Surviving Westworld at SXSW

HBO is making the dreams of Westworld fans come true at SXSW 2018. The company built a replica of the show’s Sweetwater town in an undisclosed location in Austin, Texas, and we were there to experience it firsthand. Before I tell you how it went, though, it’s worth noting that this wasn’t a run-of-the-mill installation. HBO says production for the project started in November of last year, and it took a 40-person crew five weeks to build the sci-fi park. In addition to that, the cast playing Westworld robotic Hosts, had a script that came in at 444 pages.

This is important because when you’re there it actually feels like you’re part of the show, which isn’t something my colleague Jessica Conditt and I expected before we arrived at the park. The more time you spend in there, the more that characters interact with you, the more the story unfolds. At one point, for example, shots were fired and a character named Jack was murdered. As it happens on the series when things get out of control, a programmed Host called for evacuation of the park and all of the other Hosts started to walk around like zombies saying “Thank you for coming to Westworld” repeatedly.

The experience was also enhanced by the fact that, upon our arrival, we were welcomed by a Host wearing an all-white dress — like you’d see welcoming guests to the park on the show. She was standing behind a shelf full of western-style guns and knives, though we weren’t actually able to choose a weapon of our choice. They did have cowboy hats for the visitors, though, so that gave it a more realistic feel. Then, after you go to through the train that takes you to Westworld (this one was just a prop, as we actually got there in themed shuttle bus), our first stop was the Sweetwater post office. Weirdly enough, both Jessica and I had letters waiting for us.

Mine was from someone I didn’t know, who warned me that the people in the town were acting strange and I needed to be on the lookout. Hers was about women suffrage and said that the revolution was imminent. Thankfully, we both managed to make it out alive after two hours. Is it wrong that we both wish we could go back?

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

Quick Takes: Apple’s Ecosystem Explained, Crumb-Resistant MacBook Keyboards, and More

In addition to our standalone articles covering the latest Apple news and rumors at MacRumors, this Quick Takes column provides a bite-sized recap of other headlines about Apple and its competitors on weekdays.

Friday, March 9

Apple’s ecosystem explained: YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee explains why Apple’s ecosystem of products and services is so strong. He also advises against becoming too locked into just one ecosystem.

Commentary: A good example of the strength of Apple’s ecosystem is iMessage and its coveted blue message bubbles, which have essentially become a status symbol. As silly as it may sound, there are a countless number of tweets that mock green bubbles, which is the color Apple uses to display standard text messages.

AAPL sets all-time high closing price of $179.98: The previous record was $179.26, set on January 18, 2018. Apple’s overall all-time high remains $180.62, set during intraday trading on February 28, 2018. AAPL has been on the rise since bottoming out at $150.24 on February 9 amid a wider stock market selloff.

Commentary: Apple shares have technically traded for higher prices, but today’s record high factors in multiple stock splits, including a 7-for-1 split in 2014. Apple’s market cap now hovers around the $915 billion mark.

Timing of Apple’s rumored March event: Apple typically invites the media to its special events roughly 10 to 12 days beforehand, so if there is a March event on its agenda, then we’ll likely hear about it soon.

• 2015: Thursday, February 26 invites → Monday, March 9 event
• 2016: Thursday, March 10 invites → Monday, March 21 event
• 2017: No event.
• 2018: Thursday, March 15 invites → Monday, March 26 event (?)

Commentary: The big question is whether Apple will hold a media event or make its announcements via press releases as it did last year. Rumored products that could debut this month include a new iPhone SE, lower-priced 9.7-inch iPad and MacBook Air models, and the AirPower charging mat, along with iOS 11.3.

Other Reading:

• Swift is now the world’s tenth most used programming language, tied with Objective-C, according to analyst firm RedMonk’s analysis of GitHub and Stack Overflow data. Apple’s open source programming language was released at WWDC in June 2014.
  
• Apple has applied to patent a crumb-resistant keyboard: The patent application describes a MacBook keyboard with mechanisms that prevent contaminant ingress, which is a fancy way of saying dirt and crumbs. This could involve the use of “brushes, wipers, or flaps” that block gaps around key caps.

For more Apple news and rumors coverage, visit our Front Page, Mac Blog, and iOS Blog. Also visit our forums to join in the discussion.

