Xbox boss Phil Spencer explains why your fave Xbox 360 game is not backwards compatible… yet

When the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, announced that the Xbox One would be getting backwards compatibility last year, there wasn’t a single current gen console gamer left unimpressed. Xbox One owners were naturally cock-a-hoop at the prospect, while PS4 owners could only look on with jealous eyes – restricted to the PlayStation Now subscription service for the ability to play last-gen titles.

Nintendo fans will point out that the Wii U has been backwards compatible since the off, but they are now distracted by a new, upcoming console launch.

The Xbox One finally got the promised backwards compatibility last November, with 104 Xbox 360 games suddenly made available through software emulation. Disc or download versions could be played on the current machine for the first time, and even previous cloud saves could be continue.

Since then though, there has been a steady but slow drip feed of new titles added to the roster – with plenty of notable triple-A absentees. Many of the currently compatible games are first-party Microsoft titles, and the Grand Theft Autos and Skyrims of this world are seemingly pipe dreams for now.

What’s more, where Xbox was once splurging out big lists of newly compatible games on a regular basis, that is no longer the case. There doesn’t seem to be a regularity to the backwards compatibility strategy anymore.

Xbox One backwards compatibility process explained

So that’s why, when we got the opportunity to talk to Spencer at the recent Xbox Spring Showcase event in San Francisco, we asked about backwards compatibility, why it takes so long to get games onto the supported list.

“[It’s a long process] especially when you’re working with third-party games,” he explained to us.

“If you put out something and it’s not running well, it will reflect negatively on the publisher. So we want to get approval from the third-parties before we release them.

“You also have to make sure it runs well in backwards compatibility mode. We have one of our testing team run through every level of the game, just to make sure that there is nothing not working exactly the way we expect.”

READ: How Xbox One backwards compatibility works

With a game like Fallout 3, which is already available, Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto IV, that could take some time.

“Some of these games are big. You can imagine going through some of these games and making sure they run. It’s the publisher’s right to be sure the game plays as well if not better,” he added.

“Think about a game like Fallout 3 and you just go ‘wow’, right? The support from the publishers has been good.”

Another reason that you might not see your favourite game hit the list is that the publisher might have other plans for it – especially third-party publishers sitting on massive titles.

“There are some instances where people are doing HD remakes of their back catalogue as well, so they might not want the HD remake and the backwards compatible version to come out at the same time,” he explained.

“Everybody’s going to make their own business decisions, but overall I’ve been pleased with the support.”

Xbox One backwards compatibility release schedule

As for the switch from a monthly release list to a less regimented plan, Spencer told us that the new system benefits Xbox One owners more because the company’s adds new games everytime they are ready, rather than hold onto them for a particular release schedule.

“We’ve shifted away from releasing 10-20 games a month, like we were doing, because people were asking for them more frequently. So we decided we’d just release them when they’re done,” he revealed.

“That does mean that from a PR standpoint that it doesn’t seem there’s a big bomb that drops all the time, but as they finish through the pipeline, the publisher’s approved it, the tester’s approved it, we’ll just release them ongoing. We’re probably close to 140 games now and it continues to grow. I feel good about that number.

“We only started in September.”

Avegant Glyph review: A wearable cinema for serious movie fans

The idea behind the Avegant Glyph is pretty simple. It’s a $699 portable, wearable movie theater. And if you’re thinking it looks more like a pair of Beats than a cinema screen, there’s good reason: It moonlights as a pair of regular headphones, of course, though video viewing is why you’d want to buy one. Inside the headband are two eye holes, behind which is some clever micromirror projection technology that beams 720p video directly into your eyes. Wear the Glyph like a VR headset, and plug in an HDMI source and you’re good to go. If all this sounds familiar, it’s because the Glyph has been in development for a few years now. This right here, however, is the version that’s about to ship. I’ve spent some time with my head in one, and it’s pretty neat. And, yes, a little weird.

