The HTC 10 is a phone to be excited about [Poll recap]

In last week’s poll we asked whether you were excited about the launch of the HTC 10. New phones tend to get all of us at least a little bit excited, as we see what has changed and what has stayed the same. This launch is no different as plenty of us want to get out hands on that shiny new HTC 10, the big question was whether you the reader were as excited about it.

In first place with a whopping 49.25 percent of the vote, were those of you who voted “Definitely!”. In second place, with 23.52 percent of the vote was “Yes, I can’t wait to read all about it”. “Not really, but maybe they’ll surprise me” came up with 14.09 percent of the vote to take third place, and “No” skidded into fourth place with 13.14 percent of the vote. That means that overall, 72.77 percent of you guys were excited to see the HTC 10 launch.

Are you excited for the HTC 10, or has another phone stolen your heart already? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

HTC 10

• HTC 10 preview
• HTC 10 hands-on: a Canadian perspective
• HTC 10 specs
• These are the HTC 10 colors
• Our first photo and video samples
• Meet the Ice View case
• Join our HTC 10 forums

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WWDC 2016: Siri lets slip when Apple’s conference will be held

Apple hasn’t officially announced when it hold WWDC 2016, but if you’re just dying to know, you can always ask Siri.

The Cupertino-based company’s Worldwide Developers Conference will start 13 June. The annual event’s kick-off date was revealed through Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant. 9to5Mac spotted the slip. Keep in mind the conference’s dates haven’t been announced by Apple or through Apple’s website yet.

To find out when WWDC 2016 will be held, simply ask Siri exactly that, and then she’ll respond: “The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be held June 13 through June 17 in San Francisco. I can’t wait!”

9to5Mac

We’re assuming Siri has prematurely revealed these dates, because the personal assistant actually serves up Apple’s WWDC website when asked for more information, and that website still only displays dates for last year’s event. Either someone at Apple messed up, or the company is being clever.

The first day of WWDC is most important for consumers, as that’s when Apple provides information on upcoming software updates for its mobile devices, desktop machines, and smartwatch. Last year, it also touched upon HomeKit, CarPlay, and the launch of Apple Music.

We’re expecting Apple to preview the next big releases of iOS and OS X, so stay tuned to our Apple hub for all the latest news, reviews, and analysis.

Ubisoft to ban ‘Division’ players who exploit its shoddy coding

A community manager for Ubisoft’s hit game, The Division, warned players against exploiting in-game glitches to gather extra end-game loot. The issue first appeared last week with the debut of the game’s Falcon Lost expansion map pack, which offers large-scale raid missions and valuable rare items for players that beat the dungeon. That loot was only supposed to drop once a week; thereby requiring users to play through repeatedly to collect the full armor/weapon sets.

However, players immediately figured out how to use a pair of skills, Survivor Link and Mobile Cover, to effectively speedrun the dungeons in about 20 minutes — without setting off traps or alerting enemies — and collect the rare loot every single time. According to Ubisoft, that’s a violation of its Code of Conduct even though it’s Ubisoft’s own shoddy game construction that has enabled the exploit. Specifically, Ubisoft’s CoC claims that “exploitation of any new or known issues or bugs is forbidden and may result in account suspension or revocation.” Users caught doing this will first receive a temporary suspension, then eventually a permanent ban if they’re caught doing it multiple times.

As expected, the player community is none too happy with the company’s stance on this issue. “You are in charge of the final product that is delivered to your customers,” Redditor CarpeBedlam wrote in an open thread to the developers. “You get to decide what we can and can’t do in your game world. You set the rules of this world, we simply inhabit that world and use the mechanics given to us… by you. Bottom line: if you don’t want people doing something in your game, design your code so it’s not possible.”

The company has argued that players who take advantage of the speedrun glitch are becoming too powerful for non-exploiters to handle in the game’s PvP zone, hence the ban threat. Ubisoft, for its part, already applied a patch to the game last Friday to halt the exploit. However, as any player of MMORPGs from the past decade can tell you, there will always be another glitch to exploit so it’ll be interesting to see how much of an impact these suspensions and bans will actually make. Next thing you know, Ubisoft will ban players for standing in doorways.

Source: ArsTechnica

BlackBerry CEO won’t say whether he gave up encryption keys

Here’s what we know, thanks to an investigation by Motherboard and Vice: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have a key that unlocks encrypted messages on every single non-corporate BlackBerry. Here’s what we don’t know: whether BlackBerry gave that key to the RCMP. BlackBerry CEO John Chen today penned a blog post in response to last week’s revelation that the RCMP unlocked more than 1 million encrypted messages as part of an operation called Project Clemenza, which led to seven men confessing their involvement in a murder conspiracy.

