Tag: gaming

J&J’s anesthesia-bot loses against its human counterparts

Just because robots can be more efficient than humans and can make certain processes cheaper doesn’t mean they’ll always come out on top. Case in point: Johnson & Johnson is pulling its anesthesia robot called Sedasys from the market over poor sales, according to Outpatient Surgery and Anesthesiology News . It was once a promising alternative to anesthesiologists, since it can bring down the cost of administering sedation from $2, 000 per procedure to $150 to $200. It eliminates the need for an anesthesia professional, after all, as it allows any nurse or doctor to put a patient under in the operating room. One of the reasons why it experienced such slow adoption rates is because the American Society of Anesthesiologists campaigned against it. The group eventually backed down after the machine was limited for use in routine procedures like colonoscopy, but by then, they’ve already done their job. Unfortunately, J&J now plans to lay off 3, 000 employees from its medical devices division due to its products’ (Sedasys included) poor sales, so it’s not a total victory for humans after all. Via: PopSci , The Washington Post Source: Outpatient Surgery , Anesthesiology News

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J&J’s anesthesia-bot loses against its human counterparts

Toyota will make automatic braking near-standard by 2017

Worried that you might not stop your Camry in time to avoid a nasty collision? Toyota is determined to prevent that from happening going forward. The Japanese car maker has announced that its automatic braking systems will be standard on 25 out of 30 Toyota and Lexus models, at nearly every trim level, by the end of 2017. It’ll only be non-standard on the 4Runner, 86 (formerly the Scion FR-S), Mirai , Lexus GX and Scion iA. Just what you’ll get will vary: while Lexus only has one braking system (based on a camera and millimeter wave radar), Toyota has both laser- and millimeter wave-based variants. Whatever you get, though, it’s a big step forward for safety and semi-autonomous driving in one of the world’s biggest vehicle brands. You probably won’t have to fork over extra just to minimize the chances of a crash, whether you’re driving a frugal Yaris or a decked-out Lexus LX. Via: TechCrunch Source: Toyota

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Toyota will make automatic braking near-standard by 2017

Netflix is the one limiting its video quality on AT&T and Verizon

Last week as T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced that his company’s Binge On program would expand to cover YouTube, he mentioned a strange point: that even the “mobile optimized” 480p Netflix streams T-Mobile offers were higher-res than what you get streaming via AT&T or Verizon. Executives from those companies said they don’t reduce the resolution of videos on their networks, although tests revealed that Legere was right — Netflix does only stream at 360p on AT&T and Verizon. Now the Wall Street Journal has reported that the culprit behind this restriction was actually Netflix itself. 7/ @TMobile has been listening to customers and thanks to a little partnership, @YouTube is now a #BingeOn partner! https://t.co/VQVZoM86Jh — John Legere (@JohnLegere) March 17, 2016 In an odd wrinkle on net neutrality discussions over whether or not broadband providers might restrict video quality of streaming companies they compete with, Netflix chose to limit its own quality on those two networks. Through a blog post and statements to WSJ , Netflix explains that it set a cap at 600kbps to avoid using up too much data under the caps set by those providers for their customers. Sprint and T-Mobile were apparently exempt because of a history of “more consumer friendly policies.” It all makes sense considering how quickly users can chew through bandwidth caps with HD video on mobile, although it seems odd that it wasn’t made clear until now. According to Netflix, this hasn’t been an issue for its users, who are more concerned about saving bandwidth than quality. However, it will soon introduce a “data saver” feature on its mobile apps to let users choose what bandwidth they want to stream over cellular networks — just in case you’re willing to burn a few GB so you can actually see what’s going on in Daredevil . Source: Netflix Blog , Wall Street Journal

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Netflix is the one limiting its video quality on AT&T and Verizon

