Twitch is helping create a new eSports league

Twitch’s list of competitive gaming partnerships is growing at a rapid pace. Following deals with the folks behind Vainglory and Rocket League, the broadcasting juggernaut is joining forces with leading eSports platform Faceit to launch the Esports Championship Series. Essentially, it’s a pro-league that follows how the business/organizational side of typical stick and ball sports are handled. For the premiere Counter-Strike series, there are 20 teams split between the United States and Europe and the ECS offers co-ownership of teams — a first according to ECS.

Further similarities between eSports and traditional sports include how player payments are handled, a code of conduct in terms of player treatment and ensuring that players and teams have a role in how the league functions moving forward. You know, deciding the boring stuff — like rules and regulations and player welfare and holidays — that’s intrinsic to any organization’s longevity.

If you’re wondering where Twitch fits into all of this, well, Amazon’s $970 million baby will be the exclusive broadcast partner in addition to helping keep everyone happy while they’re competing and traveling the world. The first round kicks off today at noon Eastern on Faceit’s Twitch channel, with a pre-show starting a half hour prior and $3.5 million in prizes and team financial support up for grabs.

And should you want in on this action yourself but your skills with an assault rifle need some honing, the ECS’ second season will have a development league for training new players and teams, helping feed the growing sport. Could all of this be a sign of Twitch uniting the entirety of its eSports efforts under the ECS banner? Only time will tell.

Forge makes livestreaming easier

About a month ago, my cousin asked for tips on livestreaming. He had OBS, the software of choice for many streamers, but he had a long way to go before his debut on Twitch or YouTube Gaming. OBS works, but it’s complex for people just starting out, offering a lot of options that could screw up your livestream with an accidental click.

OBS is sometimes tricky even for entrepreneur Jared Kim, who’s been developing game-capture apps for the past eight years. He has a theory about the steep learning curve: Services like OBS aren’t made for casual streamers. They’re dense because they’re used mainly by professionals or dedicated players who can spare the time (and money) to make their livestreams perfect. This leaves my cousin and tons of other potential Twitch stars in the dust. For them, Kim has more than a theory; he has a solution.

Kim’s latest project, Forge, gets an accessible Twitch and YouTube livestreaming function today — on top of its existing clip-sharing capabilities. Here’s how Forge works now (it’s Windows-only at the moment): Boot up your PC game with Forge running in the background, and the service records your gameplay. Press F5 to bookmark cool plays for highlighting and sharing later, or snip and share them right away in-game. All of this takes place on top of your game; you don’t need to exit out once Forge is rolling.

The new livestreaming option integrates into this existing structure. If you want to go live on Twitch or YouTube, hit F8, select your platform of choice, set a title and start playing. Your buddies can watch you play League of Legends, Dota 2 or Hatoful Boyfriend live (or any other PC game, of course). Forge can push notifications that you’re live to Twitter, and you can still bookmark, highlight and share clips while you’re on the air.

Forge’s livestreaming capabilities are pared down compared with services like OBS. For starters, there are no options to add a webcam, fancy borders or chat. It’s a livestreaming service, plain and simple, and it’s meant for new or casual players. The professionals already have OBS, after all.

Forge takes its inspiration from apps like Snapchat, Instagram, Vine and Twitter — services that tackle just one thing.

“We’re really attracted to these very simple, single-focused, single-mission apps that have a very cohesive experience,” Kim says. “And I think that’s essentially what we built.”

Study says people get turned on by touching a robot’s privates

We’ve known for a long time that some people like touching robotic butts and cannot lie — sex-bots already exist, after all. But now a group of researchers from Stanford University have produced data that can back that up. Jamy Li, Wendy Ju and Byron Reeves programmed a Nao robot to instruct test subjects to touch it in 13 areas of its body, including “areas of low accessibility” such as its cold, plastic buttocks. Since the participants were fitted with sensors on their fingers, the group was able to collect data on their skin’s conductivity. That’s a way to measure whether someone finds something “physiologically arousing.” In other words, when your skin becomes a better conductor for electricity, you’re turned on.

The subjects in the team’s 26 trial runs showed signs of arousal when Nao asked them to touch its intimate areas. They even touched those parts more quickly, as if they were uncomfortable doing so. However, Li told Mashable that “it isn’t necessarily sexual arousal,” not when the subjects reacted similarly when Nao asked them to touch its eye. They didn’t get “turned on” when it asked them to touch its more accessible parts, like its hands.

