See the latest Simpsons couch gag in VR in honour of 600th episode
The couch gag on The Simpsons’ latest Treehouse of Horror not only celebrated the show’s newest episode milestone but also parodied Planet of the Apes and was offered up in virtual reality to Google Cardboard owners.
Say, what?
For those of you who aren’t fans of The Simpsons, here’s the deal: Treehouse of Horror is the name of The Simpsons’ Halloween specials. There have been 27 installments, with the latest being Treehouse of Horror XXVII, which aired 16 October. It was the 600th episode of the animated Fox comedy, and it broke new ground by embracing virtual reality, with the help of Google Cardboard.
At the end of every opening sequence, The Simpsons features a running visual joke called a couch gag. Sunday night’s couch gag was offered in VR. Got it? OK. So, the opening of Treehouse of Horror XXVII was a Planet of the Apes parody called Planet of the Couches. Viewers could – and still can – download the Google Spotlight Stories app for iOS or Android to experience the couch gag in 360.
- Google Spotlight Stories app for iOS
- Google Spotlight Stories app for Android
The 2D version of Planet of the Couches ran for 45 seconds and showed a landing page with a URL that directed fans to the VR edition, which includes an extra two minutes of bonus content. If you don’t have a Cardboard-certified viewer, you can still experience the fun by turning your phones in different directions. There are six scenes you can enjoy, though physically turning your phone won’t be as immersive.
However, according to EW, the first 25,000 fans who sign up at simpsonscardboard.com will receive a free Simpson Cardboard viewer.
Trump may be building his own online video service
As Donald Trump’s presidential campaign appears to be circling the drain with 23 days to go, the Republican nominee must be thinking about what comes next. According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump might be retreating to the relatively safe confines of media: apparently, Trump’s advisors have been pitching media executives on a new venture to “capitalize on the Republican presidential candidates appeal.”
This won’t just be a retread of Trump’s days on The Apprentice, either. The WSJ says that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner reached out to investment banker Aryeh Bourkoff in recent months to discuss building an entirely new business after the election. The idea involved an online subscription video channel that could be an eventual launchpad for a cable TV channel. It’s similar to what conservative pundit Glenn Beck did a few years back when he launched TheBlaze, first as an online channel that then moved to cable.
Additionally, Trump’s team was also said to have reached out to an unnamed streaming service (like Netflix or Hulu) in the past month about having Trump be part of its offerings.
But it sounds like we’ll be spared a Trump-run outlet, though, at least for now. Bourkoff apparently decided against investing in the project (though the Donald surely has enough cash to make it happen himself), and a Trump spokesperson says that he’s currently only focused on winning the election. Trump himself said that talk he was planning to launch his own media network was “ridiculous” last month.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Lenovo Yoga Book review: The future is (almost) here
It’s easy to say that using the Lenovo Yoga Book feels like living in the future, but with its inclusion of (literal) pen-and-ink technology and an all-touch keyboard reminiscent of the first Microsoft Surface, it’s just as accurate to call it a leap into the past. The result is an intriguing contradiction that only gets more interesting as you delve deeper into the custom Android software on this tiny tablet/notebook crossover.
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Batman: Arkham VR is a childhood fantasy come to life!
Wear the cowl. Be the bat. Live the dream.
If there’s one PlayStation VR experience that stands out as an attention grabber, it’s Batman Arkham VR. A console exclusive for now, Arkham VR gives Batman fans something no other game has been able to before.
You are Batman.
It’s a little short and it’s not quite the full Dark Knight experience, but it’s one of the early PlayStation VR must-buy titles.
Because you’re Batman.
Read more at VR Heads
ZTE Axon 7 Mini is under $300 and ready to pre-order in the U.S.
There’s clearly no better time to launch a stylish, affordable Android smartphone than on Halloween. ZTE is pushing forward with the launch of the Axon 7 Mini, though there’s nothing scary about it.
This is the smaller, mid-range equivalent to the 5.5-inch Axon 7. The Axon 7 Mini comes with a Snapdragon 617 processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of onboard storage, in addition to expandable memory. It’s also equipped with a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera, as well as an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. And unlike its larger counterpart, the Axon 7 Mini is only 5.2-inches, though that’s still a bit bigger than some of the flagship competition on the market, like the 5.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S7.
