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Bunch lets you video chat while playing mobile games
Live gaming with friends via console is nothing new, but as more live games come to mobile, there's a gap in the market for better experiences to connect friends that want to play together on this platform as well. Enter Bunch, an app that lets users play mobile games with friends over video chat.
Live from Xbox's E3 2018 press conference!
Last year Microsoft admitted that exclusive games were thin on the ground, so what does it have to show for it at E3 2018? (Well, beside no Crackdown 3?) Rumors suggest we could see more Forza Horizon and Gears of War news -- and hey, let's not discount the chance of a Halo appearance. The big show kicks off at 1PM PT / 4PM ET later today. Join us for liveblog coverage!
The BBC will stream the World Cup in 4K and VR, but not to all
The BBC is finally embracing live 4K. After a run of very limited tests back in 2014 and the recent FA Cup Final, the revered broadcasting institution plans on proving its mettle by showing the FIFA World Cup live to audiences in Ultra HD and virtual reality. It'll be the first time the Beeb has shown a live tournament in this way, and it's a heck of a tournament to start with.
YouTube TV brings two Cheddar digital-only shows to its lineup
YouTube TV is making its way onto a more devices and bringing quite a few live TV channels along with it, including Turner Network channels. The Google-owned service is also in quite a few markets, making it easy to access from almost anywhere. Now YouTube TV is blending digital-only channels with its broadcast lineup via the addition of two new properties, Cheddar and Cheddar Big News.
YouTube enables captions for live broadcasts
YouTube is making live broadcasts more accessible by giving creators the power to add real-time captions in the English language. They could provide their own if they plan to read off a script or have access to professional captioners that can feed their work to the platform. But YouTube live broadcasts tend to be unscripted and pretty interactive, so creators can also choose to depend on the platform's live automatic speech recognition technology to auto-generate captions.
Facebook takes on Twitch and YouTube in game streaming push
Last year Facebook launched a Creator app for video hosts to create more video content for the social network. Now it's doubling down on the concept, this time for those who make gaming videos. It's a pretty clear bid to compete with YouTube, Twitch and Mixer for the attention of gaming fans who love watching other people play video games.
Facebook adds livestream features to old videos
Facebook says its Live videos are wildly popular and generate around six times the interaction other videos do. That's why it's testing a new feature that adds the elements responsible for making Live a more engaging, interactive experience to non-Live videos on the platform. Starting today, select Groups will have access to "Watch Party," an experimental tool that creates a shared experience for multiple users. It allows administrators to post any public video on their Group, which members can then watch together at the same time. (Also, it probably helps that a billion accounts use Facebook Groups every month.) They can even leave comments and reactions that show up on screen the same way they do on Live, whatever it is they're watching.
Facebook Live can now broadcast Messenger games
Facebook is celebrating the first year of games on Messenger by introducing new titles and a few new features, starting with the ability to livestream them to friends. If you want to show your friends list how good you are with Everwing -- or how much you suck at it -- all you need to do is tap that new camera icon in the upper right corner of the game screen to stream on Facebook Live. You'll then be able to choose which audience you want to share it with before you post it like you would any other Live video. This particular feature is will be available starting today, but Facebook has another offering in store for 2018.
HQ's live trivia is coming to Android in time for the holidays
Since launching in August the HQ app has been attracting hundreds of thousands of players to its twice-daily live trivia games, but so far they're all playing on iPhones. Now, a tweet indicates that Android users will be able to get in on the action soon, since "HQ has a nice little stocking stuffer coming your way." The game came from two Vine co-founders and has seen as many as 400,000 people logging on at 3 and 9 PM ET to try and win cash prizes of up to a few thousand dollars by answering trivia questions. We've seen some attempts at this before, including NBC's short-lived Million Second Quiz game show/app and the Xbox Live game 1 vs. 100. There are other games like Trivia Crack and Quiz Up, but they don't have the same live event hook, while Family Feud Live features tournaments for cash prizes but also contains subscription fees and pushes in-app purchases heavily.
Ableton Live 10 will remember your riffs if you forget to press record
Ableton Live is popular with computer musicians thanks to its flexibility. As the name suggests, it enables live performance of electronic music, but it's also a robust music making tool in its own right. Fans of Live are long overdue an update, as the last full release (Live 9) was four years ago. Today Ableton revealed Live 10, which promises to make it even easier to translate ideas into anthems.
Follow our Sony PlayStation Showcase liveblog at noon ET!
