Tech

PlayStation Vue is a combination of cable TV, Netflix and Hulu Plus

Sony on Thursday unveiled the PlayStation Vue, a new cloud-based TV service that combines live shows and on-demand content for delivery over Sony’s PlayStation gaming consoles.

The PlayStation Vue will also make popular new episodes available three days past their original air date so users don’t have to schedule recording, Sony said. A user interface additionally offers “unprecedented personalization and simplicity,” while keeping viewers connected to what’s popular or trending, Sony wrote in a press release announcing the new service.

“Everyday TV is about to become extraordinary with our new cloud-based TV service, PlayStation Vue,” said Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, in that release.

Sony also aims to disrupt traditional subscription TV payment models by offering PlayStation Vue on a month-to-month plan with no cancellation fee. There are no equipment or installation fees if users already have broadband Internet and a PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 console.

The PlayStation Vue will be available for invite-only beta preview during November for select PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 owners in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, Sony said. The beta preview will then roll-out on other Sony and non-Sony devices, including Apple’s iPad tablets.

PlayStation Vue’s commercial launch is scheduled for the first quarter of 2015. Pricing has not yet been announced.

Android is getting a massive visual overhaul

This review originally appeared on Trusted Reviews

Android 5.0 Lollipop is the latest version of the Google mobile OS. It takes over from Android 4.4 KitKat and is likely to be the last major revision we see of the system until well into 2015.

Lollipop is the future, in other words, but is it really worth getting worked-up about? We’ve been using Android 5.0 with the Nexus 9, one of the devices launched alongside the software. Here’s what we think.

Android 5.0 Lollipop: Material Interface

Having used Android 5.0 Lollipop for a while now, we think perhaps the most significant change for now is the way the software looks. Not every change made offers a dramatic shift in the way Android feels, but the interface design does.

Google calls it Material, and aside from freshening-up the look, it’s meant to add “responsive, natural motion, realistic lighting and shadows.”

First, let’s take a look at the new design. Here are your home screens:

You’ll notice everything is looking familiar, but a little different. Google has redesigned the soft keys — which now have a PlayStation-like flavor— and the Google app icons are different now.

It’s innocuous stuff, but tells you a lot about the aesthetic direction in which the system is heading. Android 5.0 Lollipop is all about friendly curves and shapes that have no intrinsic or obvious relationship with technology. They’re a circle, a square and a triangle: you don’t get much more basic than that.

We assume the idea is that they’re friendly compared with the rather more complicated soft keys of Android 4.4 KitKat. Despite their simplicity, the functions of two are pretty obvious even to relative technophobes.

The triangle already forms an arrow sign, and the circle is just like the Home button on an iPhone. When in doubt, copy Apple. The one on the right is called Overview these days, but it has much the same function as before: it brings up the multi-tasking menu.

The movement of the homescreens has changed. The animations are a bit less severe, with greater variance in their speeds and a greater sense of inertia. Android 5.0 Lollipop is all about shaving off that geeky exterior Android is still seen as having in some quarters.

You’re also likely to see a whole lot of the two headline backgrounds of Android 5.0. These are designed to look as though they’re made from real materials with clever use of textures. Once again, it’s a step away from the sharp technical refinement that has been more a clearer visual feature in previous Android UI elements. These backgrounds are still precise and geometric, but the textures are intended to ground them in the “real.”

It’s not so much “less geek, more chic,” but “less geek, more family-friendly.” Its no wonder Google has opted for this style, with tablets like the Tesco Hudl 2 plugging away at family buyers hard.

Is the new look good? Yes, it’s great. We already liked the Google Now interface used in some Android 4.4 phones, though, including the Nexus 5 and Moto G 2014.

The use of the real-time shadows/lighting promised on Google’s website is pretty subtle too. Those expecting jaw-dropping visual flashiness may be disappointed by this lack of bravado. Where you see the these live shadows most obviously is in the multi-tasking menu, which, as usual, is accessed using the right (square) soft key. Multi-tasking has gone 3D, folks, and each pane casts its own shadows. These are “design” shadows rather than realistic ones, mind you, and again are pretty diffuse. We like the look…

For the full Android 5.0 Lollipop Review, visited Trusted Reviews.

