National Academy of Sciences endorses embryonic engineering

The next generation of humans may well be genetically modified. The National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday issued a 216-page report endorsing human germline modification in the future, but only in certain cases that would otherwise result in children being born with serious genetic diseases.

Germline engineering refers to modifying a person or embryo’s genetic code in such a way that the changes are passed onto their offspring. This differs from the more-accepted “somatic cell” method, better known as gene therapy, wherein the changes only affect the person being treated.

“Heritable germline genome editing trials must be approached with caution, but caution does not mean that they must be prohibited,” the report read. A 22-member panel made up of prominent scientists and researchers spent a year compiling it. And while the panel is in favor of pursuing the technology, they warned that it must be done with “stringent oversight” and only as a corrective measure “preventing a serious disease or condition” — not as a means of enhancing people with, say, super-strength, better looks or heightened intelligence.

The panel also stated that, in addition to preventing genetic diseases, gene editing to make people less susceptible to diseases like HIV, cancer or Alzheimer’s would be acceptable. “We do not view prevention as a form of enhancement,” the panel’s co-chair, R. Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin, told MIT Technology Review. “But whether it’s permissible is up to regulators.”

This recommendation stands in stark contrast to current legal regulations in both Europe and the US. Here in America, germline engineering has been outlawed since 2015 when Congress added a rider to the Health and Human Services appropriations bill which banned the FDA from considering any proposal employing such modifications. China, on the other hand, has no such qualms with the technology and has already begun experimenting with it.

Source: MIT Tech Review

Facebook to Launch Video-Focused Apple TV App ‘Soon’

At the Code Media conference in Dana Point, California, Facebook’s Vice President of Partnerships Dan Rose announced that Facebook is planning to launch an app for set-top boxes like the Apple TV in the near future.

Focused on video content, the app will allow users to watch the “same kinds of video” available on Facebook’s app and website, except they’ll be viewable on the larger screen of a television set.

The Facebook for Apple TV app will recommend videos for users to watch or will allow users to view videos previously saved on other devices. A Facebook account will be required, but at launch, the app will not include ads.

News of Facebook’s work on an app for set-top boxes was first shared by The Wall Street Journal in late January. The site also said Facebook is speaking with media companies about licensing long-form TV-quality “premium” programming that will presumably be available in the upcoming app.

Media companies say Facebook is aiming for videos that are over 10 minutes and are created specifically for the social network, with a focus on everything from scripted TV shows to sports.

Facebook plans to launch its set-top box app “soon,” and it will be available on the Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung Smart TV.

During the Code Media conference, Facebook also made a few other announcements. Autoplay videos in the News Feed will now automatically play with the sound on unless a phone is on silent, a picture-in-picture feature is coming for watching videos while scrolling through the News Feed, and vertical video viewing is rolling out.

Tag: Facebook
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24: Legacy interactive Facebook Messenger game throws you into the action ahead of the show’s premiere

24 is back on our screens tomorrow, Wednesday 15 February, with a new actor and new plot. The series revolves around a race against the clock to prevent a terrorist attack on US soil. But rather than just watch the events on screen, you can take part in the action through a new interactive game on Facebook Messenger.

The game works using Messenger’s chatbot technology, whereby Agent Matthew Ward speaks to you, sends you photos, audio and video feeds, to help you with your mission. Following each piece of intel, you can make a decision on what route to take. The decisions you make affect the rest of the story. To start, there’s only one option to take, but as the game progresses, you get to choose between a few.

You’ll receive notifications over time, so make sure you set them to on, and from an initial look at how the game is played, you will need to devote some time to it. Fortunately, it seems you don’t need to make a decision immediately, you can choose to leave it and come back to it at a later time. 

It’s certainly an interesting concept and we like the idea of a new style of gameplay. While the multiple choice route may have been done before, doing it an interactive way through a social media site like Facebook is refreshing.

If you’re a 24 fan, you’ll definitely want to try it out. You can play the game here and catch the new 24: Legacy TV show on Fox from 9pm on Fox.

Huawei P10 confirmed, announced during MWC on 26 February

After many rumours, leaked renders and all, the Huawei P10 smartphone has been officially confirmed.

It will be formerly announced during Huawei’s Mobile World Congress press conference on Sunday 26 February.

We already knew about the event itself, but the company has confirmed that the “flagship device” it previously talked about is the P10. A YouTube video entitled #HuaweiP10 is coming was posted on its official Huawei Mobile channel.

