Daydream VR game Unthethered makes your voice the controller

Consider, if you will, if a comic book and a radio drama had a VR baby …

New Daydream VR title Untethered is a new take on the VR game, mixing in comic and radio elements to craft an episodic video game you talk your way through. Forgoing a lot of clumsy virtual controls, you navigate the game using your voice and a laser pointer.

The nostalgia factor is real here, as Untethered drops you inside a radio play and leaves you to figure out what your mystery caller is looking for and how everyone in our comic-tinted world is connected and motivated.

Future chapters promise to explore new locations and reveal new characters for you to puzzle out, but for now, the first chapter helps you get used to the radio station and start befriending your producer.

The Daydream VR exclusive game relies heavily upon Google-based speech recognition in order to decipher your voice and your game input, and is currently only available in English. If you have a thick accent or tend to stutter or slur your words (like me), then this game might not be for you.

What is encryption?

Encryption can be a very complicated subject, but getting a grasp of the basics isn’t difficult.

Recently, we’ve had a few questions about encryption. We’ve talked about how Android incorporates encryption and the changes that Nougat brings, and to get the most from those discussions an understanding of the basics is a must. Let’s talk about those basics for a bit.

What exactly is encryption?

In its simplest sense, encryption is changing the way information is displayed, so that it is masked, and the only way its true form can be viewed is with a clear set of instructions.

You’re using encryption every day and may not know because it can be transparent.

There are plenty of ways to do this, especially when that information is digital and stored on a computer or a phone. If you’ve ever received a zip file or Microsoft Office document that needed a password to view, it was encrypted. The data you wanted to see was placed inside a container (think of it as a folder on your phone or computer) and the container was password protected. This method can be scaled up, even to include an entire disk or partition. To access anything on the encrypted partition, you need to unlock it with a password.

Another way to encrypt data is to physically alter what is displayed when you view it unless you can decode it. Let’s say I built an app that you could type a phrase in, and it would convert all the letters into numbers from 1 to 26. You could type “this is a message” into my app and save it. If you tried to look at what you typed without using my app, it would look like this:

208919 919 1 1351919175

But my app knows that 1 equals a, that no string higher than 26 is valid, and has access to the operating systems dictionary to make sure the letters are correct because 11 could equal aa or k depending on what word it’s used in. So if you open that file in my app, it reads normally.

At its core, encryption is designed to make something hard to read unless you know how to look at it.

Now do something like reverse the order, add 13 to numbers between 11 and 15, omit the whitespace and drop random data that won’t be read every few letters. The file would be impossible to read without sitting down and trying to figure out how the text was manipulated through trial and error. That’s what an encryption algorithm does. It helps a program turn data of any kind into a jumbled mess that can be easily decoded by the algorithm itself but would take a lot of effort and time to crack without it.

Computer algorithms can do things that are far more complicated than my simple example and take a lot less time than it did for me to count on my fingers. This type of encryption is usually referred to as a cipher and the method the algorithm gives to decode it is called a key. If you have ever used PGP or GPG encryption for a message or email attachment, you’ve used this type of encryption, known as cipher-keypair encryption.

Both types of encryption — container based or cipher-keypair — are common and in use on our Androids. Sometimes both are used and encrypted data is placed inside an encrypted container. Taking our data and encrypting it then making sure the things that we want to have access can decrypt it is extremely complicated. Thankfully, those complicated parts are handled by the hardware and operating system and all we need to do is have the right key in the right place and/or supply a password.

Encryption and Android

Android supports both types of encryption we talked about above in the OS, through the network and on the storage. As an application platform, it can also support encryption methods from third-parties for things like secure folders or encrypted messaging and email.Android also supports hardware backed encryption. That means there is a component inside the SoC (System on Chip — where the CPU and GPU live) that exists to help encrypt and decrypt data on the fly. The actual key to decrypt files is stored on this device and any user interaction — a password, a fingerprint, a trusted device, etc — that is used to access encrypted data is really asking the Secure Element in the hardware to do the job. Since Android 6.0 Marshmallow, all cryptographic function can be done using this Secure Element and the private key (the token used to encrypt and decrypt data) is never exposed to software. This means that without a token to present to the hardware, the data stays encrypted.

Android is built with encryption in mind and your data can be safe and inaccessible to anyone but you.

