If you’re familiar with 20th century Soviet camera clones you’ll probably be familiar with Zenit. Created by Krasnogorsky Zavod, the Nikon/Leica clones were a fan favorite behind the Iron Curtain and, like the Lomo, was a beloved brand that just doesn’t get its due. The firm stopped making cameras in 2005 but in its long history it defined Eastern European photography for decades and introduced the rifle-like Photo Sniper camera looked like something out of James Bond.
Now, thanks to a partnership with Leica, Zenit is back and is here to remind you that in Mother Russia, picture takes you.
The camera is based on the Leica M Type 240 platform but has been modified to look and act like an old Zenit. It comes with a Zenitar 35 mm f/1.0 lens that is completely Russian-made. You can use it for bokeh and soft-focus effects without digital processing.
The Leica M platform offers a 24MP full-frame CMOS sensor, a 3-inch LCD screen, HD video recording, live view focusing, a 0.68x viewfinder, ISO 6400, and 3fps continuous shooting. It will be available this year in the US, Europe, and Russia.
How much does the privilege of returning to the past cost? An estimated $5,900-$7,000 if previous incarnations of the Leica M are any indication. I have a few old film Zenits lying around the house, however. I wonder I can stick in some digital guts and create the ultimate Franken-Zenit?
The European Union’s executive body has signed up tech platforms and ad industry players to a voluntary Code of Practice aimed at trying to do something about the spread of disinformation online.
Something, just not anything too specifically quantifiable.
According to the Commission, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Mozilla, some additional members of the EDIMA trade association, plus unnamed advertising groups are among those that have signed up to the self-regulatory code, which will apply in a month’s time.
Signatories have committed to taking not exactly prescribed actions in the following five areas:
Disrupting advertising revenues of certain accounts and websites that spread disinformation;
Making political advertising and issue based advertising more transparent;
Addressing the issue of fake accounts and online bots;
Empowering consumers to report disinformation and access different news sources, while improving the visibility and findability of authoritative content;
Empowering the research community to monitor online disinformation through privacy-compliant access to the platforms’ data.
Mariya Gabriel, the European commissioner for digital economy and society, described the Code as a first “important” step in tackling disinformation. And one she said will be reviewed by the end of the year to see how (or, well, whether) it’s functioning, with the door left open for additional steps to be taken if not. So in theory legislation remains a future possibility.
“This is the first time that the industry has agreed on a set of self-regulatory standards to fight disinformation worldwide, on a voluntary basis,” she said in a statement. “The industry is committing to a wide range of actions, from transparency in political advertising to the closure of fake accounts and demonetisation of purveyors of disinformation, and we welcome this.
“These actions should contribute to a fast and measurable reduction of online disinformation. To this end, the Commission will pay particular attention to its effective implementation.”
“I urge online platforms and the advertising industry to immediately start implementing the actions agreed in the Code of Practice to achieve significant progress and measurable results in the coming months,” she added. “I also expect more and more online platforms, advertising companies and advertisers to adhere to the Code of Practice, and I encourage everyone to make their utmost to put their commitments into practice to fight disinformation.”
Earlier this year a report by an expert group established by the Commission to help shape its response to the so-called ‘fake news’ crisis, called for more transparency from online platform, as well as urgent investment in media and information literacy education to empower journalists and foster a diverse and sustainable news media ecosystem.
Safe to say, no one has suggested there’s any kind of quick fix for the Internet enabling the accelerated spread of nonsense and lies.
Including the Commission’s own expert group, which offered an assorted pick’n’mix of ideas — set over various and some not-at-all-instant-fix timeframes.
Though the group was called out for failing to interrogate evidence around the role of behavioral advertising in the dissemination of fake news — which has arguably been piling up. (Certainly its potential to act as a disinformation nexus has been amply illustrated by the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal, to name one recent example.)
The Commission is not doing any better on that front, either.
The executive has been working on formulating its response to what its expert group suggested should be referred to as ‘disinformation’ (i.e. rather than the politicized ‘fake news’ moniker) for more than a year now — after the European parliament adopted a Resolution, in June 2017, calling on it to examine the issue and look at existing laws and possible legislative interventions.
Elections for the European parliament are due next spring and MEPs are clearly concerned about the risk of interference. So the unelected Commission is feeling the elected parliament’s push here.
Disinformation — aka “verifiably false or misleading information” created and spread for economic gain and/or to deceive the public, and which “may cause public harm” such as “threats to democratic political and policymaking processes as well as public goods such as the protection of EU citizens’ health, the environment or security”, as the Commission’s new Code of Practice defines it — is clearly a slippery policy target.
And online multiple players are implicated and involved in its spread.
But so too are multiple, powerful, well resourced adtech players incentivized to push to avoid any political disruption to their lucrative people-targeting business models.
In the Commission’s voluntary Code of Practice signatories merely commit to recognizing their role in “contributing to solutions to the challenge posed by disinformation”.
“The Signatories recognise and agree with the Commission’s conclusions that “the exposure of citizens to large scale Disinformation, including misleading or outright false information, is a major challenge for Europe. Our open democratic societies depend on public debates that allow well-informed citizens to express their will through free and fair political processes,” runs the preamble.
“[T]he Signatories are mindful of the fundamental right to freedom of expression and to an open Internet, and the delicate balance which any efforts to limit the spread and impact of otherwise lawful content must strike.
“In recognition that the dissemination of Disinformation has many facets and is facilitated by and impacts a very broad segment of actors in the ecosystem, all stakeholders have roles to play in countering the spread of Disinformation.”
“Misleading advertising” is explicitly excluded from the scope of the code — which also presumably helped the Commission convince the ad industry to sign up to it.
Though that further risks muddying the waters of the effort, given that social media advertising has been the high-powered vehicle of choice for malicious misinformation muck-spreaders (such as Kremlin-backed agents of societal division).
The Commission is presumably trying to split the hairs of maliciously misleading fake ads (still bad because they’re not actually ads but malicious pretenders) and good old fashioned ‘misleading advertising’, though — which will continue to be dealt with under existing ad codes and standards.
Also excluded from the Code: “Clearly identified partisan news and commentary”. So purveyors of hyper biased political commentary are not intended to get scooped up here, either.
Though again, plenty of Kremlin-generated disinformation agents have masqueraded as partisan news and commentary pundits, and from all sides of the political spectrum.
Hence, we must again assume, the Commission including the requirement to exclude this type of content where it’s “clearly identified”. Whatever that means.
Among the various ‘commitments’ tech giants and ad firms are agreeing to here are plenty of firmly fudgey sounding statements that call for a degree of effort from the undersigned. But without ever setting out explicitly how such effort will be measured or quantified.
For e.g.
