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Nintendo Switch Online adds a 'rewind' button to NES games next week
For July, Nintendo is adding Wrecking Crew and Donkey Kong 3 to the list of classic NES titles that Switch Online subscribers can play, but the biggest news is a feature that will work across the entire library: Rewind. Similar to a feature that Nintendo put in last year's SNES Classic Edition and that Capcom included in its Mega Man Legacy Collection, the gameplay rewind lets players instantly pause, seek through the last few moments of play and try things all over again.
Even the YouTube CEO's kids thought that Rewind video was 'cringey'
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has published some thoughts about the year ahead for the platform. But as well as looking forward, she took a little time to reflect on recent events, including the Rewind 2018 debacle. The widely derided recap of YouTube's year is the site's most-disliked video with almost 16 million thumbs down ratings, and even Wojcicki's own kids thought it stunk.
YouTube's Rewind 2018 becomes the site's most disliked video ever
YouTube's latest Rewind video, the annual recap touting "the videos, music and trends that defined YouTube in 2018," has become the most disliked video ever in the website's history. The previous holder of this dubious title was Justin Bieber's Baby, which over the course of eight years racked up an impressive 9.8 million dislikes. YouTube's 2018 Rewind, meanwhile, charged ahead of this figure in less than two weeks, passing 10 million dislikes (according to LikesCounter) early on December 13th.
Facebook will soon let you rewind livestreams during a broadcast
Facebook didn't dedicate a ton of attention to its live video push at F8 last week, but that doesn't mean the social network isn't hard at work on the feature. In an announcement today aimed at live video publishers, the company says its currently testing a "Live Rewind" feature for Facebook Live videos. Soon you'll be able to scrub back to that crazy thing you missed without having to wait until the stream is over.
Instagram apes Snapchat yet again with face filters
At this point, it's probably easier to note the features Instagram and Facebook haven't swiped from Snapchat. Those tools already include the likes of Stories, stickers and more. Today, the filter-driven photo app announced a slew of new features, one of which looks quite familiar: face filters. That's tight, the goofy headwear, animal noses, glasses and more you know and love on Snapchat are now available for your selfies on Instagram.
Gadget Rewind 2005: Lenovo X41 Tablet
Lenovo made headlines earlier this year when it took Motorola Mobility off of Google's hands, giving it a boost in smartphone markets outside of its usual stomping grounds. But that wasn't the first time it snatched up another company for industry leverage. In 2005, IBM gave up majority control of its PC business, allowing Beijing-based Lenovo to take over and effectively expand its reach to a global audience. The timing of the deal was a little bit off, however. One of the first products to launch under Lenovo's new ownership was the ThinkPad X41 Tablet, a laptop/tablet hybrid, which had already rolled off the assembly line and was still sporting an IBM logo.
Engadget Rewind 2008: BlackBerry Storm
Smartphone makers were still reeling from the arrival of Apple's touchscreen-only iPhone when 2008 rolled around. Research in Motion (RIM), a mobile manufacturer best known for its BlackBerry line and QWERTY keyboard prowess, was at the top of its game and primed to jump into this emerging form factor. That year, it launched the BlackBerry Storm smartphone -- a direct rival to Apple's handset. As RIM's premier effort in touchscreen smartphones, it offered an interesting spin on the interface with what it called SurePress. This was a touchscreen you could depress or click; an innovation RIM hoped would bridge the gap between the company's current physical keyboard-accustomed clientele and the next generation of smartphone buyers. The Storm was RIM's attempt to solve the "problems associated with typing on traditional touchscreens" and leverage its longtime experience with clickable keys. While the phone had a sleek and solid build, a vibrant 3.25-inch display and was backed by Verizon's network, that SurePress technology ended up doing more harm than good.
