The actual gameplay is pared back to give way to relentless cutscenes. Action sequences are reduced, mostly, to quick time events and button-bashing. In-level environments are smaller, with less opportunity to roam and discover secrets. There seemed to be more cutscenes and action-packed setpieces than ever before, and while it made for a more visually-pleasing experience, the gameplay felt dumbed down as a result. Frankly, I’m so bored of this formula.Īpart from telling a different story and giving us a franchise we haven’t seen LEGO-digitised before, there’s absolutely nothing new about the levels in LEGO The Incredibles. Frequent cutscenes tell the story, and there’s plenty of hidden collectibles to find in each level – that, naturally, you’ll need to play the level again to collect. If you’ve ever played a Traveller’s Tales game before, you know the score: you make your way through a number of environments, destroying stuff and solving simple puzzles along the way. The levels play through the story of both Incredibles films, in typical rushed LEGO fashion. Like every LEGO game that came before it, LEGO The Incredibles is, at least initially, level-based. But it also has lots of stale parts that, after more than 13 years worth of LEGO games, ought to have been updated a long time ago. Like any LEGO game, The Incredibles has plenty of enjoyable moments and fun aspects of gameplay. The question is: has it been worth waiting for? I’m not quite sure. It’s old news in the US, having released nearly a full month earlier, but thanks to that blasted World Cup, the UK film release was held back, and with it, the game too. LEGO The Incredibles The latest in a long line of LEGO games from Traveller’s Tales, LEGO The Incredibles, is out today in the UK after a lengthy wait.
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More anniversary events to be announced soon.A limited edition Cactus Cafe 40 th anniversary T-shirt and baseball cap to be sold as a fundraiser.Bluegrass trio I’m With Her, featuring Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan, performs at the Hogg Auditorium, with special guest Delle Sorelle, on Feb.Indie-Americana singer-songwriter David Ramirez – who gained prominence after his 2011 Cactus Cafe residency – hosts a four-night stand where he will perform a different album each night along with friends. Highlights of the yearlong 40 th anniversary celebration include: It’s one of those rare places that feels magical upon stepping through the door, and that feeling comes through in the music that’s played on the stage.” “My very first live shows were there – I remember my parents taking me to see Bill Staines as a kid I heard so many of my mom and dad's stories from their college days seeing Shawn Colvin, Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett ‘before anyone knew who they were.’ I have such fond memories of sitting in with Tim O’Brien, Chris Thile and Mike Marshall, Ben Sollee, and duo shows with Billy Bright. “The red velvet curtains, the small wooden tables and chairs, the smell of coffee wafting from the back of the room - it all comes together to create the perfect little listening space. “The Cactus Cafe was my first impression of what a music venue should be – intimate and inviting, the stage and space has a way of making the listeners feel like they’re a part of the show,” said artist Sarah Jarosz. Next month, the Cactus Cafe kicks off a yearlong 40th anniversary celebration with an I’m With Her concert and a David Ramirez four-night stand, as well as other events to be announced. Forty years later, the Cactus Cafe continues to be one of Austin’s great Americana music traditions. 24, 2019 – On Valentine’s Day in 1979, a small music venue opened on the University of Texas at Austin campus, becoming an iconic listening room where artists such as Robert Earl Keen, David Ramirez, Townes Van Zandt, Lucinda Williams, Wood & Wire, and many others honed their craft before achieving success. Yearlong celebration includes concerts with I’m With Her, David Ramirez and moreĪUSTIN, Texas – Jan. When you are at school or work and want to email a book to Kindle, this is possible. Send to Kindle for email is also a very useful tool. This will only work with books in an Amazon friendly DRM-Free format, such as MOBI, AZW etc. Import the book and then just click send, and it will use Amazons servers to send the book over. If you have multiple Kindles, apps and other things in your account, just select the one you are using. Once you download the app you will have to login using your Amazon login and password. In the meantime, you can use this program to send over books to your Kindle. This all happens automatically during the conversion process. Starting in August, Amazon will let you send EPUB files using this program and convert them on the fly to a Kindle friendly format. Send to Kindle for PC and MAC are too popular tools to send over documents to books to your Kindle. Once this is done you can send to to your Kindle directly. You can then manually write in the authors name in the author filed and the book name in the book field and then fetch new metadata and it will give you a few difference source options. To fix that, just import the book into Calibre and right click and select change metadata. This can create problems when you want to search for the author name or the book name, using the search function on the Kindle. An example of bad metadata is when the authors name and title of the book is in the same field. This is useful if a book cover art is not attached to the book you downloaded or if it has bad metadata. Once this is done you can click on the Send to Kindle button on the top navigation bar and it will automatically send to the e-reader.