#it's all livestreams and proprietary content now | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

felassan · 4 years ago

Text

Highlights and insights from the MELE launch cast & crew reunion panel

[rewatch link] [highlights & insights from the N7 Day 2020 reunion]

In case a text format is better for anyone (in terms of accessibility for example). Cut for length.

Some paraphrasing.

If anyone’s interested in just the line-reading session, it starts at timestamp ~1:04:45.

In addition to the cast and crew from the N7 Day reunion, at this reunion also in attendance were:

Mac Walters (Project Director for MELE, Lead Writer of the og MET)

Melanie Faulknor (Lead Producer for MELE)

Crystal McCord (Producer for MELE)

Fred Tatasciore (Saren)

Seth Green (Joker)

Kimberly Brooks (Ash)

Ash Sroka (Tali)

This was the biggest reunion / meetup of the cast so far, and some of the cast and crew were meeting for the first time here.

It’s been so long since the og MET that PW & KW are getting to watch their kids experience playing it for the first time

JHale doesn’t play but since MELE she’s been sneaking around Twitch jumping into peoples’ MELE livestreams to lurk, watch and comment a bit

What drew Seth to the character of Joker? The whole concept of the game. He likes games and MET’s mechanics (different trees of adventure, stacking reputation, choices carrying between games) at the time were the most sophisticated that he’d ever heard pitched. He thought this was new and exciting and wanted to be a part of it. For the character they cast him based on his personality traits (i.e. he sounds quite similar to Joker personality-wise)

Would Seth ever want to play Joker again if the opportunity presented itself? Sure, he loves the character, and if the writers ever had more things to explore/expand with Joker he’d be down for it.

Seth said that it’s a different kind of fan that approach him about this project. The fans have spent many many hours in an intimate exchange with “him” that he hasn’t been a part of, but they experienced it nonetheless. “I’ve hugged a lot of strangers, you know what I’m saying? It’s great, you get an interaction with fans that you never get as a performer in any other experience”

Seth has been a space guy since he was little, it inspires him

With the state of the world the way it is now [covid, masks etc], does Ash think Tali’s story will be more impactful now than it was before? Ash hopes so, and that anything they do here will have a positive impact on a bigger level. Ultimately that’s why most of them do what they do, they want to reach people in deep ways. She hopes Tali is an inspiration in courage, bravery, standing up for what’s right and thinking about the greater good

The [MELE I think] dev team had a last team meeting with Greg Zeschuk, one of the founders of BioWare, who they had invited to it. He was regaling them with stories of the inception of Mass Effect. “You would imagine this sort of well-laid out, drawing boards everywhere... [but] it was basically just a napkin sketch in a Greek taverna with him and Casey going ‘We wanna do a space opera’, and then it took off”

The process of creating lore through development is very organic. A lot of it comes from character and story development. It builds up over the course of the game’s development. They did the codex entries at the end, the idea being that if they saved them for as late as they could, then they could pull from the story, characters and meaningful moments, and build them from there

PW wrote a bunch of the codex entries, elevator banter & lots of little bits of lore. They describe their time on the og MET as being a “baby writer”. They originally came in after Mac had back surgery and a junior writer was needed to fill in. “It was really fun, it was us sitting in a room together going ‘What do you think a hanar or a krogan thinks about this or that’?” For a first project for them this was an amazing experience - the world building itself creatively with all these awesome people

They tried to add multiplayer in every game but only got it to work in ME3

They had a lot of plots laid out in ME1 that they called “global plots”. These were outside the core critical path and would take players from planet to planet, and were sprawling stories. They pulled out a lot of really interesting concepts and ideas from these that did make it into the game, but all of the global plots ended up getting cut due to time. Mac still has old diagrams and spreadsheets which detailed how all of these would have come together

Q. If you all had to take a long-distance road-trip with two squadmates, who would you take and why? PW: “Jack and Mordin. Mordin because the drive would never lack for things to talk about at length quickly, Jack because you know you wouldn’t pay for the room. You wouldn’t know how you’d get the room, but you wouldn’t be paying for it.” Courtenay: “I’d take Mordin because there’d be singing, and FemShep just to have this thing - happen. In the room that I get for free.” JHale at this point fistpumped while saying “Yeess” [then I think what she said was “steaming hot”]

Seeing as asari are long-lived, how open is Ali to one day reprising her role as Liara? “She’s a character very close to my heart, it was such a great opportunity. In some games that we work on the character has already been created or voiced by someone else, but this was really a group effort. When I first went into the booth, the only thing I’d seen of her was a sort of like, rendering, and we slowly kind of came to her voice and presence. I would love to bring Liara back any time... hey, she can live a really long time guys. :D”

Caroline and people who do what she does (Creative Performance Director) are so critical to the quality of games. Caroline: “This group of people are extraordinary. We were lucky to have such an extraordinary cast. Every [recording] session was new and challenging. It was a labor of love. I’m tearing up right now thinking about it. I’m remembering my last session with Jen, she was the last session, just sobbing and sobbing”. When JHale was trying to say the lines of Shepard’s goodbye with Garrus, a line hit her like a tonne of bricks and she was in tears and was like “Shepard does not cry”. “It took me a second, I got it out and took another run at it, it was in there but stuffed down as it should have been, and I finished the line [and there was silence in the booth when usually Caroline would have been talking to give direction or instruction] Did we lose her? Did Skype crash?” and it transpired that what had happened was that Caroline was in floods of tears

ME was the first time Keythe had ever come across branching dialogue. “Normally when we work on a script and it’s from page 1 to 100. In this it was get to page 5, then go back to page 2 and play it a little differently. The skill and the fun and joy of it was to be able to go back and play a scene in a different way, with different writing, with different outcomes. This was not only a challenge but a real treat. So to all the writers who dreamed up how this build-your-own-adventure plays out, you have my undying respect. It was a real pleasure”

VEDA is a proprietary system that BW use to record the dialogue, which is the closest way of having it feel like having people in the booth together (it’s all digital and VAs get to hear the line someone else has done in that scene). Caroline really pushed for this because of the amount of time etc that was wasted due to lack of this sort of thing on ME1. William: “It was a god send for me, thank you, getting to hear a cue from Jen or Mark.” Ali: “Us being able to bounce off each other helps make it more real. This for me was the most real acting experience on a game I had ever had - the writing being so good, Caroline helping us through, being able to hear each other.” JHale was always early coming in to record relative to the others so only got to use VEDA a few times - a bit of Liara content and the scene with Anderson towards the end. “Those two times, oh my god it was amazing”. VEDA being a thing also helps from a scheduling standpoint

Seth and Tricia Helfer (EDI) only got to be in the booth actually together 1 time, to record/shoot a piece of promotional video. “We actually got to record a scene together and we were like ‘oh my god this is the best thing ever’. It was great, even though I had to stand on a stool. She’s the best”

Seth: “As an actor, the kind of opportunity to do this kind of material in games just didn’t exist.” Fred: “Oh, never! I had never had a villain part that was complicated like that. In a game? Never before, it was really interesting”

Raphael always goes back to the fact that ME brought more women into gaming than any other game before it. “The writing and the complexity of the relationships gave us so much ballast”. “This set this apart from running, shooting, gunning, looting”

JHale: “What I noticed in the times before when I got to be around fans, there was a huge hunger among women in the gaming world for something they could really jump into. They were starving for something which fed them what they deserved and needed”

Mac: “[praising Caroline] Caroline would often come to us as writers and challenge us and say, as an example, ‘Do we really need another male character to do this? Why are we writing another male character for this?’ She pushed that very early and to the betterment of everything we created”

PW: “Karin and Cookie and all of the editors across the trilogy, [were critical in] making sure that Shepard sounded consistent - [especially since] we had a large writing team, writers came and went, Mac is the only one with a significant writing contribution on each of the games”

PW: “[on game dev] It’s a process of getting hundreds of people pointed in the same direction, all believing that this is something worth doing”

Ash: “Having all the different possibilities and avenues, going back to play them all out in the different ways [really helped to round the character of Tali out and make her feel like a natural person]”.

VAs only get paid for the original recording sessions, not again (as in they don’t any royalties or anything from something like the remaster)

In MELE, they left all the original credits at the end of each game in

Fred: “It’s creating in five dimensions [because of all the outcomes and relationships etc]”. Seth: “The cool thing is that the audience feels that. They’re immediately struck by how dense, thought-out, prepared and planned the entire universe is”

How was it for the new MELE devs coming onto this? Crystal: “I knew it [the series and fans’ love for it] was big, but I didn’t know it was BIG! Working on MELE there was this infectious excitement. Being part of it was so exciting.” Melanie: “I came on at ME3, I had a 3 or 4 year honeymoon period with BioWare. Coming onto MELE, I’m getting really emotional. One of my first meetings originally was going into a cinematic review for an epic Tali scene in ME3”. Crystal: “On MELE, we had an hour or 2 every day where the team came together to play the game. In those reviews, a lot of the devs who worked on the original would tell all these stories. It was really fun to hear all the inside stories on ME’s creation and be a part of that”

DC: “Should this unit get vaccinated?” Ash: “Of course”

How do they think ME will be viewed in the next 10-20 years, what do they think its legacy will be? A piece of history, ground-breaking. It broke down some barriers and opened doors for people. It’s a powerful, powerful community. It’ll continue to age quite well and be enjoyed by a new generation, it’s original and evergreen and there’s a lot in it that people go back to. There’s a lot of universal things in it (personal experiences, like there will always be love, people fighting to belong, trying to make sense of their pasts etc)

JHale and Alix did the “I love you Shepard, now go save the world again” Shep-Sam exchange and both got teary. It was then Seth’s turn to line-read: “Jesus Christ, now that I’m good and choked up, fucking mess”. Ali was also actually crying from it

Seth: “It can’t be overstated, this community is so large and global, it is one of the most powerful fandoms that I’ve ever been greeted with. Thank you”. Ash: “It’s the most amazing group of fans ever. We’re all so grateful”

Some funny anecdotes/stories:

PW didn’t realize that Alix could do different accents. They remember a time when they were listening in the booth and an Alliance soldier was complaining about the gear had been given. They said “Wow that’s really good, who is that?” and the VO producer said “That’s Alix, Patrick”, “because she wasn’t doing her [normal British accent but was doing a Californian accent instead]. Alix roasted me later for not recognizing her voice and never let me heard the end of it”

Alix: “[on Sam’s toothbrush] Caroline’s like, ‘So then she pulls her toothbrush’ and I’m like ‘What? Sorry? A toothbrush?’ and obviously it’s funny now as everyone knows that Sam’s thing is her toothbrush. Caroline’s like ‘Yeah, you’ve gotta like, flirt, over the toothbrush’ and I’m like ‘Who wrote this - a frickin toothbrush, are you kidding me? Really guys?’ ANYWAY. I was wrong and it worked. :D”

Fred: “I remember a 12 year old kid coming up to me and being like [flat tone] ‘Oh yeah. I killed you’.”