She explained that it could all boil down to simple awkwardness:

“One way I thought about it is, the robot is talking like a person, it looks like a person and has social cues like a person [gesturing, looking at the subjects]. It’s as if the robot is a teaching figure and asking a person to touch them in each of these parts as a way to interact… there could have been some awkwardness.”

Li also said that their work illustrates just how powerful robots can be as a new form of media, as we respond to them — humanoid ones, especially — as we would respond to another human being. “Social conventions regarding touching someone else’s private parts,” she added, “apply to a robot’s body parts as well.”

The team conducted the study, because they believe that unlike Pepper that only has a tablet on its chest, robots of the future could have interactive bodies. They might be full of sensors that we could, say, simply tap them on the arm to start them up or give them a task to do. The results from this study imply that if a designer isn’t specifically making a sex robot, then it’s best to put their sensors on the more accessible parts of their bodies.

Li, Ju and Reeves haven’t submitted their study to a journal yet, but they’re slated to present it at the International Communication Association conference in Fukuoka, Japan on June 9th to 13th.

Source: International Communication Association, Mashable

Meizu m3 note unveiled: 5.5-inch 1080p display, Helio P10, 4100mAh battery

Meizu has unveiled the successor to the m2 note in China. This year’s m3 note retains the lowercase naming convention, as well as the 5.5-inch Full HD 2.5D curved glass display. Under the hood is where it gets exciting, as the phone now comes with MediaTek’s Helio P10 SoC, which has eight Cortex A53 cores at 1.8GHz and the Mali T860 GPU.

The phone also offers LTE connectivity, hybrid dual-SIM connectivity with the second SIM card slot doubling up as a microSD slot, 13MP f/2.2 camera at the back with dual-tone LED flash and PDAF, 5MP front shooter, VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, and a 4100mAh battery. On the software side, you get Flyme OS 5.1 atop Android 5.1 Lollipop.

There’s a fingerprint sensor embedded in the home button at the front, and the phone will be offered in two storage variants: a base model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage that will retail for ¥799 ($123), and a version with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage for ¥999 ($154).

The m3 note will be available in gold, silver, and grey color variants, and will make its debut in the Indian market next month.

LG G5 pays a visit to the iFixit offices for a ‘friendly’ teardown

LG’s latest flagship smartphone, the LG G5, brings all its friends to the yard with the new magic slot. The team over at iFixit decided to see just how easy it is to take apart the G5, beyond that of simply swapping out optional modules. The result is LG produced quite the repair-friendly handset, but the company already enjoyed a head start in tests by offering a stunning unibody smartphone with a super-easy removable battery.

What makes this particularly interesting is just how easy the G5 is to take apart. Simply remove the battery, take out two screws and everything can be accessed. Utilizing standard Philips screws also gives LG some added bonus points. So if you happen to experience an issue with your LG G5, there’s a solid chance you’ll be able to carry out the repair without seriously damaging the device or gluing your hands together.

Check out the full report over at iFixit.

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Amazon expands Prime same-day delivery to more metro areas in the U.S.

Amazon has announced the online retail giant has expanded its Prime same-day delivery service to more metro areas in the U.S. These include Charlotte, Cincinnati, Fresno, Louisville, Milwaukee, Nashville, Raleigh, Richmond, Sacramento, Stockton, and Tucson, as well as new areas in Central New Jersey, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

This delivery option allows consumers to place an order (worth over $35) in the morning and receive their products on the same day, even on Sunday. With the added areas noted above, the same-day delivery now covers 27 metro areas in the U.S. You’ll need Amazon Prime to take advantage of this service, which will set you back $99 a year but includes a number of benefits.

Canon EOS 80D review: The mid-range master

If you’re looking to drop a four-figure wedge of cash of a mid-range DSLR – one that’ll last you for a good stretch of time – then Canon is one of the names that so often floats to the surface; the crema on the coffee, if you will. And in the 80D that layer of pro-made goodness is more pronounced than ever before, thanks to an autofocus system hike and viewfinder improvements.

It’s a necessary boost too, given the release of the 750D and 760D mixing up the company’s DSLR pot and, in our view, muddying the waters. Now in the 80D there’s clearer differentiation between the ranges; this mid-ranger pulls in a 45-point autofocus system, adapted from the 1D MkIV’s, and, finally, achieves a what-you-see-is-what-you-get 100 per cent field-of-view optical viewfinder. It’s enough to make you think twice about the Nikon D7200 (which is probably due an imminent update anyway).

