The Morning After: Friday, November 11, 2016
It’s Friday: Do you know where your virtual reality headset is? We have reviews of Google’s Daydream View and the new Surface Book laptop, plus a “perfect” mobile game called “RunGunJumpGun.”
Childhood nostalgia incomingThe NES Classic Edition has arrived
Nintendo’s miniaturized NES emulator is officially on sale today. The $60 hunk of nostalgia will be sold on Amazon at 2PM ET, so set a reminder if you can’t stop by a local Best Buy, Gamestop or Target to pick one up. Even if you don’t buy one immediately, expect more impressions from us soon.
The laptop to beat doesn’t come cheapReview: Surface Book (2016)
This year’s Surface Book has very few flaws. It’s well-crafted and has a comfortable keyboard, a vibrant screen, fast performance and even longer battery life than last year’s model. As ever, you’ll pay dearly for the privilege, and the relatively heavy weight and imbalanced weight distribution make it less portable than lighter systems. With that heft, though, comes incredible battery life and no shortage of port options.
It doesn’t completely reinvent mobile VR, but it’s a good stepReview: Google’s Daydream View VR headset
Google’s Daydream View is here, and it’s a solid first attempt at a mobile VR headset from the company that gave us Android. Importantly, it’s comfortable, and VR experiences look great. The only problem is there aren’t many apps available for it yet — and we need more Daydream-compatible phones. At the moment, users are limited to Google’s own Pixel handsets.
Daydream streamerYouTube’s VR app is Daydream-only for now
Now that Google’s VR platform is available, it’s launched the official VR app for YouTube. You’ll need the new phone and headset to access it, since it’s not on any other platforms yet, but now you can watch anything from the streaming site in its virtual confines. That includes 360-degree videos, or just regular stuff projected on an imaginary screen, along with voice search and all your existing subscriptions.
Didn’t see that one comingTrump’s win shows our polling industry needs a lot of work
Election 2016 sparked discussion for a number of reasons, but one of the biggest shock came to pollsters. So did Nate Silver and everyone else just forget how to do their job, or was something else at work? We took a look at the methods and results of polling data to present some possibilities for why the predictions ended up being so different from what we got.
Please exit the country on the left coast, watch for the closing doors …Hyperloop’s co-founder is funding a campaign for California to secede
Billionaire Shervin Pishevar’s family escaped being marked for death by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, and he’s not waiting around to see what happens with Donald Trump. Asked yesterday about his comments in support of a so-called Calexit, Pishevar said he was serious, and to expect announcements soon.
The real spectacle is how rare they areSnapchat’s hard-to-get shades will be available only via vending machine
If you want a pair of Snapchat’s circular video-recording sunglasses, you’ll need to find a SnapBot machine. So far there’s only one, located near the company’s headquarters in LA. It’s already run out, and pairs are already selling for $900 on eBay. The best way to get a pair is probably by watching the Spectacles Twitter account, or hitting the home page that lists where bots are available.
Two buttons, a world of possibilitiesA “damn-near-perfect” mobile game?
ThirtyThreeGames programmer Logan Gilmour says, “We weren’t out to just make an infinite runner mobile game that’s run-of-the-mill,” and Aaron Souppouris agrees. “RunGunJumpGun” is out for iOS and Android, with challenging gameplay built around two inputs: shoot and jump. According to Aaron, “it’s perhaps the most challenging, rewarding and downright fun mobile game of the year,” and it’s available for $3 on iTunes, Steam and Google Play.
But wait, there’s more…
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- OK Google, how did Donald Trump get elected?
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Bungie gives ‘Destiny’ streamers a signal boost
While it’s never been easier for PC and console players to stream their Destiny exploits, finding players who provide insight and entertainment in equal measure isn’t easy. Twitch provides a listing of top channels, but Destiny streams don’t always figure in amongst popular League of Legends, DOTA 2 and Hearthstone broadcasts.
To fix this, Bungie has taken Twitch’s API, worked out when streamers are playing Destiny and will soon incorporate Twitch streams directly into its Companion website. Viewers can browse based on following, whether a streamer is trending or undertaking a specific raid or quest that might be particularly hard to beat.
Just like on Twitch, watchers can engage with streamers and fellow viewers in Twitch Chat, but also see exactly what the player has equipped at any given moment. It’s useful not only to see what gear they might be missing out on, but also to see how a particular load-out might help dispatch a particularly difficult boss. It also means the streamer doesn’t have to waste time explaining their roll, allowing them to get on with the important tasks at hand.
The new feature isn’t just aimed at top streamers who play games for a living. When Bungie’s Twitch integration goes live, any Destiny player will be able to host their own stream on their profile page. Anyone hosting more than 77 non-consecutive hours on a channel linked to their Bungie.net account will get a “Can’t Stop The Signal” emblem, showing the rest of the Destiny player base they’re kind of a big deal.
