‘Ratchet & Clank’ for the PS4 looks like more than a remake
When Sony and Insomniac Games teased that there would be a “re-imagining” of Ratchet & Clank for the PlayStation 4, that raised at least a few questions. Would there be a genuinely new story? New mechanics? Or would it be yet another remaster? Apparently, you can rest easy. Insomniac has offered its first look at the action series’ reboot, and it’s definitely not just a visual upgrade. While it’s undoubtedly prettier (see above), you’ll also get “modern controls” and a heaping of new content that includes an expanded story, several new planets, refreshed gameplay segments, and a weapon collection that’s largely built from scratch. Your muscle memory from the original game isn’t going to help here, folks.
Just be prepared to wait. The studio recently pushed back the PS4 version of Ratchet & Clank to spring 2016, roughly in sync with the closely related movie. Patience should be a virtue here, though — you won’t just be getting a 1080p version of a game you played over a decade ago.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: PlayStation Blog
A supermarket thinks it can create the most advanced robot known to man
Online-only supermarket Ocado is a household name in the UK, and some of you undoubtedly rely on the service to deliver your weekly shop. Something you’re unlikely to be aware of, however, is Ocado’s work in cutting-edge robotics research. (No, seriously.) A special division of the company looks at technology that’ll ultimately benefit its grocery delivery business. And currently, that arm is involved in developing a robot that would make the most advanced automatons around right now look like Furbies. The SecondHands program aims to build a robot that’ll effectively become an Ocado warehouse employee, aiding technicians that work in these mammoth sorting offices with equipment repair and all manner of other tasks.
The concept is something out of a sci-fi movie. Should the five-year project meet its incredibly ambitious goal, SecondHands would take humanoid form, with a level of flexibility and dexterity that would allow it to work comfortably (and safely) alongside human engineers. The initial prototype, expected to be operational in around 18 months, is likely to use wheels to get around, but later versions might be outfitted with caterpillar tracks or legs instead. Telescopic arms and other superhuman abilities are also on the cards, apparently. The robot would function autonomously (without human input), and its primary job would be to repair faults that arise in the labyrinth of machinery that helps grocery orders get from the warehouse to your door. It could also be useful for carrying out tasks too dangerous for humans, such as high-risk inspections.
“In essence the SecondHands robot will know what to do, when to do it and how to do it”
As if developing the appropriate hardware wasn’t challenging enough, Ocado’s planning to make SecondHands seriously intelligent. The idea is it’ll be trained rather than programmed to carry out certain tasks, and will be able to apply what it’s learnt to solve other problems. With 3D vision and natural speech recognition, it’ll be able to understand and respond to commands from its human mentors, and what’s more, it’ll be proactive in providing assistance when it hasn’t been issued a specific order. It’ll learn from experience, or as chief of the Robotics Research Team at Ocado Technology Dr. Graham Deacon puts it: “In essence the SecondHands robot will know what to do, when to do it and how to do it in a manner that a human can depend on.”
Ocado isn’t alone in this venture. It’s collaborating with four European universities, including the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology that, for many years, has been working on the ARMAR humanoid robot program SecondHands will be derived from. The EU is also providing support to this and another Ocado project — one that’s investigating soft manipulation systems (or in simpler terms, better robot hands) — by partly funding it under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation initiative.
Ocado’s vision seems insanely far-fetched
Despite allying itself with the right kind of partners, Ocado’s vision seems insanely far-fetched and nigh on impossible to achieve. Unless, that is, all involved manage to fit decades of robotics and AI research into the project’s five-year term. Credit for being ambitious, but you only have to look at the recent DARPA Robotics Challenge to know we’re a long, long way from being able to build intelligent, autonomous warehouse assistants. The participating companies and universities have sunk untold millions into their respective research initiatives, and yet some of their creations still can’t even walk through a doorway without face-planting.
Filed under: Robots
Via: Wired
Dell will launch the Venue 8 7000 in India on July 1
Dell announced earlier today that it will launch its latest Android-powered tablet, the Venue 8 7000, in India on Wednesday, July 1. The slate will be available to purchase for ₹34,999 ($549) from it online store, which, to be honest, is a bit over the top seeing as you can pick up the exact same model from Amazon for $399.
