Famous ‘fidget spinner’ spun teachers into a tizzy
Xbox adds Netflix-style video game subscriptions
NEW YORK, May 25, (Agencies): It was supposed to calm nerves, relieve stress and improve concentration but a new anti-fidget toy spreading fast through US and European schools is whipping up anger among teachers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Just months after the “fidget spinner” first whirled its way into the hands of antsy youngsters, some schools have already banned it — prompting a debate about difficulties children experience concentrating.
“The fidget spinners came out of nowhere, and then it seemed every other kid had them,” said Meredith Daly, a sixth-grade teacher at a public school outside Phoenix, Arizona. “The kids would say, ‘Oh it helps me calm down.’ I did not really know what to think at first.”
Sold for just a few dollars, the spinning top-like gadget divided into two or three branches, has proved a surprise hit this spring, first in the United States and then across Europe after its release on the continent last month.
The spinners have the advantage of being silent, Daly says — a relief to many grown-ups after months of “bottle flip,” a popular game that involves spinning a bottle of water until it lands upright.
But it quickly became clear that with “the fidget spinner, you need to keep it going, they want to look at it spinning around... it is too distracting if you are trying to learn something new,” she said.
“So we all decided ‘No fidget spinners — keep them in your backpacks!’”
Like many American teachers who have recently vented their irritation on Twitter, Daly tolerates them only at parents’ express request. Or when the need arises, as is sometimes the case for children with attention problems, hyperactivity or certain forms of autism.
Other schools in the United States, France and England have banned them, even during recess, much to the annoyance of children like Tom Wuesteberg.
Also: SAN FRANCISCO:
Microsoft on Wednesday launched a subscription service for Xbox, letting players pay a monthly fee for access to a library of videogames for its console.
People who already subscribe to an Xbox Gold service can pay an extra $10 monthly for the new “Game Pass”, which will be available at the same cost to console users with Live accounts in any of 31 markets around the world at the start of June, according to product marketing director Parimal Deshpande.
“At launch and beyond, our goal is to make sure there are great games to play for all gamers,” Deshpande said in a blog post. Microsoft revealed plans for the Game Pass earlier this year and tested it with users who were part of in an “insider” program.
The subscription service, using the Netflix model of monthly subscriptions for instant online access, will offer some 100 games that can be played on Xbox One or prior-generation Xbox 360 consoles, according to Deshpande.
People will be enticed to try to Game Pass with 14-day free trials.
Players subscribing to the service will be able to download games to consoles for optimal performance and be offered discounts to buy them for keeps.
Games in the opening line-up included “Halo 5: Guardians”, “Bioshock” and “Borderlands”.
A YouTube video about the service had logged more than 278,000 views within 24 hours of being posted.
LOS ANGELES:
San Franciscobased video game engine maker Unity Technologies has raised a new $400 million round of funding from Silver Lake Partners, both companies announced late Wednesday. The investment values Unity at $2.6 billion, according to a Bloomberg report.
Unity is best known for providing the game engine, which is basically the underlying code that games run on, for a number of major mobile games. 2.4 billion mobile devices currently have games installed that have been built with Unity, and the company saw some 5 billion downloads of Unity-powerd games in Q3 of 2016 alone.