Join the perfect match in ‘Halo 5’ with the custom game browser
Today’s update to Halo 5: Guardians adds a long-requested feature to Xbox One and Windows 10: a custom games browser. The new browser allows players to search for in-progress games from the main menu, customizing search parameters by specific maps, modes or players. It’s been a long time coming, considering Halo 5 debuted in October 2015.
“This Custom Games Browser is something the team has wanted to add for a long time for the community, but we needed the Content Browser and the search engine that powers it up and running first,” 343 UX Design Lead Vincent Hui says in a blog post. “Thanks for being patient.”
Today’s update also adds an Observer mode, and it enables the Forge map editing tool and Arena multiplayer mode in Windows 10, though the desktop version still doesn’t include matchmaking. Get the full details in both of 343’s blog posts, here and here.
Source: Halo Waypoint
NASA has shared its massive GIF archive with Pinterest and GIPHY
NASA’s been making a concerted effort over the past year to share its enormous archive of images and video with the internet. Last October, the agency teamed up with Flickr to feature thousands of Apollo era mission pictures. Thursday, NASA once again opened its vault — this time to unload thousands more animated GIFs onto its Pinterest and GIPHY pages. If you already have accounts on either of these platforms, you now have full access to NASA’s archive. And thanks to GIPHY’s API integration, you’ll be able to embed these images into your tweets directly from the Twitter app.
via GIPHY
Source: NASA
The Wirecutter’s best deals: An $800 Dell laptop, down to $660
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.
You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot – some of these sales could expire mighty soon.
Dell Inspiron 15 7000
Street price: $780; MSRP: $800; deal price: $660
A solid price on this gaming laptop. The Inspiron 15 7000 typically hovers around $800 with periodic sales dropping the price to the $750 range, but with this drop to $660, it’s the best price we’ve seen to date.
The Dell Inspiron 15 7000 gaming laptop is our pick for the best budget gaming laptop. In our guide, Kimber Streams writes, “The Dell Inspiron 15 7000 has amazing specs for the price and is easy to upgrade when your budget allows. The $800 configuration we recommend has a sixth-generation Intel Core i5-6300HQ processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M graphics card with 4 gigabytes of dedicated memory, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and a 256-gigabyte solid-state drive—that’s powerful enough to run Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor on high settings, but you’ll have to step down to medium or lower on more trying titles like XCOM 2.”
Logitech Marathon M705 Wireless Mouse
Street price: $35; MSRP: $50; deal price: $20
A nice deal on this wireless mouse, which typically hovers between $30 – $40. At $20, this is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen.
The Logitech Marathon M705 is our top pick for the best wireless mouse. In our guide, Kimber Streams writes, “The Logitech Marathon Mouse M705 is the best mouse for most people. It was our testing panel’s favorite, and we think it has the best overall balance of features: medium size, ergonomic shape, six customizable buttons, long battery life, a Unifying Receiver (which lets you use up to six Logitech keyboards and pointing devices on a single USB port), and a three-year limited warranty. When we first recommended the Marathon in July 2014, it cost $50, and it’s an even better deal now that the price has dropped to around $30.”
Allen Sports Deluxe Two Bike Rack
Street price: $35; MSRP: $60; deal price: $22
This is a rock-bottom price on an already affordable car bike rack. Those searching on a limited budget will find a less full-featured and easy to use but functional option in this Allen 2-bike rack, now at $22, the lowest price we’ve seen.
The Allen Sports Deluxe 2-Bike Rack is a super-budget car bike rack we like in our best bike racks and carriers for cars and trucks guide. Kristen Hall-Geisler and Rik Paul write, “If money is your number-one criteria when buying a trunk rack, you can’t go wrong with the Allen Sports Deluxe Two Bike, which sells for less than $50. Though it’s made of aluminum rather than plastic, it doesn’t weigh much more than our top pick, and it was very stable on the back of our vehicles. We found it a little hard to set up, though; it’s not nearly as easy as the Saris Bones.The rack’s frame has one setting only, and getting the arms that brace the bike frame in place can be difficult.”
Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f/1.7 Portrait Lens
Street price: $350; MSRP: $400; deal price: $300
This portrait lens from Panasonic is a very good deal, marking the lowest price we’ve seen on this lens in over a year. While it’s been bouncing between its $400 MSRP and its $350 street price pretty steadily, we haven’t seen any other significant sales. This $50 drop is the best we’ve seen in a while, bringing it to below the price of the “cheaper” Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm pick.
The Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f/1.7 is our upgrade portrait lens pick in our guide to the first micro four thirds lenses you should buy. Amadou Diallo wrote, “The Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f/1.7 ASPH Power OIS lens is just a bit more expensive than the Olympus portrait lens (although the prices for both lenses fluctuate) but it offers image stabilization, making it a better choice for those who own Panasonic cameras without built-in stabilization. With an 85mm-equivalent focal length, this lens offers a similar field of view as our top portrait pick and is comparable in size, weight, and build quality.”
Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.
ChargePoint’s Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Now Displayed in Apple Maps
Electric vehicle charging network ChargePoint today announced a new partnership with Apple that sees its electric vehicle charging stations listed within Apple Maps.
Drivers can click on new Electric Vehicle Charger badges in Apple Maps to get directions to charging stations, find hours of operation, and get details on pricing.
When at a ChargePoint charging station, iPhone users can start the charging process, pay for the charge, and see other station details through a Maps link that leads to the ChargePoint app. ChargePoint operates over 31,100 charging stations and has delivered more than 19,400,000 charges to electric vehicle owners.
Tag: Apple Maps
Discuss this article in our forums
Apple Seeds Sixth macOS Sierra 10.12.2 Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers
Apple today seeded the sixth beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.2 update to developers and public beta testers, a few days after releasing the fifth 10.12.2 beta and over a month after the public release of macOS 10.12.1.
macOS Sierra 10.12.2 beta 6 is available for download through the Apple Developer Center or through the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store.
macOS Sierra 10.12.2 includes new emoji, introducing Unicode 9 characters like clown face, selfie, face palm, fox face, owl, shark, butterfly, avocado, bacon, and more, plus many profession emoji are available in both male and female genders.
Apple has also updated the artwork on many existing emoji characters, adding detail to make them look less cartoonish and more realistic. New wallpapers are also included in macOS Sierra 10.12.2, introducing the color explosion options that were previously used in iPhone marketing materials.
There are few other outward-facing changes aside from the addition of new emoji and wallpapers, but the 10.12.2 update also includes some important bug fixes. A serious graphics issue that has been affecting some new MacBook Pro owners has been solved, and a Time Machine crashing issue, also impacting the new MacBook Pro, has been fixed.
Available since September, macOS Sierra is the latest Mac operating system. It includes Siri support, Apple Pay for the web, Universal Clipboard, Apple Watch auto unlocking, improved iCloud Drive integration, Picture-in-Picture multitasking, and dozens of smaller features that can be found in our macOS Sierra roundup.
Related Roundup: macOS Sierra
Discuss this article in our forums
MrMobile Head to Head: Pixel vs iPhone!
A war is brewing! Well, not a war. It’s more like… not a war. But for the iPhone and the Pixel, it can only mean one thing — War! Alright, this paragraph may be ridiculous, but what we’re talking about isn’t. It’s time for the iPhone and Pixel to face off!
MrMobile is pitting these two titans head-to-head, bringing to light the most important questions of our day. Do the iPhone’s lush camera colors outshine the intense image stabilization of the Pixel? Can having an headphone jack edge out those who might want to Snapchat underwater? And who really is behind the mystery of the abandoned theme park? Michael Fisher reveals all in this thrilling episode! (Except the one about the abandoned theme park — that was Old Man McCreevy.)
Stay social, my friends
- YouTube
- Le web
- Snapchat
Google’s Trusted Contacts is a simple way for families to have some peace of mind
Getting your child their first phone is maybe as exciting for the parent as it is the kid. It’s also scary as hell, yeah, but part of the idea of putting a computer in their pocket is so that you can keep in touch with them as they start branching out into the world — especially if things go wrong. (And they will at some point, right?)
Now emergency contact apps are nothing new. Various manufacturers have had them baked into their phones for some time now. (See Motorola Alert for one, and Samsung’s SOS service for another. Google — which makes this little operating system called Android — has oddly been missing from that equation. Until now, with the release of Trusted Contacts.
Here’s how it works.
Fire up the Trusted Contacts app and you’ll get a short walkthrough of what to expect. And the app is easy enough to use that you probably won’t need too much more instruction than that. First you’ll select some contacts you want to use as your “Trusted Contacts.” Add them, and they’ll be sent an email that lets them know you think so much of them you want to put your wellbeing in their hands. (Presumably you’ve already done this anyway, but whatever.) They have to approve your request before anyone gets notified of anything.
Once that’s done they’ll show up in your list of Trusted Contacts. (Do note that at launch Trusted Contacts only works on Android, though iOS support is coming. But that won’t keep you from adding someone who uses an iPhone — and they’ll still receive notifications by email.) You can pin your contacts so that they’re always present in your notification area, if you really want to keep track of things.
From there you have two basic options — share your location with your contacts, or request (nay, demand!) the location of your contacts.
Sharing your location
You’ve got a couple options for sharing your location with your contacts. You can do in the normal, non-emergency way, which allows you to select who will get to see where you are. Or you can send out an emergency blast (after a 10-second “are you sure?!?!” period) to every single person in your Trusted Contacts. They’ll be notified on their phone, as well as by email. Simple enough.