With regards to internals, the Venue 8 7000 is a capable device, packing an 8.4-inch QHD display, a 2.3GHz quad-core Atom Z3580 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to 512GB via microSD), dual 8-megapixel cameras on the back, a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter and a 5,900mAh battery.
Straight out of its box, the device will run the latest build of Android 5.0 Lollipop, which brings a plethora of new features to the open-source operating system, in addition to support for multiple accounts, improved notifications, a smoother multitasking experience and the Material Design guidelines.
If you’re based in India, like the sound of the ultra-thin Dell Venue 8 7000 and want to find out more about picking one up from Dell — hit the source link below.
Source: Dell
Come comment on this article: Dell will launch the Venue 8 7000 in India on July 1
Leafly: the web’s ultimate cannabis resource
In July of 2014, New York State did what few thought possible at the time: Its legislature passed Assembly Bill 6357 (better known as the Compassionate Care Act of 2014), which effectively legalized medical cannabis; a bill Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law. Less than a week after he did so, Leafly, a cannabis information database, made headlines of its own by running an advertisement in The New York Times’ — the first of its kind in the venerable newspaper’s 163-year history.
Cannabis, both as an industry and as a subculture, is quickly coming out of the shadows and entering the mainstream. Nowhere is this more explicit than in the meteoric rise of Leafly. So to get some insight into the company’s rapid growth and future plans, I recently spoke with co-founder Cy Scott and CEO Brendan Kennedy about where Leafly came from and what it’s like to be an industry pioneer.
Leafly’s advertisement in The New York Times
The Compassionate Care Act in New York was really your big debut with your full-page ad in The New York Times. What sort of effects to the business have you seen emerge from that event?
Cy: One of the biggest benefits was, obviously, the media picking up that ad. We were in New York at the time and it really helped us “plant the flag” so to speak. We already had a number of users from New York, but to have it “top of mind” was really invaluable for us.
Brendan: It was really important that we ran that ad. We had actually designed it almost two years before we ran it and we designed [it] more as a project as to what we thought the first mainstream ad would look like. Then we put it on the shelf for two years. But when Gov. Cuomo signed the CCA, I believe it was July 7th, we almost ran it that week. But then when The New York Times editorial board came out in favor of ending the prohibition, that’s when we knew we had to run it.
It took us less than six days to get the ad finalized and in place. It was a big story for us. It was important, not just because it was the first cannabis ad in the history of The New York Times, but that it was done right and didn’t embrace the stereotypical cliches. That ad was covered in about 360 stories in 97 countries and they [The New York Times] told us it had roughly 400 million impressions.
Weedmaps reportedly had its Times Square billboard campaign yanked minutes before it was supposed to go live just a couple months before your Times ad ran. Was there a concern that, like Weedmaps, you would be denied publication?
Brendan: You know, I don’t know if that was a publicity stunt or what. What we’ve always liked about Leafly is that it’s a mainstream brand offering a mainstream product consumed by mainstream Americans. There’s a counterculture, a subculture, but there are also average Americans in New York and Kansas and Oklahoma that consume this product. They’re just looking for brands that don’t insult them. That’s why Leafly doesn’t have all the stereotypical cliches. You can show Leafly to a 25-year-old; you can show it to a 50-year-old soccer mom; you can even show it to someone’s grandmother. That’s not true for every brand in this industry.
***
Though The New York Times ad brought the fledgling company global notoriety, its publication was a far cry from Leafly’s humble beginnings. Cy and co-founder Scott Vickers met in college. Brendan joined soon after working with Cy at Kelley Blue Book.
CFO Michael Blue, COO Christian Groh and CEO Brendan Kennedy (L-R)
How did Leafly get its start?
Cy: Scott, one of the original founders got his doctor’s [recommendation] and went to a dispensary and was presented with an overwhelming selection of different cannabis products. At the time, we were familiar with the general categorization of different strains — you know, indica, sativa and hybrids — but we didn’t understand how nuanced the strains could be, the different effects they could have and the different reasons people would take one over another. And so in tracking that, [we solved] our own problem using spreadsheets to understand what we did and didn’t like. Like most startup stories, just sort of recognizing that there’s something missing in the market. We figured if we had this need, others would as well — a location or service where people could go and read reviews or create a journal of what they like and aggregating and anonymizing that and presenting it back to other people that are interested in the same space: new patients, new consumers looking for good information on strains.