Given the strength of other cameras out there, though – including compact system cameras such as the Panasonic Lumix GH4 – is the EOS 80D the mid-range meddler to push its competition aside? We’ve had one in tow for a week to see.

Canon EOS 80D review: Updated autofocus

Perhaps the most obvious place to start with the 80D is its autofocus system. When the 1D MkIV was originally launched you’d have to spend around £4,000 on that camera body. Now, in 2016, that technology is a quarter of the price in 80D form. It’s actually better in many regards thanks to software tweaks and heightened sensitivity. Not bad, eh?

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Capable of low-light focus to -3EV – the same as you’ll find in the EOS 6D full-frame model – and comprising 45 autofocus points, all of which are cross-type (27 of them are sensitive to f/8, nine of which are cross-type sensitive to ensure heightened sensitivity if you’re using, say, a slower lens or zoom extender) meaning there’s a lot of clout here.

For this review we’ve had the 24-70mm f/4.0 lens attached to the camera for the duration, so our results are, in part, subject to the characteristics of this lens. There are a wealth of other optics available in the EF/EF-S ranges, of course, which cost varying degree of cash (the real achiever is the f/2.8 L-series version of the 24-70mm).

But even with this optic choice, we’ve been largely impressed with the results, whether using single- or continuous-autofocus. It’s really quick in operation. We’ll stick our necks out and say we can’t think of a better focus tracking system at this level when set to continuous autofocus – it just seems to grip ahold of a subject and follow with plenty of AF-point feedback.

There are four autofocus modes, breaking the 45-points option down into 1-point, small and large zone selections as suited to your subject; toggling between the four modes is easily actioned by pressing the button to the side of the front thumbwheel.

If anything it’s the 1-point mode, which when used positioned off-centre (as we have been for some still shots), that presents some issues. In a mixture of lighting conditions sometimes it just refused to provide that light-up red AF point illumination feedback. We repeatedly shot a flower at full zoom, for example, but failed to perfectly hit focus. And there’s no pinpoint focus mode as per the Panasonic GH4, for example, to help doubly confirm focus acquisition.

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Canon 80D review – sample image at ISO 100

Comparing to a compact system camera is an interesting point, as the 80D’s autofocus isn’t solely based on viewfinder use. Just as there is with the top-tier 1D X MkII, the 80D also pushes Dual Pixel AF for super-fast live view performance. In the previous 70D this meant smooth and fast live view focusing, the likes of which, at the time, no other DSLR camera could compete against. In the 80D, with its vari-angle touchscreen incorporated, we’ve found it really handy to just tap the screen and obtain reliable focus quickly. It’s not going to beat a compact system camera, but it’s as good as DSLR cameras get.

Canon EOS 80D review: Key features

Which brings us neatly to the camera’s design. Because it’s full of desirable features that, more often than not, even top-spec pro DSLR cameras lack these days. We’ve already mentioned that vari-angle touchscreen, which sits on a bracket projecting from the camera’s side. As this can swivel around through 360-degrees, at one angle or another, it’s the perfect companion for a camera such as this – and preferable over a tilt-angle option, which can only move in a vertical motion.

But it’s the viewfinder that sees real change. With the 70D a 98 per cent field-of-view meant the outermost two per cent of the finder’s frame couldn’t be seen in composition (despite being captured in the image). Nikon has long held an advantage at this level, with its D7100/7200 offering 100 per cent, meaning what you see in the frame is what you get in the image. The 80D has risen to the challenge and ups the ante to a 100 per cent field-of-view (hence the added “bump on the head” in design compared to the 70D).

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The viewfinder also proclaims itself “intelligent”: in a similar fashion to the 7D II’s it’s able to present an electronic level, grid display and focus feedback – including confirmatory red illumination in low-light conditions (but not in all conditions) – by using a screen overlay. This means non-permanent focus points don’t disrupt the view, or you can toggle the grid/level on or off as you desire.

However, the 80D’s 0.63x viewfinder magnification isn’t huge to the eye and we’ve noticed purple flare from some light sources which is annoying (and not present in images, just through the finder).

Elsewhere, and just as with the 70D, the 80D continues a weather-sealed construction, which is one of the specs that sets it above and beyond a lower-tier camera such as the EOS 760D. It’s rugged and built to last, although you might not think so to look at: Canon does choose a strange-looking plasticky coating for this level of DSLR that just looks, well, budget. It’s not, though, it’s actually an “aluminium and polycarbonate resin with glass and conductive fibre” construct. Oh, er.