The Signatories recognise that all parties involved in the buying and selling of online advertising and the provision of advertising-related services need to work together to improve transparency across the online advertising ecosystem and thereby to effectively scrutinise, control and limit the placement of advertising on accounts and websites belonging to purveyors of Disinformation.
Or
Relevant Signatories commit to use reasonable efforts towards devising approaches to publicly disclose “issue-based advertising”. Such efforts will include the development of a working definition of “issue-based advertising” which does not limit reporting on political discussion and the publishing of political opinion and excludes commercial
And
Relevant Signatories commit to invest in features and tools that make it easier for people to find diverse perspectives about topics of public interest.
Nor does the code exactly nail down the terms it’s using to set goals — raising tricky and even existential questions like who defines what’s “relevant, authentic, and authoritative” where information is concerned?
Which is really the core of the disinformation problem.
And also not an easy question for tech giants — which have sold their vast content distribution farms as neutral ‘platforms’ — to start to approach, let alone tackle. Hence their leaning so heavily on third party fact-checkers to try to outsource their lack of any editorial values. Because without editorial values there’s no compass; and without a compass how can you judge the direction of tonal travel?
And so we end up with very vague suggestions in the code like:
Relevant Signatories should invest in technological means to prioritize relevant, authentic, and authoritative information where appropriate in search, feeds, or other automatically ranked distribution channels
Only slightly less vague and woolly is a commitment that signatories will “put in place clear policies regarding identity and the misuse of automated bots” on the signatories’ services, and “enforce these policies within the EU”. (So presumably not globally, despite disinformation being able to wreak havoc everywhere.)
Though here the code only points to some suggestive measures that could be used to do that — and which are set out in a separate annex.This boils down to a list of some very, very broad-brush “best practice principles” (such as “follow the money”; develop “solutions to increase transparency”; and “encourage research into disinformation”… ).
And set alongside that uninspiringly obvious list is another — of some current policy steps being undertaken by the undersigned to combat fake accounts and content — as if they’re already meeting the code’s expectations… so, er…
Unsurprisingly, the Commission’s first bite at ‘fake news’ has attracted some biting criticism for being unmeasurably weak sauce.
A group of media advisors — including the Association of Commercial Television in Europe, the European Broadcasting Union, the European Federation of Journalists and International Fact-Checking Network, and several academics — are among the first critics.
Reuters reports them complaining that signatories have not offered measurable objectives to monitor the implementation. “The platforms, despite their best efforts, have not been able to deliver a code of practice within the accepted meaning of effective and accountable self-regulation,” it quotes the group as saying.
Disinformation may be a tough, multi-pronged, multi-dimensional problem but few would try to argue that an overly dilute solution will deliver anything at all — well, unless it’s kicking the can down the road that you’re really after.
The Commission doesn’t even seem to know exactly what the undersigned have agreed to do as a first step, with the commissioner saying she’ll meet signatories “in the coming weeks to discuss the specific procedures and policies that they are adopting to make the Code a reality”. So double er… !
The code also only envisages signatories meeting annually to discuss how things are going. So no pressure for regular collaborative moots vis-a-vis tackling things like botnets spreading malicious disinformation then. Not unless the undersigned really, really want to.
Which seems unlikely, given how their business models tend to benefit from engagement — and disinformation-fuelled outrage has shown itself to be a very potent fuel on that front.
As part of the code, these adtech giants have at least technically agreed to make information available to the Commission on request — and generally to co-operate with its efforts to assess how/whether the code is working.
So, if public pressure on the issue continues to ramp up, the Commission does at least have a route to ask for relevant data from platforms that could, in theory, be used to feed a regulation that’s worth the paper it’s written on.
Another day, another hearing of tech giants in Congress.
Wednesday’s hearing at the Senate Commerce Committee with Apple, Amazon, Google and Twitter, alongside AT&T and Charter, marked the latest in a string of hearings in the past few months into all things tech: but mostly controversies embroiling the companies, from election meddling to transparency.
This time, privacy was at the top of the agenda. The problem, lawmakers say, is that consumers have little of it. The hearing said that the U.S. was lagging behind Europe’s new GDPR privacy rules and California’s recently passed privacy law, which goes into effect in 2020, and lawmakers were edging toward introducing their own federal privacy law.
Here are the key takeaways.
Tech giants want new federal legislation, if not just to upend California’s privacy law
For once, the tech giants seemed to agree with one another.
AT&T, Apple, Charter and Google used their time in the Senate to call on lawmakers to introduce new federal privacy legislation. Tech companies spent the past year pushing back against the new state regulations, but have conceded that new privacy rules are inevitable.
Now the companies realize that it’s better to sit at the table to influence a federal privacy law than stand outside in the cold.
In pushing for a new federal law, representatives from each company confirmed that they support the preemption of California’s new rules — something that critics oppose.
AT&T’s chief lawyer Len Cali said that a patchwork of state laws would be unworkable. Apple, too, agreed to support a privacy law, but noted as a company that doesn’t hoard user data for advertising — like Facebook and Google — that any federal law would need to put a premium on protecting the consumer rather than helping companies make money.
But Amazon’s chief lawyer Andrew DeVore said that complying with privacy rules has “required us to divert significant resources to administrative tasks and away from invention.”
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) asked the representatives why lawmakers shouldn’t adopt the same standards seen in Europe and California at a federal level, but none of the companies could answer.
“That question lingers here,” said Thune. “The opposition that you’ve expressed to these rules is one that can nonetheless accommodate the kind of rules that we’ve seen in GDPR and California.”
Google made “mistakes” on privacy, but evades China search questioning
Google took a rare moment to admit it hasn’t always taken the right approach to privacy — though, it wouldn’t point to any specific incident.
“We acknowledge that we have made mistakes in the past, from which we have learned, and improved our robust privacy program,” Keith Enright, Google’s chief privacy officer, said in his opening statement.
But that, lawmakers said, contrasted with recent reports of the company’s return to China — almost a decade after it pulled out of the country after allegations of Chinese efforts to hack into the search giant’s systems and ethical conflicts with China’s censorship policies.
Google to date has refused to confirm or comment on the reports, but Enright said that “there is a Project Dragonfly.”
“We are not close to launching a search product in China,” he said, in response to one lawmaker. Later, he said that he didn’t think the company “could or would launch a product” without including its privacy and security policies.
Startups might struggle under GDPR-ported rules, companies claim
Startups and small businesses with slimmer resources than the tech giants could be a major casualty if GDPR-like rules were ported into federal law.
Enright said that ensuring compliance under GDPR was complicated and costly, but wouldn’t put a figure on how much Google had spent on complying with GDPR when asked by one lawmaker. Enright suggested that it was likely in the millions of dollars.