In the post, Chen doesn’t definitively say whether BlackBerry gave its encryption key to Canadian authorities, but he mentions the benefits of cooperating with law enforcement.

“We have long been clear in our stance that tech companies as good corporate citizens should comply with reasonable lawful access requests,” he writes. “I have stated before that we are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good.”

BlackBerry utilizes two separate layers of encryption — its corporate BlackBerry devices are connected to enterprise servers that generate their own encryption keys. All personal BlackBerrys, however, use an identical peer-to-peer encryption key. That’s the key the RCMP used in Project Clemenza.

“At no point was BlackBerry’s [Business Enterprise Server] involved,” Chen writes. “Our BES continues to be impenetrable — also without the ability for backdoor access — and is the most secure mobile platform for managing all mobile devices.”

Chen avoids naming any companies directly, but part of its message seems to be aimed at Apple. The company has been embroiled in high-profile legal battles against the Department of Justice over the limits of encryption and privacy. Apple CEO Tim Cook has called the FBI’s request to create a backdoor for its iPhones “unconstitutional” and “bad for America,” while the DoJ asserts Apple is standing in the way of justice.

The encryption debate is heating up in the US. The Senate last week released a final version of the Compliance with Court Orders Act, which would require companies to work with authorities to provide data in a readable format when asked. The White House has affirmed its opposition to the bill and it’s unlikely to become law.

Via: Motherboard

Source: BlackBerry

Siri reveals Apple’s WWDC event will begin June 13th

When it comes to announcing plans for an event, the folks in Cupertino typically send out invites and info via email. That’s not the case this year, though, as Apple is relying on its virtual assistant to inform the masses about its annual WWDC soirée. Thanks to Siri, we know the developer conference is scheduled for June 13th through the 17th in San Francisco, the event where we’ll hear details on new versions of OS X, iOS and WatchOS.

During last year’s proceedings, the typically software-heavy keynote detailed updates for mobile, desktop and the smart watch alongside the latest on HomeKit, CarPlay and the launch of Apple Music. Stay tuned to find out what Tim Cook & Co. have on tap for this year’s WWDC, and you can bet we’ll be there cover all the news as it happens.

Via: 9to5Mac

YouTube now streams 360-degree live video

You no longer have to watch canned footage if you want to enjoy YouTube’s support for 360-degree video. YouTube is rolling out live 360-degree streaming, giving you a chance to watch that concert, surgery or special event as if you were there. It’ll get its first big use with “select” performances at Coachella this coming weekend, but we’d expect it to take off anywhere that VR-like video works.

You should start hearing a difference in pre-recorded clips, too. YouTube is introducing spatial audio to on-demand clips, so you’ll know exactly where that guitar is coming from. There’s no mention of spatial sound for live feeds, unfortunately, but this and the as-it-happens support both help bring 360-degree video (and by extension, virtual reality) further into the mainstream. You no longer need to go out of your way to get some of the most immersive video experiences, even if you don’t happen to have even a basic VR viewer on hand.

Source: YouTube Official Blog

Virtual Desktop for VR is a glimpse at a future without monitors

I can trace my computing history along a path of display milestones. The 10-inch VGA monitor that came with my Packard Bell desktop in the ’90s was a huge leap forward from the low-res Apple II displays I used in school. Then there was the 20-inch Sony Trinitron flat CRT that I brought to college with my first custom-built desktop, which served as my dorm entertainment center for years. These days, I rock two 24-inch 1080p LCDs at home, and I’m eyeing an ultra-wide screen upgrade at some point. After spending several hours with Virtual Desktop, a $15 app developed by Guy Godin for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive that brings the full Windows experience to VR, it seems like we’re close to yet another display revolution.

Imagine having your entire Windows desktop projected on a movie theater screen while sitting in the best seat in the house, and you’ll have some idea of what Virtual Desktop offers. Instead of a darkened theater, though, the display floats atop your choice of backgrounds (I really enjoy the detailed space environments). It brings to mind fantastical interfaces from science fiction — in particular, the trippy augmented reality setup from the game Heavy Rain.

There’s a definite “wow” factor to Virtual Desktop. After installing and running the app, I just slipped on my Rift headset and was presented with an impressive recreation of my Windows setup. Once you’re in virtual view, you can resize the size and distance of the desktop, from the equivalent of sitting six feet away from a 60-inch display, to having it tower before you as if it were on a enormous IMAX screen. I found it most comfortable to have the virtual screen completely fill up my field of vision, even though that also involved occasionally moving my head around to focus on specific things.

SteamVR’s “desktop theater mode” on the HTC Vive also lets you use Windows in VR, but in my testing it was hard to actually read text and use Windows as you normally would. It’s mainly meant for playing non-VR games and movies in your headset. In comparison, I had no trouble going through my email, browsing the web and reading long articles with Virtual Desktop. It was so comfortable, in fact, that I was able to use it for hours on end.

