Scientists are teaching robots how to hunt down prey
Intelligent robots are all well and good until they start learning how to hunt prey. That’s exactly what a team of scientists at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at the University of Zurich in Switzerland did. They taught a robot to behave like a predator and hunt “prey,” or a robot controlled by a human, using special software to aid the robot to mark its target and pounce.
The applications of these lessons for the predator robot are a lot less terrifying than thinking robots are about to start hunting the human race. It’s about creating software that could potentially allow a robots to both take a look at their environments and then discern a target in real time.
For instance, as Tobi Delbruck, professor at the Institute of Neuroinformatics explained, “one could imagine future luggage or shopping carts that follow you.” This allows the software to transcend the labels of “predator and prey” to reach levels of “parent and child,” but the fundamental operating basics remain.
The predator robot’s hardware is actually modeled directly after members of the animal kingdom, as the robot uses a special “silicon retina” that mimics the human eye. Delbruck is the inventor, created as part of the VISUALISE project. It allows robots to track with pixels that detect changes in illumination and transmit information in real time instead of a slower series of frames like a regular camera uses.
This allows for data to be processed by a neural network that helps the robot learn and adapt to the actions it should take the next time it “sees” something similar, which allows it to better track prey the next time it’s asked to.
It’s a wild world out there, and no doubt robots are going to be a huge part of it going forward. Just don’t be surprised when you start seeing them taking point on newer operations just like these in the future.
Via: Motherboard
Twitch introduces a PlayStation Vita app
Twitch has released streaming video apps for just about every modern game system under the Sun, but the PlayStation Vita has remained the odd one out… until today. The livestream provider has rolled out a Vita app that, much like the PS3 version, lets you tune into live and pre-recorded gaming sessions as well as follow the channels you can’t stop watching. You can’t stream anything yourself, alas — you won’t be broadcasting OlliOlli or Severed sessions any time soon. Even so, this could be helpful for those moments when you aren’t near your phone, or for kids whose Vita might be their only handheld viewer.
Source: Twitch (Medium)
Google’s self-driving cars can read cyclists’ hand signals
Google is working to expand the capabilities of its self-driving vehicle fleet, and according to its latest progress report (PDF), it’s making strides in sharing the road with cyclists. One of the ways the folks in Mountain View are doing that is by using onboard sensors to gauge and interpret a cyclist’s intent. “Our sensors can detect a cyclist’s hand signals as an indication of an intention to make a turn or shift over,” the company’s June autonomous vehicle report reads. “Cyclists often make hand signals far in advance of a turn, and our software is designed to remember previous signals from a rider so it can better anticipate a rider’s turn down the road.”
Machine learning is helping there, making sure that unicycles and fatbikes are recognized for what they are, and keeping the autonomous vehicles out of the two-wheeled traffic’s way. The report goes on to say that the vehicle software is even getting advanced enough to take into account cyclists riding in the dark and avoiding accidents with them. With how prevalent bicycles are becoming on our roads it’s incredibly important that these situations be figured out now — much like autonomous honking.
Source: Google (PDF)
‘Red Dead Redemption’ becomes backwards compatible with Xbox One
Still haven’t experienced Rockstar’s western epic Red Dead Redemption but refuse to go back to your Xbox 360 to do so? Microsoft has you covered. As of Friday, the game will finally, officially make its debut on Xbox One as a backwards compatible title.
This isn’t the first time the industry has buzzed about Red Dead Redemption’s appearance on Xbox One. Last year in February it made a nebulous appearance on the console for eagle-eyed players and then it was removed by Microsoft, who claimed it was just a test and wasn’t meant for the general public.
Obviously it was a test for the full release for Xbox One owners, who can now play the game on their consoles this Friday, July 8. Of course, you still can’t play Red Dead Revolver, but hey, baby steps.
Via: Larry Hryb
The next iPhone reportedly starts with twice the storage
Apple maintained that a 16GB iPhone was enough last year, but the company might be singing a different tune in 2016. A Wall Street Journal source claims that the next iPhone will start with 32GB of storage — at last, buyers of the base model won’t have to be quite so thrifty with their free space. That kind of entry capacity is far from new, of course (HTC, LG, Samsung and others have had 32GB starters for a while), but it’ll be more than welcome if you prefer iPhones and can’t justify more expensive versions.
