Canvas
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Spotify trials a TikTok-like vertical feed for discovering new music
Spotify is testing a new feature called Discover that lets users scroll through vertical videos and skip or like them, much like you do on TikTok.
NVIDIA's Canvas app turns doodles into AI-generated 'photos'
NVIDIA has launched Canvas, a new app that can turn doodles into photorealistic landscape images.
Spotify lets you share a specific timestamp from a podcast
It’ll be easier to get friends to listen to a specific part of an episode.
The best microSD cards
By Nathan Edwards This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full guide to microSD cards. After testing more than 20 new and updated microSD cards, we've found that the SanDisk MicroSDXC card for Nintendo Switch (128 GB) is the best for most phones, tablets, and, yes, Nintendo Switches, but there are several other cards that work fine. The hard part is finding a real one; the online marketplaces are flooded with counterfeits. The Switch card is fast, consistent, comes from a reputable company, has a picture of a mushroom on it, and works in anything that takes a microSDXC card, not just the Switch. Most of the 128 GB cards we tested are fast enough but are more expensive and harder to find, or were slower than the Switch card in one or more tests. The Switch card performed well in all of them and (for now, at least) is easy to find without sorting through a bunch of third-party sellers hawking fakes. If the SanDisk Switch card is too expensive or unavailable from first-party sellers, or if you need a card that's on GoPro's compatibility list, get the Samsung Evo Select (128 GB). The Evo Select is an Amazon-exclusive rebrand of the Samsung Evo Plus, and it's almost always available. Its random write speeds aren't as good as the Switch card's, so it's not as good for running apps or operating systems, but its sequential speeds are right up there, so it's great for media storage and recording, and it's usually a buck or two cheaper. We have found that 128 GB microSD cards are the most cost-effective capacity right now. But if you don't need all that space or you just want to save a few bucks, we recommend any of the following cards: The SanDisk MicroSDXC card for Nintendo Switch (64 GB) is among the fastest cards we tested in every benchmark, but the 64 GB capacities of the Evo Select or the Kingston Canvas React, Canvas Go, and Canvas Select are fine too.
Ford sells off its monthly car subscription service
Fair, the app-based vehicle subscription service that partners with Uber, has agreed to acquire a similar service by Ford. The Santa Monica-based startup announced today that it has bought Ford's Canvas for an undisclosed sum. Since 2017, Canvas offered variable-term leases for Ford owners in San Francisco, eventually expanding to Los Angeles and Dallas. A total of 3,800 subscribers used Canvas to acquire new Ford vehicles.
Google Photos will let you order same-day prints from Walmart or CVS
Google Photos has given users the option to create and buy physical photo books since 2017 -- now it looks like the app is expanding to offer prints and canvas prints as well. In an APK teardown of the latest version of the app, 9to5Google found that Google plans to work with CVS or Walmart to deliver same-day pickup for 4x6 inch photo prints, as well as a number of options for canvas prints with three-day print times.
Canvas is a big-ass speaker stand for LG OLED TVs
If you've picked up an OLED TV, you're left with two choices for high quality sound: A soundbar, or large speakers for a home theater setup. Canvas, a new project from a group of audio veterans, is something in between. It's a huge speaker that serves as a stand for LG's OLED TVs, giving you sound quality comparable to bigger Hi-Fi offerings, in a form factor that's still relatively compact. And based on a brief demo, it sounds incredible.
Lincoln adds more pre-owned vehicles to its subscription service pilot
Lincoln announced this week that it's expanding the pilot of its subscription service. The company said late last year that it planned to launch such a service and while a small selection of 2015 models have since been available through Ford's Canvas platform for those in San Francisco and West Los Angeles, Lincoln is now including a much wider range of 2017 pre-owned vehicles for customers in West Los Angeles. Monthly payments depend on the mileage package a user wants, but they also cover insurance, warranty, maintenance and roadside assistance.
Ford expands its $500 monthly subscription car service to LA
The car subscription service Canvas is expanding from its founding city, San Francisco, down south to Los Angeles. It's the first new area for the company, which was bought by Ford late last year.
