purchase controls, restrictions on apps that can be downloaded, internet limiting tools, Find My Friends, and more.

Apple highlights the Kids section of the App Store, for example, which the company says parents can use to find carefully curated content that’s appropriate for children. The site provides links to tutorials for enabling Ask to Buy so parents can approve app downloads, and it lets parents know how to turn on restrictions to limit in-app purchases and which websites are available to children.

Another section of the site points out tools like Find My Friends for keeping track of a child’s location, and recommends setting up group chat for the whole family in Messages.

Apple also provides details on Family Sharing, which is designed to let members of the same family share apps, music, books, iCloud storage, and more, and there’s a section on tips for the whole family, with feature recommendations like Do Not Disturb While Driving, Bedtime, Medical ID, Night Shift, and Emergency SOS.

Apple also recommends products like the Apple Watch with LTE connectivity to “reach kids in an emergency” and to help the whole family stay fit, and there’s a dedicated section on privacy controls. Parents who have children that use iOS devices will likely want to give the new site a look.

Apple has promised to introduce more robust parental control tools, and rumors have suggested the company will introduce the features in iOS 12. Apple is said to be planning to debut a Digital Health tool that will let parents know how much time their children have spent using iOS devices.
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What we saw at SXSW Interactive

It’s not every day you get to see Elon Musk, his brother and Westworld co-creator Jonathan Nolan host a sing-along in front of a sold-out audience at the Moody Theater, but this week, we did. SXSW Interactive is coming to a close, so we’re packing up and looking back at all the wild things we experienced, saw and ate.

While in Austin, we checked out the Bose AR glasses that overlay audio on the real world, the build-a-vibrator workshop hosted by Crave, a rousing speech by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Ready Player One’s suite of VR games, HBO’s Westworld in real life, Samsung’s adorable AI assistants, and much, much more. And that’s not even mentioning all the barbecue.

Catch up on the latest news from SXSW 2018 right here.