Tag: public-access

A ‘Star Wars’ VR experiment is coming soon to HTC Vive

Last year Industrial Light & Magic teased an HTC Vive VR tie-in experience (the old teaser clip is embedded after the break) to go along with The Force Awakens and to celebrate the launch of its ILM Experience Lab . It appears its release was delayed along with the headset, but now that it’s rolling out, we should see it soon. Earlier this evening a short YouTube teaser for Star Wars: Trials on Tattooine appeared on the ILMVisualFX YouTube channel before going private, and it showed something that appeared to go beyond the Jakku Spy experience that appeared last year for Google Cardboard. It flashed a glimpse at the Vive headset, along with a VR trip in the Star Wars universe featuring everything from R2-D2 to player-controlled lightsaber battles. These screenshots should give you an idea of what this Cinematic Virtual Reality Experiment will be like, now we’re just waiting to hear when it will be available. [Thanks, Anonymous!] Source: ILMVisualFX (YouTube)

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A ‘Star Wars’ VR experiment is coming soon to HTC Vive

Quantum computer revolves around just 5 atoms

It’s no mean feat to find the factors of a very large number — even a supercomputer can take years to find all the multipliers. However, MIT researchers have found a way to clear this massive hurdle. They’ve built a quantum computer that discovers number factors using just five atoms. Four of the atoms are turned into logic gates using laser pulses that put them into superpositions (where they maintain two different energy states at once), while the fifth atom stores and delivers answers. The result is a computer that not only calculates solutions much more efficiently than existing quantum systems, but scales relatively easily. Need to get the factors for a larger number? Introduce more atoms. It’s a one-trick pony at the moment (it can only get factors for the number 15), and a truly complex computer would require “thousands” of simultaneous laser blasts to work. However, it could have big ramifications for the security world. A sufficiently powerful machine could end the use of any encryption that depends on factoring — a government agency or hacking team could easily crack codes that are otherwise near-impenetrable. On a basic level, this quantum factoring could also help solve math problems involving extremely large numbers (say, universe-scale calculations) that would normally be too daunting. Source: MIT News

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Quantum computer revolves around just 5 atoms

Slack to start integrating native voice chat into its app

A couple of months ago, you could start making Skype calls from within Slack , an award-winning work chat app that’s pretty popular with a lot of companies (we certainly use it over here in the Engadget office). Now, however, voice calls are simply baked into the app itself, without you having to use an external service. The feature is in beta right now, and testing will roll out in Slack’s desktop apps as well as in Chrome. The voice calling feature actually comes from Slack’s acquisition of Screenhero over a year ago. If you have it, you’ll spot a phone icon at the top of your screen next to the info button. Click it and you can initiate a voice call much like most other chat apps out there. This doesn’t work with just individual folks either; you can also make channel-wide calls with up to 15 folks, but this is only for Slack users who pay for the service. And because this is Slack — known for its wide range of emoji — you can also respond to voice chats with one of several colorful reactions imposed over your user icon. This isn’t to say that Slack will stop supporting the aforementioned Skype or other voice chat services; it’s just another option. We should also note that rival Hipchat has had voice and video chat for awhile now. Still, for loyal Slack users, this is great news; here’s hoping that video support will be coming too. Via: The Verge Source: Slack

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Slack to start integrating native voice chat into its app

Scientists built a book-sized, protein-powered biocomputer

Supercomputers are absurdly impressive in terms of raw power , but it comes at a price: size and energy consumption. A multi-university team of researchers might’ve sidestepped that, though, with protein-powered biocomputers . Lund University notes that where this should really be helpful is with cryptography and “mathematical optimization” because with each task it’s necessary to test multiple solution sets. Unlike a traditional computer, biocomputers don’t work in sequence, they operate in parallel — leading to much faster problem solving. The biocomputer in action, with proteins finding their way to the solution set at the bottom. Oh and about that energy efficiency? Lund’s Heiner Linke says that they require less than one percent of the power a traditional transistor does to do one calculation step. The CBC reports that the model biocomputer used in the experiment is only about the size of a book, rather than, say, IBM’s Watson (pictured above) that’s comprised of some 90 server modules. The ATP-powered biocomputer is admittedly limited for now (it’s only solved 2, 5, 9), but the scientists involved say that scalability is possible and we might not be far off from seeing the tech perform more complex tasks. “Our approach has the potential to be general and to be developed further to enable the efficient encoding and solving of a wide range of large-scale problems, ” the research paper says. Via: The CBC Source: PNAS , Lund University

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Scientists built a book-sized, protein-powered biocomputer

Time Inc buys…MySpace?

MySpace still exists . Crazy, right? The once monolithic social network had faded into irrelevancy until it was relaunched with a little help from Justin Timberlake back in 2013. The fresh coat of paint wasn’t enough to reinvigorate the platform, however, and it’s now being sold as part of its parent company Viant to Time Inc. Yep, that’s the same Time Inc that publishes Time, Fortune , Entertainment Weekly and a whole bunch of other magazines. The company described the acquisition as “game changing, ” most likely in reference to Viant’s broader ad-tech business. MySpace does, supposedly, still have a part to play in that offering, but it’s notable the site was barely mentioned in the footnote of today’s press release . Source: Time Inc. (Press Release)

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Time Inc buys…MySpace?