Īnother tool is metadata. You can simply right click on the book and select convert, and from the dropdown select the outgoing format. So you will have to convert it from one format to another, I would recommend AZW, since it can take advantage of most of Amazons new typography. The most popular one out there is EPUB, which you can’t sideload on your Kindle, since it cannot read the file. Most of the time, when you download books from the internet, they are seldom available in a Kindle friendly format. Select the DRM-Free book that is on your computer and you will then see the cover art, a description of the book and what format it is in. Plugin your Kindle to your computer or laptop with the USB cable. To get started with Calibre, simply download it HERE. This tool is really useful because it will preserve ebook cover art, so when it is loaded on your Kindle, you will also see the cover art, using other methods, cover art will not normally show up. There is also advanced tools that will fetch cover art and also get metadata from Amazon, Google and other providers. You can easily use this program to import books into your library and send them to your Kindle. The vast majority of people simply use Windows Explorer or File Manager, but there is also some better options out there.Ĭalibre is a free ebook management program that is available for PC, MAC, LINUX and Android. Sometimes, users will want to sideload in their own books via a PC or MAC. They have one of the largest digital bookstores in the world, thanks to their agreements with almost every publisher, in addition to their self-publishing system, Kindle Direct Publishing. One of the benefits of owning a Kindle, is the deep and vast ecosystem that Amazon provides. Imágenes Galería de imágenes y wallpapers de Avowed para PC y Xbox Series X/S con diferentes resoluciones y en alta. the Communist Chinese had avowed the intention of opening up on Formosa. Most of these changes should be arriving this year. Avowed es el nuevo juego de rol de Obsidian para Xbox Series X y PC. been the end of the matter, but shortly thereafter a leak was provided to the. The screen, meanwhile, is a 10. TechRadar says, “This is based on internal documents leaked from inside Google, which also mention making search more “visual,” more “snackable,” and more “human” – so make of those buzzwords what you will. The specs are listed as a Tensor G2 chipset, 8GB of RAM, and either 128GB or 256GB of storage. None of this is official, and the name Magi may or may not be the official name for the AI search function within Google Search. The leak may or may not be legit so take it. We already know that Microsoft has integrated ChatGPT into its search engine now, a new leak has surfaced published by The New York Times that claims Google will follow suit by integrating Google Magi into Google search. Avowed rumours Although a ResetEra leak in 2020 hinted that the developer was aiming for a late 2022 to early 2023 launch, YouTube user eXtas1s supposedly leaked that Avowed has been given a. So Youtuber JuiceHead recently posted this video talking about a new leak that gives some details about Avowed. If Google Magi is a thing, we will see another increase in the hype.ĪI, in some form, has already been integrated into many things at many levels, but an AI bot like BardAI AI or ChatGPT is a leap forward from Siri or Alexa. Please stop this nonsense where you guys instantly believe these. As soon as a positive PlayStation leak comes from people who are actually credible it’s not believed here but negative is automatically believed I wonder. There has been buzz and reporting on the subject in the past, but it seems the intensity has snowballed. Every leak that is positive about Xbox here is automatically believed but negative leaks are always mass downvoted. Set within the realm of Eora, Avowed will apparently be 'much, much larger' than Skyrim, albeit 'very differently ‘larger’.' The leak states that a 'more proper word would be ‘denser’ and. The tech industry and tech media have been hyperfocused on artificial intelligence (AI) since the release of ChatGPT. I am an Adobe Education Trainer and have been teaching Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for over 15 years. You may also be interested in another Layer Mask Photoshop tutorial about how to create a really cool photo to ink drawing special effect using a layer mask and a gradient. Please share this Photoshop tutorial with your friends, neighbours, the world! Thank you. The eyes and lips on the image are now nice and sharp, while the rest of the face appears softer.