Netflix brings ‘Choose your own adventure’ format from books to the screen

If as a kid you’d love reading the “Choose your own adventure” books, this new format Netflix is introducing is bound to be popular with the young ones of this digital generation. After two years of testing it out, Netflix launches its first of two Interactive Storytelling titles: Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale. Coming on July 14^th is the second story, which is Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile. Netflix partnered with the likes of Dreamworks, American Greetings, Robot Chicken, and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios to help bring these complex, non-linear stories to life. Puss in Book has already launched globally, making it the first of its kind to be available on such a large scale.

The story will have the viewer make a choice at certain points and you’ll be given around 15 to 20 seconds to choose. If your kid is watching on a TV, it’ll be by using the remote, while if you’re on a tablet, they can tap on their choice. At launch, the right-to-left languages (like Arabic) won’t be supported but they will be coming soon, according to Netflix. It’s available first on TVs and iOS with Android, Apple TV, and Chromecast not yet in the works. However, the two shows will be available on those platforms as a linear story. We can’t say how popular the format will be but it does show us how Netflix is stretching its tech side and how storytelling can evolve in the future. While launching first with children’s titles, Netflix isn’t ruling out trying it out with adult content, too.

Source: Wired 

Microsoft Outlook on iOS now lets you edit your contacts

It might be considered a fundamental feature but until today the Microsoft Outlook app for iOS and Android couldn’t add or edit contacts. You’d need to be on the web browser or PC to do that. Finally, Microsoft updates its iOS app to let you add and edit Outlook.com and Office 365 contacts in the app (Android and Google contacts support to follow soon). You just need to head to the People section of the app to add details of certain contacts or include people from events, messages, and company directory. Outlook will let you save contacts to your phone’s native list, too. Microsoft also revamped the look of the contact cards. They now show key details like email addresses and phone numbers as well as recent conversations and meeting.

Source: Engadget

Google Assistant is now officially on iOS

At the Google I/O developer conference, the company made it official that Google Assistant is now on iOS. But with API restrictions, it can’t be interchangeable with Siri. Instead, it comes as a separate app, which you can put as a widget on your screen. It can do the usual stuff like send iMessages, play a song on your Spotify app (not on Apple Music), look up your schedule on Google Calendar, and check something in another language, among other things. But with the abovementioned restrictions, it can’t set alarms. The app does have a drawer icon of sorts that shows you what it can do for you. Google Assistant on iOS is first launching in the US. 

Source: CNBC + The Verge 

Apple now makes it easier to stream rented movies across different devices

Apple is employing a “rent once, watch anywhere” approach to movie rentals in the iTunes Store. The latest iTunes 12.6 update for the desktop will no longer restrict you to watch a movie you rented on the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or PC you rented it on. This feature will be available to work on devices with iOS 10.3 or tvOS 10.2. These haven’t been officially released to the public yet but with this update, we won’t be surprised if the rollout is soon.

Source: The Verge