‘Pokémon Go’ update explains which monsters are the best
Despite its incredible initial popularity, Pokémon Go has faced a number of issues since launch beyond just keeping its servers working. A Bloomberg report cites analyst numbers claiming the game’s active users have shrunk by more than 10 million from their mid-July peak, which makes keeping the remaining players happy even more important. An update that just arrived on Android and iOS is trying to address that, pulling in the recently-added Team Leader characters to give players advice on their Pokémon.
The only problem is that, as you can see in the screenshots, the advice is pretty vague and may not give casual players any useful info. Basically, by pressing the appraisal button while looking at a captured Pokémon, players can get feedback that indicates how that particular Pokémon’s stats compare to others of its species. That’s the kind of feedback you’ll need before deciding which ones to evolve, battle or trade to the professor — but only if you can understand what’s going on. The Pokémon Go Database fan site has a list of all the possible responses and what they mean in terms of numbers, acting as an explainer to the explanation feature.
As-is, it’s a small step towards helping players understand what’s going on without needing to search out help online, while the changelog indicates that Niantic is also working on “rebalancing” the training battle. So many areas of the game could use work to provide better rewards for time invested it’s hard to pick out just one, but that’s apparently what’s coming next. You can grab the new update on iTunes or Google Play right now — let us know if a few one-liners from Spark, Blanche and Candela are enough to keep you playing.
Source: Pokémon Go, iTunes, Google Play
Google’s Daydream VR could debut in the next few weeks
With the release of Android Nougat this week, Google’s mobile VR platform Daydream couldn’t be far behind. And that indeed seems to be the case, as Bloomberg reports that Daydream will launch in the “coming weeks.” You can also expect some brand new VR media from the likes of Hulu and YouTube stars like Justine Ezarik and the Dolan twins to accompany the platform.
At this point, the search giant is dabbling in different types of VR content to see what sticks, according to Bloomberg. It’s shelling out in the “high six figures” for video game-related VR experiences, and in the “low five figures to low six figures” for projects involving filmmakers. Facebook, in comparison, has poured millions into producing VR media for its Oculus platform. That’s also one of the biggest strengths of Samsung’s Gear VR, which was built in partnership with Oculus.
While Daydream seems like a far more ambitious VR initiative than Google Cardboard, there’s still plenty we don’t know about it. For one, we’ve only seen a sketch of a prototype headset design, which looks very similar to Samsung’s Gear VR. It’s also unclear what, exactly, Google will demand of its hardware partners. All we know is that Daydream compatible phones will require “key components” like “specific sensors and screens.” (Based on conversations with people in the VR industry, I’d bet that OLED displays will play a major role.) The company has at least managed to get Samsung, LG, Xiaomi and HTC onboard with building Daydream-compatible phones.
Source: Bloomberg
Prisma’s arty photo filters now work offline
There’s a lot going on behind the curtain with Prisma, the app that turns your banal photos into Lichtenstein- or Van Gogh-esque artworks. The app actually sends your cat photo to its servers where a neural network does the complex transformation. Starting soon, that will no longer be necessary, though. “We have managed to implement neural networks to smartphones, which means users will no longer need an internet connection to turn their photos into art pieces,” the company says. Only half of Prisma’s styles will be available offline at first (16 total), but others will be added in the “near future.”
Running the algorithms locally will speed things up (depending on your smartphone), help folks with poor internet service and free up valuable CPU cycles on its servers. The latter benefit will allow its tech to work with video, in a later release, Prisma adds. “Now that we’ve implemented neural networks right to the smartphones, we have enough servers capacity to run full videos on them in the near future.”
Now that we’ve implemented neural networks right to the smartphones, we have enough servers capacity to run full videos on them in the near future.
Prisma claims it’s the first to implement neural network tech on a smartphone, and that “no team or company has ever done anything close.” That, it says, opens up AI to developers without access to server farms, meaning “we will see [a lot more] new products based on neural networks.” Companies like Google and Apple may beg to differ, as they have already implemented smartphone AI for translation, voice recognition and more.
52 million folks have installed Prisma and 4 million use it daily, according to the company. Much as Snapchat has done, it plans to monetize the app via brand filters, while keeping it free for users. The offline processing speed depends on which smartphone you have — Prisma says it takes six seconds for the iPhone 6s to repaint a photo and a bit more for the iPhone 6s. The new features will arrive to iOS shortly and hit Android after that.
Update: Prisma originally said that it takes 2.5 seconds for an iPhone 6s to process a photo and three seconds for an iPhone 6. However, it now says the transformation takes six seconds on the iPhone 6s and a bit longer with the iPhone 6. The post has been updated with this information.
