landscape
Latest
YouTube adds easy-to-access controls to its video player on iOS and Android
YouTube has started rolling out a redesigned interface for mobile that includes quick access to Like buttons and other controls.
'Mario Kart Tour' finally works in landscape mode
The latest 'Mario Kart Tour' update adds landscape mode and a new control layout.
Polaroid's new $99 instant camera uses autofocus to change modes
More than a year after Polaroid Originals gave us the OneStep+, it's ready to share another old-school, analogy camera: the Polaroid Now. This time around, Polaroid Originals has traded the dual lenses for a new autofocus lens, and it has stripped away some of the connectivity features, like those that made remote selfies possible.
Explore Mars with a 1.8-billion-pixel panorama from the Curiosity rover
NASA's Curiosity rover has sent the highest-resolution panorama of Mars ever taken back to Earth. Now, you can explore the Martian surface by zooming in on the giant 2GB image or cruising around in a 360-degree video that NASA shared on YouTube.
Drones add eerie halos to landscape photos in 'Lux Noctis'
Drones usually act as flying cameras, often to great effect, but landscape photographer Reuben Wu has discovered an equally compelling use for them. In the series Lux Noctis (light the night), his UAVs both lit up and created halos around landforms in the Bisti Badlands of New Mexico, California's Alabama Hills and elsewhere. The results, he told National Geographic, are "a bit like a chiaroscuro painting, where one starts with a blank canvas and then adds light to the picture."
Instagram Direct doesn't care about your photo orientation
Instagram Direct debuted in 2013 as a way to send photos and videos, well, directly to your friends on the photo sharing service. The Facebook-owned company has added more features to the system over the intervening years, like threaded messaging, disappearing messages and live video. Instagram Direct's latest update adds two more features aimed at creating a more robust messaging service: non-square images and links.
Smart sprinklers only water your lawn when it's thirsty
Putting your sprinklers on a timer system is probably the best way to avoid under-watering your plants -- but the "set and forget" mentality isn't the most economical. What if it rains during the week and you forget to turn the timer off? Now you're wasting water and drowning your lawn. A company called ETwater thinks it has a better automatic solution: a smart sprinkler that only waters your lawn when it actually needs it.
Recommended Reading: What will astronauts eat while exploring Mars?
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. How NASA Is Solving the Space Food Problem by Elizabeth Preston Eater The first manned test flight for NASA's Orion capsule may have been pushed back this week, but the project forges on. One issue that the agency faces in the quest to send humans to explore Mars is food. This piece from Eater examines the challenges NASA looks to overcome with regards to the dietary needs of the crew during deep-space missions, including some onboard gardening.
Twitter adds landscape video recording to its mobile apps
Some of us don't want to share portrait and square cropped videos all the time. Crazy, huh? The mobile-centric video formats have been championed by Vine, Instagram and a whole host of live-streaming apps, so it was hardly a surprise to see Twitter follow suit when it launched in-app video recording earlier this year. Landscape videos still have their place though, so the company is now relenting and offering the aspect ratio inside its apps. So when you're scrolling through your feed and inspiration strikes, you can hit the camera button, flip your phone sideways and record a regular video for your followers. We're not sure why the option wasn't available from the start, but hey, at least it's here now.
Mortal Online sets out territory control in a new patch
Ready to make your mark on the world of Mortal Online? Your time is now. The game's latest patch implements the territory control system, allowing guilds to war over choice bits of land, build keeps and cities, and generally shape the landscape into what they want to see. There's even a trailer for it past the cut, showing off what players can expect to get when breaking ground on a new city and building its defenses. Cities alone would be a welcome addition, but the patch also brings with it a variety of improvements to quality of life. The game's mail system has been rebuilt, several UI elements and chat commands have been implemented, and the world map has seen some trimming and adjustments. The patch is live now, so you can check out the notes for all the details or just log in and start staking your guild's claim. [Thanks to Zakiyya for the tip!]
The Soapbox: World of Warcraft isn't back, and that's fine
So. That Warlords of Draenor, huh? To take the narrative that a lot of people have constructed, World of Warcraft has been sort of floundering for the past few years. It released one expansion (Cataclysm) that consistently ranks as the worst expansion in the game's history, coming behind the launch game, The Burning Crusade, and Alganon. Then it released another one that turned out to actually be pretty good but with a premise that turned a lot of people off right out of the gate. Mists of Pandaria's quality doesn't matter in the face of the game losing five million subscriptions in three years. But then, Warlords of Draenor was announced, and suddenly hope returned to the faithful. There's this thought that the game has suddenly returned from the brink, that Blizzard hit the big red button labeled "Save World of Warcraft" and the game will be catapulted back into prominence once again. Except that I think that portion of the story isn't just premature -- it's making a stab in the dark about a game that isn't back and can't, in fact, be back.
Infinite Crisis shows off what's going on behind the scenes
On one level, Infinite Crisis feels like an obvious premise. Take a setting that already gives players plenty of reasons to beat one another up as iconic heroes and villains, give those players plenty of iconic heroes and villains, enjoy the show. But according to the new behind-the-scenes video, the game took a fair bit more effort than that. It's partly a result of game technology finally matching up with what players need and want in this sort of game. The video features commentary by both DC Comics creators and Turbine Entertainment staff members. One of the big elements of the game is that environments are not static things, that they can be interacted with and damaged during play, and that helps contribute to the feel of a game of superheroes rather than just another MOBA. If you want a closer look, check out the full video embedded just past the break. [Source: Turbine Entertainment press release]
New ArcheAge video shows improvements to Rainbow Fields
ArcheAge's CBT4 ended a couple months ago, and XLGAMES has been busy putting the information gathered to use. To showcase changes and improvements made during the break between CBT4 and CBT5, the studio has planned a series of videos. The first video in this series highlights the transformation of one starting area, Rainbow Fields; once described as empty and flat, this region is now populated with more buildings, has a more diverse landscape, and sports improved weather effects. Although there is still no official word on ArcheAge being released to the western market, sandbox hopefuls can check out the latest improvements after the break. [Thanks to Sandboxer for the tip!]
