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    In Tech: Mobile app, mobile phone, online TV

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments430 Views

    By Barbara Ortutay, Technology Writer

    NEW YORK (AP) --

    The iconic designer behind the simulation video games "Sim City" and "The Sims" wants people to tell stories visually on their mobile phones.

    Will Wright has created a mobile app called Thred. The idea is to "explore and share visual ideas with friends" — through "threds" of images and links. For some, this can mean a collection of Internet jokes; for others, travel photos and articles. If you give Thred permission, it will access your phone's photos and track your location so that you can post a thread of the day's meals, or the snapshots of flowers you shot on a Sunday trip to the botanical gardens.

    It's a bit like Instagram-deluxe. Instead of just one photo, Thred lets you share a bunch. Instead of just filters, you can add text, links and stickers to your pictures.

    "I'm fascinated by how much this has become a part of my life," said Wright, 55, holding his iPhone as he showed off the app recently in a Manhattan coffee shop.

    Thred joins Storehouse and other, more complex visual storytelling apps that hope to appeal to your creative side and seek to go deeper than one-off snapshots. Whether Thred will soar in popularity like "The Sims" did or fade away like "Spore," remains to be seen.

    Thred works on iPhones and iPads. There's no Android version yet.

    Elsewhere in the world of technology:

    MAKING UP
    After a high-profile breakup, T-Mobile is offering BlackBerry phones again. The BlackBerry Classic will be available in U.S. stores and online next week for $440, payable in installments.

    This comes a year after BlackBerry decided not to renew its U.S. licensing deal with T-Mobile, saying the companies no longer had complementary strategies. BlackBerry CEO John Chen complained then that T-Mobile had emailed BlackBerry users an offer to switch to a competitor's smartphone.

    The companies didn't address their fallout in Thursday's joint announcement. Rather, they said they are "in the business of listening to their customers."

    Just recently, T-Mobile began targeting business customers. BlackBerry is popular with some businesses for its security features.

    Earlier in the week, T-Mobile launched a promotion aimed at luring customers from Verizon, the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier.

    ONLINE TV ON TVs
    Some TVs from Sharp and Insignia will come with Roku's streaming TV offerings built-in. That means owners of these sets won't need a separate streaming TV device, such as Roku 3 or Apple TV, to watch Netflix, Hulu and other online services on their TVs. Separate subscriptions with those services are still required, though.

    Initially a maker of streaming TV devices, Roku has been working with TV manufacturers to get its software included with the set. This allows manufacturers to offer smart, Internet-connected TVs without having to write their own software. Manufacturers are also able to make more online services available this way. Roku has more than 1,000 apps.

    So far, Roku's software is on sets from TCL and Hisense. Roku is now adding 43- and 50-inch screens from Sharp and 32- and 55-inch models from Insignia, which is Best Buy's in-house brand. Roku sets from Haier are also planned.

    AP Technology Writer Anick Jesdanun contributed to this report.

    Tags:BlackBerryRokuSharpThred



    Is “Glicked” The New “Barbenheimer”? “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” Hit Theater Screens

    Thursday, November 21, 2024

    "Barbenheimer" was a phenomenon impossible to manufacture. But, more than a year later, that hasn't stopped people from trying to make "Glicked" — or even "Babyratu" — happen.

    The counterprogramming of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" in July 2023 hit a nerve culturally and had the receipts to back it up. Unlike so many things that begin as memes, it transcended its online beginnings. Instead of an either-or, the two movies ultimately complemented and boosted one another at the box office.

    And ever since, moviegoers, marketers and meme makers have been trying to recreate that moment, searching the movie release schedule for odd mashups and sending candidates off into the social media void. Most attempts have fizzled (sorry, "Saw Patrol" ).

    This weekend is perhaps the closest approximation yet as the Broadway musical adaptation "Wicked" opens Friday against the chest-thumping sword-and-sandals epic "Gladiator II." Two big studio releases (Universal and Paramount), with one-name titles, opposite tones and aesthetics and big blockbuster energy — it was already halfway there before the name game began: "Wickiator," "Wadiator," "Gladwick" and even the eyebrow raising "Gladicked" have all been suggested.

    "'Glicked' rolls off the tongue a little bit more," actor Fred Hechinger said at the New York screening of "Gladiator II" this week. "I think we should all band around 'Glicked.' It gets too confusing if you have four or five different names for it."

    As with "Barbenheimer," as reductive as it might seem, "Glicked" also has the male/female divide that make the fan art extra silly. One is pink and bright and awash in sparkles, tulle, Broadway bangers and brand tie-ins; The other is all sweat and sand, blood and bulging... Read More

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