The BBC's World Cup Rewind will let you stream classic matches 'live'
Like us, you might be unreasonably excited for the start of the 2014 World Cup. The BBC knows this more than anyone, so it's banking on the streaming technology it used for the 2012 London Olympics to deliver full "live" coverage of some of the home nations' biggest World Cup matches from years past. The BBC World Cup Rewind will include the 1966 England vs West Germany World Cup Final, Archie Gemmill's super goal for Scotland against The Netherlands in 1978 and Northern Ireland's famous win against tournament hosts Spain in the 1982 group stages. The Beeb says it will pull out all the stops when broadcasts begin on May 30th by including additional text commentary as well as insight and comments from Gary Lineker and other "special guests." As usual, everything will be available across smartphone, tablet, laptop and connected TVs, letting you experience (or painfully remember) Diego Maradona's infamous 'Hand of God' moment as if it happened today.
Defiance demands your attention during Memorial Day weekend [Updated]
In spite of its recent layoffs (or maybe because of them), Trion Worlds is plunging ahead with its Defiance promotions. Not only will Syfy be showing a six-episode Defiance-the-show marathon and recap special on Monday (that's May 27th from 4 to 11 p.m.), but Defiance-the-game will be on sale on Steam and available freely from today through Sunday to brand-new players. Players will also nab a second crack at the game's early episodic content, which starred the series' lead characters. Quoth the press release, Gamers who have yet to explore the open world shooter can try it on PC for free on Steam from May 23rd at 10:00 a.m. PDT [1:00 p.m. EDT] to May 26th at 1:00 p.m. PDT [4:00 p.m. EDT]. [See below for update on times.] Steam is also offering a weekend long sale on Defiance for those whose thirst for alien technology and open world action isn't satisfied by the trial. Both the Standard Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition will be 30% off. In addition, Steam will also be running a sale on "Bits," the in-game currency for Defiance, during which customers will get more "Bits" for their money. The studio notes that other retailers will feature independent sales but did not specifically say which ones. [Source: Trion press release] [Update #1: Readers are reporting that the free weekend on Steam is still not active. The times quoted here are exactly what the press release said, and they have come and gone. We've contacted Trion for clarification and will keep you posted when we actually know more.] [Update #2: Trion's PR says it's aware of the problem on Steam and is trying to get to the bottom of it now.] [Update #3: Trion says the new go-live time is now 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EDT) Thursday.] [Update #4: Happy Friday, peeps. Trion has just posted an official page for the Steam promotion complete with details on how to get signed up as a freebie player for the weekend.]
BBC 'Live Restart' brings pause, rewind and 'start from beginning' to iPlayer live streams
On demand TV is great and all, but what if the program you're wanting is on right now? Previously -- in the UK at least -- you'd have to either catch the whole thing later, or accept you'd missed a bit, and watch the rest live. Starting today, however, iPlayer will let you rewind, pause, and even start live shows from the beginning. In fact with the "Live Restart" update, you'll be able to go back over the last two hours of scheduled TV, should you wish. The new features come as a result of the BBC switching to "HTTP chunked" streaming instead of RTMP, which breaks up the H.264 video feed into blocks, delivering them like regular web packets -- apparently improving scalability, adaptive bitrate playback and cost effectiveness, compared to Content Delivery Networks. All we want to know is will you be able to skip the ads? Oh wait.