But even larger companies like Charter, which are wholly U.S.-based and have no European presence, said they wouldn’t know how they would be affected if GDPR principles were ported over stateside.
Charter’s policy chief Rachel Welch said that the U.S. should “put its own stamp” and not just roll over GDPR principles.
Apple added that self-employed developers and software house startups could suffer under new federal privacy rules. The company has some 20 million developers that rely on its app store to sell their software. “Small companies don’t have teams of lawyers to draft things,” said Apple’s Bud Tribble, and asked that any new federal rules should consider startups “to help make things clear and so that businesses have one set of rules than many sets of rules to follow.”
It’s a line parroted by tech giants before and without much evidence to back it up. Although some companies have shuttered operations in Europe, other startups hit the deadline and continue to thrive.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) called for greater representation from startups to help understand the cost breakdowns to understand it better.
Thune said that the committee won’t “rush through” legislation, and will ask privacy advocates for their input in a coming hearing.
Google Maps has a brand new feature that should make planning a day (or night) out with friends less likely to devolve into an argument. Because the feature, called Group Planning, lets you plan events together, and vote on the places to visit.
At I/O 2018, Google announced a host of new features for Google Maps. Most of these features then arrived in an update in June, including Explore, For You, and Your Match. However, the Group Planning feature took a little longer to arrive.
How to Use Google Maps’ Group Planning
Google Maps’ new Group Planning tool is so simple anyone could use it. As explained on The Keyword, all you need to do is long-press on any place on Google Maps to add it to a shortlist. The shortlist being a floating bubble on the side of Google Maps.
Keep adding places to your shortlist until you think you’re done, and you can then send it to the other people in your group. This can be done via your messaging platform of choice, which beats having a back-and-forth conversation by text or email.
You and your friends can then add additional places or remove some of the ones you’ve already added. Allowing you to refine your shortlist until it’s just so. At this point everyone in your group can vote on the place or places you’re going to visit.
Google Maps’ new Group Planning feature should make planning an event much easier. Especially when there’s a large group of people going, all of whom have different ideas of where to meet, what bars to drink at, and what restaurants serve good food.
Other Planning Tools Are Available…
Google is rolling out the Group Planning feature to Maps this week, so you should see it the next time Google Maps updates. While it’s clearly not the biggest or best addition to Google Maps, it’s another sign that Maps is evolving into something bigger and better.
It’s hard to find a person who hasn’t heard about Airbnb today. Thanks to this best-of-the-best travel network, you can book a living space online directly from a host.
Airbnb essentially connects people who have a spare room (or a house, or maybe a boat) with those looking for a place to stay. The process is so easy and transparent, people now often choose to book an AirBnb over a hotel room.
There are many reasons why people choose Airbnb over hotels and other hospitality establishments. For example, Airbnb membership that comes with many perks. Like maintaining a wishlist with all the places you’ve ever dreamt about staying in. It’s basically Airbnb’s version of a bucket list, only for accommodation.
How to Manage Your Airbnb Wishlist
So you’ve decided to start collecting your Airbnb dream homes. Let’s start with logging into your profile. Then, in order to access your wishlist, go to Saved on the top right of the Airbnb page.
Click on View Lists, and on the right side of the page, you’ll find the button to Create a list. When creating a new list, you can set it to be public or to be visible only to specific people that you choose to share it with.
After that’s done, you can continue browsing the site. When you stumble upon a house that you’d like to have on your wishlist, click on the heart symbol on the top right of the picture, where it says Save. You can also have multiple wishlists if you’d like to keep different Airbnb places separately.
If you decide to remove a place from one of your wishlists, once again go to Saved at the top of the page. Then click View Wish List and select the listing you want to remove. Click the heart symbol on the listing to remove it permanently.
Places to Add to Your Airbnb Wishlist
Airbnb probably impressed you before with comfortable accommodation offered at a much cheaper price than the surrounding hotels. Maybe you’ve heard about their new luxury option for top-shelf rentals called Airbnb Plus? This time, however, we went on Airbnb to look for something special, and here’s what we found.
Below you’ll find our list of the most wonderful (and weird) places for your Airbnb wishlist.
This quirky seashell house is a perfect dream accommodation for someone who enjoys spending vacations on the beach. The house itself will make you feel like you are one with the ocean. And it’s not just the outside part—the beds, tables and even shower heads are all themed around shells and life of the ocean.
If you’re tired of living in a big city and are craving some peace and quiet, this place should definitely be on your list.
This tree house looks like something straight out of a fairytale. Get ready for lots of green on the outside, and beautiful decorations with fairy lights and antique furniture on the inside. And nothing but the sound of the trees around you.
Set in California, the land of sandy beaches but also rustic wilderness, this beautiful hand-built cabin is the perfect balance of unusual and comfortable. However, one thing that you need to prepare yourself for is the facilities placed outdoors, including kitchen, and wood-fired sauna. There’s also a beautiful organic garden right by your beautiful escape home.
For those who are feeling adventurous and looking for a real challenge, we have found this geodesic dome right in the middle of Bethlehem, Connecticut.
Entirely made of wood, it doesn’t have heat or power—a perfect getaway from civilization. At the same time, it’s still a little home on the inside, a much more comfortable option than pitching a tent when you want to be one with nature.
Enough with the budget options. What do you say we look at some exotic luxury options some more? How about an actual Celtic castle in Galway, Ireland?
Ever imagined yourself living in a castle? Maybe when you were a kid. Well, dreams come true. This castle was built in the 1400-s and has been refurbished with a toilet, a bath, and other modern day facilities. And today it welcomes new kings and queens on an everyday basis.
Now, if you decide to really splash out on something both unique and also all-inclusive, look no further.
You can spend a beautiful day on board this beautiful luxury yacht cruising on the South of Mallorca. Then you get to watch the sunset from the dock and spend a night in a luxury cabin inside. What’s the catch, you’ll ask? No catch if you don’t count how much you’ll have to pay for your romantic marine getaway.
If you happen to be traveling in Brazil, this little one-of-a-kind house is a must try. In order to create this glass cabin, the owners spent years collecting recycling glass bottles that they later turned into the most wonderful colorful home decoration ever.
For those who prefer romantic snowy landscapes over sandy beaches, there’s this out-of-the-box Airbnb holiday home.
Yes, it’s a real live ice-cold igloo located in Finland. Is there a more beautiful and poetic way to watch Northern Lights than from an actual authentic igloo? There’s a double bed inside with two sleeping bags. And according to the previous guests’ reviews, those should keep you warm at night. But as an emergency backup, the host promises a warm apartment being available to you 24/7.
Are you a big fan of traveling? So much that you’d love the idea of spending a night on the plane while it’s on the ground? Good news is, it’s now possible. This airplane house includes a kitchen, a shower, and a bathroom. There’s enough room inside to accommodate up to 4 people.