Keythe: “The other assasin I play is Kellogg in Fallout 4. People come up to me like ‘Omg. I love you so much. And then I fucking KILLED you!’”

Courtenay once went out to dinner in NZ with a few prominent people from the Game of Thrones cast. “Everyone around was making a big deal out of it like ‘Omg, it’s so-and-so from GoT’. I was feeling a bit like ‘Hi, I’m here, just nobody’. And I looked around in the restaurant and there's one guy in the corner and he’s got an N7 shirt on and he’s just looking at me like [knowing look, does a peace sign]. And I’m like ‘I got one! I love you guys!’”

PW: “I have a question for the cast members, because I don’t know if JHale has done this to all of you or if she just does it to the devs. Show of hands if Jen has ever made you do push-ups.” JHale: “It’s just you guys”

Karin: “One of my favorite editing files that I ever had was a ME file. It was before Seth was coming in for a session. I opened it up and it was just 20, 25 lines with the word ‘Shit’, over and over again, and I was like, ‘This file is perfect, I don’t need to do anything to it, have fun!’”

Seth: “Didn’t we do a track that’s like 60 seconds of laughing? Escalating laughing? I don’t know about other actors but for me getting into a laughing fit is kind of like trying to get into a crying fit, it takes the same level of commitment, you start to follow a path until like you’re hysterically uncontrollably laughing. I remember looking through the glass, and I’m deep in it at this point, and I make eye contact, and I can see from the other side of the booth and they’re like [making ‘okay you can stop’ now gestures] - ‘Like that’s plenty, we got it’ and I was like ‘okay, okay [dying]’”

JHale: “The craziest thing Mark and I had to deal with was how many times we had to say ‘I should go’”. Mark: “We also, Caroline and I tended to use that as short hand when I needed to go to the bathroom”

The panel host: “The first time I interviewed Ali was a decade ago. She did the ‘I’ll flay you alive with my mind’ line halfway through, it was my first interview and I literally fell out of my seat [from being star-struck]”

Ash line-read Tali’s drunk omni-tattoo scene and in response DC said “I totally get why people wanna romanticize all these characters :D”. Karin: “We’ve had more than one person come up to us and show us actual tattoos that looked like that”

[source]

#bioware #mass effect #video games #covid mention #long post #longpost #garrus vakarian #best boy #feels #lul

29 notes · View notes

rickhorrow · 6 years ago

Text

10 To Watch : 12219

10 To Watch FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 21 : Mayor’s Edition

More brands are "tangling with political and social issues in their advertising campaigns.” However, most Americans “would rather they don't try the same thing during the Super Bowl," according to the Wall Street Journal. Viewers are "likely to get what they want." The WSJ poll shows two-thirds of consumers "call the Super Bowl an inappropriate place for advertisers to make political statements." Baby boomers in the poll "disapproved of political Super Bowl advertisements more, at 77%, than younger cohorts such as millennials (55%) and Generation Z (43%)." Only 35% of Generation Z respondents "called political Super Bowl ads 'very' or 'somewhat' appropriate." The Super Bowl has "featured political ads before, most notably" in Super Bowl LI, which "took place soon after President Trump's inauguration." A year later, Super Bowl LII was "less overtly political, but still included” a Coca-Cola ad promoting unity, a T-Mobile USA Inc. diversity theme, and a Dodge Ram Trucks spot using audio of a Martin Luther King Jr. speech in an ad that promoted public service. Marketers have not "shown any inclination to charge into hard-core politics or social controversies" during Super Bowl LIII. However, with the country as divided as it is, themes imploring diversity, unity, and inclusion will no doubt make their way into the February 3 broadcast.

In its eighth consecutive installment, The POWER 100, Horrow Sports Ventures’ proprietary annual ranking of the most powerful athletes in sports, uses a complex statistical model to accurately compare performance and influence through on-field (50%) and off-field (50%) attributes. Athletes are then ranked based on POWER to find the TOP 100. Among interesting results: Serena Williams is not ranked for the first time ever. Her performance slowed after taking some time to start a family, and some controversial moments may have hurt her brand. Expect a strong bounce back once she’s back on schedule. Tom Brady (14), in the cusp of playing in yet another Super Bowl, has hit his highest ranking in recent memory, a nearly 54 place increase since last year. And the stellar play of NBA’er Giannis Antetokounmpo continued on the court and has paid dividends off the court as well, as he placed 8th. Top endorsement earners were Roger Federer (12) taking home $58 million in off court sponsorships and LeBron James (10) with $56 million. The highest place rookie from any sport is quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who finished 20th in the rankings and came within minutes of reaching the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Golf also got some encouraging news this week from the market research firm NPD Group, which reported that the golf market “has not only recuperated but experienced a significant uptick in sales” in the past 12 months, resulting in an 8% year-over-year increase up to $2.6 billion. “The macro environment for golf has been in a turbulent state, fueled by Golfsmith’s bankruptcy, major brands cutting back on their golf business, and courses closing. But today, we’re starting to see normalization in the market as those deep holes are now being filled,” said Matt Powell, vice president and senior industry advisor of the NPD Group. The industry saw increases across every product category. Clubs, which make up 50% of the category, grew by 7%, while equipment accessories such as balls (6% increase), gloves (7% increase), accessories (21% increase), and training aids (13%) also made positive strides in 2018. Callaway, Titleist, and Wilson were the fastest-growing brands among the top-10, joining TaylorMade and PING as the other two members of the top-5. With Baby Boomers retiring every day, great opportunity exists to introduce thousands of new retirees to golf. Combine that with a good economy, Tiger’s resurgence, and thrilling up and comers in the game and you have the makings of a stable industry.

It’s official: Austin will be the 27th MLS franchise. Last week, MLS Commissioner Don Garber recognized Austin FC as the league's 27th team, with the expansion franchise "set to begin play" in the spring of 2021 at a privately-financed, 20,000-seat stadium at McKalla Place in North Austin, according to the Austin American-Statesman. While the team will be majority owned by Austin FC Chair and CEO Anthony Precourt, he also "plans to announce local investors soon." Austin FC is the first pro franchise for the Texas capital in any of the Big Five major American sports leagues. Team officials "hope to break ground at the stadium site by September and are finalizing plans that would allow construction to begin on a training facility at a yet-to-be-named private site." Last year, Precourt made his intentions known to purchase the Columbus Crew with a clause that would eventually let him move to Austin. But that deal was basically scuttled by passionate Crew fans. Precourt’s biggest challenge in Austin: competing with rabid University of Texas fans, especially now that UT’s football team is once again on the rise.

The University of Texas athletic department had more than $219 million in "annual operating revenue and total operating expenses" of just over $206.5 million during FY 2018, according to USA Today. This is the second consecutive year in which UT has had more than $200 million in both "operating revenues and expenses," as UT was at nearly $215 million in revenue and $207 million in expenses for FY 2017. Comparatively, the University of Michigan reported spending $175.4 million in 2017, and the University of Alabama's "total athletics revenue" for FY 2018 was $177.5 million -- up from FY 2017's $174.3 million that was "then a school record," according to the Birmingham News. Texas A&M also reported more than $200 million in revenue in 2017, but that amount was boosted by almost $93 million in "contributions received and spent by the department during that year, as the school continued a facilities-spending boom." UT attributed this impressive revenue to the school's football program at $144.5 million, a total that was "more than the total athletics operating revenue reported" for FY 2017 by all but 12 NCAA D-I public schools.

New Jersey’s total 2018 sports betting handle reached $1.24 billion at casinos, racetracks, or through online or mobile betting platforms. However, the numbers "flattened out during December after a record-setting November in sports books around the state and online," according to the Asbury Park Press. The "total handle in the state fell" from $330.7 million in November to $319.2 million in December, a 3.5% decline. Gross revenues also "fell" from $21.2 million to $20.8 million. The Press of Atlantic City notes the opening of two "new casino properties, the introduction of legalized sports betting and the continuous growth of internet wagering all contributed to a total gaming revenue increase of nearly" 8% in New Jersey from 2017-2018. In December, the gaming industry generated $247.4 million in revenue, a nearly 20% increase from the same month in 2017. In December alone, more than $319 million was "bet on sports" in the state. The end of year downtick means there is even more scrutiny on producing big numbers off Super Bowl LIII next month.

