Facebook Live adds a bunch of features for famous people
Mentions is the behind-the-scenes tool that public figures use to keep track of their brands on Facebook, and today it’s getting three new features aimed at improving the Live video experience. New tools rolling out over the next few weeks include the ability to blacklist certain words or phrases from the comments, fresh customization options for live videos and the option to trim videos after the broadcast has ended.
The new Team Prompts feature is good news for social media managers across the globe. Users are able to create drafts of Facebook Live posts, allowing the public figure to then review and publish those descriptions directly via Mentions. Plus, social media mavens are now able to schedule times they want the star to go live or publish specific posts. There’s also the new comment moderation tool that allows Mentions users to block specific words or phrases from the Live video chat ahead of time.
People in the Mentions club also get an expanded set of Live customization options: The adjustments tray allows broadcasters to flip the camera horizontally or vertically, adjust brightness settings or use a fancy new mirror mode.
Finally, trimming allows Mentions stars to determine when they want their published video to start and stop, after the live broadcast has ended. Facebook is also testing out a broadcaster status bar with a handful of Mentions users, providing realtime details about audio levels, connectivity and battery status.
There’s no word on when or if these features will roll out for regular Facebook Live users, but it seems they would be handy for the hoi polloi as well as the stars.
Algoriddim squeezes its djay Pro app into the iPhone
For the past 10 years, DJ software maker Algoriddim has been steadily updating its djay app, adding fresh features as software and technology have improved. It started out in Apple’s eco-system on the Mac, adding the iPhone and iPad as it went, even letting Android join the party eventually. Last year its fully-outfitted Pro version added video mixing alongside sampling, effects and four decks. This comprehensive party software hit iPads last year, but starting today the backbreaking work of hauling laptops and tablets around is over, with the newly laid out djay Pro for iPhone. Yep, you new get a fully capable DJ package, with access to Spotify’s pool of tracks, four decks, effects and video mixing in a pocketable format. If you’re intrigued, now’s the time to try it, with a limited time launch price of $4.99.
This revamped version of djay Pro isn’t much different from before. Most of the changes are subtle, aimed at improving accessibility on a small screen. There are some new features that take advantage of 3D-Touch and haptic feedback capabilities, though. You can now feel left, right and center spots on the crossfader as little nudges, plus cue marks can be created on the fly by hard presses on the screen. Also impressive, is the ability to feel each kick as you’re scrubbing through waveforms, which helps bring a semblance of actual record queuing back into the process.
In my opinion, DJing with just an iPhone isn’t necessarily the most pleasant experience. I suppose tiny fingers could help — perhaps it’s purpose-built for the emerging generation — but, with the combination of 3D-Touch and haptic feedback, it’s definitely workable. Djay Pro for iPhone makes the best of available space, offering easy access to effects, filters and tracks with centrally placed buttons.
Spotify integration is onboard as expected, but the browse function is a new addition, helping you search out new selections by mood, genre or popularity. It’s a great way to have access to a pool of tracks without building up your own collection, plus it’s a lifesaver if you find yourself in need of songs that fit a vibe you absolutely didn’t prepare for in advance.
For those adventurous enough, the video mixing capability is great, and it’s surprising to have access to such rich features from a device that fits in your pocket. You can use AirPlay to stream both music and video to to compatible systems, making it a pleasantly wireless experience. On top of this, if you have an Apple Watch, the watchOS 3 updates offer mix control from your wrist with improved ultra-low latency. While small fingers may help, the watch interface is intuitive and easy to use.
What could be the perfect on-the-go combo, is to pair the mobile app with Algoriddim’s latest hardware collaboration called Mixtour. This ultra-portable DJ controller manufactured by Reloop is definitely bag friendly and lets you run most of the app’s standard features from its larger interface. It takes a bit more forethought to carry one of these around on the off chance you’ll be playing some tunes, but it could help you avoid hunching over your phone when you’re in the mix.
If you’re not using one of Apple’s latest handsets, don’t worry, you can still use djay Pro for iPhone if you have an iPhone 5 or later running iOS 10, but you’ll have to do without the haptic and 3D-Touch perks. You can pick up a copy of the app on iTunes starting today and save 50 percent off the regular price for a limited time.
