Explore the depths of Far Harbor in ‘Fallout 4’s latest DLC

Already trudged through all of what nuclear wasteland simulator Fallout 4 has to offer? Crossed the first two expansions off of your list? Suit up, because it’s time to head to Fallout 4’s fictional island of Far Harbor on May 19th.

This may be the third expansion as far as Fallout 4 goes, but it’s certainly the biggest. Bethesda has just released an official trailer and press release detailing Far Harbor’s enormous landmass so you can get an idea of what to expect. To put things in perspective, it won’t be as large as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s Shivering Isles expansion, but it will contain more ground to cover than Dawnguard.

Players will join up with Valentine’s Detective Agency on a brand new case to search for a secret colony of synths and a mysterious young woman. The titular island of Far Harbor is located off the coast of Maine, and as you’d suspect, it’s riddled with dangerous levels of radiation. All the more reason to explore it, right?

High-level weapons and armor will be deployed to aid you in cracking the case, and a whole new wealth of enemies, creepy places to uncover, and more will be presented. This expansion will run you $25 and will be available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Source: Bethesda

YouTube will reportedly start streaming live TV in 2017

Streaming live TV over the internet is the latest entertainment land grab — as more consumers cut the cord, plenty of companies are finding new ways to offer potential customers a way to get their live TV fix. According to a report from Bloomberg, YouTube might get in the action in 2017 with a new service called Unplugged. The plan calls for YouTube to offer a bundle of cable TV channels, but what channels will be included remains to be seen. Bloomberg notes that discussions are ongoing with major media companies like Comcast / NBCUniversal, Viacom, Fox and CBS but no deals have been finalized yet.

Thought today’s report repeatedly mentions bundles of “cable TV” channels, it seems like YouTube doesn’t want to go forward with the service unless it can offer all four of the major broadcast networks, as well. It sounds like YouTube wants to offer a few different packages, some of which may include lesser-watched channels that focus on a specific topic — like a “comedy” package, for example. But those packages would be add-ons to the main subscription bundle that all users would have to subscribe to for starters. As far as pricing goes, YouTube wants to offer the main bundle for less than $35 a month, a price that it seems the company is having a hard time meeting.

YouTube has apparently been working on an internet TV service since 2012, but talks have picked up in recent months given the number of companies working on similar services. Sony got into the space more than a year ago with PlayStation Vue, and Sling TV launched shortly after CES 2015. Earlier today, Hulu confirmed its intentions to get into the live TV space, and rumors have swirled about Apple doing something similar for years now. With YouTube Red (the company’s first effort at a subscription service) off and running and CEO Sundar Pichai’s repeated comments about the importance of the platform to Google as a whole, live TV is a logical next step.

Source: Bloomberg

How a ‘Star Wars’ nerd made VFX software for the rest of us

If you’ve ever tried to make your own movie, you know that emulating J.J. Abrams isn’t easy. Moreover, even if you were the greatest unheralded cinematographer in history, you still couldn’t compete with Hollywood. After all, even modestly budgeted films employ a legion of visual effects artists tasked with bringing the impossible to the big screen. That feeling of teenage disappointment may not be the same for future generations, however, and it’s all thanks to FXHome, a British software house whose flagship product offers amateurs the ability to produce high-quality visual effects in a matter of hours.

Last Thursday the company launched HitFilm 4 Express, a free visual effects and editing suite aimed squarely at teenagers and other young visionaries. It’s designed to enable the YouTube generation to create copycat visual effects from the latest movies with a minimum of time, money and skill. As long as you’re capable of following the tutorial, it should take you less than an hour before you start to see results. You don’t need expensive computing hardware to run it either, with company founder Josh Davies saying that it will work well on the “£250 [$363] computer that you’d pick up for your kids at PC world.”

In addition to running his own software operation, Davies is an obsessive movie geek and says that HitFilm was built for “people like us.” The company’s open-plan office is covered in posters for famous sci-fi movies, while Davies’ desk is guarded by a Lego X-Wing and a small army of Funko Pop figurines. To celebrate the launch of HitFilm 4 Express, the team built an off-the-shelf clone of Iron Man’s heads-up display for anyone to use. The company even created the necessary on-screen graphics, so all you have to do is shoot a video of your own face on a black background. In many ways, it’s just a variation on what Davies was doing 15 years ago: figuring out ways to put realistic lightsabers into Star Wars fan films.