Īnd that’s an example of ONE way to sharpen a portrait in Photoshop. Notice the black mask thumbnail shows exactly where we painted with white. Select a soft round tip Paintbrush ( B on the keyboard) and paint over the eyes and lips. You want to paint on the mask and not paint white pixels on your image.Ħ. Make sure that the layer mask is selected in the layer by clicking on the mask thumbnail on the layers panel. You’ll now paint in the eyes and lips using white.ĥ. It appears as if the current sharpened layer is now invisible and you will only see your original starting photo. Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac) the Layer Mask button at the bottom of the layers palette to add a black layer mask, which hides the entire layer. (For the purposes of demonstration I’ve COMPLETELY oversharpened here.)Ĥ. Overall, the image may look too sharp, but that’s ok because we are going to hide most of it with a mask. Use the Amount and Radius sliders to increase the sharpening on the image. Make sure the duplicated layer is selected in the layers palette and then choose Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Duplicate the background layer by pressing Ctrl + J (Windows) or Cmd + J (Mac).ģ. areas painted in white on the mask are visible.Ģ. areas painted in black on the mask are hidden on those layers.The key thing to remember when working with Layer Masks is: Today’s tutorial features the layer mask but this time we’re looking at a technique photographers use to give subtle sharpening to a portrait. If you’re new to Layer Masks and would like to learn more about them, check out my Beginner’s Guide To Layer Masks, which explains everything you need to get started. So we can edit to our heart’s content, and then change it back easily. Importantly they are a non-destructive and reversible way to edit images. Layer masks in Photoshop are a fantastic tool for retouching photos because they allow us to show and hide parts of a layer, so we can be precise about which parts of the image we are changing. In this short Photoshop tutorial, we’ll look at how to sharpen an image using a Layer Mask to pick out only the parts of the image that we want to sharpen. Masks let us hide and show parts of a layer and are an essential skill for anyone creating graphics or editing photographs. The ability to use Layer Masks in Photoshops allows you to combine images and create compositions in a non-destructive way. Once it does, you can just enter an emoji and the app would automatically start suggesting the stickers to you. The feature is rolling out over time as usual so sit tight if it's not already available within the Gboard app. Still, they seem fun and a lot better than using the same old emojis. Also, these are only available for select combinations of emoji, typically the ones that have the yellow round faces. Unfortunately, these aren't actual emoji but stickers, which means you can't use them as text and only in apps that support stickers. There's no bot automating the combinations here but rather the all the variations are made by scratch by Google designers, which means it was a lot more work and they generally look better than what a bot would come up with. Google's totally original, not inspired at all implementation works a bit differently. □ vomiting + □ horrified = /FbM4ZoFQ3x- Emoji Mashup Bot February 9, 2020 Google Gboard's Emoji Mashup Blender demonstration 7,208 views 78 Dislike Share Save NL Tech 25K subscribers Presumably inspired by the Emoji Mashup Bot on Twitter, Google took. Sorted by: Newest Oldest Comments Favorites High Score Low Score Views. The account publishes an edited image that combines two or more emojis into one new emoji every hour. The creator also eventually made a free iMessage sticker pack out of some of the new emoji that the bot created. Emoji Mashup Bot is a Twitter account founded by Louan Bengmah. Emoji Mashup Bot (EmojiMashupBot) AugFor the uninitiated, emoji are special characters, like a winking face, dancing girl or, yes, pile of poop. Thousands of combinations are available, using Gboard for Android. Gboard also includes an emoji mashup feature known as Emoji Kitchen which allows two emojis to be combined into a sticker. Additionally it provides the bases. These images are also used for Slack on non-Apple platforms including Windows, Linux, and Android. svg files and combine the outputs, its up to you how you want to implement it. Created by Twitter user the bot takes bits from different emoji and combines them into often amusing creations. Open Emoji Mash provides scripts to render. If you are familiar with the Emoji Mashup Bot account on Twitter, you would already be aware of the concept. So, for example, you typed