‘Super Mario Run’ hits 40 million downloads in four days
Nintendo has released official download figures for its first (true) smartphone game. 40 million people have tapped their way through the free version of Super Mario Run in just four days. The full game is priced at $10, but Nintendo didn’t reveal exactly how many Mario Runners have decided to take the plunge. How does that compare to 2016’s smartphone hit, Pokémon Go? Well, it’s not a simple comparison.
Super Mario Run launched globally, but only on iPhones and iPads. Meanwhile Pokémon Go launched cross-platform, but rolled out slowly across the globe. Pokémon Go hit 30 million downloads in two weeks. In sheer money-making terms, both games are free to play (initially), and while Pokémon Go depended on in-app purchases, Mario Run jut offered the single ten-dollar purchase for the entire game. There’s no other in-app purchases for Mario’s smartphone debut, at least, not yet.
Source: Nintendo (Japanese)
Apple Watch refurbs lower the cost of outfitting your wrist
You no longer have to wait for a sale to snag an Apple Watch at a more reasonable price. Apple has quietly started selling refurbished Series 1 and Series 2 models through its American online store, lowering the barrier of entry if you don’t insist on untouched wristwear. They’re currently the most common models, to no one’s surprise (no ceramic Apple Watch Edition here), but you’re getting a sizable 15 percent discount over brand new: Series 1 begins at $229, while the GPS-equipped Series 2 variants start at $309. The Series 2 lineup also includes a few stainless steel versions starting at $469.
These aren’t the lowest prices we’ve seen. At the height of the holiday shopping frenzy, you could buy a Series 1 for under $200. With that said, these discounts are considerably more reliable… and importantly, they lower the official cost of entry for the Apple Watch world. While we wouldn’t exactly call $229 an impulse buy, it’s considerably more palatable if you’re not sure about this whole smartwatch thing and would rather not spend more than necessary.
Via: 9to5Mac
Source: Apple
Twitter’s search results are now sorted by relevance
Earlier this year, Twitter started moving away from the reverse chronological timeline and started prioritizing algorithmically “relevant” tweets in order to keep users more engaged. Starting today, Twitter will now be ordering its search results the same way in hopes that more relevant results will improve the search experience as well.
Lisa Huang, a senior software engineer on Twitter’s Search Quality team, explained the reason for the change in a blog post by pointing out that Twitter moves fast and the most recent results may not be the exact tweet you were looking for. (When you’re looking up a tweet with an original joke, for example, but search only turns up the endless quotes and retweets.)
In order to decide which tweets to show, Huang’s team has been testing a variety of factors to perfect the results layout as well as the machine learning model that actually ranks the results. But it is ultimately what you (and everyone else on Twitter) click on that gives Twitter its definition of what is relevant.
“A person’s behavior on Twitter provides an invaluable source of relevance information,” Huang wrote. And Twitter has data showing everything from which tweets you’ve seen to which tweets you’ve interacted with and how you interacted with them. “Using this information,” Huang continued, “we can train machine learning models that predict how likely a Tweet is to be engaged with.” Those machine learning models then rank “relevant” tweets based on the probability that users will engage with it.
While it make sense that everyone wants to see the most appropriate information to their search, the fact that a tweet is likely to get a lot of retweets doesn’t necessarily make it relevant either. To show the new results page in practice, Twitter offered a side-by-side of comparison of the old layout (below left) versus the new (right) for a search of #MrRobot. While the new page is less cluttered, at least in this example it also seems to favor the brands and official accounts while pushing individual users further down the page.
Via: VentureBeat
Source: Twitter Blog
FTC tells Verizon ‘supercookie’ partner to give you an exit
Verizon (aka our corporate overlords) may have settled with the FCC over its seemingly inescapable “supercookie” web tracking back in March, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. The carrier was sending that information to a third party, Turn, which used it for ad purposes. What about its fate? Well, now we know: Turn has settled with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that it deceived web surfers by tracking them even when they took steps to avoid monitoring. The company not only has to properly disclose the nature of its tracking, but offer an “effective” opt-out. In the “supercookie” days, the opt-out only worked for mobile web browsers, not ads within apps — that shouldn’t be a problem following the FTC order.