The first time I tried out the Glyph was almost exactly a year ago. At the time I remember thinking it was pretty cool, but a little uncomfortable to wear. The nose pad was still being tweaked, and the prototype was missing some of the gloss and finish of a final product (bare wires were exposed, for example). There’s nothing of the sort here, though. The Glyph now has magnetic changeable nose pads (a choice of four sizes) and a cover for the eye holes (so your hair pomade doesn’t smear the optics in headphone mode), and it looks and feels much more like a retail product.

The design changes over the last 12 months may have been about refinement, but the Glyph we have today is quite different from how it was originally meant to look. Early prototypes show a headset that would “transform” into video-viewing mode simply by sliding the headband over your eyes while the ear cups remained still. That idea probably wasn’t practical, anyway. Instead, the headset is one fixed piece. You can still “rotate” it down, but it’s not quite as slick as the initial folding method. In reality, you’re more likely to take the headset off completely, gingerly remove the magnetic cover for the optics, connect your media and then slide your head into it. (There’s an optional head strap if you need more support.)

The fixed design and large ear cups make the Glyph quite a beast. While there’s no actual display hidden away in the headband, there’s still a bunch of tech that makes that part much thicker than a regular pair of headphones. It’s very noticeable when you wear it, and the height it adds to your head is a little dorky-looking. The rigidity means the Glyph can creak slightly if you stretch it open (like I have to, to insert my large noggin) so it’d be interesting to see how these hold up after months of use. This stiff build gives the Glyph a tight yet comfortable fit — one that does a good job of isolating you from external sounds. This latter point is pertinent because active noise cancellation was a feature promised in the Kickstarter campaign, only to be axed later due to the cost.

The first time I tried the final Glyph hardware, I did the classic “skip the manual” thing. Setting it up isn’t overly complicated, but getting the optics just right might take a few tries. You’ll first need to get the right nose pad and set the Glyph’s height/length like you might a regular pair of cans — except in this case they’re horizontal. There’s a button that “releases” the optics, which clicks back inside the headband when you’re in audio mode. Two sliders on the top part of the head band move the optics to aim the image into your eyes, and two focus dials let you, well, focus! Avegant claims the settings are good enough that most people can ditch their glasses. I could, and so could a few of my particularly vision-impaired colleagues.

Once you have things just right, the image is impressively sharp. Avegant says the viewing experience is like sitting in the “sweet spot” at 71 feet back in a typical 52-foot movie theater. Anecdotally, I’d say it was like sitting about 7 feet from a 55-inch TV. The analogy of a cinema is better though, as wearing the headset does feel a bit like being in a theater; there’s nothing but black around the image, so the screen floats like a cinema display. Add in the juicy, cinematic sound from the headphones and it really is quite an immersive experience. Not in the same way that virtual reality is (with the Glyph on, you still have clear view below the headband), but it’s definitely like being in a cinema alone.

I watched a bunch of stuff through the Glyph: A lot of drone videos and a bunch of wing-suit flying clips were my initial go-to. It just seemed like the first thing I should do. The field of view on the Glyph isn’t crazy wide; it’s about 40 degrees (like I say, imagine having a big TV hanging right in front of you). But the isolation/lack of distraction does make “first-person view” videos a bit more exciting. There’s also a “3D” mode that works with any side-by-side/SBS video you can find. There are many on YouTube, and they come out pretty well. You’re obviously halving the resolution, but that’s true for all 3D videos, no matter what you view them on.

YouTube clips and 3D videos are all well and good, but it’s really about the cinema experience. I was given the Glyph at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which is about three- or four-hour train ride from where I live. It’s about as lovely a trip as you could ever wish for, with much of it right beside the Mediterranean. I, however, whiled away the time with my head inside the Glyph watching Netflix. There’s something soothing about watching movies in it, in such rare privacy and comfort. I’d almost feel bad for wasting such a good view, but I figure the Med would always be there. Netflix, on the other hand, might evaporate tomorrow. That’s my justification, at least.

Despite the long time between Kickstarter and shipping, there are still a few signs that the Glyph is, if we’re being polite, a “living product.” The headset contains the technology for head tracking, including looking around in VR, 360-degree videos, et cetera. But right now, there’s not much available that’s actually compatible. Avegant has teamed with Jaunt VR to make its library work with Glyph, but right now it’s not quite ready. I was told the head tracking does work with drones, though, such as the Inspire 1 from DJI. I tried it with the Phantom 3, and you can view the camera perfectly, but there’s sadly no head tracking. There’s a lot of potential here — unfortunately I just wasn’t able to test it.