In your Android settings you might also be able to keep the system encrypted every time it boots up until a password is entered. Having a phone running that’s filled with encrypted data is pretty safe, but halting the boot process until a password is entered prevents access to the files and acts as a double-layer of protection. Either way, your login password (or PIN or pattern or fingerprint) still accesses data through the secure element and you don’t have a way to get the actual private encryption key, which is the only thing that knows exactly how the data was scrambled and how to put it back together.

Your messages and web browsing can be encrypted, too. You’ve probably seen many sites in your browser use the HTTPS header instead if HTTP. HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is the protocol (think rules) that is used to send and receive data over the internet. HTTPS stands for HTTP over SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which adds an encryption standard to the protocol. Anything you enter into the web browser is “scrambled” with a public key you downloaded from the website when you got there, and only the private key — which the web server has — can unscramble it.

Whenever you’re entering any information you consider private on the web make sure you have a secure HTTPS connection.

Data sent back to you is scrambled in a way that only your unique version of the public key can unscramble. You don’t need to do anything except visit a secure page that has the HTTPS header. Your phone makes sure the server is really who it claims to be, using a certificate, and encrypts and decrypts data on its own through the browser app.

Messages that are encrypted usually require an app you need to download from Google Play. The Pixel is the lone exception, as it comes with Allo installed which supports encrypted messages. Other great messengers that do the same are Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp.These apps offer what’s called end to end encryption, which means that the app assigns keys for individual contacts or groups and only you can decrypt a message sent to you. BlackBerry Messenger is considered secure by many, but since there is only one global key and every BlackBerry device has it, there’s debate about how secure it is. BBM Protected is available for groups who require higher encryption or end to end encryption. Apple’s iMessage is also encrypted end to end, which, along with WhatsApp, has led to some scuffles with law enforcement looking to gain access to content when a crime has been committed.

You use these apps like you would any other messenger — add a contact and send messages. The only difference is that those messages can be encrypted so only the two parties involved can read them.

Is encryption bad?

Encryption does nothing on its own. It’s the user that makes it “dangerous.”

Some folks in some governments claim that having encryption technology available to the end user (that’d be you and me) is dangerous because it makes it impossible to monitor communications of “persons of interest”. The argument can sound convincing when we’re told that terrorists communicated for months using a service like Facebook or WhatsApp. But encryption itself is not a danger to anything and without it, none of our online transactions would be secure, and we would have no guarantee that our chats are private. At the same time, all the private information on our phones would be easily accessible by anyone with the right tools and motivation.

If we give up any right to have encryption, we are giving up our privacy. Privacy is scary to the government because they want to know when we’re not being completely law-abiding. The notion that potential criminals can be caught and some crime prevented is great, but it requires that the law-abiding citizens who want to safely buy from Amazon give up that right, too.

Only you can decide if you think encryption should be taken away from the private sector for the greater good, but you do need to know that the technology itself does no harm. Like most things, it can be abused by the user.

This really only scratches the surface of what encryption is and how it works. there are plenty of online resources that go in-depth with all the technical details. But this should give you a basic understanding of it all, and the next time you see someone talking about the merits of end to end encryption or advantages of a particular platform, you’ll be able to understand and participate.

SnapPower Guidelight and a USB charger is a smart way to fix a dumb outlet

Never fear the dark again — or have a dead phone — with this ingenious way to make the most out of your home’s power outlets.

Seriously, the SnapPower Guidelight is one of those simply little things you’ll wonder how you lived without. I got in on the Kickstarter campaign, so I’ve had them for a little while and saved a little money in the process. (They’re great, but they’re not necessarily cheap.) I’ve got them spread out through my house in the hallways and in dark rooms someone might stumble into late at night.

If you’ve never seen these before, they’re replacement faceplates for your power outlet that leach the electricity off the terminals. That means you don’t have to do any rewiring, which is great! You literally just unscrew the old one, snap on the new one (I see what they did there!!!) and screw it back in. There’s even a USB charging option, if you want. (It’ll trickle charger, which is definitely better than nothing.)

Check ’em out!!!

See at Amazon

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Netflix never slowed down in 2016

Netflix stormed through 2016, starting with its unprecedented announcement of (nearly) worldwide availability. A slew of popular originals kept the momentum going and viewers happy, despite a midyear price hike. Now, Netflix has cemented its place as a media giant, with more customers and reach than any of its big-cable competition. These days, you can even watch Netflix on a Comcast cable box — something that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago.

