Amazon takes on Skype and Hangouts with its own video conferencing solution

Chime is an easy-to-use video conferencing tool powered by Amazon’s cloud platform.

Amazon Web Services has launched Chime, a cloud-based video conferencing service aimed at businesses. Available on Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac, Chime allows users to quickly set up meetings, offering VoIP and video calling, instant messaging, and screen sharing. The feature-set is similar to that of Hangouts, and Amazon is also targeting Skype for Business — which runs on Microsoft’s own cloud-based Azure ecosystem — with its video conferencing software.

Chime’s base version — called the Basic Edition — lets two users communicate via chat, call, or video for free.The Plus Edition comes with Active Directory management, 1GB of messaging space per user, and the ability to add an entire e-mail domain for $2.50 per user per month. The Pro Edition introduces video calling and screen sharing as well as unlimited VoIP calling, and costs $15 per user per month.

Amazon has partnered with Level 3 to bundle Chime into the Tier 1 telecommunications service provider’s collaboration solutions. Internet telephony provider Vonage will also start offering Chime’s Pro Edition to its business customers at no additional cost. Integration with Level 3 and Vonage will kick off in the second quarter of 2017.

Amazon is also offering a 30-day trial that lets you try out Chime Pro without having to add a credit card. After 30 days, you’ll be switched to the basic tier, or you can continue to use the Pro Edition features by paying for a subscription.

Sniper Elite 5 confirmed as Sniper Elite 4 hits the shelves

Sniper Elite 4 is out now for Xbox One, PS4 and PC, and it has received glowing reviews across the board – including our own here. It’s no surprise, therefore, that Rebellion has at least one more up its sleeve.

Jason Kingsley, co-founder and CEO of the developer told Pocket-lint that there will definitely be a Sniper Elite 5: “We’d be insane not to do another sequel. We haven’t started on anything, we have no plans. But just from a strategic point of view it makes complete sense,” he said.

But fans needn’t put a mark in their calendars quite yet.

“When is it coming out? I can’t tell you. When will it start? I can’t tell you. Where will it be set? I can’t tell you that, I really don’t know. I’d like to tell you that we’re super efficient and we know the next three, but we don’t. I can tell you that there are more stories to tell in World War II, a lot more,” he added.

• Sniper Elite 4 review: Super sharp-shooter enters the big league
• Dredd TV show for Netflix, Amazon or HBO: “We are strongly moving in that direction”

The most likely outcome, therefore, is that Sniper Elite 5 will continue with lead character Karl Fairburne’s assignments in World War II, although future instalments could deviate.

“We could go into the past. I quite like the first World War. Somebody even suggested Sniper Elite set in the Middle Ages where you’ve got a long bow – that’s interesting. A Robin Hood equivalent of Sniper Elite,” he revealed.

One thing’s for sure though, Rebellion doesn’t currently have plans to ape the Call of Duty franchise, which is, ironically, heavily rumoured to be heading back to World War II itself.

“If we went too modern, we’d have to modify a lot of the gameplay,” explained Kingsley.

“There are remote drones, GPS and all that sort of stuff. There’s some fantastic technology to grapple with – I’m not saying we’ll never do that – but a lot of the game development changes then.”

It would certainly change the low-tech, stuck-behind-enemy lines dynamic.

“You could play as an autonomous, flying, sniping drone taking potshots at people across the landscape,” he joked.

Sniper Elite 4 is out now and you can get the console versions from Amazon.co.uk via the links below:

• Buy Sniper Elite 4 for PS4 here
• Buy Sniper Elite 4 for Xbox One here

It is also available on Steam for PC owners:

• Buy Sniper Elite 4 for PC here

Scientists release huge set of exoplanet-detecting observations

If you’ve always wanted to find exoplanets, now’s your chance to help. A team of scientists from MIT, Carnegie Mellon and other universities have released a huge dataset containing 61,000 individual measurements of more than 1,600 nearby stars. All the measurements came from two decades of observations made by the HiRES spectrometer, which is mounted on a 33-foot telescope at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, using a technique called radial velocity method. Simply put, the scientists used the tool to detect the tiny wobble stars make in response to the gravity of an orbiting planet. Thus, the dataset contains the date, the star’s velocity, the error on that velocity and measurements of its activity during that observation.