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Blizzard's latest expansion to World of Warcraft is finally available. Here's what's new

Warlords of Draenor sounds like the sort of thing you’d find in the B-movie section of your local gas-n-shop, maybe starring Jean Claude von Damme and Dolph Lundgren wearing horned helms and codpieces.

But in this case it’s the moniker on the latest expansion to the most popular MMO in history, available now (PC, Mac) for $50. If you’re new to the series or thinking about returning and wondering what’s changed, here’s a look at Draenor‘s standout features.

Characters can finally hit three digits

Happy 100th level, World of Warcraft characters, you’ve more than earned it (in fact you’ve probably slogged like few gamers will ever slog just getting to the last expansion’s heady nine-zero). Characters in Draenor will be able to leap from 90 to 100 at last, commensurate with new abilities and access to the world of Draenor itself.

One character can leap to level 90 immediately

This sounds a bit like handing a toddler a clutch of dynamite–or asking them to figure out how to work the mechanism that sets it off–to me. But if you’re so inclined, Blizzard will let you boost one character straight to level 90. Seasoned players looking to fast-level an alternate character will be grateful, but if you’ve never played the game, I worry it’ll be like expecting someone who just learned how to play chopsticks on the piano to dash off a plausible rendition of Bud Powell’s “Tempus Fugit.”

The story’s actually kind of interesting

I couldn’t tell you a thing about the World of Warcraft-verse’s fiction, and I played at least one character up to the mid-70s back in the day. But I remember when the Cataclysm expansion hit, and how nice it was to see Blizzard trying to frame all its relentless creature farming and errand-running with better scripted story beats that made leveling up, at least at the lower levels, feel less like cynically pinballing from one punctuation-crowned signpost to another.

Draenor pulls a J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) and taps a dimension-hopping storyline to shunt players over to an alternate history timeline and the days a comparably fractional number of gamers were going gaga over Warcraft II back in 1996. (Allow me to speak directly to Warcraft II nerds for a moment: characters like Grom Hellscream, Ner’zhul, Gul’dan and Blackhand put in appearances.)

I could attempt to paraphrase what that adds up to, or just hand the mic to Blizzard:

It is the era of an Old Horde, forged with steel rather than fel blood. A union of great orc clans, the Iron Horde, tramples the planet Draenor beneath terrifying war machines. Azeroth falls next. Worlds uncounted will follow.

You must mount a desperate charge on Draenor – savage home of orcs and adopted bastion of stoic draenei – at this pivotal moment. Your allies are legends from across time; your fortress a foothold in an alien land. Lead the armies of one world against another…before the future itself is unmade.

No, you can’t change keystone World of Warcraft history, this is just Blizzard’s way of letting players goof around with beloved Warcraft-ian lore without tying the writing team’s hands.

It’s the biggest graphical overhaul in years

Blizzard’s approach to art design with World of Warcraft always had two things going for it: it’s a PC game and so scales to whatever native display and resolution you like, and it employs a Disney-like cartoon aesthetic that transcends the notion that visual progression is some sort of linear march toward photorealistic fidelity (whatever that even means in the context of imagined worlds anyway).

Nonetheless, Draenor has some visual tricks up its sleeves. According to Blizzard, the classic Warcraft races “sport higher detail, updated animations, and new visuals that reflect the soul of their original models.”

It has a more pliable quest system

Blizzard describes Draenor‘s new quest system as “refined” and “flexible,” and in a crucial reward-related sea change, the company notes that “any quest can randomly award bonus rare or epic items.”

You can carve out your own fortress-space

New dungeons (seven), raids (two), bosses, class talents and abilities you’d expect, but Blizzard’s adding fixed-world-point garrisons this time: customizable home bases that include addable substructures like alchemy labs, salvage yards, tanneries and more. There’s even a meta layer that’ll let you set up trade routes or recruit followers (read: loyal minions!) you can then deploy to go dungeon-spelunking, run errands and craft items in your stead, whether you’re on or offline.

The new map looks huge

Draenor is kind of enormous, with seven areas and one PvP to explore, a “land of magma and metal, stone and steam,” writes Blizzard.

