May 2017 CentralBeat / TechBeat Page 29
Snapchat’ s cool new features
It’ s Snapchat’ s turn to copy Instagram while also staying one step ahead of its competitor. Snapchat has launched a slew of new creative tools, several of which mimic Instagram’ s features, including the option to remove the 10-second time limit on viewing photos that still disappear once closed. But Snapchat’ s new option to let users erase real-world objects from their photos shows it’ s still pioneering the visual communication format. As Snap adds more creative tools, it’ s now organizing them all down the right side of the screen for easy access. Here’ s a breakdown of each of the new Snapchat creative features: Limitless Snaps – Now you can select the infinity icon in the Snap photo timer so friends can look at the Snap as long as they want. It will still disappear once closed, though. This could be useful for sharing important information like an address via photo. Instagram already allows limitless viewing of ephemeral Stories and Direct Messages. Looping Videos – You can tap the looping icon on the right side of the Snap composer to make your videos loop over and over, which is great for short videos or highlighting a particular moment. This gives Snap an animated GIF-style feature to compete with Instagram’ s Boomerang. Draw with Emoji – You can now use an emoji as a drawing brush. Select one from the creative tools on the right, and instead of a pen tip’ s colour, you’ ll see a trail of that emoji as you draw. This takes the pain out of drawing with emojis by sticking them on one by one. Instagram actually tried something similar back in December with its Candy Cane holiday brush, but currently only offers more traditional marker, highlighter and neon brushes. Magic Eraser – You can now select and remove objects from your Snaps, blurring their surrounding to cover the empty spot. Just select the Magic Eraser icon, paint over the object you want removed, and Snap will“ Photoshop” it out automatically. Now the question is how long til Instagram offers a Magic Eraser and emoji brush of its own. New studies and surveys collected by TechCrunch show that existing Snapchat users are staying loyal to the app despite the launch of Instagram Stories. But if Instagram can keep cloning Snapchat’ s best features and rolling them out to its international and older audiences, it could block Snap’ s growth prospects. Snap will need a steady stream of innovation to lure new users to an app where they might not have as big of a social graph, but can provide access to the coolest new creative tools first.
( TechInsider)
Lego launches NASA rocket kit
Lego Ideas is launching a NASA Apollo Saturn V rocket set on June 1, 2017, to help space fans everywhere pull off historic moon missions from the comfort of their own homes. Like NASA’ s storied space programme, this kit will come with three separable Saturn V rocket stages, a lunar orbiter, lunar module, crew of three astronauts, and even an American flag for the micro-figurines to plant on the moon.
But Lego’ s version won’ t cost billions upon billions of dollars, gobble up nearly 4.5 % of the US national budget, or need to be fueled with hundreds of thousands of gallons of highly flammable kerosene and liquid oxygen. Instead, each set of plastic parts will be scaled down 110 times, stand an impressive one-meter( 3.28 feet) tall when fully assembled, and sell for $ 119. Inside the box: exactly 1,969 pieces— a clever nod to the year of the first moon landing, by the crew of Apollo 11, in July 1969.
Lego rated the set for ages 14 and older. This should give parents a good excuse to steal it from their children, lock themselves in a bedroom, and gleefully assemble the space programme of their dreams on a carpet. The concept for this set got its start in August 2014, when users“ whatsuptoday” and“ saabfan” posted their Saturn V concept to the Lego Ideas community, which lets members create, submit, and vote on new set plans.
Within a year, their project received 10,000 votes from fellow fans of plastic bricks. This triggered an automatic review by a board of Lego set designers, and in June 2016, Lego announced that it would manufacture and sell the set. The company on Friday officially released the product.( As a reward, the two users will get 1 % of the product sales and licensing revenue, minus Danish taxes.)