In 2015, Sony took the unusual step of doing its PlayStation Showcase, featuring some of its biggest upcoming PlayStation 4 games, at Paris Games Week. After a year off, it's back again in Paris, where we're expecting to hear news about Michel Ancel's WiLD, Detroit: Become Human, Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds and possibly a Destiny 2 expansion pack. Less likely, but not completely impossible, would be updates on a new Spider Man game from Insomniac, God of War and Monster Hunter World. There should be a lot of action, so be sure to tune in to our liveblog right here!
The creators of Vine built a trivia show app called HQ
The Vine guys are back, but this time it's with a gameshow app called HQ. However, this app isn't like you're typical trivia game where you can play whenever you want. With HQ, gameplay is live and takes place twice a day. "It's a way to give people a chance to have fun, maybe win, maybe learn something new," Vine cofounder Rus Yusupov told TechCrunch.
Facebook Camera adds GIFs, colorful text and the ability to go live
Facebook is beefing up its Camera functionality with a trio of Snapchat- and Instagram Live-inspired updates. Starting today, iOS and Android users have the ability to go live, create GIFs and share colorful blocks of text directly from the Facebook Camera.
Instagram livestreamers can add a guest to their broadcasts
Livestreaming is becoming a major part of social networks -- Instagram, Twitter (via Periscope) and Facebook have all been pushing it in our faces for a while now. They all work the same, more or less, but Instagram is adding an intriguing new feature to the mix. Today, the company announced that some users will be able to add a "guest" to their live broadcasts, essentially adding a second contributor to the livestream. This lets users have a live conversation with a friend and broadcast both sides of that chat to your followers.
Microsoft powers a DJ’s live show with a Surface Book and Kinects
When it comes to live shows, the visuals are key to making a lasting impression. I'd even argue that what you see is just as important as the quality of the music. It is a performance, after all. Touring musicians employ all kinds of A/V gear in an attempt to offer a unique experience for concertgoers. For years, some acts have turned to Microsoft's Kinect camera to capture movement live, translating that to graphics on a video display, among other things. To make the camera-based setup more portable, Microsoft teamed up with DJ Alison Wonderland to create a simplified Kinect-driven system that runs primarily on a Surface Book.
The top Twitch clip involves a horror game and Jack Daniels
Tom Wheldon started streaming on Twitch as JurassicJunkieLive two months ago. He was an intrepid tinkerer and a veteran video creator who started making YouTube videos before it was the cool kids' multi-million-dollar industry. Wheldon regularly discussed video games, so Twitch felt like a natural evolution of his online presence -- his channel quickly earned a following of about 100 folks, some of them tuning in every Friday to watch Wheldon scream his way through a horror game. Last week, Wheldon booted up Outlast 2 for his regular "Frightday" stream, and he became Twitch legend.
Stream live performances from Bonnaroo this weekend on Red Bull TV
Music festival season is in full swing, and this weekend another one of the big events goes down. The 2017 installment of Bonnaroo kicks off this evening, bringing several stages of live tunes to attendees in Manchester, Tennessee. If you couldn't make the trip in person, don't worry: Red Bull TV is streaming dozens of acts live so you can watch from the comforts of home.
Report: Facebook's first original shows have been delayed again
Soon, Facebook won't just be a place where people's personal videos go viral — it wants to become a destination for original videos, too. The push began in earnest in 2016 and the social giant hired notable names from CollegeHumor and MTV to develop made-for-Facebook shows soon after, but the launch schedule has gone awry. Recode reports that while the first batch of videos was intended to go live as early as this spring, we're probably not going to see them until at least the middle of the summer.
Facebook adds weekly MLB games to its streaming slate
Back in February, Reuters reported that Facebook wanted to stream weekly Major League Baseball games as part of its big live video push. Well, the social network got its wish. Today, Facebook announced a deal with MLB to show weekly baseball games live on Fridays starting this week. Tomorrow night, you'll be able to watch the Rockies battle the Reds at 7:10 ET on the league's Facebook page. A full schedule of games hasn't been released. The company isn't the first to livestream games from the league though, both Twitter and Yahoo have dabbled in weekly baseball coverage before. In fact, Twitter still offers some live baseball action and it's on Fridays, too. The next game there is tomorrow night when the Yankees take on the Rays.
Twitter's NFL show is a consolation for losing games to Amazon
During the 2016 NFL season, Twitter streamed the league's slate of Thursday Night Football matchups. The 2017 season will be a lot different for the social network as it lost those weekly livestreams to Amazon last month. Twitter won't miss out completely though, and its users can expect a daily dose of pro football coverage when the new season kicks off this fall.