It’ll certainly feel overdue for some. Apple started offering 16GB base iPhones back in 2009, with the 3GS. That was cavernous at the time, but it gradually became a tighter and tighter fit as apps and media collections grew larger. If you capture 4K video on the iPhone 6s or SE, it chews up 375MB per minute — a 16GB device user could easily run out of room.
The next question: what about other capacities? The insider doesn’t say (and Apple certainly isn’t commenting), but it wouldn’t be surprising if the new iPhone doubled the higher storage tiers to 128GB and 256GB. Notice how the iPad Pro’s options jump straight from 32GB to 128GB and 256GB? While we wouldn’t rule out a different strategy, it’d be consistent if the iPhone had the same storage choices as its bigger-screened siblings.
Via: AppleInsider
Source: Wall Street Journal
How to build a VR-ready PC – CNET
The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are here. But your PC has to be pretty powerful to use these cutting-edge VR headsets. If your PC is lacking performance, don’t worry. We’re going to show you how to build a VR-ready PC.
Update, July 1 2016: We’ve added information about the new AMD Radeon RX 480 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 and 1070 graphics cards, which change the VR landscape in a big way. We’ve also rechecked all our prices.
Getting started
Building a PC is simpler than you might think. You simply:
Pick out the right components
Plug them into the correct slots
Install your operating system
We’re not going to rehash that entire process here, because CNET’s Dan Graziano wrote a comprehensive three-part guide that covers all the PC-building bases.
But when it comes to building a VR-ready PC, not any old component will do. We’ve spent hours piecing together parts, quizzing hardware manufacturers and speaking to VR developers to figure out the best parts for you — both today and into the future.
Then, we sat down to build a VR gaming rig.
(We got a little help from PC component vendor Newegg, which provided the CPU, GPUs, motherboard, memory and liquid cooling system for our computer after we finished our research.)
Don’t want to build a VR-ready PC? Here’s my colleague Dan Ackerman’s guide to buying one instead.
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CNET’s Future-Proof VR Gaming PC.
Josh Miller/CNET
Here’s what you need to play games in VR
As you read through this guide, you’ll see up to three options for each major component of a VR-ready PC. If you just want to comfortably play every VR title today, you’ll be just fine with the bare minimum.
If you pick what we used, you should be well-equipped for next year’s titles and beyond. We wanted CNET’s Future-Proof VR Gaming PC to be ready for anything.
Future-proof PCs tend to be pretty large, but if you want a small, cool and quiet computer that’ll easily fit your office or home, be sure to look for our mini PC options.
You can also simply skip down to the bottom of this story for our full parts list.
A graphics card
The bare minimum:
- AMD Radeon RX 480 ($200, £180, AU$320 and up)
For a mini PC:
- Asus Mini GTX 970 ($355, roughly £270 or AU$475 converted) or AMD Radeon R9 Nano ($500, £450, roughly AU$670)
What we used:
- Two Nvidia GTX 980 Ti graphics cards ($1,000, roughly £750 or AU$1,350)
The graphics card is the heart and soul of any VR-ready gaming PC, and unless you’ve picked up new hardware recently, yours might not be up to snuff. The right graphics card will keep you from feeling sick, so it’s important to go with a powerful one.
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Two Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti GPUs. We used two, and it’s definitely overkill.
Josh Miller/CNET
To hit smooth, satisfying gameplay on a PC, you’ll generally want your games at a frame rate of 60 frames per second. That means your PC is capable of pumping out 60 images every second; dip too far below that, and you’ll encounter staggered, choppy visuals.
For virtual reality, 90 frames per second is the holy grail. With high-resolution displays this close to your face, any lag or choppiness in movement is going to be magnified. Worse still, if the action doesn’t react in time with your motions, you could end up feeling nauseous. And keep in mind, virtual reality needs to render the action twice — once for each eye.
When the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive first came out, that meant starting with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290, each of which cost around $320 back then, and the best you could get was a $700 GeForce GTX 980 Ti.
As of June 2016 there’s a new sheriff in town: the $200 AMD Radeon RX 480. We put it through a battery of VR tests, and it seems just as capable as the GTX 970 for a good bit less money. (In fact, it’s a bit smoother in some games.)
Yes, that’s a $200 graphics card.
