March 26, 2014

Portal comes to NVIDIA's Shield as an exclusive Android port (updated)

Portal
You won't have to stick to a PC or TV to play Valve's iconic games in the future. The developer is teaming up with NVIDIA to bring the original Portal to the Shield handheld -- in other words, Portal is coming to Android. The two haven't said just when the space-defying puzzle title will be available on the Shield, although it unfortunately sounds like other Android devices may be out of luck. We've reached out to see if there's a possibility of a wider release. Still, it's good to see Valve dip its toes in the mobile gaming waters, unlike certain companies. And hey -- it'll be as good an excuse as any to get reacquainted with your Companion Cube.
Update: An NVIDIA spokesperson says that the company isn't discussing "additional devices and/or device requirements at this time."

NVIDIA Shield gets temporary price drop, soon to support remote PC gaming


The GameStream technology that powers the NVIDIA Shield's PC streaming feature is neat, but it has its limitations. Games can only be streamed from desktop PCs running specific GPUs, and only to devices connected to a local network. That's about to change: Pending an update in early April, Shield owners will be able to stream their PC games not only from GeForce GTX-equipped laptops, but over the internet as well. Remote streaming has its own limitations, of course -- NVIDIA recommends a minimum upload/download speed of 5 Mbps -- but the new GameStream beta will let gamers remotely wake up, log in to and play games from their home PC from any location with a stable WiFi connection. NVIDIA is also making it a little easier to stream unofficially supported PC titles, and will update its GeForce Experience desktop software with tools that will push any PC application to the Shield's GameStream list.

The spring update also adds Bluetooth keyboard and mouse support, as well as several tweaks to the Shield UI. Specifically, the TegraZone store will be getting categories (action, adventure, etc.) as well as a news section. Finally, NVIDIA will be selling the handheld at a $50 discount from now until the end of April. Already have one? Sit tight -- that update goes live on April 2nd.

Nike celebrates 'Air Max Day' with the first shoppable Google Hangout

Would you buy a pair of kicks from a Google Hangout? Nike certainly hopes so. The company has teamed up with Asos to host the first shoppable Google Hangout tomorrow at 9am ET. The video celebrates 27 years of Nike's Air Max trainer, and will appear on both brand's Google+ news feeds as well as over 2 million other sites as an expandable ad (something brands have been able to do since December). Sneakerheads can shop while they watch, and make purchases directly from the promotion. We're just hoping that one of the things up for sale is a pair of Nike's limited-edition Air Max 1s.

Intel buys maker of the Basis Band, promises smarter wearables

Well, it's official. In a bid to boost its wearable clout, Intel confirmed today that it bought Basis Science, the startup behind the fitness-friendly Basis bands. The deal reportedly cost Intel a cool $100 million (according to TechCrunch, anyway), which neither company was keen to mention aloud. According to a post on the official Basis blog, the team will join Intel's Devices team to help flesh out the chipmaker's wearable future.

Facebook is buying Oculus VR for $2 billion, plans to 'unlock new worlds for all of us'

Mark Zuckerberg is following up his Whatsapp buy with another big acquisition: virtual reality company Oculus VR for $2 billion in stock and cash (curiously, news of the talks may have leaked on Reddit a month ago). In a post on Facebook, Zuckerberg talks at length about how Facebook plans to make Oculus a platform for "completely new kinds of experiences," and gaming is only the first one. Examples he suggests include sitting courtside at a big game, studying in a classroom with other students virtually or getting a face to face doctor consultation from anywhere. The idea that virtual reality may be the next big thing gained more credibility last week when Sony showed off a prototype VR headset for developers, Project Morpheus. That also means Oculus is suddenly staring down a massive competitor -- with others likely on the way -- and now it has the resources of the social network to rely on.

Oculus founders: Facebook lets us bring the best VR experience to a billion people

Nov. 14, 2011 - Irvine, California, U.S. - Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, 20, right, is the inventor of a virtual reality gami
Oculus VR co-founders Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe had a vision for their company: to bring virtual reality to as many people as possible, in the best way possible, at the lowest possible price. And, according to the duo, selling the company to Facebook is the best way to reach those goals. "This is the best thing for us to do," Luckey told us in a post-announcement interview. "It leaves us in the same position we've always been in, doing the same things we wanted to do."