If you enjoy the idea of being one with nature, but still prefer sleeping in a warm bed over a sleeping bag in a tent, this might be the listing just for you.
This eco bubble lodge is available for rent in France. You get all the perks of sleeping outdoors, like stargazing and absence of city lights and noises, but without getting cold in the wind or bugs bothering you all night long.
What’s Your Airbnb Wishlist Like?
Hopefully, some of these places inspire you to choose something different and unique next time you go on vacation. If you love using Airbnb, check out these Airbnb clones for other rental services.
In a letter to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, former Google research scientist Jack Poulson details why he stepped down from the company in late-August. The note, sent earlier this week, details growing concern over Project Dragonfly, the search giant’s attempt to enter the Chinese market in a meaningful way.
The letter arrived as the Senate prepared to question Google’s new Chief Privacy Officer, Keith Enright, about data concerns. It seems likely that the subject of Dragonfly will be on the scheduled for committee members. Nearly 1,400 employees signed a letter last month, stating that the project, “raise[s] urgent moral and ethical issues.”
“It is notable that Project Dragonfly was well underway at the time the company released its AI Principles,” Poulson writes in his own letter. “As has been widely understood, by human rights organizations, investigative reporters, Google employees, and the public, Project Dragonfly directly contradicts the AI Principles’ commitment to not ‘design or deploy’ any technology whose purpose ‘contravenes widely accepted principles of […] human rights.’ ”
Poulson highlights four specific issues, which have caused concern internally at the company. The list includes tying search queries to phone numbers and a blacklist of search terms including “human rights,” “student protest” and “Nobel Prize,” developed in conjunction with the Chinese government. The former employee also highlights government control over air quality data and the “catastrophic failure of the internal privacy review process.”
Yesterday, reports surfaced that CEO Sundar Pichai will meet with Republican lawmakers to discuss Google’s China plans and GOP concerns over search bias.
There’s a secret Facebook app called Blink. Built for employees only, it’s how the company tests out new video formats its hoping will become the next Boomerang or SuperZoom. They range from artsy Blur effects to a way even old Android phones can use Slo-Mo. One exciting format in development offers audio beat detection that syncs visual embellishments to songs playing in the background or added via the Music feature for adding licensed songs as soundtracks that is coming to Facebook Stories after debuting on Instagram.
“When we first formed the team . . . we brought in film makers and cinematographers to help the broader team understand the tropes around storytelling and filmmaking” says Dantley Davis, Facebook Stories’ Director Of Design. He knows those tropes himself, having spent seven years at Netflix leading the design of its apps and absorbing creative tricks from countless movies. He wants to democratize those effects once trapped inside expensive desktop editing software. “We’re working on formats to enable people to take the video they have and turn it into something special.”
For all the jabs about Facebook stealing Stories from Snapchat, it’s working hard to differentiate. That’s in part because there’s not much left to copy, and because it’s largely succeeded in conquering the prodigal startup that refused to be acquired. Snapchat’s user count shrank last quarter to 188 million daily users.
Facebook’s versions continue to grow. The Messenger Day brand was retired a year ago and now Stories posts to either the chat app or Facebook sync to both. After announcing in May that Facebook Stories had 150 million users, with Messenger citing 70 million last September, today the company revealed they have a combined 300 million daily users.
With the success of any product comes the mandate to monetize it. That push ended up pushing out the founders of Facebook acquisition WhatsApp, and encroachment on product decision-making did the same to Instagram’s founders who this week announced they were resigning.
Facebook now lets US users add music to Stories just like Instagram
Now the mandate has reached Facebook Stories which today opened up to advertisers globally, and also started syndicating those ads into Stories within Messenger. Facebook is even running “Stories School” programs to teach ad execs the visual language of ephemerality now that all four of its family of apps including Instagram and WhatsApp monetize with Stories ads. As sharing to Stories is predicted to surpass feed sharing in 2019, Facebook is counting on the ephemeral slideshows to sustain its ad revenue. Fears they wouldn’t lopped $120 billion off Facebook’s market cap this summer.
But to run ads you need viewers and that will require responses to questions that have dogged Facebook Stories since its debut in early 2017: Why do I need Stories here too when I already have Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status.
Facebook user experience research manager Liz Keneski
The answer may be creativity, but Facebook is taking a scientific approach to determining which creative tools to build. Liz Keneski is a user experience research manager at Facebook. She leads the investigative trips, internal testing, and focus groups that shape Facebook’s products. Keneski laid out the different types of research Facebook employs to go from vague idea to po lished launch.
Foundational Research – “This is the really future looking research. It’s not necessarily about any specific products but trying to understand people’s needs.”
Contextual Inquiry – “People are kind enough to invite us into their homes and talk with us about how they use technology.” Sometimes Facebook does “street intercepts” where they find people in public and spend five minutes watching and discussing how they use their phone. It also conducts “diary studies” where people journal about how they spend their time with tech.
Descriptive Research – “When we’re exploring a defined product space”, this lets Facebook get feedback on exactly what users would want a new feature to do.
Participatory Design – “It’s kind of like research arts and crafts. We give people different artifacts and design elements and actually ask them to a deign what an experience that would be ideal for them might look like.”
Product Research – “Seeing how people interact with a specific product, the things they’re like or don’t like, the things they might want to change” lets Facebook figure out how to tweak features it’s built so they’re ready to launch.
Last year Facebook went on a foundational research expedition to India. Devanshi Bhandari who works on the globalization. She discovered that even in emerging markets where Snapchat never got popular, people already knew how to use Stories. “We’ve been kind of surprised to learn . . . Ephemeral sharing wasn’t as new to some people as we expected” she tells me. It turns out there are regional Stories copycats around the globe.
As Bhandari dug deeper she found that people wanted more creative tools, but not at the cost of speed. So Facebook began caching the Stories tray from your last visit so it’d still appear when you open Facebook Lite without having to wait for it to load. This week, Facebook will start offering creative tools like filters inside Facebook Lite Stories by enabling them server-side so users can do more than just upload unedited videos.
That trip to India ended up spawning whole new products. Bhandari noticed some users, especially women, weren’t comfortable showing their face in Stories. “People would sometimes put their thumb over the video camera but share the audio content” she tells me. That led Facebook to build Audio Stories.
Dantley Davis, Facebook Stories’ Director Of Design
Back at Facebook headquarters in California, the design runs exercises to distill their own visions of creative. “We have a phase of our design cycle where we ask the designers . . . to bring in their inspiration” says Davis. That means everything from apps to movie clips to physical objects. Facebook determined that users needed better ways to express emotion through text. While it offers different fonts from billboard to typewriter motifs, they couldn’t convey if someone is happy or sad. So now Davis reveals Facebook is building “kinetic text”. Users can select if they want to convey if text is supposed to be funny or happy or sad, and their words will appear stylized with movement to get that concept across.