Streaming is now the US music industry’s biggest money maker

It may have just been a matter of time , but it finally happened: streaming music is now the biggest cash cow for the American music industry. The RIAA’s latest year-end sales report reveals that streaming accounted for 34.3 percent of US music revenue in 2015, barely edging past the 34 percent of downloads. Physical sales, meanwhile, were down to 28.8 percent. And despite concerns about free listening hurting the bottom line , paid subscriptions were the star of the show. While ad-based streaming pulled in 30.6 percent more cash versus 2014, paid subscriptions jumped 52.3 percent — suddenly, forking over $10 a month for unlimited music wasn’t such a far-fetched idea. The label-backed organization partly credits the boost to the rise of new entrants like Apple Music and Tidal . Streaming was simply the hot space last year, and everyone stood to gain whether they were fresh or an incumbent like Spotify . Internet radio (think Pandora and SiriusXM) and music videos also played roles, but only tiny ones. No matter what, online tunes were enough to offset the drop in demand for hard copies, as the entire industry’s revenue grew a modest 0.9 percent. It’s hard to say that streaming will keep growing at the pace it has, since there are only so many people willing to either subscribe or put up with ads. Even so, the data might be enough to have labels changing how they distribute and push music. Rather than treat streaming as just one of multiple options, they may be more likely to steer you toward the on-demand services first and foremost. Via: Wall Street Journal Source: RIAA

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Streaming is now the US music industry’s biggest money maker

Apple iOS 9.3 update available today with ‘Night Shift’

During its ” Loop You In ” event, Apple announced that iOS 9.3 would finally be available to all starting today. The new version of the operation system adds the color-temperature changing Night Shift, Notes with Touch ID and password support. The News app also got some love with trending topics. CarPlay is updated with better Maps and an easier way to select music. The operating system has been available to developers and any users that opt-in to beta test the latest version of iOS. So the none of the features are much of a surprise. But, if you’re not in the mood to mess with your iPhone experience using a system that’s not quite ready for primetime, soon you’ll be able to set Today’s event introduced the new iPhone 5SE which is available for order now . Get all the news from today’s iPhone event right here , and follow along with our liveblog !

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Apple iOS 9.3 update available today with ‘Night Shift’

Here’s an early taste of the ‘System Shock’ remake

Two decades after its original release, System Shock is being remade . Night Dive Studios, the developer in charge of the project, released some pre-alpha footage, and it looks great. If you’ve never played the original, it’s a hugely influential atmospheric first-person RPG in a sci-fi horror setting. A great game in its own right, it spawned a more successful (and arguably better) sequel, System Shock 2 . Some of the minds behind the originals went on to create games you’ve almost certainly heard of. Ken Levine made BioShock , considered by many to be a spiritual successor, while Warren Spector made Deus Ex , which also leans heavily on the System Shock 2 formula. Night Dive’s video describes the game as System Shock 1 Remastered , but it’s clear that this is more remake than remaster. The original artist is on board to help upgrade the original assets, and with that some of the level layout is changing. Speaking with Polygon , the developer explained that many people’s only exposure to the series is through BioShock , so it’s making some tweaks to cater to modern gamers’ tastes. That means the tone of the narrative is also set to shift, as is some of the gameplay. but the overall plot will remain. System Shock is due for release in 2017. A bonafide sequel, System Shock 3, is also in the early stages of development, with Spector at the helm . Source: Night Dive (YouTube)

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Here’s an early taste of the ‘System Shock’ remake

Software brings your PC’s entire interface to VR

Virtual reality faces numerous challenges , but one of the biggest is having to take your headset off whenever you need to run a conventional app. What if you want to maintain that immersion, or just want to use a VR device as your only display? That’s where BigScreen thinks it can help. It’s developing software that places your entire Windows desktop in a VR environment. It’s partly for the sake of immersion (you can have a massive, wall-filling screen without spending a fortune ), but it’s a bigger deal for social experiences. You can see a friend’s shared screen as a separate virtual monitor, or play games and movies with friends who sit in using personalized avatars. You can sign up for a public beta test today, and the finished software should be available for both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift when they’re available in April. Samsung Gear VR support is due later in 2016. BigScreen is definitely going to be a niche app on launch (you’re going to need an expensive headset and a powerful PC just to use it), but it’s an important step toward turning VR from a once-in-a-blue-moon experience into something you use every day, whether you’re catching up on Netflix or creating worlds . Via: Upload Source: BigScreen

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Software brings your PC’s entire interface to VR