AMD
But Nvidia hasn’t stood still. The GTX 970 can now be found for as low as $270 — and more importantly, the new (but hard to find) $380 GTX 1070 and $600 GTX 1080 are mopping the floor with every other graphics card. If you’re going to pay more than the bare minimum to get a futureproof VR system, you’ll want one of those two new Nvidia cards — though you may want to wait until they come down in price before you buy one.
It’s worth noting that current VR titles don’t support more than one GPU at a time, although a dual-GPU system will still work fine with VR, and even a single high-end GPU like a GTX 980 can be overkill for the initial crop of VR games.
That said, popular development platforms such as Unreal Engine 4 will incorporate Nvidia’s tech to link two graphics cards together, and there’s also no guarantee that game developers will stick to the system specs that Oculus and Valve recommend. We found we could already turn up the graphical settings in a few games (Eve: Valkyrie, Project Cars and The Gallery) to higher levels than a $200 AMD Radeon RX 480 can handle.
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Intel’s high-end Core i7 Skylake processor requires newer motherboards and memory.
Josh Miller/CNET
Processor
The bare minimum:
- Intel Core i5-4590 ($190, roughly £145 or AU$255 converted)
For a mini PC:
- Intel Core i5-4690K ($235, roughly £180 or AU$315)
What we used:
- Intel Core i7-6700K ($350, roughly £265 or AU$470)
The CPU or central processing unit is your gaming rig’s brain, and while the graphics card will be doing most of the heavy lifting in virtual reality, you’ll still need a CPU that’s up to the task. Recommendations for both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive start at Intel’s Core i5-4590, a solid mid-range part that’s a little long in the tooth, but still plenty capable.
But capable isn’t good enough for our future-proofed rig, so we’re heading right to the top of Intel’s stack with the Core i7-6700K. This processor throws a few wrenches in the works. It’s using a new socket type, which means we’ll need a new motherboard to support it. It also supports DDR4 RAM. No self-respecting future-proofed PC should be without the latest in speedy memory, but that’ll inflate the price of our build further still.
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The Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 motherboard.
Josh Miller/CNET
We’ve also picked an unlocked processor. That’s what the “K” at the end of the processor’s name means. An unlocked processor means we can overclock (manually speeding up the card’s internal processor beyond that intended by the manufacturer) if we want even more power. You might actually be able to get away with an even less powerful CPU if your graphics card is up to snuff, but if your goal is future-proofing, you’ll want to aim higher.
For a mini PC build, you’ll notice we still recommend an older i5-4690K chip. There are two reasons for that. First, we weren’t able to find a small motherboard for Intel’s newer Skylake processors with enough user reviews for us to trust it. Second, we figured if you’re going to build a mini PC, you’ll probably pick liquid cooling to keep it quiet, and if you’re going with liquid cooling you might as well take advantage of the ability to easily overclock that CPU, too. If you’re ever a few frames short of the 90 fps you need to feel comfortable in VR, it could come in handy.
Why no AMD CPUs? VR experts told us that right now, they’re not up to snuff when it comes to something called single-threaded performance, which is how fast the processor can work on any single tiny task put in front of it.
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James Martin/CNET
Memory (RAM)
RAM is fairly cheap, and more RAM generally means your PC can do more things at once before it bogs down. You’ll want a bare minimum of 8GB of DDR3 ($40, £30, roughly AU$55). VR game developers tell us that more than 8GB is probably overkill for now.
Our future-proofed rig is going a different route: we used a single 16GB stick of DDR4 RAM ($90, £70, roughly AU$120). DDR4 RAM is fairly new, and pricier than DDR3, but it’s required for newer processors. 16GB will give us plenty of oomph for now, and we can easily double it to 32GB as prices come down.
For a mini PC, you might as well go for 16GB of DDR3 ($60, £60, roughly AU$80) since it’s likely to go up in price as DDR4 takes over, and it may be harder to reach inside a tiny mini PC case to swap out memory sticks when the time comes to upgrade.
Power supply
Power supplies are the unsung heroes of most PC builds, and getting a great one will save you a lot of headaches down the road. Power supplies are available in a wide range of wattages: you’re going to have to pick the one that will provide ample power for the components you’ve settled on. We recommend using PCPartPicker to keep track of the components you pick and estimate how much power you’ll use, but if you need a specific pick we’d suggest Corsair’s 500-watt CX550M power supply ($60, roughly £40 or AU$75 converted) as the bare minimum.