You can run over 1,000 Windows 3.1 programs in your browser

The Internet Archive has spent many years gathering and storing digital content from the past. It now hosts millions of web pages, texts, videos and audio snippets, but recently the site expanded its collection to include software, or more specifically, games . After making more than 2, 400 DOS titles available to play in the browser , the Internet Archive has embraced the GUI and done the same for Windows 3.1. It’s kicked things off by adding more than 1, 000 programs to its Windows 3.1 Software Library. The vast majority of them are games, including Taipei and Ski Free , but there’s plenty of browser-based shareware to get stuck into. There’s also a curated collection called the “Windows Showcase, ” which lists some of the best known programs and games from 20 years ago. It’s been made possible by Boris Gjenero’s EM-DOSbox emulator, which converts Windows runtimes into JavaScript code that can be interpreted by your browser. It’s what underpins the Archive’s DOS collection and testers have already used it to boot Windows 95 . That suggests we may only have to wait a short while to see more Windows programs added to the collection. Via: Internet Archive Blog Source: Windows 3.1 Software Library

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You can run over 1,000 Windows 3.1 programs in your browser

‘Final Fantasy IX’ is now on iOS and Android

You could argue that Final Fantasy IX is the long-running series’ high point. It’s certainly the highest-rated Final Fantasy game on Metacritic , even if its sales and nostalgic value pale in comparison to Final Fantasy VII . Putting that argument aside for a moment, it’s easy to say that it’s definitely a game worth playing if you like JRPGs. And now — less than two months after it was announced — it’s available on iOS and Android. The bar for entry has never been lower. The mobile port includes “high-definition movies and character models, ” autosave, achievements and a collection of “game boosters” that let you essentially cheat your way through the game. You can speed up time, cut out random encounters or hit every enemy for 9, 999 damage. The idea of the boosters is to make the game, which in its original incarnation involved well over a full day’s worth of grinding, more playable for casual gamers. If grinding on a phone or tablet isn’t your thing — or you don’t have a phone with the necessary 8GB of free space to install it — Final Fantasy IX will also be coming to Steam in ” Early 2016 , ” together with the enhancements mentioned above and some Steam trading cards. Via: Kotaku Source: Square Enix (Google Play) , (App Store)

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‘Final Fantasy IX’ is now on iOS and Android

Twisty fusion reactor goes online after 19 years of work

Germany just took fusion power one big, important step forward. The country’s Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics has just switched on Wendelstein 7-X , the first large fusion reactor based on a twisty stellarator design. It’s only producing hydrogen plasma at the moment and won’t actually generate energy, but power isn’t really the point. Instead, it’ll serve as proof that stellarators could provide energy while operating continuously, unlike current (tokamak-based) fusion reactors that operate in short pulses. They should be safer, too. The inaugural test phase will run through mid-March, after which point it’ll get an upgrade to let it run hotter and longer. Eventually, it should discharge for up to 30 minutes at a time, and muster a heating power of 20 megawatts. The machine comes at a high price in more ways than one. It took roughly 19 years to design and build Wendelstein 7-X at a staggering cost of €1.2 billion, or about $1.3 billion. That’s a lot of effort for a testbed device. However, it could pay off if it leads to a much more powerful (not to mention less dangerous ) alternative to nuclear fission energy. Via: Motherboard Source: Max Planck Institute

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Twisty fusion reactor goes online after 19 years of work

Electronic music gets its own televised awards show

Variety is reporting that Fox will broadcast the inaugural Electronic Music Awards on Saturday, April 23rd at 8pm. The network has teamed up with superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold to create the event as a celebration of the genre. It’ll feature red carpet coverage, interviews, the ceremony itself and performances from the world’s biggest artists. Read between the lines and you’ll assume that the move was born out of frustration with the Grammy’s traditional disdain for electronica. As Oakenfold says, he’s “thrilled to be part of an awards show that finally ” (emphasis ours) “recognizes and celebrates… one of the biggest music genres in the world.” You can feel the heat radiating off that burn from a mile away. Stuff that’s been made by a computer has always been treated as a poor cousin of things that are made more “traditionally.” Despite its pervasiveness, CGI gets a bum rap compared to practical effects , and it’s taken years for eSports to receive any degree of recognition from traditional broadcasters . Take a cursory look at the Grammy award categories and you can see where Oakenfold’s annoyance comes from. For instance, R&B and jazz both get five categories a piece, while electronic has to share a table with dance and has just two measly categories. Which seems a little bit unfair, don’t you think? Source: Variety

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Electronic music gets its own televised awards show

Facebook eyes ride-sharing feature for events pages

Facebook has been ramping up its Events pages as of late, and a recent patent application shows another use for those listings. In the paperwork, the social network explains how Events pages can also serve as a hub for ride sharing. Instead of the usual Going, Not Going, and Interested RSVPs on an event’s page, you would have the option to say whether or not you plan to drive. If you do, you can input details as to how many passengers you can take, if you just want to offer a ride to friends and what time you’ll be leaving. As you might expect, Facebook can pair passengers and drivers based on personal details like common interests, where you went to school and more to decrease the chances of awkward silence. After your pals (or soon-to-be pals) are all locked in, you’ll receive navigation info to guide you to the pickup spots. While a patent app doesn’t mean the company will actually implement the feature, this makes a lot of sense for Facebook. Using the Events pages as a primary interface could allow the folks in Melo Park to include ride sharing and carpooling relatively easily. For now, though, you’ll have to rely on hailing an Uber through Messenger . Via: Tech Insider Source: USPTO

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Facebook eyes ride-sharing feature for events pages