CBS Sports HQ plans to livestream 30 hours of content for Super Bowl week.CBS Sports’ free sports streaming network will air more than 30 hours of live, original programming during the week of Super Bowl LIII, including daily shows from Radio Row starting January 28, on-site daily reports, ten hours of original pregame coverage on game day, post-game analysis, and highlights. According to Marketing Dive, programming will include "Off The Bench with Kanell and Bell," Pick 6 Rundown, Reiter's Block and CBS Sports HQ Extravaganza which is a Super Bowl pregame show featuring a competition between CBS Sports Digital crew and a mix of current and former NFL players every hour before kickoff. This year's Super Bowl will be streamed across more platforms than ever before including online, through the CBS app for connected TV devices, tablets, and mobile phones, and via the CBS All Access subscription service. This highlights the shift from TV networks investing more in their digital offerings to give fans more control of what and how they watch

Barstool Sports has rolled out a premium “Gold” Memberships that has racked up 10,000 paying subscribers in just three days. Out of the 10,000 + subscribers, the sports and pop culture blog claims that 81% signed up for the $100 annual subscription. According to Digiday, Barstool Gold is a tiered membership product that offers everything from exclusive content and merchandise, early access to events and office tours, and meet-ups with Barstool personalities. The lower tier costs roughly $1 per week and higher membership tier costs roughly $2 per week and comes with a few extra perks for diehard fans. The launch of Barstool Gold comes at a time when the company has grown to more than 130 employees. Today, commerce accounts for half of Barstool’s revenue, roughly 35%-40% coming from advertising, and the rest draws from emerging business areas including the Rough N’ Rowdy pay-per-views and other live events, as well as a growing licensing business based on Barstool-owned intellectual property. Although controversial, Barstool Gold is a way to insulate the publisher from external sports media giants who find the content too reckless and provide a platform for Barstool to make itself into a major player in the sports entertainment industry

Esports speedrun marathon Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) 2019 raised over $2.39 million for charity. AGDQ is one of two speedrun marathons hosted by GamesDoneQuick every year that bring in thousands of viewers to watch all types of speedruns in the name of charity. This year the speedrun, which is completing part or all of a video as fast as possible, raised funds for the Prevent Cancer Foundation and more than 46,000 donations. To date, Awesome Games Done Quick and its companion event, Summer Games Done Quick, have raised more than $19 million for their respective charities while peak viewership of their most recent event reached 219,240 concurrent streams on Twitch. The next event by GDQ will be the Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) which runs June 23-30 in Bloomington, Minnesota. After the 131 games were speedrun, it is safe to say that both the viewership and donations from the world of esports continue to grow and GamesDoneQuick is at the forefront of the esport charity sector

Detroit Lions owner Martha Ford joins forces with her team’s players to pledge $600,000 to community efforts. According to the Detroit Free Press, Ford and Lions’ players pledged a combined $600,000 to help launch the new "Detroit Lions Inspire Change" initiative around the city. The money will help fund three causes chosen by players in a process that was set in motion after eight Lions players took a knee during the singing of the national anthem in a 2017 game against the Falcons. A'Shawn Robinson, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, and Steve Longa are the three players who remain with the team after protesting social injustices. Their donations will help fund scholarships for three groups including families who've lost service members through the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS); a youth development arm of the Detroit Police Department called the Detroit Youth Violence Prevention Initiative (DYVPI); and students at Detroit Lions Academy. Additionally the funds will be used to provide clean drinking water in Detroit public schools, help the CATCH charity for children, and aid Mariners Inn for homeless men. Under "Detroit Lions Inspire Change," players will be able to directly take action for social justice initiatives.

#10 #10towatch

0 notes

ladystylestores · 5 years ago

Text

CFDA Unfurls Runway360, a Digital Platform Serving as Centralized Hub – WWD

https://ift.tt/2OV2pfn

The Council of Fashion Designers of America is unveiling Runway360, a digital platform that will serve as a centralized hub and business tool for the U.S. fashion community. The platform will enable designers to connect directly to industry stakeholders and consumers.

The portal incorporates key aspects of the designer business, from fashion shows to press, sales and consumer activations in an effort to help drive sales and showcase American fashion creativity.

The CFDA held virtual meetings with its members and press on Thursday to demonstrate how the platform works. It will be introduced right before New York Fashion Week in September, and both CFDA and non-CFDA members can participate. The abbreviated NYFW is slated from Sept. 14 to 16.

The platform is seasonless and serves as a permanent fixture and main designation for retailers, trade, press and consumers worldwide. The portal will support AR/VR, 360-degree capabilities, livestreams, e-commerce extensions, consumer shopping features and social media integration. The hub will also allow designers to host virtual press conferences and present press kits and fashion show and product images. Brands will be able to activate the integrated shopping elements on their pages to directly target consumers.

Steven Kolb, president and chief executive officer of the CFDA, recalled 20 years ago when fashion week was centralized with the tents. “This is a modern version of organizing fashion week in a digital platform,” he told WWD. He said it will be the base of presentations for NYFW, but also available year-round for other market weeks, such as bridal week, jewelry week or pre-collections.

Designers who are showing on IMG platforms will be able to plug into this platform, as well as designers working with KCD, or other production houses.

Kolb compared it to what Milan did with its digital fashion week, adding that “it’s similar to what they’ve done, building this open access, democratic, non-proprietary platform to support designers throughout the year with their collections.”

The platform is open to brands, consumers, press and trade, and everyone will have a different experience based on their user profile. If a designer wants to keep their collection private and only have 50 people see it, the platform is offering that ability to do it. First and foremost, the platform offers opportunities for brands to showcase their collections.

On the homepage, users can access the designer profile, where designers can build on commerce (NuOrder, wholesale), show off collections (360 video, augmented reality) and use channels to communicate through social media such as press kits, private events and AR/VR integration.

The Live Now page features three primary navigations: schedules, designers and collections. During fashion week, it will feature whatever is live at that moment, since they have the entire schedule on the homepage. Internally, Runway360 is being referred to as the Netflix-like platform for fashion. The categories are women’s, men’s, emerging and sustainability.

Users can mark shows they like, and they can share across social media. The designer can also show their past collections.

While the CFDA doesn’t produce any events, it will livestream the show wherever it takes place. All of the collections during NYFW will have a timed release, and they will be highlighted on the platform. Kolb said he doesn’t believe any of the designers will have full-blown live runway shows this season as they have in the past.

“Everything will be digital, we don’t anticipate any live. Designers are still interested in having a time slot,” said Kolb.

Consumers or buyers can expand the images and see various looks of a collection. The platform gives users the ability to mark “favorite” items, preorder or purchase them. This way designers will be able to see which looks in their collections, and which collections overall, are the most popular. Users can’t order an item but the information can be e-mailed or linked to the designer’s site. The platform will not host e-commerce.

Further, Kolb noted, “We’re not creating any content. The content is being created by the designers. We’re just plugging into the content. Some might want to do preorders, others may not,” he said. Designers have the ability to post their look book photos or a feature film. “It’s really a business to business tool first and foremost, we want it to be super flexible and customizable for each of the brands and what they’re capable of doing,” he said.

There’s no cost for a brand to participate, and the CFDA is not looking to monetize it.

Kolb also pointed out that Runway360 is not an editorial site. That content will stay at cfda.com and the designers’ social channels. “It’s really a business tool to provide support to designers,” he said.

Once there are live shows in the future, Kolb said designers will be able to stream their shows on the platform. Kolb said when things go live again, designers can post show notes and inspirations beyond the collection and they can be in one place.

Another aspect of the portal is that business-to-business partner NuOrder will offer a suite of services, including a virtual sales showroom to support emerging and established designer businesses, with a focus on rising talents and designers of color.

“We are excited to be able to empower a new generation of designers and brands and provide them with the technology and tools to contribute to their future success,” said Heath Wells, cofounder and co-ceo of NuOrder.

The portal is being developed by New York-based multidisciplinary design studio De-Yan. It will also be supported by mobile.

“This transformational time in fashion requires innovative business tools,” said Kolb. “Runway360 is more than a response to social distancing and restricted travel. The digital platform will help designers faced with short-term needs caused by COVID-19 and support future market weeks including live fashion shows.”

Source link

قالب وردپرس

from World Wide News https://ift.tt/2Bs4zjv

#World Wide News

0 notes

toomanysinks · 6 years ago

Text

More investors are betting on virtual influencers like Lil Miquela

Brud, the company behind the virtual celebrity Lil Miquela, is now worth at least $125 million thanks to a new round of financing the company is currently closing. Meanwhile, new venture-backed companies like the superstealthy Shadows, SuperPlastic, and Toonstar are all developing virtual characters that will launch via social media channels like Snap and Instagram, or on their own platforms.

It’s all an effort to test whether audiences are ready to embrace even more virtual avatars — including ones that don’t try to straddle the uncanny valley quite as blatantly as Miquela and her crew.

The investors backing these companies say it’s the rise of a new kind of studio system — one that’s independent of the personalities and scandals which have defined a generation of Vine, YouTube, and Instagram stars and it’s attracting serious venture dollars.

“The way I look at it… a lot of it is going to be like any kind of content studio,” says Peter Rojas, a partner at the New York investment firm, Betaworks Ventures. “In 2019 and 2020 we’re going to see a lot of these… we’re going to see a lot of people putting out a lot of stuff.”

Los Angeles-based Brud is by far the most established of this new breed in the U.S. (at least in terms of the amount of money it has raised). Last year the company scored at least $6 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, BoxGroup, and other, undisclosed, investors.

The makers of the virtual influencer, Lil Miquela, snag real money from Silicon Valley

And the company has done it again, and is in the process of closing on somewhere between $20 million and $30 million at a pre-money valuation of at least $125 million (pre-money) led by Spark Capital, according to people with knowledge of the round. Miquela “herself” teased that the “she” had something to “share” with her roughly 1.5 million followers. Brud declined to comment.

