Rolandt

On a recent walk I listened to Unmasking Misogyny on Radio Open Source. One of the guests, Danielle McGuire, told the story of Rosa Parks’ activism in a way I hadn’t heard before. I wanted to capture that segment of the show, save a link to it, and bookmark the link for future reference.

If you visit the show page and click the download link, you’ll load the show’s MP3 file into your browser’s audio player. Nowadays that’s almost always going to be the basic HTML5 player. Here’s what it looks like in various browsers:

The show is about an hour long. I scrubbed along the timeline until I heard Danielle McGuire’s voice, and then zeroed in on the start and end of the segment I wanted to capture. It starts at 18:14 and ends at 21:11. Now, how to link to that segment?

I first investigated this problem in 2004. Back then, I learned that it’s possible to fetch and play random parts of MP3 files, and I made a web app that would figure out, given start and stop times like 18:14 and 21:11, which part of the MP3 file to fetch and play. Audio players weren’t (and still aren’t) optimized for capturing segments as pairs of minute:second parameters. But once you acquired those parameters, you could form a link that would invoke the web app and play the segment. Such links could then be curated, something I often did using the del.icio.us bookmarking app.

Revisiting those bookmarks now, I’m reminded that Doug Kaye and I were traveling the same path. At ITConversations he had implemented a clipping service that produced URLs like this:

http://www.itconversations.com/clip.php?showid=378&start=4:37&stop=6:04

Mine looked like this:

http://udell.infoworld.com/?url=http://www.itconversations.com/audio/download/ITConversations-378.mp3&beg=4:37&end=6:04

Both of those audio-clipping services are long gone. But the audio files survive, thanks to the exemplary cooperation between ITConversations and the Internet Archive. So now I can resurrect that ITConversations clip — in which Doug Engelbart, at the Accelerating Change conference in 2004, describes the epiphany that inspired his lifelong quest — like so:

http://jonudell.net/av/audio.html?url=http://jonudell.net/audio/ITC.AC2004-DougEngelbart-2004.11.07.mp3&startmin=4&startsec=37&endmin=6&endsec=4

And here’s the segment of Danielle McGuire’s discussion of Rosa Parks that I wanted to remember:

http://jonudell.net/av/audio.html?url=http://ia601506.us.archive.org/5/items/171207OSPODCASTSexualHarassment/171207-OS-PODCAST-SexualHarassment.mp3&startmin=18&startsec=14&endmin=21&endsec=11

This single-page JavaScript app aims to function both as a player of predefined segments, and as a tool that makes it as easy as possible to define segments. It’s still a work in progress, but I’m able to use it effectively even as I continue to refine the interaction details.

For curation of these clips I am, of course, using Hypothesis. Here are some of the clips I’ve collected on the tag AnnotatingAV:

To create these annotations I’m using Hypothesis page notes. An annotation of this type is like a del.icio.us or pinboard.in bookmark. It refers to the whole resource addressed by a URL, rather than to a segment of interest within a resource.

Most often, a Hypothesis user defines a segment of interest by selecting a passage of text in a web document. But if you’re not annotating any particular selection, you can use a page note to comment on, tag, and discuss the whole document.

Since each audio clip defines a segment as a standalone web page with a unique URL, you can use a Hypothesis page note to annotate that standalone page:

It’s a beautiful example of small pieces loosely joined. My clipping tool is just one way to form URLs that point to audio and video segments. I hope others will improve on it. But any clipping tool that produces unique URLs can work with Hypothesis and, of course, with any other annotation or curation tool that targets URLs.

Zeynep Tufekci, in the NYTimes:

Modern computing security is like a flimsy house that needs to be fundamentally rebuilt. In recent years, we have suffered small collapses here and there, and made superficial fixes in response. There has been no real accountability for the companies at fault, even when the failures were a foreseeable result of underinvestment in security or substandard practices rather than an outdated trade-off of performance for security.

Source: The Looming Digital Meltdown – The New York Times

Her butler metaphor is great, too.

