The Biggest Advances that have Changed the way we Access Online Gaming

The world of gaming has experienced several major evolutionary periods throughout the last ten years, for example: video games have seen the Unreal Engine reach its fourth incarnation and finally scratch the surface of realistic virtual reality and casino gaming has experienced several similar evolutionary stages – we investigated the biggest advances that have changed the way we access casino gaming:

Smartphones

These powerful, pocket sized computers provide the perfect platform for casino gaming no matter where you might be. You could be at home or on a break at work or even travelling (with someone else driving of course) and you can still access the casino to scratch your gambling itch. A huge step was made for casino gaming with the advent of smartphones and the mobile apps that act as the portal in your pocket.

Rewarding Customers

Land based casinos have had a variety of rewards and complimentary services for many years to entice people to spend time in their buildings. Over the years these have included free hotels, flights, limo services and all manner of other incentives but the biggest reward advances have come to the online casinos. Free bonuses and other bonuses work in exactly the same way as the land based incentives – it encourages repeat trade and draws in new custom to maximise the casino’s customer base.

Poker Table Hole Cams

Poker today is a big deal, televised Poker tournaments have drawn viewers in for some time now but in 1999 there was an innovation that gave viewers a whole new insight on the game: hole cams. Essentially, the players are required to place their hands over a panel that hides the hole cam to allow the viewers to see their hand and understand the game in greater detail – the player might be bluffing their opponents and the viewer gets an insider view on how it’s done.

Video Slots

The traditional slot machine is still as popular as ever but the ‘one armed bandit’ is most commonly found in casinos and very rarely anywhere else. To introduce the concept of slots to a wider market; developers created video slot machines that are found in numerous places from bars to petrol stations. The games retain the original slot machine concept and users can play games with no need to download. Slots nowadays feature advanced graphics and a wide variety of stake amounts to make them accessible to a much wider audience.

Loyalty Cards

Even the high street bookmakers have joined the loyalty card revival and the system has proved itself to be beneficial to both the casino and the customer. The casinos can collate the data the loyalty cards capture such as frequency of betting and average stakes while the customer can access a plethora of benefits for their loyalty.

Progressive Jackpots

This system borrowed heavily from the standard levelling up process found in most video games and allows the gambler to access progressively greater jackpots the more they play or the more they stake. The odds of success may diminish slightly as the jackpots increase but the reward for persistence is so great that the customers rarely notice the reduced chances of winning.

Online Gambling

The feather in the cap of the casinos is undoubtedly Online Gambling. It allows customers to access their favourite games no matter where they are or what time it is in their part of the world. The massively multiplayer gambling opportunities Online Gambling offers is part and parcel of its appeal – real players from around the world competing to win big from the comfort of their own homes; convenience at its best.

Poker Tournaments

Years ago; Poker was restricted to casinos and dingy rooms on back alleys – if anything there was a taboo surrounding the game. Now, thanks to big money, televised tournaments; the customer base for Poker has increased exponentially and the success of the traditional card game shows no signs of slowing.

Hugo Barra joins Facebook as VP of virtual reality

Hugo Barra will head up Facebook’s VR initiatives.

Hugo Barra made an abrupt announcement that he was leaving Xiaomi earlier this week to return to Silicon Valley, and now we know where he’s going next: Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg announced that Barra will be joining the social network to lead its virtual reality efforts, including the Oculus team.

Commenting on the post, Hugo Barra said:

Thanks, Mark! I can’t wait to get started in building that future and join the team soon. It’s been a dream of mine to work in virtual reality even back when AR/VR were just figments of science fiction; now we’re taking selfies in virtual worlds 🙂 I learned from Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun that there’s no greater calling in our industry than taking breakthrough tech and making it available to the greatest number of people.

Really looking forward to doing just that at Facebook — taking VR mainstream — working with you, Brendan, Mike Schroepfer, and the Oculus team!

Facebook is looking to virtual reality as the next big platform, and Barra’s expertise at building products during his time at Google and Xiaomi makes him an ideal candidate to lead the company’s efforts.

