Facebook Slideshow livens up your photos and videos
It’s easy to post a ton of photos from your weekend adventures to Facebook, but let’s face it: there are only so many people willing to flip through your photos one at a time. Facebook might just have a way to spice things up, though. It’s trotting out a Slideshow feature that turns your photos and videos into themed clips that will be easier to watch. All you need to do to get one is take five or more photos or videos in 24 hours — Facebook will create an initial clip all on its own. After that, it’s a matter of customizing the slideshow by adding or removing shots and choosing the theme. The feature is only reaching iOS users this week, but it’ll be a big help if it gets friends to check out your vacation gallery.
Vodafone’s Smart Ultra 7 is another unremarkable refresh
Vodafone is back in Moto G territory with the Smart Ultra 7, an own-brand smartphone designed to replace the decent Smart Ultra 6 from last year. The new model is a smidge more expensive — £135 on pay-as-you-go, rather than £125 — but offers an ever-so-slightly more luxurious design. The Ultra 6’s grey plastic shell has been swapped our for the same faux-leather look found on Vodafone’s cheaper Smart Prime 7. It doesn’t scream style, but neither will it attract much attention in a conference room.
Like the Ultra 6, the Ultra 7 comes with a 5.5-inch, 1080p display and 2GB of RAM. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 has been swapped out for an octa-core MediaTek processor — we’re not sure if that’s an improvement — and the battery has been trimmed from 3,000mAh to 2,960mAh. Any perceivable leaps in performance will, therefore, be marginal, although we found the Ultra 6 to be snappy enough last year. Provided you’re not playing intensive games like Asphalt 8: Airbone, you’ll probably be okay.
The best part of the Ultra 7 is, arguably, the software experience. Like the Ultra 6 and its popular competitor, the Moto G, the latest Vodafone handset runs a near-stock version of Android. You’ll get 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box with no whacky wallpapers, icon packs or menu customisations of note. It’s the experience Google intended, albeit with a few (nine at my count) Vodafone apps thrown into the mix. While these are still a nuisance, they’re a small price to pay in comparison to other, more overbearing Android modifications slapped on by countless phone manufacturers.
The Ultra 7 is a logical, if unexciting successor to the Ultra 6. (A trend for Vodafone, it seems, after the Smart Prime 7 and Smart First 7.) It’s worth looking at, especially if Vodafone is your network of choice in the UK. Given its enterprise-ready design, however, we suspect it’s been developed with the workplace in mind. The phone seems a good fit for well-paid executives who want to quickly equip dozens, if not thousands of workers with a respectable Android smartphone. It’s not a flagship contender like the Smart Platinum 7, but it should be more than capable of handling email, calls, texts and the usual repertoire of social media apps.
India’s $4 smartphone arrives June 30th
We wouldn’t blame you for thinking that the $4 Indian smartphone was just a pipe dream, but it’s apparently quite real. Ringing Bells tells the Indian Express that its ultra low-cost Freedom 251 (named based on its price in rupees) will start shipping on June 30th, with nearly 200,000 units in the early batch. As before, the hardware is no great shakes. You’re looking at a 4-inch 960 x 540 screen, a modest 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of memory, 8GB of expandable storage, an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 3.2-megapixel front cam — it’s even running Android 5.1 instead of 6.0. Price really is the selling point here.
While it’s good that there’s a tangible product, there are still doubts swirling around its feasibility. Ringing Bells’ CEO admits that his company is taking a loss on every phone right now — it’s hoping to make up for that through sheer volume. As it stands, the firm is still reluctant to offer hands-on time to the media despite a release just days away.
If this gamble pays off, though, it could change the local phone market. Even the most affordable smartphones on the market right now still represent a huge expense for some Indians, particularly rural dwellers who rarely enjoy middle class incomes. At $4, the Freedom 251 is inexpensive enough that it’d be far more attainable and help close a technological divide. The main mystery is whether or not the phone is any good. A terrible experience (say, through unreliable hardware) might sour people on the whole concept, no matter how tempting the price might be.
Via: The Next Web
Source: The Indian Express
Google reportedly ships its first non-Nexus phone this year
You might not have to wait long to see whether or not rumors of Google having more say over phone designs are true. Sources speaking to the Telegraph claim that Google will release a smartphone with tighter controls over “design, manufacturing and software” before the end of the year. The details of the phone aren’t available, but this wouldn’t be a Nexus from the sound of it — those are shaped more by third parties that maintain at least some of their influence. The Pixel C tablet might (might) offer an inkling of what to expect.
