A new split-screen mode to quickly open a second app in the right column and then slide it away. For example, you could quickly slide the Twitter app into view while you’re reading a website.
A second, more powerful split-screen mode to fully use two apps at a time, side-by-side. For example, you could simultaneously browse a map while making a to-do list for the day.
A picture-in-picture mode that lets a video float over the rest of what you’re doing on the iPad, with adjustable size and positioning.
A new set of keyboard features. These include the ability to swipe over the keyboard with two fingers to simulate a trackpad, which is designed to simplify moving around a document and selecting text.
iPad split view and picture-in-picture.(Apple)
These additions will work fine on today’s current iPad lineup—the iPad Air, with a 9.7-inch screen, and the iPad mini, with a 7.9-inch screen. But if you read between the lines, it’s easy to see Apple is thinking bigger, in the literal sense. Some of these changes only really become great on a big screen.
For example, selecting text with a trackpad doesn’t really save you too much arm motion on an iPad mini. But on a huge iPad, where there’s more space between the keyboard and what you’re working on, it does. Same goes for split-view mode, which begs for more screen real estate.
It seems Apple is setting itself up to easily be able to introduce a new, even-larger iPad—perhaps as soon as this fall.
Apple has reportedly been working on one for a while, featuring a 12.9-inch screen—about the same size as a standard Mac laptop. But it didn’t ship last year, and Apple didn’t use its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote this week to unveil one, either. (Apple did, however, have a session at its conference called Designing for Future Hardware. This instructed app designers on prototyping and building apps for a wide variety of devices that don’t yet exist.)
Now that these big-iPad-friendly features have been announced for iOS 9, perhaps we’ll finally see the corresponding hardware this year. Apple typically releases its new iOS in September alongside new iPhones, and updates its iPad line at an event in October.
The broader story is that Apple is actively trying to differentiate the iPad as a powerful productivity device and not just an entertainment slate. While the iPad launched as Apple’s fastest-selling product of all time, sales have recently declined.
Apple’s move to court professional users with more PC-like features—and its business-apps partnership with IBM—might help. There are many potential iPad use cases that haven’t been tapped yet, especially in business. (While Apple’s 63 million iPad shipments in 2014 beat its 20 million Mac shipments, almost 300 million Windows PCs were purchased globally last year, according to Gartner.)
A 13-inch “pro” iPad probably wouldn’t be Apple’s top seller—it’s likely to cost considerably more than the consumer base model—but it might find an audience, especially as more powerful software capabilities evolve.
We at The Mary Sue were none too happy when we heard about the all-male “Women in Comics” panel at this year’s Denver Comic Con. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones. Racebending.com’s Gabrial Canada sees how underrepresented women are in all aspects of geek culture and decided to respond to that Denver Comic Con panel by creating this “Men in Comics” panel featuring all women at this month’s Indy PopCon in Indianapolis.
We’ve gathered a panel of fabulous women to talk about MEN IN COMICS! More men are making comics than ever before. But not all men! Some don’t even WANT to. How do we create opportunities for them?
We’ll have a lively discussion featuring…
Christina Blanch, Ball State University instructor and doctoral assistant, most popularly known for teaching the SuperMOOC “Gender through Comic Books”
Jackie Crofts, co-creator of the comic Nutmeg
Ginger Dee, co-creator of comics The Brothers Grant, Dexter’s Digs, and Presidents of the United Space and co-organizer of the Indy Webcomics Group
Bri Rudd, creator of the comic Oh No Bri and contributor to Geeking in Indiana and Panels
Katie Schenkel, contributor to The Mary Sue, Panels, and Quirk Books
Moderated by the mighty model/writer/artist powerhouse Taversia!
Masterminded by the brilliant Gabrial Canada of Racebending.com.
And why yes, it does feature TMS’ Katie Schenkel! If you want to discuss men in comics with a bunch of women who know what they’re talking about, check out this awesome panel on Sunday, June 28th, at 2PM. And if you do attend, let us know what you think!
Mindy Kaling fans who are also foodies rejoice: the creator and star of The Mindy Project is broadening her skill set to include “burger curator” with the news that she’s collaborating with the chain restaurant Umami Burger on a new creation. The now triple-threat actress/writer/burger curator posted on her Instagram announcing the union, calling it “the greatest collaboration since Jared and Subway”:
It’s unclear how Jared and his old 60-inch-waist pants feel about the declaration, but regardless, Kaling’s burger will likely debut in September to coincide with the release of her second book and The Mindy Project’s season four premiere on Hulu. Umami Burger has a history of inviting celebrities to create a spin on their popular burgers as part of its Artist Series, with Andy Samberg (“The Samberger”) and former Top Chef champion Michael Voltaggio (“The Monte Cristo”) among those who have tried ...
