Google Launches Cube Slam, An Open Source Pong Clone, To Show Off The Power Of WebRTC And WebGL

Google today launched Cube Slam, an open source pong clone that you can play against the computer or a friend in the browser. That by itself wouldn’t be all that exciting, but Google created this game to show off the power of WebRTC, Web Audio and WebGL.

For most people (or at least for developers),WebRTC is now synonymous with plugin-free video conferences in the browser and Cube Slam uses this to show you a live video and audio stream of your friend on a virtual screen while you’re playing.

Maybe more importantly, though, the game also uses WebRTC’s RTC Peer Connection and RTC Data Channel – two features most developers are probably not aware of – to send audio, video and all the “bits and pieces that keep the game in sync” back and forth between the two machines.

Google claims that Cube Slam is the ” first large-scale application to use RTC Data Channel, which provides an API similar to Web Socket, but sends the data over the RTC Peer Connection peer-to-peer link.”

Photoful Improves On iOS 7′s Photo Gallery With A More Open, Gesture-Based App

Photoful, a new mobile application which is the rebranding and relaunch of the earlier app known as PhotoSocial, is hoping to attract iPhone users who want the Photos experience the new iOS 7 mobile operating system will offer…and then some. As with iOS 7′s re-imagined Photos app, Photoful will also sort your photo collection into smart groupings like iOS 7′s “Moments,” but it will allow users to do more, too, including photo tagging and advanced editing, printing, and sharing with several third-party services, as well as navigating through, selecting, and discarding photos using gestures.

As with PhotoSocial, which somewhat mimicked the original Apple Photos app, but then added capabilities on top, Photoful takes its inspiration from the redesigned version of iOS. It has the iOS 7 look-and-feel, making it one of the first to transition to the new mobile experience Apple recently debuted at WWDC.

Often, it’s apps like this that eventually blaze the trail for Apple’s own native applications, which is a precarious position for a startup. For this model to work, the company has to continually stay ahead of whatever Apple is building itself. (Case in point: the new iOS 7 Photos app has taken its own “inspiration” from a number of photo app makers, including Everpix, Moment.me, flayvr, Tracks, Cluster, Story, Flock and more.)

That being said, Photoful establishes itself as a fairly robust alternative to the native Photos app. And with some of the options it will add in the near future – like support for other third-party services such as Flickr and Tumblr and photo printing – it will get even better.

“You need to start with beating what they have today and rounding out the corners,” explains Photoful founder Jeff Bargmann. “[Apple's Photos app] is a closed ecosystem – that’s the big problem I see here. No other application can rope into this, and that’s a position that Apple isn’t really going to move from…That’s an opportunity for us.”

Bargmann’s background is in designing utilities that augment the features and functions available on the native OS. He previously created Windows desktop utilities like Stardock’sFences and ObjectDock, 1UP Industries’ Bins, and was project lead on Stardock’s Impulse, which later sold to GameStop. Afterwards, he wanted to expand his skill set, and learned iOS development to build PhotoSocial, now Photoful.

Among the new app’s long list of extras, including Aviary-powered filtering and editing tools, a collage builder, a slideshow maker, Postagram export, and more, the best feature is simply how you interact with the app: gestures. Not only do you edit album titles with a tap (which is a fairly common behavior), you can also slide your finger across rows of photos to select or unselect them. Plus, you can pull photos off to one side of your screen to delete them or off to the other side to share them via email, SMS, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

The gestures are really natural and intuitive, unlike some apps where you struggle to learn the new interactions. Here, you immediately just get it. And as soon as you do it, you realize that Apple’s Photos app is lacking.

Being able to tag photos, too, is another great addition – especially for those who find the tagging paradigm, and the streams of related content that it allows for, to make more sense that having to place photos into folders or manually create albums.

In the future, Bargmann plans to extend the Photoful app to sync and share with other services like Flickr, Tumblr, and messaging clients like WhatsApp, as well as partner with other developers to offer users different photo editing options, whether that’s through in-app integrations or directing users to third-party apps that could be purchased and launched from within Photoful.

Best Buy to open hundreds of Windows stores within its stores

Microsoft has cut a deal to open Windows stores within 500 Best Buy locations in the United States and 100 more Best Buy and Future Shop locations in Canada.

The store-within-a-store sites, which will be 1,500 square feet to 2,200 square feet, will offer a wide selection of Windows tablets and PCs, Windows Phones, Microsoft Office, and Xbox consoles. There will also be space set aside specifically for Microsoft's Surface tablet computers.

The deal, announced Thursday, also calls for more than 1,200 Best Buy sales staff to receive Microsoft training, in addition to the Microsoft specialists already on staff at Best Buy.

Best Buy already offers Apple stores-within-stores at many locations. Its partnership with Apple began a decade ago, when the retailer started selling Macs at its locations."When a retail person can show them their five favorite features, it really helps a lot," Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela said in an interview.

And earlier this year, Samsung reached a three-year deal with Best Buy to open Samsung Experience shops in the retailer's stores.

Capossela noted that the Windows store-within-stores will run, on average, ten times larger than the Apple shops in Best Buy, and five times larger than the Samsung ones. And while the Windows stores will also feature the company's phones, tablets, and gaming console, Best Buy will continue to carry those products in the device-specific departments of its stores as well.

Best Buy opened three trial locations of its Windows stores Thursday, in Rochester, Minn., Ft. Worth, Texas, and Louisville, Texas, to see what works and what needs refinement. It plans the broader rollout later this month, which will continue throughout the summer so they are set up in time for back-to-school shopping. Capossela declined to say how long the contract with Best Buy would last, except to note that it was a "multiyear" agreement.

Since the launch of Windows 8 last fall, Microsoft has been criticized, even by some partners, for confusing customers by offering two types of tablets - one running Windows 8, the other with Windows RT. Capossela said that just as Microsoft engineers "reimagined" Windows, adding touch capabilities throughout the computing experience, the company also needs to rethink its approach to retail sales of the new operating system.

"We also have to innovate on the shopping experience," Capossela said. "We have to make it easy to understand."

Best Buy is also rolling out an online version of the Windows store-within-a-store, creating a Web site where consumers can find information about promotions.

The companies didn't disclose terms of the partnership, though Capossela called it "a major investment for both sides."