Android TV gets new apps from Showtime, HBO, CBS, WWE, UFC, and Disney
Google today announced a slew of new content providers for its Android TV, including Showtime, HBO Now, CBS All Access, EPIX, WWE, UFC, and Disney Movies Anywhere.
“So, as the nights get longer and colder, you now have another reason to stay in and binge on your favorite TV shows, movies, and sports content right from your Android TV screen,” George Audi, business development manager for Google Play, wrote in a blog post on the news.
Google today named several new partners for the Android TV effort. Hisense and TCL Hardware are now participating as smart TV makers, and Pace, Sagemcom, and Technicolor are on board as set-top box makers. Android TV also has new Pay TV partners, including KDDI and Telecom.
Google’s living room project has seen plenty of adjustment over the years. Android TV, the current iteration, was first introduced at the 2014 Google I/O conference. This year at I/O, Google fleshed out the availability of apps in the Google Play Store on Android TV.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Google made several announcements to enhance Chromecast, another one of its living room products.
See the original post here: http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/01/android-tv-gets-new-apps-from-showtime-hbo-cbs-wwe-ufc-and-disney/
From virtual reality to advanced robotics… New tech lounge to open in Dubai
A successful London-based tech innovation lounge is due to open its first regional branch in Dubai this month.
The Flux Innovation Lounge, developed by interactive technology group Engage Works and brand design agency StartJG, will launch in the Arenco Tower in Dubai Media City.
Designed to inspire leading creative minds, the lounge will showcase multiple technologies from virtual reality to advanced robotics.
See the full story here: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/from-virtual-reality-advanced-robotics-new-tech-lounge-open-in-dubai-607736.html
Ridley Scott is working on a mysterious virtual reality project
The mystery project isn’t a totally new frontier for the director, who will release a 15-minute long bit of added content to his recent Matt Damon-starring project The Martian as downloadable content for Oculus Rift. In it, the user will be able to see Mars from the perspective of an astronaut’s helmet, before a series of dark events unfold.
As far as Scott is concerned, it seems as though the use of virtual reality in contemporary filmmaking is inevitable. Asked about the utilization of VR in any of his own projects, the director said, “You have to go for it. You’ve got to, you’d be stupid not to.”
Any new technology offers it’s own set of challenges, but the intriguing possibilities opened up in a 360-degree viewing environment seem to outweigh the negatives. Even the idea of creating digital environments, such as movie theaters, fake outdoor venues, or even other worlds, in which to view content have many in the film industry excited to utilize the new tech. Imagine watching a giant screen playing The Martian on Mars.
See the full story here: http://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/ridley-scott-teases-new-virtual-reality-project/
Google Patents Holograms For Glass, Which Could Involve Magic Leap
Today Google published a patent application for using holograms in a head mounted display like Google Glass. It would effectively let Google create augmented reality experiences that superimpose computer-generated imagery (CGI) atop the real world.
But what’s perhaps more fascinating is how the patent contextualizes Google Inc leading the $542 million funding round for augmented reality startup Magic Leap. One possibility is that Google’s smart eyewear could be the hardware platform for Magic Leap‘s AR content.
Over the past few years, Magic Leap has filed a bunch of trademarks for forthcoming augmented reality content. These include characters, titles, and games like Super Bionic Bitforce, Roadkill Warriors, Monsta Battle, Moonstone Monsters, Moonsters, and my personal favorite, Flutterboard, which refers to “flying sentient skateboards”.
This patent and trademark research came from legal technology firm SmartUp Legal. The company’s founder Mikhail Avady tells me “I believe Google wants Magic Leap to be the content provider for Google Glass. If we look at their trademark applications, it shows very story and content based trademarks. Magic Leap wants to turn the world into a movie theater and Google wants it to be through Glass.”
See the full story here: http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/01/google-holograms/?ncid=tcdaily
Oculus announces “Oculus Ready,” certified PCs for VR
Starting at price points under $1000, NVIDIA, ASUS, Alienware, Dell, AMD, and Intel will all be releasing hardware in the next year that will feature an Oculus Ready sticker, indicating that the hardware is ready for VR.
“Our goal with the recommended specs is that everything just works,” said Nate Mitchell Oculus’ head of product.
See the full story here: http://uploadvr.com/oculus-ready-vr-pc/?utm_source=VR+Digest&utm_campaign=c64e9c99e6-VR_Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_54068a0706-c64e9c99e6-74843441
Everyone you know will be able to rate you on the terrifying ‘Yelp for people’ — whether you want them to or not
You can already rate restaurants, hotels, movies, college classes, government agencies and bowel movements online.
So the most surprising thing about Peeple — basically Yelp, but for humans — may be the fact that no one has yet had the gall to launch something like it....
If you haven’t registered for the site, and thus can’t contest those negative ratings, your profile only shows positive reviews.
Unfortunately for the millions of people who could soon find themselves the unwilling subjects — make that objects — of Cordray’s app, her thoughts do not appear to have shed light on certain very critical issues, such as consent and bias and accuracy and the fundamental wrongness of assigning a number value to a person.
To borrow from the technologist and philosopher Jaron Lanier, Peeple is indicative of a sort of technology that values “the information content of the web over individuals;” it’s so obsessed with the perceived magic of crowd-sourced data that it fails to see the harms to ordinary people.
...But at least student ratings have some logical and economic basis: You paid thousands of dollars to take that class, so you’re justified and qualified to evaluate the transaction. Peeple suggests a model in which everyone is justified in publicly evaluating everyone they encounter, regardless of their exact relationship.