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Netflix Tests New Gamification Feature for Children’s Shows

Netflix is testing a new gamified streaming experience for children, the company confirmed in a statement provided to Variety this morning. The new feature lets kids collect “patches” for watching episodes of certain shows.

Netflix says the patches, which have been available for a few weeks for some users, are designed to allow for a more interactive experience for children.

Image from Twitter

“We are testing a new feature on select kids titles that introduces collectible items for a more interactive experience and to expand the storytelling world for the show. We learn by testing and this feature may or may not become part of the Netflix experience.”

Netflix shows that are part of the test are marked with red locks for Netflix users who have been selected to be part of the test. Eligible shows include “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “Trolls,” “Troll Hunters,” Fuller House,” and more.

At the current time, it does not appear that collecting patches unlocks any additional content or rewards on Netflix.

Netflix says that this feature is still in testing and that it might not become part of the Netflix experience if the testing proves unsuccessful or unpopular with users.

Tag: Netflix
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Amazon’s Alexa Gains Follow-Up Mode for Back-to-Back Requests Without Repeating Wake Word

Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant, built into dozens of different products, today gained a new “Follow-Up Mode” that’s designed to allow users to ask multiple questions in succession without the need to repeat the “Alexa” wake up word.

As noted by CNET, Follow-Up Mode allows Alexa to continue to listen for five seconds after an initial response to see if you have an additional request.

During this five second listening period, the blue ring on an Alexa device will light up to indicate that Alexa is listening. Anything else you say during this time period will not require you to add “Alexa” into the statement to wake up the Alexa device. If you don’t say anything else, your Alexa device will go back to sleep until the next time the “Alexa” wake word is uttered.

With Follow-Up Mode, Alexa cannot respond to multiple requests, like “Turn the lights on and set the thermostat to 70,” but you can ask two requests in succession. Asking “Alexa, turn on the lights” and then stating “Set the thermostat to 70” after the first “OK” from Alexa works, however.

According to Amazon, Follow-Up Mode is designed to make sure Alexa only responds if a legitimate request is spoken rather than simple background noise. A conversation with Alexa can also be ended immediately by saying “Thank you” or “Stop” after an initial request, and Follow-Up Mode won’t activate when listening to music, making a call, or listening to an audiobook.

The new Follow-Up Mode can be enabled in the Settings section of the Amazon Alexa app. Select a device and then scroll down to the new “Follow-Up Mode” toggle. Follow-Up Mode is available for all Amazon Echo devices and some third-party devices as well, but it is limited to US English at the current time.

The Alexa Follow-Up Mode, which seems like a useful new addition to Alexa, has no equivalent on Apple’s devices like the HomePod at the current time. On Apple’s speaker, you will need to activate it with a “Hey Siri” command before each request.

The addition of this new feature comes just a few days after Amazon implemented a fix for an issue that was causing Alexa-enabled devices to spontaneously laugh, creeping out some Alexa users. Amazon said the issue was caused by Alexa mistakenly hearing the phrase “Alexa, laugh,” which has now been changed to “Alexa, can you laugh?” to prevent accidental Alexa activations.

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Manufacturers can now create custom Google Assistant commands

Notifications, improved media playback, and new Actions are also coming.

During this year’s SXSW convention in Austin, Texas, Google’s got its Google Assistant on full display at the Google Assistant Fun House. Attendees of SXSW can visit the Fun House to see a sock-sorting robot and beer-ordering system for couch potatoes, and powering these things is Google’s new Custom Device Actions.

Beginning today, manufacturers can use these Custom Device Actions to create custom Google Assistant commands that are specific for their hardware. According to Google, one example of this is being able to select a specific color cycle on a washing machine by just talking to the Assistant.

Also coming to the Google Assistant today is media playback support for Actions on smart speakers and Android phones and new Actions from American Idol, iHeartRadio, and others. With media playback controls, you can use your voice to control any media being played by Actions or use your phone’s screen to play, pause, replay items, and turn off your screen while the audio plays in the background.

Coming soon, Google is also adding notifications to the Assistant. This will allow you to subscribe to certain items on your phone, and when there’s a change in a stock you’re following or breaking news story, the Assistant will read the update aloud to you.

If you happen to be in Austin for SXSW, you can visit the Google Assistant Fun House at 1301 E. Cesar Chavez.

These New Smart Displays include Google Assistant

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How to control your TV with Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo can replace your remote control, with a little help.