Canon is now getting more comfortable with higher-resolution sensors too, the 80D embodying a 24.2-megapixel APS-C offering, pitching it squarely against Nikon’s going resolution. But this resolution bump means the burst mode remains unchanged between 70D and 80D, offering 7fps maximum. However, the 80D can shoot more shots consecutively, maxing out at 110 JPEG shots or 25 raw files without pausing, so Canon says.

In our burst test – using a UHS-I 45MB/sec max SD card – we snapped 17 raw & JPEG frames before the buffer had had enough. That’s more than double what we managed with the 70D, so even though the speed hasn’t increased beyond 7fps in the 80D, the buffer is more significant. None too shabby, albeit short of its quoted maximum in our use (different subjects and different cards may yield different results, but there’s no UHS-II compatibility according to the specification).

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Canon 80D review – sample image at ISO 6400

Canon EOS 80D review: Image quality

Still images are what the 80D is primed for – particularly noticeable as there’s no 4K video in this model. And that new 24-megapixel sensor does an ace job when it comes to quality, producing images of a larger scale and, in our view, a better quality than the earlier 70D. That’ll be the latest Digic 6 processor doing its thing.

It’s the higher ISO settings where the main difference can be seen. We’ve been back over our 70D shots from 2013 and find the 80D’s at ISO 6400 are slightly less grainy with image noise less noticeable by comparison. Quirky musical notation on pub walls (shot at ISO 6400) is still clearly legible, despite some slight grain, while the detail in deep blacks of a sculptural mural (shot at ISO 3200) remain rich and clean. It’s only the mid-greys where we’ve seen a slight ghostly appearance of colour noise, but it’s barely noticeable. Just avoid the top-end ISO 25,600, which is pushing things to say the least.

Not that you’ll be shooting at the high ISO settings all the time, of course. And the base-level ISO 100 and other low sensitivities shots present plenty of detail and colour is faithful without being overbearing. It’s fairly easy to over-expose shots with default settings – despite an upgrade to a 7560-pixel RGB+IR metering sensor compared to 63-zone dual-layer module of the 70D – but with exposure compensation and four types of metering available it’s ultimately down to you as a photographer to get that right.

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Canon 80D review – sample image at ISO 400

Considering how well the 70D performed, the bump in both resolution and quality from the 80D helps it to raise the bar to a notable degree. Given the rest of the market, as APS-C sensors go, Canon has cemented itself as a contender for pole position here.

Canon EOS 80D review: A word on video

Moving images aren’t entirely negated, of course, with the camera capable of handing Full HD 1080p capture, including both a microphone and headphones sockets for the videographers out there. It’s only the lack of 4K capture which sees some competitors, Panasonic GH4 included, offer more.

It’s here the touch-focus comes in handy too, with Canon’s most advanced system yet. Auto face recognition can drive focus automatically, but can easily be over-ridden by tapping anywhere on the screen for a tracking AF point to follow a subject – which it does reasonably well. Again, the tracking point can be over-ridden too by half-pressing the shutter button to fix focus where the focus area is at that moment in time. Or you can disengage everything and go fully manual should you wish.

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Canon 80D review – sample image at ISO 200

There might be no 4K, but this is user-friendly one-man video capture capability. Canon is looking to progress video capture in other ways too. At preview stage the 80D we saw was paired with a brand new 18-135mm nano USM lens, designed with best-of-both fast action and movie shooting in mind. It incorporates an electrical connection port, to which the new PZ-E1 power zoom adapter (£129, due June) can be added to motor-drive the lens.

It’s an interesting idea for smooth focus, although the motor is rather noisy (you’ll need to use external mics to negate that), but the smooth motion of the slow/fast toggle zoom control from this unit will speak volumes to certain movie shooters. The 18-135mm isn’t a super-fast lens, but we strongly suspect this port will make an appearance on future Canon lenses too. Watch this space.

Verdict

The Canon EOS 80D takes almost everything that was missing or not quite up to scratch in the already impressive 70D and sets it right. Save for a second SD card slot and absence of 4K video there’s not a whole lot missing in this mid-range master.

