‘The Walking Dead’ creator Robert Kirkman leaves AMC for Amazon

Amazon has scored a big win this week as it signed a first-look agreement with The Walking Dead’s creator Robert Kirkman and his production company Skybound Entertainment. This means, Amazon gets first dibs on upcoming Skybound productions. Fans of shows like The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, and Outcast will be enticed sign up for Amazon Prime Video to get access to whatever new projects Kirkman and his team produce in the future.

AMC has been a longtime partner of Skybound and The Walking Dead has been one of the most profitable shows for the network. But it makes sense for Kirkman and Skybound to turn their focus on building digital strategies with as big a company as Amazon as it’ll help expand its capabilities and ambitions of the studio. Skybound Entertainment will be extremely busy moving forward. They’re currently working on different film projects with properties for their two-year first look deal with Universal. They also just opened Skybound North, a Vancouver-based production division led by former LucasFilm Animation’s Catherine Winder. The news also shows the continuous shift in the streaming service space. Recently, we’ve heard about Netflix buying Mark Millar’s company and Disney’s plan to launch its own streaming service.

Source: Variety

Google brings selfie flash to Camera app

Google updates its native camera app to bring a new feature selfie lovers will like. The Google Camera now has a selfie flash. This feature (and the others that’ll be mentioned below) are designed to work for recent Nexus and Pixel devices that run Android 7.1.1 and above. What the app does is it adds a beige color light right after you take the photo to bring a bit more light into the shot. Google opted to use a warmer color instead of a flash of bright white to make it look a bit more natural. However, as The Verge points out, this feature doesn’t seem to have automatic white balance like that on the iPhone’s camera.

It’s easy to enable the feature, you just need to tap on the Flash icon when you’re in front-facing mode and toggle between automatic or on. You know the feature is enabled if a beige block is covering the menu bar at the bottom. Aside from this, version 4.4 of Google Camera introduces shortcut gestures like swipe to toggle between shooting stills and videos and double tap to zoom.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium reportedly coming to Canada on August 15th or in September

If there's one thing we're sure about, the current Sony flagship, the Xperia XZ Premium, will be making its way here. As for the specific date, GSMArena points out two conflicting reports about when the device is coming. One claims August 15th, while the other says it's coming next month. What we know is it'll be available through Amazon and as an unlocked device. Pricing isn't confirmed either as the Xperia XZ Premium got a price cut recently so it could either go for US$699.99 (around CA$900) or US$799 (around CA$1,000). Reports have it that the Xperia XZ Premium sold in the country will also have its fingerprint sensor disabled, which is plausible if the units are coming from the US. Sony phones have had their fingerprint scanners disabled possibly due to weird contractual obligations. We don't definitively know yet. But we're sure we'll hear more in the coming weeks or even the coming days (if the August 15th release holds up). 

SoundCloud gets fresh round of funding to keep it going

Musicians and creators are going to be at the heart of SoundCloud moving forward, we'll probably see more improvements to features like this stats page

A new round of investment into SoundCloud is keeping the music streaming service going for the foreseeable future. As part of the deal, SoundCloud Chief Executive Officer and founder Alex Ljung will be stepping aside and former Vimeo head Kerry Trainor will be the new CEO. Another former exec from Vimeo, Mike Weissman, will be coming in to serve as SoundCloud's chief operating officer. Ljung will act as chairman and will stay on for the long term. His co-founder Eric Wahlforss will stay on with the company as chief product officer. The Raine Group, a boutique merchant bank, together with Singapore-based investment company Temasek, led the US$169.5 million investment to give SoundCloud the much-needed cash. 

Trainor wants to put greater emphasis on developing tools for musicians and other creators, including a "more robust creative toolkit" for them via the Pro Unlimited subscription. The service is used by a lot of artists to do things like public collaborations, promote new songs, or get private feedback before a track is released to the world. Trainor claims this is what gives SoundCloud a unique brand in the digital music arena. He tells Billboard, "SoundCloud is the largest open audio platform in the world. Millions of creators choose these tools to share their work with the world—that will remain at the focus and center of the company."