Last year at CES, one of the biggest surprises was Netflix expanding its service globally, all in one fell swoop. With a move that showed just how flexible it is, the company went from streaming in a few countries around the world to almost all of them. North Korea, Syria and Crimea weren’t on the list, but the biggest missing piece was (and still is) China. The country’s licensing requirements left Netflix on the outside looking in, and now it will try licensing content to other services in China.

Of course, depending on where you are the content selection may vary, since the company needs to license movies and TV shows in each country. One way to get around those restrictions is by using a proxy or VPN service. Unfortunately, since expanding Netflix has blocked those efforts more aggressively than ever, on behalf of the studios that provide so many of the videos it stocks.

Worldwide availability is one thing, but you also need stuff people want to watch. The company has a stated goal of filling half its catalog with originals, and it’s already made strong progress. This year, breakout hits included Stranger Things and Luke Cage, which helped Netflix keep its momentum even while big-budget productions like Marco Polo and The Get Down failed to make an impression.

While it’s unlikely one person will dig everything Netflix is releasing, its strategy of having something for everyone is paying off. Instead of hunting for home runs, CFO David Wells says, “We can also live with singles, doubles and triples, especially commensurate with their cost.” Next year we’re expecting second seasons of Master of None, Stranger Things and Luke Cage, plus new comedy specials from Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle.

Image: Steve Sands/GC Images. The season of Luke Cage premieres in 2017.

When Watch Instantly streaming launched in 2007, it subjected subscribers to a minutes restriction that could have killed the future of binge-watching. Over the years the company has added features like high-definition video, surround sound and even 3D, as it has tried to catch up with cable and Blu-ray discs in quality and options. With the advent of Ultra HD, however, Netflix was one of the first providers offering high-res 4K streaming (with a smattering of HDR), while competition like Ultra HD Blu-ray, Comcast and DirecTV are still just getting started.

Because Netflix doesn’t have to distribute the hardware or players needed and its software is built-in on most new TVs, it has the advantage whenever new technology becomes available. Once upon a time, Sony launched the PS3 to promote Blu-ray and Netflix’s streaming app came on a disc. Now, Sony launched its UHD-ready PS4 Pro without Ultra HD Blu-ray support, relying solely on streaming apps for 4K video. Times have changed, and even in a bandwidth-capped world, Netflix is the one with the head start.

But as Netflix gives, Netflix takes away. In March, a Netflix indexing site called AllFlicks noted that the US catalog had shrunk by more than 2,500 titles in less than two-and-a-half years. The price for those older movies and TV shows it stocked has gone up, thanks to Netflix’s success and the arrival of well-funded competition. At the same time, the company is devoting more money to original content that it can distribute worldwide without having to worry about licensing headaches.

Depending on what you come to Netflix for, then, the reality may be sobering. Cutting the string on your favorite cult flick from the ’80s is the cost you pay for things like first-run movie rights from Disney.

Speaking of the sort, as of 2016, Netflix, not Starz, is home for new movies from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. The only problem? This applies to movies released in 2016 and later, so there’s no Star Wars: The Force Awakens, at least not now. Instead, Netflix is offering The Jungle Book and Zootopia, while Captain America: Civil War will be available for viewing Christmas Day. Finding Dory, meanwhile, is coming in January, and you can expect Rogue One to arrive in mid-2017.

Image: Getty Images

Of course, just dropping a few older selections isn’t enough to pay for worldwide expansion, 4K video and three brand-new TV series every other week. 2016 was also the year Netflix “un-grandfathered” existing customers from a pair of price hikes implemented over the last two years. Recall the last time Netflix tried to adjust its pricing on the fly? You may remember that as the Qwikster fiasco.

This time, the company took a measured approach: raising prices for new customers while showing its ability to roll out high-quality original content before asking older customers to pay more. The data so far show it’s working, with older customers sticking around and new subscribers pouring in unabated. If you have things to binge-watch, people will come.

Since its launch, Netflix’s video service has required an internet connection. But, the company closed out 2016 by finally adding a feature that so many have asked for: the ability to download videos and watch them offline. Unfortunately, again due to those pesky licensing agreements, only some of its catalog is actually available to download. But simply having the feature means Netflix can go everywhere we go: on planes, in laundromats, in dead-signal areas and in the backseat on long car rides. Bandwidth data caps on mobile devices suddenly aren’t a problem if you can download a few episodes before leaving the house.

As inevitable as this move may have seemed, we’re glad it finally happened. Other new developments, like putting the Netflix app on Comcast’s X1 boxes, or launching an easy speed test tool, were also interesting, but this is the only one that helps kill boredom fast.