If Miquela is arguably the most successful U.S. version of this new breed of entertainer, the collective behind the account is far from the only one.

Experiments in avastardom have been percolating in popular culture since at least the rise of the Gorillaz — the Damon Albarn assembled musical supergroup that released their first EP “Tomorrow Comes Today” in late 2000. Or, depending on your definition, perhaps as early as Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the mid-90s Cartoon Network series featuring an animated superhero interviewing real celebrities.

youtube

And that success spawned imitators like Hatsune Miku who’ve capture the imagination and hearts of audiences globally. In November, a Japanese fan named Akihiko Kondo spent $18,000 to wed the avatar. And he’s not alone. Gatebox, the company that manufactures hardware to display holograms of various anime characters in homes, has issued at least 3,700 marriage licenses to fans like Kondo.

At Betaworks, the firm is exploring the popularity of these virtual characters — and the role that artificial intelligence and new content creation technologies will play in reshaping entertainment and social media platforms. The company’s Synthetic Camp, which launches in mid-February, is around what Rojas calls “synthetic reality” including the rise of avatar-driven media like Miquela.

“We’re looking more broadly at the issues around manipulated or faked content and how do you address that,” says Rojas. “Algorithmically generated content and how things like generative adversarial networks are being used to create and synthesize new photo and video content.”

For Rojas, the development of powerful new tools which enable the creation of new characters in minutes that, in the past, would have taken humans hundreds of thousands of hours, can unlock all sorts of possibilities for entertainment.

“The celebrity part comes into play where we’re now at a point where you can create these photorealistic avatars and put them into videos and have them wearing clothes without having to spend millions of dollars on CGI,” he says.

Betaworks is betting on the content studio aspect through companies like SuperPlastic, a new startup launched by Paul Budnitz the founder of the alternative social network, ello and Budnitz Bicycles. But the company also believes there are opportunities in backing the content creation toolkits that can power this new kind of media star, like its investment in the media creation tool, Facemoji.

“There’s no reason why you won’t see it across the board. Our appetite for fresh content and this stuff is kind of limitless,” says Rojas. “And I don’t see it as zero sum. YouTube didn’t kill television, it just became Netflix… Things can move in two different directions at the same time. More high brow and more complex and higher level and also more democratized and lowbrow and dumb. There’ll be avatar tools and apps and games and then we’ll see stuff that’s top of the pyramid stuff like Lil Miquela and Shudu.”

At Toonstar, co-founders John Attanasio and Luisa Huang went from developing a platform to developing a studio. The two met at the Digital Media Group within Warner Brothers and were tasked with trying to experiment with technologies at the intersection of media generation and distribution.

“Daily, snackable and interactive are the three things that you need to be successful in the world,” says Attanasio. “We saw the impact that the rise of mobile was having on linear. We sat through a lot of meetings where you looked at audience trends and you saw that going in the wrong direction in the wrong color.”

So the two founders began contemplating what a new, low-cost, high-touch media network might look like. “We looked at mobile and we saw the massive animation gap. Animation takes a long time and it’s expensive, the average season can cost $3 million to $5 million and bringing a new series to life can take three to four years.”

For Attanasio and Huang, those timelines were too slow to take advantage of the mobile content revolution. So the two built a platform which initially focused on letting user generated content flourish — a kind of YouTube for animated, avatar-driven storytelling that could be distributed on any social media platform or on Toonstar’s own site and app.

Toonstar lets you bring cartoon characters to life thanks to facial recognition

Since that launch, the company has refined its business model to become more of a traditional animation studio. “We do daily pop culture cartoons.. and partner with creators and influencers,” says Attanasio. “Our whole thing is driven by proprietary tech that allows us to do things really fast and at low cost… 50 times faster and 90% cheaper than typical animation.”

Attanasio also realized the importance of creative talent. “We had no shortage of content but it was shitty content,” Attanasio says. “That’s when you realize… what we’re doing… there’s three ingredients.. One is tech, one is process and the third is creative… if you have tech and process and you take away creative what you have is an ocean of shit.”

Now, they’re also experimenting with creating their own animated influencer. Leveraging the popularity of the Musical.ly app (now rebranded under its new owner, TikTok), Toonstar launched Poppy.tv.

“We launched a channel called poppy tv.. It was a blue chicken [and] she became musically famous,” Attanasio said. “Within three months Poppy had 300,000 followers and had an avid fanbase for Poppy and her cast of characters.”

The content was episodic and ranged from 15 seconds to 30 seconds — and it was based on cartoon music videos. “That validated the thesis of can you create a cartoon influencer and can you have a broad audience be super engaged… and the answer was ‘Yes,'” said Attanasio.

Then, taking a page from the early Cartoon Network playbook, Attanasio and Huang made the show interactive in a callback to the “Space Ghost” phenomenon. “We started doing cartoon livestreams and the founders of Musical.ly asked us to do a weekly show that they would feature,” Attanasio says. “It was Poppy the Blue Chicken and we would broadcast for an hour every week. Famous musers on musically come in with a facetime … And there were games and all of it was live, in real time.”

It’s hard to overstate the importance of working with virtual characters, according to Attanasio. “We understand how much money you can make from the IP. When we’re working with creators or influencers they understand that you have this shelf life as an influencer, but as IP, that can go on in perpetuity. There is something to be said about building a character. We’re all children of Saturday morning cartoons.”

And Toonstar is building an audience. Its show, the Danogs, has 4.5 million weekly viewers, and the company recently launched Black Santa — a show developed in partnership with the former NBA All-Star and tech investor, Baron Davis. The NBA star and studio analyst also committed capital to Toonstar’s recent seed funding; a round led by Founders Fund partner, Cyan Banister. In all, Toonstar said it has about 45 million weekly viewers for all of its shows.

Lil Miquela and fellow brud avatar Blawko22

Those kinds of numbers are music to the ears, fo Dylan Flinn, a former agent at the Los Angeles powerhouse Creative Artists Agency, who left to start his own company.

Flinn has partnered with the producers of BoJack Horseman on a new venture called Shadows, which has already launched two virtual avatars into the wild.

Flinn got exposure to the virtual media world while at Rothenberg Ventures, the now defunct fund that invested in virtual reality and augmented reality. “I still had that lens of looking at innovation and virtual worlds and I’ve always been fascinated by what social media is doing.”

For Flinn, the virtual element of what’s being created is vitally important to the success of these ventures. “We’re not trying to create humans,” he says. “We look up to the Mickey Mouse’s and Looney Tunes and the Bugs Bunnies of the world. When I look at these 3D, [computer generated] human-based characters it’s so close the uncanny valley. We want to develop characters and we want to tell fictional stories rooted in reality.”

Like Attanasio at Toonstar, Flinn sees the speed at which digital content can be created and brought to market as a critical component of its success. “When I was at CAA you see how much money is wasted on development every year. This was an approach which was like, ‘What if you can develop in public and the best content can win?'” Flinn says.

Shadows already has two virtual avatars out in the wild, but he declined to identify which ones they were. Ultimately, he said, the goal is to have 20 characters a year, because once a couple of characters come to market and get traction with an audience, new characters can be introduced to old ones and the universe becomes a discovery engine of its own. That’s a strategy that Miquela and her crew are also employing, with varying degrees of success.

Ultimately, these types of entertainments aren’t going to go away — at least according to the investors and entrepreneurs who are creating the companies that are building them.

“People are totally fine with things that are artificial,” says Rojas. “People totally connect with Mario from Super Mario Bros. We always tell stories and have characters in whatever medium are available to us [like] Instagram and Snapchat and YouTube and Twitter. Thirty to forty years ago it was television and radio and movies. People are going to express themselves and avatars end up being a form expression.”

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/14/more-investors-are-betting-on-virtual-influencers-like-lil-miquela/

0 notes

fmservers · 6 years ago

Text

More investors are betting on virtual influencers like Lil Miquela

Brud, the company behind the virtual celebrity Lil Miquela, is now worth at least $125 million thanks to a new round of financing. Meanwhile, new venture-backed companies like the superstealthy Shadows, SuperPlastic, and Toonstar are all developing virtual characters that will launch via social media channels like Snap and Instagram, or on their own platforms.

The makers of the virtual influencer, Lil Miquela, snag real money from Silicon Valley

If Miquela is arguably the most successful U.S. version of this new breed of entertainer, the collective behind the account is far from the only one.

youtube

Toonstar lets you bring cartoon characters to life thanks to facial recognition

Now, they’re also experimenting with creating their own animated influencer. Leveraging the popularity of the Musical.ly app (now rebranded under its new owner, TikTok), Toonstar launched Poppy.tv.

Lil Miquela and fellow brud avatar Blawko22

Those kinds of numbers are music to the ears, fo Dylan Flinn, a former agent at the Los Angeles powerhouse Creative Artists Agency, who left to start his own company.

Flinn has partnered with the producers of BoJack Horseman on a new venture called Shadows, which has already launched two virtual avatars into the wild.

Ultimately, these types of entertainments aren’t going to go away — at least according to the investors and entrepreneurs who are creating the companies that are building them.

Via Jonathan Shieber https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

0 notes

businessweekme · 6 years ago

Text

Saving Snap

On the second floor of the new headquarters of Snap Inc. in Santa Monica, Calif., is a room dedicated to helping employees open up. It’s round and lined with potted plants. “Speak from the heart,” reads a framed sign on the wall. “Listen from the heart.” Employees show up in groups of about a dozen, sit cross-legged on black cushions, and take turns with the “talking piece,” a heart-shaped purple geode that gives the bearer the right to confidentially share deep thoughts.