the cowboy emoji, you will be suggested stickers that combine the cowboy emoji with the kissing emoji, the laughing emoji, the heart eyes emoji and even the monkey emoji. The way this works is you type an emoji and Gboard then shows you stickers, which use the emoji you typed and combines them with others to create interesting and fun new combinations. The feature is essentially a sticker pack that is made using a combination of different emoji. Google is rolling out a new feature in Gboard called Emoji Kitchen. Java SE Development Kit 8 has had 3 updates. Setx -m JAVA_HOME "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-11.0. Download Java SE Development Kit 8 for Windows to build highly sophisticated applications, applets, and components using the Java programming language. Open Command Prompt window under administrator privilege and type the following command: If not, creating one is free.Run the downloaded file, and you will see the JDK 11 setup program appears: Just click Next twice to proceed installation with the defaults.Note that Oracle JDK 11 does not update system environment variables, so you have to manually update PATH and/or JAVA_HOME after installation. Note that you must have an Oracle account to be able to download JDK 11 installer. The JDK includes the JRE, so you do not have to download both separately. Free Download Java SE Development Kit standalone offline installer for Windows allows you to play online games, chat with people worldwide, calculate your mortgage interest, and view images in 3D. The JDK includes tools useful for developing and testing programs written in the Java programming language and running on the Java TM platform. Oracle JDK 11 comes with installers for Linux (rpm and deb), macOS (dmg), Windows (exe) and archive files (tar.gz and zip).For Windows, I recommend to download the file jdk-11.0.7_windows-圆4_bin.exe. Develop Java applications: Download and install the Java Development Kit (JDK) for your platform. The JDK is a development environment for building applications using the Java programming language. According to Oracle, JDK 11 will be supported (commercial support) until September 2026.Head to Java SE Development Kit 11 Downloads page and choose the download file appropriate to your operating system. double click on the java.exe Also check and edit the registry value for JAVA current version if required. Download and Install Oracle JDK 11Oracle JDK 11 is the first LTS (Long Term Support) Java Development Kit since Oracle changed Java release cadence to every 6 months. put java.exe, javaw.exe Have you had an instance of losing your AirPods? Was Find My AirPods useful if you used it? Let us know down in the comments. Nevertheless, given the technical hurdles, the feature is useful and much-needed considering the truly wireless design of the AirPods. If you have an AirPod that you’ve left behind at another location or that isn’t connected to your iPhone, you’ll see the last known location on the map, and hitting the “Play Sound” button will present a “Sound Pending” message: “You will receive a notification when these AirPods connect to a paired device.”Īpple’s Find My AirPods feature is pretty useful for locating nearby AirPods, though less so for ones that you may have left at another location. While the sound that is emitted from the AirPods isn’t the loudest, it should be loud enough to locate a misplaced earbud in a relatively quiet environment.Īn important thing to note is that all of these steps apply only if the AirPods are out of their case and connected to your iPhone. The ability to mute either AirPod makes it easier to locate one or the other if you’ve only misplaced one of them. Step 2: Open the Settings on Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. This option isn’t available for AirPods Max, since they are over-ear connected headphones rather than truly wireless headphones like AirPods and AirPods Pro. If you tap the AirPods icon on the map, you’ll see the option to play a sound from the AirPods.Īfter you start playing the sound, you’ll see the option to mute the left or the right AirPod, or stop playing the sound. From there, you can see where your AirPods are located on a map and in relation to your other Apple products. To use the feature, open the Find iPhone app and look for your AirPods in your list of devices. To track your AirPods, you can do so via either or the “Find My” app on iPad and iPhone. How to use Find My AirPodsįind My AirPods is accessible just like Apple’s other “Find” services for Mac, iPhone, iPod, and Apple Watch. This means that if the AirPods are too far away, you won’t get the full feature set, though Apple will help you track them down the best that it can. For instance, the AirPods must be connected to the iPhone via Bluetooth to work. Read on for full instructions on how to take advantage of Find My AirPods…Īgain, the most important thing worth noting is that Find My AirPods isn’t quite as sophisticated as Find My iPhone. The AirPods will pair to that device, and