Archive for March 19, 2019

Google Announces Stadia Gaming Service

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 19, 2019 by itnerd

Google today launched its Stadia cloud gaming service at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.

Stadia is not a dedicated console or set-top box. The platform will be accessible on a variety of platforms: browsers, computers, TVs, and mobile devices. In an onstage demonstration of Stadia, Google showed someone playing a game on a Chromebook, then playing it on a phone, then immediately playing it on PC — a low-end PC, no less –, picking up where the game left off in real time. Stadia will be powered by Google’s worldwide data centers, which live in more than 200 countries and territories, streamed over hundreds of millions of miles of fiber optic cable, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said.

Phil Harrison, previously at PlayStation and Xbox, now at Google, said the company will give developers access to its data centers to bring games to Stadia. Harrison said that players will be able to access and play Stadia games, like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, within seconds. Harrison showed a YouTube video of Odyssey featuring a “Play” button that would offer near-instant access to the game. Pichai announced the new platform at the Game Developers Conference, saying that Google want to build a gaming platform for everyone, and break down barriers to access for high-end games.

Users will be able to move from YouTube directly into gameplay without any downloads. Google says this can be done in as little as 5 seconds. At launch, Stadia will stream games at 4k resolution, but Google claimed in the future it will be able to stream at a video quality of 8k.

Here’s the catch, will this service be around in the long term given that Google has a habit of abandoning stuff. But I guess we’ll find out as I can’t blame them for wanting to jump into this space.

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BREAKING: Apple Updates iMac Lineup

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 19, 2019 by itnerd

A day after updating the iPad lineup, Apple has updated the iMac lineup which went 651 days without an update.

The iMac lineup has been updated with Intel’s latest 8th-gen and 9th-gen Core processors, including up to a 3.2GHz six-core 8th-gen Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz for the 21.5-inch 4K iMac and up to a 3.6GHz eight-core 9th-gen Core i9 with Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz for the 27-inch 5K iMac. You can get up to 64GB of faster 2,666MHz DDR4 memory and up to 2TB of SSD storage. The base model 21.5-inch 4K iMac in particular has new 32GB memory and 1TB SSD upgrade options for the first time. Radeon Pro Vega graphics options are now available across the new iMac lineup, including Vega 20 for 21.5-inch models and Vega 48 for 27-inch models. The new iMacs start at $1399 CDN and go upwards from there based on the screen size and options that you want. The new iMacs are available for order today and will be in stores next week.

I should also note that the iMac Pro also got a very quiet spec bump as they added 256GB RAM and Radeon Pro Vega 64X graphics options to the mix. But you will have to pay big league for those upgrades should you want them. Though Apple has also lowered the price of some of their other upgrade options. Which means that depending on what you need in your iMac Pro, you may save a tiny bit of money or you’ll really have to max out that credit card.

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#Fail: MySpace Loses Years Of Content In Botched Server Migration

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 19, 2019 by itnerd

MySpace? What’s that you ask? Well, for those of us who have been around for a while, MySpace was the social network to be on. This was long before Twitter and Facebook to give you an idea of how long ago it was. I had completely forgotten about them until this story popped up where MySpace tried to do a server migration, but…..

Myspace, the once mighty social network, has lost every single piece of content uploaded to its site before 2016, including millions of songs, photos and videos with no other home on the internet.

The company is blaming a faulty server migration for the mass deletion, which appears to have happened more than a year ago, when the first reports appeared of users unable to access older content. The company has confirmed to online archivists that music has been lost permanently, dashing hopes that a backup could be used to permanently protect the collection for future generations.

More than 50m tracks from 14 million artists have been lost, including songs that led to the rise of the “Myspace Generation” cohort of artists, such as Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys and Yeasayer. As well as music, the site has also accidentally deleted pictures and videos stored on its servers.

Okay. Let’s be clear on one thing. MySpace to a huge degree is a footnote in the history of the Internet at this point. But the fact that years and years of history appears to be gone is just mind blowing. I cannot imagine how a project like a server migration would not have backup plans in place to ensure that content didn’t go into the ether forever. And for that reason, rumors have circulated that this was no accident. I’m not going to go down the conspiracy theory path. Instead, I would say that if you have content on any social network and you want to ensure that you always have a copy, you should back it up. A lot of social networks have this option and you should look into what you have available to you you.

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Classcraft Officially Certified As A B Corp.

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 19, 2019 by itnerd

Classcraft, an award-winning Engagement Management System for schools, announced today it has been officially certified as a B Corp. In order to receive certification, companies must meet the highest standards of overall social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability and aspire to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Brothers Shawn and Devin Young, along with their father Lauren, founded the business in 2013 and launched their innovative edtech product in 2015.

Classcraft received a rating of 86.6, compared to the average score of similar educational companies seeking B Corp certification at 50.5. Companies must score 80 or higher to be certified. Classcraft joins 2,778 companies worldwide that have received B Corp certification.

B Lab, the nonprofit that provides the certification, describes B Corporations as “a new kind of business that balances purpose and profit. They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment.“

B Lab’s Country Manager of Canada, Kasha Huk, stated, “We’re proud to have Classcraft join the ranks of the B Corp community of leaders that are driving a global movement of people using business as a force for good. It’s exciting to see this leadership within the education technology space and across the more than 150 industries and 60 countries currently representing the B Corp community globally.”

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Flipsy Notes That iPhones & iPads Have Vastly Different Inflation Rates

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 19, 2019 by itnerd

Flipsy.com has noted an interesting nugget that might escape notice: iPads and iPhones have drastically different inflation rates. And this was highlighted by the release of the new iPads yesterday.

The last 3 iterations of the iPad Mini and iPad Air have carried the same base prices: $399 and $499, respectively. This contrasts with iPhone prices, which have increased by an average of 12% per year.

If we look at 2014 models, the iPad Mini 3 cost $399 and the iPad Air 2 cost $499. The iPhone 6 cost $649. In 2018, the iPhone XS cost $999. So, while iPad prices have remained static over 5 years, the iPhone price increased by 54% over 4 years.

Flipsy found this interesting, especially since many of the iPad improvements mirror those of the iPhone: the new iPads and the iPhone XS all have 64GB base models and feature the A12 bionic chip, for example. I think that highlights that Apple is really trying to extract as much cash as it can from iPhone users. It also highlights why Apple is freaking out in regards to a drop in iPhone sales.

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