‘The Last Guardian’ is a stripped-down sort of beautiful
The Last Guardian needs to be perfect. Fans of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus have been waiting for this, the third game from director Fumito Ueda, since it was announced in 2009. As issues with its production went public and development appeared to slow to a crawl, The Last Guardian entered the misty, nostalgic realm of what if in many fans’ minds. Then, Sony opened its E3 2015 press conference with a gameplay trailer of The Last Guardian on PlayStation 4, and those nearly forgotten dreams were suddenly reality. The trailer featured a young, toga-clad boy and Trico, a massive cat-bird-dog creature, as they traversed cavernous, crumbling ruins bathed in brilliant sunlight. Their journey, however, has roots in a prison cell buried in the dead city’s tall, grey walls.
During a behind-closed-doors demo at E3 2015, Ueda played through the scenes leading directly into Sony’s showcase video. It opens on the boy, surrounded by stone walls streaked through with greenery, grass poking through the floor. Sunlight streams though high-up windows as the boy runs toward a gate with wide-set bars, the gaps easily large enough for him to climb through. Beyond, inside a second cell, lies Trico, a creature the size of a tyrannosaurus rex. He’s covered in fluttering charcoal feathers and he has four bird legs, tiny wings, a slightly beaky mouth, a cat-like face and round, dark, puppy eyes. Two cerulean dots stick out of the top of his head, as if he had horns that were sawed off. Trico is giant yet adorable, and as the boy wakes him up, he makes noises that combine a bird’s screech with a dog’s whine.
Trico and the young boy have just met — the boy approaches Trico’s huge face, raises a hand to pet his furry beak, and Trico leans into it. There are no on-screen prompts throughout the entire demo, allowing the sheer size and beauty of the world to own the screen. The game shines in close-up details, when you can see the individual, shining strands composing Trico’s feathers, or the blades of grass rising through the floor. In wider shots, the graphics almost look dated, as if this were a PS3 game updated to run on PS4. Movement in the game, however, is gorgeous.
The boy wants to get them both out of captivity, but Trico is unable to stand because of two wooden spears sticking out of his back. The boy climbs Trico’s feathers, wraps his arms around a spear — it’s as tall as he is — and pulls. It takes a few, long seconds, but finally the spike comes free and Trico lets out a layered shriek. The boy removes the other spear and Trico stands.
They need to reach a ledge high up on one wall so the boy can get to the other side of a heavy gate and set Trico free. First, the boy finds a barrel and picks it up; Trico notices and immediately jumps into a playful-puppy position, bird feet spread wide, ready to catch it. The boy throws the barrel and Trico gobbles it up.
The boy can direct Trico by yelling commands or pointing and stamping his feet in place as if telling the beast to walk in a certain direction. In the beginning, Trico doesn’t always listen to the boy right away, but as the game goes on, their relationship will become stronger and the pair will communicate more effectively, Ueda says.
Eventually, Trico extends his front claws to the high-up ledge, and the boy climbs his feathers and alights on the platform. There are even some more barrels up there, treats for Trico. Once on the other side of the wall, the boy switches a lever and the gate opens, releasing Trico. That’s where Sony’s demo started.
The boy could miss Trico’s tail. He could die.
There’s a moment in the Sony trailer where the boy leaps across a gaping chasm, the ground a pinprick thousands of feet below him, and Trico attempts to catch him with his mouth. He misses and the boy continues to fall, but Trico’s tail swings beneath the platform and the boy grabs it, making it safely to higher ground. Time slows down as the boy falls and it’s a tense, dramatic moment. It looks scripted, just as a lot of the game’s action sequences do — but it’s not. That scene, the boy catching Trico’s tail before falling to his death, is player-controlled. The boy could miss Trico’s tail. He could die. The same goes for those barrels the boy was throwing earlier — they won’t kill anyone, but they might just smack Trico in the face rather than providing him a tasty treat.
The Last Guardian is packed with mystery. Where are Trico and the boy? Why have they been kidnapped and held captive? Are they trying to get back home? Where is everyone else? This veil of secrecy and legend is upheld by the game’s lack of on-screen prompts (we haven’t seen any so far, at least) and the knowledge that every playthrough will be just a little different, thanks to the game’s robust AI system.
The Last Guardian hits PlayStation 4 in 2016 — a phrase almost as unbelievable as the game’s oddly pixelated, beautifully detailed, erratic world.