So what’s next for Netflix? We’d say world domination, but that’s how it kicked off 2016. Despite speculation that the company could move into live streaming sports, Netflix has downplayed these reports. Perhaps more than ever, it’s unclear what Netflix has up its sleeve. And that should scare the competition.

Check out all of Engadget’s year-in-review coverage right here.

We know nothing about the future of sex robots

Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions of explicit sexual acts as well as material some readers may find triggering.

Isaac Asimov famously created rules that would prevent robots from harming humans. But at the second International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots earlier this week, that anxiety was turned on its head. Panelists discussed the ways in which giving robots personhood and consciousness may revolutionize our lives, but could also be catastrophic. Because, instead of worrying that we will be harmed by our creations, we’re now much more concerned about causing harm to them.

The two-day event was held at London’s Goldsmiths College and was led by Dr. Kate Devlin alongside Dr. David Levy, author of Love and Sex with Robots. Journalists and academics from as far as Japan convened in a basement lecture theater to learn all about digital sex. But the event served to highlight just how little we know about the future of robotic sex, nor what it will mean for humans and our notions of gender.

For instance, nobody at the show was even able to agree on a definition of what a sex robot actually is, compared to a sex toy. After all, the world is already intimately acquainted with devices that are programmed to bring us to orgasm. Dr. Devlin believes that the presence of artificial intelligence is what will eventually define a sex robot, since “AI systems are the potential moral and ethical concern.”

Some of those concerns were laid out by Swiss machine ethics expert Dr. Oliver Bendel. He presented a list of 19 issues that we will need to study, define and resolve in the very near future before building sex robots. His list runs from more philosophical questions, like if we should give sex robots a sense of morality, to more practical ones, like if they should understand normal social behavior.

Should a sex robot be able to withdraw consent if it thinks that the act of sex would be harmful to its user? That’s one of several instances Dr. Bendel outlined where the needs of the robot and its user may conflict. If the user begins showing signs of physical distress or fatigue, is it wise to program conditions whereby the bot would turn itself off? We don’t have an answer, but we’ll need one — and soon.

You may be wondering about the horrors that the characters inflict upon the robot hosts in HBO’s Westworld. Would you still feel such empathy if those people were made in a human form? Dr. Bendel asked if we should even build such devices in man’s image. Dr Devlin felt that sex robots shouldn’t be android (male shaped) or gynoid (female shaped), but that “it’s a pattern that we’re currently stuck in.” She also feels that existing attempts to build a sex robot — like Roxxxy’s True Companion — are “heteronormative and sexist,” since they’re predominantly “made by men, for men.”

Dr. Devlin wants to see robots that ditch the human form in favor of creations that better suit our personal fantasies. She envisions devices, “tailored to people’s desire,” that will end the “trope of the female, gynecological robot.” She also feels that the existing narrative of the sex robot has been written by a narrow group of people within the adult entertainment industry. “This is going to happen, whether we like it or not, ” Devlin added later, “so [women] need to influence, control and discuss it.”

Image Credit: Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories

Unfortunately for Dr. Devlin, humans have a knack for giving inanimate objects plenty of human qualities. One Japanese study, presented at the show, asked strangers to speak with each other, either using an Xperia Mini on speakerphone, or with that device wrapped in a rubber case. The case was in the shape of an “Elfoid” (pictured), a freaky rubber mini-baby with eyes and forearms but no hands on legs. The results showed that people were warmer, and spoke more candidly to a weird avatar than to a black smartphone slab.

People need the comfort and attachment that comes from their devices, rather than pure sexual gratification. At least, that’s the views of Dr. Penny Barber, who believes that companionship is an often-overlooked element of the robotic sex experience. She cited a controversial 1958 experiment in which psychologist Harry Harlow took infant primates from their mothers at birth. Those who lacked a flesh-and-blood parent would run toward and artificial surrogate that was “cuddly,” even if it didn’t provide food or security.

Another thing that we’ve yet to examine in any meaningful way is how the existence and proliferation of sex robots will alter our understanding of gender. Dr. Barber explained that the smartphone age is currently “playing out our understanding of attachment,” and that “as a society, we are changing.” Bristol University’s Dr. Genevieve Lively agrees, saying that “both men and women are inherently artificial creatures,” since “we are all primates.”

