As you know, we are just now diving fully into the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, so that means we are discovering all of the new tweaks to software that Samsung has issued this time around in real-time. As we discover them we will share them, assuming they are a big enough deal, like new improvements to Always-on Display, a feature first introduced with the Galaxy S7 that didn’t quite live up to the hype.
On the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung has improved Always-on Display by adding something that should have been a part of the experience from day 1 – notifications from all apps. You may recall that with the S7, we called Samsung’s Always-on Display a “decent first attempt,†but found the lack of notifications to be a major downer, leaving the idea of an always-on display…lacking.Â
Within minutes of setting up my Note 7 and turning on Always-on Display, I noticed this new change right away. In the past, Samsung would only show you missed notifications from the stock phone and messaging apps. On the Note 7, you get everything. As of right now, I have notifications showing for Samsung Pay, Hangouts and Inbox. At one point, I also had a screenshot notification, a bunch of Samsung’s Galaxy Apps store, and a + symbol that told me there were even more to see.
Sure, you can’t interact with any of these notifications like you can with Motorola’s Moto Display or Google’s Ambient Display, but it’s a hell of a lot better than what you get on the S7. Now, instead of just being a clock and battery meter, you can actually look at your phone and see if it needs you to take care of business.
NOTE: Yeah, we know that dozens of Note 7 reviews are out and you might know a bunch of the stuff we are about to post. Honestly, I don’t care. If you know this stuff already, cool! We’re still going to cover this like we do all phones and that means sharing the interesting bits of info we find as we find them.
A US district court judge in San Francisco has rejected Uber’s attempt to settle a class action lawsuit between the company and roughly 385,000 drivers in California and Massachusetts. Uber announced in April that it would settle with the drivers for $100 million, but the drivers would have to keep their status as independent contracts, rather than becoming official Uber employees. However, US District Judge Edward Chen ruled Thursday that the settlement was not fair for the drivers.
At the heart of the lawsuit, the drivers allege they were entitled to expenses like gas, vehicle maintenance and insurance to cover them between passengers. As Reuters reports, some of the drivers filed objections with the court after the offer from Travis Kalanick and company, claiming the settlement was far less than the estimated $850 million in damages. The settlement would have paid out $84 million to drivers immediately, but another $16 million at some unspecified date in the future after Uber goes public.
According to MarketWatch, most drivers would get less than $24 out of Uber’s offer, which is less than the cost of filling up a Prius in San Francisco. And Judge Chen took their side, saying it was a "substantial discount" on their claims. Uber, for their part, expressed their displeasure in a statement: "The settlement, mutually agreed by both sides, was fair and reasonable. We’re disappointed in this decision and are taking a look at our options." Although it’s a ways off, those options might one day include doing away with drivers entirely.
When Comcast launched its gigabit cable service in Atlanta and Nashville earlier this year, the company offered a $70 monthly price for customers who sign three-year contracts, half off the no-contract "every-day" price.
Comcast’s Chicago announcement said the company "will test promotional pricing during the trial period," but didn’t name any specific offers that are better than the $140 no-contract price. When contacted by Ars, a Comcast spokesperson said there is "nothing to announce at this time." The Chicago service may also come with a 1TB monthly data cap, as Comcast has previously only provided unlimited data to gigabit customers who sign the three-year contract. Otherwise, unlimited data costs $50 a month extra.
Project Arena is a full-body VR game that pits two players against each other in a Tron-esque light disc battle. It was born from Icelandic developer CCP’s "VR Labs," an initiative of experimentation and iteration, where teams are free to create lots of working concepts before working out which can become full games. Project Arena has already passed the first test — it morphed from the concept phase last year (when it was called Disc Arena) into the "project" phrase this year.
Playing the game is intuitive. CCP is only showing off ‘brawl mode,’ which is a straight player-versus-player experience. I wore an HTC Vive headset, and in each hand I held a Vive controller. A voiced tutorial then talked me through the basic mechanics. The aim of the game is to hit your opponent with a light disc, which you can either throw directly at them or bounce off walls. You only have one disc, and if you miss, you need to wait for it to come back and catch it. At the same time, your opponent throws their disc at you, and you need to either deflect it with your hands or dodge it entirely. You also have a large shield that you can use three times if you’re in trouble. Each player gets three lives, and there are two rounds to decide a winner.
