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DC5m United States in english 3 articles, created at 2016-12-24 16:00 articles set mostly negative rate -3.3

1 2.0 Google's Santa Tracker is live -- follow Kris Kringle's journey from the North Pole now! Today is Christmas Eve, meaning Santa Claus aka Kris Kringle will be making his global journey from the North Pole. The jolly man will be boarding his magic sleigh and delivering gifts to good boys and girls all over the world. I hope for Santa's sake... 2016-12-24 07:43 2KB feeds.betanews.com

2 3.4 Cyanogen failed to kill Android, now it is shuttering its services and OS as part of a pivot It's been a rocky few months for Cyanogen, the ambitious startup that aimed to build a better version of Android than Google. It has laid off staff, let go of.. 2016-12-24 07:30 3KB feedproxy.google.com

3 0.3 Indiegala gets into hot water for promoting sale with offensive meme store Indiegala has come under a lot of fire recently for posting a potentially offensive meme to promote a sale, a marketing fiasco against which even the game's developer has complained. 2016-12-24 05:30 1KB feedproxy.google.com Articles

DC5m United States software in english 3 articles, created at 2016-12-24 16:00

1 /3 2.0 Google's Santa Tracker is live -- follow Kris Kringle's journey from the North Pole now! Today is Christmas Eve, meaning Santa Claus aka Kris Kringle will be making his global journey from the North Pole. The jolly man will be boarding his magic sleigh and delivering gifts to good boys and girls all over the world. I hope for Santa's sake that none of the reindeer have flatulence issues this year -- that could make for a very long night for the man.

As is the case in the Internet age, you can once again follow Santa Claus' journey using Google's 'Santa Tracker'. If you have children, this can be a really fun and rewarding activity to do with them.

"For the last 23 days the residents of the North Pole have been working day and night to help Santa Claus get ready for his big flight. And if you’ve stopped by Santa’s Village this month, you know the elves are coding, geography and dancing machines. Now the time has come to #TrackSanta on his round-the-world mission with Donner, Cupid, Comet and Vixen (Rudolph and the other reindeer too)", says Google.

The search giant further says, "starting today you can follow Kris Kringle around the world as he delivers presents to all the good boys and girls. Get a front-row seat to the show using Android, Google Maps or Google.com. You can also stream Santa’s journey on your TV using Chromecast".

The ability to track Santa Claus on your TV with a Chromecast makes this a much better experience. While it is fun to do it on a laptop, smartphone, or tablet, following the journey on a large screen as a family should be much more rewarding. Ready to start tracking? You can do so here.

Image Credit: wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock

2016-12-24 07:43 Brian Fagioli feeds.betanews.com

2 /3 3.4 Cyanogen failed to kill Android, now it is shuttering its services and OS as part of a pivot It’s been a rocky few months for Cyanogen , the ambitious startup that aimed to build a better version of Android than Google. It has laid off staff, let go of its CEO and parted ways with another co-founder — now it is shutting down its services and nightly software builds on December 31.

The news was announced in a brief blog post released late on Friday:

This update means owners of a device that runs the Cyanogen OS — such as the OnePlus One — must now transition over to the CyanogenMod ROM, which is not a commercial product and is managed by a community of developers led by former co-founder Steve Klondik .

This essentially marks the end of Cyanogen’s grand ambition. Outspoken former CEO Kirk McMaster once claimed his company was “putting a bullet through Google’s head,” but now it is transitioning to a different approach that new CEO Lior Tal believes will be more attractive to OEMs.

Tal, who was previously Cyanogen COO, described the new Cyanogen Modular OS program as “designed to achieve the original objective of an open and smarter Android without the limitations of requiring the full Cyanogen OS stack and individual device bring-ups.”

Essentially, Cyanogen has given up on killing Google and will instead adapt to live in Google’s world.

Its software was always a hard sell because it required handset makers to ditch Android and Google services entirely in favor of Cyanogen’s own alternatives. Then there was the politics. OnePlus was Cyanogen’s largest partner, but the relationship was strained and it ended on a sour note after just one device.

Now that these Cyanogen services are dying, Tal’s strategy is to unbundle what the Cyanogen OS did offer so that it can work in conjunction with regular Android builds and the stock services that Google provides with it.

“The new partnership program offers smartphone manufacturers greater freedom and opportunity to introduce intelligent, customizable Android smartphones using different parts of the Cyanogen OS via dynamic modules and MODs, with the ROM of their choice, whether stock Android or their own variant,” Lior said in a statement in October when he took his new role.

Cyanogen has raised $115 million to date from investors which include Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark, according to Crunchbase. Lior said in late November that the company is “well funded,” yet it has spent half of the year in cost-cutting mode. It made layoffs over the summer and recently shuttered its Seattle office in order to “consolidate” its workforce into one team based out of its base in Palo Alto. The closure of its services is a further cost-saving move that fits with its pivot to make it more accessible and less of commitment for prospective partners. The question now is whether it can offer anything that partners actually want and will pay for.

Hat tip @ow 2016-12-24 07:30 Jon Russell feedproxy.google.com

3 /3 0.3 Indiegala gets into hot water for promoting video game sale with offensive meme Indiegala is an online store that promotes and sells keys for independently-developed games. While the store is quite popular among gamers who prefer indie titles, the company has recently got into hot water for promoting a video game sale with an offensive Islamophobic meme.

In an apparent marketing fiasco, Indiegala promoted the first-person-shooter game Insurgency with a meme that might have alienated thousands of potential buyers.

The meme, which has been posted on official Indiegala accounts on various platforms, has caused backlash from thousands of users. Many have criticized it for being in poor taste, and for inciting hate against Islam. Others have also called out Indiegala for promoting the wrong meaning of the word "Allahu Akbar", and associating it with terrorism unjustly. In fact, even the developer of the game has demanded that the tweet be removed from Twitter, labeling it as offensive.

While the meme has been removed from Indiegala's Twitter profile, it is still available for viewing on the store's Facebook account , where it is drawing lots of controversy. Indiegala is yet to publicly respond to the backlash.

Source: Rami Ismail (Twitter) via Engadget

2016-12-24 05:30 Usama Jawad feedproxy.google.com

Total 3 articles.

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Created at 2016-12-24 16:00