The Axon 7 Mini is available to pre-order through ZTE for $300, though Best Buy has listed the device on sale beginning October 31. It’s also offering a 60-day exclusive on the gold variant.
See at Best Buy
The Pixel’s secret weapon: Unlimited full-resolution camera backups
When you buy a Pixel Google lets you back up all the pictures and video you shoot for free, at full resolution. That’s a pretty big deal.
Google has made much fuss about the camera on the Pixel and Pixel XL (they share the same specs). A hearty endorsement from DXOMark, samples from the camera development team, and even some 4K footage with image stabilization have people interested because a great camera is one of those things we want the new phone we buy to have.
Along with the new camera hardware and image processing chops inside the Snapdragon 821, an overhauled camera app means we’re going to be taking more and better pictures and video. The one thing that is pure icing on the cake is that we’re also going to be able to back up all of them to our online Google storage through the Photos app at full resolution without paying for any extra storage.
That’s a huge draw if you’re planning to get the most out of the camera on the Pixel.
Anyone with a Google account is given 15GB of free storage through Google Drive, and if you use the Google Photos app (Android and iOS only) you have unlimited backups — but not at full resolution. Google gives two choices for camera backup to the photos service — High Quality and Original. The Original setting backs things up as an exact copy of what came from the camera. There are no size limits for pictures or video, and there is no compression or optimization. However, these backups count against your 15GB of free storage.
The High Quality setting allows for video (of any length) at 1080p quality and photos of 16MP resolution or lower to be backed up and uploaded without counting against your storage limit. The software automatically resizes both still pictures and video, and uploads them automatically. Google says these photos “will essentially look the same using either storage option” and for the most part they do, but sometimes it’s easy to see the compression and the backed up copy just isn’t nearly as good as the original.
The monthly storage fees for large library of 4K video could easily cost more than the payment for the Pixel if financed.
If you use the Pixel to back your photos up, none of this matters. You’ll get an exact copy of what came from the camera stored online where you can look at it or retrieve it anywhere you have an internet connection. With a 4K camera, this can make a big difference. A 1080p video doesn’t look bad, even on a 4K screen, but it doesn’t look as good as UHD 4K does. That’s why we wanted 4K cameras on our phones in the first place. But a high-resolution video has a cost: file size. After compression algorithms kick into gear, it takes about 370MB to store a minute of 4K video. A gigabyte of storage holds a video of two minutes and 45 seconds in length. Start adding up all those short videos you take with your phone, and that 15GB of free storage is going to be able to hold about 40 minutes of footage. Google Drive storage is cheap, but a large library of your 4K videos makes for a monthly bill that can easily exceed the price of the Pixel’s finance options.
A phone with a good camera means you want to be able to snap a pic or two when you see the opportunity or to shoot a few minutes of UHD 4K video when you see something worth remembering. Having a place to store it all that doesn’t break the bank is essential.
Google Pixel + Pixel XL
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Chrome Web Store adds support for Cuba starting October 19
Google has sent out an email to registered Chrome developers to let them know that support for free extensions, themes, and apps will be extended to Cuba on October 19.
The default language for the Cuban Chrome Store and any content with multi-language support published there will be Spanish, and any app, theme, or extension currently published to “All Regions” will be automatically published to Cuba’s Chrome Web Store.
If content is not marked for All Regions it will be excluded from the Cuban store by default. Developers are encouraged to check and adjust their publishing settings as needed, as well as internationalize their store listings if they intend to distribute to multiple regions or with multiple language options.
Relaxation of U.S. export controls and sanctions towards Cuba allowed Google to distribute Chrome in late 2014, and as relations continue to improve between the two countries we should see more companies providing their services for the people of Cuba as public internet access continues to grow.
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Watch this GoPro capture Hollywood-style stunts of Hot Wheels cars
Many little boys and girls dream about being Hollywood stunt drivers – but that profession takes a lot of money, practice, and, well, luck.
Unless, of course, they plan to use Hot Wheels toy cars instead of actual cars when testing all their burnouts and drifts. A YouTube channel known as 5MadMovieMakers has been posting slow motion compilations of car flips, twists, and jumps, such as “the Long Jump”, “the Falling Roll”, “the 360 Flip Spin”, “the Double Roll”, “the Halfpipe”, “the Falling Front Flip”, “the Double Jump through Hoops”, and “the Splash Dive”.