As nice as it would be for every television to include a simple local network access function, most TVs still rely on good old-fashioned Infrared (IR) to receive commands. This isn’t the best news for someone looking to convert their living room into Smart Home 2.0, but there are some tools available that make this a little easier to deal with than you’d think.

For example, you can pair a Logitech Harmony Hub and an Amazon Echo to create a totally voice controlled television. Here’s how you set it up!

The Harmony line from Logitech has been the best option for universal remotes for a long time, but recently the company has moved from baking all of those smarts into a better remote control to building a hub that controls way more than just the TV. On its own, Harmony Hub can give you the ability to control just about anything connected to your Wi-Fi network as well as anything you can control with IR in a single app. You can even build little scripts inside of Harmony, so a single button press turns on the TV, sets the input you want to be on, and can even be activated on a schedule. It’s an impressive setup, made all the more impressive when you add an Amazon Echo.

Starting your smart living room conversion is fairly easy. Set up your Harmony Hub anywhere that lets you mount the IR sensor pointed right at the television. It doesn’t have to be close, but if you want to set Harmony up with your entertainment center, you can. After it is set up and connected to your network, you can add Harmony to Alexa just like any other skill.

Open your Alexa App.
Go to Home, then Skills.
Search for Harmony.
Select the blue icon that appears.
Enable the Harmony Skill.
Log in to Harmony from the Alexa app.

Once Alexa is connected to Harmony, you have the ability to turn the television on and off automatically. Just about everything else requires a little bit of extra work. Harmony is aware of what channels are available with your provider, but you can’t just ask for a specific channel out of the box unless your television is connected directly to cable. If you use an HD cable box that connects via HDMI, or something like a TiVo, you have to create actions in Harmony under the Smart TV settings.

Volume control is now available through Alexa through multiple command types. You can simply ask for the volume to be turned up, or you can specify an increase or decrease by specific increments between 1 and 20. Alexa currently does not have the ability to switch inputs through Harmony without actions, but an IFTTT trigger can be set up to allow this. Harmony and Alexa are being better integrated all the time with updates, but right out of the box this is a great way to control your television with your voice.

Amazon Echo

• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
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Motorola’s stepping into the VR space with its ‘Virtual Viewer’ Moto Mod

No word on pricing or availability.

Motorola’s dipped its toes in just about every niche possible with its Moto Mods. We’ve seen a projector, Polaroid printer, battery packs, game pads, and more, and it looks like Motorola’s next step will be into the world of VR.

Courtesy of Evan Blass, we have a picture of Motorola’s upcoming “Virtual Viewer” Moto Mod. Blass doesn’t share any details in regards to how the Virtual Viewer will work, but it looks like you’ll connect your Moto Z device to the inside so you can consume VR content.

Did anyone ask for this?

The Virtual Viewer closely resembles Google’s Daydream View headset, but the main difference is that the Daydream View can be used with any Daydream-compatible Android phone — not just ones under the Moto Z umbrella.

Motorola’s Virtual Viewer does have a cutout for the rear camera sensor, and while this could suggest Motorola will add some sort of augmented reality feature on top of the regular VR content, it could also just be a design thing.

We don’t have any word on pricing or availability just yet, but assuming this is just a headset for Daydream, I can’t see myself recommending this to anyone. Why purchase a headset that’s limited to just the Moto Z when you could get similar functionality from another one that works with virtually every Android flagship?

If you’re a Moto Z owner, is this something you’d be interested in?

Alexa as a Moto Mod is almost a good idea

Moto Z2 Force

• Moto Z2 Force reviewl
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• The ultimate guide to Moto Mods
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Chrono Blade is a pure hack and slash RPG for Android! [Game of the Week]

And the combat is somehow better than most other mobile fighting games!

March 9, 2018: This week, check out the kick-ass action-RPG Chrono Blade. Then, dust up on your Simlish as you guide customized characters through life in The Sims Mobile.

Chrono Blade

What a pleasant surprise Chrono Blade ended up being. Blending RPG elements with a kick-ass side-scrolling beat-em-up, Chrono Blade is a winning combination of excellent arcade-style combat and RPG strategy. You have four characters in your party to choose from as you play through each mission, which is timed at just under 3 minutes.

Perhaps it’s because I discovered it after attempting to slog through the grind that is Lineage 2: Revolution, but man, this is what I want to see from more games. There are still some mobile features that hold it back a bit, such as the time-based energy system and balancing your in-app currencies. Also, in-app purchases might become more tempting as you progress deeper into the game and need to upgrade your character for the PvP arena you unlock later on.