Hugo Barra’s next job: Head of Oculus VR

Mark Zuckerberg just revealed the next landing spot for former Google and Xiaomi executive Hugo Barra: Facebook. As Barra revealed a couple of days ago, he’s coming back to Silicon Valley and will “lead all of our virtual reality efforts, including our Oculus team.” This fills the hole left when former Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe stepped down to focus on the company’s PC efforts in December, as Barra becomes the VP of VR at Facebook.

The announcement came along with a pic of Zuckerberg and Barra hanging out virtually, since the new VR exec is still in China. In a comment on the post, Barra said “It’s been a dream of mine to work in virtual reality even back when AR/VR were just figments of science fiction; now we’re taking selfies in virtual worlds,” and stated his plan is to take the technology mainstream.

Joining Facebook as VP of virtual reality (VPVR!) to lead Team @Oculus. So excited! Mark posted about it here: https://t.co/kYgIniSQiM pic.twitter.com/7fYTkniykr

— Hugo Barra (@hbarra) January 26, 2017

Source: Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)

AI is nearly as good as humans at identifying skin cancer

If you’re worried about the possibility of skin cancer, you might not have to depend solely on the keen eye of a dermatologist to spot signs of trouble. Stanford researchers (including tech luminary Sebastian Thrun) have discovered that a deep learning algorithm is about as effective as humans at identifying skin cancer. By training an existing Google image recognition algorithm using over 130,000 photos of skin lesions representing 2,000 diseases, the team made an AI system that could detect both different cancers and benign lesions with uncanny accuracy. In early tests, its performance was “at least” 91 percent that of its flesh-and-blood counterparts.

The algorithm would have to be refined and rigorously tested before put to use in the medical world. You don’t want a glitch leading to the wrong diagnosis. If and when it’s ready for prime time, however, it could do more than save time when you’re at the clinic. Ideally, you could use the algorithm on your smartphone — imagine taking a photo of an unusual mark on your body and getting an initial verdict without leaving home. And since you can train computer vision systems to recognize many object types, you could theoretically apply the technology to other visible conditions.

Via: New Scientist

Source: Stanford, Nature

Gmail will start blocking JavaScript attachments in February

If you want to email a .js file to somebody for any reason, you only have a few more days to do so through Gmail. The service will start blocking JavaScript file attachments starting on February 13th, adding it to its list of restricted file types, which includes .exe, .msc and .bat. If you try to attach a .js file on or after the 13th, you’ll get a notification that says it’s blocked “because its content presents a potential security issue.”

JavaScript files aren’t inherently bad, but people could attach them to emails so that when you click on one, it acts as a downloader for a ransomware or other types of malware. Gmail can detect .js files even if they’re sent as a .zip, a .tgz, a .gz or a .bz2. In case you really have to send one to a friend or a co-worker, the big G recommends uploading it to Google Drive instead.

Source: G Suite updates

Vive Video puts a personal home theater in HTC’s VR headset

We’ve seen VR video theaters for Oculus and PlayStation VR, and now HTC has an upgrade in that department. Vive Video supports all kinds of media: 2D, 3D, 180-degree or full 360-degree, with options to make the environment as much of a realistic theater or distraction-free cinema as you’d like.

Vive owners have already had the Vive Home Cinema app and any number of third party players to choose from, but this one looks a little more polished. The app is available in the Viveport app store, and comes with a teaser for the Invasion! 360-degree video.

Introducing Vive Video, a video player for #VR! With support for 2D, 3D, 180˚ and 360˚ content. https://t.co/RQO7tnVnOU

— HTC VIVE (@htcvive) January 26, 2017

Source: Vive Video (Viveport), HTC Vive Blog

Autonomous Ubers return to California with humans in control

Uber’s run-in with the California DMV has apparently been smoothed over for now. Although the ride-hailing giant has since shipped its real-world autonomous vehicle testing out of the state, several of the offending vehicles are once again street legal in California — provided Uber keeps the self-driving systems turned off and a human driver behind the wheel.