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Josh Miller/CNET
Our future-proofed rig takes things quite a bit further: We used a massive 1,200 watt power supply from SeaSonic that gets stellar reviews. This amount of power will be overkill for most people, but it gives us the opportunity to use three giant graphics cards if future VR games wind up using them, and it provides an incredibly stable source of power if we decide to do any overclocking in the future.
Besides, power supplies tend to outlive every other PC component. A good power supply is an investment.
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Josh Miller/CNET
And the rest
I’ve left out a number of key components here, but they’re not exactly specific to virtual reality. You’ll want a motherboard that will support your processor and your upgrade goals — our Gigabyte GA-Z170X Gaming 7 has room for three graphics cards, supports DDR4 RAM and has a Thunderbolt 3 port for external graphics if you ever need them.
You’ll need enough hard drive space to store your games and operating system. A $50 magnetic hard drive will be fine as a bare minimum, but we stick to speedy solid state drives (SSDs) on all of our PC builds. You’ll get much more storage space out of a traditional hard drive, but an SSD will make your entire system feel faster. We used a speedy 500GB SSD, paired with a reliable 2TB 7,200 rpm standard hard drive for storage. That’s more than enough space for now.
Pick a case that works for you. Maybe it makes allowances for airflow, or quiet performance, or one that just looks cool. Our Corsair 760T has loads of space to work inside, and a full actual window to look through — what’s the point of getting sweet hardware if you can’t look at it from time to time? Here are some popular cheaper options.
We just used monitors, mice and keyboards that were lying around because they’re no good to us in VR. And of course, you’ll also need an operating system — we’re rolling with Windows 10.
Building a PC isn’t hard, but it isn’t a cakewalk, either. (There are some easy ways to trip up.) Here’s wishing you the best of luck in your PC building adventure!
Want to see all these parts in a more digestible, browsable format? Take a look at our basic, mini and future-proof builds at PCPartPicker. Please note we’ve included US pricing and approximate conversions for Australia and the UK.
VR PC Buying Guide
| Core i5-4590 | $190 (AU$255, £145) | Core i5 4690K | $235 (AU$315, £180) | Core i7 6700K | $350 (AU$470, £265) |
| AMD Radeon RX 480 | $200 (AU$270, £150) | Asus Mini GTX 970 | $355 (AU$475, £270) | 2x GTX 980 Ti | $1,000 (AU$1,350, £750) |
| 8GB DDR3 | $40 (AU$55, £30) | 16GB DDR3 | $60 (AU$80, £45) | G.Skill Ripjaws V Series, DDR4 3200, 16GB (1x 16GB) | $90 (AU$120, £70) |
| Stock | n/a | Corsair H60 | $60 (AU$80, £40) | Corsair H90 | $90 (AU$120, £70) |
| 550W Corsair CX550M | $55 (AU$75, £40) | Silverstone ST45SF-G | $90 (AU$120, £65) | SeaSonic Platinum-1200 | $220 (AU$295, £165) |
| ASRock H97 Pro4 | $80 (AU$110, £60) | Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WiFi | $130 (AU$175, £100) | Gigabyte G1 Gaming GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 | $200 (AU$270, £150) |
| Samsung 850 EVO 250GB | $90 (AU$120, £70) | Samsung 850 EVO 250GB | $90 (AU$120, £65) | Samsung 850 EVO 500GB | $150 (AU$200, £115) |
| None | n/a | WD Black 2TB, 7200RPM | $120 (AU$160, £90) | WD Black 2TB, 7200RPM | $120 (AU$160, £90) |
| NZXT S340 (White) | $60 (AU$80, £45) | Silverstone Fortress FT03-MINI | $130 (AU$175, £100) | Corsair 760T (White) | $165 (AU$220, £125) |
| Windows 10 Home | $95 (AU$130, £70) | Windows 10 Home | $95 (AU$130, £70) | Windows 10 Home | $95 (AU$130, £70) |
| $810 (AU$1,085, £610) | $1,365 (AU$1830, £1030) | $2,480 (AU$3,325, £1,865) |
With contribution from Eric Franklin.