Source: Bungie
Spotify App Accused of Thrashing Storage Drives With Excessive Data Writes
Spotify’s desktop music streaming app has been accused of putting an unnecessary burden on users’ machines by continuously writing massive amounts of data to local storage, even when the app is idle.
Over the last five months, multiple users have posted about the problem in Spotify’s official support forum, as well as on Reddit, Hacker News, and elsewhere. Users claim the Spotify app has been writing inordinate amounts of data to their drives while running in the background, in some cases writing up to 10GB every 40 seconds.
Reports of tens or hundreds of gigabytes of data being written in an hour have become commonplace, said ArsTechnica, which was able to replicate the problem on Macs running the current version of the Spotify app. The data writes appear to occur regardless of whether songs are set to be stored locally or if music is actually being played, potentially significantly reducing the life of users’ storage drives – particularly SSD devices, which have a finite amount of write capacity.
“This is a *major* bug that currently affects thousands of users,” Spotify user Paul Miller told Ars. “If for example, Castrol Oil lowered your engine’s life expectancy by five to 10 years, I imagine most users would want to know, and that fact *should* be reported on.”
Spotify eventually responded to ArsTechnica’s requests for comment and said “any potential concerns have now been addressed” in version 1.0.42 of the app, which is in the process of being rolled out, but which reportedly remains unavailable to many users.
According to some reports, the data writes are thought to involve playlist-related database files with titles that include the string Mercury.db. Several manual workarounds to stop the writes have been suggested in the forums, but the best short-term solution for concerned Mac users may be to use Spotify through their browser until the app update becomes available and the issue is independently confirmed fixed.
Tag: Spotify
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Snapchat’s Video Spectacles on Sale via ‘Snapbot’ Vending Machines
Snapchat’s video-recording Spectacles became available to buy in the U.S. on Thursday, not online or in stores, but from pop-up vending machines.
Called ‘Snapbots’, the giant vending machines will dispense the Spectacles in either Black, Coral or Teal, and allow customers to try them on virtually using a built-in augmented reality display.
For those unfamiliar with Snapchat’s first hardware product, the $129 Spectacles are a one-size-fits-all pair of sunglasses that can record 10 seconds of video at a time and sync wirelessly with the mobile Snapchat app, which was updated on Tuesday.
According to Recode, Snapchat plans to deposit the machines “soon” throughout the U.S., with the first machine appearing in Venice Beach, California. Reminiscent of Snapchat, the machines will only remain in one location for a day before being removed. The company said it will announce new Snapbot locations 24 hours before they appear, via the “Find a Bot” map on the Spectacles website.
Upon discovering a bot, customers press one of the large circular buttons to ‘try on’ their chosen color of sunglasses, after which they must insert a debit or credit card to purchase. About 10 seconds passes as the transaction is processed, before the Bot’s mouth lights up and the spectacles are dispensed along with a receipt.
Snapchat, now dubbed Snap, has been developing the Spectacles for years and considers them “a toy” best used at concerts and outdoor events. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said the limited-distribution product was made “because it’s fun” and the company wants people to figure out if the glasses fit into their lives.
Tags: wearables, Snapchat, Snap
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HTC Bolt launches in the US
The rumours were true and HTC has launched the Bolt Android smartphone in the US as an exclusive on the Sprint network and has some serious specs to go with it. It’s the first HTC smartphone to run Android 7.0 Nougat, with HTC’s Sense 8 UI laid over the top. To help market the new phone, Sprint has drafted in Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt.
- HTC Bolt the first to taste Android Nougat
It’s been built for Sprint’s LTE Plus network, which means it’s capable of download speeds up to 450mbps and upload speeds up to 50mbps thanks to a Snapdragon X10 LTE modem.
The Bolt is fashioned out of a single piece of aluminium and claims to be the first waterproof Android phone to be made from it. It has a waterproof rating of IP57, which means it can handle splashes, rain and being submerged in up to a metre of water for 30 minutes.
On the front you’ll find a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 quad HD display with Gorilla Glass 5 protection, a 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage, expandable up to 2TB.
On the back there’s a 16-megapixel camera with laser focus and optical image stabilisation and support for 4K video recording. The HTC Bolt can handle hi-res audio files too, although to listen to them you’ll need to either connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones or a pair via the USB-C port, as there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack.
While the HTC Bolt may have initially launched in the US, there’s still a strong rumour to suggest it will make its way to Europe, Asia and Africa.
You can now ask Siri to send money using PayPal
PayPal has now integrated Siri into its app to make it easier to send money to friends and family when you owe them back. Instead of going into the app, typing in the amount and authorising it, you can now say “Hey Siri, send Mike £50 for the gig tickets using PayPal”. The app will then carry out your request and Mike will be happy he’s got his money back so soon.
- What is PayPal and how does it work?
Once you ask Siri to send some money, it will show the card on screen it will send money from. You can then say yes to send or no to cancel. If you don’t mention PayPal and have several payment apps installed then Siri will ask you which one you want to do.