The same goes for Bluetooth. The Glyph has it; I just wasn’t able to do anything with it. I tried pairing it with my phone to test the audio, but no dice. You’ll need to use a 3.5mm cable for audio-only mode, but at least that means it doesn’t tap into the battery, saving that instead for video mode. A good thing, too, as the Glyph ran for just over three-and-a-half hours with video playback in my tests. That’s enough for pretty much any movie and a little something else, but a portable USB battery will be necessary for longer journeys or movies.

I was also impressed that the Glyph worked with everything I plugged into it: my iPhone, an LG G4 (both of which require adapters), a GameStick and even my beloved Atari Lynx that’s modded with a VGA-out. I have a pair of Fat Shark video goggles for drone flying, and it has the same micro-HDMI connection, but they’re much more temperamental in terms of what they work with.

While the compatibility is decent (there’s a list here), I wondered why there was no “onboard” media player via an SD card slot. That way you could go totally wire-free (at one point I had an HDMI stick with a USB battery connected to it hanging out of one ear). Avegant says it was focused on getting the experience and the platform right, and that it will think about expanding the feature set down the line. For example, the Bluetooth is there to actually expand the head tracking feature, more than provide another way to listen to music — that’s still a feature that’s “on the list.”

That’s pretty much the theme. Right now, the Glyph does its core job — media playback — really well. Lying back on a sofa with the Glyph on is such a pleasant way to watch movies and TV. The screen stays right in front of your eyes so there’s no achy neck, the image is sharp, and the audio packs impact. It was so relaxing and cozy inside my personal cinema that I fell asleep more than once. The headset is a little on the weighty side, but I never found it to be a problem in movie mode.

The problems creep in when you want to do anything else. Audio mode is … fine? The sound is great: loud and a little bassy (my preference; it might not be yours). Really, though, I found myself more aware of how the headset looked and felt in headphone mode — more so than when I had it in movie mode (because I was too into whatever I was watching). It’s not just the thick headband; it’s also a little uncomfortable for prolonged listening. There’s no padding besides the thin material of the eye hole cover, so it presses against your scalp more than regular headphones.

I already mentioned how 3D and 360-degree viewing is possible; there’s just not a lot of things you can do with the latter (some PC/Mac games work, but it’s very much a case of wait and see). Then there’s the modest battery life. To be fair, it’s in line with, and possibly a touch better than, what Avegant promised from the beginning — but I have a 20-hour journey coming up, and I seriously have to consider whether I want to bring the Glyph or stick to my phone and headphones.

And that’s the thing. Listening to music and enjoying media is something most people already have an easy way of doing. Don’t get me wrong, the Glyph makes movies much more enjoyable. With the Glyph, I’m excited about watching films, and it’s the perfect way of solving those moments when you and your roommates or partner want to watch different things. But, there are many people who won’t be able to find $699 worth of reasons to upgrade to the Glyph.

That said, every single person who tried my Glyph instantly loved it. It’s just convincing those people that there’s enough use in it for them. There will, of course, be hardcore movie fiends who think it is worth it, and that audience is going to be Avegant’s lifeline until it can evolve expand the experience for a more mainstream crowd. I hope it does, though. This seems like an idea that, with continued refinement, could fill the gap between casual mobile movies and the increasingly fragmented world of VR.

Source: Avegant

Hound’s voice recognition technology books an Uber for you

Virtual assistants are getting better at their jobs. With Siri, Cortana or Google Now on your smartphone, it’s not hard to pin down the closest artisanal coffee shop, set up a reminder to water your plants or calculate the quickest commute. But in this race for personal assistance, the service that requires the fewest steps can be expected to win. Hound, the latest natural language voice-recognition entrant, comes with the promise of a hands-free experience.