Samsung launches first 4G, Tizen-powered smartphone in India
Samsung’s experiment with the Tizen operating system hasn’t shown up in more than a couple of handsets and some Gear smartwatches so far, but the smartphone behemoth still believes the open-source platform has value for low-cost phones in emerging markets. Case in point: the first 4G Tizen offering, the Samsung Z2 arrives in India next week, with a price tag of around $68 USD (or 4,590 INR) and a range of region-specific features.
First, the basics: the Z2 sports a 4-inch 480×800 AMOLED display driven by a quad-core 1.5GHz processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal memory, expandable via a microSD slot. The Z2 also offers dual-SIM support, a 1,500 mAh battery, a 5-megapixel camera and a front-facing VGA selfie cam. While it’s not exactly a flagship phone with those specs, Samsung has included a range of “Make for India” features like Ultra Data Saving Mode, Ultra Power Saving Mode, S Bike mode and the My Money Transfer app to make it doubly appealing to the Indian market.
When the phone officially goes on sale August 29th, it will be available in Black, Gold or “Wine Red” at retail stores or online at Paytm, and comes pre-loaded with a trial version of Samsung’s Jio mobile streaming apps. The phone is expected to hit other countries after its initial release in India, although the price could vary slightly depending on the region.
Source: Samsung
Facebook tests auto-playing News Feed videos with sound
It’s no secret that Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook to become a more video-centric social network, and the company has been conducting various tests to see how its users would react to new features. One of its latest mobile app experiments is auto-playing videos on the News Feed… with sound.
According to Mashable, some affected users see an icon on videos that you can tap to toggle sounds or or off. That sounds manageable, and we can imagine people liking the feature. However, other testers are reporting that sounds automatically start up when videos play on their News Feed, so long as their devices aren’t on silent mode. That one sounds like a huge PITA. It appears that the test is only live for a small percentage of people on mobile in Australia, however, and it doesn’t seem like it will be expanding elsewhere just yet.
You’re probably well-acquainted with how videos work on the News Feed by now. They automatically (and silently) play while they’re visible on your screen, but they stop as soon as you scroll past them. The system’s pretty convenient for watching videos on the go, especially if you usually can’t be bothered to dig up your earphones. It will be tough browsing your friends’ posts in public places if sounds autoplay, as well.
If you’re Down Under and among the small number of users affected, you don’t have to deal with it if you don’t want to. You can always switch sounds off in Settings or mute your phone completely.
Here’s the statement we got from Facebook:
“We’re running a small test in News Feed where people can choose whether they want to watch videos with sound on from the start. For people in this test who do not want sound to play, they can switch it off in Settings or directly on the video itself. This is one of several tests we’re running as we work to improve the video experience for people on Facebook.”
Source: Mashable
Microsoft app helps you coordinate with fellow shift workers
Sure, the office crowd has chat apps like Slack and HipChat to coordinate what they’re doing, but what if you’re a shift worker who needs to swap hours? Microsoft (which already has GroupMe and Skype for Business, we’d add) might help. It’s testing Project Sonoma, a currently closed-access app for Android and iOS that helps shift workers keep track of the daily grind. You can see shifts, request swaps and chat with teammates either one-on-one or in groups. If you’ve ever wanted someone to cover your stint while you’re out at the dentist’s, this could be your app of choice.
Microsoft hasn’t said if or when it plans to release Project Sonoma to everyone. You can sign up for a waiting list if you want to get in. We’ve asked it about what’s happening and will let you know what it says. With that said, it won’t be surprising if you can try it soon. Our friends at TechCrunch suspect that Microsoft bought the developers of a very similar app, Shiftr — while Microsoft has plenty of experiments (such as its Garage projects), it likely wants to translate an acquisition to a widely available product.
Via: TechCrunch, MSPowerUser
Source: App Store, Google Play, Project Sonoma
Microsoft’s latest acquisition hints at AI scheduling in Office
Hate the song and dance involved in finding just the right time to hold a meeting? Microsoft does too. It’s acquiring Genee, whose centerpiece is an AI-powered virtual assistant that helps you schedule events in sync with your itinerary. Email both a client and Genee while you’re arranging a lunch meeting, for instance, and it’ll let your contact know when you can make it. Just what Genee will do isn’t clear, but it’ll “accelerate intelligent experiences” in Office 365 — as elsewhere, Microsoft wants to make AI a key part of your workday.
It’s not so hot news if you’re one of Genee’s users. The company’s founders note that the Genee service will shut down on September 1st. Your existing appointments will stay put, but you can’t create new ones or get reminders after that date. The move isn’t shocking, but we wouldn’t count on Genee’s integrations with Gmail or iCloud surviving the transition to Microsoft.
