Opera launched its dedicated "Crypto Browser" into beta back in January, promising to make Web3 as accessible as any Web2 website. The company released the browser for Windows, Mac and Android users back then, but the version for iOS devices still wasn't ready for rollout. Now, Opera has announced that the Crypto Browser for iPhones and iPads is out and available for download from its website.
The browser comes with a built-in non-custodial crypto wallet that supports the Ethereum, Bitcoin and other blockchain ecosystems. It will allow users to buy crypto coins with fiat currency and to trade any supported token without needing to install extensions. In addition, the browser will give users access to Web3-based NFTs and decentralized apps, including 7,000 services based on the Polygon ecosystem.
One of the browser's other features is a Crypto Corner start page, where users can get live information and updates on cryptocurrency, such as the latest prices and events, airdrops and relevant podcasts. Opera says it designed the browser for both veteran crypto users, as well as newbies who still need help navigating cryptocurrencies and Web3.
Jorgen Arnesen, EVP Mobile at Opera, said in a statement:
"The interest in Web3 is continuing to grow. The Opera Crypto Browser Project was built to simplify the Web3 user experience that has often been bewildering for mainstream users. Opera believes Web3 has to be easy to use in order to reach its full potential and a mass adoption."
Opera didn't say whether the iOS browser supports the more energy-efficient Etherium Layer 2 standard. It did launch Layer 2 support for the Android version back in February, however, which the company claims makes it the first mobile browser to have the feature.
Viewers have long complained about the early HBO Max app’s tendency to crash, and its lack of discoverability features. There have been a number of overhauls and fixes since then. Now we know why. Turns out that HBO Max launched its apps before they were ready in order to keep up with its competitors. The app was “never intended to go global” or to suit the needs of a direct-to-consumer market, according to an interview that Sarah Lyons, HBO Max’s head of product experience, gave Protocol. The network wanted to build an audience first, and then fix the app’s flaws as the service scaled up.
While Lyons admits that the early days of HBO Max were rocky, she thinks the company made the right decision. We’ve been changing out the engine of the plane while we’re flying the plane,” she said. “I do think it was the right decision to try to balance both,” said Lyons.
HBO Max first released its app in May 2020, to join an already saturated streaming ecosystem that included Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Apple TV+ and others. At the time, both HBO Go (the network’s on-demand app for cable subscribers) and HBO Now (the standalone app for cord-cutters) were still available, a fact that confused many subscribers. The network has since retired both apps.
Viewers have flocked to Reddit since the app’s initial launch with complaints that spanned platforms and devices. “We’ve been trying to watch the Harry Potter movies and literally every 15 min or so we get an ERROR message and have to force close the app. Another time it froze completely. It’s absolute garbage. I don’t have this problem with any other app or streaming service,” wrote one user in a thread on the r/HBOMax subreddit from January 2021 entitled “Why does this app suck so hard?”
For many viewers long-accustomed to advanced recommendation algorithms on Netflix and other streaming platforms, it was hard to get used to HBO Max’s lack of discoverability features. Lyons admitted that HBO Max wasn’t built with discovery in mind, and the app tried to address this by putting every new show on the app’s home page. “You didn't have to go find anything, because whatever [show] you were looking for was going to be at the top of the home page,” said Lyons.
While Engadget’s early review of HBO Max detailed its flaws, we pointed out that it was still a “smart bet” for the company. Since then, the service has made many improvements, including a new Apple TV app and updates to its apps for Roku, Playstation, Android TV and others. But following a recent $43 billion merger with Discovery, the biggest change is yet to come. The plan is to merge both Discovery Plus and HBO Max into one unified platform.
HBO Max ended 2021 with 43.8 million subscribers, when combined with the network’s cable subscribers of HBO who also have access to the streaming service. It’ll soon absorb at least another 22 million subscribers from Discovery Plus. While there could be more bumps down the road, viewers can at least be assured that HBO Max has more experience under its belt now.
Google has finally countered Apple's "Move to iOS" app by releasing "Switch to Android" for iOS on the App Store, confirming earlier rumors. As the name indicates, it's designed to help iPhone and iPad users import contacts, photos, calendars and video to an Android device. It also shows users how to turn off iMessage in favor of Android messaging and transfer photos/videos by connecting to iCloud.