Gmail experiment shows promotional messages as image-heavy cards

Gmail experiment shows promotional messages as image-heavy cards
The promotions tab in Gmail is basically a glorified spam filter. Sure, it's not really spam, but you probably don't bother to read many emails in there. At best you give it a cursory glance to make sure Caskers wasn't offering "the bourbon that beat Pappy" again. But, more often than not, you probably just select all and delete without a second thought. Well, Google thinks that it might have a better chance at enticing you to click through on those deals if they were more visually appealing. Mountain View is trialing a feature that shows you promotional emails as cards with large images at the top and details of the deal on offer below. It's not unlike Pinterest (it even introduces infinite scrolling to your inbox), except when you click through on these boxes you'll be offered $10 off on a pair of Top-Siders. If you'd like to partake in Google's little experiment you can click on this link. Yes, this one right here

Lenovo's smart TV system grants more processing power and memory through swappable modules (hands-on)

SONY DSC
Lenovo is best known for its ThinkPad laptops and newly acquired phone business, but the Chinese firm started making TVs a couple years ago, too. And now, it's the first one to build a set utilizing NVIDIA's new Tegra K1 chip. It's that super-powered silicon that explains the TV's presence at GTC 2014, so naturally, we had to spend some time with it while we were at the show. Called the Terminator S9, it's a 50-inch 4K smart TV that runs a Lenovo-skinned version of Android 4.2 natively, but the real magic happens courtesy of a small plug-in module round the back called a Smart Card.

Apple engineer explains where the iPhone came from

Offering a rare interview in the run-up to another legal fray between Samsung and Apple, the senior engineer behind the iPhone has explained where it all started, part of Apple's plan to communicate how groundbreaking the original iPhone was. Talking to the WSJ, Greg Christie explained how the secret project, Purple, brought the iPhone to life. At some point, the former Apple boss told him straight: the team had two weeks, or he would assign the project elsewhere. "Steve had pretty much had it... He wanted bigger ideas and bigger concepts." In the end, the "shockingly small" team had outlined a touchscreen phone with swipe-to-unlock, no physical keyboard and all the music-playing features of the company's iPod series. They ran early software tests on a plastic touchscreen, hooked up to a dated desktop Mac [seen above] -- an effort to emulate a low-powered mobile processor.

Candy Crush maker's IPO values company at more than $7 billion

King, the company behind the Candy Crush saga filed its IPO today, but is the maker another Zynga (Farmville), another Rovio (Angry Birds) or something else again? Nearly 100 million users play Candy Crush every day, and while the company's titles remain free to play, it depends on virtual goods, additional levels and content purchases to bring in the cash. Selling shares at $22.50, it's raised around $500 million for the company and its early investors, valuing King at around $7 billion.
The company apparently isn't going public because it needed the money, however, but because it will give the company stock it can use to make acquisitions... and let investors cash out if they want to. Shareholders will be pushing the gamesmaker to repeat the success of Candy Crush, something that more recent titles, like Farm Heroes saga, haven't (so far, at least) been able to accomplish.

NASA captures over half the galaxy's stars in new infrared panorama

NASA captures over half the galaxy's stars in new infrared panorama
Keeping a steady hand when snapping panoramic pictures is a valuable skill, but NASA's upstaged your photographic prowess with something a tad more impressive. Using over 2 million infrared pictures shot with the Spitzer Space Telescope over the course of a decade, the agency's created what's being called the clearest infrared panorama of our galaxy ever made. This is the first time all photographs from a project dubbed the Galactic Legacy Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (or GLIMPSE360) have been combined into a single image. Although the final product only shows three percent of the sky, it contains over half of all stars in the Milky Way.

Slighty smarter watches: Casio reveals two new G-Shock concepts

G-Shocks are back -- again. Ready for Swiss timepiece showcase BaselWorld, Casio has announced two new analog concept watches with a little extra soupçon of tech crammed in. The designs still lean towards those looking for a classically-styled (at least, in G-Shock terms) analog watch. Both are expected to last plenty without any regular USB life-support, with the company's latest solar cells there to keep the mechanism and electronics going. First up, the Edifice EQB-500 connects to smartphones using Bluetooth 4.0 Low Power (Casio's first analog watch to do so). It's a loose allegiance though, covering time information and alarm settings which can also be programmed through the phone -- it's still very much a watch, not a Pebble rival. Casio's second model is the more technically accomplished one: the first watch to pair together both GPS and Radio Wave tech, all without any unwieldy lumps in the design.

