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Walyou

Real Life Pac-Man Is Way Harder Than It Looks
YouTube to Buy Twitch for $1 Billion
Google Now Adds Bill Notifications
Steam In-Home Streaming Exits Beta, Brings Gaming to Every Room You Have
Google+ Stories Makes Photo Timelines, Adds Details Automatically

Real Life Pac-Man Is Way Harder Than It Looks

Posted: 22 May 2014 07:00 AM PDT

Pac-Man fever infects this latest video from Rooster Teeth, as they recreate the classic arcade game in the real world to laughable results.

Kermit the Frog once said it isn't easy being green, and the same can be said for being yellow as one unlucky test subject quickly learns in this video from Rooster Teeth.

Recreating the 1980 arcade classic from Namco, Pac-Man, the popular YouTube channel wanted to see how playing as good-old Pac must feel like in the real world – oh, but with a twist. Today's contest must use the traditional top-down view players use in order to avoid those pesky ghosts and collect all the maze's pellets.

It goes as about as well as you might think trying to navigate through a tight space with only a birds-eye view – and – while trying to escape your pursuers might fair. Plus, unlike actual Pac-Man, he can't eliminate his ghostly adversaries back to their starting penalty box, which makes the whole ordeal that much tougher. It is hilariously fun to watch though!

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YouTube to Buy Twitch for $1 Billion

Posted: 22 May 2014 06:00 AM PDT

In the face of Twitch's continued success, YouTube are reportedly set to buy the livestreaming service for $1 billion.

No matter how much you, I, or YouTube deny it, the video landscape is changing. For gamers in particular, there are several avenues down which we can travel down in order to see glorious gaming footage play out right before our eyeballs. Many of us will head to YouTube to watch trailers in full 1080p HD, but when we want to see the games we love (or are interested in) in action, minus the post-editing sheen or without the constant commentary of a Let's Play video, then we head to Twitch, where anything goes as long as its live. Indeed, Twitch has brought us many a gaming nugget, from game announcements, to hour long streams of unreleased titles to new gaming experiences in themselves, such as Twitch Plays Pokémon and now, YouTube are reportedly set to buy the livestreaming service for $1 billion.

While it's easy to explain the decision as 'Twitch is successful, YouTube wants in on that', the reason may be more complex. While YouTube is owned by Google and it does allow for YouTube livestreams as well as Google Hangouts, Twitch is still a significant piece of the video viewing pie that YouTube likely can't ignore any longer. But the company hasn't just had to convince Twitch's founders that they will continue to improve the service for gamers (rather than turning it into a corporate cash cow that has lost sight of its core audience) as YouTube has also had to fend off competition from Microsoft and several venture capitalists who have all put their names in the hat as potential buyers.

However, despite YouTube being considered as "the best" buyout option for the company by the team behind Twitch, they are also said to be looking at investment funding as opposed to a total sale of the company. Not only this but sources explain that the "deal isn't imminent" suggesting that despite being the frontrunners in the buyout options, YouTube's purchase of Twitch is still a long way from final.

We'll keep you posted once we know more.

Source: Polygon

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Google Now Adds Bill Notifications

Posted: 22 May 2014 05:00 AM PDT

It looks Google is making it more and more difficult to lead a disorganized life with recent news confirming Google Now will notifiy of impending due dates.

Google has always been one of the biggest convenience of the web. By crawling and indexing the surface of the internet, Google has made web browsing accessible to anyone that can access a computer. Additional services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and almost anything else Google does adds massive convenience to every day life.

Google Now is one of the newer Google initiatives and it is the logical extension of Google’s data services. Google doesn’t only crawl the surface web, now. The search giant also crawls and indexes any Google services you use in order to provide updates, notifications, and reminders and presents you with information before you need to seek it out yourself.

Google Now doesn’t only provide calendar reminders and weather updates, though. One of the bigger chunks of data Google Now uses comes from your Gmail account. If someone includes an address in an email or Ebay sends you a tracking number for a package, Google will see that information in your Gmail and turn it into a card within the Google Now application.

It was recently rumored that Google Now would begin crawling Gmail for bill due dates as well, and that rumor has now been confirmed by Android Police. Just like how Google Now knows when you order a package from Ebay it will know when you have bills due.