While I was in Barcelona this past October to co-present with Brian Lamb at the Open University of Catalonia’s (UOC) “Pushing the Boundaries of Higher Ed” symposium (presentation video above), they decided to subject themselves to my opinionated responses to a series of questions regarding the state of ed-tech. I tried avoid any topics involving predictions given I am no futurist, but rather a charismatic cult leader and highly successful edupreneur

But enough about me, I’d like to thank Marcelo Maina of UOC’s EDUL@B for his masterful work at both conducting and editing the numerous responses to the various questions. I was just one of many folks he was tasked with interviewing, and I know from personal experience the chore of recording, editing, and publishing such things is no small feat—and to turn it around so quickly is truly impressive.

As for the videos, they are all a manageable 3-4 minutes responses to a posed question, and I like them because they allowed me to discuss everything from the greatest course ever taught (i.e. ds106), the vision behind a personal API, the good old days of blogs and wikis, the limits of open as in textbooks, and more. Not sure there is much cohesion to it given I am all over the place as usual, but the videos are a perfect for for the “I love me wall” that is the bava!

Quality Education for Ubiquitous Technology

Drivers of Emergent Pedagogies

Digital Competence in Higher Education

Future learning environments and technologies

Future Relevant Certifications

What new modes of education provision should Higher Education pay attention to?

Learning resources and open knowledge

 

I have a vision for 1.0, and then, as time goes on, I have to cut it back beyond where it hurts. I have to keep punting. I hate this part of shipping software.

But I also love it because it reminds me that I have the stomach for it. Shipping software is an emotional skill.

After shipping — no matter what — there will be people who absolutely cannot believe that feature X wasn’t included. In fact, it’s the one thing they totally need.

And they’re right. Not wrong. And I would have loved to have included feature X, loved I not quality (the app maker’s honor) more.

* * *

I wondered if Evergreen as open source instead of as a for-pay app would affect what and how much I punt. I hope the answer is: not at all; the decisions would have been the same.

I think that’s right because I’m trying to make as good an app as I can, which would be true regardless.

But it is nice not to have to consider money as I make decisions. I do think about how I want it to have as many users as possible, and I want people to love the app. And I have to think about the economy of my time. But I don’t have to consider money.

Another difference between open source and commercial is that I can be utterly transparent about what’s been punted. Check out Evergreen’s 2.0 milestone. It will keep growing. Every single one of those things was originally supposed to go in 1.0.

* * *

Some things I keep reminding myself as I make progress toward 1.0…

This isn’t the last release, it’s the first. There will be many more. (I hope to work on this app for 20 years. It’s been only three years so far.)

Any feature I ship, I probably have to support forever. So it’s wise to be cautious.

Quality — design, stability, performance, lack of bugs — is way more important than any collection of features.

And, perhaps most importantly: shipping 1.0 means learning about your users, how they use your app, and what they need — and those lessons will change future plans, as they should. It’s best to learn those lessons early, before doing too much.

updated with the last few years of these things

This morning, I read the first few pages of In the Blink of an Eye, an essay on film editing by Walter Murch. He starts by talking about his work on Apocalypse Now, which took well over a year in large part because of the massive amount of film Coppola shot: 1,250,000 linear feet, enough for 230 hours of running time. The movie ended up being about two hours and twenty-five minutes, so Murch and his colleagues culled 95 minutes of footage for every minute that made it into the final product. A more typical project, Murch says, has a ratio of 20:1.

Even at 20:1, Murch's story puts into clearer light the amount of raw material I create when designing a typical session for one of my courses. The typical session mixes exposition, examples, student exercises, and (less than I'd like to admit) discussion. Now, whenever I feel like a session comes up short of my goal, I will think back on Murch's 20:1 ratio and realize how much harder I might work to produce enough material to assemble a good session. If I want one of my sessions to be an Apocalypse Now, maybe I'll need to shoot higher.

This motivation comes at a favorable time. Yesterday I had a burst of what felt like inspiration for a new first day to my Programming Languages course. At the end of the brainstorm came what is now the working version of my opening line in the course: "In the beginning, there was assembly language.". Let's see if I have enough inspiration -- and make enough time -- to turn the idea into what I hope it can be: a session that fuels my students' imagination for a semester's journey through Racket, functional programming, and examining language ideas with interpreters.

I do hope, though, that the journey itself does not bring to mind Apocalypse Now.

The article isn’t as hyperbolic as I was braced for, and connects the recent spate of Facebook billionaires lamenting that they just discovered that Facebook may not be the best thing for people or society (but thanks for the $billions).