Jennifer Burt, a team member from MIT, said they realized they just don’t have enough members to be able to process all the data. That’s why they also pointed to the open source software you can use, along with a tutorial on how to use it. The scientists themselves have already begun looking through the observations and found over 100 likely planet candidates.

Among all those candidates, they’ve confirmed the existence of one exoplanet orbiting GJ 411, the fourth closest star to our sun. This discovery is consistent with scientists’ belief that the smallest planets orbit the smallest stars. Since GJ 411 only has 40 percent of our sun’s mass, the planet itself is quite small and can travel around its host star in merely 10 Earth days.

Considering the dataset has over two decades of measurements, it could lead to a lot more exoplanet discoveries. The team hopes other researchers combine the data with their own to find new planets or to launch new studies designed to look more closely into potential candidates.

Source: PhysOrg, Carnegie Science, The Earthbound Planet Search

Amazon Launches Call and Video Conferencing Platform ‘Chime’

Amazon’s push into the services space continued today with the launch of Chime, a new online VoIP call and video messaging platform aimed at business users.

Apart from video conferencing and chat messaging, Amazon Chime allows users to host or join virtual meetings with a single click, and share content and screens across multiple platforms, including Mac, Windows, iOS and Android devices.

Amazon is pitching Chime as a more reliable, higher quality alternative to existing VoIP services like Microsoft’s Skype, with a focus on making core communications services – voice calls, video conferencing, screen sharing, and instant messaging – easily accessible within a unified interface.

“It’s pretty hard to find people who actually like the technology they use for meetings today,” said Gene Farrell, Vice President, Enterprise Applications at AWS in a press release. “Most meeting applications or services are hard to use, deliver bad audio and video, require constant switching between multiple tools to do everything they want, and are way too expensive.”

Amazon Chime is available for free in a basic version, which includes video calls for up to two people. Price plans for Chime start at $2.50 per month, with a higher tier plan of $15 per user for the addition of video and screen-sharing, among other features.

Amazon will hope that its new VoIP service can replicate the company’s success in the cloud services space, but challenges lie ahead. Whereas AWS built its dominance early on in a relatively nascent market, Chime goes up against established players from day one. Chime for Mac and iOS are available to download here.

Tags: Amazon, Amazon Chime
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Eddy Cue: Apple ‘Trying to Do Some Things’ to Combat the Spread of Fake News

Apple is actively working on ways to ensure its content delivery services are robust enough to stand up to the challenge of “fake news”, according to Apple’s senior vice president of software and services, Eddy Cue.

Cue made the comments during a wide-ranging interview at the Code Media conference on Monday evening. Echoing comments recently made by CEO Tim Cook, Cue said that technology companies have a special responsibility to members of the public, most of whom now depend upon personal devices to receive their news. With that in mind, Cue said that while there was no simple way to counter the spread of fake news, the company is working on methods to reduce its dissemination.

“We want Apple News to be available to everyone, but we want to vet and make sure that the news providers are legitimate. We’re very concerned about all of the news items and the clickbait from that standpoint, and that’s driving a lot of the news coverage. We’re trying to do some things in Apple News, we’re learning from that and we need to share that together as an industry and improve it.”

Fake news has been a trending topic since last year’s U.S. Presidential election, with companies like Facebook making loud statements about the action they have taken to bring the quality of articles to users’ attention.

Last week, Tim Cook admitted that fake news is “one of today’s chief problems” and that “we have to give the consumer tools” to deal with the challenge. Companies like Apple should “filter part of it” before it reaches the public, he said, but in a way that avoids “losing the great openness of the internet”.

