May, 2017

• 4 May

  Facebook pulls the plug on Oculus VR animation studio

  

  Facebook is closing its Oculus Story Studio, the award-winning unit that crafted computer-generated short films for the social networking giant’s VR headset maker Oculus. The closure of the 2-year-old studio, which produced such shorts as “Dear Angelica” and “Henry,” was announced in a blog post Thursday by Jason Rubin, Oculus’ vice president of content. “We’ve …

  Read More »
• 4 May

  How to find the iPhone calculator’s hidden backspace button

  

  Now playing: Watch this: 3 quick tips for navigating your iPhone 1:31 Whoops! That was supposed to be “8675309.” No problem: two swipes and I can correct it. Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET True story: Just yesterday I was tapping away in the iOS calculator app, adding up a long list of expenses for my company’s monthly P&L statement. And because …

  Read More »
• 4 May

  Motorola may be working on a new tablet

  

  Rumor has it Motorola is tinkering with a new tablet. It’s expected to be a premium 9- or 10-inch Android tablet with a “productivity mode” that allows apps to be pinned to the navigation bar for easy multitasking. Other specs and details like pricing and availability are unknown. The information comes from an anonymous source, though Android Police is “highly …

  Read More »
• 4 May

  Epix Cast streams to TVs, no new hardware required

  

  Cable movie channel Epix has announced that the latest version of its smartphone app will let users “cast” Epix to their smart TV, Roku box or other device Epix’s app already supports Google‘s own Chromecast system, but now adds tech from startup Vizbee to “connect to any connected TV device and cast content effortlessly from any authenticated mobile device.” Epix …

  Read More »
• 4 May

  Windows 10 S locks default to Edge and Bing. What’s Microsoft teaching us?

  

  Correction, May 4, 2017: It’s free for schools to upgrade from Windows 10 S to Windows 10 Pro. May 2, Microsoft held an event to launch a new education-focused version of its Windows 10 operating system that can run on ultracheap laptops. Windows 10 S is a locked-down version of Windows 10 Pro: Microsoft made it crystal-clear that you can …

  Read More »
• 4 May

  Twitter brings its streaming blitz to Roku too

  

  Twitter is widening its streaming video campaign to Roku devices, one of the most-used boxes for watching online video on TVs. The expansion comes the same week Twitter unveiled a dozen partnerships with programmers, like a 24-hour news stream from Bloomberg, in a big video push. Twitter is joining a scrum of digital companies — Facebook and Google’s YouTube chief …

  Read More »
• 4 May

  Indian WhatsApp admin arrested for sharing ‘offensive content’

  

  Being a WhatsApp group admin in India is becoming relatively dangerous. Police in Indian state Karnataka arrested an admin after a member of the group shared an image of India’s prime minister that had been photoshopped to look “ugly and obscene.” The arrest comes hot on the heels of a ruling in India that aims to curb the spread of …

  Read More »
• 4 May

  Apple iPad still king of retreating tablet market

  

  Apple’s iPad is still the best-selling tablet on the market, but it’s a market that is still in decline. Apple shipped 8.9 million iPads in the first quarter of 2017, giving it a 24.6 percent market share, researcher IDC reported Thursday. As impressive as that may sound, the total number of iPads shipped slipped 13 percent compared with the same …

  Read More »
• 4 May

  Facebook launches Express Wi

  

  Facebook on Thursday announced on an official blog post the commercial launch of Express W-Fi in India, a service that offers “fast, reliable and affordable” data connections via local hotspots. According to the post, Facebook touts Express Wi-Fi as a solution that provides “a low-cost, high bandwidth alternative” for getting online and to access apps, download and stream content. People …

  Read More »
• 4 May

  Google Pixel 2 vs. Galaxy S8: Here’s what the Pixel needs to win

  

  Now that the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6 are out, Google’s followup to its Pixel and Pixel XL phones are the only big-name Android flagships left to be excited about this year (sorry HTC). When it launched last October, the Pixel was one of our favorite phones, and it did a lot of things right. It looked great; it …

  Read More »