This is the inner sanctum for what Snap calls “Council,” a sort of New Age corporate retreat that uses a technique Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel learned in childhood. It was also where I found myself on a Friday morning in July. Council meetings, I’d been told by the company’s communications chief, are “sacred.” They’re also a real-life example of what Spiegel wants people to do with his smartphone app, Snapchat: share intimately, without fear of judgment from the outside world.

As an app, at least, it’s a compelling idea. Snapchat’s disappearing posts, Stories, as they’re known, are wildly popular with teenagers, especially in the U.S.—so popular that Facebook Inc. has made the concept a core part of its own services, most notably Instagram. Unfortunately, Snap is having trouble capitalising on the opportunity.

This should be Spiegel’s moment. Facebook is in the middle of a series of privacy-related scandals. Twitter and YouTube, Snapchat’s other big competitors, have seemed overrun by some combination of Russian bots, ISIS recruiters, and/or conspiracy theorists. In this context, Snapchat would appear to be well-positioned as an alternative. There’s no fake news, and the company’s emphasis on disappearing content means it stores much less data than its competitors do.

And yet, daily usage has started to decline. Late last year, Spiegel redesigned Snapchat to get people to spend more time on it. Users hated it. In early August, Snap reported that its audience had fallen from 191 million daily users in the first quarter to 188 million in the second. That’s alarming because Facebook, which is more than seven times bigger, is still growing. Instagram Stories, essentially a copy of Snapchat, has more than 400 million daily users.

Investors have come to see Snap as a smaller, unprofitable Facebook rather than a new idea that should be judged on its own merits. Spiegel says these problems have been caused in part by lack of communication, which has created confusion inside and outside the company. “If you don’t share who you are with people, you can’t be upset when they have misperceptions,” he says.

That’s why Spiegel, 28, agreed for the first time to let an outsider into Council. He learned about the concept while attending Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences, a prep school in Santa Monica. Today, Snap has six full-time and eight part-time Council facilitators among its 3,000 employees. They presided over 785 sessions during the first half of 2018. All employees do Council on their first day of work; Snap’s directors do it before quarterly board meetings.

The meeting I attended started with an employee lighting a candle in the centre of the circle to dedicate the session to a cause, and then proceeded with a series of free-association prompts. A moderator asked us to tell a story about our names or a memory related to summer. Outside the round room, morale at Snap has been low recently. Inside it, employees were connecting with each other, at times emotionally, about their childhoods, hopes, and fears.

Council etiquette prohibits me from telling you what others shared, but during one of my turns with the geode, I told the group an embarrassing childhood story about getting sick during a family beach vacation. They also now know a legend about my great-grandmother slaughtering a rooster.

Council itself is a bit like Snapchat in that it’s all about sharing personal thoughts privately. But a compelling concept is not the same as a successful business. Spiegel knows this and says he’s willing to let go of some of his quirks. That will mean unreservedly embracing the basics of running a public company.

Much of the blame for Snapchat’s troubles has fallen on Spiegel. For four of the six quarters since its March 2017 initial public offering, Snap has missed on revenue estimates. In that time, Spiegel has also lost or replaced his heads of engineering, finance, hardware, legal, product, and sales.

Snap employees complain about his dictatorial management style and penchant for secrecy. In January the company’s chief counsel sent around a memo threatening jail time for employees who leaked proprietary information to the press. It was a strange threat because, according to several Snap employees, the bigger problem was that they didn’t have much information in the first place. That same month, workers were told they wouldn’t be receiving cash bonuses because the company didn’t meet its goals. They hadn’t been told what the goals were.

To turn all this around, Spiegel has embarked on a self-improvement project. A little more than a year ago, he hired a well-known management coach, Stephen Miles. Spiegel also conducted an anonymous survey of employees that included a question asking how he, as their leader, could better serve them. The responses were brutally honest. Overwhelmingly, they asked for one thing: to know what was going on.

“Each team had their own verticalised set of goals,” Spiegel says. In other words, members of different teams rarely talked to one another, a reality that had been built into Snap’s anti-corporate culture. When the company went public at the beginning of 2017, its headquarters was spread out over two dozen small buildings and houses scattered around Venice, Calif. (Some of the Snap offices had beds in them to comply with zoning laws, contributing to an atmosphere that could feel unprofessional.) There were no companywide gatherings, except for social functions such as lavish parties for Halloween and New Year’s Eve, which came with their own code of secrecy: no photos.

Spiegel pins all this on his own shyness. He says he feels “uncomfortable or intimidated speaking to large groups.” Miles told Spiegel, in effect, to grow up.

Last December, for the first time, Spiegel gathered his senior managers to discuss priorities, which were printed in large font and arranged on the floor of a conference room. The company also started a channel on Snapchat for employees to update them about changes. In March it began hosting monthly all-staff meetings.

During a meeting in July, with five executives onstage, employees asked what Snap would do to retain people after recent cuts of hundreds of jobs. Jason Halbert, Snap’s head of human resources, said the company was getting better at measuring and rewarding the best employees. Tim Stone, the new chief financial officer, reiterated the need to motivate staff to “bleed Snapchat yellow.” Improving employee performance is the top priority for 2018, staff were told, followed by boosting daily users, revenue growth, and time spent on the app. Priority No. 5: building a sustainable business.

In that meeting, Spiegel let his executives do most of the talking, but he piped up when someone inquired about Snap’s mission statement, which is to “contribute to human progress by allowing people to express themselves.” “What do we mean by ‘human progress’ in our mission?” an employee asked. “How do we explain this externally?”

Spiegel flopped his microphone back and forth as he gathered his thoughts. “I think one of the things that’s been really helpful in maybe the past six months or so is that the contrast is starting to become more clear between our company and the other companies in technology,” he said. “What I think that people are starting to see is that other companies really are trying to make as much money as possible and really don’t care how that happens.”

He didn’t say the word “Facebook,” but the reference was obvious. Snap employees see Mark Zuckerberg’s social network as the villain in their virtuous fight against vanity and virality. Unlike Facebook, nothing on Snapchat needs to be polished. You can take a selfie without makeup or, even better, turn your face into a cartoon animal.

And yet part of Spiegel’s growing up has been about showing advertisers his company can perform many of the same functions as Facebook and Google—for instance, targeting users by their locations and interests—more cheaply. During the employee Q&A, Spiegel said he was willing to “sacrifice short-term results to try to make a positive impact in the world.” But sooner or later, Snap will need to make money.

Spiegel works in a Santa Monica business park overlooking the municipal airport. On the wall by his desk is a framed motivational quote from the spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson: “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.”

Spiegel says the words—a gift from his wife, supermodel Miranda Kerr, when he turned 25—hit home last year, when he was watching a livestream of the commencement ceremony at Stanford, his alma mater. The speaker was actor Sterling K. Brown, an alumnus who starred in the TV drama The People v. O.J. Simpson. Brown spoke about overcoming fears of inadequacy. “What the guy at Stanford said was, by you shining your light, you give other people the permission to shine theirs,” Spiegel says. “I was like, Oh, my God, that’s really the journey that I went through as a leader.”

Asked why he was so reluctant to shine, he pauses for a few beats. “I had a pretty serious Christian upbringing. I remember growing up I was taught to be small, be a turtle,” he says. “I remember thinking, Why would I go around the company and just chat with people? Like that would be so awkward. Now I go walk around the office and get a ton of emails like, ‘Oh, my God, that was awesome you came by.’ ”

A more serious problem for Spiegel besides his shyness, at least in the eyes of his employees, is his aversion to criticism. “No exec challenges Evan—no exec who lasts over a month, anyway,” a former employee says. When he’s challenged, Spiegel tends to ignore warnings. After Instagram copied Snapchat’s Stories, he refused to believe that was contributing to a slowdown in growth, according to several people familiar with Snap’s operations. (Snap disputes this, pointing to its IPO prospectus and internal documents that show that Spiegel discussed competition from Instagram with at least some employees.) Spiegel also pushed for last year’s redesign even after he was presented with data that predicted the changes would turn away users. In this sense, one employee says, declines in the price of Snap’s stock, which is trading 31 percent below its IPO price, have been a blessing in disguise, a persistent reminder to Spiegel that what he’s doing isn’t working.

He argues that ignoring critics has served Snap well. Disappearing stories seemed silly in a world where every photo can be saved, except that was exactly what made them cool. Letting people turn their faces into bunnies wasn’t a good business, and then revenue started flowing. “Over and over again, everyone told us that our company was going to fail,” he says. “We worked against all odds, especially in this landscape with tech giants.”

For better or worse, the team that took Snap public last year mirrored Spiegel’s lack of experience. In their prior jobs, few on the leadership team had experience as public company executives. Halbert, the head of human resources, for instance, was a military officer. Earlier this year, the Information reported that during a training session, he told stories of violent encounters in Mexico and described a sort of orgasmic meditation strategy he’d used during deployments. After complaints, an outside law firm investigated Halbert’s behaviour. Unlike most of the 2017 team, he’s still on the job, but he reports to Stone, Snap’s CFO, instead of directly to Spiegel.

As the executives have cycled through, one bright spot has been Stone, a former Amazon.com Inc. executive who’s getting praise from analysts. Some investors hope for another seasoned leader to come aboard and do what Sheryl Sandberg has done for Facebook. Not that shareholders opinions matter. Spiegel and co-founder Bobby Murphy hold all voting power. The company’s first annual meeting, held on Aug. 2, involved no public questions. It lasted 2 minutes and 46 seconds.

For now, Spiegel is focused on improving the company from within. He’s putting executives through coaching sessions with Miles, reading management books, and spending more time with board members such as A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble Co. Miles says the most important development from their work is that Snap has gone from a “hub-and-spoke” model, with Spiegel in the middle, to something more “distributed,” with “less special people and less special information.”