But to make Stories truly Facebook-y, the team had to build them into all its products while solving problems rather than creating them. For example, birthday wall posts are one of the longest running emerging behaviors on the social network. But most people just post a thin, generic “happy birthday!” or “HBD” post which can feel impersonal, even dystopic. So after announcing the idea in May, Facebook is now running Birthday Stories that encourage friends to submit a short video clip of well wishes instead of bland text.
Facebook recently launched Group and Event Stories, where members can collaborate by all contributing clips that show up in the Stories tray atop the News Feed. Now Facebook is going to start building its own version of Snapchat’s Our Stories. Facebook is now testing holiday-based collaborative Stories, starting with the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam. Users can opt to post to this themed Story, and friends (but not the public) will see those clips combined.
This is the final step of Facebook’s three-part plan to get people hooked on Stories, according to Facebook engineering director Rushabh Doshi who leads the product. The idea is that first, Facebook has to get people a taste of Stories by spotlighting them atop the app as well as amidst the feed. Then it makes it easy for people to post their own Stories by offering simple creative tools. And finally, it wants to “Build Stories for what people expect out of Facebook.” That encompasses all the integrations of Stories across the product.
Rushabh Doshi, Facebook’s engineering manager who oversees Stories
Still, the toughest nut to crack won’t be helping users figure out what to share but who to share to. Facebook Stories’ biggest disadvantage is that it’s built around an extremely broad social graph that includes not only friends but family, work colleagues, and distant acquaintances. That can apply a chilling effect to sharing as people don’t feel comfortable posting silly, off-the-cuff, or vulnerable Stories to such a wide audience.
Facebook has struggled with this problem in News Feed for over a decade. It ended up killing off its Friend List Feeds that let people select a subset of their friends and view a feed of just their posts because so few people were using them. Yet the problem remains rampant, and the invasion of parents and bosses has pushed users to Instagram, Snapchat, and other younger apps. Unfortunately for now, Doshi says there’s no plan to build Friend Lists or sharing to subsets of friends for Facebook Stories.
At 300 million daily users, Facebook Stories doesn’t deserve the “ghost town” label any more. People who were already accustomed to Stories elsewhere still see the feature as intrusive, interruptive, and somewhat desperate. But with 2.2 billion total Facebookers, the company can be forced to focus on one-size-fits-all solutions. Yet if Facebook’s Blink testing app can produce must-use filters and effects, and collaborative Stories can unlock new forms of sharing, Facebook Stories could find its purpose.
There’s a secret Facebook app called Blink. Built for employees only, it’s how the company tests out new video formats its hoping will become the next Boomerang or SuperZoom. They range from artsy Blur effects to a way even old Android phones can use Slo-Mo. One exciting format involves audio beat detection that syncs visual embellishments to songs playing in the background or added via the Music stickers that are coming to Facebook Stories after debuting on Instagram.
“When we first formed the team . . . we brought in film makers and cinematographers to help the broader team understand the tropes around storytelling and filmmaking” says Dantley Davis, Facebook Stories’ Director Of Design. He knows those tropes himself, having spent seven years at Netflix leading the design of its apps and absorbing creative tricks from countless movies. He wants to democratize those effects once trapped inside expensive desktop editing software. “We’re working on formats to enable people to take the video they have and turn it into something special.”
For all the jabs about Facebook stealing Stories from Snapchat, it’s working hard to differentiate. That’s in part because there’s not much left to copy, and because it’s largely succeeded in conquering the prodigal startup that refused to be acquired. Snapchat’s user count shrank last quarter to 188 million daily users. Facebook’s versions continue to grow. After announcing in May that Facebook Stories had 150 million users, with Messenger citing 70 million last September, today the company revealed they have a combined 300 million daily users.
With the success of any product comes the mandate to monetize it. That push ended up pushing out the founders of Facebook acquisition WhatsApp, and encroachment on product decision making did the same to Instagram’s founders who this week announced they were resigning. Now the mandate has reached Facebook Stories which today opened up to advertisers globally. Facebook is even running “Stories School” programs to teach ad execs the visual language of ephemerality. As Stories sharing is predicted to surpass feed sharing in 2019, Facebook is counting on the ephemeral slideshows to sustain its ad revenue. Fears they wouldn’t lopped $120 billion off Facebook’s market cap this summer.
But to run ads you need viewers and that will require responses to questions that have dogged Facebook Stories since its debut in early 2017: Why do I need Stories here too when I already have Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status.
Facebook user experience research manager Liz Keneski
The answer may be creativity, but Facebook is taking a scientific approach to determining which creative tools to build. Liz Keneski is a user experience research manager at Facebook. She leads the investigative trips, internal testing, and focus groups that shape Facebook’s products. Keneski laid out the different types of research Facebook employs to go from vague idea to polished launch.
Foundational Research – “This is the really future looking research. It’s not necessarily about any specific products but trying to understand people’s needs.”
Contextual Inquiry – “People are kind enough to invite us into their homes and talk with us about how they use technology.” Sometimes Facebook does “street intercepts” where they find people in public and spend five minutes watching and discussing how they use their phone. It also conducts “diary studies” where people journal about how they spend their time with tech.
Descriptive Research – “When we’re exploring a defined product space”, this lets Facebook get feedback on exactly what users would want a new feature to do.
Participatory Design – “It’s kind of like research arts and crafts. We give people different artifacts and design elements and actually ask them to a deign what an experience that would be ideal for them might look like.”
Product Research – “Seeing how people interact with a specific product, the things they’re like or don’t like, the things they might want to change” lets Facebook figure out how to tweak features it’s built so they’re ready to launch.
Last year Facebook went on a foundational research expedition to India. Devanshi Bhandari who works on the globalization. She discovered that even in emerging markets where Snapchat never got popular, people already knew how to use Stories. “We’ve been kind of surprised to learn . . . Ephemeral sharing wasn’t as new to some people as we expected” she tells me. It turns out there are regional Stories copycats around the globe.
As Bhandari dug deeper she found that people wanted more creative tools, but not at the cost of speed. So Facebook began caching the Stories tray from your last visit so it’d still appear when you open Facebook Lite without having to wait for it to load. This week, Facebook will start offering creative tools like filters inside Facebook Lite Stories by enabling them server side so users can do more than just upload unedited videos.
That trip to India ended up spawning whole new products. Bhandari noticed some users, especially women, weren’t comfortable showing their face in Stories. “People would sometimes put their thumb over the video camera but share the audio content” she tells me. That led Facebook to build Audio Stories.