Google didn’t comment on the rumor for the newspaper. With that said, its leadership hasn’t been shy about wanting to take the reins. CEO Sundar Pichai recently said that Google would be more “opinionated” about designs. The issue may simply be a matter of how far Mountain View wants to go. Is it willing to risk alienating Android’s hardware partners with a phone designed largely in-house, or would this be more about making a bigger mark on the Nexus program? One thing’s certain: if the rumor is at all accurate, Google’s hardware strategy will never be the same.
Source: The Telegraph
South Korea hopes traffic signs will cut phone distractions
Cities have tried a number of exotic solutions to get phone-toting pedestrians to focus on where they’re going (or at least, out of the way). However, Seoul thinks there’s a simpler answer: traffic signs. The South Korean capital is testing signs that warn smartphone owners in five accident-prone areas (such as City Hall or Gangnam Station) about the perils of distracted walking. In theory, those periodic reminders will have you looking up more often and spare you from smacking into a car.
Whether or not the trial expands will depend on the effectiveness of the signs, and there’s no certainty that they’ll work. The whole problem is that people are buried in their screens — will they look up for long enough to notice, let alone care? It’s hard to imagine Seoul officials giving up on the idea quickly, though. While smartphones are popular in many places, South Korea is particularly obsessed given that both LG and Samsung call the country home. Even a cursory reminder to pay attention may have a tangible effect.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Seoul Metropolitan Government
Google live support app would share your Nexus phone’s screen
Buying a Nexus device straight from Google can be a little intimidating to newcomers. It’s not as if you can visit a Google store or your carrier for help, after all. If an Android Police leak is accurate, however, you might not have to. The Android creator is reportedly working on a Google Support app that would offer live help somewhat akin to Amazon’s Mayday. If needed, you’d have the option sharing your screen with a service agent — they could walk you through changing a setting without having to guess what you’re looking at. It’s not certain what else is in store, but it’s safe to say that chat would be part of the experience.
Just when it’d arrive is also murky, and that’s presuming it happens at all. Remember that Android Silver program that was supposed to offer live support and never materialized? Yeah. With that in mind, leaked app visuals suggest that this isn’t just a theoretical exercise. It wouldn’t be shocking if Support showed up alongside this year’s Nexus phones, giving you a safety net at the same time as you pick up that slick new handset. It wouldn’t just cheaper and more direct to get Nexus hardware, in other words — you’d get a special experience that gives rookies a reason to pick a Nexus besides the low price or pure Android.
Source: Android Police
iPhone 7 will get a larger camera, according to spy shot
Another week, another iPhone 7 leak. (Hey, it rhymes!) Following the set of components allegedly showing dual-SIM support, up to 256GB of storage and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the next iPhone, Chinese repair shop Rock Fix is back with a photo of what it claims to be the 4.7-inch iPhone 7’s rear casing. Most notably, there are fewer plastic antenna bands here, and the main camera is said to feature a larger CMOS sensor — here’s hoping this will offer larger pixel sites to boost light sensitivity. What’s interesting is that contrary to WSJ’s report earlier this week, Rock Fix reiterated that the headphone jack is here to stay on the 4.7-inch version, but there’s no word on whether the same applies to the 5.5-inch Plus model. We certainly hope that’s the case.
Rock Fix added that we should expect the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 to arrive in two flavors: One being a base model to replace the aging iPhone 6 (don’t worry, we were told it won’t be a plastic rehash), with the other being the one we’re looking at here. This leaves us with the iPhone 7 Plus which is expected to feature the dual-lens camera we saw last time. Both sizes will apparently have dual-SIM slots, which is a common feature in competitive markets like China and India. If true, this move will hopefully give Apple a much needed boost after its recent iPhone sales decline.
Source: Rock Fix (Sina Weibo)
Neural net photography tweaks go mobile with Prisma on iOS
We’ve seen DeepMind’s acid trip photo creations and what it looks like when algorithms colorize black and white photos. But you need to be near a computer for the former, and do some pretty heavy lifting, scientifically speaking, to set up the latter. But an iOS app is putting algorithm-based photo tweaks in your pocket. Dubbed Prisma, it takes a different approach than, say, Instagram. The app’s filters are artistic, in the painterly definition of the word.
Either take a new photo from within the app or import a pre-existing one (don’t bother with anything aside from vertical shots) and pick from one of about 20 filters, then export to your social network of choice. Fancy making a pile of coat hangers on your end table look like a pencil sketch? Have at it. Same goes for transforming into a The Scream-like brushstroke patterns. The development team tells TechCrunch that the goal is to add two or more new filters each day, and expects to have 40 within a month.