I’m not about to say that having supercomputers in our pockets, wirelessly connected to the sum of published human knowledge and to every other pocket-supercomputer, is anything but an incredible boon for humanity. But, the way that capitalism and advertising revenue combined with algorithmic distribution to maximize “engagement” and tie into the feedback loop to boost ad revenue and then tweak algorithms and then boost ad revenue etc. etc. ad nauseum? Yeah. That might need a little work.

To ensure that our eyes remain firmly glued to our screens, our smartphones – and the digital worlds they connect us to – internet giants have become little virtuosos of persuasion, cajoling us into checking them again and again – and for longer than we intend. Average users look at their phones about 150 times a day, according to some estimates, and about twice as often as they think they do, according to a 2015 study by British psychologists.

Add it all up and North American users spend somewhere between three and five hours a day looking at their smartphones. As the New York University marketing professor Adam Alter points out, that means over the course of an average lifetime, most of us will spend about seven years immersed in our portable computers.

Source: Your smartphone is making you stupid, antisocial and unhealthy. So why can’t you put it down? – The Globe and Mail

• 15 Years of SparkFun – News – SparkFun Electronics
  Honest / interesting review of 15 years of building a business.
  (tags: sparkfun business companies electronics )

Roger McNamee, Washington Monthly, Jan 11, 2018

---

In a country that just ended net neutrality there is probably zero chance of regulating social networking platforms. That said, the recommendations here are good advice to help us avoid making the same mistakes in education technology. Among the recommendations: "it’s essential to ban digital bots that impersonate humans"; "be transparent about who is behind political and issues-based communication"; "be more transparent about their algorithms"; and "consumers, not the platforms, should own their own data". And more. It's good advice. 

[Link] [Comment]

Hurricane Sandy showed that the so-called 500-Year Flood Zone is more like a 5-year Flood Zone. 2012 + 5 = 2017, so we’re overdue.

So we’ve been dealing with unseasonably cold weather for the past couple of weeks, just like most of North America. This has been an opportunity for me to reevaluate some of my clothing choices for bike commuting, when the nominal temps have been between -15°C and -20°C. My commute is about 9 km, meaning about 30 minutes in normal weather, and 40 minutes when it is colder.

Last week, I used ski goggles while biking for the first time ever, even though it was only about -20°C.

The googles were definitely overkill in the morning (at -20°C), but they were great the same evening, when I was biking into a bitterly cold headwind. Another plus was that they reduced the amount of fogging that I typically get when I have the balaclava covering my mouth. However, I didn’t like the tinted lenses reducing my night vision. I’ll probably only be using them when it is very cold and windy.

My more typical headgear for winter riding is this, without the goggles:

Wool balaclava.

My favourite is now the one by Trew, which is constructed so that it is easy to pull down the lower half when I don’t want my face covered. It also is made of what they call Nuyarn, which has a synthetic core covered by wool, and I think that it is holding up to washing better than my pure wool balaclavas.

Earflaps

They look a bit puffy right now because I am actually using them to stretch over a pair of Cat ears.

Visor

the velcro taps on the helmet are for a velcro mounted visor.

In terms of clothing, I’ve been wearing the following:

Top:

wool T shirt, then a specialized thermal jersey, and my Proviz jersey.

Bottom:

Either my Makers and Riders winter pants, or my new Swvre blue pants. I think that the M&R pants are marginally warmer, probably because they seem to block the wind better. Note that the M&R pants would be way too warm if it is -10°C or above.

Footwear:

thick wool socks and light winter boots on flat pedals.

Hands:

Here is where it seems like my past winning combination of ski gloves and pogies just isn’t hacking it this year. Perhaps this is because the insulation in the gloves has gone downhill after about six years of use. Perhaps it is because I’m getting old.

Inspired by someone on the Toronto Cycling FB page, I broke down and got a pair of snowmobile mitts from Canadian Tire. $33 after tax. Nothing fancy, but the kept my hands toasty warm for about 40 minutes of riding. At the end of my ride, the tips of my thumbs were a bit cold, but my fingers were fine. No problems braking or shifting. I could see my hands getting very sweaty in these above -10°C.

One last thing: the shock cord that holds up the kickstand on my Haul a Day is sagging in the cold, and I’ve had to effectively shorten it by moving the actor hook. This picture will only make sense to HaD owners.