It’s not as ideal as an opt-in solution, but that may not be as much of an issue when Verizon’s FCC settlement required that it make its tracking strictly voluntary. No, the settlement won’t make anyone forget that Verizon prioritized ad dollars over users’ privacy. It will, however, give you a way to reduce the number of targeted ads in your life.
Via: Consumerist
Source: FTC
Apple’s tiny, totally wireless AirPods get meticulously torn down
After having been delayed for months — for reasons never publicly confirmed, no less — Apple’s AirPods are finally here. And really, what better to way to celebrate one of the most curious delays in Apple history than by tearing those things apart? The folks at iFixit have done just that (as always), and the end result is a fascinating look at $160 worth of meticulously crafted silicon and audio parts. Spoiler alert: there’s more glue in them than you’d think.
As you might imagine, the tiny scale of Apple’s work and all the glue sealing everything in place make the AirPods a nightmare where repairs are concerned. In fact, all the components are so tightly packed in there that the idea of replacing parts or fixing them in general is downright laughable. Still, this kind of surgery does a great job illustrating the insane, compact origami that goes into modern consumer gadgets. And if nothing else, iFixit’s strangely gorgeous imagery more thoroughly explains the importance of the AirPods’ most questionable design choice: those stems that dangle out of your ear.
People stare, but they probably don’t realize that those stems are mostly all battery — their charge capacity works out to 1 percent of the iPhone 7’s — with long antennas glued to them to maintain a strong connection between the Pods themselves and the phone. (For what it’s worth, we’ve had a pair of AirPods for months and the multiple wireless connections were more-or-less rock-solid the entire time.)
Knowing that doesn’t make the stems look any better, though, as evidenced by all the shade thrown at me by coworkers whenever I wear these things. Also nestled deep within there is what makes the AirPods really tick: the minuscule W1 chip. It’s responsible for the Pods’ dead-simple pairing and power-sipping tendencies, which so far have been the big reasons our review units have seen such consistent use. The level of tension subsides when attention is turned to the AirPods’ charging case, but make no mistake: if you’re a fan of lilliputian tech, this is one teardown you have to see.
AT&T service prevents scam calls from reaching your phone
Yes, you can block phone numbers used for robocalls and tech support scams, but that usually means having to take at least one call (or running the right software) before you realize something’s fishy. And AT&T, at least, is trying to do better. In response to the FCC’s request for tougher action, the carrier has introduced a free Call Protect service for HD Voice (voice over LTE) users that aims to block fraudulent and spam calls, in many cases before they even reach your phone. An automatic fraud blocking feature will stop scams at the network level, while you’ll also get warnings about suspected spam calls if you’re in an HD Voice coverage area.
You can activate the feature either through your account or a dedicated Call Protect app that also offers temporary blocking (up to 30 days) for known numbers. And yes, you can make sure that the automatic fraud screening doesn’t inadvertently exclude your employer or a distant friend — you can greenlight certain numbers to make sure they get through. While AT&T would ideally have Call Protect on by default, this optional approach may have to do so long as call filtering is less than bulletproof.
Source: AT&T (1), (2)
‘Dawn of Titans’ shrinks an epic strategy game onto your phone
This year alone, 1.4 billion smartphones will be sold, giving more people have access to gaming devices than ever before. But with more than 1,000 new apps flooding the App Store every day, it’s increasingly difficult for new titles to make an impact. Every so often, a game like Pokémon Go comes along, proving that if you have the right “hook,” you can find a massive audience.
NaturalMotion believes technology is its hook. The British gaming studio started life creating animation engines, with its software used for everything from The Lord of the Rings movies to Grand Theft Auto V. It then packed that tech into mobile games like Clumsy Ninja that, thanks to their visual edge, quickly topped the App Store. That success led to the studio being bought for $527 million by casual-gaming giant Zynga. It’s been nearly three years since the acquisition, though, and the pressure is on for NaturalMotion to deliver a fresh hit.
The studio is hoping that pushing the processing power of modern smartphones is enough to get players downloading again. Moving away from the simple titles that built them an empire, NaturalMotion’s latest title, Dawn of Titans, is the developer’s first foray into action-strategy gaming.