Requesting a location
You also can ask your contacts to share their location with you. Basically as a “Where are you, are you OK?” sort of thing. They’ll get a big, bright pop-up stating that you want to know where they are. If they approve, they’ll be sharing their location for 24 hours, or until they manually stop sharing. If they don’t respond back within 5 minutes their phone will automatically share its location for the next 24 hours.
There are limitations here, of course. It’s possible for your phone to be somewhere other than where you are. Phone batteries die. This isn’t the be-all, end-all of keeping folks safe, for sure. And it’s really meant as more of a safety thing than a snooping thing. It doesn’t hide the fact that someone can see where you are at all.
And you also have to have installed the Trusted Contacts app in the first place. For my money I’d love to see it baked in to Google’s default suite of apps, unless it’s going to conflict with a manufacturer’s version. Because this is a basic safety service that really should be employed by anyone with a phone.
- Subscribe to Modern Dad on YouTube!
Need more Modern Dad? Hit us up on the your social network of choice!
- Website
- Snapchat
What is T-Mobile Digits and why do I want it?
T-Mobile’s Digits brings phone calls and texts into the 21st century, but at a time when people care little about those things, will it make a difference?
T-Mobile has unveiled a new service called Digits, making phone numbers less reliant on a SIM card, and expanding the simple phone number into the smartphone age.
But for all of its big talk, Digits is a bit confusing, so let’s break it down.
What is Digits?
At its core, Digits is T-Mobile’s way of utilizing its new IMS (IP Media Subsystem) backend to dynamically direct calls to any device, or store multiple numbers on a single device.
Basically, without the technical mumbo jumbo, it’s a way to free the phone number from its legacy place, and to utilize the flexibility data-based nature of Voice over LTE and Voice of Wi-Fi to allow a call to take place, or to be received, in the most convenient place. This is very similar to Google Voice, and to many other Voice over IP services like Viber and Skype, but T-Mobile has one major advantage: it owns the network, and it distributes the phones.
So what can Digits really do for me?
Provided you’re on one of T-Mobile’s compatible postpaid plans (yes, this is yet another way for T-Mobile to upsell you), Digits can make it easier to manage phone calls in the increasingly inevitable situation you have multiple devices.
The basic idea is that if you receive a call on your traditional T-Mobile number, your phone should ring, along with any device — another phone, a computer, a tablet, even a connected smartwatch — at the same time. You can also make calls from any of those same devices without your phone nearby, and without the need to have a SIM card.
A secondary but for many people equally important feature is the ability to have more than one number available on a single device. So instead of having separate personal and work phones, you can have a single smartphone make and receive calls from two or more numbers.
This sounds a lot like Google Voice
Yes, it does. The major difference here is that T-Mobile is committing to a couple of things that even Google, which creates both Android and Google Voice, can’t do:
- It is integrating Digits directly into the Android phones it sells, working with manufacturers like Samsung to seamlessly add Digits support into devices like the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S7 and Gear S3.
- It is making it easy to do so-called “SIM replication,” which allows you to duplicate a phone number onto a second device, such as another smartphone or a connected smartwatch.
This is in addition to the Google Voice-like Digits app that’s available for Android and iOS, to make and receive calls and texts from any device, anywhere. There’s also a Digits portal on the web for people who sit in front of a computer all day and want to be able to initiate communications that way. And because the app is available natively and through an app, devices with SIM cards from AT&T, Verizon or Sprint — any carrier, really — can access Digits messages. If you lose your phone, for instance, you can download the Digits app onto a friend’s device and make and receive calls and texts from there, too.
Like many cross-platform messaging services, call logs and messages also sync in real-time between devices, which is a huge boon to productivity if you don’t always have your phone in front of you.
It’s tailor-made for Android
Android is the only platform on which T-Mobile can rely to help Digits grow.
Digits is a cross-platform play, sure, but it is tailor-made for Android. Not only does iOS have its own cross-device communications protocol in iMessage, which may mess with Digits’ ability to route texts, but Apple doesn’t allow for any system-level alterations, rendering one of Digits’ primary use cases moot.
Indeed, Android is the only platform on which T-Mobile can rely to help Digits proliferate, but by potentially limiting half of the population to merely an app-based experience, it is almost immediately cut off at the proverbial knees. Still, Digits has a five-device limit, and can easily be tuned to be used on an iPhone or iPad, especially since as of iOS 10 VoIP apps can take over the lock screen like a regular dialer.
The best Digits experience will always be on Android, and initially is only natively available on the Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge +, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge or Note 5 purchased through T-Mobile.
So should I sign up?
