Crunch Report - Week of August 31, 2015
Google has a new logo
posted on September 1, 2015 11:44 am / by Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge
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I first used Google as a beta, that was longer in the past than I like to think about. To be frank this rebranding looks to me to be not as good as what they had previously, I predict it will not last all that long.
Mark Gosdin
I agree, I haven’t been liking what Google has been doing to its UI for quite some time now and this logo makes it clear to me that they’re committed to going in that wrong direction.
One of my friends has had Win10 on his gaming laptop for a while now and, now that the issue where Win10 would only use the wimpy Intel graphics instead of the beefier Nvidia SLI’d graphics has been resolved by Microsoft/Nvidia, it isn’t too bad. Better than the Win8 that his PC came with but I still don’t like the post-Win7 microsoft UI much at all (Aero FTW) and I still don’t know if DX12 is worth it (since his PC runs Nvidia Maxwell graphics cards, it won’t be a good test for DX12 anyhow).
I still don’t like the idea of Win10’s forced automatic updates as, while they did fix the graphics issue, they caused it in the first place.
It’s still not for me though as the spyware issues are still there. Today I just read that it still has the infamous keylogger that was in the trial version and, as previously reported, even if you turn off the spyware options, Win10 still sends info back to Microsoft.
Well, Windows 7 and 8 aren’t safe either…
I think the quick sale attitude has taken over at Microsoft and they’re only throwing out what ever is registering on the market to make a profit.
It wouldn’t be so bad if those updates were entirely optional but some are “recommended” and will be installed. I had to follow these steps to clean the ones that I’d gotten off of my PC.
Are a remastered version (without coop too) of Gears of War 1 and a P2W Fable game worth reporting my keystrokes and usage to Microsoft and granting Microsoft unfettered & instant access to all of my locally stored files? I’m thinking no.
The new 4K blurays are official. 4K bluray has only been available for licensing for ~2 weeks and already there’s progress. Will this end the era of the DVD combopack?
The only question is how many of these movies were actually filmed in 4K and which are just going to be upscales? Well, if Kingsman 4K comes with the features that were stripped off of the 2K release then I’ll definitely get it.
I’m sure it will shake things up, but having seen 4K in stores for some time now I’m reminded of the 3D hype from a few years ago. We will see if this really catches on … or not.
Mark Gosdin
Hopefully it will. There are no glasses required for 4K and the TVs for it aren’t insanely expensive. Perhaps the availability of 4K displays will create the demand of 4K media, the opposite of the largely-failed approach taken with 3d?
Perhaps it wouldn’t be efficient to do so but the larger capacity and more efficient video encoding scheme could allow for more <4K data to be packed onto a single disc.
Crunch Report - Week of September 7, 2015
No video
**Periscope Is Secretly Working On An Apple TV App**
**iPhone 6s & 6s Plus, iPad Pro, and New Apple TV**
**Android Pay Now Live in U.S. In 1M Locations**
**Jet.Com Already #4 Sales Marketplace**
I think you hit the key item, if the 4K displays are available - at reasonable prices - then it may catch on better than 3D did. The thing is that many people are still pretty much happy with HD / Blu-Ray / 1080p technology, so 4K will have to overcome the “Good Enough” mindset.
Only think for certain is that we will eventually find out.
Mark Gosdin
Crunch Report - Week of September 14, 2015
**Apple About To Break iPhone Sales Records (Again)**
**Snapchat Wants You To Pay for Snap Replays, Adds Ridiculous Animations**
**Facebook Isn't Building A Dislike Button**
**iOS 9-Enabled Ad Blocking Apps Are A Huge Hit**
**Google Releasing a New Chromecast This Month?**
Having never owned an iPhone, I am not impressed. Are they still worthwhile?
Apparently. I’d personally prefer an iPad but people prefer the phones for viewing their content it seems. It all depends on how you view the improvements/changes with each new phone if you’re a constant upgrader. Not every phone may warrant such action. The 6+ was huge but 6S (+) may not be enough. If you’re interested, you should choose the one perfect for you, examining price and features.
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Well I’m a Samsung guy, they’ve always brought the features and never got [too] caught up in the push.
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Samsung’s good too. I actually got to play around on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 recently. Someone I know currently has one and it wasn’t bad overall. Very stylish design but it is a little touchy. It doesn’t take much to mess things up if you’re not careful.
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So family members of mine have gotten Rokus (one was so impressed with it that he gifted one to another member). Playing around with 'em, I can kinda see the point to them. The integration with Android phones is kinda nice.
It’s cool that Roku lets channel-makers control the channel interface but the lack of standardization and weak-sauce, Windows 8-style UIs is throwing some family members. Amazon Prime’s channel has some good stuff but man does their channel layout need help.
Android integration? Besides Chromecast, what integration could there be?
Android app for Roku allows phone to be used as a remote and for local media on the phone to be played/displayed on the Roku. It’s really nice to be able to use the phone keyboard instead of having to use the Roku controller’s arrow keys to send the cursor through the virtual keyboard for input.
It is cool too that Roku supports “chromecasting” and so certain apps, like the stock YouTube app, are aware of it without any setup.