SoundHound, the audio recognition company that launched an eponymous music search engine in 2009, first introduced Hound in private beta last summer. After some fine-tuning, the app is now available on iOS and Android. The digital assistant hopes to make human-device interaction as natural as possible. So when you ask Hound a question, you don’t have to modify your speech for the software to understand. You talk to it in your normal tone, pace and accent.

When I summoned Siri to ask “Where can I find Blue Bottle coffee?” it either started FaceTime with one of my contacts whose name sounded nothing like my question or decided to play an EP by a band that I didn’t recognize. It was a great reminder of why I don’t talk to my iPhone. But when I asked Hound the same question on my handset, it pulled up eight coffee shops with my preferred brew.

To replicate a human-to-human interaction, AI assistants need to get better at understanding your words. According to founder and CEO Keyvan Mohajer, what sets Hound apart from its digital contemporaries is that it relies on speech-to-meaning technology. It combines speech recognition and language understanding simultaneously so it doesn’t rely on any specific keywords.

In addition to understanding your regular speech, it works with multiple variables to pick up on the subtle details of complex, layered questions. If you ask for hotels in the area based on location, price, reviews and personal preferences, the app delivers precise suggestions based entirely on your voice command. When you’re in the app, you can start the conversation with “OK, Hound…” and lead into a quick search or a complicated query, no swipes or taps needed.

You can also continue to pose follow up questions until the search is refined to your needs. Every time I did that, Hound remembered the context of the questions. And even though its automated voice kept throwing me off, the back and forth between us felt intuitive and oddly familiar, like a real conversation.

SoundHound wants to make its speech-to-meaning software easy to use so that it can be incorporated into other machines. Its voice-enabling platform Houndify, already used by NVIDIA and Samsung in their respective Internet-of-Things devices, opens up the technology to anyone who wants to create a new discoverable topic. Since its beta launch in June, the app has gained over 100 domains or data categories including weather, music, nutrition, sport scores and more to make the conversations wide-ranging.

Domains are integral to a virtual assistant. In addition to building and adding new ones, Hound also comes loaded with Uber and Yelp APIs to eliminate the need to swipe and type on the phone. So when you tell Hound your location and ask for an Uber, it rounds up the closest car options in an instant and lets you book the ride directly without ever tapping on the app. This hands-free experience seems convenient for frigid New York nights when the gloves must stay on but it’s also useful for people who don’t have time to stop and swipe.

To make things even easier, when asked how much a ride would cost from the current location to a destination, Hound pulls up a quick fare estimate for various Uber (Pool, X, XL, etc) options and even points out surge pricing. Fare estimating often feels tedious in the ride-sharing app so this voice-activated shortcut is particularly handy when you’re debating splurging on your commute.

Yelp seems much more responsive, too. You can pull up local restaurants based on ratings, cuisines or even exceptions. “What are the closest Asian restaurants, except Chinese?” Hound came back with a bunch of options including Japenese, Korean and others, while skipping Chinese. The same question perplexed Siri. She came back with only Chinese options.

The pace and precision of virtual assistants like Hound are indicative of the connected future where machines understand the needs of their humans. While Hound doesn’t have Siri or Cortana’s snark, it has more than enough intelligence to be good at its job.

[Image credit: SoundHound]

Neato’s robot vacuum is the first with smartwatch control

We’re not sure how useful controlling a robotic vacuum from a smartwatch is, but there’s no debating the bragging rights. Neato has revealed that its $699/£550 Botvat Connected is the first robotic vacuum you can control with an Apple Watch or Android Wear device. As long as you’re connected to the same WiFi network, you can start and stop the cleaning program and receive status notifications from your wrist, without even needing to set down your drink.

As for the Botvat Connected itself, we found it to be a decent option to iRobot’s Roomba 980, another popular smartphone-enabled robot vac. For $200 less, Neato’s model cleans just as well — especially in tight spots — though it gets stuck more easily and needs extra babysitting. When all goes well, however, you should be able to sit by the pool like a boss and monitor its progress with just a flick of the wrist.