But to make Stories truly Facebook-y, it had to build them into all its products. Facebook recently launched Group and Event Stories, where members can collaborate by all contributing clips that show up in the Stories tray atop the News Feed. Now Facebook is going to start building its own version of Snapchat’s Our Stories. Facebook is now testing holiday-based collaborative Stories, starting with the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam. Users can opt to post to this themed Story, and friends (but not the public) will see those clips combined.
This is the final step of Facebook’s three-part plan to get people hooked on Stories, according to Facebook engineering director Rushabh Doshi who leads the product. The idea is that first, Facebook has to get people a taste of Stories by spotlighting them atop the app as well as amidst the feed. Then it makes it easy for people to post their own Stories by offering simple creative tools. And finally, it wants to “Build Stories for what people expect out of Facebook.” That encompasses all the integrations of Stories across the product.
Rushabh Doshi, Facebook’s engineering manager who oversees Stories
Still, the toughest nut to crack won’t be helping users figure out what to share but who to share to. Facebook Stories’ biggest disadvantage is that it’s built around an extremely broad social graph that includes not only friends but family, work colleagues, and distant acquaintances. That can apply a chilling effect to sharing as people don’t feel comfortable posting silly, off-the-cuff, or vulnerable Stories to such a wide audience.
Facebook has struggled with this problem in News Feed for over a decade. It ended up killing off its Friend List Feeds that let people select a subset of their friends and view a feed of just their posts because so few people were using them. Yet the problem remains rampant, and the invasion of parents and bosses has pushed users to Instagram, Snapchat, and other younger apps. Unfortunately for now, Doshi says there’s no plan to build Friend Lists or sharing to subsets of friends for Facebook Stories.
At 300 million daily users, Facebook Stories doesn’t deserve the “ghost town” label any more. People who were already accustomed to Stories elsewhere still see the feature as intrusive, interruptive, and somewhat desperate. But with 2.2 billion total Facebookers, the company can be forced to focus on one-size-fits-all solutions. Yet if Facebook’s Blink testing app can produce must-use filters and effects, and collaborative Stories can unlock new forms of sharing, Facebook Stories could find its purpose.
While this video shows a tiny robot from the City University of Hong Kong doing what amounts to a mitzvah, we can all imagine a future in which this little fellow could stab you in the kishkes.
This wild little robot uses electromagnetic force to swim or flop back and forth to pull itself forward through harsh environments. Researchers can remotely control it from outside of the body.
“Most animals have a leg-length to leg-gap ratio of 2:1 to 1:1. So we decided to create our robot using 1:1 proportion,” said Dr. Shen Yajing of CityU’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.
The legs are .65 mm long and pointed, reducing friction. The robot is made of “silicon material called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) embedded with magnetic particles which enables it to be remotely controlled by applying electromagnetic force.” It can bend almost 90 degrees to climb over obstacles.
The researchers have sent the little fellow through multiple rough environments including this wet model of a stomach. It can also carry medicines and drop them off as needed.
“The rugged surface and changing texture of different tissues inside the human body make transportation challenging. Our multi-legged robot shows an impressive performance in various terrains and hence open wide applications for drug delivery inside the body,” said Professor Wang Zuankai.
The team hopes to create a biodegradable robot in the future which would allow the little fellow to climb down your esophagus and into your guts and then, when it has dropped its payload, dissolve into nothingness or come out your tuchus.
GoPro’sstock price is on a bit of rebound this morning. The stock opened at $7.36, up from its previous close of $6.62, and is continuing to climb on news that Oppenheimer analyst Andrew Uerkwitz is now bullish on the action camera maker. He cites optimism around GoPro’s refreshed product line.
Uerkwitz changed his rating on the company from perform to outperform and issued a stock price target of $9, up 36% from GoPro’s most recent close of $6.62. GoPro last traded at $9 a share in November 2017.
GoPro’s latest products bring improved mechanics and additional features to the action cameras. The new flagship model retails for $400 and includes built-in stabilization and the ability to live stream video to the internet. The company also introduced two less expensive cameras and cancelled the GoPro Session product line. The new offering is streamlined and cohesive.
The Oppenheimer analyst seeming agrees, writing to clients “With compelling features such as live streaming and gimbal-like image stabilization, we believe the products are compelling” and adding “In summary, overlooked GoPro should be a buy.”
And for leaving a cool ~$850M in unvested stock on the table by not sticking it out a few more months inside Zuckerberg’s mothership, as co-founder Jan Koum did. (Collecting air cooled Porsches must be an expensive hobby, though.)
Acton has also suggested he was used by Facebook to help get its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp past EU regulators who had been concerned it might be able to link accounts — as it subsequently did.
“You mean it won’t make as much money”
The WhatsApp founders’ departure from Facebook boils down to a disagreement over how to monetize their famously ‘anti-ads’ messaging platform from Menlo Park.
Though how the pair ever imagined their platform would be safe from ads in the clutches of, er, an ad giant like Facebook remains one of the tech world’s greatest unexplained brain-fails. Or else they were mostly just thinking of the billions Facebook was paying them.
Acton said he tried to push Facebook towards an alternative, less privacy hostile business model for WhatsApp — suggesting a metered-user model such as by charging a tenth of a penny after a certain large number of free messages were used up.
But that “very simple business” idea was rejected outright by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who he said told him “it won’t scale”.
“I called her out one time,” Acton also told Forbes. “I was like, ‘No, you don’t mean that it won’t scale. You mean it won’t make as much money as…,’ and she kind of hemmed and hawed a little. And we moved on. I think I made my point… They are businesspeople, they are good businesspeople. They just represent a set of business practices, principles and ethics, and policies that I don’t necessarily agree with.”
CANNES, FRANCE – JUNE 22: Chief Operating Officer of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg attends the Cannes Lions Festival 2017 on June 22, 2017 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images for Cannes Lions)
Still, it seems Acton and Koum had a pretty major inkling of the looming clash of business “principles and ethics” with Facebook’s management, given they had a clause written into their contract to allow them to immediately get all their stock if the company began “implementing monetization initiatives” without their consent.
So with his ideas being actively rejected, and with Facebook ramping up the monetization pressure on the “product group” (which is how Acton says Zuckerberg viewed WhatsApp), he thought he saw a route to both cash out and get out — by calling in the contract clause.
Facebook had other ideas, though. Company lawyers told him the clause didn’t yet apply because it had only been “exploring”, not yet implementing monetization. At a meeting over the issue he said Zuckerberg also told him: “This is probably the last time you’ll ever talk to me.” So presumably things got pretty chilly.
The original $19BN deal for Facebook to buy WhatsApp had been rushed through over a weekend in 2014, and Acton said there had been little time to examine what would turn out to be crucial details like the monetization clause.