The results are pretty impressive, and unlike Paper Camera on Android, your phone isn’t doing any of the heavy lifting here. The processing is done via Prisma’s remote servers, and the outfit claims that no photos are stored or viewed from its side of things. On WiFi processing takes a second or two to apply the effect, but the wait is pretty low-impact and didn’t stop me from experimenting with different looks. That could all change when operating on mobile data, of course. But it’s still a lot faster than desktop-based alternatives.
“We’re not just overlaying like an Instagram filter,” Prisma co-founder Alexey Moiseenkov tells TechCrunch. “We create the photo from scratch. So there is no photo, we took your photo, then perform some operations and give a new photo to you. So deep learning is like an artist, something like that.”
Okay, so Moiseenkov’s pitch might need some polishing, but the app is free so you’re not out anything for giving it a shot.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Prisma (iTunes)
New Gordon Ramsay mobile game brings the heat and profanity
Ever dream of working in a kitchen with Gordon Ramsay breathing down your neck? With the new Gordon Ramsay Dash game, which lands on iOS and Android next week, you can get a taste of cooking in a stressful environment under the chef’s watchful eye. I had a chance to speak about the game with Ramsay himself — who, by the way, is unnervingly calm in person.
“The game is about how I started,” he said. You begin with a small neighborhood restaurant, simple ingredients and basic decor. Under game-Ramsay’s tutelage, you’ll grow your business into a global empire by serving dishes to customers in a limited time.
Gordon Ramsay Dash was made in partnership with Glu Mobile, the same company behind Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Indeed, based on screenshots, Dash’s main gameplay looks remarkably similar to Glu’s other restaurant game, Cooking Dash 2016, which I’ve been addicted to for a year. Even Ramsay’s description of his app sounds familiar. “This is a very competitive, highly energized scenario and it will give you an essence of what it’s really like in the restaurant world,” he said. You’ll likely have to prepare and serve food to a number of guests in timed rounds, and it can get stressful.
But there are unique aspects to Gordon Ramsay Dash chef duels: You challenge friends and other players to a cook-off; there’s a “Farm Market” feature for bartering ingredients with other chefs; and a “Wichelin” star system that Ramsay came up with mirrors his experience with earning Michelin stars.
Those stars are important, too. “Whilst you sleep, I’ll be monitoring your progress and the standard of the restaurant,” Ramsay said. And if your restaurant loses stars or falls in quality, you can expect an earful.
Indeed, that may be the game’s biggest draw. Ramsay spent weeks in a voiceover booth recording hundreds of pages of scripts to make the app feel more personal. You’ll hear him say (or shout), “Overcooked!” or “Overseasoned!” And if you’ve (gasp!) done well, you’ll also be praised in true Ramsay fashion: A game trailer shows him saying “Fucking brilliant” and “That’s how it’s done.”
Ramsay fans will probably enjoy Dash — but it’s a different story for his 16-year-old daughter, Holly. Ramsay said she told him, ” ‘Dad, love the game, just not too sure if I want you shouting at me in the morning when I turn my phone on saying that your restaurant’s gone under.’ “
As for those who have lofty dreams of starting their own restaurants, try the app first. “I’m going to send them an app with a phone free of charge, because that would be a lot cheaper than it would be to put hundreds of thousands of pounds into a restaurant that would last for six months,” said Ramsay.
It might not be all that cheap to play, though. While the app is free, its in-app purchases (at least in this beta) range from $1.49 for a handful of gold or coins to $14.99 for a bucket of currency. “I didn’t realize how much [Holly’s] spent on it already,” Ramsay said. “Thankfully, she’s using her mother’s credit card.”
That said, the cash-strapped could still enjoy the experience without any investment. In all my time playing Cooking Dash, I’ve not spent a single cent on in-app purchases, so it should be relatively easy to avoid spending money to enjoy Ramsay’s game.
The game will be available next week, on June 30th. You can pre-register on the Google Play Store, and those who do so by June 27th will receive an exclusive in-game chef’s coat to dress up their avatar.
ICYMI: Saving the ocean and ghosting on love interests
Today on In Case You Missed It: The Burner chatbot would let a machine ghost on acquaintances you’d rather not text with anymore. So that’s point one for the endtimes, zero for humanity. But this Dutch inventor should more than switch that around with a small prototype of the ocean fence that is designed to collect ocean trash passively, allowing currents to push plastic and other stuff that doesn’t belong in the water into a collection fence. If it all works out, a huge, 60-mile long version of his invention will grace the Pacific Ocean within a few years and hopefully be a solution to solving the Great Pacific garbage patch.
If you’re into Nerf guns, you must watch this video. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
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