I had a lot of fun with Project Arena, and it’s a very polished VR experience already — just like Eve: Valkyrie and Gunjack before it. I’m hopeful that CCP will take it further and turn it into a full game, as there’s no reason this couldn’t work with a Rift, a Vive or PSVR at home. And that’s not just blind optimism: So far, Project Arena has followed the same development path that led to the Gear VR shooter Gunjack being released.
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That’s why they trademark their names, catchphrases and logos — things they think might turn into money-making ventures down the line. Sprinter Usain Bolt, for instance, trademarked an icon of the “lightening bolt” stance he’s so well known for.
And it’s not just Olympians — plenty of pro-athletes seek trademarks to make money outside of their playing careers.
Usain Bolt
Bolt, the “World’s Fastest Man,” won his eighth gold medal Thursday night. And even though he’s Jamaican he holds several U.S. trademarks.
Many involve his name in various fonts and phrases like “Bolt to the world,” in addition to the Bolt icon.
Bolt can’t trademark the actual physical pose — only symbols, words, phrases and designs can be trademarked, according to Professor J. Gordon Hylton of the University of Virginia School of Law.
Also, applicants must show that their trademark will be used on commercial goods, and it can’t go unused for more than three years.
Michael Phelps
Phelps secured his 23rd gold medal in Rio. He holds the rights to the “MP” logo, which appeared on his swim cap during the Olympics, and the name “Michael Phelps Swim School,” which is a chain headquartered in Baltimore.
Jared Allen
Former NFL defensive end Jared Allen trademarked the logo for his main company, “Jared Allen 69 Inc.,” as well as his charity, “Jared Allen’s Home 4 Wounded Warriors,” which builds handicap accessible homes for military veterans.
He also holds the trademark for the phrase “got strange?” and “Jared Allen’s Pro Bull Team,” a professional bull-riding team.
Lance Armstrong
The “Livestrong” brand is perhaps the most famous trademark on this list. Armstrong founded the cancer charity in 1997 and served as chairman until 2012 when he stepped down amid a doping scandal.
The Lance Armstrong Foundation still holds the right to the “Livestrong” trademark.
Robert Griffin III
The NFL quarterback originally trademarked his nickname “RGIII,” as well as seven phrases, including “Dream Big Live Bigger,” “Unbelievably Believable,” “Light You Up,” and “No Pressure No Diamonds.”
He let all of those trademarks lapse except for his nickname and the phrase “Know Your Why,” but trademarking things before it’s clear they’ll catch on is a shrewd move that could end up being lucrative, according to intellectual property lawyer Jaia Thomas.
“I recommend filing early just to protect the mark,” she said. “Actually I’m surprised more athletes, like Steph Curry for example, don’t do it to protect their brand.”
LeBron James
King James has trademarked a line of basketball-themed furniture under the mark “Home Court by LeBron James.” He’s also trademarked “The LeBron James Family Foundation” and the phrase “Just a kid from Akron.”
Jeremy Lin
The NBA player holds multiple trademarks, including “Linsanity.”
The term, which he filed for in 2012, was the name of the craze that hit when he seemingly came out of nowhere to lead the New York Knicks in a series of wins.
Shaquille O’Neal
O’Neal has trademarks for a wide range of things, including the name “Shaquille O’Neal All Star Comedy Jam,” which is for his live, touring comedy show.
Shaquille also has “Dunkman” for apparel and accessories, “ShaqFu” for books, soft drinks and video games and “Shaq Attaq” for clothing and footwear.
He’s even trademarked his signature.
Terrell Owens
The former Dallas Cowboys wide receivertrademarked the phrase “Getcha Popcorn Ready” in 2007. Owens also holds the rights to the phrase “I Love Me Some Me,” and a logo for his line of menswear, “Prototype 81.” The logo incorporates a “TO” symbol that he had under trademark until January.