Note to self: must clean up all the salt off this bike in the spring.

Now that I’m all set for the bitter cold, of course it’s going to warm up this week.

I have an easy to remember Facebook address: facebook.com/volker. It is testimony that I was once very active on the platform. It was fun while it lasted. But then Facebook started showing disrespect. We know all the complaints, no need to repeat them again here. You have to look at their newer acquisitions to see how they apply the same (winning) formula time and again. Look at this dialog above. It is not missing a NO. You will turn on notifications, either now or a few hundred reminders later. Facebook needs these notifications to reel you back in if you have been absent without leave.

Or you just walk away. I bet you are not strong enough.

Die Preisunterschiede innerhalb der Surface-Baureihen sind enorm. Das reicht jeweils von einer Minimalkonfiguration m3/4/128 für m3 Prozessor mit 4 GB RAM und 128 GB SSD, bis zu i7/16/1024. Und damit wird so eine Maschine auf einmal dreimal so teuer. Stets hat man jedoch das gleiche tolle Display, das perfekte Gehäuse, die wunderbare Tastatur usw.

Die optimale Konfiguration ist für mich i5/8/256. Und die scheint auch am besten zu gehen, denn dort sehe ich nur selten Preisaktionen. Geht man aber nur eine Generation zurück und nimmt eine kleinere SSD, dann bekommt man die selbe Maschine für sehr viel weniger Geld. Die 128 GB SSD kann man hier leicht verschmerzen, weil man dicke Medien wie Filme einfach auf SD-Karte auslagern kann. Bei Surface Pro ist das ein gut versteckter MicroSD-Slot, die Basis des Surface Books hat einen Fullsize-SD-Slot. Dort kann man aber mit diesem Adapter auch eine MicroSD vollständig im Gehäuse verstecken.

Es lohnt sich, die Tagesangebote zu verfolgen. Ich habe dort schon ein Surface Pro i5/4/128 für weniger als 800 Euro gesehen, mit Keyboard Cover.

Hey, there are songs in Classical Music, too! Maybe you think you don’t like that stuff? Stick around and give this one a listen. This Song is the last movement of Peer Gynt Suite #2 by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, dating from 1876. It’s exceptionally beautiful, one of the great melodies of all time. I encountered it some decades ago, when my cello teacher assigned it to me, and it works well on that instrument. I loved playing it and now I love listening to it.

It turns out there are a lot of ways to perform this; while I mentioned cello, it’s often played as a piece for orchestra; the version I happen to have is from a 1989 Karajan/BPO outing and it’s lovely, but I’m not going to claim that it’s definitive, I’ve seen rave reviews of Beecham’s 1957 (!) recording, and I enjoyed listening to four different takes on Spotify; if you’ve got some extra minutes, you might want to do that and marvel at the huge differences following on small changes in tempo and balance. In this piece, a lot depends on getting a big-but-soft sound out of your violin sections.

But it’s not just an orchestral piece, it’s a song too; see below.

This is part of the Song of the Day series (background).

Links

I already covered Spotify; you can get the Karajan version I have from iTunes or Amazon. Now, as for live-video links… pull up a comfy chair, sit down, and take in this performance by Sissel Kyrkjebø from Norwegian TV. I’d never heard of Ms Kyrkjebø, generally just called Sissel, before this. The video and audio are a little out of sync in this performance, but oh my goodness gracious, here is a woman who has her mojo working and knows it. Awesome.

Today’s song is Miles Runs the Voodoo Down, from Bitches Brew. In the series intro I said “I won’t be recommending abrasive free-jazz jams…” and well, this is kind of abrasive and while it might not be free jazz, it’s pretty loose. But it’s wonderful improvisation and production, full of deep musical intelligence, and if you like anything at all in the electric-jazz space, you’ll probably like this a lot. If you’ve never checked the space out, this might be a good place to start.

I am not gonna invest the ten thousand or so words it would take to even summarize Miles’ labyrinthine path through the genres, even the ones he invented himself, and explain where Bitches Brew fits in. But it’s worth noting that he was coming out of a period that centered on cool, on minimalism, on the spaces between the notes. For this record and song, Miles switched 180° and went loud and fierce and high, front and center.