The story begins in 2001, when Davies was still a student at the University of East Anglia and hung out with film studies students. One of his friends was putting together a lightsaber battle for his degree but had no way of adding the effects to the white sticks used in the filming. The video editing technology and computing power was stone-aged compared to what’s available today. So in desperation, he began hand-painting the lightsaber effects onto each frame in Painter. Davies thought this was a spectacular waste of time, so he hastily cobbled together software to do it.

Davies’ software was a hit, at least according to everyone who saw the results, and he decided to try his hand at selling it. “We made it, and …” he pauses for a moment, “nobody bought it.” But this initial failure didn’t deter him, as he spent the following few years developing what would eventually become HitFilm. His goal was simple: Create “the place where everybody starts.” At the beginning, his target market was amateurs with dreams of emulating George Lucas, but that’s changed in recent years, mostly because these days people aspire not to Hollywood stardom but a career on YouTube.

Indeed, HitFilm has become the tool of choice for some big-name YouTubers, like Freddie Wong, the creator of Video Game High School. In addition, Film Riot’s Ryan Connolly and Corridor Digital, the company behind Real GTA and Superman with a GoPro, both use HitFilm. The company even has its own amateur-turned-pro story to boast about: Matt Plummer cut his teeth on HitFilm and now works on films like Kingsman and White House Down.

Davies and COO Andrea Wake don’t want HitFilm to become just another professional VFX package. Sure, it’s probably lucrative business to cater to a tiny niche of effects houses, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, they feel that helping future generations become masters of their craft is the right thing to do. It’s worth mentioning, however, that the paid version of HitFilm, whose users effectively subsidize the amateurs, has been used in some big-budget movies. In the company’s conference room you’ll see posters for Salt and The Hangover Part II, both of which employed the software. HitFilm has also found a home within the production team of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. The software is used to previsualize FX-heavy sequences, crudely drawing in the right visual effects before the clips are sent to the professionals.

As part of its strategy to bring high-end visuals to the masses, the team that produces the software is in constant contact with its community. Staff members see what techniques are being discussed on the company forum and cut their cloth to suit. In addition, staffer Simon Jones produces weekly tutorials to show off quick and easy ways to replicate scenes and VFX techniques used in popular movies. Wake believes this educational aspect separates HitFilm from the competition, and this level of “personal service” is what makes it so beloved.

Education is so important to HitFilm that Davies says he has a “moral obligation” to help new filmmakers grow — even if that means they eventually grow beyond his software. The user interface is designed to mimic that of other professional software packages like Adobe’s After Effects, and files can easily be transferred between the two. Davies also encourages interaction with local schools to enable kids to learn how to add their own special effects to projects.

FXHome has been the subject of more than a few buyout attempts from several of the world’s biggest technology companies. Aside from providing software tools and plugins for Sony’s own VFX products, the outfit has resisted all attempts to become part of a larger corporate machine. Many of the would-be suitors failed to appreciate Davies’ feelings about creating a mass-market, low-cost product that, effectively, services his own inner child. He explains that as much as he could compromise his product in an attempt to extract every penny from wannabe filmmakers, he doesn’t want to. The idea of FXHome turning into a corporate machine and HitFilm into a haven for microtransactions seems to fill him with dread. “Imagine if your sales team becomes your biggest team!” He pauses for another moment: “Sounds awful.”

Source: HitFilm

Roost unveils smart smoke detectors to take on Nest

Roost’s smoke detector smart battery is one of those rare, genuinely useful, connected home gadgets. It plugs into any smoke detector to give you alarm notifications on your smartphone, and it costs a paltry $35. Now, the company is adding two new smart products to its lineup: the $60 RSA-200 smoke and fire detector, and the $80 RSA-400, which adds carbon monoxide and natural gas detection. Both devices also use the existing Roost battery, but they can detect fires even faster than a typical smoke alarm.