However, the channel only shoots Hot Wheels toy cars – like the blue Mercedes C-Class, the orange Muscle Speeder, the red Gazelle GT, the white Horseplay, the white CUL8R, and the black Gov’ner car – instead of real-life cars. And it’s capturing all these stunts using a GoPro Hero Session. The Go Pro is mounted to a modified “Pharadox” Hot Wheels car chassis, and it films everything at 120 frames per second.
Although the footage is slowed to 30 frames per second in post production, both the toy cars and the camera car complete all the jumps by themselves, with minimal changes in post production. Hot Wheels have never been more awesome. Who knew you could make them look like action film set pieces? Watching a tiny toy car soar across a huge gap, with a GoPro positioned up to capture all the action, is ridiculous.
The video below is super smooth and really makes us wish we had some of our old toy cars still hanging around.
Apple hires a Carnegie Mellon professor to improve its AI
Apple isn’t letting Samsung’s acquisition of Viv go unanswered. The Cupertino crew has hired Russ Salakhutdinov, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, as a director of artificial intelligence research. Interestingly, he isn’t giving up his school work — he may well be publishing research at the same time as he’s upgrading your iPhone or Mac. It’s not certain what he’ll be working on, although Recode observes that his recent studies have involved understanding the context behind questions. We’ve asked Apple if it can comment.
The hire could make a big difference for Siri, which has been criticized for evolving relatively little compared to services like Google Assistant. The AI helper may develop a better understanding of what you’re asking, and could be better at handling less-than-explicit or follow-up questions. However, Apple’s use of AI isn’t limited just to voice commands. Remember how iOS 10 uses machine learning for object and face recognition in its Photos app? You could see Salakhutdinov’s influence across many products, giving weight to Apple’s claims that it considers AI a key part of its future.
Carnegie Mellon might not be entirely happy. Uber spent a while poaching from the school’s robotics lab, and now the university has to worry about Apple luring top talent. While that may not be such a bad thing if it leads to more practical applications for AI, it may limit academic studies in the near future.
Excited about joining Apple as a director of AI research in addition to my work at CMU. Apply to work with my teamhttps://t.co/U2hQl2GdhA
— Russ Salakhutdinov (@rsalakhu) October 17, 2016
Source: Russ Salakhutdinov (Twitter)
Acer’s new Chromebook 15 is cheap but compromised
Chromebooks have long had a reputation for being cheap, compromised machines, but things have changed in the last few years. You can now spend hundreds of dollars to get a Chromebook with better design and specs, but there are still plenty of bargain basement options as well. Acer’s new Chromebook 15 falls in the latter category, without a doubt.
The $199 Chromebook 15 replaces last year’s model, which started at the same price point. Given the extremely low cost, there are a bunch of compromises on board worth noting. First up is the screen: Acer claims its 15.6-inch display “[gives] customers additional real estate to view multiple tabs and apps.” That’s a claim we’re going to have to take issue with: the 1366 x 768 resolution is the same as you’ll typically find on 11-inch laptops. Yes, things will be a lot bigger, which might be useful for some buyers, but there won’t be more room to do anything on this screen.
Also, the new Chromebook 15 only comes with 2GB of RAM — it’s almost 2017 and we cannot recommend buying a laptop with that amount of RAM, particularly if you can’t upgrade it. Acer didn’t say whether or not it would sell upgraded models of this computer, but last year you could pick up a model with 4GB of RAM and a full 1080p screen for an extra $80. That’s money well spent.
The new Chromebook 15 does have some things going for it, like a claimed 12-hour battery life. Of course, such a large machine is generally better suited as an “around the house” computer rather than something you’ll use on-the-go, a long way away from power. But it’s also a bit smaller and lighter than last year’s model, which was a boat anchor compared to just about every other Chromebook on the market.
Much as we said when we checked out Acer’s first Chromebook 15, we’re just not quite convinced this is a computer that makes much sense for a lot of people, unless you really value sheer screen size over everything else. Of course, the price is also quite low, so if you just need a cheap laptop, Acer’s new Chromebook 15 should fit the bill.
AIVAnet 