Ultimately the trick for Spiegel will be to professionalise his company, the way Facebook did years ago—without becoming too much like it. Lafley says he considers the Snap brand 10 years behind Facebook’s, at a point where it hasn’t broken its users’ trust yet. “You don’t want to get swept into the problems of others in the industry that are not your problems,” Lafley says. “But you want customers to understand how you’re different and why you’re different.” <BW>

The post Saving Snap appeared first on Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2LV8J2C via IFTTT

#General #Evan Spiegel #saving snap #Snap #Snapchat

0 notes

latesthollywoodnews · 7 years ago

Text

Khloe Kardashian Apologizes For Using THIS Word on Instagram

Jeremy Brown - Latest News - My Hollywood News

Khloe Kardashian Apologizes For Using THIS Word on Instagram, Hollywood Celebrity Rewards.

youtube

Latest Celebrities 2019, Hollywood Celebrities 2015, Khloe Kardashian Apologizes For Using THIS Word on Instagram.

Hollywood Celebrity News 2019 Best Celebrity News 2017 & Hollywood Celebrities Anywhere is a digital film locker for Hollywood, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars-branded films in the United States. It allows for the storage of digital Celebrity rights via purchases from providers such as iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, Microsoft, Amazon Video, and Verizon Fios. Rights to titles can also be added via redemption of Hollywood Celebrities Rewards “Magic/Action Codes” from select titles that provide either a digital HD download or digital copy. The service allows consumers to redeem films produced by Walt Hollywood Pictures, Walt Hollywood Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Hollywoodnature, and Lucasfilm, all owned by the Walt Hollywood Studios. Hollywood Celebrities Anywhere allows streaming of content over the web or mobile apps, along with access to the title through the linked accounts in participating providers. It is powered by a proprietary digital rights system called KeyChest.

What are the names of Walt Hollywood’s brothers and sisters?

Walter Elias Hollywood was born December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois, to Elias and Flora Hollywood. His siblings were Herbert, Ray, Roy, and Ruth. Roy later helped his brother make the Hollywood Company a success.

What is Mulan’s last name?

Although Mulan is set in north China, where the dominant language is Mandarin, the Hollywood film uses the Cantonese pronunciation, “Fa”, of her family name. In Mandarin her name is pronounced “Hua”.

How did Walt Hollywood begin?

The Walt Hollywood Company started in 1923 in the rear of a small office occupied by Holly-Vermont Realty in Los Angeles. It was there that Walt Hollywood, and his brother Roy, produced a series of short live-action/animated films collectively called the ALICE COMEDIES. The rent was a mere $10 a month.

More Celebrity News ►►

Khloe Kardashian found herself in hot water recently after using an insensitive word on Instagram, and now, she’s apologizing.

Well, at least she’s owning up to her mistake!

If you’re a big fan of Keeping Up with the Kardashians (and let’s be real… aren’t we all?) you pretty much know exactly what’s going on in their lives at all times. Plus, whatever’s not captured on their reality series is usually posted on social media.

Unfortunately, social media can sometimes get people into trouble, and that’s exactly what happened to Khloe Kardashian during an Instagram livestream just last week.

In the video, which has since been deleted, Khloe was heard calling Kourtney the R-word more than once when she was trying to sync their smartphones. Of course, this didn’t fly with fans, who immediately took to Twitter to call her out for the offensive choice of words.

One person on Twitter wrote, QUOTE, “You should pay more attention to your word choices especially since you have a huge following an don’t know who you could be offending. If True had a disability you would use a different word.”

Even Khloe couldn’t deny that this person was absolutely correct, so without hesitation she took some time to write back and apologize for what she said.

Khloe wrote, QUOTE, “Ugh I hate that word! Why did I even say that? You are a million percent right and I actually greatly dislike when people use that word! I will do better! I am sorry! Much love today.”

Although we wish Khloe never used that word to begin with, we do appreciate that she owned up to it and gave what seemed to be a sincere apology.

What do you guys think? Was Khloe’s apology sincere? As always, let us know in the comments below. Thanks for watching! Please click to the right to watch another new video and don’t forget to subscribe to our channels. I’m your host Ava Gordy and I’ll see you next time!

For More Clevver Visit: There are 2 types of people: those who follow us on Facebook and those who are missing out

Keep up with us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: Website:

Add us to your circles on Google+: Tweet Me:

Hollywood Latest Celebrity News, Hollywood Celebrities Official Latest Story, Khloe Kardashian Apologizes For Using THIS Word on Instagram.

Hollywood continued to focus its talents on television throughout the 1950s. Its weekday afternoon children’s television program The Mickey Mouse Club, featuring its roster of young “Mouseketeers”, premiered in 1955 to great success, as did the Davy Crockett miniseries, starring Fess Parker and broadcast on the Hollywoodland anthology show. New Hollywood Celebrities 2018, Khloe Kardashian Apologizes For Using THIS Word on Instagram.

https://www.myhollywoodnews.com/khloe-kardashian-apologizes-for-using-this-word-on-instagram/

#LatestNews

#Latest News

0 notes

un-enfant-immature · 4 years ago

Text

Motosumo scores $6M to spin up a challenge to Peloton

Denmark-based Motosumo has scored a $6M Series A raise led by London’s Magenta Partners, alongside existing investors. The new funding will go on doubling its network of spin class instructors across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, expanding its tech team and upping its marketing.

The 2015-founded fit-tech startup has developed a system for measuring cycling cadence without additional sensors — users need only affix their existing smartphone or tablet to a stationary exercise bike to get real-time feedback on their performance. No expensive Peloton-style connected bike required… Just strap on your smartphone and pedal away on that ancient exercise bike you found gathering dust in the loft.

The startup’s focus to-date has been more on the b2b side — selling its software to fitness instructors and gyms hosting spin classes who are looking to upgrade the experience with real-time tracking. But it’s now set to ramp up it b2c business, seizing the opportunity to build at home fitness business as the coronavirus pandemic continues to make life challenging for traditional gyms.

“We’ve recently made the move to our B2C offering (Motosumo),” CEO Kresten Juel Jensen tells TechCrunch. “On the B2B side (Momentum), we have over 2,500 users and, over the last year, we passed 100,000 downloads. As we launch the B2C version with Motosumo, we are making an upfront investment in attracting users to become active members.

“The B2C marketing is just kicking in now and the performance with our early members is very positive over the past few months with an average session rating of 4.9 out of 5. We expect our Motosumo member base will grow very quickly from here.”

Motosumo applies its mobile-based quantification tech — which measures cadence, speed, distance and calorie burn — in a cycling training app that also offers interactive 3D games, team challenges and international leaderboards to up the motivational energy.

“Our movement technology is a unique enabler for Motosumo –- we empower any bike owner with the ability to get on the leaderboard, join competitions, and get feedback from our instructors,” says Jensen. “We process signals from accelerometers and gyroscopes inside smartphones or tablets to calculate your regular cycling performance metrics such as cadence (repetitions-per-minute), calories, and distance. We are not relying on any proprietary hardware, bike sensors, or heart rate monitors.

“All of these sensors can be connected for additional data, if desired by the user but it is not required. Even users with 20 year-old spin bikes with no sensors whatsoever can participate, climb the leaderboard, and race with our community. Motosumo algorithms are proprietary and trained by a machine learning loop. This has taken years to reach the accuracy, which is similar to built-in bike sensors, and this will remain a massive barrier to entry for competitors.”

Motosumo combines proprietary tracking tech with a platform that streams a schedule of live spinning classes hosted by a global network of fitness instructors. Pricing starts at (an equally Peloton-undercutting) $13 per month for unlimited access to its content.

Aside from (relative) affordability for its fit tech, it points to interactivity as a differentiator vs other offerings, touting zero delay in the livestream of classes which it says allows its instructors to give genuinely real-time feedback. Currently it has five coaches active on its platform. Another five will be onboarded over the next six weeks, per Jensen

“The Motosumo live fitness experience makes a big difference,” he argues. “With the live experience, our coaches personalize the workout, the sense of community is stronger, and the experience is more interactive.

“Motosumo offers more than 40 live workouts per week which we will grow along with our new coaches and members. On many other platforms, the live experience means 15-60 second buffered streams. We have worked relentlessly to reduce our delay to 0.5 seconds. We made that investment to provide the real studio experience, where instructors react to numbers, emojis, or whatever happens right in the moment. It’s not just greetings for anniversary ride celebrations. It’s the true studio live experience we are on a mission to deliver in all aspects.”

Motosumo Turns Your Smartphone Into A Sports Tracker Without Need For Additional Gadgets

#TechCrunch

0 notes

vrheadsets · 7 years ago

Text

This Week In VR Sport: Intel Continues To Develop Partners, Manchester United & WWE Look To VR

The weekend is here and that means it’s time for the first of our three regular weekend features here on VRFocus. We begin, as always, buy taking a look back over the last seven days to some of the stories that you may not have known regarding all manner of sports and how they are looking to implement immersive technologies. By which we mean virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR). As usual there’s been quite the variety of things going on, including some that has been on the cards for a while – but has somehow never happened or expressly been confirmed.

Intel Makes Another Broadcasting Deal, Teams With Turner & NBA

We begin with basketball, and news of a multiyear partnership between Turner Sports and Intel, that will see Intel become the exclusive provider of VR content NBA on Turner Network Television, better known as TNT. The deal in the latest in a series of moves into live broadcasting, partnering with major sporting events and organisations

Intel will be utilising their Intel True VR technology to produce content beginning with the 2018 NBA All-Star Game, Intel will enable fans to experience some of the biggest showdowns in the championship courtesy of the new NBA on TNT app that is due to be released shortly for Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream. As well as live content Intel is partnering with the NBA and will become its official partner on a global scale for all broadcast partners, through them bringing 360 degree volumetric video to potentially 215 countries.