Some guy told me that, back in the Seventies, people would sit around and smoke dope and take turns dropping the needle to see who could cue up the hottest/flashiest music to blow everyone’s mind. “Jimmy Page on You Shook Me is nuthin’ man, check out Ian Gillan on Child In Time, is that heavy or what!” I didn’t know about Bitches Brew back then, but this is the kind of solo you might pull out in that context. Miles has two big breaks and there’s lots from the rest of the band, which includes Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Don Alias, and Jack DeJohnette, which is to say about as much talent as anyone has hauled into a studio together, ever.

If you don’t like Miles running the voodoo down, chances are you’ll like music from one of his other periods; that is, unless, you just can’t abide jazz at all, which is unfortunate but you wouldn’t be alone.

I saw this

When I was a teenager, in Lebanon, at a thing called the Baalbek Festival. I found a poster for the event online, see? Baalbek is a town out in East Lebanon, in recent decades mostly famous for hashish and Hezbollah. It has the largest set of still-standing Roman ruins anywhere in the world. The Festival, when they could work around the wars, brought in some pretty big names to play on the temple steps.

I was so ignorant, a headbanger, I didn’t know anything about jazz in general or Miles in particular, but I scored a ticket and showed up. The band by 1973 was no longer really doing songs as such, they just walked on stage and pumped out music for a couple hours. I scrambled on top of a fallen column and sat there in the warm wind out of Syria, getting my mind expanded, and then expanded some more. Have I ever mentioned that I’ve been a lucky guy?

Diversity problem

Song of the Day has one. I just noticed that this is the first black person in the series. There’ll be lots more coming because my collection features loads of musicians of various non-white colors. But… they’re pretty well all dead. It makes me sad, but I have to admit that I’ve pretty well lost touch with new music from black people, Prince was about the last one I followed closely. Now, partly this is just that I’m an old fart and out of touch with new stuff in general. But that’s a lousy excuse. Here’s another slightly less lousy excuse: a lot of modern big stars, black & white both, are pumping out track-and-hook bullshit. Also, almost all hip-hop goes right by me, my tastes have always centered on big tuneful hooks and hot solos. But still, I just know there are young people of color out there making music that’s different, surprising, and excellent. And the fact that I don’t know who they are is my fault not theirs. So I’m gonna modify this New Year’s resolution slightly, and try to track those musicians down and feature one or two here. Suggestions welcome.

There’s another diversity problem to think about: Miles himself, who was generally kind of an asshole, and specifically a wife-beater. I’ll deputize my comments on this to Sonia Saraiya: Miles Davis beat his wives and made beautiful music. Sigh.

This is part of the Song of the Day series (background).

Links

Spotify, Amazon, iTunes (album only), live video - there’s really only one option, an encore from a Tanglewood concert, and really it’s just one break from Miles with the rest of the band on background. The solo isn’t as cosmic as any on Bitches Brew but still, worth hearing.

Dale McGladdery @dale42
Every bike rack needs blue backlighting pic.twitter.com/5gC2UYRrUG

I, Tonya is about the short, incendiary career of Tonya Harding, notorious figure skating star and possible conspirator in the kneecapping of rival Nancy Kerrigan.

It’s a terrific biopic and the blackest of comedies. Margot Robbie as Tonya and Allison Janney as her beastly mother deserve all the plaudits they’ve received. It’s a movie about many things—scandal in a post-truth world, the cruelty of American inequality and how trauma gets passed from one generation to the next.

I’m puzzled by a conspicuous absence in a film about figure skating: we never see Tonya fall on the ice.

Skating is falling

That’s odd, because to be a figure skater is to fall. My wife Julie skated competitively at a high level for 12 years. She figures she fell an average of seven times in each free skate practice, or roughly 18,500 times over her entire career.

Learning any new jump involves trying it thousands of times. Many of those attempts end up with you landing hard on the ice. Here’s Tonya falling in practice.

The skating sequences in I, Tonya are the least interesting parts of the film. Director Craig Gillespie resorts to predictably dizzying cinematography as the camera chases and spins around Tonya. Additionally, her performances are undifferentiated—they look and feel all the same.

It’s as if the Australian Gillespie had no vision for the skating. We watch them like most sex scenes—nice to look at but a little boring and not in service to the story, character or themes.