Today’s top Prime Day Countdown deals: The name is Bond, James Bond – CNET
Amazon Prime Day is coming (July 12), but guess what? You can start scoring deals right now. That’s because Amazon is offering “Countdown” deals in the days leading up to the main event.
Anything good? Out of today’s six items on sale, here’s what I recommend:
- The Hisense 32H3B1 32-inch HDTV and Amazon Fire TV Stick for $119.99, shipped. The TV all by itself normally sells for around $130, while the Fire TV Stick runs $40.
- The refurbished Sonos Play:3 speaker for $224. It’s available in black or white and certified to look and act like new — complete with a one-year Sonos warranty. The same speaker would run you $299 from Sonos proper. I’m less enthused by the Sonos Playbar, which is $524, refurbished. That’s still way expensive for a sound bar, one CNET found mediocre at best.
- The Ultimate Bond Collection + Spectre Bundle [Blu-ray + digital HD] for $89.99. Normally $300(!), this 25-disc set serves up all 24 James Bond movies, each with digital HD versions for mobile viewing. Kind of a must-have for any true Bond fan.
Check back tomorrow for another roundup of the top Prime Day Countdown deals! In the meantime, be sure to check out these 7 things you should know about Prime Day.
These are the top Motorola phones you need to know
Motorola continues to make compelling phones in a few different categories
Whether you’re looking for a value-conscious choice that offers a great experience, a high-end device with the top bells and whistles, or an over-the-top carrier-specific model on Verizon, Motorola has you covered here. Even though it is now owned by Lenovo there isn’t any shortage of innovation — the Moto G line is still a great choice at a lower price, the Moto Z line looks very promising and the last couple years of Droids have been solid for those on Verizon as well.
And here’s where we gather up all of the models from Motorola that require the most attention — the top Motorola phones you should know about, whether you’re in the market to buy right now or just need to know a bit more about them.
Article updated July 2016 to keep up with the new models.
Moto Z Droid Edition and Z Force Droid Edition
Announced June 2016 Motorola brings its own take on a modular design with the Moto Z and Moto Z Force. The first flagship devices to be launched since Lenovo bought the Motorola brand, the Z family uses detachable backplates called MotoMods to add more functionality.
Launching with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and only available for Verizon until later in 2016, the Moto Z will be a new series and Lenovo says they aren’t meant to replace the Moto X line.
Motorola’s take on a modular system looks to be a novel approach. With no dissassembly required, your baseline Moto Z can transform into a battery beast or a mini home stereo just by switching the backplate. We’re looking forward to seeing how users get creative in this space, as well as how developers will get involved.
Read more on the Moto Z lineDiscuss this phone in our forums
Learn more about the Moto Z at Motorola
Moto X Style
Released in September 2015 The Moto X Style — known as the “Moto X Pure Edition” in the United States — is 2014’s version of the venerable phone. It’s bigger, scaling up to 5.7 inches, and the display has switched to a TFT LCD panel from AMOLED. This one launches with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and is powered by a Snapdragon 808 processor. It’s available in either 16, 32 or 64GB of storage space, and Motorola has added a microSD card slot for the first time in the Moto X line.
After producing disappointing shooters the past two years, the new Moto X sports a 21-megapixel rear camera that Motorola promises will rival anything else out there. It’s an improvement, for sure, though you’ll still find some better shooters elsewhere.
Motorola also has tweaked its custom software features, allowing for better control over who appears in highlight videos, and you can now designate custom locations to trigger custom actions. Price starts at $399, and it’ll be available outside of the U.S. carrier system, directly from Motorola itself.
Read more on the Moto X Style Discuss this phone in our forums
See at Motorola
Moto X Play
Coming late August 2015 The Moto X Play is a slightly lesser-spec’d version of the Moto X in most regards. It’s got a slightly smaller 5.5-inch display at 1080p (which actually is a plus for many folks), runs Android 5.1.1 on a Snapdragon 615 processor, and comes in either 16- or 32-gigabyte flavors, with expandable storage thrown in for good measure. It’s got a 21-megapixel camera.
The big spec here is the big battery. If you’re wanting something that truly will last all day, this will be the one to look at. A few early performance issues hampered the experience a little, but for the most part it’s the experience you get on the Moto X Style, without the price tag.
