[RH Contest] Win a pair of tickets to Pitchfork Music Festival Day 1
[Update: Our winner for the Pitchfork Day 1 tickets is @MaximumOlsen!]
We're going to be giving away a pair of tickets to each day of this year's Pitchfork Music Festival. Featuring acts like Bjork, Trash Talk, Merchandise, Tree, El-P, Toro y Moi, Lil B, Solange, MIA, R. Kelly, and loads of others, the 2013 Pitchfork lineup is pretty stacked. For this contest, simply tweet who you're looking forward to seeing on Day 1 to @RubyHornet with the hashtag #RHPitchforkFest attached! The contest will be going on until Saturday night at 11:59PM CST! You can send as many tweets as you want to qualify for this contest.
Good luck! If you need a reminder for who's performing on Day 1, I've included the lineup below.
FRIDAY, JULY 19 - gates at 3pm
8:30pm - (Green) Björk
7:20pm - (Red) Joanna Newsom
6:25pm - (Green) Wire
6:15pm - (Blue) Mikal Cronin
5:30pm - (Red) Woods
5:15pm - (Blue) Angel Olsen
4:35pm - (Green) Mac DeMarco
4:15pm - (Blue) Trash Talk
3:30pm - (Red) Daughn Gibson
3:20pm - (Blue) Frankie Rose
Instagram announces Video on Instagram, drops mic in the process
Earlier this week, rumors spread that a new Instagram feature would be announced that would focus on new video functionality. Today, the rumors were confirmed that Instagram will incorporate a video service within the application. Available right now for both iPhones and Androids, the new Video on Instagram is very similar to the popular video sharing service, Vine, but with a few exclusive features.
Video on Instagram features 13 new filters exclusively for video (which resemble the typical Instagram filters, just rebranded under new names). The function also eclipses Vine's six-second capacity with 15 second clips. Also available is the ability to choose a cover photo from your video clips. Video on Instagram also allows users to "rewind" their clips in case a shot didn't come out properly, which further separates it from Vine. However, the biggest feature announced is what the company is calling "cinematic stabilization," which obviously helps stabilize shaky hands and scenes.
Videos will be featured on the Instagram news feed like normal, displaying the cover photo chosen, but with a little video camera in the corner to help distinguish it from typical Instagram photos. As I was telling Virgil a few moments ago, this could lead to shenanigans where users could use a false cover photo to hide video rambunctiousness. Prepare for the pranks! Again, Video in Instagram is available right now, so get those videos going.
[iframe id="http://player.vimeo.com/video/68765934?byline=0&portrait=0"]
Rumor: Instagram bites Vine's style, plans to implement videos
Facebook is playing catch up lately, first implementing hashtags on the popular social network last week. Now, rumors are spreading that they will announce a Vine-like video feature for Instagram, the photo-sharing app that Facebook acquired last April. With Vine itself having multiplied its user base with its release on Android two weeks ago, Facebook is doing its best to stay on the same playing field.
Tech Crunch cites an unnamed source pointing at a "Video Instagram" app to be announced on June 20th. Whether it will function within the Instagram app or be its own app is yet to be determined. However, the source claims that the video clips will run for five to 10 seconds, surpassing Vine's maximum allotment of six seconds. Given that this is rumored to be an Instagram-branded application, fans of the X-Pro II, Sierra, Walden, and other filters of its ilk should be implemented with the new service. Finally, aspiring camera phone photographers can break into the video business.
[via Tech Crunch]
Facebook bites Twitter's style, plans to implement hashtags
What bugs me more than anything is seeing people using hashtags on Facebook. For those who don't know, hashtag links, most commonly and visibly utilized on Twitter, are a series of metadata tags that grouped together common tweets, posts, etc. Again, for the non-tweeters out there, somebody could write a tweet about the Blackhawks, then add a "#Blackhawks" tag, which is then grouped together with all other tweets that also incorporate "#Blackhawks. The problem with hashtags is that Facebook doesn't incorporate them in their system, so when non-privy people post their statuses with stupid hashtags, they don't really lead to anything, thus making that user look like an idiot.
That's all set to change over the coming weeks, as Facebook is doing their part to not only ensure such users will stop looking technologically uneducated, but also help them keep up in a social media expanse that's constantly growing and evolving. Much like MySpace's new attempt at revolutionizing itself, Facebook has taken one huge step in ensuring they don't get left in the dust. The implementation of Facebook hashtags will also help artists and businesses alike as they finally have access at grouping together their content for individuals with common interests, allowing them to grow their social media presence on Facebook the same way they would on Twitter. Some users have access to functioning hashtags, while others will be included in the updates as Facebook begins their roll-out of wave updates through the next few weeks.
Welcome to #2009, Facebook.