Five years ago, most digital platforms targeted that common stereotype of a cannabis consumer. We wanted to target a more mainstream audience. We saw the trend happening in terms of mainstream adoption and acceptance of medical cannabis. We thought that it would go that direction with more states adopting it. So we decided to build a platform that had a great visual representation; something that people could use in their workplace or wouldn’t be embarrassed looking at. Since then, multiple states have legalized recreational use as well as medical and we’ve seen incredible adoption of the platform as well.
A selection of Leafly’s strain reviews
We started with the foundation of strain reviews and then understood that we really wanted to connect people to locations where they could acquire a particular genetic strain. So, we integrated a dispensary-locator service where people can rate and review specific dispensaries much like they’d rate and review specific strains. You can see a dispensary location and read its menu so you know what to expect when you arrive. From there, we realized that we needed some good editorial content. It’s something that’s been doing really well for us.
People, new patients, that are new to cannabis are really looking for good information. Also, people that are coming back to it, that tried it once when they were younger, but now that it’s legal in certain markets, they want to learn more about it. Also new patients that are looking for something that will help them with specific conditions and symptoms are coming to Leafly.
***
From just three founders and 17 strain reviews, Leafly has grown to more than 35 full-time employees and a database of nearly 10,000 reviews today. The site now generates close to 600,000 monthly impressions across both its web page and mobile apps. What’s more, Leafly’s readership continues to grow at a steady rate, averaging 10 percent month over month over the past two years, although 75 percent of that audience is based in the US. As such, Leafly’s product offerings have expanded along with its payroll. The company now offers not just strain, doctor and dispensary guides, but also an impressive archive of cannabis-related knowledge as well. Leafly boasts a five-person editorial staff that regularly produces content ranging from basic information like the Cannabis 101 series to cultural features. Its growth is one of the team’s primary goals for the year.
How do you maintain editorial control for something that is inherently crowdsourced?
Well, when we list a new strain, we control that directly. We have people on staff that do the research and work with our genetics companies to really understand the lineage and background of the strain. We add those as we stumble upon them or connect with new genetics companies or producers who are making their own crosses then requesting they be included. We control that so it’s not just any old strain or location that someone randomly adds to the system. As far as reviews, we have a Helpful/Not Helpful system where people can tag them — like up or down voting — so the content that isn’t great gets pushed down, buried and eventually moderated to keep the system pretty clean.
As for video: What brought about the decision to add video content to the site and where do you see it going from here?
Cy: Video is something we recognized we’d been missing for a long time. We really wanted to create an audience on our YouTube channel and to do that we really needed some original content. We batted around a bunch of ideas using the strain data and auto-generated videos, but nothing really connected until we started producing these new ones. For example, we have a host; her name is Regina. She’s a fantastic representation of the brand. It’s a great set. We get feedback from people all the time wanting to purchase things they’ve seen on-set (like the Cannabis Guide). It’s a lot of that original 101 content to get people comfortable with things like consumption methods or stuff that we take for granted working so closely with cannabis. But people have a lot of questions about stuff like the properties of strains. We’ll go really deep on specific strains like Blue Dream, talking about the foundations and background of it, different effects, et cetera.
“We decided to build a platform that had a great visual representation; something that people could use in their workplace or wouldn’t be embarrassed looking at.”
Being so uniquely positioned within the market, have you run into any added legal or regulatory troubles?
Cy: Other than typical industry challenges, no. I mean, everything in this industry is more complicated than people think. It took us a long time to find the right bank, even though nothing Leafly does is a violation of local state or federal laws. It takes time to find partners that are willing to think about this industry.
And has it been getting easier as cannabis grows in acceptance?
I think it’s easier today than four years ago, certainly, but it’s still not nearly as easy as any other industry in the United States.
***
Even though Leafly currently boasts an impressive (and seemingly uncannily sustainable) rate of growth, it’s not content to sit on its laurels. The company reportedly has a number of new features and innovations in the works that will be announced in the coming months.