City-forges wrap her twin moons in smog, and wheels deform the earth. Vicious saberon, winged arakkoa, spike-skinned gronn, and more unusual creatures rule the edges of the world, feasting on anything they kill.

Enigmatic draenei refugees have built a coastal foothold into a glimmering state replete with the libraries and worship-halls of their timeless civilization. Meanwhile, the Iron Horde’s slaves labor on engines of war pointed at the draenei and worlds beyond.

It’s not the last expansion

I wondered if Draenor might be World of Warcraft‘s swan song, given this is the 10th anniversary of the game and subscriptions have dropped in recent years (at its peak in October 2010, World of Warcraft had 12 million subscribers). But according to Blizzard just last month, subscriptions are up from a post-peak low of 6.8 million to 7.4 million worldwide. That’s a predictable Draenor-related bounce, sure, but a reminder of how significant the upswings can be, if Blizzard can keep the new content rolling.

And no, Draenor definitely isn’t the last expansion for Blizzard’s tireless MMO: according to the game’s lead designer Ion Hazzikostas, there’s every intention for the game to soldier on for at least another decade. “I definitely can’t tell you what our 20th anniversary is going to be. I can tell you there is definitely going to be one,” Hazziokostas told Cnet in a recent interview, adding that the company is “definitely planning into the future, talking about what the next expansion is going to be, and what the one after that is going to be.”

Which companies and products will win the holidays this year?

With high-profile product launches and billions of dollars at stake, the holidays have a habit of separating the winners from the losers, the booms from the busts. With that in mind, let’s explore the best-and worst-case scenarios for five hot holiday products.

For each scenario, we’ll start things out realistically, then get a bit crazier as we go along.

1. iPhone 6

Best-case scenario

Following its record-breaking launch, the iPhone tears through the holidays, setting sales records in over 30 countries. Millions of Android users abandon their 7-inch phablets for the iPhone 6 Plus. As usual, Apple makes untold billions, but it also grabs back five points of smartphone market share on the strength of the gold iPhone 6, which rapidly becomes China’s best-selling phone. Samsung CEO Boo-Keun holds an emergency press conference to assess the damage, then steps outside the room to take a phone call. The next day, a hastily snapped photo confirms Boo-Keun took the call on an iPhone.

Worst-case scenario

Apple’s bet on bigger phones proves disastrous. After riding geeks and early-adopters to a record-breaking launch, iPhone sales plummet in November and December. A raft of user reviews confirm Apple’s worst fears: the iPhone’s secret wasn’t Touch ID, iOS polish or “Apple charm”—it was the 4-inch screen. “I wanted a cellphone, not a computer,” writes disillusioned Amazon shopper Scott M, a North Carolina carpenter with small hands and modest needs. Meanwhile, the 4.3-inch Sony Xperia Z1 Compact becomes the holiday season’s hottest handset. In a cascade of criticism, second-guessing, and a falling stock price, Cook resigns.

2. iPad Air 2

Best-case scenario

After two years of stagnant sales, the iPad Air 2 reinvigorates the tablet industry in one scorching Black Friday weekend. Stubborn first- and second-generation iPad owners finally decide to upgrade their four-year-old devices. A Louisiana woman draws blood after cutting herself on the iPad Air 2’s corner, but Apple successfully parlays the accident into its new holiday marketing campaign, “Thinner than a Pencil, Sharper than a Knife.” Meanwhile, Google’s new Nexus 9 tablet flops.

Worst-case scenario

Sales for the new iPad Air 2 mirror the launch event itself: tepid, restrained, unexciting. Google wins the holiday quarter with its HTC-made Nexus 9, leveraging a $200 price tag and a series of rock-bottom-price promotions. Slaves to saving money, consumers opt for the outdated iPad Mini ($249) instead of the flagship Air 2 ($499), then clog Apple Stores across America after they realize how terribly the device runs iOS 8. One man even buys a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 out of spite. Three days after New Years, a leaked Tim Cook email signs off with “Let’s face it, tablets are a lost cause.”

