Deezer taps BandPage for more interaction between artists and fans

Music streaming services like Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify and Tidal already offer ways for artists to connect with their fans. By partnering with BandPage, Deezer is looking to do the same. After making the trek across the Atlantic to stream tunes in the States earlier this year, Deezer will allow musicians to promote tour dates, photos, merchandise and VIP meet-ups with the help of BandPage. The company has already been working with Rhapsody and Spotify, sending 1.5 million eager fans to artist stores on a monthly basis. Based you your streaming habits, BandPage will serve up push notifications with artist info you might find interesting. When you factor in Deezer’s six million subscribers, there’s some potential for artist/listener interaction as the company looks to keep its piece of the streaming pie in a crowded marketplace. As mentioned, these types of musician-facing tools have been a part of the other services for some time, so Deezer has some catching up to do if it’s looking to woo more talent.

[Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]

Source: Billboard

‘Goosebumps: Night of Scares’ launches on the Play Store, help put the monsters back where they belong

Back near the end of September we let you guys know that there was a Goosebumps game based on the new movie with Jack Black headed our way. The game is a collaboration between Cosmic Forces, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Scholastic to bring the movie action and story line to our mobile devices.

Developed with Free Range Games, Goosebumps: Night of Scares features Jack Black voicing the role of R.L. Stine, characters from the film, as well as the wider universe of monsters and stories created by R.L. Stine. The Goosebumps game takes players through R.L. Stine’s haunted house from the film, each room more frightening than the last, as players collect pages from R.L. Stine’s books while trying to survive the night in a deadly game of hide-n-seek.

Users can play Goosebumps: Night of Scares three different ways: through movement, using the touch screen, or by combining their phones with a compatible VR headset for a highly immersive 3D virtual reality experience, a first for any Goosebumps game.

The title also includes a “Share your Scare” feature that will be available for download on Halloween which will use your smartphone or tablets camera to capture players “Jump Scares” for sharing with their friends.

If you want to get your scare on then feel free to grab Goosebumps: Night of Scares for Android on the Play Store or iOS on the App Store. It is also available on the Amazon App Store too.

The post ‘Goosebumps: Night of Scares’ launches on the Play Store, help put the monsters back where they belong appeared first on AndroidSPIN.

Adobe warns of ‘critical vulnerability’ in some versions of Flash

The general consensus on Adobe Flash is that it’s no longer good for anyone. In 2010, Steve Jobs’ wrote an open letter about the software, stating it fell short in many areas and wasn’t ready for the mobile era. Facebook’s newly appointed security lead, Alex Amos, added fuel to the fire recently by saying Adobe should announce an end-of-life date for Flash soon. And Adobe isn’t helping its cause. To make matters worse, the company has now found a critical vulnerability in Flash Player which, if successfully exploited, “could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.” According to Adobe’s security bulletin, this issue affects version 19.0.0.207 (and earlier) on Mac, Windows and Linux computers, adding that it is aware of a report claiming the exploit is “being used in limited, targeted attacks.” Adobe says it’s working on a fix, but the update won’t be available until sometime next week.

[Image credits: Getty Images]

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: Adobe

No thanks: JPEG images may soon have copy protection

So much for hopes that the tech industry would back away from copyright protection any time soon. The Joint Photographic Experts Group recently launched a Privacy & Security initiative that potentially brings digital rights management (DRM) to regular JPEG images, not just the specialized JPEG 2000 format. The proposal could protect your privacy by encrypting metadata (such as where you took a photo), but it could also prevent you from copying or opening some pictures. Needless to say, that opens up a can of worms when it comes to fair use rights. If someone slapped DRM on a photo, you couldn’t use it for news, research or remixed art — many of the internet memes you know wouldn’t be possible.

There’s no certainty that JPEG files will be locked down soon, so this isn’t an immediate crisis. We’d add that there’s also hope for a compromise: the Electronic Frontier Foundation has argued for a middle road approach in a presentation to the JPEG Committee. It sees value in encrypted data as a filter (say, making sure that only your Facebook friends see a photo), but doesn’t want any data to be non-removable or used to prevent copying. It’d rather have services give you more control over that data, and make sure that any security measures are based on open standards that won’t break functionality. While the JPEG team might not take this advice to heart, it at least knows that it has some options.

[Image credit: Randy Kruzan via Getty Images]

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation, JPEG

Tesla takes the wheel: driving a Model S hands-free

Elon Musk isn’t happy just introducing an automobile and walking away to work on next year’s model. Instead his company continues to offer over-the-air upgrades to current vehicles. The latest software enhance is landing in its electric cars tomorrow with a slew of new autopilot features. They won’t drive you around town, but will make highway driving and parking a bit easier. While the new Autopark does exactly what you would expect, Autosteer is a bit more ambitious. With it, you’re supposed to be able to go for miles on the open road with it doing most of the heavy lifting. The car tracks lane markers and uses enhanced GPS data to keep the car from launching off into the median. I had a chance to drive a Tesla on the highway with its new ability — without using my hands — and it was outstanding, but also a bit weird.