Digits, while free during the beta period, won’t be afterwards, and T-Mobile isn’t saying how much it will cost.
Digits is an intriguing product, and an example of what it looks like when a carrier turns next-generation core technology like IMS and HLR (which works to virtualize SIM data on the core network) into something that is truly compelling to consumers.
There are a couple of caveats, though: Digits, while free during the beta period, will not be afterwards, and T-Mobile isn’t saying how much it will cost. It’s likely going to be just a few dollars per month, but users already need to have one of the carrier’s postpaid plans such as T-Mobile One or Simple Choice. And only the primary account holder can actually sign up for a second line in order to carry two on a single device; secondary users can merely share their existing number across multiple devices.
During the beta period, which is indeterminate but should go into next year, T-Mobile will ask users to provide feedback on the service. This is a complicated thing, despite its upfront simplicity, and bugs will need to be worked out.
In the long run, though, Digits is coming to market at a time when the phone number is likely the least important aspect of a smartphone user’s experience. Data, and the avenues to the internet it provides, is the backbone of the mobile experience. Phone calls and rich texts sent over a carrier network, even one as advanced as T-Mobile’s, still feel somewhat anachronistic.
Nonetheless, the Digits beta seems like a great option for T-Mobile users running select Samsung phones on Android, and we look forward to trying it out!
See Digits at T-Mobile
Your Google Assistant is about to get smarter thanks to Actions on Google
Actions are the tools developers need to integrate their products into Assistant on your Google Home.
Google has opened up the Actions on Google program today, and developers can now start building their own tools and conversational bots for Google Home.
First seen at Google I/O 2016, the Actions SDK brings everything developers need to integrate their services into Google Assistant the same way Pandora or Google Cast is. Once implemented — there is nothing to install and all the integration with services is done through Google’s cloud servers — we can tell Google Home that we want to talk to or about a service and the new conversations are ready to take what we say and provide the appropriate response.
Google’s Wayne Piekarski walks through a demo using a service they built called “Personal Chef” in the video below. (This will trigger your Pixel or Google Home. Several times.)
Note: The demonstration starts at 1:25
For developers: Google’s Conversation Actions web documentation pages are where you’ll get started building your services into Google Assistant. You can choose to transcribe and decipher a user’s words yourself using the conversation API to process input and use the Actions SDK to process and build actions as intents.If you’d rather not process transcribed speech yourself, you can use api.ai which can build out the workflow of a conversation using Conversation Actions. Google also has integrated Gupshup to help build, test and deploy conversational bots and actions on Google Home.
For users: All of this is handled by the folks who built a service and there’s nothing to install. You’ll be able to tell Google Home you need a thing or want to talk to/about a thing and Assistant will automatically handoff to the correct service the same way things are done now when you tell Google to play a song or cast a video. Seamless integration is what makes Assistant seem “smart”.
For now, the service is only available for Google Home but Google plans to bring Actions to Assistant on the Pixel and in Allo in the future. Google also is working on enabling support for purchases and bookings, and developers who are interested in creating actions using these upcoming features can register for our early access partner program.
Google Home
- Google Home review
- These services work with Google Home
- Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
- Join our Google Home forums!
Google Store Best Buy Target
Facebook was dominated by the presidential election in 2016
As the year winds down, companies like Twitter, YouTube and others have made a habit of reminding us of all the stories that dominated the conversation over the last 12 months. Facebook does the same and today the social network revealed the most popular topics that hit your News Feed in 2016. As you might expect, the US presidential election took the top spot while Brexit was the hottest subject in the UK.
Other popular topics include Pokémon Go, Black Lives Matter, the Olympics, David Bowie, Muhammad Ali and soccer’s Euro Cup. Notably absent from the list is perhaps the biggest story since the election was decided: fake news. Facebook has been dealing with the issue well before November, including false stories about the Pope endorsing Trump and a report about Fox News firing anchor Megyn Kelly surfacing as a trending topic. The Kelly story was promoted shortly after Facebook said it would no longer rely on editors to pen descriptions for popular stories on the site. The move to an algorithm-driven approach hasn’t exhibited much improvement thus far but he company has recently said it will make improvements to user reporting methods and early detection to combat the issue.
For something a little more personal, Facebook has also created year-end videos for each user. The footage provides a look back at your highlights from 2016. The company says the compilation is editable and once you settle on a final version, you can share it with all of your friends. Those individual videos will be making the rounds to your News Feed during December, but you can take a look now via this link.
In addition to its own video highlights, Facebook also posted a list of the most popular user footage from 2016. It’s no surprise that Chewbacca Mom took the top spot, followed by a smattering of election coverage and Dallas residents lining up to greet police following an attack earlier this year. To browse the full list of popular videos from 2016, consult the source link down below.
Source: Facebook
AIVAnet 