Tag: Apple News
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Fancy a trip to space? A smartphone game could get you there for free

Why it matters to you

Pricey tourist trips into space will be out of reach for most of us, but here’s a chance (OK, it’s a long shot) to bag a ride for free.

Thanks to tech, it’s easy to get an idea of what it must be like to spend time on the International Space Station (ISS). We can already explore the satellite’s interior and see how the astronauts live – how they make a coffee, wash their hair, and even use a space toilet. We can also enjoy those breathtaking views of Earth several hundred miles below.

So how do you like the idea of actually visiting the ISS? For free.

This is the extraordinary offer recently announced by a Finnish space industry company, and here’s the fun bit: A smartphone game will be key to getting you there.

Thanks to a crowdfunding campaign that quickly blasted through its €1.5m ($1.6m) target, the idea is on track to become a reality.

The mission is the brainchild of space media company Cohu Experience, which has designed the plan with space commercialization company Axiom Space and two education firms, GeekTime reported.

Collectively known as Space Nation, the team is developing a smartphone app featuring a bunch of training exercises for wannabe astronauts. Aimed for release in the fall, gamers who fancy the idea of a trip to the ISS will have to battle through intelligence quizzes, reasoning tests, and various other challenges to score points.

The top-performing 130 players will have the chance to attend a two-week bootcamp. And that’s where things get serious.

There you’ll have to take on a range of physical tests to ensure your body is up to the challenge of a trip into space.

The best 12 competitors will then face a demanding 12-week training course in the U.S. or Europe, after which one lucky guy or gal – and a runner-up in case of any subsequent issues with the winner – will be selected.

More: Enjoy an astronaut’s view of Earth with this 360 video

In the coming years, Axiom is hoping to attach a new facility to the ISS that’ll become independent when the space station is decommissioned. The plan is to operate astronaut missions of up to two months at a time, as well as week-long tourist trips, with the contest winner offered a seat on one of the launches.

Commenting on the contest, Cohu Experience founder Kalle Vähä-Jaakkola told GeekTime that the upcoming app should be useful for everyone who tries it, helping players “with nutrition, health, fitness, creative problem solving, critical thinking … and teamwork.”

It could also be your free ticket to space.

Amazon Chime is yet another videoconferencing tool

Somehow, in 2017 it’s still a chore to collect people for a conference call, much less one with video. Now Amazon is taking on Microsoft/Skype, Cisco and the rest with its new solution, Chime. Aimed squarely towards businesses, Chime comes out of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) side of things, running on the company’s servers and promising “frustration-free meetings.”

It’s launching with support for apps on desktop or mobile or the web; and is designed with features like a visual roster of who is currently connected, single-click ability to join a call, plus screen sharing and file sharing. There’s a free basic edition if all you need is the calls, messaging and chat features, while Plus and Pro versions adding the kinds of features IT managers probably dig (Active Directory configurations, email domains, unlimited VoIP support) can cost as much as $15 per user, and there’s a 30-day free available for Pro.

Source: Amazon, Amazon Chime

Playboy goes full-frontal, again

Playboy is bringing nudity back to the magazine a year after striking totally bare bodies from its pages. In October 2015, the publication’s CEO Scott Flanders said that nudity was “passé” when you can find it in any form imaginable online. But things have changed since last March’s controversial nude-free issue, and now founder Hugh Hefner’s 25 year-old son seems to be calling the shots. Cooper Hefner, chief creative officer, tweeted out an image with the following quote:

“I’ll be the first to admit that the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake. Nudity was never the problem because nudity isn’t a problem. Today we’re taking our identity back and reclaiming who we are.”

In a post outlining the “new Playboy philosophy,” Hefner draws parallels of between himself and his dad, the present and the past. The commonality? “Both my dad and I understand, at its simplest form, what Playboy and the United States strive to represent in their greatest forms: freedom.”