Does BlackBerry 10's camera app get by with a little help from Scalado Rewind? (Update: Yes)
Impressed by the new camera tech on display in BB10? You're not alone. But did the folks at RIM have some help with the new "timeline lens" feature? Well, grab your salt shaker. If you recall, software that allows you to change the faces of those pictured via additional pre- and post-shot frames popped up in Scalado's Rewind last year. The ring UI that allows the user to navigate the extra frames from its border is quite similar to the functionality of BB10's editing feature. We've reached out to Scalado for further details on the matter and we're eager to hear its response. But until that happens, hit the video just past the break for a closer look at Rewind in action. Update: Our pals over at TechCrunch posted an official statement from RIM's Senior Manager of Public Relations Patti McKague on the matter. Our instincts were correct, as the two companies have been in cahoots over the BB10 camera app. Here's the full quote on the licensed tech: RIM has been working with Scalado on camera technology and has licensed some of the Scalado technology for the BlackBerry 10 platform. As shown during the BlackBerry World Keynote, RIM is planning a unique implementation of the technology on BlackBerry 10 to provide an incredible user experience, allowing for more customization by the user and enabling them to easily capture and share their perfect moments.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 flexes its imaging muscle (video)
While we already know that Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 will offer a quad-core variant, incorporate LTE and use a 28nm manufacturing process, the company posted an article to its media blog ahead of Mobile World Congress showcasing the new features provided by the chipset's Image Signal Processor. You're likely familiar with some of the imaging functionality available in Qualcomm's existing Snapdragon processors -- technology like Scalado's Rewind (pictured above) which we've covered before. The new SoC cranks things up a notch with support for up to three cameras (two in the back for 3D plus one front-facing), 20-megapixel sensors and 1080p HD video recording at 30fps. In addition to zero shutter lag, the Snapdragon S4 includes proprietary 3A processing (autofocus, auto exposure and auto white balance) along with improved blink / smile detection, gaze estimation, range finding and image stabilization. Rounding things off are gesture detection / control, augmented reality and computer vision (via Quacomm's FastCV). Want to know more? Check out the source link below, then hit the break for video demos of the S4's image stabilization and gesture-based imaging chops.
Qualcomm takes sci-fi one step closer to reality at Computex 2011 (video)
While flying cars are still a pipe dream, other technologies are quickly transitioning from the stuff of sci-fi movies into the very tangible realm of reality. This was definitely the case at the Qualcomm booth here at Computex where we got to experience two interesting new technologies -- zero shutter lag and the ultrasonic pen. What if when you pressed the shutter button on your phone the camera captured 2 frames before, one frame during, and 2 frames after that instant? That's the idea behind Scalado's zero shutter lag and Rewind, which speed up the process of taking pictures on a phone by letting the camera continuously sample images and allowing the user to create a composite shot from the content available in up to 5 frames.Also on display was Qualcomm's ultrasonic pen that we already played with at MWC. By using an ultrasonic transducer attached to a pen and a phone with 3 microphones (like the MSM8660 Mobile Development Platform), the ultrasonic signal can be triangulated to determine the location of the pen. Once calibrated, the phone is able to accurately capture handwriting either on the screen itself or on a standard sheet of paper up to 30cm away. We noticed that accuracy and distance appear to have improved since February -- at this pace, perhaps we'll all have flying cars soon after all? Check out the gallery and hit the break for our hands-on video.%Gallery-125105%
Two Tribes reveals original title ReWind
If you're not familiar with Two Tribes, then you haven't ever played Toki Tori or Worms: Open Warfare 2. Aside from the game's recent release on WiiWare, it was also available on the Game Boy Color. They also did a game on the GBA called Three Tribes. But, we digress. This new title, which is nothing more than some concept art right now, promises "a unique gameplay experience" in an on-rail shooter. Two Tribes also says that the controls will be accessible, as "average players will be able to complete the game while seasoned players will be motivated to go for higher scores and completion rates." %Gallery-27164% [Thanks, psyborg!]
TWC expands Start Over service in high-def, inks deals for 53 HD channels
Look out, Comcast -- Time Warner Cable is loosing Start Over service in South Carolina, which will enable those in that division (along with six others) to restart high-definition shows that are already in progress. 'Course, the introduction here is a few months behind schedule, but apparently, the cable operator is planning to have the feature rolled out across all of its 23 divisions before 2009 dawns. Additionally, it's being reported that TWC has "deals in place to carry 53 HD channels, with agreements pending for another 20." As if that weren't enough, there's also plans to complement those offerings with even more HD VOD. Unsurprisingly, it seems as if the firm will be relying quite heavily on switched digital video (SDV) to free up the bandwidth for all this high-def goodness, and it's even hoping to go all digital in markets where "digital service penetration makes it relatively easy to polish off the transition." If you're one that handles teasing admirably, hit up the read link for even more foreshadowing. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]