Darrelle Revis
New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis trademarked the phrase “Revis Island,” which refers to his style of play, and appears on things like swimwear, sleepwear and t-shirts.
He’s also got an approved trademark application on “Showroom 24,” an online retailer that would sell everything from clothing to perfume, but it has yet to be registered.
Tim Tebow
The former NFL quarterback who’s now pursuing a possible pro-baseball career, holds the trademark for “Tebowing” through his marketing company, “XV Enterprises.”
The term refers to the kneeling prayer stance Tebow took before games.
CNNMoney (New York) First published August 19, 2016: 12:39 PM ET
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No Man’s Sky has been out on PC for less than a week, but that’s plenty of time for some mods to pop up. Some motivated players have taken up the task of improving or tweaking the game, and their mods are now available for you to download.
It’s still very early, so most of these mods are minor. This being said, some of them are actually quite helpful, making quality-of-life improvements that smooth out some of the potentially annoying parts of the game. We’ve taken a dive into Video Game Mods, currently the primary site for No Man’s Sky mods, and found the best changes and additions to the game that are available now.
Super Hyperdrive
Let’s break the game right off the bat–Super Hyperdrive, made by user atomicinf, is described as a proof-of-concept mod that changes the multiplying factor on hyperdrive distance. In other words, it bumps up the amount of space you can cover with one hyperdrive jump by a factor of 1000.
Atomicinf writes, "This is a proof of concept to demonstrate that core data files, like the technology table, can be modified to have interesting effects. The next steps for the modding community would be to figure out how to add new entries to tables, and figure out a clean way to merge multiple table mods."
We checked this mod out, and, as you might expect, it dramatically reduces the difficulty of the game. Being able to fling yourself toward the center of the universe with huge hyperdrive jumps makes the journey fairly trivial–although finding Warp Cell materials is still a concern. You can download it here.
Cel-Shading/Graphics Mod
There aren’t many graphics mods out there yet, but one that’s pretty cool is SweetFX by user KeriaGaming. It removes some of the visual effects and adds a cel-shading filter onto the game.
With the mod, the game looks kind of similar to Borderlands. You can see a comparison of the modded game (left image) and the normal game (right image) below.
This is probably the most essential mod made so far: it cranks up the speed on actions so that you only need to click to act, as opposed to holding down the mouse button to "confirm" your action. Of course, this also means that you can accidentally sell or dismantle something much easier. But personally, I’m willing to take that chance in exchange for bypassing the long clicks.
If you feel that the HUD icons for resources could be a little prettier or less intrusive, you’re not alone. One modder has decided to make resource icons appear more like 3D highlights rather than 2D notifications. The Holo Icons mod makes these symbols look like they’re floating in space. Here’s what it looks like:
The one issue is that planetary or orbital objective markers are still rendered as normal, which looks strange when combined with the holographic icons. But it’s still a pretty cool mod, and you can grab it here from modder fullbitgamer.
Clean Icons
If holographic icons aren’t your style, you can also pick up the flatter, more minimalist Clean Icons mod from user enem. This replaces all the symbols in the game with flat, "clean" symbols. You can see it in action below.
Let’s break the game again with the Trainer mod, which essentially allows you to get rid of all the pesky resource management and health parts of the game. With the press of a button, you can give yourself millions of units, make yourself invincible, refuel your ship, and give yourself infinite resources. It completely bypasses every challenge in the game, and you can zip around the universe very quickly. Coupled with the Super Hyperdrive mod mentioned previously, this would let you get to the center in record time.
Obviously, if you want to play the game the "right" way, this mod isn’t for you. But if you want to just cruise around without having to worry about anything, the trainer lets you do that. I’ll probably install this mod after I finish the game so I can go exploring without being concerned about hazards or money.
And then there are mods that just add weird things to the game, like this one from militiaspack that gives the game a Rick and Morty theme. The modder replaced some of the icons and a bunch of the sound effects with assets from the TV show, and the result is pretty hilarious.
It’s simple, and the modder explains that it’s still in the early stages, but it makes me excited to see what other modders will do and add to the game. You can download it here.
Keep an eye on GameSpot for more cool and interesting No Man’s Sky mods in the future.
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