For a mobile game, Dawn of Titans offers an unusual sense of scale. Upon opening the app, you find yourself looking over an intricately detailed floating kingdom, fully rendered 3D castles and buildings sitting before you as tiny villagers wander around them in real time. It’s a level of detail you’d expect to see in a console game, not on an app’s home screen.
Although not quite as detailed, the battles themselves are also pretty spectacular. With the studio clearly taking cues from Creative Assembly’s Total War series, Dawn of Titans sees you leading thousands of soldiers into battle against either real-life or AI-controlled foes. Combat is simple: Skirmishes last around a minute, and you command each type of unit to attack with the flick of a finger. Most of the real strategizing takes place long before any swords clash. Offline missions and online fights reward you with in-game currency, and between matches you train your units and equip your most prized warriors.
NaturalMotion CEO Torsten Reil explains that simplicity is the key to success. “Those epic battles that you see in the likes of The Lord of the Rings, they don’t exist on mobile. We felt like we could do that and make them pass the Starbucks test.” Reil pauses, gesturing at the opposing army lying defeated on the screen. “For it to work on mobile, you need to be able to win a battle in the time it takes you to buy a coffee.”
“..Successful games create an environment that you want to spend time in, where you make friends. Then, eventually, some people will want to pay.”
Sensibly, this time NaturalMotion is choosing to avoid heavy-handed micro transactions. “[Dawn of Titans] doesn’t nickel-and-dime you because when we tried that in the past, players just dropped out of the game,” he explains. “In this new generation of free-to-play, I think all the successful games create an environment that you want to spend time in, where you make friends. Then, eventually, some people will want to pay.”
As enjoyable as Dawn of Titans is, it needs to do more than impress gamers like me. Facebook gaming has fallen by the wayside and NaturalMotion’s parent company Zynga’s relevance and profits have declined with it. The Farmville creator has bet big on NaturalMotion, and despite performing well initially, the company’s first game since the acquisition, CSR Racing 2, has since dropped out of the top 50 on the App Store charts. A lot is riding on Dawn of Titans‘ success.
NaturalMotion’s CEO seems less worried. “If we wow people, it spreads word of mouth.” Reil says. “It’s actually a very specific focus that we have with all of our games. Our business model is if we invest more in the product, then we invest less in user acquisition.”
But its competitors reportedly spend almost $1 million a day on star-studded ad campaigns, and NaturalMotion is going to need more than just word of mouth to succeed. Reil argued that Zynga has the resources to compete. “If we want to compete with Clash of Clans — with any of these companies– we can,” he says. I’m not so sure. That may have been true in 2012 when Zynga was valued at $11.5 billion, but now the company is worth just $2.4 billion, less than a quarter of Clash of Clans maker Supercell (which also has the financial clout of Tencent, a $250 billion company, behind it).
Since my discussion with Reil, Dawn of Titans was released on both Android and iOS. As of December 19th, it ranked 64th in the App Store’s “Top Grossing” list and 50th in the corresponding Google Play chart. It’s off to a decent start, for sure, but with Zynga unable to match its rivals’ marketing budgets, Dawn of Titans will have to hook a lot more players if it’s to succeed in this cutthroat market.
Instagram Stories gets stickers and forced holiday cheer
It doesn’t look like Instagram will stop lifting features from Snapchat anytime soon. Today it’s the addition of stickers in Instagram Stories (a feature which itself was a direct Snapchat copy) on iOS and Android. You’ll be able to add stickers for things like the weather, your current location and the time in photos and videos that appear in your story. Yes, it’s not exactly groundbreaking stuff, but it’s the sort of fun and irreverent thing that’s made Snapchat more appealing to younger folks. Instagram (and Facebook) just want in on that action.
If you’re not excited by stickers, there are a few other Instagram Stories updates that could be useful. You can now shoot “hands-free” videos just by tapping on the screen, add as much text as you’d like and save stories from the past day as a video. And of course, there’s the expected holiday cheer in the form a candy cane brush and special stickers (with more on the way for New Years).
While it makes sense for Instagram to play catchup with Snapchat, it would also be nice to see it innovating a bit when it comes to new features. Its new livestreaming capability, for example, is a sort of hybrid between Facebook Live and Snapchat. It’s not entirely new, but at least it’s distinctive.
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