Apple is working on getting more diversity into its emoji characters

Sometimes, the awkward white lady with hand to the side emoji doesn't quite represent, or express, who's using an iPhone -- and it's been that way for quite a while. Good news, then, that Apple is apparently working with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to bring more breadth to the emoji pictures it can offer. Katie Cotton, Apple's VP of Corporate Communications, explains in an email reply to MTV Act's Joey Parker, who raised the issue:
"Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard."
There's no firm date for an emoji upgrade until the Unicode issue is sorted, so for now, well, there's stickers elsewhere.
(Update: There's also been a recent groundswell for the less important addition of a hot-dog emoji.)

The next version of Android could be truly business-friendly

Google campus sign with Android looming in the background
Android has a lot of market share, but it doesn't have a big footprint in the corporate world; outside of special efforts like Samsung's Knox, the OS isn't well-suited to business demands. All that may change in the near future, though, as The Information's sources claim that the next major Android release will place a much stronger emphasis on office-grade security. The new OS will reportedly allow apps that require their own authentication (including biometrics), as well as data storage on secure chips. It should also offer better remote management controls. If the rumor is accurate, we may not have long to wait to see these suit-and-tie features -- Google could unveil them at its I/O conference in late June.

New HTC One teardown reveals it's a pain to repair, just like the last One

While most people would be happy to have a new HTC One (M8) to play with, our friends at iFixit aren't "most people," and they're back doing what they do best: reducing gadgets to component confetti. Having said the necessary prayers and got to work, iFixit was delighted to find screws holding the main body together -- an omen of repairability, perhaps? The situation quickly "turned ugly," as a mass of tape and copper shielding had to be removed, only to expose a glue-fixed motherboard. Other components and the battery were found to be glued just as liberally, and having finally reached the display, iFixit accidentally cut the digitizer cable, essentially breaking it. It'll probably be of no surprise, given the narrative, that the new HTC One scored a measly two out of ten on the repairability scale, due to teardown difficulty and risk of damage. It's an improvement, at least, over the old HTC One's score -- iFixit didn't have the super-secret tool, mind -- but it's probably best you keep your M8 out of trouble all the same.

Turkey's Twitter ban has been overturned (updated)

The Turkish government's ban on Twitter was probably always a losing battle, given the various workarounds available to the country's tech-savvy citizens. But now the six-day-old prohibition is also losing in the courts, according to a report from the Hürriyet Daily News. The newspaper says a Turkish court has issued a "stay of execution" on the government's order, which means the ban should be lifted until judges have the chance to weigh up the many complaints that have been lodged against it. This sounds like a positive step for opposition parties and civil rights activists, but it could equally prove to be just a temporary victory in the face of Prime Minister's Erdogan's continued threats against the "scourge" of social media.
Update: Shortly after the court ruling, Twitter has come forward to confirm that it was one of the parties that filed a complaint. In a post on the company's official blog, Twitter General Counsel Vijaya Gadde said that earlier today, the company filed petitions for lawsuits in an attempt permanently overturn the country-wide access ban. While it awaits a response, Twitter said it has also begun using its "Country Withheld Content" tool for the first time in the country, hiding tweets belonging to a user who the public prosecutor believes could be in danger.
[Image credit: Myrat/Wikipedia]

Sprint to launch HD Voice calls nationwide in July

Sprint's HD Voice impressed our ears two years ago, but the feature's been placed on the company's back burner since then. Sure, it's already available in a handful of locations, but it's only now that the carrier's announced its plans to make it available nationwide. According to Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, subscribers all over the country should be able to enjoy clearer voice calls "around the first of July"... assuming they're using HD Voice-compatible devices to talk to people also using HD Voice-compatible devices. It's not too bad, though: over two dozen Sprint phones already support the standard, including the iPhone 5s/5c, Samsung Galaxy S 4/Note 3, Nexus 5 and HTC One/One Max.
Sprint's HD Voice promises "crystal clear calls" by cancelling background noise and delivering more natural-sounding voices. From the time it was introduced in 2012, though, rival carriers AT&T and T-Mobile have already come up with their own versions. Hesse made the announcement at the Oracle Industry Connect event, where he also talked about the overly technical details of Sprint's Spark LTE service.