associate with all other Apple devices under your iCloud account. Wait for the notification card to appear on your iPhone. The AirPods implementation isn’t as robust as the “Find My iPhone,” but it can still be useful if you misplace your AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max. Pairing the AirPods to an iPhone is quick and simple: Open the lid of your AirPods or AirPods Pro case near your iPhone. Master your iPhone in one minute a day: Sign up here to get our FREE Tip of the Day delivered right to your inbox.A few years ago, Apple officially rolled out a new Find My AirPods feature that makes it easy to find your lost AirPods using the Find My app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. From now on, you can also find your Galaxy watch and Buds through SmartThings Find. However, there is no native Find My app on Android. You can also use third-party apps to locate nearby AirPods. If your AirPods have already been added to Find My in the past, you can use the iCloud website to find them, even if you primarily use your AirPods with an Android device. However, with the AirPods Pro (2nd generation), you can track each individual AirPod, as well as the case. Once you find one AirPod, you can put it back in its case, and the other one will appear on the map, after a refresh. AirPods can only be tracked one at a time. If you have already lost your AirPods and you are searching for them, we have a separate article on how to find your AirPods with your iPhone. All other AirPods models do not have trackable cases. If you have AirPods Pro (2nd generation), you can track the case separately from the AirPods themselves. Running off Google’s Android 12 OS, the device is full of features normally only seen on much more expensive portables.įor starters, its circuitry uses a reflow solder containing gold. They come with not only best-in-class playback, but they also have a number of features to fine-tune your songs and make them sound just how you want them to.It has been quite some time since we’ve seen a hi-res player from such a big brand cost so little and we’ll be very curious to see how the NW-A306 performs against its more expensive rivals when we get it in for testing. That said, if you're an audiophile and crave the absolute best listening experience, the Walkman lineup and Sony's high-end audio products might be worth a look. And as music streaming services get their hi-fi tiers up and running, things will get even better. If you don't have local music and you just want to enjoy jams, then Spotify and other music streaming services do a swell job already. And if you really need the music fidelity and reliability that wired earbuds/headphones provide, you can always use a dongle to plug them into your USB-C port. And while headphone jacks are every day less common on phones, Bluetooth earbuds are getting better every day as well. If you have local music, your phone can play even lossless FLAC files. If you already have a smartphone, you probably already have most of your music listening needs served. While smartphones will provide a good enough experience for most people, Walkman devices advertise features like native DSD file support and the inclusion of an S-Master HX digital amplifier.įor most people, a high-end music player, or a dedicated music player in general, might be a bit useless. The audiophile market is a small yet loud community, and Walkman is Sony's dedicated solution for them. Sony (and other manufacturers) are putting weight on premium, high-end music players. From there, the cheapest option is $780, and everything else is over $1,000, with a couple of options costing over $3,000. What's the difference? If you look at Sony's Walkman portal, you'll only find two cheap models: the NW-E394, costing $75 and resembling an old-school, no touchscreen MP3 player, and the NW-A105, costing $300 and coming with a touchscreen and the Android operating system. Yet the Walkman series is still seeing regular releases, with the latest models, the NW-WM1ZM2 and the NW-WM1AM2, released in early 2022. And that was pretty much the only big hold-over left. The latest iPod Touch was released in 2019 and discontinued in 2022, with no successor planned. They just evolved, adapted to the newer market circumstances, and changed their target audience.ĭon't get us wrong: general-purpose music players are dead. Soon, that wasn't even needed, as music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music began to arise.ĭedicated music players are not dead. After all, there was no point in carrying a separate device if your phone can do the same things and do them even better, as they quickly started to come with more and more storage and, in the case of some Android phones, even expandability thanks to microSD card slots. But then, in 2007, Apple launched the iPhone, which, among other things, absorbed many of the music-playing capabilities of the iPod.