The event served to highlight just how many of these dry topics have already been well-discussed in pop culture. The Futurama episode “I Dated a Robot” explored the moral and social aspects of ditching humans in favor of screwing a mechanical celebrity avatar. Meanwhile, a recurring theme of Westworld is if it’s acceptable to abuse robots for our own pleasure if nobody’s actually being harmed. The genetically engineered cow from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is bred to crave being eaten.

It’s not as if these are the only examples either, and Dr Lively — a classicist — revealed that the world’s first sex robot story comes from Greek myth. She told the tale of Laodamia, widow of Protesialus, the first man to die in the Trojan war. Stricken with grief, she builds a replica of her late husband and, in Lively’s understanding of the text, has sex with it. Lively points out that the most interesting thing about the tale is that “the very first story of a sex robot has a therapeutic quality to it.”

On the subject of therapy, one of the more troubling questions that Dr. Oliver Bendel hinted at was the notion of using robots as a therapeutic aid. Dr. Barber mentioned that Real Dolls are sometimes purchased by therapists as a tool for helping people with communication difficulties. Bendel, however, was talking about the notion of offering mechanical surrogates as a substitute for human victims.

Imagine, for instance, that you as a neutral third party could end the sexual exploitation of people overnight. Would you do it? What if the mechanism for ending such suffering was to hand abusers a realistic sex robot for them to use instead? On one hand, the rest of us would sleep safely knowing that other people were no longer suffering, but we’d also have deal with the fact that we used technology to quietly enable abhorrent behavior. Perhaps it is a pragmatic solution to a problem we cannot otherwise fully solve.

“I don’t like, personally, the idea of a child-like robot,” Dr. Bendel was quick to add, “but we should ask doctors and psychologists, and if they are sure that they could help people, we could allow them as a therapy.” Seconds later, Dr. Devlin launched out of her seat to say that creating likeness of a child for sexual purposes is illegal, and that this legal situation isn’t going to change in the future.

At a later panel, however, Dr. David Levy said that what’s illegal in one country may not be the same as in another. After all, he added, “if the leader of North Korea wants to develop a sex robot, nobody’s going to stop him.” Not to mention, of course, the varying ages of consent in different countries that provide a nightmare for regulators attempting to prevent shipments of devices from, say, China, where the age of consent is 14.

If that question made you itchy, it might be because there’s no easy answer. Even so, it’s these sort of uncomfortable questions that we need to tackle. Because if we don’t, someone else will.

KFC’s latest weird tech suggests an order based on your face

KFC is no stranger to getting funky in order to sell its chicken but this one is really out there. The company’s Chinese division is partnering with Baidu to create a smart restaurant which will recommend meals based on the customer’s looks.

Specifically, the restaurant’s ordering kiosks, which are powered by Baidu’s computer vision systems, will look at the customer’s age, gender and facial expressions to make educated guesses as to what they might be in the mood for. A guy in his 20s, for example, is far more likely to order a big meal with a large soda for lunch than, say, a 75 year-old granny who walks in at 8am.

These are just suggestions of course, it’s not like you have to eat what it recommends (yet) but if you’re a regular, the kiosks will remember your previous order and recommend that as well. Don’t get weird about that last bit, it’s no different than the bartender at your local pub remembering your drink order from last time.

For now, the facial recognition kiosks are confined to the single smart restaurant, located in Beijing, but if it’s a hit with the public, the technology will hopefully spread.

Source: TechCrunch

Trump is prepared to start a nuclear arms race

Yesterday president-elect Donald Trump tweeted, “the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” This is direct conflict with the policies of former presidents both republican and democrat. Both sides of the aisle have worked to dismantle the world’s nuclear stockpile. In the 1980s president Reagan made it his mission to have a “world free of nuclear weapons.” Today, Trump double downed on his tweet.

During a chat with the MSNBC show, Morning Joe Trump said, “let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”

BREAKING: Trump to #morningjoe on the nukes tweet: ‘Let it be an arms race’ https://t.co/X9FMNtgKPK

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) December 23, 2016

A new nuclear arms race is unprecedented in a post-Cold War world. Even Russian president Vladimir Putin isn’t that excited about the possibility of building up an arsenal that could destroy all life on the planet. But he did note that he wanted to modernize that country’s military including its nuclear weapons.

According to the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, the United States has 6,970 warheads while Russia has 7,300.

But Trump wasn’t always so gung-ho about nuclear weapons. In 2014, he had a slightly different take.

The global warming we should be worried about is the global warming caused by NUCLEAR WEAPONS in the hands of crazy or incompetent leaders!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2014

Source: Morning Joe