Kindle Touch update adds Europe-friendly languages, landscape mode
April 27th is nearly upon us, heralding the arrival of the Kindle Touch in Europe. Before that happens, Amazon's pushed out a software update packed with language support for the continent, landscape mode and text-to-speech, amongst others. You can manually download version 5.1.0 now or wait for the over-WiFi update in a couple of weeks. Pre-orders for the device are open as we speak, the WiFi-only model costing £109 / €129, the 3G edition costing £169 / €189.
Galaxy Nexus landscape dock comes to the US
Officially branded Galaxy Nexus accessories have been a dream of ours for a while. So imagine our surprise, caution and then surprise again when the landscape dock for the ICS super-phone arrived on these shores. Cradling the device horizontally, it'll let you charge the phone via the side-mounted pogo pins, so you can continue to watch that movie when low on power. It's available right now for $90 at our source link, we'd advise not to delay, otherwise Samsung might change its mind and take our toys away.
Nokia N9 gets unofficial UI tweak, makes MeeGo lie down and play landscape
Nokia's MeeGo'd pillowcase smartphone has been given a 90-degree twist. This new landscape mode works across the three main navigation screens and can be accessed through N9Tweak, an unofficial mod that can be downloaded through the phone's web browser. Any compatible apps will also launch lengthways, all of which should help alleviate those N900 pangs.
Pepsi's 'Sound of Football' project lets visually impaired players see the pitch with their ears (video)
One one side of the field was a team of former pro soccer players. On the other, a squad of visually impaired amateurs. The two sides laced 'em up, stretched out their quads and went head to head in a scrimmage, though the matchup was a lot more even than you might expect. It's all part of something called the "Sound of Football" -- the latest experiment from the Pepsi Refresh Project. The idea was to level the playing field, so to speak, by forcing both teams to play a match using only their ears, and a pretty nifty tracking system. Created by Tracab, this system was comprised of 16 cameras covering the entire pitch (including two stereovision cameras placed at mid-field), and used jersey colors to distinguish the home team from the away team, and to identify the referees. This set up, which was deployed during the last World Cup, essentially tracked the position of each player in real-time. This information was then funneled into an iPhone attached to each player's headset, and converted into a surround-sound landscape, using an app created by a company called Society 46. Unique sounds were assigned to both the ball and the goal; turning your head in the direction of one goal would produce one sound, facing the ball would result in another. This allowed each player to get a better idea of his surroundings and of his spatial positioning, though, as many of the pros found out, it wasn't quite as easy as it looked. The designers of this system are now looking to use their technology in other, non-sports arenas, in the hopes of helping the blind and visually impaired "see" more of the world around them. Check out a pair of videos on the match and the technology behind it, after the break. [Thanks, Martin]
Wurm Online inviting players to Exodus
In a game like Wurm Online, fresh lands are important. After all, the game places so much emphasis on setting up your own homestead in the untamed wilderness that you find yourself a bit out in the cold if the land is already developed. This was part of what led to the opening of the game's first new server, Deliverance, but the response of the playerbase has been so overwhelming that the development team is doing the time warp again. According to the development team, a new land named Exodus is being added just south of Deliverance. It's intended to give players a new chance to get involved with building in fertile lands untouched by human expansion, and it's set to go live on Thursday at 1 p.m. EDT. For those of you recalling the issues with the earlier server opening, the team hopes that the new region will open without problem. So get ready to go... well, south, young man, because the lands there are ripe for the taking. [Source: Wurm Online press release]
Waste Landscape installation reminds us why CDs weren't that great (video)
For most people, the term "waste landscape" may evoke images of desolate industrial zones, toxic sewage leaks, or Phish concerts. But architect Clémence Eliard and artist Elise Morin took a slightly more digital approach to the concept, constructing their undulating Waste Landscape installation from 65,000 unsold (and unwanted) CDs. To do this, the pair sewed the discs together by hand, before blanketing them over dune-like wire constructions inside the Centquatre -- a Parisian art space that, appropriately enough, was once a funeral home. The result is an array of sloping, shimmering hills that emerge from the floor like disco ball pimples, creating a space that the artists not-so subtly compare to an oil spill. It's a pretty sobering reminder of the environmental fingerprint archaic technologies can leave behind, but Eliard and Morin's story has a happy ending. When the exhibit comes to a close, every single CD will be recycled into polycarbonate. Spin past the break to see a video that'll make you wanna give your iPod a hug.
Nuu ships MiniKey for iPhone 4
Chinese accessory maker Nuu has released the MiniKey, a stylish case and Bluetooth keyboard combo for the iPhone 4. The case includes a landscape keyboard that makes the iPhone look, well, just like an HTC phone. The keyboard slides out from the back side of the case and works with email, messaging and other text-based applications. Because the virtual keyboard does not launch, the MiniKey lets you write a novella using the entire screen of the iPhone 4. It also includes a few extra features like backlit keys, a command key that can be used for shortcuts and a toggle key that lets you switch between the MiniKey keyboard and the on-screen keyboard. The Nuu keyboard is a bit pricey at US$79.99, especially when 4iThumbs sells an overlay keyboard for under $25, and ThinkGeek sells a flip keyboard case for $39. You can order the Nuu Mini Keyboard from Nuu's online store or a variety of retailers in Europe, Hong Kong and the UK. The full list of online merchants can be found at Nuu's website. [Via Electronista]