Google dropped the new app without a lot of fanfare, as TechCrunch notes. On its Switch to Android website, the app is still not mentioned and can only be found on the App Store with a direct link — search results still turn up nothing.
The app is a big improvement over the current system, which requires you to back up photos, video, calendar and contacts using the Google Drive iOS app. It was first spotted last summer by 9to5Google in code tucked into Google's Data Transfer Tool, and seen in a more recent release with the ability to import iCloud video and photos into Google Photos.
Apple's equivalent app arrived way back in September 2015, so Google certainly took its time responding. "Move to iOS" works in much the same way, helping users import photos, video, messages, contacts and more over to an iOS device. One Android device maker, Samsung, has its own device migration app as well called Smart Switch, helping you switch from an iPhone or other Android device to a Galaxy smartphone. However, it's only available on Google Play or its own Galaxy store and doesn't run on iOS.
DuckDuckGo has revealed something it says its users have been requesting for years: a desktop browser. It will be available on Mac first, and a Windows version is coming in the near future. Until now, the only browser DuckDuckGo offered was on mobile.
As you might expect from a DuckDuckGo product, privacy is at the forefront. The browser uses DuckDuckGo's search engine by default, and the Smarter Encryption feature will make sure you use the encrypted HTTPS version of websites more often. There's a tracker blocker, email protection and the company's famed Fire Button, which closes all tabs and wipes your browser data with a single click.
In-app data such as your history, bookmarks and passwords are by default only stored on your system. You can import your bookmarks and passwords from some other browsers and password managers.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo says the browser will do away with many of those annoying cookie consent popups as well. It can clear them for you on certain sites by automatically rejecting as much cookie tracking as possible. This feature will be available for around half of all websites at the outset. DuckDuckGo says that figure will grow during the beta period.
In the privacy feed, you'll be able to see which sites tried to track you. There's the option to clear stored data from certain websites and to return to recently viewed pages, albeit with some extra privacy protection. DuckDuckGo claims its Mac browser is fast, too. It uses the same built-in rendering engine as Safari and blocks trackers before they load.
The Mac browser is in an invite-only beta. To sign up for the waitlist, either download the DuckDuckGo mobile app or update it to the latest version. From the "More from DuckDuckGo" menu in settings, select DuckDuckGo for Desktop and tap "Join the Private Waitlist." You'll eventually receive a notification with an invite code and link to snag the browser on your Mac. The process is a little unusual, but, appropriately enough, you won't have to provide any personal details.
Android owners who use Beats products are getting some more useful features. The Apple-owned brand is adding "Locate my Beats" and Product Widgets tools to its Android app.
You'll be able to track down misplaced earbuds, view battery life info and control listening modes (including noise cancellation) from your Android phone or tablet. Similar features are baked into iOS — iPhone users can locate compatible devices through Find My, for instance.
These features will be available for all products that work with the Beats app on Android, including Studio Buds. As it happens, Beats just revealed three new colors for the $150 Studio Buds, which it says is the fastest-selling Beats product to date. The Sunset Pink, Ocean Blue and Moon Gray variants are now available on Apple's website.
While Apple's iMovie software has always been a fairly powerful piece of movie-editing software, its main appeal is that it's a free and simple way to start making your own videos. But iMovie for the iPhone and iPad offers surprisingly little in the way of direction when you open it — it's up to the user to figure out how to structure their movie.
Apple is changing that significantly today with iMovie 3.0 for iOS and iPadOS, a free download that's available now. The software features two new creation modes, Magic Movie and Storyboards, to help people build videos for the first time.
Magic Movie automates a lot of the video creation process while still leaving room for plenty of customization, assuming you want to dig into the details. Apple recommends you start by choosing an album with related video clips and photos, but you can also manually select images and videos. From there, Magic Movie will analyze the content and look for things like faces, dialog and action to select the best parts of video clips and build out a movie from there, complete with transitions and music. The end result reminds me a lot of the "memories" that the iOS Photos app automatically builds — those memories also mix video and photo from the same day or event and adds a soundtrack and transitions to it.