The alarms are using Universal Smoke Sensing Technology, which relies on a microprocessor to quickly detect “fast flaming” fires, as well as those that smolder slowly. It’s up to 87 percent faster than the current smoke alarm standards, the company says.

It might seem crazy to expect consumers to pay a premium for smoke detectors, which typically cost anywhere from $10 to $30. But Roost’s smart functionality is genuinely useful, especially if you have a family to worry about. Its smart detectors are also cheaper than $99 Nest Protect (which is admittedly a lot more stylish).

Source: Roost

Anne Frank’s story to be told in VR

You can already tour Anne Frank’s hideaway in virtual reality if you can’t make it to Amsterdam, but producer Jonah Hirsch is taking that one step further. He’s creating a VR experience, Anne, that will tell the Holocaust symbol’s tale in 360 degrees. Details of how it will work aren’t available, but you’ll get to at least get to wander around the secret annex where Frank and others hid from the Nazis for two years. The project is still young (you’re looking at a rough version above), so it may be a while before you’re trying Anne for yourself.

It’s not clear just how official this is. We’ve asked both the Anne Frank House and the production company backing Anne (CGO Studios) for more details. However, Hirsch has already developed a knack for attention to detail in VR: an earlier experience, First, portrayed the Wright brothers’ first flight with uncanny accuracy. So long as his new effort is reasonably true to life, it could do a lot to convey Frank’s story in a more immersive way.

Source: AWN, Road to VR

Taxiing airplanes could soon get flight info wirelessly

Airlines have made great efforts to update their tech, including replacing bulky flight manuals with iPads. But pilot teams still receive flight information updates the same way they’ve been doing for decades: over radio voice comms, as current wireless solutions don’t support high-enough volume data transfer. Last February, a joint NASA and FAA team sent flight updates to a taxiing airplane over a wireless communication network for the first time, NASA said Tuesday.
The team used prototype hardware to send the info over a new wireless system, called Aeronuatical Mobile Airport Communications System (AeroMACS), which is based on the WiMAX standard. To test it, the team sent the aircraft multiple applications while updating flight information without data loss — even as the FAA Bombardier Global 5000 test aircraft taxiied around the runway at 60 to 70mph. The test was strictly an exchange with a ground-based aircraft, so it’s unclear whether the system would work while the aircraft is mid-flight.

Making airport-to-airplane communications wireless isn’t just a boon for quick data transfer: The current airport communications system requires plenty of underground cabling, which is difficult to repair and maintain. But updating airport technology to the 21st century could put them at risk of hacking and digital intrusion, so the next set of end-to-end AeroMACS tests will involve multiple airports and security measures.

Source: NASA

DARPA exhibit offers rare glimpse at a secretive agency

DARPA’s has been responsible for countless advancements in cutting-edge technologies since its founding in 1958. During a conference call on Wednesday, DARPA’s Deputy director Steve Walker announced that it is partnering with Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry to host a massive exhibit that documents the agency’s six decades of accomplishments.

ATLAS, the 6-foot soon-to-be-spacefaring robot, will welcome visitors to the 5,000 square foot exhibit, which runs from May 5th through September 5th. The DEKA prosthetic arm and Spot, the robo-dog will both also be on display. It will also showcase the agency’s other wacky inventions — including man-made lightning, UAVs and gene editing techniques — along a 100 foot interactive timeline. There will even be a large-scale model of the Navy’s new autonomous Sea Hunter.

The exhibit will also feature a number of interactive activities. Visitors will be able to build virtual robots while learning the basic theories of robotics. They can get up close with the neuroelectrode arrays that enable amputees to mind control their prosthetics and the microelectric chips that could bring about revolutionary AI systems. They’ll also be able to inspect the army’s new super-powered exosuits, though they won’t be allowed to wear it themselves. Kids can also explore the inside of a cell phone to see all the bits and pieces that wouldn’t exist had DARPA not developed them.

But this isn’t just some vanity exhibit extolling the agency’s lengthy list of accomplishments. For one, DARPA hopes that this exhibit will get some of the 300,000 or so school kids that visit the CMSI every year interested in STEM careers. It’s also to get their STEM-trained parents to consider a stint in public service, working with DARPA.

