Hasta La Gadget!

Looking to tempt others to check out your Spotify tracks? Before, any interaction with other users or artists had to be done within the various desktop and mobile apps, but there’s now another option: you can embed a ‘Follow’ button into any website. The idea is to make it easier to promote your music (or musical taste) while expanding your follower base. Obviously, it’ll also give Spotify itself a greater online presence and allow it to ensnare new subscribers who’ve yet to download the app. You can grab the code snippets at the source, but you may first want to weed out that playlist from your ‘crunkcore’ phase.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, Software

Comments

Source: Spotify

If you’re already looking for a more worthy Grand Theft Auto 5 adversary than a computer can generate, here’s the dirt: you can now play it online. Whether your battleground of choice is PlayStation Network or Xbox Live, only a “small title update” should be required to get online. Of course, that is assuming the game’s servers can handle the load. With over 16.5 million copies already in circulation Day 1 connectivity could land somewhere near the Sim City end of the scale, and Rockstar’s Social Club backend has already experienced some strain loading up pictures and stats from the single player edition. Assuming everything goes to plan however, players should be creating their avatars, forming online crime syndicates and visiting each other’s houses.

The Content Creator tool that will let players design their own heists is one of the features scheduled to launch later this fall, for more details on what is available right away, check out this blog post. Access appears to be open on both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, although we’re already seeing reports of connection issues and “Rockstar cloud servers are not available right now” on both sides.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD

Comments

Source: Rockstar

Nintendo’s pushing out version 4.0 of its Wii U system software, and it’s bringing a few unexpected — yet welcome — changes. Ironically, tweaks to how the hardware handles titles from The Big N’s last home console headline the update. Folks taking Wii games for a spin will now be able to do so using just the GamePad’s screen, and enjoy Dolby Pro Logic II surround output — though you’ll still need a Wii remote to play. Iwata and Co. have also rolled in an image sharing tool that mirrors the one on the 3DS, which lets gamers share screenshots on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. With the fresh code in tow, demos from Nintendo can be downloaded automatically and a variety of USB keyboards are supported, to boot. The box’s internet browser also got some attention, as it’s been bolstered with the ability to open PDF files and remember user login details for web sites. Check your Wii U for the update or click the source link for the full changelog.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Nintendo

Comments

Source: Nintendo Japan (translated)

Irrational Games’ blockbuster BioShock Infinite and EA DICE’s Mirror’s Edge weren’t built with the Oculus Rift in mind, but both are part of a huge list of games supported by a new piece of software available today: VorpX. The still-in-beta, $40 application promises to convert a variety of games from monitor-exclusive experiences to Oculus Rift-ready VR games, including the aforementioned two and a lengthy list of others.

As none of the supported games are meant to work with the Rift, a variety of workarounds are implemented by VorpX. Clicking in and holding down your mouse wheel, for instance, allows you to “edge peek,” which allows users to look freely at the edges of their field-of-view instead of it moving with the headset’s movement. Additionally, since rendering two distinct views of high-def, modern games is taxing, VorpX uses a workaround called “Z-buffer,” which is apparently “the highest performing” of the two available options, but not as pretty. You can also choose “Geometry 3D,” which does render two distinct feeds and, well, we’re jealous of whatever system you’ve got that’s running that smoothly. Not every game supports both modes, but a fair number do (there’s a list right here comparing both). Head below for a handful of video demonstrations of VorpX in action, as well as the full list of supported games.

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Wearables, Software, HD

Comments

Source: VorpX

This article was written on May 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

I just saw a post on the Flock blog today reminding everyone of the test day last week for a pre-release version of Flock 0.8. The point of these test days are to find bugs and problems in Flock before it is released to the public, and it sounds like it should be in final form within a month or so.

Early this year I updated you on what was happening with this release, and it has progressed quite nicely since then. Since I’m a pre-release junkie I couldn’t help but see what has improved since my last look at the browser. After installation of the latest nightly I was presented with a nice loading screen:

Click to Enlarge

Then the first thing that I saw…a stunning new interface. The placement of the bookmark toolbar (and it’s appearance) is perfect as it sits alongside of the shortcuts for many Flock-specific services. Oh yeah, and I can’t forget to mention the prominent notification bar that alerts users when feeds, and a few other things, are available:

Click to Enlarge

A lot of the configuration and management of social networks is done through the sidebar now. This is a nice change because you’re no longer dealing with hordes of popups or wasted screen space when trying to manage accounts:

Click to Enlarge

The blog editor could still use a little TLC because it really only offers the most basic features for writing articles. Seeing that this browser is built around social networks I would think that adding YouTube videos or Flickr images would be astoundingly easy, but such a feature appears to be missing. At least they do make your clipboard readily accessible:

Click to Enlarge

Next up, the Flock feed reader. Not much has changed here, but as always it provides a quick and flexible way to read through your news. You can choose between viewing feeds in one or two columns, as well as a headlines or full-text view. It will automatically mark the feeds as read once you scroll past a news story, and will also scale any images in the articles so that they fit the width of the column:

Click to Enlarge

This last screenshot helps put it all in perspective. It shows the bookmark manager for the sidebar, the Media Streams bar, and the My World start page. The Media Streams bar is cool because it lets you search sites like Flickr and YouTube while displaying the results right there in the bar, without having to visit a site. If you double-click on any of the results it will instantly take you to the page where that result was found.

My World is simply a start page for Flock that gives you a quick overview of everything that has been going on. It summarizes what your favorite sites, feeds, and media are so that they are only a click away. In other words it’s a homepage customized to you:

 
Click to Enlarge

And I can’t forget one of the best improvements for the new Flock: Firefox 2! Now that Firefox 2 is used as the backbone (instead of Firefox 1.5) new features like spell checking, anti-phishing, and session restore are all part of the browser. Flock is shaping up to be a great browser for anyone actively involved in social networks, and when the final release hits the Web I’m sure there will be a lot of people raving about it.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com