Five self-driving Uber ATC Ford Fusions had their registrations revoked last month, alongside the Volvo SUVs that were loaded onto Uber’s own Otto-branded truck bound for Arizona. An Uber spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that those Fords have since been re-registered with the California DMV and are now manned by human drivers collecting data and mapping the streets of San Francisco — which the company has been doing since as far back as early September. “These cars are being used for Uber’s mapping purposes only,” an Uber spokeswoman also confirmed to CNET. “They are being driven manually at all times and their self-driving systems are disabled.”

While the mapping vehicles will eventually play a crucial role in the infrastructure powering Uber’s autonomous fleet, self-driving early adopters in San Francisco will have to wait a little longer for the regulations to catch up before they can actually hail a ride.

Via: CNET

Facebook Begins Testing Ads in Messenger App

Facebook today announced that it has begun testing ads in the Messenger app. The test will be limited to users in Australia and Thailand and will allow businesses to place ads on the Messenger home screen below favorite users and most recent conversations.

The company says that “no one will see an ad in a conversation without clicking on an ad experience on the Messenger home screen or starting a conversation with a brand.” Facebook assures that ads will not “originate” in conversations.

Facebook says businesses have told the company that they’re excited to use the Messenger platform to connect to its billion users, driving sales and building brand awareness. Currently, Facebook runs ads on its News Feed that, when clicked, take users into Messenger conversations with brands. This has helped person-to-business messaging grow popular, with Facebook saying over a billion messages are sent a month between people and businesses.

Messenger users will have “complete control” over their experience, and will be able to either hide or report specific ads using a dropdown menu, similar to how users can report ads on their News Feed. Additionally, advertisers are not allowed to directly message users unless the user initiates the conversation.

The test will only work for a “very small group” of people in Australia and Thailand, and Facebook says the company will take its time before it considers further expansion.

Tags: Facebook, Messenger
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Moto Z ringer too low? Latest software update fixes that folly

Verizon’s latest update for the Moto Z and Moto Z Force makes the ringtone louder and adds the latest Android security patches.

Good news for those of you who jumped the gun on the modular smartphone fad. Your Moto Z and Moto Z Force will see software updates from Verizon as soon as they’re seeded.

The update, as denoted on Verizon’s support page, fixes the default notifications volume level so that it matches the level that was used in the original software release. It’s unclear whether this fix is directly related to the known low volume issue. However, users in our forums have reported success after the software update.

The update is software version NCL25.86-11-4-6. The update also includes the latest Android security patches. You can download it by checking for a software update on your Moto Z or Moto Z Force.

Francis Ford Coppola wants help making Apocalypse Now video game

Francis Ford Coppola is turning one of his classic films into a game.

American Zoetrope, a privately run American film studio founded by both Coppola and George Lucas, has partnered with a team of entertainment and games industry veterans to develop a video game based on Apocalypse Now, Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War film.

It’ll be a role-playing-style game financed partially through a Kickstarter campaign, which is looking to raise $900,000 before the end of February. Pledges start at $25. The campaign will offer backers rewards like early access to the game, a surfboard used in the film, and a five-day stay at one of Coppola’s resorts. Backers can also get a copy when it’s completed in 2019, though it’ll have a 2020 release.

Coppola’s studio is developing the game, and he has assembled a team of designers and writers who have worked on other games, such as Fallout: New Vegas, Battlefield, and Far Cry. In a statement to Deadline, he said: “I’m joined by new daredevils, a team who want to make an interactive version of Apocalypse Now, where you are Captain Benjamin Willard amidst the harsh backdrop of the Vietnam War.”

He added, “I’ve been watching video games grow into a meaningful way to tell stories, and I’m excited to explore the possibilities for Apocalypse Now for a new platform and a new generation.” The game is being described as a “psychological horror”. 

Keep in mind 2019 will be Apocalypse Now’s 40th anniversary. Check out the Kickstarter page for more details.