A comprehensive autofocus system sets the standard for continuous autofocus at this level, while live view works a treat too as DSLR cameras go. We’d still like a pinpoint focus type mode and AF point illumination for focus conformation in all conditions, not just when it’s dark. But even so, few competitors will keep up with the 80D’s autofocus system. Plus there’s finally a 100 per cent field-of-view optical viewfinder to go with that vari-angle touchscreen, ensuring Canon is competitive against its main Nikon competitor.

All that and the images get a big thumbs up too. Capable throughout much of the ISO range, into the higher sensitivities, attach a quality lens to the front of this DSLR and it won’t disappoint.

Sure, it’s not cheap all-in, but you already knew that. But know this: the 80D is worth every penny and keeps the DSLR hugely relevant in today’s market.

Freeview Play to get even better with UKTV support

UKTV, which runs British channels Dave, Yesterday, Really and Drama, is adding its app to those that work with Freeview Play – the free digital TV catch-up TV service.

It effectively means that owners of Freeview Play-enabled TVs or set-top-boxes will be able to catch-up with UKTV content just by scrolling backwards through the electronic programme guide.

Support is being added in the next three months and will be in place before one of UKTV’s biggest shows hits Dave later in the year; an all-new season of Red Dwarf – season 11 – is tipped for a summer release.

Other shows that will be available through the service include Dave Gorman’s Modern Life is Goodish, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled and a bit of a guilty pleasure for us, Storage Hunters UK.

READ: What is Freeview Play, when is it coming and how can I get it?

UKTV

The UKTV Play app will be available across all Freeview Play devices and as well as boot as soon as catch-up content is accessed through the EPG, it will offer collections of shows organised by themes and moods. Users can also view their history and resume playback on any unfinished stream.

UKTV Play is also available across a host of other devices, including Amazon Fire TV, YouView, Virgin Media, iOS, Android and PC.

‘The Next Rembrandt’ is a 3D-printed take on the painter’s style

A new Rembrandt painting has been unveiled in Amsterdam on Tuesday, and we’re not talking about a newly discovered work. No, this one called The Next Rembrandt is truly brand new, created using data, algorithms and a 3D printer within the span of 18 months. A team of data scientists, engineers and scientists from various institutions, including Microsoft and the Rembrandt House Museum, joined forces to create this homage to the great painter. The team examined all the Dutch master’s known paintings to come up with the perfect project: a portrait of a 30 to 40-year-old Caucasian male with facial hair, wearing dark clothes with a collar and a hat on his head, facing to the right.

They then developed algorithms to extract what features make a painting a Rembrandt, such as the face’s shape and proportions. Ron Augustus, Microsoft’s SMB Markets Director, said: “You could say that we used technology and data like Rembrandt used his paints and his brushes to create something new.” To give their work a real painting’s texture, they used 3D printing techniques to print oil paint in layers. As a result, the portrait feels like it was actually painted by a human artist.

The project was commissioned by the Netherlands’ IHG Bank and most likely began as a promotional undertaking. As you can see, though, the final product turned out so good that the same technique could be used to make more affordable replicas (maybe even forgeries) of masterpieces.

Source: The Guardian, IB Times

DARPA helps drones avoid mid-air collisions

Some of the latest consumer drones, such as the DJI Phantom 4, come with an obstacle avoidance system. They’re designed for stationary and slow-moving objects, however, like trees and cyclists, rather than aircraft ripping through the sky at 550mph. That poses a problem if we ever want manned and unmanned aircraft playing nicely in the sky. To help, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working on a new sense-and-avoid (SAA) system. The group recently conducted its first test flight, demonstrating that a shoebox-sized prototype can effectively detect and track a Cessna 172G aircraft approaching from different angles.

The system uses an optical camera for detection, as well as “passive ranging features” to predict whether any nearby aircraft will cross its flight path. If there’s a potential collision, it’ll recommend the best evasive action that complies with air safety regulations. “This SAA system has the potential to enable a wide range of manned and unmanned systems to safely integrate into an increasingly populated and complex airspace,” Dan Patt, a Program Manager at DARPA said. “What pilot wouldn’t want to set a box on their dashboard that would provide an additional pair of eyes?”

DARPA has been working on the project for two years now. Its next step is to shrink the hardware — a shoebox is still a little large, especially for commercial drones — continue testing and develop some “mature” features, such as the ability to detect aircraft below the horizon line. If the team is successful, it could result in fewer mid-air collisions, saving lives and improving public confidence in unmanned aerial vehicles.

Source: DARPA