You’ve already got revenue from ad streams and sponsorships; how else are you looking to expand your business?
Cy: One of the fundamental issues with this industry is that traditional digital marketing channels limit cannabis advertising. So if you’re a producer or processor or retailer in the market, you can’t advertise. You can’t advertise on platforms like Twitter, Instagram or Google. And neither can we, even as an ancillary business in the industry. We are working on some product offerings and services that will fill that gap for new and returning customers. We’re also working on more editorial content, looking towards new markets that are opening up (and we see new interest every time — one to three times the average every time a new market opens).
Leafly COO Christian Groh working on the website
A good example is DC, we saw a 3x increase in traffic both leading up to and following legalization there. And with new markets come new consumers. So yeah, definitely expanding editorial to support that new audience as well as new services and product offerings.
And where exactly are you looking? What areas do you think will be next to legalize it?
We’re looking at all different markets. Some of which we’ve been looking at lately have been Oregon and Alaska given that their regulatory frameworks are coming together. Within the next few months (up to 18 months), they should have stores opening up, so those are fun for us. There are also medical markets like Nevada, specifically Las Vegas. They’re about a month away from opening up their first dispensary. That should be a pretty big market. I believe they have reciprocity there so you can use your doctor’s recommendation from other regions.
As for what we do when a new market opens up, it really depends on the location. A lot of times, we’ll participate by sponsoring a number of local events in those regions. We have field marketers and reps; sometimes we’ll deploy them out to those regions to have a presence on the ground — start making connections and contacts in the industry. And when [recommendation] markets open up like in Seattle, we had a food truck day in a bunch of different locations. We had a bunch of Cannabis 101 materials to hand out that really resonated with consumers. It really just varies within each region.
What plans do you have for the API program?
We have a lot of sign-ups for it. We actually have a hackathon here in Seattle this weekend called the Grassroots hackathon and it’s being done at a Wee Works [Preschool] office. The hackathon revolves around the API (we are a sponsor), but it’s a great way for people like Meadow to get access to this data. And as we add new features — we only offer strain and dispensary data at the moment — we’ll expand. We don’t do editorial content because we’ve got agreements with a couple of other companies. We should have some good stuff coming out later this year, stuff we can’t talk about just yet, but we’ll expand the API once those are in place.
***
Of course, even industry pioneers need to relax every once in a while.
Do you regularly partake?
Cy: I’m a pretty regular consumer, but I don’t smoke. I prefer vaporizers these days. So it really was a matter of us solving our own problem. We had our doctor’s [recommendation] in California. We had exposure to a lot of strains initially and that’s where the interest and impetus, in part, came from.
What’s your preferred pen?
Cy: I actually just got the Pax 2. It’s fantastic. Obviously, we don’t consume at work or anything since we’ve got a lot we need to get done. But I use it to unwind in the evenings.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
[Image credits: Leafly (Screenshots, executives); Getty Images (Christian Groh)]
Filed under: Internet
You can play videos in 8K resolution on YouTube, but it’s not practical
YouTube is apparently capable of 8K video playback. Filmed on a RED Epic Dragon 6K, ‘Ghost Towns,’ a video uploaded to YouTube yesterday, can be played in 4320p.
Most users, including myself, thought YouTube was only capable of 4K, but according to 9to5Google’s request for comment, the search giant says it has been supported since 2011, but the label was added “earlier this year.”
While the technology is there, no one really has any hardware where you can see the full capabilities of 8K video playback, let alone 4K. Of course, what warrants a person to purchase a 4K monitor when there’s hardly any 4K content to watch?
Click here to view the embedded video.
It’s an interesting cycle–4K hardware isn’t popular because there’s no 4K content, and there’s no 4K content because 4K hardware isn’t widely accepted. Just like the boom of the smartphone industry, consumers will have to realize how 4K will enhance their lives before it gains any momentum.