One day, you’ll fine-tune hearing aids yourself
Hearing aids are supposed to help you resume a normal life, but they sometimes make things worse — and when most clinics aren’t prepared to calibrate the devices, it’s tempting to ditch them altogether. Norwegian scientists might give you an incentive to keep those earpieces in place, though. They’ve developed a touchscreen-based tuning system that lets you customize hearing aids largely by yourself. The technology asks you to pick a typical sound scenario (such as a busy office) and introduce extra effects until it replicates the situations where you have problems. After that, an audiometrist only has to adjust the hearing aid based on your feedback.
You may not have to wait long to see (or rather, hear) how well this works. AudioPlus Concept AS plans to use the system in one or two clinics in the very near future. You won’t have to rely solely on canned sound samples, either. The team has developed a mobile app that records problematic audio wherever you find it, so it should be easier to sort out your hearing aids even if you have unique challenges.
[Image credit: Thor Nielsen/SINTEF]
Filed under: Wearables, Science
Via: MedGadget
Source: Gemini
The road to Mars: NASA’s next 30 years
What will NASA be up to by 2030? The space agency (and even President Barack Obama) hopes it will be close to launching a manned mission to the surface of Mars. But, before that’s possible, there’s a whole lot of puzzle pieces to fit together. In fact, some of those pieces haven’t even been invented yet. But NASA is already laying the groundwork. Dig through the agency’s roadmap (a dense collection of science-heavy documents) and you can put together an outline of where its research and technology are headed. And, of course, the hope is that any invention or technological evolution will also find applications at home on Earth. Still, the focus remains on getting us to the red planet. Mars is certainly far, but it’s going to seem much closer in a decade or two.
As NASA Chief Technologist David Miller puts it, the technology that will be developed over the next few decades will “provide critical capabilities that create new jobs and businesses, inspire our youth and lead to futures where we evolve into a species that lives and works throughout the solar system.” But for that to happen, there are various challenges that need to be tackled: lighter shuttle materials, advanced power supply solutions, artificial gravity, sustainable food supplies (in space!) and nanotech-fortified materials, just to name a few.
Ready for Mars?
Getting to Mars is going to be a slow and steady march, and the first stage will take place within Earth’s orbit. This is where the majority of research and development on human health and support systems will happen. Simply strapping astronauts to a rocket isn’t enough; NASA also needs to ensure that anyone it sends to Mars will survive the trip. This research will mostly occur on the International Space Station, but between there and Mars is where the real proving ground lies. That will be where NASA test-drives its Orion manned vehicle, runs tests during missions to asteroids, and experiments with solar-powered electric flight. And that’s not including the work to be done on the Mars habitat vehicle. Does it sound a little early to be worrying about a Mars habitat? It’s not. NASA needs a 10- to 15-year lead time to get its technology and equipment ready.
The next stage of exploration would involve exploring the moons of Mars, orbiting the red planet and eventually, the surface. This would lead to the fourth stage: moving from exploration to pioneering. At that point, NASA would attempt to establish an extended human presence in and around Mars that’s less dependent on materials from Earth; the theme of self-sufficiency appears over and over again across the agency’s technology roadmap.
The astronauts
Arguably the most delicate, most priceless part of any hypothetical Mars landing is the human crew that will be packed inside the spacecraft. The majority of human health and life-support advances come with a due date between 2025 and 2030. While the level of radiation that astronauts are allowed to be exposed to over longer periods isn’t specified yet, NASA will have to work on improving protection to radiation on lengthier crewed space missions, and provision for other health-based issues, including in-space diagnostics and treatments. It also has its work cut out reducing the inefficiency of current in-space living.
At the moment, less than 90 percent of the available water and less than half of the potential oxygen are recovered from waste materials. A heavy reliance on expendables like filters and sorbent beds to collect this adds another burden to future missions that need to be far more self-reliant. These improvements will apparently come from both evolutionary improvements as well as state of the art technology that NASA hasn’t elaborated on yet. Even then, improvements and changes will require heavy testing.
NASA’s new Z-2 space suit will still need improving before it’s ready for Mars.
Space suits will also need to improve substantially so that they can be worn over long periods. New suit designs will require the possibility of safe in-suit waste management and water provision, while future exploration space suits will demand no more than 10 percent of a wearer’s strength for movement, as well as a significant reduction in mass to less than 100 pounds in total. NASA also plans to add voice controls and location tracking inside the suits.
In addition to new designs, material advances integrating “game changing” improvements that add dust protection, power generation and multiple secondary benefits purely from choice of material.