There are currently two versions of Skype for Windows 8.1. One is the traditional desktop Skype app, known and loved (?) by millions around the world. The other is the modern-style app for the Metro environment. At the moment, the modern app is, like all other Metro apps, only usable in the full-screen Metro environment, though Windows 10 will free Metro apps from this constraint, letting them run in windows on the desktop.
But this situation is not going to continue. Microsoft is going to kill off one of the Skype apps. Naively, one might think that this would be the desktop app. The Metro app is, after all, built on the same technologies that are used for Universal Windows Apps—apps that can run on the desktop, on the phone, on the tablet, on the HoloLens, on the Surface Hub, and on the Xbox One.
This is the kind of application that Microsoft is heavily promoting to third-party developers. But it's apparently not the kind of application that the Skype team is interested in. What they announced today is not that they're killing off the desktop application, but rather the Metro one. From July 7, the Metro app will prompt users to install the desktop app, unless they're running the Metro app on Windows RT, in which case nothing changes for them.
the more I read from longtime Portlanders, the more I'm taken aback by how similar the discussions about race/gentrification/authenticity/etc. are to those about New Orleans when I moved out of Louisiana
and I don't just mean someone literally saying "the levee has burst"
1. Stop accepting things simply because they’re less crappy than where you came from.
There is, I think, a tendency among Portland’s non-native population to turn a blind eye to our problems because they’re objectively not as bad as where you may have lived before. Traffic is nothing compared to Los Angeles. Housing prices are nothing compared to San Francisco. Crime is nothing compared to Chicago. Racial tensions are nothing compared to Baltimore. These are valid statements, but they’re tracking the wrong metrics. The question isn’t whether or not Portland sucks as much as the cities you wanted to leave, it’s whether or not Portland is getting worse. If I come over to your house and pee on your living room rug, then explain to you that it’s not as bad as the last living room I peed in, that’s probably going to be small comfort to you. It tied the room together, you know? If we get too complacent about these things, it’s only a matter of time before Portland becomes unrecognizable from all the places you wanted to leave in the first place.
2. Stop pretending that things are “Authentically Portland.”
Stop pretending aesthetic authenticity is necessarily important.
Recently, Doug Fir Lounge ran an ad in Portland Monthly touting themselves as “Pure Portland.” Now, I love Doug Fir, but I did not particularly love that ad, because it’s not really true. Although DF’s log walls and Parks & Rec-esque backdrops have been around for a while now, it doesn’t look much like anything I remember from my childhood, nor do any of the “quintessentially Portland” spots that are on Portland Must Visit lists. Most of these places are an artist’s rendition of what people THINK Portland should look like (usually informed by their own New York / Los Angeles / Chicago sensibilities), and they’re about as authentic as grocery store Chinese food.
Contrary to popular belief, not everything in Portland was made with logs.
And that’s completely OK. A truly “authentic” Portland bar would probably have a name like “McFlintys” or “Ginny’s Too” and come decked out with laminate countertops, aging fluorescent lights, a robust selection of domestic taps, and as many video poker machines as you can physically fit into one building. You know what else is “authentically Portland”? Chain restaurants and a history of institutionalized racism that we don’t like to talk about. So maybe we can agree to stop referring to anything that’s full of unfinished wood and salvaged wrought-iron as “authentic” if we can agree that authenticity in its current aesthetic usage isn’t all that important.
3. Start being cognizant of what gentrification costs.
One of my friends recently purchased a “fixer” off of Northeast Alberta. He was raving about what a nice, hip neighborhood it was, but he blanched a little when I pointed out that the Alberta Arts district’s rapid growth had pushed out many lower-income families that had lived there just five or ten years earlier. Like many young towns, Portland has a short memory, and many people who are moving to up-and-coming neighborhoods don’t realise that the eminently walkable paradises they inhabit were once home to now-displaced low-income and/or African American households, many of whom had already been forcibly moved less than a half a century earlier by the Vanport Flood, the construction of Memorial Coliseum and Lloyd Center, and the building of Interstate 84.
So before you start dropping Marie Antoinette-esque bon mots like “Sorry (your home) isn’t worth talking and making videos about” (*cough* Tyler Hurst *cough*), remember that while years of regionally-adjusted salaries in other cities may make living in Portland seem pretty affordable, it’s small comfort for people whose rents have gone up in 100% in the past decade. The cost of living in Portland is a little like going to a funeral for a relative you never met: it’s not your fault and no one’s asking you to feel bad about it, but try to be sympathetic, at least.