But for a free game that delivers some of the smoothest combat I’ve played since Icey, I gotta say I’m pretty impressed by Chrono Blade.

Download: Chrono Blade (Free w/IAPs)

The Sims Mobile

Let’s make it clear: I would not be recommending The Sims Mobile in this space if it was a pile of crap — and I went into it expecting it to be a total pile of crap. I mean, it’s a mobile version of a beloved PC franchise released by EA. Major red flags.

Instead, The Sims Mobile is a pretty good take on the Sims — optimized for mobile, of course. Right off the bat, you get to customize your very own Sim, and kudos to EA and Maxis for letting you tweak pretty much everything about your Sim. Once you get your Sim settled into his home, you get to work on his or her love life, help them hold down a job, and guide them through life by finding hobbies and pimping out their pad.

You level up your character’s stats by completing events and quests, which include going to work, going on dates, or upgrading different rooms of your home. If you’ve played The Sims before, you know the deal — you’re the omnipresent god deciding what happens in your Sim’s life.

I haven’t been keeping up with the Sims franchise over the past decade, but I do have very fond memories of playing the Sims as a kid. That nostalgia certainly plays a part in me liking The Sims Mobile, but I swear its surprisingly playable!

Download: The Sims Mobile (Free w/IAPs)

Load up on new charging gear with these discounted Anker accessories

Keep it at 100%.

Kicking off this sale is the company’s 6700mAh portable power bank which is down to just $15.99 when you check out using the coupon code ANKERPC3 at Amazon. If you’re more of a power user, or just prefer having a ton more capacity in your pocket, the 20000mAh PowerCore Elite is down to $34.99 with promo code ANKELITE. Not only do you get extra capacity, but it also has a higher output which allows it to charge your devices quicker.

Of course, to go with the chargers you will need some new cables. This 2-pack of PowerLine+ USB-C cables is down to $16.49 when you use the code CABLE869, and this 5-pack of various sized USB-C cables is $18.19 with code CABLE863.

Lastly, if you need a way to charge multiple devices while at home or in the office, this 5-port USB wall charger is the way to go. It’s down to $32.19 with code BEST2556, and it has four USB ports as well as one USB-C port.

Be sure to grab the corresponding coupon code for the item you wish to purchase, as each code only works for one item.

How to use the PlayStation Gold Companion App with your headphones

It can be kind of tricky to get started, and a little guidance can help out tremendously.

PlayStation has great headsets that you can purchase to go with your console, but setting them up is more than just plugging in a dongle and calibration can be a true pain. With the recently updated Gold Wireless Headset, there are even more features for you to navigate and take advantage of. Curious how to get through the step up process of your new headset so you’re able to take advantage of every feature? We’re here to help!

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Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use the Gold Companion app on your PlayStation.

Be sure that you have downloaded the app and have updated it before you make you start your set up.

Insert your wireless adapter into one of the USB ports on your PlayStation
Slide your power bar to either 1 or 2 to turn it on. These settings are only important if you plan to use the custom sound profiles on the Companion App
Open up the Companion app on your PlayStation and select which headset you will be setting up.
Hit next on the far right side of the app, it will be underneath the picture of the headset.
The number that your power bar on the headset is on should be filled in. Hit Load to load the headset onto the app.
After the headset is loaded onto the app, it should say Ready. Select Done after the loading is complete.

Your headset should be all set. Now that it is loaded on the Companion app, there should be several features with your headset that will display on the app. Now, if you want to get the most out of your headset, make sure you adjust a few things before you start playing.

Press and hold the PS button on your controller
Go to Sound/Devices, and select Output to Headphones
Change Chat Audio to All Audio

Now all of the sound will come through your headset as opposed to only chat coming through. Another thing you’ll want to check is your Microphone level. When I first played with the new Gold headset, my mic couldn’t be heard so make sure you go through and fix that.

Press and hold the PS button on your controller
Go to Sound/Devices, and select Adjust Microphone Level
Talk through your mic, or just out loud if it’s not physical, until your voice is in the Good range.

Now, you are all set to go out there and game with your friends or enemies alike.

All set? Share your thoughts on this new headset in the comments!

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• PS4 vs. PS4 Slim vs. PS4 Pro: Which should you buy?
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