Nanotechnology and nanomaterials will permeate (quite literally) almost everything NASA attempts to build; nanomaterials will offer better structural and functional properties at reduced weights. Improvements to space vehicle material and coatings at the nanoscale level would protect from ionizing radiation, heat and other issues. Nanomaterial’s high-level conductive properties make it better than copper and at a third of the weight: NASA reckons it could reduce the weight of wiring by up to 90 percent. The challenge here is for NASA to scale up these nanotech improvements to fit into its plans for the next decade or two. Further into the future, and graphene-based nanoelectronics will be both flexible and stretchable — and likely to revolutionize the size of electronics.
Given the long-term missions that are likely to occur in the coming decades, microgravity-induced health challenges, isolation-based performance issues and more will need to be tackled differently than the approach used for astronauts that spend (shorter) time aboard the ISS. Vision issues, as well as radiation-induced problems will be dealt with at the molecular and cellular level, while behavior of the crew will be monitored continuously with an appropriate treatment plan setup if the rigors of space get to them.
Future vehicles will also have a “human-centered” design, like those upcoming space suits, making them better-suited to living, while “just-in-time” training will add new skills or improve existing ones as the craft powers toward long-distance missions. The lack of an easy escape route or evacuation option means that more medical hardware will be a necessity. NASA also continues to work on and research artificial gravity environments, with the aim of reducing health degradation in space. And since the crew wouldn’t be weakened as much when landing on Mars, productivity would likely also benefit.
Robots are everywhere. And there will be even more to come. NASA plans to use them in every stage of space exploration: as early explorers and robotic assistants in space for crews as well as caretakers of assets left behind. Just like Wall-E. Advances in robotics will ensure the human crew is free to tackle higher-level tasks, and reduce maintenance and other mundane chores. While NASA works on upgrading both hardware and software (especially when it comes to 3D sensing and mobility), the agency is aware that there are safety and trust components to how it’s progressing with robotics:
“Traditionally, robots have been isolated from human operators in controlled environments, such as a perimeter cage, to minimize disturbances and keep them from inflicting harm on humans. However, future systems will increasingly require close engagement between humans and machines.”
It would be important for a human crew to have the ability to adjust the robots’ autonomy level. New systems will learn to identify human locations and actions so that the robot doesn’t get in the way, and could also conduct emergency tasks to protect humans. The roadmap even mentions telerobotic surgery developments that have happened in recent years.
NASA’s humanoid Valkyrie robot.
Remote-controlled robots and support from Earth will need far more advanced space-communication technology. NASA is already moving its high-data missions to the denser Ka-band, which will then be replaced by optical communication for deep-space missions. Optical comms will offer even higher data capacity, apparently with an equal or lower power and mass burden to spacecraft. With the ever-increasing amount of data coming in from high-level sensors, the space agency will also need advanced cybersecurity built into those data sets. Given the scale of long-duration data gathered, automatic corruption detection or self-healing data sets will be necessary.
Decades from now, NASA hopes “revolutionary concepts” could hugely advance communications in the future. X-ray navigation uses a collection of pulsars (“stellar ‘lighthouses’”) to create time and navigation standards similar to the atomic clocks behind GPS. However, unlike that system, it’s not limited to the array of GPS satellites circling the Earth, as that aforementioned stellar lighthouse array covers the solar system. X-ray communication could also offer an improved way of delivering messages and data, with both a shorter wavelength and higher frequency than optical, microwave or radio. In short, it could work much better than any of those.
Like new communication systems, NASA-based medical advances would likely trickle down to those of us living on Earth. Enriched oxygen generators, medical-grade water generation in confined spaces, miniaturized medical-imaging technologies and biosample analysis would all be of use in rural settings, or rough terrain without medical infrastructure. Dynamic 3D imaging (through MRI, ultrasound and other options) is on the list for future missions — likely with further miniaturization and integration into other medical equipment.
As you can tell by now, space and weight are very much at a premium. And sustaining the crew in space will require huge advances in gathering in-situ resources: making what’s needed from the environment around them. In addition, the reliability of all mission systems, especially habitation, will need heavy improvement, with each component designed to be easier to maintain or repair, ensuring more time is spent on mission activities and less on maintaining systems. That’s likely where some of those aforementioned robots could come in handy.