4. Start figuring out what’s worth saving.
We can’t turn back the tide of gentrification in this city. Affordable housing and socioeconomic diversity are going extinct in this town as quickly as parking on the waterfront or businesses founded before the year 2000, and there’s very little that any of us can do about that. The levee has burst. (Although we probably have plenty of new tax levies to look forward to. HEYO.) What we can, do, though, is enter into a conversation about what makes Portland so uniquely “Portland” (more than just aesthetically) and about what’s worth preserving, here. We should be talking about what businesses are worth fighting to save and what shreds of Portland’s character we should tighten our grip on. Ask yourself: what are the things you want to carry to your post-Barpocalypse fallout shelter? If you’re a transplant to this town, ask yourself: what made you fall in love with this city in the first place? If you’re a native, ask yourself: what made you stay? Now ask yourself if those values are being eclipsed by Portland’s transition to a “big city.”
I know what my own answer would be. For me, Portland’s sleek apartment buildings, glittering restaurants and meticulously-curated retail shops are all beautiful but ultimately false idols. The Portland I fell in love with was not an insular yupster enclave, but rather a vibrant, robust, slightly-rough-around-the-edges community full of the ideals of our frontier-town roots: innovation, rugged individualism and boundless optimism. Even more than its native citizenry, Portland’s truly non-renewable resource is its own sense of self. And I hope we can all agree that’s something worth holding onto.
Nimesh Patel: I think if you’re offended by something, you’ve never had a real problem. My father left me when I was two, and it hurt me a lot, so there is very little you can say to me that will match whatever that was.
Delly has a pre-game cup of coffee (and sometimes a mid-game cup of coffee) to amp himself up. But to ensure he isn't beset by cramps tonight, he's skipping his caffeine fix:
Heard this week that Dellavedova is a "huge" coffee drinker before/during games. After cramps, he says he’s knocking that habit for now.
Late in May, when the Boston Public Library was still missing a Rembrandt etching worth $30,000 and a 16th century Dürer print worth $600,000, the situation looked bad. Then, last week, just one day after the library's president announced her resignation, the two prints turned up — just 80 feet from where they were supposed to be.
One hot night in July 1972, I walked into my family’s kitchen to see my mother brandishing a broom at a skinny man who had his head stuck deep inside our refrigerator.
Fox has moved up the release date of The Martian from Thanksgiving to October 2, 2015. It’s the same date that Gravity had two years ago. We so often hear of movies getting release dates pushed back, a vote of confidence like this has become a pleasant surprise. [via First Showing]
Tom Scott addresses why some languages use many short words while others use fewer long words in a recent video written with linguist Gretchen McCulloch. Generally it has to do with how or whether morphemes—the smallest meaningful units in a language—are combined in accordance with the sometimes ambiguous morphological typography of each language. A series of illustrations help explain the concept.
A cute but lethargic corgi makes a halfhearted attempt to chase after his errant tennis ball without bothering to get up from his comfy position on the floor. According to his human, the little dog was “derping with the ball.”
Mayor Walsh today unveiled two "gender-neutral" restrooms at City Hall with markings that replace the "Men" and "Women" signs that once hung on the doors.
In a statement, the mayor said:
Gender neutral bathrooms benefit a variety of individuals who are not comfortable when accessing gender-specific bathrooms. Providing access to a private, non-gendered stall can reduce or eliminate this negative experience. Gender neutral bathrooms also benefit members of the disabled community or others who have personal attendants of a different gender. Parents or guardians with children of a different gender can also experience misunderstanding when accessing gender-specific bathrooms.
This change will reduce and eliminate these unpleasant experiences, creating a positive effect for employees and visitors of City Hall.
The restrooms are on the fifth floor, just past the elevators and in front of the entrance to the mayor's office. Although large, both are designed for one person at a time.
'Additionally, city representatives conceded that it has so far been a major challenge finding a new location with the same features they’ve always enjoyed at their current spot, including its desirable outdoor space, easy access by public transit, and impressive views.'
welcome to portland
SAN FRANCISCO—Saying that staying in its current location was no longer feasible, sources across San Francisco confirmed Thursday that the popular Northern California city would be shutting its doors at the end of the month due to rising rent.
Residents and business owners of the iconic West Coast metropolis, which has occupied the same peninsula for generations, told reporters that spiraling costs had reached such a level that remaining in its 47-square-mile waterfront space was simply beyond its means.
“The city’s in such a great area, but ultimately we just couldn’t find a way to make ends meet each month,” said San Francisco resident Jaime Gonzalez, speaking on behalf of the city’s 850,000 citizens, all of whom recently gave notice that they would be vacating the premises by July 1. “We’ve been here for so long, it’s hard to imagine this city anywhere ...
Is anyone going to have anything left to announce next week for E3? Atlus just revealed that it’s bringing 3DS RPG The Legend of Legacy to North and South (??) America this fall, priced at $39.99.
In case you forgot about this one, the FuRyu-developed RPG has a notable team behind it: illustrator Tomomi Kobayashi (SaGa series), composer Masashi Hamauzu (SaGa, Final Fantasy XIII), and writer Masato Kato (Chrono Trigger).