But not doing the due diligence on that clearly cost him a second very sizeable personal fortune.
Regardless, faced with more uncomfortably chilly meetings, and a legal fight to get the unvested stock, Acton said he decided to just take the winnings he already had and leave.
He even rejected an alternative proposed settlement (without fleshing out exactly what it was) — saying Facebook management had wanted to put a nondisclosure agreement in it, and “that was part of the reason that I got sort of cold feet in terms of trying to settle with these guys”.
“At the end of the day, I sold my company. I am a sellout. I acknowledge that,” he also told Forbes, indicating that he’s not unaware that the prospect of a guy who got really, really wealthy by selling out his principles and his users then trying to claw out even more cash from the ad tech giant he sold to probably wouldn’t look so good.
At least this way he can say he took an $850M haircut to show he ‘cared’.
In August Facebook confirmed that from next year it will indeed begin injecting ads into WhatsApp statuses — which is where the multimedia montage Stories format it cloned from Snapchat has been bolted onto the platform.
So WhatsApp’s ~1.5BN+ monthly users can look forward to unwelcome intrusions as they try to go about their daily business of sending messages to their friends and family.
How exactly Facebook will ‘encourage’ WhatsApp users to eyeball the marketing noise it intends to monetize remains to be seen. But tweaks to make statues more prominent/unavoidable look likely. Facebook is a master of the dark pattern design, after all.
The company is also set to charge businesses for messages they receive from potential customers via the WhatsApp platform — of between a half a penny and 9 cents, depending on the country.
So, in a way, it’s picking up on Acton’s suggestion of a ‘metered model’ — just in a fashion that will “scale” the bottom line in Sandberg’s sought for ‘loadsamoney’ style.
Though of course neither Acton nor Koum will be around to cash in on the stock uplift as Facebook imposes its ad model onto a whole new unwilling platform.
“I think everyone was gambling… because enough time had passed”
In perhaps the most telling tidbit of the interview, Acton reveals that even before the WhatsApp acquisition had been cleared he was carefully coached by Facebook to tell European regulators it would be “really difficult” for it to combine WhatsApp and Facebook user data.
“I was coached to explain that it would be really difficult to merge or blend data between the two systems,” Acton said.
An ‘impossible conjoining’ that Facebook subsequently, miraculously went on to achieve, just two years later, which later earned it a $122M fine from the European Commission for providing incorrect or misleading information on the original filing. (Facebook has maintained that unintentional “errors” were to blame.)
After the acquisition had been cleared Acton said he later learned that elsewhere in Facebook there were indeed “plans and technologies to blend data” between the two services — and that specifically it could use the 128-bit string of numbers assigned to each phone to connect WhatsApp and Facebook user accounts.
Phone-number matching is another method used to link accounts — and sharing WhatsApp users’ phone numbers with the parent group was a change pushed onto users via the 2016 update to WhatsApp’s terms and conditions.
(Though Facebook’s linking of WhatsApp and Facebook accounts for ad targeting purposes remains suspended in Europe, after regulatory push-back.)
“I think everyone was gambling because they thought that the EU might have forgotten because enough time had passed,” he also said in reference to Facebook pushing ahead with account matching, despite having told European regulators it couldn’t be done.
Regulators did not forget. But a $122M fine is hardly a proportionate disincentive for a company as revenue-heavy as Facebook (which earned a whopping $13.23BN in Q2). And which can therefore swallow the penalty as another standard business cost.
Acton said Facebook also sought “broader rights” to WhatsApp users data under the new terms of service — and claims he and Koum pushed back and reached a compromise with Facebook management.
The ‘compromise’ being that the clause about ‘no ads’ would remain — but Facebook would get to link accounts to power friend suggestions on Facebook and to offer its advertising partners better targets for ads on Facebook. So really they just bought themselves (and their users) a bit more time.
Now, of course, with both founders out of the company Facebook is free to scrub the no ads clause and use the already linked accounts for ad targeting in both directions (not just at Facebook users).
And if Acton and Koum ever really thought they could prevent that adtech endgame they were horribly naive. Again, most probably, they just balanced the billions they got paid against that outcome and thought 2x [shrug emoji].
Facebook’s push to monetize WhatsApp faster than its founders were entirely comfortable with looks to be related to its own concerns about needing to please investors by being able to show continued growth.
Facebook’s most recent Q2 was not a stellar one, with its stock taking a hit on slowing user growth.
Three years after the WhatsApp acquisition, Acton said Zuckerberg was growing impatient — recounting how he told an all-hands meeting for WhatsApp staffers Facebook needed WhatsApp revenues to continue to show growth to Wall Street.
Internally, Acton said Facebook had targeted a $10 billion revenue run rate within five years of monetization of WhatsApp — numbers he thought sounded too high and which therefore must be reliant on ads.
And so within a year or so Acton was on his way out — not quite as personally mega-wealthy as he could have been. But definitely don’t cry for him. He’s doing fine.
At the Signal Foundation, where Acton now works, he says the goal is to make “private communication accessible and ubiquitous”.
Though the alternative e2e encrypted app has only unquantified “millions” of users to WhatsApp and Facebook’s multi billions. But at least it has $50M of Acton’s personal fortune behind it.
There’s no doubt that the PS4 is an awesome console (our PS4 review) with some amazing games to play on it. To prove it, we’re going to round up the best games exclusively available on the PlayStation 4.
Whatever version of the PS4 you have, even if it’s the PS4 Pro or PS4 Slim, everyone owes themselves the pleasure of playing great games like Uncharted 4, God of War, and Spider-Man. Here are the best PS4 exclusives you can play today.
1. God of War
The God of War series has been a staple of the PlayStation consoles, but it’s never been better than the 2018 iteration. Moving onto Norse mythology, this adventure lets you take control of Kratos, with his boy Atreus at his side, as he aims to spread his wife’s ashes at the top of the realm’s highest peak. Of course, they encounter many foes along the way, from trolls to powerful Norse gods.
There’s so much to praise about God of War that it’s hard to single specific elements out. You’ll initially be impressed by this stunning world, further drawn in by the satisfying magical battle axe mechanics, but kept engrossed thanks to the special relationship this father and son possess. There’s violence abound, but plenty of love too.
2. Horizon: Zero Dawn
Aloy has grown up an outcast in a land taken over by futuristic machines. Despite living a sheltered life, she eventually breaks free and discovers that there’s an entire world of mystery and danger to explore. Horizon: Zero Dawn doesn’t skimp when it comes to its varied, multi-layered combat as Aloy battles against beasts of all shapes.
While some open-world games don’t actually craft an environment you want to spend time in, the mixture of nature and mechanics here is truly enticing, both in artistic design and technical impressiveness. Aloy’s character progression is masterfully performed by actress Ashly Burch and it’s great fun to upgrade her abilities and become a hunting expert.