Spacecraft
In space, no one can hear you scream, and no technology fulfills all the demands of propulsion outside of Earth’s atmosphere. NASA is banking on improvements here to reduce transit times, thrust level and system complexity (as in, less of that), as well as improved safety and durability. But successes in more left-field sciences could lead to “mission enabling” breakthroughs that will revolutionize space exploration. Electric propulsion uses electrostatic or electromagnetic fields to accelerate a propellant to generate thrust, while solar sails (which we’re hearing a lot about recently), work by using a large surface area to reflect solar protons or atmospheric molecules, transferring that into momentum. Solar sails’ long-life benefits make them great for monitoring space weather, and observing Earth’s polar regions. It’s also a relatively inexpensive way to move deep-space satellites.
Solar sails are a lightweight, sustainable method of space travel.
Tether propulsion would use a system of lengthy lightweight cables that would interact with planetary magnetism to create a Lorentz force, or by simply exchanging momentum between the two connected objects. However, challenges here involve the length of the tether system, as well as fashioning tethers that can last in space.
NASA is also researching nascent ideas that could well revolutionize travel in space… given a decade or two. Beamed-energy propulsion, delivered from a ground- or space-based energy source, could heat propellants for motion or move by the force of reflected photon momentum. Electric sail propulsion made of long (we’re talking tens of kilometers long) electric wires would interact with solar wind protons to create momentum. Fusion propulsion would use nuclear reactions to create both thermal and kinetic energy for movement. Antimatter propulsion and high energy-density materials — highly packed hydrogen — could also offer an effective way of moving in space, once the teams have sorted the science out. And if antimatter propulsion sounds a little distant, NASA’s also folded in a breakthrough propulsion that focuses on space-time, gravity, quantum vacuums and other sci-fi-sounding physical phenomena for advanced propulsion ideas several decades from now.
Resources
Power remains another challenge. It’s also one that has to balance many improvements: If the weight of a new power system gets reduced, but has an effect on reliability or comes at a higher price, NASA isn’t going to make the switch. If or when a breakthrough comes, though (NASA mentions high-efficiency solar cells that could work at low temperatures), it will enable “once impossible missions.”
“Advanced power and energy storage technology can enable missions that are limited only by our imagination.” — NASA, TA 3 Space Power and Energy Storage
What NASA develops will dovetail neatly into our Earth-based lives: Fuel cells, portable batteries, all-electric vehicles would likely see immediate improvements from new tech that drips down. New systems that could pull energy back from wasted heat would also improve efficiency and ensure even less power is used.
Stronger, more durable, more efficient solar cells would offer a cost-effective route to Mars for both cargo and crew. They would also help to manufacture fuel and water for Mars surface missions, reducing what needs to go on the spacecraft. However, fission power remains one of 11 Primary Mission elements needed to put a human on Mars. Developing the high-temperature fuel element is a key challenge in meeting this objective, as is ensuring that the system is safe, reliable and affordable. Fusion power continues to be researched too, but gaining the high energy levels needed remains a hurdle.
Without power, explorers would be stuck.
To get to Mars, NASA specifies that the crew will need to generate 25,000 kgs of oxygen (for both ascent and life support) on the planet to ensure successful human exploration. That would also amount to a far more substantial savings of 200,000 kg in lower Earth orbit. As well as mass (and cost) savings in Earth orbit, being able to produce oxygen, water and other consumables reduces mission risk, enables extended exploration stays and can even greatly increase the surface area covered during the mission.
The crew will also need to create tools and manufacture replacement parts: Electron beam cutting, as well as 3D printing as a production method, will need to be adapted for use in space (and, eventually, Mars.) That pesky lack of gravity could be a hurdle, but these techniques would allow for a huge range of different parts that could be designed on Earth then beamed as data to be made mid-mission. Mars pioneers will also need to be able to transform the land on planetary surfaces: A technique called “sintering” would prime uneven ground for landing pads and roads to assist exploration. Again, the degree to which NASA is able to develop greater subsistence from both the environment and by recycling discarded materials would help to reduce what needs to be sent from Earth.
Finally, in addition to oxygen and water, humans need food, and NASA needs to minimize the amount of it that goes into space. In particular, NASA needs a “bio-regenerative food system” (probably something involving plants), which would reduce the quantity of food needing to be resupplied. Future astronauts will likely have the luxury of a fresher menu, with options a little beyond freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches.
NASA has a lot of work to do before it heads to Mars. But if it nails it, space exploration will never be the same again.