Obviously this feature depends on you having paperless billing enabled. Google is only able to read information that is in your Gmail account, so if you receive a paper bill, then you won’t get a notification on your phone as well.

This is also dependent on cooperation with the companies to which the bills are owed. Shortly after Google Now started giving delivery notifications, Amazon removed tracking numbers from their confirmation emails, requiring users to go directly to Amazon to get shipping updates. Amazon is a Google competitor with their Kindle family, so it remains to be seen if American Express or Comcast will pull a similar stunt.

Not everyone is comfortable with their information being indexed and used in the way it is for Google. While there are definitely privacy concerns, that’s not stopping most people from taking advantage of the convenience of Google’s various services and likely won’t be a major deterrent in this case either.

Source: Android Police

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Steam In-Home Streaming Exits Beta, Brings Gaming to Every Room You Have

Posted: 21 May 2014 01:45 PM PDT

Eclectic gamers who own multiple machines running different operating systems must be delighted to find out that Steam In-Home Streaming has just exited beta and allows them now to beam games to every corner of their home.

Streaming is the way to go when it comes to the future of gaming. After all, it enables playing games across platforms and across. On the page detailing the new feature, Valve explains that “When you log into Steam on two computers on the same network, they automatically connect, allowing you to remotely install, launch, and play games as though you were sitting at the remote PC.”

The company also detailed the way In-Home Streaming is supposed to work: “When you play a game using In-Home Streaming, video and audio are sent through your home network from your high-end gaming PC to another device in your home.”

Personally, I dream of a world where you buy the latest games, have them installed on a remote high-end computer, and have the game beamed to your own PC via Internet, regardless of its configuration. Assuming that the subscription would be decent, such a service could bring the end of perpetual upgrades for home consumers. Getting new motherboards, RAM, CPUs and video cards every other year just to play the latest games means spending a lot of money on things that lose value with each passing day.

As Valve explains, this is currently possible only inside one’s home: “System requirements dictate the rig you’ll need to run your game, but with In-Home Streaming they won't limit where you can play.” Hopefully, in the not so distant future, the rig could be placed somewhere a few hundred kilometers away without affecting the performance.

The developer is also concerned about your storage, but In-Home Streaming solves that problem, as well: “No need to wait for your game to download again when it’s already installed on one of your home computers.”

Seamless playing is also available, meaning that you can move from one device to another and Steam will be able to tell that and stream the game without any glitches. Steam In-Home Streaming is the perfect solution for the ones who like to make changes of scenery while playing games, something that couldn’t have been done until now without moving around with a laptop.

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Google+ Stories Makes Photo Timelines, Adds Details Automatically

Posted: 21 May 2014 01:00 PM PDT

Much like every other social network out there, Google+ means to shift its focus from general updates to photos.

The latest update is also meant to bring some peace of mind to the ones concerned about the future of this social network after Google+ chief Vic Gundotra's departure from one month ago. Google+ Stories, as the update is called, works behind the scenes to make your photos and videos a lot more interesting, by adding context to them. Assuming that geotagging is turned on while taking the pictures, Google+ Stories will create timelines and e-mail you when the story is ready.

Anil Sabharwal, Director of Product Management, offered in a blog post some context for Google+ Stories:

“A suitcase full of dirty clothes. A sad-looking house plant. And 437 photos and videos on your phone, tablet and camera. This is the typically messy scene after a vacation. And although we can’t do your laundry (thanks but no thanks), or run your errands (well, maybe a few), we’d still like to help. Enter Google+ Stories, which can automatically weave your photos, videos and the places you visited into a beautiful travelogue.

No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We'll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place.”

Google+ Movies, on the other hand, will create remarkable clips from the footage you shoot every day. The social network will take care of the effects, transitions and soundtrack so that the resulting video is memorable.

Sabharwal pointed out that Google+ Stories and Movies will roll out on Android and the Web version of the social network this week. While the features will also be available on iOS, the users of Apple’s operating system will have to wait for an indeterminate amount of time.

All in all, it’s great to see that social networks update their features, even though improvements are made in relatively small steps. Visual content seems to matter more than text nowadays, at least when it comes to updating your friends and relatives about your status. In this context, images really are worth a thousand words.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Google Now cards having offline functionality and the Android Silver devices that will replace the Nexus line.