Hackers tried and failed to steal a billion dollars from bank

Hackers stole $80 million from a bank, but it could have been a lot worse if they had just Googled the name of a company, according to Reuters . Thieves got inside servers of the Bangladesh Bank, stealing the credentials used to make online transfers. They then bombarded the Federal Reserve Bank in New York with up to 13 money transfer requests to organizations in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The Fed allowed four to go through totaling $81 million, but the next one was flagged by a routing bank in Germany because the hackers misspelled “foundation” as “fandation.” Once alerted, officials put a stop to the the remaining transfers, which amounted to nearly $850 million. The $81 million theft is still one of the largest ever, but if all the transfers had gone through, it would have been one of the biggest heists on record. Last year, Russian hackers reportedly got away with up to $1 billion from 100 banks using malware. Meanwhile, Bangladeshi officials are trying to lock down their systems and figure out how the attack happened, but say there’s little hope the hackers and money will be recovered. As with many large-scale attacks , experts told Reuters that the thieves likely targeted and spied on employees to gain access to servers. While the bank blames the US Federal Reserve Bank for not stopping the transfers, Fed officials say that it’s systems were not breached and that it has been cooperating in the investigation. Luckily, hackers are just as bad at spelling in large fraud attempts as they are in basic spear-phishing attacks. Source: Reuters

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Hackers tried and failed to steal a billion dollars from bank

Pandora will let bands insert voice messages into your music stream

Social media has increasingly broken down the walls between musicians and their fans, allowing bands to have more direct conversations with the people listening to their music. The “artist marketing platform” (AMP) that Pandora launched a few years ago was meant to be part of that move, helping to enable that connection between musicians and fans. In an effort to foster that connection, Pandora is launching AMPcast, an app that lets Pandora artists record messages to fans on-the-go and insert them right into a user’s audio stream. A musician participating in Pandora’s AMP program can use the new app to record a quick message to fans, add a link and then share it out to their listeners with speed and spontaneity. Perhaps the most obvious use case is a band alerting fans to a new album release or that there are still tickets available for a concert that night, but Pandora expects it’ll become an all-purpose way for artists of all sizes to reach fans and even grow their audiences. The messages can include a call to action link so you can click for more details. If you’re worried about your listening experience getting cluttered with messages you don’t want to hear, fear not. For starters, Pandora will only insert audio messages from artists that you’ve used to start a station or who have songs you’ve liked. So you shouldn’t hear messages from bands you couldn’t care less about. Unlike Pandora ads, you can skip past artist message, and you can even opt-out of the entirely. In Pandora’s view, the magic for artists is the combination of the company’s reach and targeting. For starters, artist messages are only delivered to listeners who’ve expressed an interest in that artist, but the company envisions a time in which it can use the vast amount of data it has tying together related songs and artists to serve listeners messages from bands they’ve never heard before. Pandora thinks that could be very valuable to smaller groups trying to find an audience. There’s even talk of making these messages location-based — so if a band is chatting about its concert in New York City, listeners in San Francisco won’t necessarily have to hear about it. Much of the story around Pandora over the last year has centered around the company’s move towards offering listeners ways to engage with music they love beyond just listening to songs. The company bought Rdio in an effort to eventually compete head-on with Spotify, launched new recommended stations to help users find new music and purchased Ticketfly in an effort to get its listeners buying tickets to see their favorite bands. This latest initiative ties in well with the Ticketfly move, as artists can directly talk to listeners about upcoming shows as well as have a link to buy tickets. The program launches today in a limited fashion: only a small group of selected artists can participate for now. But Pandora plans to roll it out to anyone using its AMP platform soon after it gets data on how the service is best used. The company wants to optimize the frequency of messages and get better at targeting before widely rolling it out.

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Pandora will let bands insert voice messages into your music stream

Blizzard’s ‘Overwatch’ hits consoles and PC on May 24

The wait is almost over for Overwatch , Blizzard’s first original game in some time. The shooter will hit PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on May 24, the company announced today . Additionally, you’ll be able to get your feet wet during an open beta from May 5 through May 9. Those who preorder the game will also be able to get an early start on the beta on May 3. Multiplayer shooters are fairly common these days, but it’ll be interesting to see how Blizzard, a company best known for MMORPGs and strategy games, approaches the genre. Based on what we’ve seen so far, Overwatch ‘ s gameplay is frenetic, giving you control of 21 different heroes with different skills. This isn’t some stroll through Destiny’s Crucible. Blizzard also revealed two new editions of the game today. PC players can snag the base version for $40 — which doesn’t include some of the skins and other “digital goodies” buyers of the $60 “Origins Edition” will get — and the “Collector’s Edition” for all platforms will retail for around $130. The latter will come with a Soldier: 76 statue, art book and soundtrack. Source: Blizzard

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Blizzard’s ‘Overwatch’ hits consoles and PC on May 24