3. Bloodborne
If you’re looking for a casual experience, Bloodborne isn’t for you. This is unrelentingly difficult. Citizens have been infected with a disease and it’s up to you to stop the plague and battle an assortment of creatures along the way. You’ll need patience, especially when encountering the bosses, but the satisfaction of victory is second to none.
You can wield swords, guns, and everything in-between. While Bloodborne certainly has excellent, fluid combat that challenges you to learn your enemy’s behavior, it also pieces the journey together with an inviting world that rewards you for exploring every nook and cranny.
4. Marvel’s Spider-Man
We all know who Spider-Man is, and the web slinger has never been better than in this action-adventure game. Offering up a heartfelt, unique story separate from any of the comics and films, this game lets you play as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, though really it’s the costumed superhero sections that provide the most fun.
Not only is Marvel’s Spider-Man beautiful to look at, but it’s a thrill to play. There’s nothing better than swinging through New York City and feeling the speed. Spider-Man lets you engage in smooth, varied combat and delve into the stories of some fan-favorite characters. Suit up and enjoy Peter’s journey as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
5. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
If this truly is the final Uncharted game to feature Nathan Drake, it’s a damn good way to go out. A Thief’s End is an accumulation of the wonderful journey that our thrill-seeking hero has been on. The prize of his eye this time? Pirate Captain Henry Avery’s lost treasure.
If you’re after unabashed, intense action then look no further. You’ll be swinging across rivers, fighting your way through moving trucks, and exploring abandoned cities; all aided by top class cinematography and graphical fidelity. But amongst the fun, you’ll also get to find out much more about Nate and his family, in a well nuanced story that explores far and wide, both geographically and emotionally.
6. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
This was originally intended as DLC to the fourth Uncharted game, but The Lost Legacy ended up becoming a release in its own right. It features all the staples of the series, like puzzles, platforming, and combat, but is the first Uncharted game without Nathan Drake. Instead, the protagonist here is Chloe Frazer, accompanied by Nadine Ross, and the duo set out to collect the Tusk of Ganesh from India.
The mountains and temples of India are stunningly realized here, as you climb, drive, and run through them. It’s so much fun to spend time in the world, as the chemistry between Chloe and Nadine fizzes and grows. Sure, it doesn’t really bring anything new to the Uncharted series in terms of gameplay, but when the quality is this good it doesn’t matter.
7. The Last Of Us Remastered
The Last of Us was one of the greatest games to grace the PS3, and the PS4 remaster is a gem. It’s one of the many remastered games that are better than the originals. Set in a post-apocalyptic United States, the story follows Joel as he transports a young girl, called Ellie, who is seemingly invulnerable to the human infection killing everyone else. The pair must fight and hide in a bid to survive. It’s gruesome, thrilling, and touching.
The remaster improves the frame rate, ups the resolution, and makes use of the DualShock 4. But it also includes the Left Behind DLC, a sweet adventure that explores Ellie’s earlier life, full of quiet moments and punchy thrills.
8. Shadow of the Colossus
Shadow of the Colossus took the PS2 by storm back in the day. A young man finds himself in a deserted cathedral with an unresponsive woman on his horse’s back, and is promised that he can get help if he kills the giant creatures that roam the land. There’s something tragic and lonely about the entire experience; this isn’t a game that revels in violence, but instead makes you ponder in quiet moments.
The game has been remade for the PS4. While the core gameplay remains the same, the control scheme has been improved. The most noticeable difference, though, is the audiovisual overhaul. This is a stunningly impressive game to look at and listen to. Those creatures you scale look incredibly imposing, the ancient lands they inhabit a wonder. An unforgettable classic.
9. The Last Guardian
The Last Guardian comes from the same team behind Shadow of the Colossus, which is abundantly clear through its themes alone. This sees you take control of a boy as he goes on a journey with a large, bird-like mammal. The pair aren’t weighed down by conversation, but their friendship blossoms and naturally grows nonetheless as they explore together.
‘Explore’ is the key word here, because you’ll be doing a lot of it. You gain more control over the creature as you progress, using each other’s abilities to solve environmental puzzles and keep moving. Those puzzles are integrated well into the design of the world, meaning you can focus on the tender relationship that makes up the core of this game.
10. Detroit: Become Human
What does it mean to be human? Detroit: Become Human is an adventure game featuring three androids as the playable characters. Through quick time events and dialogue, you make decisions and drive the story in particular directions. Whether you decide to be trusting or deceitful, friendly or aggressive, it all has an impact.
Special praise must be lauded to the writing and acting, which brings this sci-fi story to life. There are many subtle character moments that stand out, but also larger powerful scenes that will be sure to shock and move you. Tied together with excellent design, both in the world and the characters, and it makes this a game deserving of your time.
11. Until Dawn
The concept of choice is often poorly implemented in games, ending up as nothing more than an illusion. In Until Dawn, the choices you make will have dramatic impact on the cast of characters. One year after twin sisters disappear, a group of teenagers take themselves to a cabin for a night away. They soon find themselves under attack.
Ratchet & Clank isn’t a remaster or a remake. Instead, it’s a re-imagining of the 2002 PS2 classic of the same name, released to tie-in to the feature film that hit cinemas in 2016. It’s a 3D platformer full of cheeky charm, letting you roam across alien worlds and defeat bad guys.
Where else could you wield a weapon that morphs enemies into pixelated forms? Or a grenade that forces them to bust out their best dance moves? Ratchet & Clank doesn’t take itself too seriously, and features joyous visuals that are bursting with color.
Going Beyond PS4 Exclusives
These amazing games will keep you busy for a long time coming. If you’re comparing a PS4 to an Xbox One, remember that you’ll only find these on Sony’s console.
Do you want even more recommendations? If so, check out our guide to the must-buy games all PS4 owners should buy, which goes beyond the PlayStation-only exclusives we’ve listed here.
Reports are coming in that Amazon’s Alexa service is down in parts of UK, Spain, Germany and Austria. According to Down Detector and Twitter, the problem started surfacing around 8am local time and still continues. Interestingly, some users are reporting the issue is isolated to Echo Dot 2 models and while other Echo devices are still working. Sometimes. Other reports say everything is down. When users try to talk to their Echo devices, Alexa will report an error with connectivity and spin a red ring around the top.
Because of this outage, users will have to use wall switches to turn on lights, press buttons to make coffee and look outside to assess the weather. Sucks. I know.
As Engadget points out in their coverage, the outage could stem from Amazon Web Service issues at the company’s Ireland facility. Amazon is now reporting that those issues have been resolved so there’s a chance Alexa will be coming back online shortly.