ZTE's giant Nubia X6 has 13MP cameras on the front and back

If you believe that China gets all the good phones, this won't change your mind. ZTE's premium Nubia brand has just launched the X6, a handset-cum-tablet with a 6.44-inch, 1080p screen. As with Oppo's Find 7, ZTE lavished it with top-notch specs, including a Snapdragon 801 chip, 3GB max RAM, up to 128GB storage and a 4,250 mAh battery. The kicker, though, is the pair of 13-megapixel cameras on the front and back -- a rare setup for a non-monkey phone. The front shooter puts many smartphones' main cameras to shame with backside illumination, video auto-focus and an f/2.2 lens. The back-facing camera ups the ante with an f/2.0 lens, optical image stabilization and dual flashes. Alas, if you were looking to wrap your (presumably large) mitts around one in the US or Europe, the Nubia X6 will likely stay put in China. It's now up for pre-order at $HK 5,010, or around $640 for the top model.

V-Moda wants you to ditch earbuds for these extra-portable XS headphones

I've long been a fan of V-Moda's headphones. They're well made, customizable with engraved plates and, most importantly, they sound great. If anything has stopped me from wearing the company's over-ears consistently, though, it's that they're a tad too bulky for on-the-go use. That's where V-Moda's new XS cans come in -- as the name implies, these over-ears are slim and portable. The "CliqFold" hinge lets you collapse the headphones into a small carrying case, but even without folding them they are small enough to fit into a briefcase, smallish bag or even a particularly deep jacket pocket. Speaking of deep pockets, the XS costs $212 (including customizable plates), which is $100 less than the over-ear M-100s, but still not exactly cheap. In any case, I've spent the last few weeks wearing the XS in the office, on long-haul flights and during commutes. Head past the break for a closer look.

NYT Now curated news app coming to iPhone April 2nd for $8 per month

At a cocktail-fueled meet and greet at SXSW, we met with New York Times editors Jill Abramson and Clifford Levy to discuss the news organization's 2014 lineup of services, including a new enterprise dubbed NYT Now. Created as an iPhone (and iPod touch)-only application, NYT Now is the company's latest subscription-based product. On the surface, it appears to be simply a "lite" version of the paper's daily content, but The Times is reassigning nearly a dozen editors to Now full time to curate internal content as well as articles from third-party news orgs, such as Engadget. Now is not without its challenges, though. Full access will run you $8 per month, which, while a far cry from the $45 you'll fork over for a full digital subscription with Times Premier, is still a significant amount. You'll be able to download the app on April 2nd, with free access to headlines, summaries and 10 articles each month. The $8 fee (billed every four weeks) will enable full access to any article that appears in the NYT Now app.

LastPass for Android can now fill your app logins in for you

You may know LastPass, the cross-platform password manager, as a safe haven for website login details and common form info. Now, as well as playing nice with Chrome for mobile devices, the latest version of LastPass for Android can fill in app login data for you, too. Once it's updated and you've authorized this new feature, loading up an app with a username / password prompt will trigger a pop-up with suggested login credentials you can choose to inject. Chances are, however, you'll need to tell LastPass which of the logins stored in your vault the mobile app wants -- you can also share your selection if you'd like to help it learn common associations. Because apps are often mobile portals for services you'd load up inside a browser on your computer, it makes sense. Then again, we can't say we sign in and out of apps enough to justify $12 per year for the premium service LastPass' mobile apps require.

New Xbox One notifications let you know when other gamers think you're being a jerk


The Xbox One's simplified Reputation system aims to keep like-minded gamers playing together, and now the folks in Redmond plan to notify you if you fall of out the community's good graces. Are you the sort of player who doesn't ruffle too many feathers? You'll be just fine -- the occasional bad report won't do much harm. Starting this month though, Microsoft will reach out to trollish gamers when negative feedback from fellow players drags their reputations down into "needs work" territory. Prolonged abrasiveness will ultimately land them in the red "avoid me" zone, where matchmaking for games becomes more difficult and certain features like Twitch livestreaming could be restricted. Seems like a pretty big price to pay when the alternative is to behave like a civilized human being, doesn't it?