Apple
Once Magic Movie puts together a project for you, there's a ton of customization you can do from there. Naturally, you can remove photos or videos that you don't want in the project, as well as quickly trim clips to show only the action you want. Instead of using a traditional horizontal timeline view, clips and images are contained in a vertically-scrolling left-side column (on the iPhone, it shows up below the video preview); you can easily drag and drop them to reorder the flow of your video. And tapping on an item in the left-side column gives you a bigger set of editing controls.
Another big part of iMovie 3.0's customization tools are a feature called Styles. These apply to the entire video and include things like fonts, color palettes and filters, music and transitions. There are a total of 20 to choose from, and while you can just set one and forget it, you also have the option to go in and adjust those individual characteristics if you want greater control over the final product.
Apple
The Storyboards features has a lot in common with Magic Movie, but it's a more manual tool. Storyboards starts by giving you more than 20 different video templates to choose from — options include video themes like "DIY," "day in the life," "how it works," "gaming," "Q&A" and so forth. When you select one of those options, the left side column populates with a rough structure for that video style, including broad categories and then examples of specific shots.
Apple
In a demo, Apple showed off a DIY project, which includes categories like "intro," "overview," "supplies" and so forth. Each of those sections is then populated with suggestions for different types of shots (wide shot, close-up and so forth). While you can obviously just import videos from your library right into these suggestions, you can also shoot directly on your iPhone or iPad and have that clip inserted into the slot.
As with Magic Movie, you can re-order and delete any suggestions from the left-side column, and tapping into it lets you do more involved editing. And the new Styles that are part of Magic Movie can be applied here, as well. The basic idea behind Storyboards is to give aspiring creators a framework to use when trying to put together a video, and while I haven't tried the app yet it does seem like a smart idea. As someone who has done very little video editing in his time, I could definitely see using a Storyboard as inspiration to get started on a video if I had an idea I wanted to pursue.
Once you have your creation finished, you can export it in a variety of video formats, in resolutions up to 4K; HDR content you may have filmed with be retained, as well. You can also export your iMovie project and open it up on a Mac. But before you do so, you should know that Storyboards and Magic Movie features are only available when using iMovie on an iPad or iPhone. Videos created with those tools will be exported in a format compatible with iMovie on the Mac, but you won't be able to edit or change Styles, for example.
If you want to try these new iMovie features, the updated app arrives today and will work on any iPhone running iOS 15.2 or higher, and on any iPad running iPadOS 15.2 or higher.
The rumors were true. Less than a month after Bloomberg reported that Spotify was mulling a name change for its Clubhouse competitor Greenroom, the company has officially done just that. Starting today, the live audio offering will be known as Spotify Live. Additionally, the company is integrating the live audio inside of its main app, confirming another item in that initial report.
To start, only "select original programming" will be available from Spotify Live in the app alongside music and podcasts. You won't have to wait to check it out though as a live episode of Off the Record with DJ Akademiks will stream today. On Friday (April 15th), the company is hosting a live DJ set from Swedish House Mafia as part of the group's album release party and it will only be available as it happens. Several other events are set for April and May, so there will be ample opportunity for you to see how Spotify Live works inside the Spotify app.
Live events will be available on the artist or show page with green labels so you can easily see them. Don't worry if your favorite shows aren't originals, the standalone Spotify Greenhouse — now Spotify Live — app lives on. The company says you'll still need it if you plan to hop in the chat or join a host onstage. It's not surprising that Spotify would give its originals preference for the new integration given the extent of its investments in programming.
Spotify launched its Clubhouse rival Greenroom last June, a few months after acquiring Betty Labs, the maker of a live audio app called Locker Room. Until now, the company kept its live audio aspirations separate from its core music and podcast streaming. However, it makes a lot of sense to combine the three in one place. If nothing else, it makes things convenient for casual listeners who don't usually participate in show chats and won't be a guest. What's more, it's far more likely someone who's curious will give a Spotify Live session a try if they don't have to download a separate app to check it out.
GoPro has unveiled Player + ReelSteady, a replacement for the GoPro Player app with added technology from GoPro's acquisition of ReelSteady. The new app introduces ReelSteady tools that let you stabilize most GoPro footage, including HyperSmooth shots. It works in real time, with "the ability to view the full-quality stabilized shot as soon as your video loads," GoPro wrote in a press release.
