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Google Now Adds 9 New Voice Commands

Posted: 02 Jan 2016 01:32 PM PST

google-now-Voice-commands

Google Now, Android’s personal assistant app, has added 9 new voice commands to make is easier for all users to do everyday tasks. Read all about them in this new feature.

Google Now, Android’s answer to iOS’ Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana, keeps growing and getting better with the addition of a few new voice commands that will help users get the best from their phones. Some of the new commands let the users send texts using only their voice, or calling their contacts, which is pretty sweet if you’re driving. The message can be written using only the user’s voice, which works pretty well at that. On the other hand, another new command allows users to activate music playback with their voice by just saying “Play [Name of the song]”  (which needs to be in Google Play).

There’s more: a new command allows users to turn WiFi on or off, or set an alarm, although you can’t pick the sound or repetitions just yet. All the user has to do is say turn [on / off] [Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Flashlight], or in the case of the alarm, “set alarm for…”. Of course, before inputting any command, it’s necessary to say “Ok Google Now”, just like it always was, so the phone doesn’t do anything weird by accident.

 

There are a lot of other cool functions this assistant can perform – for example, you could open any particular website by saying “go to [name of web]” or open apps by saying “open [name of app]”, or even do stuff like turn on the lantern, set the screen brightness or volume through commands like “lower brightness”, “silence phone”, and so on. The only problem is you can’t really measure how much louder or quieter it will go, or how much brighter or dim the screen will get – these commands are all amazing and useful, but Google still have to iron out a few kinks..

The time where voice commands seemed like a thing of the future are now long gone, and thanks to Google, Apple and Microsoft it is something we can actually do with our phones. Google in particular keeps revising and improving their services to give users the best possible performance. Google Now so is slowly becoming the perfect tool to finally break free from tactile screens and control everything via voice commands, so your phone can truly work for you without you having to worry about it. Who knows, in a couple of years we might not need secretaries any more.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories at Google's Star Wars Website Asks You to Pick Sides and Google, Facebook and Twitter Show Solidarity with Paris.

 

Legendary Pictures Opens a Massive Warcraft Exhibit in China

Posted: 02 Jan 2016 01:14 PM PST

Legendary Warcraft Experience 01

Two days ago, Legendary Pictures reminded the people of China about the upcoming Warcraft movie by decorating an entire mall with handcrafted physical exhibits from this fantastic universe.

Movie adaptations of video games are generally disastrous. Don’t believe me? Check out Blood Rayne, Doom, Resident Evil (even though this one seems to have a cult following of sorts), Aliens vs. Predator, Mortal Kombat, Hitman, Need for Speed, so on and so forth. Not even popular actors couldn’t save these catastrophes from the abominable scripts that were written for them, but the future seems to hold a few nice surprises for the gamers who’d like to see their favorite characters on the silver screen. First of all, there’s the Warcraft movie (also known as Warcraft:The Beginning), which is scheduled for a June 10 release, and secondly, there’s an Assassin’s Creed movie starring Michael Fassbender (might know him as Magneto in the MCU) in the works.

The Legendary Warcraft Experience, as this exhibition is called, kicked off at Joycity in Chengdu on December 31. China is the host of many eSports tournaments each year, so organizing such an exhibition could make a lot of sense from this point of view. However, I think there’s a different motivation behind Legendary Pictures’ decision to create the biggest free movie-themed exhibition ever mounted in China. The world’s most populous country is the second-largest market for the film industry. Just to paint you a picture, China is the reason why Jurrasic World had a record-breaking opening weekend, and why Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, which will only launch there this month, didn’t manage to break that record.

Legendary Pictures must be thinking that promoting the upcoming Warcraft movie in China using a gargantuan replica of the Doomhammer or lifelike character statues might be a great recipe for success, and truth be told, I don’t think they’re far from the truth.

The exhibition includes all sorts of props (more than 150 of those, actually), costumes and weapons right out of the movie, or in other words, things that would make the hearts of fantasy lovers skip a bit, regardless if they’re more into video games or movies from this genre.

Travis Fimmel, who is best known as Ragnar Lothbrok in History’s Vikings, will play Anduin Lothar, the leader of the humans, while Toby Kebbell of Prince of Persia (one of the few decent video game-based movies out there), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Rocknrolla fame got cast as Durotan, the leader of the Orcs. I actually find it more exciting that Duncan Jones, the director of two of my favorite movies of all time (Moon and Source Code) will helm this one, too.

It should be noted that the Warcraft movie was supposed to be released in December 2015, but in order to prevent it from opening at the same time with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the producers decided to push back the date by six months. That’s plenty of time for promoting the movie a bit more.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about a wedding in Azeroth: World of Warcraft wedding box, or World of Warcraft’s subscription drop.

U.S. Post Office to Release ‘Star Trek’ Stamps

Posted: 02 Jan 2016 11:01 AM PST

U.S. Post Office to Release 'Star Trek' Stamps 1

In order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the television premiere of Star Trek, the US Postal service is publishing stamps inspired by classic elements of the television program.

Yes, it’s been 50 years since Gene Roddenberry released his space traveling phenomenon upon the world, which is sci-fi but a lot more than that, and changed TV, Cinema and pop culture forever.

The new Star Trek Forever stamps showcase four digital illustrations: The Starship Enterprise inside the outline of a Starfleet insignia against a gold background, a silhouette of a crewman in a transporter against a red background, a silhouette of the Enterprise from above against a green background and the Enterprise inside the outline of the Vulcan salute (Spock's iconic hand gesture) against a blue background.

The famous words ‘Space, the Final Frontier’ appear beneath the stamps against a background of stars, and they were designed by Heads of State under the art direction of Antonio Alcalá.

There’s been a lot of Star Trek in the 50 years since the show came out, most famously the movie series, which then got successfully rebooted in 2009 and also a number of TV shows, with The Next Generation being the most memorable of them.

But the design, feel and coloring on these stamps is all about the original series, which remains the most influential of all the versions, and rightfully so, making a nice addition to the next Star Trek film coming out in 2016.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Star Trek, like this Star Trek Coffee Table which would make a perfect addition in your home.

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