BlackBerry CEO promises legal action against product leakers


Leaks are par for the course when you're a huge company working on a new product, but one BlackBerry leaker seems to have gone too far. At least, CEO John Chen thinks so: today he penned a post on the official Inside BlackBerry blog promising legal action against a leaker who "falsely posed as an employee of one of [BlackBerry's] carrier partners to obtain access to secured networks."

Ouch.

Benchmarking the new HTC One: less cheating, better performance

Benchmarking the new HTC One: less cheating, better performance

There are actually two "Ones" that launched this week. The star attraction is undoubtedly the HTC One, but let's not forget the brand-new Snapdragon 801 running under its hood: a cutting-edge processor that will also power the Sony Xperia Z2 and the Samsung Galaxy S5, but which happens to have reached the market first in HTC's flagship phone. This chip represents a significant upgrade over the Snapdragon 600 in the old One, promising a hat trick of better all-round performance, more fluid gaming and longer battery life, and these are precisely the claims we're about to explore using a combo of benchmarking apps and real-world tests. At the same time, HTC has suddenly decided to come clean on the issue of benchmark cheating, which makes it a bit easier for us to trust what the numbers are telling us.

Can Oculus survive the Facebook effect?

The response was swift, and almost universally negative. Within minutes of Facebook's announcement that it was acquiring Oculus VR for $2 billion, the internet had begun to mobilize against the deal. From Twitter to Reddit to our own forums, the message from early commenters was clear: This was bad for Oculus, bad for virtual reality, bad for gaming -- just bad. Part of this was the normal reaction to any popular, independent startup being bought out by a big company. There's a natural -- sometimes justified -- suspicion that the acquirer will ruin everything that made the small company successful, and the onus is on the newly merged business to prove otherwise.
In Oculus' case, however, there was more than the typical anti-acquisition backlash. Facebook has become known as a company that is built around one thing: monetizing your social interactions. On Facebook, you're the product, with everything you do sold to advertisers, and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. As Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson said in a tweet announcing that he had scrapped plans for a version of the hugely popular game optimized for Oculus' head-mounted display, "Facebook creeps me out."

Google Play Music for Chrome delivers browser uploads, finally


Google has finally enabled uploading tracks to its Play Music service through a browser, but for now, you'll need to flip the switch yourself. In the Labs section of the menu, there's an option for Google Play Music for Chrome. Ticking the appropriate box will allow for both drag-and-drop and manual song additions without the need to use that less than stellar Music Manger. Clicking the "Add Music" button at the top of the UI will also give you the option to choose folders that you'd like synced automatically. There's also a mini player that can be accessed by clicking the arrow at the bottom right of the web app and the ability to download songs, albums and playlists directly from the web has been tacked on, too. All of the new features are powered by Google's Chrome Apps and Native Client tech. What's more, the folks in Mountain View have also added Info Cards to Movies and TV shows for added details on the actors in a particular scene. Of course, the selection you're watching has to enable the feature for it to be available when you press pause on a mobile device. We've included a handy GIF after the break for a quick look at how it works.

HTC One Mini to get Android 4.4 KitKat update starting today


Now that the brand new HTC One is out, it's high time the rest of HTC's siblings get updated to Android's latest, especially if they want to remain relevant. The previous HTC One got the KitKat bump back in February, so now it's the little brother's turn at the firmware upgrade. Yep, if you have a HTC One Mini, you'll likely get your Android 4.4 KitKat with HTC Senses 5.5 update starting today if this post by carrier AT&T is to be believed. The update will bring a number of improvements, like an enhanced dialer app, new navigation bars, a full-screen immersive mode, a new BlinkFeed app and more. So go on, head into Settings and download the latest System Update to get with the times. That is, if you're not tempted to get a whole new phone altogether.

Microsoft discontinues its Surface wireless keyboard adapter

 
Remember the day Microsoft announced its new Surface tablets? Sure you do: there was all the usual pomp and circumstance, and even that keyboard cover that turned the Surface 2 into a portable DJ booth. One thing that may have flown under your radar, though, was the wireless keyboard adapter, a $60 cylinder-shaped thing that allowed users to control their Surface tablets from up to 30 feet away over Bluetooth (like you do with a 10.6-inch device?). In any case, it looks like the accessory never picked up much traction: Microsoft has discontinued the device, which is now showing up as "out of stock" on Microsoft's online store.