Source: Official Microsoft Blog, Genee
Android 7.0 Nougat arrives today
Typically, Google releases new versions of Android alongside new Nexus hardware, but the company is breaking with tradition this year. Android 7.0 Nougat is rolling out as an over the air update starting today. The update is available to anyone using the Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X and Nexus 6 phones as well as the Nexus 9 and Pixel C tablets. It’s also coming to the Nexus Player set-top box and the General Mobile 4G Android One smartphone.
If you’ve been using the Android 7.0 open beta, you won’t notice a ton of differences here. Google rolled out a very stable version of that beta software back at I/O in May, and it has served as a solid template for the final version coming out today.
The new features of Android Nougat aren’t exactly a surprise at this point, but they’re worth reviewing as the OS rolls out more widely. Probably the two biggest user-facing changes are new notifications and a multi-tasking mode. Notifications are now grouped by app in the notification shade; you can pull down on any app’s alerts to get the full list. You can also reply directly from notifications, something that iOS has actually had for longer than Android.
Multi-window multitasking lets you run two apps side-by-side, just like you can on the iPad when running iOS 9. This multitasking mode will probably be most useful on tablets like the Pixel C, but it works on smartphones as well — and the experience is a lot better than we originally expected.
Nougat also has a bunch of small tweaks that make getting around the OS generally and more personalized to you. The quick settings menu can now be customized to include the things you access the most, and double-tapping the multitasking button switches you between the two more recent apps you’ve used.
Doze mode, a battery-saving measure introduced last year in Android Marshmallow, has also been tweaked. Previously, Doze would put your phone into a lower-energy mode when the screen was off and the phone wasn’t moving, but now it’s smart enough to stay in low-power mode even when you’re moving around (say, if your phone is tucked in your pocket or backpack).
Perhaps less immediately useful but no less significant is how Android Nougat will handle software updates. If you’re running a “new” Android device with Nougat, software updates will install in the background and be present when you reboot your phone — there’s no more waiting with your phone totally locked up while new software installs. But it looks like only devices released from this point forward will have this feature. Current Nexus devices will benefit from much faster software updates, but it’ll still be in the old fashion where your phone reboots and is unable to be used during installation.
Most significantly, there are 72 new emoji available in Nougat. Get to texting. There are a lot more new features to be found in Nougat, but these are the ones that most users will want to use as soon as the update hits their phones. Unfortunately, it might be a little bit before that happens — in classic Google fashion, the update will be rolling out “in the coming weeks.”
Twitter’s night mode comes to iOS
It was only a matter of time before Twitter brought its night mode to iOS, and sure enough, it’s here. The social network has started rolling out a settings tweak that, like on Android, lets you shift to a darker color scheme to avoid straining your eyes (or because you prefer the look, of course). This definitely isn’t the first Twitter client on iOS to do a night mode, or even the best implementation — Tweetbot has had the option for ages, and it switches automatically based on time of day where Twitter asks you to toggle it manually. Still, it’s nice to see such a practical feature reach the widest audience possible.
Rolling out today – we’re bringing night mode to iOS! 🌙 https://t.co/XxNZHQdth9 pic.twitter.com/WLwKi4H0Oe
— Twitter (@twitter) August 22, 2016
Source: Twitter (1), (2)
MIT is exploring phones that put themselves together
We’ve seen a tiny chair that can assemble itself from MIT, but now the lab responsible for that adorable experiment has their eye on a much more complicated project: self-assembling cellphones. Specifically, MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab is looking at how putting together a handful of components in a rotating tumbler could come together as a complete cellphone, Fast Company reports. It’s a hard concept to grasp in words, so check out a video of the concept in action below.
Skylar Tibbits, who co-runs the lab, says he was originally inspired by MIT’s DIY cellphone project. That idea involved using $100 to $200 worth of parts to build a fairly simple dumbphone on your own. Tibbits took that concept even further to figure out how to build a functioning phone without human or robotic help. At this point, his team has managed to get six components to shape into two separate phones.
Naturally, there’s a lot to consider when designing the self-assembling experiment. The tumbler being used by the MIT team has to move fast enough to juggle the parts around, but not fast enough to actually break them. The components also need to connect at the right points and stay together securely. For now, MIT is relying on magnets to bring the right parts together.
The finished product, which looks like a prototype for a 90’s-era cellphone, is undoubtedly rough. But the fact that it can actually come together and turn on (there’s no word on calling capability yet) is impressive. Self-assembling devices won’t do much to save manufacturing jobs, Tibbits says, but it’s one way companies can automate and lower the cost of production.
Source: Fast Company
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