“DARPA’s unchanging mission has been to prevent technological surprise,” Walker said during a teleconference on Wednesday. “The nature of our job demands that we reach out to the best ad brightest in a wide range of fields, not just engineering but also physics, aeronautics, chemistry, cyber and biology. Our needs are endless because the DARPA model is to have these experts join up for 3 to 5 years as program managers to do something totally game-changing and then go back to their jobs — either in academia or industry. We’re constantly looking for superstars.” Both Walker and DARPA’s Director himself will be on hand for the opening tomorrow and able to speak to folks interested in working for the agency.

Source: DARPA

Cloud-seeding drone makes first flight over Nevada

A group of researchers and aviators in Nevada have successfully completed the first flight of an unmanned cloud-seeding aircraft, the state’s Desert Research Institute reports.

The flight took place last week at an FAA-approved drone test site in Hawthorne, Nevada, where the DRI has been exploring the possibility of using of unmanned aerial vehicles to address the state’s persistent drought and other natural disasters through weather modification.

“We have reached another major milestone in our effort to reduce both the risks and the costs in the cloud seeding industry and help mitigate natural disasters caused by drought, hail and extreme fog,” said Mike Richards, President and CEO of Drone America, which provided the aeronautics expertise to get the aircraft off the ground.

During an 18-minute flight, the “Sandoval Silver State Seeder,” as they’re calling the 11-foot-wingspan aircraft, successfully demonstrated its potential to make it rain by deploying two silver-iodide flares, commonly used to induce rainfall from clouds. While the Seeder only reached an altitude of 400 feet during the test run (and therefore didn’t actually cause any precipitation yet), the project’s lead scientist called it “a tremendous accomplishment for the state of Nevada and everyone involved.” There’s even an inspiring promotional trailer. Observe:

The next steps for the research team will be to conduct actual cloud seeding tests around DRI’s operations area in the Lake Tahoe basin.

While the thought of unmanned vehicles controlling the weather may be a little too close to Skynet for some, the practice of cloud seeding has been used in the past for innocuous purposes like clearing the air before sporting events. The project’s chief engineer Amber Broch described it in a more optimistic way, saying the flight “also shows the tremendous potential to use unmanned systems as tools for environmental science and innovative natural resource applications.”

YouTube Working on ‘Unplugged’ TV Subscription Service for 2017 as Hulu Confirms Live TV Plans

Internet-based subscription television plans are growing in popularity, and YouTube is the latest company rumored to be working on a standalone television service. According to Bloomberg, YouTube is developing a paid subscription service called “Unplugged,” offering a bundle of channels for a set price.

YouTube has already built the infrastructure necessary for the service and is prioritizing its development for a 2017 debut. YouTube has been in talks with major media companies like NBCUniversal, Viacom, Fox, and CBS, but has not yet been able to secure rights for the service.

YouTube is said to be aiming to build a streaming service similar to the service Apple hoped to offer before putting its streaming TV plans on hold. It would include a “skinny bundle” of channels from the four major U.S. networks along with a few popular cable channels priced at around $35 per month.

YouTube is also considering plans offering a collection of less-watched television channels or smaller groups of channels built around different themes, such as comedy or lifestyle.

YouTube would charge one subscription for the main bundle, and extra, smaller monthly fees for these theme-based groups, one of the people said.
Using this approach, YouTube could show it is capable of bringing new viewers to many of these second-tier channels, a major concern for large media companies that depend on TV for most of their profits.

If YouTube can make it work, media companies may be more open to including more-successful channels later, one of the people familiar said.

Along with YouTube, Hulu is also building its own competing streaming television service. News of Hulu’s plan surfaced earlier this week and was confirmed this morning by Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins.

Hulu’s subscription model will offer customers cable-style access to popular broadcast television networks and cable channels to complement its existing streaming service, plus it will include a cloud-based DVR feature. Hulu is also aiming to launch its live TV subscription plan in 2017 and is close to signing deals with partners like Disney and Fox. Pricing for the service has not yet been announced, but rumors suggest it will be available for around $40.