3. PS4

Best-case scenario

With the Wii U still stumbling and the Xbox One still Xboxing, the PS4 cements its status as Best Console of the Current Generation. Mothers around America ignore a “Nintendo is for families” campaign, opting for PS4-exclusive Little Big Planet 3 instead. Swept up in a tide of Sony holiday success, Activision agrees to make the next three Call of Duty games exclusively for PS4. With the original Halo soundtrack playing on low-volume, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella cries himself to sleep.

Worst-case scenario

Microsoft’s Xbox One price drop (now $349) winds up the most brilliant move of the holiday season, tipping the scales from Sony to Microsoft. Even the lowly Wii U—emboldened by the release of the latest Smash Bros—beats the PS4 in November. Scrambling to salvage the situation, Sony America CEO Michael Lynton pressures star developer Naughty Dog into pushing out Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End before Christmas. The game is an unplayable, unfinished mess, instantaneously defiling the series’ memory and tarnishing a once-great developer brand. Naughty Dog abandons Sony. Meanwhile, Microsoft buys Nintendo.

4. Microsoft Band

Best-case scenario

The Microsoft Band shakes off early bad reviews—“it’s awkward and inaccurate”—to become a modest holiday success. Tech geeks, couch potatoes and retired high school coaches across the nation collectively decide “if there’s one Microsoft product I’ll take a risk on, this is it.” Meanwhile, Fitbit has another scandal. The Moto 360 gets recalled. Everyone remembers the Apple Watch won’t come out for another six months, and even then, the mid-range models might cost thousands. The Microsoft Band goes on to win the holiday season by default.

Worst-case scenario

After launching accidentally at 10 p.m. and generating a slew of confused, frustrated reviews, the Microsoft Band roll-out only gets worse. Customers report the band is waking them up, only to tell them they need to sleep better. Executive Vice President Stephen Elop is caught wearing something from Nike. Even former CEO Steve Ballmer is overheard praising the Apple Watch’s design at Staples Center. By December 1st, paltry Microsoft Band sales dissolve into nothing, and Microsoft abandons the wearable market for good. “At least we still have the Surface Pro 3,” Nadella ad libs on a Sunday talk show. Nine hundred miles away, Apple execs play the clip on repeat while celebrating record-breaking iPad Air 2 sales.

5. The Amazon Fire TV Stick

Best-case scenario

After a bumbling first year, the TV streaming stick finds its perfect manufacturer in Amazon: a company known for cheap prices, convenience and world-class distribution. The sneaky little device sits in Amazon’s top-selling electronics slot for the entire holiday season, quietly winning over tens of thousands of new Prime subscribers in the process. Apple TV users, tired of its clunky user interface and terrible controls, sell their old boxes before snapping up Amazon’s latest stick. Despite terrific sales, the product doesn’t actually make much profit, but the company’s shareholders don’t care (as usual). Amazon stock soars.

Worst-case scenario

After pouring years of deals and development into the Amazon Fire TV service, a series of harsh realities hit. People don’t want to play games on an Amazon Fire TV or Stick; they want to play on a legitimate game console. HBO might have given Amazon the rights to play classic series like The Wire and The Sopranos, but HBO is launching a standalone subscription service anyway, with more current shows and wider availability. Google Chromecast does the same thing as the Fire TV stick, but retails at a lower price, and doesn’t require an Amazon Prime subscription for all its best features. Customers pass on the Fire TV stick. Jeff Bezos calls an emergency shareholder meeting. Skeptical of Bezos’ latest pet project, Amazon’s investors demand the company “wake up and actually turn a profit.” Later that night, Bezos pens an open letter on Amazon’s homepage titled, “Turn a profit? Who do people think we are? Apple?”

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Cable giant chief addresses concerns about net neutrality and customer service.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts didn’t mince words on Wednesday about two hot button topics: shoddy customer service and net neutrality.

Customer complaints have plagued Comcast for years, but the issue came to a head in July when a customer recorded a call with a service representative who refused to let him disconnect his Comcast service. The recording not only went viral but also motivated other frustrated Comcast customers to do the same.

At an event in San Francisco, Roberts said that he was “embarrassed” and “disappointed” when he heard the recording. “It was a teachable moment for employees and it was a teachable moment for all of us,” he said.