Not much is revealed during the teaser clip, save for a massive hint that the dual lens cameras seen in many a leaked image will be a main focus (pardon the pun).

• Huawei P10 and P10 Plus: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know
• Curved screen Huawei P10 will launch this spring
• Huawei P10 video render shows more rounded edges and front-mounted home button

Little else can really be gleaned from it, but we have heard in the past that there could be two models – the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus. They are rumoured to have 5.2 and 5.5-inch Quad HD displays respectively and could feature a curved edge design.

The processors could be part of Kirin 960 and 965 chipsets, with 4GB of RAM the commonly tipped. A 6GB of RAM variant has also been mentioned in the past.

The two phones should be unveiled on stage at the event with Pocket-lint in attendance. We’ll also hopefully bring you a livestream of the press conference nearer the date.

Engadget giveaway: Win a handcrafted desk set courtesy of Grovemade!

There’s something relaxing about a neat and organized work space (at least for some of us). Less clutter can mean less distraction when you’re trying to get things done. Grovemade has been helping people in this quest to find workplace zen for over five years, serving up handcrafted home and desk accessories. The products are all designed and assembled in Portland, OR., using natural materials including eastern hardrock maple, black walnut and vegetable tanned leather. To help one reader fine-tune their work space this week, Grovemade has provided a selection of accessories including a monitor and laptop stand, a desk lamp, planter, pen cup and leather mouse pad. All you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this starter set of Grovemade products. The product line even includes a pair of wood-encased speakers.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
• Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive a set of Grovemade desk products in walnut wood including one (1) monitor stand ($119), one (1) laptop stand ($139), one (1) mousepad ($99), one (1) tall planter ($40), one lamp ($99) and one pen cup ($40).
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
• This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Engadget and AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
• The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
• Entries can be submitted until Feb. 15th at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!

Dodge Beyoncé’s haterz in the 8-bit game ‘Lemonade Rage’

If you’ve ever dreamed of being Beyoncé for a day, you’re in luck. A small group of game designers created Lemonade Rage: an 8-bit adventure where you dodge haterz, bullshit and Illuminati conspiracists to smash cars, fire hydrants and good hair ads. It’s basically the video game version of Beyoncé’s video for the song “Hold Up” where she strolls down the street doing damage with a baseball bat. The more mayhem you cause, the more lemons you earn for lemonade.

No game is complete without an accompanying soundtrack and Lemonade Rage features the appropriate 8-bit sounds from 8 Bit Universe to complement the visuals. The small group of developers — Joe Laquinte, Justin Au, Line Johnsen, and Colby Spear​ — explained to Pigeons & Planes that the more they thought about the “Hold Up” music video, the more they felt like it could easily translate to a video game. The results really are quite good, but don’t take my word for it: Go make your own lemonade inside your browser of choice.

Via: FACT, Pigeons & Planes

Source: Lemonade Rage

Sony made a PSVR music video you can move around in

When it comes to the immersive visuals virtual reality offers, the audio needs to be equally as compelling. That includes having the sound adapt to your movements as you navigate a scene or event. To show off what its PlayStation VR setup is capable of, Sony enlisted violinist Joshua Bell to record a 360-degree virtual reality studio session. With adaptive audio and positional tracking, the company offers the ability for you to “step inside” the venue a lot more realistic.

Sony used its FDR-X1000V action cameras to capture video and rendered the full scene in 3D. This means that viewers can not only look around, but they’re free to move around the room as well thanks to PSVR’s positional tracking. Of course, having the audio adapt as you change positions is equally as important and that’s just what Sony has done here. Using specially placed microphones to capture sound, positional audio tracking changes what you hear as you navigate Air Studios’ Lyndhurst Hall in London. If you move closer to the artist, you can hear more detail from the violin. If you back away, you get more of the natural reverb and overall sound of the room.

The company explains that capturing something like this would typically take a lot more equipment. However, this setup allows for a less cumbersome method for documenting an informal event in VR. Sony says the next step is to simplify the process so that it can easily be used to capture not only musical performances, but theatre and sporting events as well. It will be interesting to see how the company continues to develop ways for people to produce content for PlayStation VR beyond just games.