I’m still waiting for the day when 4K becomes the norm. For that to happen, 4K video cameras would have to become inexpensive, and considering that most are upwards of $35k, that isn’t happening anytime soon. But, here’s the burning question: when will we see the first 8K TV or monitor?
source: 9to5Google
Come comment on this article: You can play videos in 8K resolution on YouTube, but it’s not practical
Netflix is coming to a Marriott near you
After being scolded by the FCC over its plans to block guests’ personal WiFi connections back in January, Marriott hotels has announced that it is partnering with Netflix to deliver the streaming service as an in-room amenity. According to a Marriott press release, guests staying at select hotels will now be able to log in to their existing Netflix accounts directly through their rooms’ televisions. The service is currently available in six locations — New York on the East Side, San Jose, Princeton, Newport, Dallas/Fort Worth and Bethesda — with a half dozen more locations (including San Francisco, Atlanta and DC) coming online later this summer. Marriott hopes to expand the service to over 100 locations by the end of the year and deliver it to more than 300 locations by the end of 2016.
[Image Credit: Associated Press]
Filed under: Internet
Source: Marriott
T-Mobile will start rolling out the Lollipop update for the LG G3 shortly
If you cast your mind back to April, you may remember that T-Mobile briefly started rolling out the long-awaited Lollipop update to all its carrier-branded variants of the LG G3 located in the United States. Sadly, the operator was forced to pull the upgrade for reasons unknown.
Earlier today, Desmond Smith, Senior Product Manager at T-Mobile, announced on his personal Twitter account that the Lollipop update (software version D8512oe) has received re-approval and should start rolling out again in the not-too-distant future.
The full changelog for the upgrade can be seen below:
- Material Design: You will quickly notice a whole new colorful look and feel to your device – from fluid animations to new application and system themes, colors and widgets.
- Notifications UI & Priorities: In order to alert you to the mosttimely and relevant information, the format and behavior of notifications have evolved:
- notifications will appear on the lock screen and are intelligently ranked by type and who sent them.
- you double-tap to open one, swipe left or right to clear one, or clear all notifications from the bottom of the list.
- you can set the priority and privacy of notifications for each application.
- very high priority notifications will pop up briefly over other applications so that you can take action.
- when you dismiss a notification on one device it will be dismissed on your other Android devices, if they are connected to the Internet.
- you can further tailor how notifications behave with the new Downtime and Ambient Display settings (see below).
- New Interruptions & Downtime Settings: You can tailor how interruptions behave, choosing to allow all, none, or only priority interruptions. You can personalize what counts as a priority interruption (reminders, events, calls, messages) and even tailor them to be from only contacts you specify. The Downtime setting will allow only priority interruptions during the times and days that you specify. e.g. allow only priority interruptions on the weekend.
- Recent Apps (Multi-tasking): The redesigned Overview space (formerly called Recents) will include both applications and separate activities within those applications. For instance, each open tab in Chrome will also appear here along with recent applications; both your Gmail Inbox and a draft email message will appear as separate cards. This provides a consistent way to switch amongst tasks.
- Flashlight: Lollipop includes a new flashlight option as part of Quick settings (swipe down with two fingers from the status bar to see it).
- Pin a view/app: Screen pinning allows you to keep a specific app or screen in view. For example, you can ‘pin’ a game and your child will not be able to navigate anywhere else on your phone.
- Battery: The Battery settings panel now shows an estimated projection for how much time you have left while discharging or charging. You can also enable a new battery saver mode that will save power by reducing performance and most background data operations to extend your battery life.
- Smarter Internet Connections: With Android Lollipop, your phone will not connect to a Wi-Fi access point unless there is a verified Internet connection. This feature improves hand-offs between Wi-Fi and cellular connections, helping to maintain your video chat or voice-over-IP (VoIP) call as you switch.
- Performance: Your phone now uses the new Android Runtime to help optimize application performance. After upgrading to Lollipop, your applications will undergo a one-time optimization process. Note that the optimization for ART requires more space.
- Security: Encryption can now use a stronger 256-bit key to help protect your data. Note that the stronger key willonly be used after you perform a factory reset on Android Lollipop. Otherwise encryption will continue to use 128-bit key. You can turn on encryption in the Security settings menu.
Be sure to check back as we’ll let you know as and when the update starts rolling out.