Even though it’s only Siri on the iPhone that supports voice-controlled payments, the recipient doesn’t need to have an iPhone or iOS 10 installed – you will need iOS 10 to send money – but they will need an active PayPal account. If they don’t have one their phone will prompt them to set one up to receive payment.
You’ll need to make sure the recipient’s account details are stored within the PayPal app so Siri knows where to send the money.
The update is available now in 30 countries including the UK, US, France, Germany and Australia.
Make your HTC Vive VR headset wireless with this clever gadget
Of all the virtual reality headsets the HTC Vive (reviewed here) is the most technically impressive. The others are catching up, with Oculus soon to release its Touch motion controllers for Rift, but full body movement has been a feature of Vive since the beginning; there was just one major catch.
The thick wires out of the back of the headset make you look like Luke Skywalker in the Bacta tank at the end of Empire Strikes Back, but worse, they very much restrict movement. That’s not so great for a device where motion and freedom are mainstays.
Accessory company TPCast believes it has the answer, however. Supported by HTC itself, the manufacturer has made a Vive wireless upgrade kit. One part clips onto the back of the Vive headset, the other – a video transmitter – connects to your PC. All video and control commands are sent between the two wire-free, enabling you to jig about at your heart’s content.
- HTC Vive review: An experience that’s out of this world
- HTC Vive tips & tricks: How to set it up and solve any issues
- HTC Vive and HP Envy PC are a match made in virtual reality heaven
There are other solutions, such as the range of backpack PCs being released by some of the bigger computer firms, but nothing quite as liberating as the TPCast kit.
It is on pre-order at present, available through the Chinese HTC Vive website. It’ll ship in the first quarter of 2017, priced at 1,499 Chinese yuan (around £175). Sadly though, there are currently no plans to sell it in the UK, US or beyond. Hopefully that’ll change if it is popular.
Instagram is going to introduce live video
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom has confirmed the photo sharing service will introduce a live video in the future. He hasn’t confirmed when the feature will go live, but the feature has already leaked in Russia, where a user found out about the feature while testing a beta version of the Instagram app.
- Here’s how Facebook just made ‘Live’ video exactly like Periscope, Snapchat
- Instagram just basically ripped off Snapchat Stories – and here’s how
Live videos will appear in the same banner as Instragram Stories at the top of your feed, but will be circled in red and have ‘LIVE’ written across them to help distinguish them from Stories. To start a live video you’ll have to go to the same video screen to record a story, but press a red ‘Go Insta!’ button instead.
Systrom said in an interview with the Financial Times: “Live is really exciting for us. I think it can enhance what we’re doing,”
“If I’m trying to strengthen relationships with someone I love, them streaming video to me live would be an amazing way to be closer to them”.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, has had a live video feature for some time and it’s proven to be popular, so it’s hardly surprising to see Instagram do the same. Instagram introduced Stories in August 2016 as a direct rival to Snapchat, letting you share photos and videos into one continuous feed. Stories published last 24 hours and can be viewed several times, in a similar way to Snapchat Stories.
What better way to celebrate global madness than a $3K gold Trump iPhone
Donald Trump has just been elected as the 45th President of the United States, a result that has divided the nation and much of the world. That hasn’t stopped Russian company Caviar from making a gold plated iPhone 7 with Trump’s face engraved in it and charging over $3000 for it. It’s a fitting colour for the man who makes everything he touches turn to gold, quite literally, Trump Tower is covered in the stuff.
Caviar is calling the iPhone the Supremo Trump Changeover and it joins an extensive range of gold iPhones dedicated to Russian President Vladimir Putin and a model with an image of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev.
The iPhone itself is the very same as one you can pick up in stores, and is available in 32GB, 128GB and 256GB storage options. Caviar says the phone is [translated] “an expression of hope for a rapprochement between Russia and the United States and that of the benevolent words Trump and Russia will follow the actions that will lead to a change in relations between the great powers for the better”.
After the election, hackers target think tanks with phishing attacks
Now that the election is over, the Russian teams of hackers suspected of breaking into the Democratic Party’s systems have reportedly launched a new phishing attack on US political think tanks and non-government organizations. Incident response firm Volexity has compiled information on “The Dukes” (aka APT29 or Cozy Bear) that it believes are behind the attacks. This time around, they worked by posing as a Harvard professor, sending links to Microsoft Office Word or Excel documents that contained a macro used to install a malware downloader on that target’s computer. Once installed, it downloads a PNG file that has a backdoor embedded via steganography.
The emails contained headlines like “The “Shocking Truth About Election Rigging in the United States,” and went out over the last couple of days. Other security firms like CrowdStrike have previously named the attackers and linked them to Russia. Now, Reuters quotes AlienVault’s chief scientist Jaime Blasco saying “Probably now they are trying to rush to gain access to certain targets where they can get a better understanding on what is going on in Washington after the election.”
Source: Volexity
AIVAnet 