Maybe the absence of falls is just accidental? Which would be peculiar, because the figure skating fall is such a visceral cinematic failure. It’s the sports movie equivalent of striking out in the bottom of the ninth or dropping the Hail Mary pass in the end zone.

A disinterested director?

The movie is too smart and the absence of falls too conspicuous for it to be accidental, though. So, what is Gillespie trying to say with this choice?

Tonya is the target of constant abuse in the film, first by her mother and then her ignoble husband. Is the skating rink meant to be the one place she’s spared from violence? I don’t think so, as we see her mother berate her again and again from the side boards in practice. And the movie doesn’t emphasize the ice surface as a place of serenity or salvation for Tonya.

So why don’t we see Tonya fall? I can’t figure it out, and hope there’s a reason beyond the oversight by a disinterested director.

Before the advent of smartphones, there were PDAs a.k.a Personal Digital Assistant. Primarily meant to be used in the landscape orientation, PDAs featured a slide-out QWERTY keyboard to help you easily compose long emails and make you look professional while at it. Well, an Indiegogo campaign is now looking to bring the PDA back. Continue reading →

The 2018 Consumer Electronic Show has yet to officially get underway, but U.S.-based data hardware company Linksys is ready to unveil its newest tech.

Following up on 2017’s Velop modular mesh system, Linksys has revealed a dual-band version of its tri-band router. The device greatly resembles the tri-band variant, and is a white rectangular prism.

Much like the tri-band Linksys Velop router, the dual-band version offers users an intelligent mesh system capable of covering an entire home with Wi-Fi.

In addition to serving as a dual-band system, the new routers are also smaller than the previous tri-band configuration. The new Velop routers are approximately two inches shorter than the tri-band variants.

In addition to offering the same ‘Intelligent Mesh’ technology featured in the tri-band variant, the dual-band Velop router can also work with Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant.

“Velop includes custom Amazon Alexa Skills that can turn the guest network on/off and read back the credentials of both the main and guest networks,” reads an excerpt from a Linksys media release.

The routers can be set up via Bluetooth using a mobile app, and the dual-band and tri-band variants are interoperable, meaning that users can establish tri-band and dual-band nodes that work in conjunction with one another.

The devices are available in a one-pack, two-pack and three-pack for $169.99, $259.99 and $379.99 CAD, respectively.

Source: Linksys

The post Linksys unveils dual-band Velop mesh router appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Alongside its new 146-inch modular MicroLED TV, The Wall, Samsung also announced it will start shipping 8K QLED TVs starting in the second half of 2018.

These TVs, measuring in at 65-inches and bigger, will feature a new AI-powered technology that will allow them to intelligently upscale SD, HD and UHD content to 8K regardless of native resolution.

The algorithm works in the following way: each of the company’s upcoming 8K QLED TV’s will include a database of image and video content that will assist it in determining the best way to upscale an image. The TV will also analyze an image for picture quality elements like black levels, blooming and brightness and then determine how to increase overall contrast. Ideally, the algorithm should lead to better results than traditional upscaling methods.

Another algorithm will work toward improving sound quality. For instance, in scenarios where the owner of one of these TVs is watching a sports match, Samsung says its new TVs will adjust the sound to immerse the viewer in the sound of the cheering crowd.

As mentioned above, Samsung’s new 8K QLED TVs will start making their way to market later this year.

Source: Samsung

The post Samsung’s new 8K QLED TVs will use machine learning to upscale SD, HD and UHD content appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Elgato, a company known for its video game capture devices, has unveiled a new Bluetooth HomeKit-enabled device called the Eve Button.

The Eve Button is able to activate up to three HomeKit devices without the use of a smartphone. In order to activate a connected device, users can either single press, double press or long press, in order to turn on three different HomeKit scenes.

The smart accessory is powered by a CR2032 battery and requires an iOS device running iOS 11.2 or higher. As always, an Apple TV running tvOS 11 or an iPad must also be configured as the hub of your smartphone, in order order to use the Eve Button.

With the Eve Button, it seems Elgato is banking that not everyone wants to control their smart home products through a dedicated smartphone app.

The Eve Button is set to sell directly through Elgato’s online store, as well as in Apple Stores.

While Elgato is most well-known for gaming devices, the company also sells a growing line of smart ‘Eve’ devices, including smart light switches, weather stations, and window sensors.