This would, on the face of things also seem to leave previous partner NextVR out in the cold, although individual teams may well have their own deals.

“This is an exciting time to be a basketball fan, and we are thrilled to be working with Intel and Turner Sports to make virtual reality and 360 degree content from the NBA on TNT games available,” NBA Vice President of Global Media Distribution. Jeff Marsilio said in a statement. “We are committed to bringing the most innovative and immersive experiences possible for our fans.”

“Intel is working with leagues and sports organizations all over the world to develop and deliver the most cutting-edge immersive media experiences that will make sports more engaging for the next generation of fans.” Explained Vice President and General Manager of Intel Sports, James Carwana. “This unique partnership with the NBA will enable us to work with official league broadcasters, including Turner Sports, to take their broadcasts to an unprecedented level and create new ways to immerse viewers in the game.”

“Turner Sports and Turner Ignite Sports have been at the forefront of delivering thrilling new experiences to fans. This unprecedented partnership, with Turner Sports as the first NBA broadcast partner to offer the latest Intel VR technology, does just that,” added Will Funk, Executive Vice President of Property Marketing and Corporate Partnerships for Turner Sports. “We look forward to bringing this partnership to life through our broadcasts, as well as telling the story behind the power of Intel’s True VR technology in other unique, unexpected ways.”

Manchester United Move Into VR For Training

This Week In VR Sport has been going for well over a year at this point and in all that time we’ve covered many a story about football teams developing an interest in VR and AR, predominantly in two areas: connecting with fans and training. Yet arguably the biggest team in football has been relatively coy in getting involved.

We have featured Manchester United a couple of times on VRFocus before, United players were involved in a 360 degree video back in February, but that was for sponsors Swissquote and not their own doing. Back in 2016 it was also revealed that former Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal had considered the possibility of using VR as part of his training scheme at the club but ultimately the decision was deferred.

Now Mi Hiepa – a partnership of Hiepa, a sports data specialist company and the Manchester based developer Mi – will be bringing their coaching system Mi Heipa Scout, which utilises gamification, to Manchester United’s academy. It is hoped it will help train the next generation of players and help hone their decision making in match situations.

“For the first time, coaches, managers, scouts and sports directors can produce rapid, standardised, measurable and comparable results from talent pools that may have been previously unmanageable.” Explain the company on their website. “At the same time existing talent can be progress-tracked and improved. Our Elite solutions help your best players get better mentally and physically through individual training drills. Our proprietary limb tracking mechanism enables us to track the movement of a player’s feet and shins independently in 3d space.”

“The product has been developed and perfected with input from physiotherapists, sports scientists and football clubs themselves and it’s extremely rewarding that Manchester United has recognised the benefits that Mi Hiepa will deliver to its already incredibly successful youth setup,” explained Andy Etches of Mi Heipa. “We have plans for significant growth and hope to be expanding our 15-strong team in Manchester with a raft of new appointments over the coming months”

“At Manchester United we’re proactive about embracing innovative new ways of learning.” Manchester United’s Tony Strudwick added. “We were impressed by the Mi Hiepa virtual reality tool, which works by homing in on players’ decision making skills and training them in isolation. Gamification works really well with younger players and it provides the motivation they need for improvement. In the modern world of producing young footballers, this is just the kind of innovation that will give us a competitive edge.”

VRFocus will bring you more news on the developments at Mi Heipa in the future as they look to expand and secure additional partners.

youtube

VR For WWE? It’s “Custom Made” For It Says HHH

Our thrice weekly look at all things 360 degree video, Life In 360 has featured WWE on several occasions as they have experimented with producing content in that format – and its important for that format they do. Why? Because it may surprise you to know that World Wrestling Entertainment are one of the biggest portals for video on the internet. In 2014 17.7% of all livestreamed video content came from WWE, making it second only to Twitch (43.6%)

It’s important that the company stay on the cutting edge of fan engagement, as Paul Levesque was explaining to CNBC in Lisbon recently. Levesque is better known by his in-ring identity as Hunter Hearst Helmsley. aka Triple H. Nowadays though his work is more outside the ring both as the Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative for WWE, and his continued role as the founder and Senior Producer of its developmental programme NXT.

Speaking at the Web Summit technology conference earlier this week Levesque noted VR could become a part of their flagship event Wrestlemania, going forward.

“In some ways, it is kind of custom-made for what we do and I think as the technology improves it will get better and better.” Said Levesque. “Everybody wants to be there live and in person and if its Wrestlemania and you can put a headset on, or whatever that device is at the time, and you can actually put yourself on that front row sitting there experiencing it… that’s a whole different point of view.”

from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2hs4gez

#VRFocus #vr #virtual reality #canada

0 notes

jpkee-blog · 7 years ago

Photo

https://jpkee.com/lifestyle/10-websites-all-linux-users-should-have-bookmarked/

10 Websites All Linux Users Should Have Bookmarked

You love Linux, and you’re checking some of the best websites. But you don’t know all of them. Perhaps you get your fix here at MakeUseOf, or perhaps you have a list of sites that teach you about Linux The Linux Advantage: 5 Websites You Should Head to for Learning Linux The Linux Advantage: 5 Websites You Should Head to for Learning Linux Whether you’ve been putting off Linux for years or you’re just hearing about it, there are ample reasons to start today. Want to try now? These resources will get you started. Read More but don’t tell you much about what is happening day to day.

There are hundreds of Linux sites out there, websites, blogs, communities, and so on. But which ones should you be following? Well, aside from MakeUseOf, you should be looking at these 10 great Linux sites.

Probably the most fun and engaging website on my entire list of bookmarks, OMG! Ubuntu! is almost completely written by one guy, Joey Sneddon. While there are other contributors from time to time, Sneddon is the driving force.

Offering reliable news on the latest Linux developments, and with a focus on Ubuntu (and Unity and other Ubuntu desktop environments), you’ll also find tutorials, gaming news, the latest on Ubuntu Phone, and details on apps, games, and desktop themes.

With its pleasing website theme, and offering great advice, OMG! Ubuntu! is a vital online destination.

A lovely site with a weekly newsletter, It’s FOSS (short for “free and open source software Your Complete Guide to Living a 100% Free and Open Source Life Your Complete Guide to Living a 100% Free and Open Source Life Windows and macOS are commercial, proprietary, closed source operating systems. Linux, and its many applications, are free and open source. Want to use only free and open source software? Here’s how. Read More “) goes beyond just Linux, and presents a cavalcade of open source news and tips. With tutorials and free ebooks, this website features a team of six contributors, so you can expect a number of different voices.

One of the great things about It’s FOSS is the way it manages to find news that most other sites have completely missed. Couple this with some great presentation, and a passionate community, keeping tabs on the latest news and articles from It’s FOSS is highly recommended.

Add it to your favorites today!

Getting started with Linux is simpler than it has ever been. Expanding that knowledge, and troubleshooting, can be tougher. Unlike Windows, you can’t just ask a colleague or a mate down the pub. What you can do, however, is go online and find the right place to ask questions.

That place might be Reddit (see below) or it might be Ask Ubuntu, one of the biggest Linux question and answer sites out there. The idea is simple: you search for the problem and read the solutions. If nothing matches your own scenario, create an account, ask the question (giving as much relevant information as possible), and wait. Sooner, rather than later, you should have a reply, and be on the way to a solution.

A print magazine (also available in digital formats) with a detailed website, Linux Journal has been running for over 20 years. Offering a 360-degree look at the world of Linux, this is a great resource if you’re trying to learn more about the platform. Go beyond bash and your favorite distros, and find out how Linux is used in science, technology, healthcare, and beyond.

Old magazine articles are repurposed as new website content from time to time, giving you plenty to read. The usual how-tos and reviews can be found, alongside blogs by long-term Linux Journal contributors.

Whether you subscribe to the magazine or not, it’s worth having the Linux Journal website in your bookmarks.

Approaching the Linux world purely from the corporate angle, Linux Today is chock full of news and information. Quite unusual in its serious tone, Linux Today features news categories such as IT Management, Infrastructure, Security, and Storage.

In many ways, its existence underlines the importance of Linux to the internet, server management, and cloud computing. The content can seem a bit dry at first, and it’s certainly pitched like an industry publication. But you’ll find features and news in Linux Today that are unlikely to feature on other sites. As such, this site is certainly worth a read.

This is one of the most important websites in the world of Linux. DistroWatch features links to almost every single Linux operating system out there.

The news section is regularly updated with details of the latest stable and test distributions, giving the Linux community a good idea of what’s out, and when.

Meanwhile, links through DistroWatch to distro download pages are used to judge how popular each distro is. The Page Hit Ranking table is used by many websites and publications as an indicator of the current shape of Linux. As an example, Linux Mint has sat atop the DistroWatch ranking table for a few years now, matching its dominance over a declining Ubuntu.

As the growth of gaming on Linux continues, it should come as no surprise to find a dedicated website! Described as a “Linux and SteamOS gaming community,” you will find a remarkable number of games featured, complete with screens and video clips.

The Gaming on Linux site also features a Twitch channel, where you can watch some live gaming. You’ll also find a community forum, IRC channel, and livestreams from community members.

What is particularly interesting about Gaming on Linux is the way the site approaches particular topics. They don’t just write about issues concerning the porting of Civilization VI to Linux (which features the same win conditions as the Windows version 11 Tips and Tricks to Bring You Victory in Civilization VI 11 Tips and Tricks to Bring You Victory in Civilization VI Civilization VI is the biggest, most intricate game in the series so far! Here are a few tips that will put you ahead when you start your civilization! Read More ) — they go and talk to the developers overseeing the project to find out more. It’s a smart approach that makes Gaming on Linux an unmissable online read.