Īs both Apple and Android smartphones popularized, dedicated music players began losing steam rapidly. Load it on your device (using either a computer for digital files or a cassette/CD for other types of players), plug in a pair of earbuds, and go off. This was the point where users largely transitioned from physical music media to digital music files, thanks to the magic of the internet and, in the case of iPods, iTunes.īack at this time, this was our primary method for listening to music on the go. While digital music players started to become popular in the late 1990s, their big break would be boosted by the launch of the iPod in 2001. While six-word memoirs and all of the applications are exciting, this is a particular favorite of mine. The choice within the structure is theirs and theirs alone. They can share their favorite book, the number of siblings they have, or the fact they miss someone who is no longer here. When using six-word memoirs as a method of introduction, students can pick content and decide how much of themselves to share. The beauty of six-word memoirs is that structure is built into the fabric of this writing, but so is choice. Writer’s workshop is a model emphasizing both structure and choice. Older students might want to watch the version of the six-word memoir project compiled by in order to find inspiration and mentor texts. Six-word memoirs offer students a safe way to share a small piece of who they are and what matters to them. As teachers, regardless of where we teach, we never know who is joining our community or what they bring with them. Others have summers filled with taking care of younger siblings, staying indoors and watching television, angry adults, and unhealthy food. Some have summers filled with camp, vacations, books, and wonder. Students come to a class with different life experiences. Here are our top five ways to use six-word memoirs in a classroom:Īs a Form of Introduction. Together, we came up with a list of how they might use six-word memoirs with the students they came to know and care about over the course of the semester, and how they imagine using six-word memoirs with students they have not yet encountered. Then we get to the point where we need to move beyond reflection and ask “So what? What does this have to do with teaching kids? How might we use this in a classroom?” This is an important question in a methods class, where the line between theory and practice shifts, and students start to own what it means to be teachers. Their six-word memoirs run the gamut from funny to moving to irreverent, as you can see from the memoirs my created this semester. I show them the funny, moving, irreverent YouTube video created by SMITH Magazine and Harper Perennial called “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure,” and, after watching, I give them some time to write. See for yourself, how they turned out.Photo credit: woodleywonderworks via photopin ccĮvery semester, on the last day of the literacy methods course I teach, I ask my pre-service teachers to write a six-word memoir as a form of reflection. While certainly there were many that spoke of sports, dogs, and other seemingly small-ish parts of their lives, every single one spoke of something they found important or showed a sliver of their personality.Ī small lesson that showed so much about their identity once again. Kids played with words, drew, and then handed them in. I told the kids that they would be displayed so to put their names on the back for privacy unless they wanted it to be known that they made it. One side was for them to illustrate either as a collage or as an abstract image of of their words. I printed one out and drew a line down the middle, then made enough copies with directions on this handout. Then they illustrated them using these free blank face printables. A few spelling errors were missed, which happens. When they felt satisfied with their chosen words, they had someone spell check their final sentence. Then the kids brainstormed for a bit it their writers’ notebooks, playing around with sentences, words, and punctuation. Then we discussed the perimeters of the challenge: Exactly 6 words, it cannot be a list of adjectives, should reveal some part of your life that you feel comfortable with. I introduced them by showing them examples of other 6-word memoirs, some serious, some not so much. They are exactly what they sound like 6 word stories about our lives. A great place to read more about them can be found here. This ingenious little foray into writing has a long history. Now we inch closer to writing personal essays on topics centered on our own lives and so we used the 6-word memoirs. All this work is centered in learning who each other are and developing a feeling of safety and community as we grow into this year together. We have written directions, we have discussed the rules of writing, we have read great writing, and we have set up our writing circles. We continue to work on developing our writing communities, slowly settling into what it means to write together, to be writers, and to feel free to write. |