Dell's massive Canvas display for artists is available for $1,800
If you're looking for a giant digital drawing display, but don't have the money to spend on Microsoft's lovely but expensive Surface Studio, Dell is ready to take your cash. The Dell Canvas, a massive, touch-sensitive 27-inch display, is now on sale. Of course, it's not exactly cheap: the Canvas will set you back $1,799. That's less than the $2,000 we heard back at CES in January, but it's still a major investment.
Dell built a huge 27-inch 'Canvas' display for artists
If Microsoft's Surface Studio proved anything, it's that companies are less afraid to break with desktop traditions these days. In that vein, Dell introduced the Canvas today at CES, a sprawling 27-inch touchscreen device that's meant to take on Wacom's devices for digital artists. It's unlike anything we've seen from Dell so far, and it's yet another reminder that there's still plenty of room for innovation on the desktop front.
VAIO's convertible PC for creatives lands in the US
As promised, VAIO (Sony's now spun-off PC brand) is returning to the US. To start, it's just a single model, the Z Canvas. The 12.3-inch convertible Windows 10 PC comes with a stylus capable of 1024 levels of sensitivity, a wireless keyboard and with pretty sharp WQXGA+ screen it's pitched to sketchers and photographers, and trying to appeal to the same crowd that's eyeing up that incoming iPad Pro. It's on sale now, online at VAIO and Microsoft's retail sites, with prices starting at $2,199 with 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD. Those looking to do serious business can upgrade all the way up to a 1TB storage setup and 16GB of memory.
VAIO resurrects its flagship Z series with two new hybrid laptops
Now that the independent company's got rid of those pesky excess components, it's time for VAIO to make something new. And it's not a smartphone. Yet. The PC maker has announced two new PCs here in Tokyo: the VAIO Z and VAIO Z Canvas. The latter is actually eventual final version of the prototype tablet that did the rounds last year -- but we'll get to that. First, inside the flagship 13.3-inch VAIO Z which goes up for preorder in Japan later today, you'll find a second -generation high-speed SSD and an unspecified fifth-generation Core i7 processor, all bound up in aluminum-carbon shell. However, bare specs aside, the company reckons its a lot of the little details that matter, and we'll get to those right after the break.
A newer kind of web tracking is almost impossible to stop
You may think you're thwarting advertisers and other nosy web citizens by blocking cookies and invoking Do Not Track whenever possible, but that apparently isn't good enough. Researchers have just documented a newer web tracking technique, canvas fingerprinting, that's nearly impossible to stop. As it's simply drawing a unique, hidden image using standard web code, you can't just filter it out using higher privacy settings or ad blocking tools. You can sometimes opt out of personalization and targeted ads by installing a cookie, but you're otherwise out of luck unless software can start identifying and blocking these fingerprints.
DevJuice: WebCode premieres, generates JavaScript+Canvas
As I've been working on a new book on iOS Quartz Drawing, I've been using PixelCut's PaintCode app pretty heavily. Today, a new PixelCut tool just hit the Mac App Store. WebCode (US$49.99) generates JavaScript+Canvas, CSS+HTML or SVG code on your behalf. If you've used PaintCode, WebCode will feel immediately familiar. Similar tools and same panes make the new app very much like the original. Instead of generating Objective C, however, you're presented with ready-to use Web source. The app just debuted, so I have only played with it a little bit. WebCode, I should note, supports Photoshop PSD import as part of its base features -- no in-app purchase needed.
Daily iPhone App: Alien Blue
Here's an app that lets you browse through the popular link board Reddit. You probably don't want to see everything there is on Reddit -- just like Digg in its day and other message boards like 4chan, some of the discussion over there can get pretty wacky. But Reddit is definitely a great community of people, and if you ever want to take the temperature on what the 'net is thinking about the news of the day, browsing through Reddit's links can be very informative. There is an official Reddit app called iReddit, and it works pretty well. But Alien Blue is really the better option. I like the layout better, and it has excellent features like inline comments, Instapaper and Read It Later support, and the ability to actually post and edit your own comments on the service. The app itself is free to check out, but you can spend US$1.99 for an excellent pro upgrade that opens up a "Canvas" view for pictures and a host of other streamlined options for reading, sharing, and browsing Reddit. There's also an iPad version available for a straight $3.99 price. You may balk at that, especially if you're happy with the free official app (or willing to read the site through an RSS reader). But for regular readers and commenters on Reddit, odds are that Alien Blue is worth the extra few bucks.