Virtual Desktop is particularly impressive when it comes to watching videos, since you can freely make the screen larger for a more cinematic experience. Of course, you won’t get the full resolution of 1080p HD videos, since both the Rift and Vive are limited by their displays, which only offer a resolution of 1280 x 1080 pixels per eye. Videos still looked sharp and clear in full-screen mode though. And after being underwhelmed by the virtual theater apps on both the Rift and Vive, which seem more focused on reminding you that you’re in a VR environment than actually making videos look good, I was surprised to find I actually enjoyed watching things with Virtual Desktop.

There’s also support for viewing 360-degree videos and photos with the app, which is useful for quickly jumping into an immersive clip from YouTube. This is one area that the app needs to improve on, though. To plug in a video, you need to copy a URL to your clipboard and insert that into Virtual Desktop’s settings app. It’ll then proceed to download the video and play it instantly. You can also open up 360-degree videos already on your computer, but it’s far more likely you’ll be grabbing content from YouTube and other sites.

The big problem with the app? You still have to rely on your keyboard and mouse to navigate Windows, which will definitely be an issue if you don’t touch-type well. Remember, you can’t easily see what’s going on in front of you. Virtual Desktop shows why something like the Vive’s webcam, which lets you quickly view the outside world, is essential for all VR headsets. I did most of my testing with the Oculus Rift, so I was forced to either type very carefully, or remove the headset if I needed to hit a specific key. (Function keys, in particular, are hard to touch-type.)

I was able to write several lengthy emails while wearing the Rift, but it always took a few seconds for my fingers to readjust to the key positions after taking my hands away. That ended up being a bigger issue for entering web addresses or numbers of any kind, since those involve hitting keys that aren’t in my normal touch-typing range. (My slim wireless keyboard doesn’t have a number pad, though that probably would make my life easier.) Mousing around Windows in Virtual Desktop was fine, and the app also made something mundane like photo editing feel like a revelatory experience. Cropping and recoloring a giant image felt akin to working on a giant Jackson Pollock-esque canvas.

I won’t be giving up my dual monitor setup anytime soon, but I was surprised by how well my workflow transferred to Virtual Desktop. I could see creative types preferring it to a restrictive monitor setup, especially for things like video and audio editing, where you normally have dozens of tracks to juggle at one. Just like the first batch of VR hardware, the app feels like a sign of things to come. It won’t be too long until we can just slip on a pair of glasses to have a full desktop environment emerge from our smartphones.

Nintendo teases ‘Star Fox Zero: The Battle Begins’ animated film

This week, Star Fox Zero will finally make its debut on the Wii U, after being delayed last year. In celebration of that, Nintendo created an animated short called Star Fox Zero: The Battle Begins. The film was produced in collaboration with none other than Shigeru Miyamoto, as well as Production IG and WIT Studios. Its world premiere is streaming live on Wednesday, April 20th, just a couple days before the game hits Nintendo’s latest console. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer, which features cameos from all your favorite members of the Star Fox squad.

Source: Nintendo (YouTube)

Someone turned ‘Fallout: New Vegas’ into an interactive video

If you have a soft spot for Choose Your Own Adventure stories but wish they were set in your favorite video game universes… well, you’d better clear your schedule. Many A True Nerd has turned Bethesda’s Fallout: New Vegas into an interactive video (a Choose Your Own Apocalypse, as it’s called) that you play solely through YouTube. As you might imagine, it boils down the action role-playing game’s experience into simple this-or-that choices — the route you take and the people you befriend determine whether or not you’ll make it to New Vegas in one piece.

The catch? Since this depends on YouTube’s web link overlays, you’ll likely need to play on your PC instead of your mobile devices. So long as that isn’t an obstacle, though, this is one heck of a way to relive New Vegas without worrying about stats or SPECIAL perks.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Many A True Nerd (YouTube)

Tesla gives owners free trial of its self-driving future

Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot mode is a great way to get a tiny glimpse into the self-driving-car future. Currently if you’re a Model X or S owner and you didn’t add the option when you bought your vehicle, but you’re curious to try it out, the automaker is offering a 30-day trial.

If the Tesla has the necessary hardware, the owner can get an over-the-air update that adds Autopilot for 30 days. The offer was first noticed by Reddit user kushari. A Tesla spokesperson confirmed that the trial is available for all owners of supported vehicles.

It’s actually a smart move by Tesla. If an owner wants to add the feature after taking delivery of a car, the cost is $3,000. Not exactly spare change. This gives those drivers the ability to try before they buy and see if automatic steering, lane changing and speed control is worth all that money.

Via: CNET

Source: Reddit