Reality TV streaming service Hayu launches in the UK

Humans are a strange species. Some of us, when not busy doing our own thing, like to sit in front of the gogglebox and watch the lives of others play out — or, the contrived, semi-scripted lives of others, anyway. From Keeping Up with the Kardashians to Made in Chelsea, NBCUniversal is responsible some of the most popular reality TV shows. It makes so many, in fact, that today it’s launched a new streaming service in the UK and Ireland created specifically for avid people-watchers.

It’s called Hayu, and for £4 or €5 per month, you get on-demand access to more than 3,000 episodes from NBCUniversal’s reality TV catalogue. In addition to all previous episodes of shows like Top Chef and The Real Housewives, the service includes over 50 series that’ve never been broadcast on UK TV. Furthermore, new episodes will be added to Hayu on the same day they air in the US, so you won’t have to wait to find out what Kim K ate for breakfast on some random Tuesday.

There’s a social element to Hayu, too. Alongside newsfeeds that keep you up to date with the latest gossip, you can stalk the social media accounts of the big “stars” from within the service. You can also share specially prepared clips from various shows to your social networks. Hayu is available now in Android and iOS app form, through your browser and on some connected TVs. And if you’re not sure you want to pay £4 per month to slowly destroy your brain cells, there’s a 30-day free trial period to take advantage of.

Source: Hayu

Vivo Xplay5 boasts 6GB RAM and a familiar curved screen

If you need an excuse to acquire a new exotic Chinese smartphone, then how about 6GB of RAM? Not only is Vivo’s new Xplay5 the first mobile device to announce this spec, but it’s also the second non-Samsung device — following the BlackBerry Priv — to pack a screen that’s curved on both sides. Judging by its familiar metallic design, you’d easily think that the Xplay5 is the bastard child of the Galaxy S6 Edge (front) and the iPhone (back) after a one night stand in Dongguan (the S7 Edge’s chamfer isn’t as shiny). Despite the unfortunate similarities, this is still a surprisingly decent product in terms of hardware and specs — much like how its predecessor, the Xplay3S, managed to wow us a little over two years ago.

The dual-SIM Xplay5 comes in two flavors. The “Flagship Edition” features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset, 6GB of speedy LPDDR4 RAM, 128GB of internal storage and a “HiFi 3.0” package consisting of two ES9028 SABRE Mobile DAC chips plus three OPA1612 amplifiers for improved audio quality overall. As for the regular model, you get the mid-range Snapdragon 652, a “mere” 4GB of RAM, also 128GB of storage and a different combination of audio chips (CS4398 plus AD45257).

Both versions sport a 5.43-inch Super AMOLED display with QHD resolution (2,560 x 1,440) along with a fingerprint reader on the back. For photography, a 16-megapixel f/2.0 Sony IMX298-powered main camera with phase detection auto-focus plus dual-tone LED flash, and a generous 8-megapixel f/2.4 front-facing camera for you selfie addicts. The built-in 3,600mAh battery should be plentiful, and the rapid charging support comes in handy (we’ve yet to confirm whether it’s the Quick Charge 2.0 or 3.0 standard). What’s a bit disappointing is the lack of NFC and USB Type-C here, as well as the fact that the Xplay5 only comes with Android 5.1 (under Vivo’s skin, of course), plus there are no software features that take advantage of the curved edges.

While no date has been mentioned for the “Flagship Edition” just yet, the regular model is already up for pre-order. It’s no Xiaomi; Vivo is charging 3,698 yuan or about $560 for the base model, but you can wait for a while to save up 4,288 yuan or about $650 for that beastly version. Both are available in gold and pink.

Source: Vivo

The future of Xbox looks a lot like PC gaming

Microsoft held its annual “spring showcase” in San Francisco last week, an event to show the press what’s coming up between now and E3 this summer. It was also a victory lap for the Xbox team and its head, Phil Spencer. The company spent much of 2015 trying to get the Xbox One back on track after a troubled launch, and much of Spencer’s introductory talk highlighted the changes Microsoft made to “put the gamer at the center of every decision we make.”

That’s a rather vague proclamation, but Spencer has a plan to back it up — and it focuses on the work Microsoft did last year to bring the Xbox One and Windows 10 closer together than ever before. It’s all part of a strategy to make Xbox the most compelling platform for both developers and the gamers themselves. The goal is to let gamers play on whatever device they choose, be it a PC or console. Furthermore, Microsoft’s building a future in which you don’t leave behind your game library when a new Xbox hits the market.