If you have PSVR gear, the Joshua Bell performance is available for free. For those who haven’t yet committed, you can check out a behind-the-scenes look at the project in the video below.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Etsy wants to be your online source for craft supplies

Etsy has made a name for itself as marketplace for handmade goods, but today the company announced an ambitious new initiative: Etsy Studios, an online storefront dedicated solely to craft supplies. The company is aiming for it to be your main source when you need a specific type of yarn, or you’re seeking out new fabric designs for inspiration. Etsy Studios will also have projects for the creatively inclined — naturally, it’ll also point you to all of the supplies you need to build, along with step-by-step instructions.

Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson describes Studios as the biggest new marketplace for the company since its launch. And, as you’d expect, it’ll also rely on participation from existing sellers. The company plans to launch Etsy Studios in April.

You can bet it’ll also trigger some sort of reaction from Amazon, which became a direct Etsy rival a few years ago with its own craft marketplace. Most hobbyists rely on chain retailers like Michael and Jo-Ann for their craft fix, and while they have some online offerings, it sounds like Etsy Studios is aiming to be far more complete.

In other news, Etsy is also revamping its dashboard for sellers with a new “Shop Manager” interface. Basically, it puts everything you need to manage your online storefront in a single location. It looks a lot more organized than Etsy’s previous interface, based on the little we saw.

Microsoft’s Outlook.com subscription is officially available

Microsoft’s paid take on email, Outlook.com Premium, is officially open for business: the company has quietly dropped the Preview label on its service, making it available to anyone in the US. Spend $50 per year ($20 if you act before March 31st) and you’ll get an ad-free inbox, custom domain support for up to five users, info sharing between those people. You won’t get the custom domain itself with your subscription, but Microsoft can do that for $10 per year if necessary.

As before, this isn’t really intended for businesses — it’s for individuals and families who don’t think a generic email account will cut it. If so, the outlay might be worthwhile. You can certainly get custom domains and advanced email elsewhere, but Microsoft is betting that the the simplicity and a familiar name will reel you in.

Source: Thurrott, Outlook.com

The Iconfactory Turns to Kickstarter to Reboot Twitterrific for Mac

The Iconfactory has launched a Kickstarter campaign called “Project Phoenix” in an effort to raise at least $75,000 to reboot Twitterrific for Mac.

Twitterrific for Mac was the very first Twitter client, but The Iconfactory admitted it has fallen out of date after its team made the tough decision to focus exclusively on development of Twitterrific for iOS since 2013. Now, it has turned to the Apple community to raise funds to build a new Mac app from the ground up.

After much consideration, we decided that the best way forward was to go back to the beginning. Rather than bending the long-neglected Twitterrific for Mac into a new shape, we will borrow what we can from iOS and use it to build a modern new macOS app.

To achieve such a large undertaking in a reasonable timeframe, we’ll start small: Our goal is to deliver a minimal Twitter client much like the original Twitterrific for Mac, but with a feature set that fits how we use Twitter in 2017 instead of how we thought we wanted to use it back in 2007.

The Iconfactory said its plan is to build a minimal product within 6 or 7 months that includes the following functionality:

• Unified home timeline
• Multiple account support
• Composing, replying, and quoting tweets
• Muffles and mutes
• Streaming
• Themes
• Delete and edit your own tweets
• Sync timeline position with iOS
• VoiceOver Accessibility
• Keyboard control
• Attaching images to tweets
• Timeline search (text filter/find)
• Open links to other tweets, profiles and media in your browser

In the long run, the developers said they would like to bring Twitterrific for Mac to feature-parity with the iOS version.

The Iconfactory said if it raises over $100,000, it will follow up with another major version that includes features such as direct messaging, built-in Twitter search, and a built-in quick media viewer. At $125,000, it promises to continue adding features such as simple list management and geolocation.

The fundraising goals may seem significant, but Twitter enforced significant changes to its API and tokenization in 2012 that made it harder for third-party Twitter clients to be functional and profitable.

There are multiple pledge levels available on Kickstarter, starting at $15, that will all include a copy of Twitterrific for Mac, which The Iconfactory estimates will be ready by August. Rewards available include Twitterrific t-shirts, stickers, and vinyl collectibles, plus access to beta versions, depending on the amount pledged.

The new Twitterrific for Mac will be distributed outside of the Mac App Store for macOS 10.12.3 and later. As with all Kickstarter projects, there are risks to consider before making a pledge. The Iconfactory notes that Twitter could further restrict its API or enforce other limitations that impede its ability to deliver.

The Twitterrific for Mac team will include engineers Sean Heber and Craig Hockenberry and designers Gedeon Maheux and Anthony Piraino.

Tags: Kickstarter, Twitteriffic
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