He reminds that the magazine published blacklisted writers during the McCarthy era and advocated for the LGBTQ community. Now, “just as the social and political pendulum had swung in liberals’ favor, as history has shown time after time, the pendulum swings back.”

As evidence of the former, he cites marriage equality going before the Supreme Court and the path to legalized marijuana. As for the latter, Hefner says that “the most vital intellectual discussion we can have is how to create a society that’s as free as possible without ignoring the social and economic implications of our policy decisions.”

It seems that Playboy, under the new direction, will be working to challenge conservative views and that bringing back nudity is just one way of doing so. The March/April 2017 issue will be the first with nudity reinstated.

Let’s just hope that the reversal of said pictorial decision doesn’t affect the stellar cover design that’s graced the magazine this past year — the retro, minimalist layouts and designs are too good. If the new issue is any indication, we’re in good shape.

pic.twitter.com/sL1nSF6fYC

— Cooper Hefner (@cooperhefner) February 13, 2017

Via: Buzzfeed News

Source: Playboy (SFW), Cooper Hefner (Twitter), Playboy (Twitter)

Eddy Cue reveals ‘Planet of the Apps’ reality show details

Last fall we heard many of the details of the reality TV show that’s coming to Apple Music, but now we’ve actually seen a bit of it. During an onstage interview at Code Conference, Apple exec Eddy Cue and co-producer Ben Silverman revealed a trailer for the show. As promised, Planet of the Apps will be very familiar to anyone who has seen Shark Tank, with entrepreneurs giving presentations and even literal elevator pitches to four potential backers (Will.i.Am, Gary Vaynerchuk, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba), before it turns into The Voice, with each judge coaxing their picks along the path to success and riches.

There’s also a new trailer for its Carpool Karaoke adaptation, flashing many of the stars that will be riding and singing along in its first season. Everyone from Jeff Gordon to Shaquille O’Neal to Alicia Keys to Metallica will join in as part of the 16 celebrity pairings.

Both shows will be available only via Apple Music, which Cue mentioned has grown beyond 20 million subscribers. You can watch the full interview here.

Source: Recode, Recode (YouTube)

Maker Studios parts ways with Pewdiepie after anti-Semitic jokes

Felix “Pewdiepie” Kjellberg’s actions have cost him a business partner: Disney’s Maker Studios. While the YouTube personality claimed a video published on January 11th was nothing more than a joke, the House of Mouse doesn’t agree according to The Wall Street Journal. In the clip, Kjellberg hired a pair of Indian men from quick-task service Fiverr to hold up a banner that said “Death to all Jews.”

His reaction is one of shock. “I didn’t think they’d actually do it,” he said on camera. This wasn’t the first time the Swedish-born Kjellberg has invoked anti-Semitic and Nazi imagery, but it’s apparently the one that was too much for Disney, which paid between $500-and-$675 million for Maker Studios in 2014.

The deal that Maker terminated was one where it and Kjellberg were in a joint venture that would result in produced videos, mobile apps and merchandise according to WSJ’s sources. How much this will end up costing YouTube’s biggest star isn’t clear.

In a since-deleted video he defended himself with the following rationale:

“What I just think — and I believe strongly in — is that it is 2017 now. We’re going to have to start separating what is a joke, and what is actually problematic. Is a joke actually pure racism? Is something that would be considered a joke purely homophobic, or anti-Semitic and all these things? Context fucking matters.”

“Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case and the resulting videos are inappropriate,” a Maker spokesperson said in a statement. “Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward.”

As The Hollywood Reporter noticed, Kjellberg has issued a statement of his own. Writing on Tumblr, he said that the point of the video wasn’t to disparage any one group of people, but to expose “how crazy the modern world is” in terms of what you can pay people money to do online. “I picked something that seemed absurd to me — That people on Fiverr would say anything for 5 dollars.

“I think it’s important to say something and I want to make one thing clear: I am in no way supporting any kind of hateful attitudes.

“Though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive.”

Source: Wall Street Journal, Pewdiepie (Tumblr)