The first step in this vision came last year at E3, when Microsoft announced it was working on a backward compatibility program that would bring Xbox 360 games to the Xbox One. But Spencer envisions a much better solution going forward. Now that the Xbox One runs Windows 10, Microsoft is pushing developers to build Universal Windows Applications. That means it’ll be easy to bring your collection of games to new consoles in the future. “We’re allowing ourselves to decouple our software platform from the hardware platform on which it runs,” Spencer said.

It’s a more PC-style approach to gaming, which isn’t a coincidence. “We can effectively feel a little more like what we see on PC,” Spencer said, “where I can still go back and run my old Doom and Quake games that I ran so many years ago and still see the best new 4K games come out — and my whole library is always with me.” This strategy means that Microsoft can iterate and improve on hardware faster without having to worry about forcing gamers to leave their libraries behind.

Microsoft is looking to make the Xbox more like a PC than ever before.

Spencer specifically said that we’d see Microsoft “come out with new hardware capability during a [console] generation,” though when we spoke one-on-one later he was a bit more cagey about what those capabilities might be. It sounds like Microsoft might be positioning itself to release a more powerful Xbox One down the line, one whose Windows roots will let you keep your games.

“You look at improvements in graphics capability, you look at improvements in display, you look at things like 4K and HDR,” Spencer told me, “and these other technologies that have come along, and for the most part consoles sit outside of that [upgrade cycle].” Instead, Spencer cited the two-year upgrade cycle for smartphones as an inspiration. He wants to see steady stream of hardware innovation rather than the typical seven-ish years between console generations. If you know your games library will be intact, Microsoft can afford to push the envelope on hardware.

Spencer’s plan sounds great, unless you have to buy a new Xbox One every two years to play the latest games.

Of course, gamers who want to be on the bleeding edge could end up having to shell out serious cash on a new console every few years if they want their new games to look as good as possible. Microsoft didn’t indicate how this will work in practice yet, but it could get complicated and expensive if older versions of the Xbox One aren’t able to run every game that comes out.

That’s just one of several issues about Microsoft’s gaming future that needs to be resolved. Right now most games available on both Xbox One and Windows 10 need to be purchased separately — ideally, one purchase would unlock the game wherever you want, but that’s not a reality yet. It’s something Microsoft is experimenting with, however. If you pre-order Quantum Break for Xbox One in the Xbox store, you’ll get a Windows 10 copy of the game for free. Hopefully it’s something Microsoft will do more of, at least for its own first-party titles where it has more control.

Similarly, to make good on its promise to PC gamers, Microsoft will have to do more simultaneous cross-platform launches (again like Quantum Break, which launches the same day for Windows 10 and Xbox One). Rise of the Tomb Raider was available for almost three months on the Xbox One before it came to PC, while Gears of War: Ultimate Edition arrived last August for the Xbox One and just launched for Windows 10 today. A lot of that has to do with third-party developer schedules, and Spencer told me Microsoft won’t make it mandatory for games to have simultaneous launches. He did say that the company will do what it can to work with developers to close that gap as much as possible.

Regardless of what else Microsoft needs to do, its spring showcase of games clearly showed its commitment to close the gap between the Xbox and Windows. The company showed off Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Windows 10, running in 4K, while Quantum Break was available to demo on both platforms. Killer Instinct: Season 3 and the new “definitive” edition of Ori and the Blind Forest will both be available for both Xbox One and Windows 10. And Forza Motorsports 6 will eventually be available for Windows 10 — first up is a free “curated experience” to introduce the series to PC gamers coming later this year.

While Microsoft has a solid foundation to build its vision on, Spencer acknowledged there was reason for skepticism. “The number of times I see ‘Games for Windows Live’ brought up in my Twitter account whenever we’re trying to make a move into PC gaming,” he lamented, taking a pause “…it’s staggering.” Games for Windows Live was Microsoft’s last attempt at bringing an Xbox-like experience to Windows (including multiplayer and achievements), but it was plagued with bugs and complications until its shutdown in 2013. It’s fair for gamers to wonder if the company is just going down the same road again, but Spencer said that making Xbox Microsoft’s singular gaming platform was a top-down directive, starting with CEO Satya Nadella. “We are 100 percent committed to the PC gaming space and ensuring that Windows 10 becomes the best place for PC gamers to play,” Spencer stressed.