The game has been “balanced for the West” with adjustments based on feedback in Japan. More details, and an older Japanese trailer after the break:
Game info:
“In The Legend of Legacy, Seven adventurers - Liber, Meurs, Owen, Bianca, Garnet, Eloise, Filmia - arrive on the mysterious island of Avalon to pursue their own agenda as explorers. They team up with two of the other adventurers to achieve their objectives - be it exploring the island for treasure, looking for the “god” on the island, or recovering lost memories. But things change when they discover a singing stone that causes the party to see phantasms of Avalon’s forgotten history.
In addition to exploring the island of Avalon, Combat will offer plenty of challenges in The Legend of Legacy. Combat is turn-based, but players will have the option to create their own formations tailored to their party of three, meaning each party member can be put into a different combat role (defending, attacking, supporting, etc.) at any given time. Formations can be saved and changed between turns as well, giving players plenty of options to maximize their strategies. “
Gameplay features:
Seven Unique Perspectives - Each character in The Legend of Legacy has their own motivation for exploring Avalon, and their individual conclusion at the story’s resolution. Play through as each character to see them all!
Combat Gets Classless - Managing formations to instruct specific combat roles instead of fixed classes adds a different level of challenge for battle enthusiasts.
Legendary Development - Illustrator Tomomi Kobayashi (SaGaseries), renowned composer Masashi Hamauzu (SaGa, Final Fantasy XIII), writer Masato Kato (Chrono Trigger), game designer Kyoji Koizumi (SaGa series), and Masataka Matsuura (999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors) all come together to create this brand new experience.
Balanced for the West - Based on user feedback following the Japanese release, several gameplay adjustments were made to enhance the gameplay. More details to come later!
Kathleen Cox of Jacksonville, Florida has been a Comcast subscriber for 13 years, and besides getting cable service she also uses a Comcast e-mail address.
In April, another Kathleen Cox, who lives in Michigan, signed up for a Comcast account. The company took the Florida's Kathleen Cox's e-mail account and gave it to the woman in Michigan.
"It has been crazy," said Cox. "It is frustrating that's what it is."
It means all of her e-mail contact information went away, but it also resulted in Cox getting the other woman's bill.
"Your bank, your doctor, everybody you know that had your email address for 13 years," said Cox. "All gone."
The problem apparently wasn't fixed until the news station got involved. "Everyone says 'within 24-72 hours,' and nothing happens," Cox told First Coast News. Cox said she spoke to 18 Comcast agents who promised to fix the problem. It took "more than a month" to finally get it solved, according to the report.
So Kyle Smith of the New York Post wrote an over the top troll-ish article about the film Goodfellas yesterday afternoon, attempting to argue that it is a movie that women by their nature are incapable of fully understanding (or appreciating? It's never quite clear). Needless to say, the comments were pretty unanimous in their derision, pointing out in addition, that there were several women involved at the top levels of that film's production.
My takeaway from this stupidity is that anyone who thinks that the understanding, appreciation, or enjoyment of a film is restricted to only half the population is either a very poor troll or someone who knows so little about movies that they should be let go from their movie column. One aspect not really remarked on by the comments is that this guy is equally as sexist to men as he is to women - he generalizes ALL men, and ALL women, into two camps. No woman could possibly appreciate this great movie, but also all men will love it.
Surely in 2015 people cannot seriously argue that all men will enjoy a certain movie. Nor that some movie is so focused on "guys" or "girls" that the other gender cannot find enjoyment in it. It's a ridiculous argument from the start.
Oculus VR is an American virtual reality technology company founded by Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe. Their first product, still in development, is the Oculus Rift, a head-mounted display for immersive virtual reality (VR). In March 2014, Facebook agreed to acquire Oculus VR for US$2 billion in cash and Facebook stock.
PS. There is a special live streaming event today at 1:00 pm Eastern time where something will happen.
Opinion/Notes: The previous logo was already pretty good. Not utterly imaginative with a rendering of an eye but it was well done and the type was nice too. The new logo is quite good. It's very good. It reads as both an "O" and as the viewfinder (that they probably don't even call it that) of the Oculus. It's as simple as it gets and it's still highly distinctive. It's extremely elegant but also very bold: it's like snowboarding in a tuxedo. The wordmark, which looks like a customized version, of every sans serif of the past 5 years is quite well done too with perfect spacing and kerning. Overall, super slick for a product that is meant to take us into the future.
Select Quote: Simplicity was key. This mark must integrate into formats and technologies that have yet to be invented, yet it still needed to be appropriate to the current oculus brand and memorable. There's a lot more to the choices made, and the possible implications of the symbol, but I'll let Oculus reveal those themselves in their upcoming event and through the stories they tell.
The inside of the Oculus Rift.Logo detail with name.Icon detail and construction.
Super Opinionated.