[via Facebook Newsroom]
[Video] New Myspace Commercial Featuring Chance The Rapper, Pharrell, Mac Miller & More
Yesterday, Myspace --who's been scheming towards a full-on comeback--released a new commercial unveiling the remodeling of the site's interference and concept to a national audience as it was played various times on TV yesterday. High-profile artists such as Pharrell, Mac Miller, Schoolboy Q, Ciara all made cameos, but the highlight for many was the appearance by hometown hero, Chance The Rapper, alongside Riff Raff. Check it out below and be sure to hit up Myspace, they have a couple of incredible editorials on there right now.
[myspace id="this-is-myspace-109345530-111986895"]
Apple announces iTunes Radio, iOS 7, OS X Mavericks, new Mac Pros at WWDC
This week is a big week for tech with both Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) and Apples Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) taking place. Apple just finished their own keynote conference, revealing a plethora of new software and hardware for the upcoming year. iPhone, MacBook, and iPad fanatics, take note, because there are a lot of changes being made this year.
iOS 7 will update mobile devices much more dramatically than previous updates, both visually and systematically. The entire visual appearance of iOS devices have been overhauled for iOS 7. Now, the OS works in layers, with idle apps simply thrown to the background. It's a simple aesthetic change, but one that helps make upcoming mobile Apple devices more modern and contemporary looking. There will also be a Control Center that will give easy access to stock applications, such Music, Camera, Settings, etc. with just an upward swipe rather than having to go to the home screen to access everything. Sharing files between friends is also made easier with AirDrop. For example, to share photos amongst friends, you can just tap the photos you want to send, the people's names, and which means to send them (text, email, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Simplicity is a common theme with the new iOS, as they've also added better bluetooth functionality with cars, as well as an upgraded Siri, which will make hands-free driving even more hands-free. You can see a list of compatible devices here.
Apple also announced iTunes Radio, which will serve as a direct competition with Pandora. Much like the aforementioned service, iTunes Radio will serve as a music discovery application that will stream music online based off of your preferences. It will be free with an iTunes Match subscription or with advertisements. It hasn't been announced which engine will power the service, but will definitely be interesting to see how the parameters will work.
A new version of Apple's desktop OS was announced. OS X Mavericks will be a huge upgrade for Mac users, as the operation system is made to help boost performance. A notable upgrade includes full use of multiple monitor display, meaning users who are using both a Macbook and iMac can easily switch from monitor to monitor, as well as pull up the dock on either monitor as opposed to the "primary" screen. Mavericks will also utilize a technology called Time Coalescing that will smooth the transition between active and passing states, which will allow CPU usage to run smoother as opposed to from one state to the other. Mavericks is also going to run up to 1.5x faster than the current OS X, Mountain Lion, which should help people like me who have multiple, performance heavy programs open all the time. You can read more about Mavericks here.
The biggest surprise to come out of today's conference is Apple's return to Mac Pros. The Mac Pros were constructed with a modern aesthetic, as they come in a cylinder shape, which takes up considerably less space than the large, rectangular boxes previous Mac Pros came in. The new Mac Pros also pack an enormous amount of power with up to 12 cores of processing power, 40 GB/s of PCIe bandwidth, 60GB /s of memory bandwidth, 7 teraflops of GPU performance, next generation PCIe flash storage (which is actually kind of sad, but should mean faster access to files/programs), and more hardware options. The new Mac Pros will be a beast of a machine when they come out later this year. You can read more about them here.
A lot of news was unleashed today by Apple. To summarize: New Mac Pros, new iOS 7, new OS X Mavericks, iTunes Radio, and a new line of MacBook Airs, all coming later this year.Read more
Happy Birthday, Kate Upton!
We here at Ruby Hornet would like to say happy 21st birthday to super babe Kate Upton. Many of us know her from the infamous Cat Daddy video with photographer Terry Richardson, to the covers of Sports Illustrated and GQ. Kate has been hard at work since her first shoot with Venus Swimwear, and it doesn't look like she's slowing down anytime soon, as she is now taking a stab at acting in the upcoming movie The Other Woman. In honer of her birthday, we thought we would share some shots from some of our favorite shoots.
[via rsvlts]
Viacom and Amazon enter multi-year agreement, spurning Netflix in the process
Today, Viacom and Amazon announced their multi-year agreement to stream Viacom TV shows exclusively on Amazon's Prime Instant Video service. Viacom is one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, comprised of a large number of TV networks including MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central. The agreement also comes at Netflix's expense whose own agreement with Viacom recently expired.
It's a huge blow for Netflix subscribers, as shows broadcast on any of the aforementioned networks (like South Park, Rocko's Modern Life, Workaholics, Teen Mom, etc.) will be unavailable to them. At the same time, it's a huge gain for Amazon, as Prime Instant Video hasn't had access to worthwhile content. Does this mean Netflix, who's experienced a bit of a subscription bump with exclusive series like Arrested Development premiering, will lose a large number of its 20-something demographic with this huge exodus of shows? We'll see. I know one thing: I finally have a good reason to actually use my Prime Instant Video subscription.
[via Deadline]