HTC CEO Peter Chou was heavily involved in the One's design


Led by CEO Peter Chou, HTC has developed a reputation for making phones that are just as visually appealing as they are functional. The company's latest flagship device, the One (M8), is another in a long lineup of beautifully crafted smartphones, and we had a chance to sit down with Chou to discuss the handset and some of the process behind how it came to be. "Our challenge was how do we break through from M7 to M8?" Chou told us. "I decided last year that I'm going to spend most of my time in product to help break through. Make it premium, like watches or jewelry. We want to stand out."
Chou was definitely deeply invested in the success of the M8, and was directly involved in its development -- he lost 5kg testing out the Fitbit integration, and even spent several weeks walking around with an M8-shaped block of wood in his pocket. "I tried to simulate when I take it out, how it feels when I put it on my ear, and when I talk." In other words, Chou wanted to see it through the lens of any other consumer. During this process, he provided feedback to his design team on which areas needed to be tweaked. "We were working back and forth on fine-tuning it; 'I don't like this curve, I want it to be more natural in the hands, I want this completely metal, completely pure.'"
Chou has a background in product management, so it's no surprise that he doesn't simply sit back and let the design team do all the heavy lifting. "I give them direction, what we want to achieve. They go think about that and then we start the process." He says that HTC goes through roughly 30-50 prototypes before finally settling on the final version; with each iteration, the team changed things like the shape, color, finish and battery shape and size.
Additionally, Chou told us that the process of developing the Duo Camera took HTC around 18 months. For a little more context, we spoke with Tim McDonough, VP of Marketing at Qualcomm, who said that the chipset manufacturer began collaborating with HTC very early on. Qualcomm needed to build several new features into its roadmap to ensure that it could keep up with the M8's hefty imaging requirements. According to McDonough, there were a lot of challenges in making sure the Snapdragon 801 could handle the load of the new One's complex post-processing features; he confirmed to us that the dual ISPs inside the 801 are 45 percent faster than the Snapdragon 800, which is a huge performance boost that opens the door for even more imaging possibilities down the road (whether from HTC or other manufacturers).
On a final note, Chou once again emphasized that premium watches and jewelry were behind the inspiration for the M8. Given what we've seen, it certainly appears that the company dedicated plenty of time and energy to making that happen. Of course, such a statement only makes us even more curious to see if Chou & Co. use the same model of inspiration for HTC's upcoming smartwatch; unfortunately, if he has a block of wood strapped to his wrist right now, he's doing a good job keeping it hidden. Regardless, take a look at the full interview above to hear more about how Peter Chou's vision has taken a major role in the design of HTC's products.
Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.

Google's two-day I/O ticket lottery starts on April 8th

In 2012, all of the tickets for Google's I/O developer conference sold out in under 30 minutes. Last year? It took about 49 minutes. Don't worry about waking up early to register this year, though: the folks in Mountain View are running a lottery instead. Google will take applications for I/O tickets from April 8 to 10, and will randomly reach out to lucky applicants not long after that. Honestly though, your odds of nabbing a ticket are still dicey - the event usually plays host to about 5,500 developers, and demand for admission is through the roof... thanks in part to all the hardware swag Google gives out. If you have neither the time nor the spare dough to schlep out to San Francisco this summer, expect Google to stream its announcements and developer sessions on YouTube too.

Twitter update lets you tag people in pictures, attach multiple photos

If there's a social network out there that epitomizes the mentality of "slow and steady wins the race," it's Twitter. With the addition of photo tagging and multiple picture uploads, the company is continuing to chip away at the advantages its competitors (both real and perceived) enjoy. In 2014 alone, the mobile and desktop sites have received face lifts, it introduced video previews on mobile apps, added ads in the form of promoted users, introduced photo editing tools and experimented with everything from view counts to hiding @ replies and hashtags.
The two latest features focus squarely on pictures. For one, you'll now people able to tag people in the photos you upload. Sure you could always add their names to whatever text you appended before, but now you can tag up to 10 people without it counting against your 140 character count. Secondly, and this one will be rolling out more slowly, you'll soon be able to attach up to four photos to each tweet. When you upload multiple pictures a thumbnail collage will automatically be created and you can tap on it to swipe through the images in full size. That is hitting iOS devices first and coming soon to both Android and the website. Hit your respective app store now to get the appropriate update.