Read more on the Moto X Play Discuss this phone in our forums
See at Motorola
Moto G4 and G4 Plus
Released May 2016 The Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus continue Motorola’s great line of budget phones that still deliver when it comes to performance. Both the G4 and G4 Plus are running Android Marshmallow 6.0 and feature a 5.5-inch Full HD display and a Snapdragon 617 processor, but there are some differences.
Most notable is the addition of a fingerprint sensor on the front of the G4 Plus. The Moto G4 base model comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage, while the G4 Plus is available in two models: one sporting 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage, and one offering 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage. Both phones come in black or white.
The Moto G4 family isn’t flashy — but they were never meant to be. They do deliver a great Android experience at a budget price, though, and that’s what plenty of people are looking for.
Read more on the Moto G4 line Discuss this phones in our forums
See Moto G4 at Amazon
See Moto G4 Plus at Amazon
Moto X Force / Droid Turbo 2
Released in November 2015 Motorola and Verizon’s latest collaboration yields the Droid Turbo 2. Or if you’re elsewhere in the world, a very similar phone known as the Moto X Force. The party piece of this new smartphone is its shatterproof display. Not many CEOs come on stage, announce a new phone and then throw it face down on the floor. But that’s what happened with the Droid Turbo 2. A shatterproof screen doesn’t make it indestructible, but it does stop the screen, well, shattering.
Elsewhere there’s top notch battery life, Motorola’s trade mark awesome software features and a design that certainly splits opinion. We’d recommend the black one over the white every day, but what Verizon did to the front of this thing with regards its logo still makes us a little mad.
Check out our Droid Turbo 2 review Discuss this phone in our forums
See Droid Turbo 2 at Verizon See Droid Turbo 2 at Motorola
Nexus 6
Released November 2014 Moto X too small for you? Want a more “Nexusy” experience? (Whatever that means at this point.) Need a bigger battery? Then the Nexus 6 may fit the bill for you. In a lot of ways this is really just a larger Moto X. Six-inch display with a higher QHD resolution. Larger battery at 3220 mAh. Optical Image Stabilization built into the 13-megapixel camera. Front-facing speakers and Motorola Turbo Charging. It is a big, powerful phone. But it’s also lacking Motorola’s subtle software improvements found on the Moto X. (Google tried to emulate some of them, to varying degrees of success.)
Unlike previous Nexus phones, this one doesn’t shave anything off the price. And while we applaud Google for make 32 gigabytes the minimum storage available, the 64GB model is all but impossible to find. Still, this is a Nexus. And it’s a good one.
Read more on the Nexus 6 Discuss this phone in our forums
See at Amazon
For many, a new phone is available but once a year
In last week’s poll we asked how often you purchase a new phone. We’re constantly seeing new Android phones hit the market, day after day, and week after week. Just because they are out though, doesn’t mean you’ll be running directly to the store to go and pick up yours. After all, phones are expensive and picking one up on a whim might not be something you can afford to do.
That’s why we asked How often you purchase a new phone. Whether you can pick up the awesome new phone as soon as it comes out, or you need to wait a few months, we wanted to know. You had five choices in last week’s poll, and the results were pretty darn close.
Purchasing a new phone every other year managed to grab up first place, with only 26.6% of the vote. With 23.4% was picking up a new phone when a new phone comes out that grabs your attention. Third place was claimed by purchasing a new phone every year, with 19.7% of the vote. Buying a new phone when you break or destroy your current phone grabbed up 17% of the vote to claim fourth place this week. And last, but not least was purchasing a new phone when your current phone starts to feel slow, with 13.4% of the vote.
Do you agree with the poll results? Do you have a more nuanced way to decide whether it’s time for a new phone? Jump into the comments and let us know about it!
Skype now allows for sharing of files, photos and videos of up to 300MB
Microsoft is allowing all users of its Skype VoIP service to share files, photos and videos of up to 300MB each with friends and groups.
In a blog post, Microsoft stated files that are shared on Skype can be accessed later if the person that is receiving the file is offline. They can also download the same file multiple times on different devices. Microsoft added:
Over the last few weeks we’ve tested a number of different file size limits for file sharing. Based on the results of these tests, we are setting a limit of 300MB per file as this accommodates almost all the file sizes shared over Skype, and has been working well for our millions of users since it started rolling out several weeks ago.
Microsoft recommends using its OneDrive cloud file storage service for users who want to share files that are larger than 300MB.
AIVAnet 