The post Elgato launches new Eve Button designed to control HomeKit-enabled devices appeared first on MobileSyrup.

GoPro announced it’s exiting the “extremely competitive” drone market in the company’s most recent earnings report.

GoPro only brought one drone to market, the $800 Karma, which launched in September 2016 and was recalled in November of that same year after some drones lost power during operation and fell from the sky.

The company eventually got its drone back on the market and even, in its own words, “reached the #2 market position in its price band in 2017,” but ultimately it wasn’t enough to make keeping the line worth it for GoPro.

“The product faces margin challenges in an extremely competitive aerial market,” wrote GoPro in its report, in explanation of its exit. The drone faced steep competition from competitors like DJI.

GoPro also noted that new regulations in Europe and the U.S. would “reduce the total addressable market,” in coming years.

“These factors make the aerial market untenable and GoPro will exit the market after selling its remaining Karma inventory,” said the company. “GoPro will continue to provide service and support to Karma customers.”

The struggling company is also in the midst of laying off staff and reducing the salary of CEO Nicholas Woodman to $1. The workforce of the company, which currently stands at 1,254 will reduce to under 1,000.

GoPro said revenue for the fourth quarter of 2017 would be approximately $340 million, significantly less than 2016.

Still, Woodman has hope for the future. He says GoPro is “committed to turning our business around in the future.”

Source: GoPro Via: The Verge

The post GoPro is no longer making drones appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Google says it has combined Android Pay, the company’s mobile payment platform that launched last May in Canada, as well as Google Wallet, under one unified brand: Google Pay.

The Mountain View, California-based company says that Google Pay will make it easier for users to utilize the information saved in their Google Accounts, which then speeds up the check-out process.

“If you’ve ever paid for groceries with Android Pay, used Chrome to automatically fill in your payment info, or purchased an app on Google Play, then you’ve already experienced some of the ways Google helps you pay for things online and in stores,” said Google vice-president of product management, payments, in a recent press release sent to MobileSyrup.

“Over the coming weeks, you’ll see Google Pay online, in-store, and across Google products, as well as when you’re paying friends.”

Google says that its new Pay platform is already available on Airbnb, Dice, Fandango, HungryHouse and Instacart.

Google Wallet, a platform offered by the company that allows users to easily send money, still has not launched in Canada. Given that Google is bringing Wallet under its new Pay banner, it’s possible the service could be set to arrive in Canada soon. We’ve reached out to Google for clarification and will update this story when we hear back.

Google Wallet, which initially released in the U.S. back in 2011 as Google’s digital payment brand, was quickly overshadowed by Android Pay when it launched in the U.S. in 2015. While Google Wallet at one point offered in-store payments, the service is now focused on peer-to-peer money exchanges.

The post Google combines Android Pay and Google Wallet under a single banner, Google Pay appeared first on MobileSyrup.

The Washington Post: NASA: Legendary astronaut, moonwalker John Young has died.

“Young was the only spaceman to span NASA’s Gemini, Apollo and shuttle programs, and became the first person to rocket away from Earth six times. Counting his takeoff from the moon in 1972 as commander of Apollo 16, his blastoff tally stood at seven, for decades a world record.

He flew twice during the two-man Gemini missions of the mid-1960s, twice to the moon during NASA’s Apollo program, and twice more aboard the new space shuttle Columbia in the early 1980s.

His NASA career lasted 42 years, longer than any other astronaut’s, and he was revered among his peers for his dogged dedication to keeping crews safe — and his outspokenness in challenging the space agency’s status quo.”

There also is a MetaFilter thread about him, of course: The Astronaut’s Astronaut.

ccg @ccg
Game show idea: Non parents on a time trial course to put small children to bed. Bonus for awkward pajamas. Winner… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

I have largely stood to the side of the #MeToo groundswell. However, it has dripped into my psyche,...

The post Paperless drawing on the go with Tayasui Doodle Book [App of the Week] appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Janet @missjte
is it creepy to like every single tweet someone makes? (Asking for a friend)

Liz Carter @withoutdoing
Today’s Chinese: 树倒猢狲散 (shù dǎo hú sūn sàn) literally “tree falls, monkeys scatter” - when a powerful or influentia… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…