Come comment on this article: T-Mobile will start rolling out the Lollipop update for the LG G3 shortly
Spotify Announces 75M Active Users, Raises $526M Following Apple Music Debut
Spotify today announced that it now has more than 75 million active users and 20 million paid subscribers worldwide as the Sweden-based streaming music service prepares to compete with Apple Music, available June 30 on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC.
Spotify doubled the 10 million paid subscribers it had through May 2014 in just one year, and has now paid over $3 billion in royalties to artists, songwriters and rights holders, including more than $300 million in the first three months of 2015 alone.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Spotify has also raised $526 million in a funding round that values the company at $8.53 billion, giving it significantly more financial backing to take on Apple Music and other rivals in the increasingly competitive streaming music market. Spotify will reportedly invest the capital raised from investors in expansion and new forms of content to further differentiate itself.
Apple Music and Spotify Premium both cost $9.99 per month (Image: WSJ)
Spotify operates at a loss due to significant royalties and revenue sharing with music label partners, although the company aims to become profitable through continued subscriber growth. The company announced plans last month to add video programming and podcasts from partners such as ABC, BBC, ESPN, NBC, Comedy Central, Conde Nast, Maker Studios, Turner Broadcasting and Vice Media.
Apple Music was announced earlier this week as a streaming music service, live global radio station and social platform for artists to connect with fans. The subscription-based service costs $9.99 per month with a three-month free trial for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC. Apple TV and Android versions of the service will be available in the fall. Apple Music launches June 30 on iOS 8.4 and iTunes.
New iOS Mail Bug Allows iCloud-Like Popups to Steal User Passwords [iOS Blog]
A new bug facing the iOS Mail app was found recently by security specialist Jan Soucek (via The Register). The malicious bug is capable of delivering false iCloud log-in prompts by allowing remote HTML content to be loaded through an email message delivered to the intended victim. The bug then delivers a convincing iCloud log-in box for users to re-enter their Apple ID and password. Soucek says that Apple did not respond to his discovery of the bug when he stumbled across it back in January.
“Back in January 2015 I stumbled upon a bug in iOS’s mail client, resulting in HTML tag in e-mail messages not being ignored. This bug allows remote HTML content to be loaded, replacing the content of the original e-mail message. JavaScript is disabled in this UIWebView, but it is still possible to build a functional password “collector” using simple HTML and CSS.”
The bug isn’t relegated to only iCloud phishing attacks, however, letting anyone with access to it customize the attack to ask for whichever username and password credentials they feel the need for. Soucek kept the details of the bug only between himself and Apple, letting the company have time to possibly fix the attack and inform him of its progress. Given the company’s remaining quietness on the subject, he decided to publish the proof of concept – called the Mail.app inject kit – on GitHub in hopes of spreading its awareness.
“It was filed under Radar #19479280 back in January, but the fix was not delivered in any of the iOS updates following 8.1.2. Therefore I decided to publish the proof of concept code here.”
While Soucek’s actions bring the malicious bug to more people’s attentions and can help stop it in due time, it also means there’s a wider chance for phishers to deploy it on their own. Until Apple comments on the story and offers a fix for the bug, it’ll be safest to take precaution when any password prompt emerges while browsing email in iOS.
Apple Fixes iMessage Crashing Bug in iOS 8.4 Beta 4
Apple seeded the fourth beta of iOS 8.4 to developers yesterday with a fix for a messaging bug that causes an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to crash after receiving a specific string of Unicode characters via iMessage or SMS. The bug also affects the Mac and Apple Watch and extends to third-party messaging apps such as Snapchat, Twitter and WhatsApp, as the issue is tied to the way banner notifications process Unicode.
Sending the string of characters to an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch results in an immediate respring, causing the device to crash and quickly reboot. From there, if the Messages app was opened at a list view, the Messages app crashes automatically when you try to open it. If it was opened to the conversation where you received the message, the app will open, but attempting to go to another conversation causes Messages to crash.
Apple recently published a support document on its website with a temporary workaround for the problem, and ensured that a permanent fix would be issued in a future software update. That fix has arrived in the form of iOS 8.4, which will be released ahead of Apple Music’s launch on June 30. In the meantime, affected users can ask Siri to “read unread messages” and use Siri to reply to the malicious message in order to regain access to the Messages app and delete the message.
AIVAnet 