[Image credits: NASA, Josh Spradling / The Planetary Society]
Filed under: Transportation, Science
Source: NASA
Analysts adjusting LG Q2 profit estimates down amidst LG G4 disappointment
LG undoubtedly has produced one of this year’s better flagship smartphones with the LG G4 and they are regularly mentioned in the same breath with the likes of industry giants Samsung and Apple. Even with the positive reviews of the device, it is looking increasingly like LG may not meet internal targets for sales of the device which is prompting numerous financial analysts to pull back on their quarterly profit estimates for the company’s Mobile Communications Division.
LG predicted the LG G4 would sell at least 8 million units during 2015, a 20 percent increase over what the company achieved with the LG G3 in 2014. Selling at an expected pace of 2.6 million units per quarter, analysts like Daishin Securities projected profits as high as 102 billion won ($92.3 million USD) while Korea Investment & Securities pegged the number at 115 billion won ($104 million USD). Now that shipments of the device appear to be on the order of 2.5 million units during the second quarter, with sales slated to be even lower than that, profit projections have been scaled back to around 56 billion won ($50.7 million USD) for Daishin Securities and 68 billion won ($61 million USD) for Korea Investments & Securities. During the first quarter of 2015, LG recorded 73 billion won ($66 million USD) in operating profit.
The sales shortfall appears to be related to the general malaise that is hitting the high-end smartphone market although LG did not help themselves by not introducing more differentiators compared to the LG G3. Overall, manufacturers including LG are looking more toward emerging markets, notably India, for sales of budget-oriented phones despite the slimmer margins. LG has also stepped up their marketing efforts as they increasingly try to position themselves as an option to the iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6 devices at the expense of some operating profit.
source: BusinessKorea
via: Android Authority
Come comment on this article: Analysts adjusting LG Q2 profit estimates down amidst LG G4 disappointment
Google Translate processing over 100 billion words daily
Google has released a new video that is part of their “Be Together. Not the Same.” marketing strategy in which they showcase their Google Translate platform and app. In the course of the video it is revealed that Google is now processing over 100 billion words each day through Google Translate. According to Google, the most translated words they process include “How are you?”, “Thank you” and “I love you.” Besides the statistics regarding translation, the video also shows how the Word Lens integration in the Google Translate app on smartphones works to provide a real time image translation.
Hit the break to check out the video from the Android team and let us know in the comments how you use Google Translate.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Come comment on this article: Google Translate processing over 100 billion words daily
Dropbox 3.0 Brings on the Material Design
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Dropbox 3.0 hits the Android world today, and it brings in that new Material Design smell. The update gives the Dropbox app a complete Material Design makeover, and doesn’t really add much more to the functionality.
One of the things you’ll recognize in the update after gawking at the Material Design, is a persistent search button. Some of the other functions have been finely tuned for a better Dropbox experience. Check out the video below and let us know how much you like the update.
The post Dropbox 3.0 Brings on the Material Design appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Apple Seeds Second WatchOS 2 Beta to Developers
Apple today seeded the second watchOS 2 beta to developers, just over two weeks after announcing the new operating system update at its Worldwide Developers Conference.
watchOS 2 requires iOS 9 and can be downloaded over-the-air through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General –> Software Update.
watchOS 2 is the first major update to watchOS, the software that runs on the Apple Watch. The new software brings many new features that Apple Watch developers can take advantage of, including native apps that run on the Apple Watch itself instead of the iPhone.
It also allows developers to access the Taptic Engine and a number of other sensors in the Apple Watch, including the heart rate monitor, the microphone, and the accelerometer.
Along with these features for developers, which will lead to much more complex and full-featured third-party Apple Watch apps, the update introduces new watch faces (photo albums and time-lapse), third-party Complications, Time Travel for viewing upcoming events in a watch face Complication, and a Nightstand mode that’s activated when the watch is charging, displaying the time.
New communication features include the ability to add more than 12 friends to your friends list and the ability to create sketches in multiple colors. Mail’s also being updated, making it possible to reply to Mail messages using dictation, and FaceTime Audio support is included.
watchOS 2 is currently only available to registered developers who have also installed iOS 9 on their iPhones. Apple plans to release the software to the public in the fall.
Apple Seeds Second iOS 9 Beta to Developers
Apple today released the second beta of iOS 9 to developers for testing purposes, just over two weeks after unveiling the new operating system at its 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference. Changes that are new to iOS 9 beta 2 will be detailed below as they are discovered.
The update, build 13A4280e, is also available for download through the Apple Developer Center and should be available as an over-the-air download shortly. Apple has also released Xcode 7 beta 2.