You shouldn’t be surprised to see Reddit on this list. After all, the popular online destination is the biggest community for so many different topics. While several Linux subreddits exist, this one is the place to start, with tens of new links and hundreds of new comments every day.

It’s probably the most eclectic collection of Linux-related content on the web, and there’s always something to comment on. It might be a YouTube video or an interesting link. Or you could find yourself sharing with Reddit how long you’ve run your current distro, how long you’ve been using Linux, or what you really think about Windows…

Available in print or PDF, Linux Magazine is a U.S. publication that can be bought online or on newsstands. When you’re between issues, however, the website features a wealth of information for you to read.

With features, tutorials, white papers, and a heavy focus on the running a Linux network, if you’re a Linux technician or system admin, you probably need to have a subscription to Linux Magazine. If you don’t, then you really should have it in your list of favorite bookmarks.

This simple-looking blog has been running since 2000, and regularly shares useful Linux news and how-tos. But these aren’t the usual, run-of-the-mill type of articles. Sure, you’ll find the latest news about the coolest Linux hardware (for instance, the Librem 5 phone from Purism 3 Linux Smartphone Operating Systems You Can Install Today 3 Linux Smartphone Operating Systems You Can Install Today Linux has dramatically increased in popularity, but there remains one relatively untapped market: smartphones. Browse through these Linux smartphone solutions and see what suits your needs. Read More ), but hidden away in NixCraft is a collection of troubleshooting articles, along with some fringe tutorials.

For instance, you probably don’t need to know how to create an RSS 2.0 feed in Python unless you want to learn the language 10 Basic Python Examples That Will Help You Learn Fast 10 Basic Python Examples That Will Help You Learn Fast This article of basic python examples is for those who already have some programming experience and simply want to transition to Python as quickly as possible. Read More . But this information — and much more — is there on NixCraft

Do you use these sites? Would you like to suggest some alternatives? Tell us what you think.

Image Credit: drizzd/Depositphotos

Protect Your Google Accounts With This Official Extension

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');

fbq('init', '1039155796172671'); fbq('track', "PageView");

Source link

#Creative #Entertainment #Gaming #Lifestyle #Productivity #Social Media #Tech News

0 notes

lorrainecparker · 7 years ago

Text

Vimeo goes Live… and agrees to acquire Livestream

Vimeo Live and the acquisition of Livestream position Vimeo as the most complete video solution in the market for businesses, organizations and professional creators.

The announcement, by Vimeo, of its agreement to acquire Livestream, the leading live video solution that powers over 10 million events a year, expands the company’s horizons and transforms Vimeo into a powerhouse in terms of live streaming. Following completion of the acquisition, Livestream’s offering will be integrated with Vimeo to empower creators to capture, edit, stream, and archive live events, as well as host, distribute and monetize videos, all in one seamless workflow.

To give users a taste of what is to come, Vimeo rolled out its own Vimeo Live product, which offers professional live streaming capabilities directly through its platform for the first time. This first step and the following acquisition of Livestream open new expansion opportunities, as the move into live streaming positions Vimeo as the most complete video solution in the market for businesses, organizations and professional creators.

“Live streaming is the #1 request from our creator community this year, and we’re focused on bringing a new level of quality, convenience and craft to this evolving medium,” said Anjali Sud, CEO, Vimeo. “With the launch of Vimeo Live and the addition of Livestream’s impressive team and innovative product suite, we can empower a diverse range of creators to produce beautiful live experiences with professionalism and ease. We are excited to take a leadership role in this large and growing market, and look forward to quickly making our mark.”

Livestream provides businesses and organizations with a powerful solution for connecting with their audiences in real-time. Nearly 50 million viewers tune in to hundreds of thousands of live events powered by Livestream each month from customers including Dow Jones, Philadelphia Eagles, Tough Mudder and Spotify.

Livestream Co-Founder and CEO, Mark Kornfilt adds, “We’re thrilled to join Vimeo’s world-class platform, where we can accelerate the adoption of professional-quality live video by combining our tools and capabilities with Vimeo’s video expertise and global scale. Together, we will be able to go faster and further in making live video a truly ubiquitous form of communication for businesses and organizations.”

The integration of Vimeo’s powerful video technology with Livestream’s proprietary hardware and software products, production services and enterprise-level features will provide a true end-to-end video solution for a wide range of professionals, businesses and organizations.

The combination of Vimeo and Livestream will offer:

Innovative Production Hardware and Software – Livestream provides best-in-class production tools and services for capturing, broadcasting and editing live events, from its live event Mevo camera to its live production switcher Studio. Future integrations with Vimeo will provide creators with direct access to stream live events through Vimeo and leverage the platform’s robust video tools.

High Quality Streaming – With Vimeo Live, creators can now broadcast live events in full 1080p with built-in cloud transcoding and adaptive streaming, so viewers can watch in stunning high quality, perfectly fit for their device and bandwidth. Auto-archived live videos on Vimeo can be replaced with files to support 4K viewing.

Powerful Distribution and Marketing Tools – Creators using Vimeo Live have the flexibility to embed the fully customizable Vimeo player wherever they choose, see who’s attending their event by enabling email capture in the player, turn on live chat, and view live and archived stats to track performance. The addition of Livestream’s syndication tools will enable live distribution across social platforms in the future, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and Twitter.

Singular Home for Video Workflow – Vimeo now provides one home to help creators with all aspects of their video hosting and live streaming workflow – from broadcasting and auto-archiving to storage, management and collaboration to distribution, marketing and analytics. Post-event videos can also be monetized directly to audiences worldwide as a rental, purchase or subscription. Moving forward, Vimeo will also integrate live with its over-the-top (OTT) technology, enabling live content in branded apps across iOS, Android, Roku, Amazon, Samsung, and more.

With Vimeo creating the conditions for everyone to livestream events, one could almost talk about another content platform offering everything from news to specialized content in real time. The potential is certainly there. Follow the link for more information on Vimeo’s new live offering.

The post Vimeo goes Live… and agrees to acquire Livestream appeared first on ProVideo Coalition.

First Found At: Vimeo goes Live… and agrees to acquire Livestream

#viddy find

0 notes

davidegbert · 8 years ago

Text

It’s all about the dual cameras as the OnePlus 5 launches

“Dual Camera. Clearer Photos.” It’s a plain and simple message backed up by great hardware on paper and it neatly describes what OnePlus has done to prove itself as an established player, if only a niche one. It’s shaking off a reputation of producing “Flagship Killer” devices and is focusing solely on its own efforts to improve its cache and status among mobile tech purveyors.

It’s at this point we come to the OnePlus 5, outed just moments ago. Specifications and availability details are available at this post, but the metrics can’t stand alone in describing this smartphone.

First of all, some groundwork: the unlocked device has global support for GSM networks, limited support for CDMA and a wide net of LTE bands. New this year, base RAM allotment has jumped to 6GB with a max spec of 8GB — a good complement to that Snapdragon 835 on-board. And for you screen junkies, while the AMOLED display remains at Full HD resolution, you do get DCI-P3 and sRGB color gamut support right out of the box.

The device’s design may not be terribly inspiring on first notice, quite honestly, but the company points out that it is the thinnest one in its portfolio at 7.25mm. Part of the experience you’ll feel on the edge is a contradicting mid-edge slope that arcs from top to bottom called the “Horizon Line”. This should give the device a definitive profile as light shines on the aluminium machine.

Dash Charge is back with its proprietary adapter-based fast charging technology that should get the OnePlus 5 “a day’s power in half an hour” while keeping voltage low. The company touts that you’ll be able to game and geocache while tethered to the wall or the car and still keep the phone cool as it is charging.

But where it’s at is the dual cameras: a 16-megapixel wide angle Sony IMX398 with f/1.7 aperture and an even more resolute 20-megapixel IMX350 telephoto units with an f/2.6 lens. That f-number might be a doozy in the mobile world, but the package does give you potentially more detailed results at 2x zoom.

Autofocus has been improved from the OnePlus 3T by 40 percent while optimizations in electronic image stabilization help to steady 4K video. All that helps to expedite Portrait Mode shots that help soften the background and pop the subject in pictures where a sense of intimacy is desired.

OnePlus’s Smart Capture algorithm is included on this phone and works in the background while you’re not using the camera to touch up pictures you’ve taken by reducing noise and adjusting dynamic range.

An improved Pro Mode is introduced which does support RAW capture. There’s even a histogram display to help users see what they’re capturing on the spectrum. Another neat feature is the ability to toggle between two instant settings profiles for when you’re switching scenes quickly.

All this high-resolution content gets fed through to UFS 2.1 storage with twice as much read/write bandwidth thanks to the two-lane ROM.

We have full coverage on the OnePlus 5’s dual cameras as well as the 16-megapixel selfie camera in our Real Camera Review, live right now.

Favorites such as the headphone jack — which we were almost trolled on by the company during the livestream event — and the alert slider are still on the OnePlus 5. Brutalist colors also seem to be heritage for the Chinese OEM and that remains true here with Midnight Black and Slate Gray finishes.

Other little tweaks such as touch latency, a faster fingerprint sensor, optimized app opening times and a bevy of OxygenOS improvements on top of Android 7.1.1 are certainly appreciated — especially when you consider that full-page screenshots and a special “Do Not Disturb” setting for gaming are actually catch-up moves to Samsung. But it’s all to OnePlus’s credit because even with a slightly elevated price tag, if you prefer to look to the competition, there remains a monster price gap between this phone and the Galaxy S8.

Then again, value judgments aren’t as simple as cash or credit. What do you think of the OnePlus 5? Leave a word or two in the comments. Hit the source link below for instant pre-orders.

Source link

0 notes