After the incident became public, Roberts appointed Charlie Herrin senior vice president of customer experience. Herrin, who previously oversaw the design of Comcast’s Xfinity products, faces the daunting task of improving Comcast’s overall customer experience.

Still, the Comcast CEO maintained that such customer service nightmares are not the norm. “We get 250 million phone calls a year,” he said. “The nature of our business is that we’re going to have these things.”

Roberts also tackled net neutrality, the concept that Internet service providers treat all web content equally in terms of speed. It’s a heated issue pitting consumer activists, who argue against companies paying for preferential treatment online, against telecom companies.

On Monday, President Barack Obama made waves when he introduced a 1,000-word plan to ensure a free and open Internet. Specifically, President Obama called for the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, to act on a set of rules from the 1996 Telecommunications Act that would prevent Internet providers from blocking or slowing lawful web content. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court struck down the FCC’s rules, which upheld net neutrality.

Just a day after President Obama’s introduced his net neutrality plan, Comcast leapt into the fray by releasing a statement claiming it “agrees with the President’s principles on net neutrality” and that Internet content should not be blocked or slowed. However, Comcast disagreed with President Obama’s calls for Internet providers to be regulated like utilities.

“There’s a better way to do that,” said Roberts said, who argued that Internet providers should keep their current largely unregulated status.

The battle over net neutrality is far from over. The FCC has yet to respond to President Obama’s proposal, although FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said he is open to the plan. And net neutrality supporters have public rallies planned.

Meanwhile, Robert emphasized that Comcast will cooperate with the government to find a common ground. “No blocking, and no discrimination — consumers need the certainty that this platform [the Internet] stands for those kinds of principles,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Fortune.com

Amazon is planning to launch 4K streaming on its Prime Instant Video service before the end of the year, the company said Wednesday. 4K is an extremely high-definition video resolution that is only compatible with certain top-of-the-line computer displays and televisions, often called “Ultra HD TVs.”

Competitors like Netflix already offer 4K streaming for select titles, but Netflix charges $3 more per month for the highest-quality stream. Amazon says Prime subscribers will be able to access 4K content at no additional cost.

Shows available in 4K on Amazon will include a concert by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett called “Cheek to Cheek” as well as some Amazon originals like Transparent and Alpha House, The Wall Street Journal reports.

[WSJ]

The social network is working hard to retain new users

Under intense media and investor scrutiny amid slowing user growth, Twitter on Wednesday gave the public a look at its roadmap for the next year, using its first-ever Analyst Day to explain how it intends to add more users who both tweet and consume content on the service.

For new users, Twitter touted recent changes to its onboarding process that make it easier to sign up. Through an upcoming feature called “Instant Timeline,” for example, first-time tweeters will be able to initially pick from categories like sports, television and technology to be automatically shown a feed of interesting tweets and users. Twitter will also better educate new users on the site’s quirky parlance, which is currently complicated enough to necessitate a glossary.

The company also plans to roll out new features to get current users visiting more often. A new “Timeline Highlights” section will display popular tweets that were sent while a user was not on the site and live above Twitter’s traditional chronological list of tweets. Users will also be able to send public tweets to other users in direct messages to discuss privately. Twitter is also planning to introduce more event landing pages, similar to ones used during the World Cup and for NFL football games. Finally, Twitter will soon let users shoot and upload videos from directly within the Twitter app.

In addition to these changes to Twitter proper, the company said it plans to launch more independent apps similar to the microvideo sharing service Vine that Twitter acquired in 2012. Twitter didn’t specify what its standalone apps might do, but rival Facebook has released single-purpose apps for private messaging and group chats, among other features.

To address ongoing criticism of its slowing growth rate, Twitter emphasized its opportunity to better engage with the massive number of people who visit the social network every month without logging in—500 million people in total. The company is offering its top 50,000 hashtags each day to be indexed in search engines, thus enabling all Internet users to peruse Twitter when viewing search results. It will also present more content recommendations to logged-out users who visit the site — someone who stumbles upon Katy Perry’s page, for example, might see links to other pop stars’ profile pages.

The scope and specificity of Twitter’s presentation seemed to please Wall Street, as the company’s stock climbed more than 7% in midday trading Wednesday.