Angry Birds gets a web version, coming to Chrome Web Store
Yet another platform has been conquered by the affronted fowl: the web! Angry Birds' web client is built in WebGL, so presumably browsers other than Google's Chrome should be able to run it as well, and even if you can't handle WebGL, there's Canvas support too. 60fps are promised on most modern PCs, and we've spotted SD and HD labels, suggesting there'll be a choice of quality to match your computer's performance. Offline gaming will also be available. Chrome will get some exclusive content, such as "Chrome bombs" and other cutesy bits. Rovio just noted it's "really, really happy about the 5 percent," referring to Google's pricing model of charging a flat fee of 5 percent to developers on in-app purchases in the Chrome Web Store. Yes, the Mighty Eagle will be a purchasable option for the impatient among you. The game will be available in the Store immediately after Google's I/O 2011 keynote, so look out for it shortly. Update: And the Angry Birds have landed. Hit up the source link below to obtain the free app. %Gallery-123364%
URL Hunter offers a whole game in your browser's address bar
Perhaps you saw (and even played) URL Hunter when it was being passed around the Internets a little while back -- it's a tiny little HTML 5 game that takes place all inside a long Uniform Resource Locator in your web browser's address bar. The HTML script moves a few little "a" characters around, and you can line them up in your sights with arrow keys, pressing space to fire and shoot as many as possible within a time limit. Developer Corey Johnson, formerly of Maxis and now working at Github, says the game was developed over just a few hours of programming time. After reading about HTML 5's address bar API, he decided to try and make it interactive, and came up with URL Hunter. He had "lots of ideas at first, but cut most of them because of my self-imposed time constraints" of only a few hours of work. Johnson says that HTML 5's Canvas element offers much more "potential" for browser-based games than his URL hacking. But that hasn't stopped us from getting the initial funding together for Joystiq Publishing's first browser-based product, Call of Document Object: Model Web Design 2.
Game Boy emulator being developed in JavaScript by a very smart person
Sure, it's one thing to build a Game Boy emulator out of what is typically viewed as a limited-purpose language for enhancing website interactivity for the usual emulator-building reasons: you like video games, you're trying to impress the ladies. But just to prove a point? Imran Nazar is building a Game Boy emulator out of JavaScript to show how far the language has come, particularly with the fancy new stuff HTML5's <canvas> tag allows for, and to see if it would be possible to fully emulate a Game Boy from the CPU up. Sure, HTML5 has already proven useful for straight games, but an entire architecture? Turns out, it's pretty possible, and Imran has an excellent multi-part tutorial for how he's doing it. Right now there's a nearly playable version of Tetris, and pretty soon we'll all be playing Zelda in our web browsers and that time when we tried to build an HTML table from scratch to show a few of our favorite animated GIFs on our GeoCities page will only be a distant memory...
HTC EVO 4G's graphics capped at 30FPS?
Reports are flying in from across the internet -- and by that we mean the xda-developers and Google Code forums -- that the EVO 4G might have something of a framerate issue. It seems that the device is "locked in" at 30 frames per second both in 2D (Canvas) and 3D (openGL) modes, while anecdotally, a phone like the Hero hits 54fps on average and has "smoother scrolling" in the menus. This apparently is visible both with the standard Sense UI installed and with the Froyo preview build, although in the latter case the Nexus One bootup video is 60fps before halving upon reaching the home screen. So, wherein lies the culprit? For Google's part, Android framework engineer "Romain Guy" responded to one thread reasserting the platform team's "target was, is and will be 60fps." We can't imagine it's related to the hardware given the EVO's impressive specs. Some fingers, ergo, are being pointed towards firmware. This wouldn't be the first time HTC's handsets have come under scrutiny for troubling graphical performance -- 2008 was not the company's finest year in that department. Whatever the reason is, we just want a quick resolve -- after all, it's just not fair when our Hero-carrying buddies are scoring better benchmarks.