According to the iOS 9 beta 2 release notes, today’s update includes fixes for many bugs and problems that were present in the first beta. AirPlay connectivity is improved, changing a password in the Family section of iCloud Settings now works, restoring from a backup created in iOS 9 is faster, Mail no longer crashes when trying to print a message, and third-party keyboards work in search results.
There are many lingering problems with the beta. FaceTime calls do not work on the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and the iPad Air 2, Lightning video dongles don’t work, Activation Lock may say it’s activated for Apple Watch when it is not, creating an Apple ID via Game Center may cause crashing, signing into an iTunes account when restoring from backup with 2fa can get stuck sending a verification code, and more.
iOS 9’s biggest focus is on intelligence and proactivity, allowing iOS devices to learn user habits and act on that information, providing recommendations on places we might like, apps we might like to use, and more. Siri is smarter in iOS 9, with the ability to create contextual reminders, and search is improved with new sources.
Many of the built in apps have been improved, including Notes, Maps, and Mail. Apple Pay has been renamed to Wallet, and iOS 9 introduces split-screen multitasking for the iPad along with a revamped keyboard. In addition to these consumer-facing features, iOS 9 brings significant under-the-hood performance improvements.
With battery optimizations, iOS devices have an additional hour of battery life, and a new Low Power Mode extends the battery even further. iOS updates take up less space in iOS 9, and many app install sizes are smaller due to a feature called app thinning. iOS 9 is capable of running on all devices that support iOS 8.
iOS 9 is currently only available to developers, but Apple plans to introduce a public iOS 9 beta in July before the final release of the software in the fall.
Apple Seeds Second OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta to Developers
Apple today released the second beta of OS X 10.11 El Capitan to developers for testing purposes, just over two weeks after unveiling the new operating system at its 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference. Any new changes found in the second El Capitan beta will be detailed below.
The update, build 15A204h, is available through the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store and through the Apple Developer Center. Apple has also released OS X Server 5.0 beta 2.
OS X El Capitan largely builds on the features introduced with OS X Yosemite, focusing on improving performance and user experience. Behind-the-scenes improvements in El Capitan have made a number of apps and processes on the Mac much faster, and the introduction of Metal makes system-level graphics rendering 40 percent more efficient.
Along with a new systemwide font, El Capitan includes a revamped Mission Control feature, a new Split View feature for using two full-screen apps at once, deeper functionality for Spotlight, and several new features for Safari, including Pinned Sites for housing frequently-visited websites and a universal mute button that quiets all tabs.
Mail’s been updated with new iOS-style gestures and Smart Suggestions, and Photos, Notes, and Maps have also gained small improvements.
OS X 10.11 El Capitan is currently only available to registered developers, but Apple plans to offer a public beta of the software in July. Following testing, El Capitan will see a final release in the fall of 2015.
Instagram Updates Explore Tab With Dynamic Content and Curated Collections [iOS Blog]
Instagram today began rolling out a small but noteworthy update to its iOS application, namely focusing on expanding and deepening the features of the “Explore” tab inside the app.
The first feature focuses on showcasing trending topics and places, with “dynamically updated content” that promises to give each user a real-time look at events and pictures happening nearby. Users will also be able to select from locations around the globe if they prefer to not be locked into local content.
Secondly, curated collections will let Instagram users explore a constantly rotating array of people and places — from topics like extreme athletes to national parks — all hand picked by the Instagram team. The new update will also allow users to search by location in “Places search,” to explore exotic destinations across the world, or even see what users in your local town are posting.
The new redesigned Explore tab is unfortunately only available for Instagram users in the United States, but the team has taken steps to improve basic search functionality for everyone else. These features include search by location and the traditional search all posts option.
Speaking with Wired, Instagram CEO and co-founder Kevin Systrom pointed toward the new update as a way for people to have instant visual updates on world news in one convenient place. It’s “what we’ve been shooting for all along,” Systrom said of the real-time spotlight focus on news and information.
Early on, he and cofounder Mike Krieger “had this vision that if we could grow large enough and have a system that allowed people to tag who they were with, they could see what is happening right now.” He used the example of Hurricane Sandy, a storm that decimated parts of New York City two-and-a-half years ago.
Even back then, traditional media outlets featured images from Instagram as part of their storm coverage. “But if you wanted to see photos, you had to know Sandy [was happening in the first place] and and to go look for that hashtag,” said Systrom. “We want to be the first place to cover it, and to have broad reach to cover the real things happening on the ground.”
Instagram‘s new update is rolling out now, and should be available to most users throughout the rest of the day, and the app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
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