Despite those missteps, it feels like Microsoft’s unified gaming strategy is almost ready to become a reality. And the Xbox brand has been extremely successful for the company for over a decade now, give or take a few blips. It’s going to take a lot more work to get the company to this new future, but it sounds like Microsoft has a plan to get us there — and if its moves are successful, hopefully it can push Nintendo and Sony into the future as well. It would be great to buy a new console from any of the big gaming companies in a few years and know the library you built up won’t get left behind.

ICYMI: Trusting robots too much, automated garbage and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: The Georgia Tech Research Institute studied how people would react to a robot with clearly labeled ’emergency guide’ signage, during a fire drill. Researchers thought humans would ignore the robots and go straight for nearby exits, but instead, they followed the robots deeper into the building, where there was no way out.
In happier robonews, Volvo teamed with several universities to build an automated robot programmed to hang onto the back of a garbage truck, then autonomously collect garbage cans from curbs, ferrying them back and forth.

A new first-person shooter device and game is on Indiegogo that makes any smartphone a portal into an augmented reality battle in the great outdoors.

And we enjoyed this LEGO creation of part of the solar system, timed to rotate accordingly. As always, please share any interesting science or tech videos, anytime! Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag to @mskerryd.

Xbox’s Phil Spencer still coy about a ‘Battletoads’ sequel

When Xbox head Phil Spencer takes the stage at a gaming event, eagle-eyed fans pay close attention to what’s on his chest — his choice of attire is usually a subtle hint of games to come. Last January when he introduced Windows 10’s Xbox app and its features, he was wearing a T-shirt sporting the cult classic Battletoads’ logo. Of course, that lead to rampant speculation that a proper, 20-plus years-in-the-making sequel was under way.

At last week’s Xbox spring showcase in San Francisco, we had the chance to talk to Spencer, so naturally the conversation led to a status check on the eponymous war-ready amphibians.

Engadget: Battletoads. You’ve worn the T-shirts around, when are we going to get a sequel?

Phil Spencer: Well, to be a little defensive, when I wore the T-shirt, we hadn’t announced Rare Replay. [Then] we shipped Rare Replay which had Battletoads in it. We hadn’t announced that Rash was gonna be in Killer Instinct. Now we’ve got a playable-in-Killer-instinct Battletoad.

Engadget: The ball is rolling though, right?

Spencer: You could say the ball is rolling. I could also say, at least it wasn’t a tease that I was [just] wearing a shirt. We had a plan where Battletoads was going to be showing up in ways that people hadn’t played before. But I hear your vote for a new Battletoads. I hear it and I recognize it.

VIDEO GOES HERE

Text alone doesn’t convey the coy tone Spencer took during our interview, so that’s what the video embedded up above is for; Battletoads talk starts around the 7:30 mark. Now all that we can do is wait. But if Battletoads fans are anything, they’re insanely patient.

Play ‘Gears of War: Ultimate Edition’ in 4K on your PC today

You have to hand it to Microsoft for trying surprise announcement/availability on for size for its latest release a la Adele, Drake or Kanye West. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition hits PC today. If you’ll remember, the PC port was announced back at E3 last year. But following its console-based counterpart’s release last August, Redmond’s been mostly radio silent on the topic.

Technically, you could say that this is the true 10th anniversary edition of the original game; when it released on Xbox One, that version was about a year early to the party. What’s been added in the intervening seven months? Unlocked frame rates for campaign and multiplayer in addition to “up to 4K resolution using 20GB of simultaneously-streamed” textures according to a press release. Oh, mouse and keyboard support is on the table too if you’re not a fan of using a gamepad.

Perhaps the best part of this news is that as soon as you’re done reading it, you can buy the game for $30 and see how your rig handles running it in Ultra HD.