“This means our viewers will be able to enjoy live sports, news and events all in real-time without a traditional cable or satellite subscription,” said Hopkins. “We’re going to fuse the best of linear television and on-demand in a deeply personalized experience optimized for the contemporary, always-connected television fan.”

As network executives grow accustomed to establishing deals for streaming television services, Apple may be able to revisit its television plans. Apple has been working on some kind of subscription TV service for several years, but executives have not been able to establish deals with content owners. Apple’s latest streaming plans reportedly fell apart because media companies demanded more money than Apple wanted to charge for its TV service and were reluctant to unbundle channels.

Tags: YouTube, Hulu
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Fabulous – an attractive albeit limited music player (review)

Overview

Music is personal; how you consume and manage your music can also be just as personal. For some, a simple folder structure is enough, while others need more bells and whistles. There are a ton of music library management apps. Fabulous is like most in that it is a simple and attractive no-frills music player aimed towards a library that is properly tagged and organized. If this is how you manage your library, Fabulous will fit right in.

• Developer: The Joker
• App Link: Music Player (Fabulous)
• Cost: Free with ads

Review

Dark and light options screen.

Fabulous’ incorporation of material design makes the app feel right at home on your Android screen. The menu structure is much like the Play Music Google app. You can customize the look between a light and a dark theme, as well as change accent colors.

When first launched, Fabulous scans your device and then imports your media files. You can then browse your library by artist, album, genre and you can also browse for or create playlists. But, in order for this navigation structure to work well, your music needs the correct ID3 tags (correct artist / album / genre fields in media tags).

Different display options during playback.

Fabulous does not yet support updating tags, but Last.fm integration is in the works. Thus, to maximize the user experience, it is best to update your music tags on your computer before importing files. If you have missing tags, Fabulous will import your media but you will need to preview (or look at time stamps) to see which file you are playing.

File support is standard, with wav, mp3, ogg, flac and some of the other more popular file types supported. Fabulous offers a variety of display views, with the basic setting showing the full album art with navigation buttons in the window.

Playlists screen. Swipe to switch.

You can create playlists by pressing the menu button (3 dots). From there, you can play the next song, add the song to the current playlist or a new one, or go to the song album or artist. There are 3 automatically generated playlists based on the number of plays, rating, and the last file import. In turn, the current playlist can be a combination of other playlists and individually added albums or songs. This list can be further organized by dragging the songs around into the order of your choosing.

Although creating playlists from the app is easy, I wish importing of playlists was supported. If you have a large library (I do) with a lot of playlists (I do), it is tedious trying to recreate that in Fabulous.

Equalizer supports custom and preset settings.

Fabulous also includes an equalizer with fx, bass boost and surround effect features. I do not make it a priority to play around with these settings (but maybe I should, as they worked flawlessly and provided interesting results). There are a lot of presets, and the ability to save your own settings is also offered under the “User” menu.

Impressions

Although I am not an audiophile, I did test several songs with different formats and bitrates. I listened first with Fabulous and then with other music apps. I could not discern a difference with the equalizer set to off.

Navigating a tagged library is pleasant and vibrant, with the album art displayed and the artist and title under each picture. There is also a list view, which is by nature not as aesthetically pleasing.

Ads display every time you interact with the app (change songs, change settings, or navigating to another view). Once you are playing your music, there are no interruptions with the player going from one song to the next seamlessly.

What we like

• multi-format support
• attractive design
• customization options
• equalizer
• auto-playlists

Room for improvement

• file tagging
• Last.fm integration (currently in development)
• no external playlist support
• sharing options

Conclusion

Indeed, as promised by the developers, Fabulous is an attractive music player. It is straightforward in how it organizes your library and how you interact with your music. Yet, it does not offer enough options to make it stand out.

Navigating your music library is intuitive (artist / album / song) and music playback is what Fabulous does best. The customization options are a nice touch but not enough to make this music player pop among the sea of music players out there.

Fabulous is still marked as beta software and a few users report it crashes on the app page (I did not experience this over a weekend of use). There is also more functionality promised in future releases and I am hoping the ability to import playlists will make the cut.

With added features, Fabulous can be a contender for the music library management app on your device. As it stands, Fabulous is an attractive and good music player but provides just average functionality.

Music Player (Fabulous)