The big feature, Autosteer, is less autonomous driving and more of a very advanced version of cruise control. For those looking forward to getting a robot car to drive them to work, Musk expects Tesla will have a fully autonomous vehicle ready to go in three years. In the meantime, this new autopilot feature will maintain the cruise control speed while keeping a safe distance between itself and the vehicle in front of it and stay in its lane. It’s a gradual step toward the future that’ll make commuting less of a pain.

After setting the mode in the car’s updated UI and double-tapping the cruise control arm, the car does the driving for you. It’s an eerily smooth transition. If the vehicle determines you’re not centered in a lane, it adjusts itself without jerking the vehicle. After that, I removed my hands from the wheel and the Model S tracked itself along Interstate 280 better than most of the other drivers on the road. It had no trouble with meandering corners. It kept a safe distance behind the car in front of it (something you can manually adjust if you would like more cushion). Adjusting the speed was a matter of flipping the cruise control arm: up to go faster and down to slow down. Meanwhile you just sit there. Because you’re hurtling down the freeway, you’re still paying attention, but it lowers the stress level a bit. If you’re stuck in traffic, it takes the pain out of the stop-and-go experience because it does it for you. You’ve gone from driver to driver/passenger. This is the first step to the pure passenger experience of truly autonomous cars.

While it’s cool, Musk stresses that this is a public beta of the feature and that drivers should keep their hands on the wheel at all time: “We want people to be quite careful.” That warning becomes an audible alert in the vehicle when the lane markers become faded or another car slides into your lane. At that point, you’re reminded that, yeah you’re still the driver.

The entire Autosteer system is built around the vehicle’s confidence that what’s about to happen is safe. If the roadway is less than optimal, you can’t engage it. If while engaged, it detects something out of the ordinary, an audible and visual warning inform you to take control. If you ignore that, the warning gets more persistent and the system will eventually slow the car down and bring it to a complete stop.

That confidence spills over into the Auto Lane Change feature. While in Autosteer, I attempted to automatically move to the left lane. A vehicle was approaching at a rather quick pace on my left and the car wouldn’t complete the move on its own. At that point, it got a little too careful and wouldn’t automatically move itself into any lanes. After having the passenger turn the feature off and then back on again (just like a router, but speeding down the highway), I was switching lanes (when it was safe) without checking my blind spots or even grabbing the wheel. For someone that’s completely obsessed with safe driving, it’s unnerving letting the car take over like this. But with a quick brake tap or slight turn of the steering wheel, I was back in control.

While exiting the freeway, I was able to complete a few automatic lane changes, but when the car detected a vehicle that was behind and to the right of me, it again wouldn’t go on its own. I accelerated and pulled into the right lane as I would with any other car. The system errs on the side of caution without making you feel like you’re being coddled. Yes, it’ll be abused (get ready for more texting and driving), but even while driving down a surface street, it avoided a bus sticking out in the road.

But it’s not even close to infallible. Hence the repeated warnings from Musk during a briefing. It also has difficulty with sharp turns and inclement weather conditions like rain, snow and fog. Tesla is adamant that the feature is “hands on,” so you’re supposed to keep those mitts on the wheel. So don’t start updating Twitter while you’re supposed to be driving. Yet, it’ll get better as more and more Teslas drive in autopilot mode and feed road information back to the company’s highly detailed mapping system.

The update also brings enhanced versions of traffic-aware cruise control, side collision warning, vehicle hold (keeping the car rolling on inclines), Autopark and better climate control that cools or heats the interior quicker without using more energy. All of that is wrapped into a brand-new UI.

Tesla is still a few years away from getting us from point A to point B without our interaction. But in the meantime, it’s tackling the commute, the worst aspect of the driving experience, by letting its cars take the wheel. It’s a smart move and for anyone that sits in a traffic, a welcome relief.

Source: Tesla

VW’s 2016 diesels have a different device that may dupe emissions tests

Just when you thought the Volkswagen emissions scandal couldn’t get any worse, it might do just that. The automaker revealed to US regulators last week that its 2016 diesel models may have a different device that could help those vehicles earn higher marks on the government’s emissions tests. The tech in question is “auxiliary emissions control device” separate from the software on automobiles made between 2009-2015 that was first disclosed last month. This new software heats the pollution control catalyst quicker, boosting the performance of the components responsible for separating harmful nitrogen dioxide into nitrogen and oxygen.

[Image credit: Matt Cardy/Getty Images]

Volkswagen says that the system was disclosed as part of the approval process for the 2016 2.0 TDI vehicles and the EPA is working to determine if the tech is indeed another “defeat device.” If it is, it’ll raise questions about recent remarks from VW executives claiming software developers were to blame for the software included in last month’s revelation. It could potentially delay those vehicles going on sale, too. The company already faces a massive recall next year and class-action lawsuits on the behalf of the affected car owners.

Source: Associated Press