ReelSteady Go has been a popular app with the FPV drone crowd, which used it to smooth out flight videos and add cinematic effects. GoPro purchased the company in March 2020, promising to integrate the tech "across the GoPro App ecosystem to enhance the cinematic output of your content." GoPro initially sold ReelSteady Go separately, but it's now been discontinued and replaced by the Player + ReelSteady app.
Rather than using scene analysis like other apps to stabilize shots, ReelSteady uses gyro data directly from GoPro cameras. Previously, ReelSteady did not work with HyperSmooth footage (the setting needed to be disabled) but the Player + ReelSteady app now supports it. On the Player + ReelSteady product page, GoPro shows that you can achieve even smoother stabilization by combining the two (above).
Along with the stabilization features, the app lets you remove wide-angle lens curvature using ReelSteady, GoPro said. It also comes with a batch export feature to queue "hundreds of files" for export, the ability to reframe 360 MAX content, a player for regular and 360 content, the ability to do frame grabs and a trim function for editing.
It's now available for Mac and PC, with a $100 in-app purchase required to unlock the ReelSteady and Lens Correction features. However, existing ReelSteady Go customers "can use their existing activation key to redeem a free upgrade to the new GoPro Player + ReelSteady," the company wrote.
Microsoft said it has disrupted cyberattacks from a Russia-linked group called Strontium (aka APT28 and Fancy Bear) targeting Ukraine and the West. The software giant obtained a court order allowing it to take control of seven internet domains being used by Strontium to coordinate attacks. It announces the news shortly after the FBI said it disrupted botnets also run by the GRU.
"On Wednesday, April 6th, we obtained a court order authorizing us to take control of seven internet domains Strontium was using to conduct these attacks," said Microsoft security VP Tom Burt. "We have since re-directed these domains to a sinkhole controlled by Microsoft, enabling us to mitigate Strontium's current use of these domains and enable victim notifications."
Organizations targeted included Ukrainian institutions and media organizations, along with foreign policy government bodies in the US and EU. "We believe Strontium was attempting to establish long-term access to the systems of its targets, provide tactical support for the physical invasion and exfiltrate sensitive information," Microsoft said.
Its actions are part of a larger effort by businesses and government to thwart a wave of attacks directed at Ukraine. Microsoft has been taking legal and technical action to seize infrastructure used by APT28 as part of an "ongoing long-term investment started in 2016," said Burt. "We have established a legal process that enables us to obtain rapid court decisions for this work."
The FBI announced yesterday that it had silently removed Russian malware that allowed the country's GRU military intelligence arm to create botnets using infected computer networks. Strontium has reportedly operated since the mid-2000s and has been linked to attacks against US government agencies, EU elections, NGOs, non-profits and other agencies.
HBO Max is following through on promises to overhaul its underwhelming smart TV apps. Both Variety and The Verge say WarnerMedia is rolling out an updated Apple TV app that tackles some of the most glaring problems that remained. For one, it's finally built on a modern platform that should be more reliable than the relatively ancient HBO Go/Now framework. You'll also see a new home page with a "hero" banner you can scroll, the option to skip credits, more control over My Stuff watchlists and easier sign-ins.
The new version should reach your Apple TV device either this week or the next. You can already find the framework in many of HBO Max's other apps, including for Android, PlayStation, Roku players and TV sets from LG, Samsung and Vizio. Similar revamps are coming for Amazon Fire TV devices and the web.
The flawed Apple TV client was the result of WarnerMedia's desire to hurry the HBO Max launch. Rather than build its smart TV apps from scratch, the media company repurposed its HBO Go and HBO Now apps to cut development time. The company knew it would have to "replatform" the app to modernize it and accommodate both international expansion as well as more content, according to WarnerMedia executive VP Sarah Lyons.
That rushed approach might not have helped HBO Max's initial growth. JustWatch estimated that the service had 7 percent of the world's streaming market share in February versus 17.6 percent for Disney+. While we wouldn't count on a surge in demand linked to the new apps, they might help HBO keep subscribers who would otherwise be frustrated enough to leave.
