By request, Razer may have a Linux option for its Razer Blade gaming laptop

Why it matters to you

Linux fans who love Razer’s products should be thrilled that the company wants to support the operating system on its Razer Blade gaming laptop.

Razer founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan said on Thursday that the company is now looking to support Linux on the Razer Blade laptop. He said that support for the open-source operating system is one of the most common requests for the Razer Blade and that Razer is now looking into the possibility. He is now asking all Linux “enthusiasts” to provide their feedback, suggestions, and ideas in the new Linux Corner section of Razer Insider.

“We decided to lead a new forum section that is dedicated to Linux’s applications for gamers or other creators alike,” the company states in its introductory post. “The Linux Corner is a result of this where fans can now discuss their experience, provide feedback, and talk about everything related to Tux’s OS running on the Razer Blade.”

The virtual reality-ready Razer Blade laptop ships with a 64-bit version of Windows 10. But there is nothing stopping owners from formatting the solid-state drive and installing a Linux-based operating system such as Ubuntu or Valve Software’s SteamOS platform. However, until Razer’s recent interest in Linux, the company didn’t support Razer Blade laptops with Linux installed.

More: Is your Razer Blade’s fan too loud? Never fear, a fix is on the way

Some of the suggestions members have already made include porting Razer Synapse over to Linux, providing a Razer Blade with a dual-boot option (Windows/SteamOS), and even creating a special Razer-based Linux distribution. Many owners have taken the Linux plunge anyway, and are saying nothing but good things about their decision.

“Been using arch Linux on a Razer Blade Pro 2013 all these years,” one new member says. “It runs faster than windows, without any issues, and I play many Steam games without problems. Lately I started using Unreal Engine 4 on Linux for game development, and guess what, it runs perfect.”

The Razer Blade laptop targets PC gamers who want a slim but powerful solution for gaming on the go. But Tan says that this particular notebook family has become “the default coding machine for many.” That is definitely apparent in the new Linux Corner hub, as developers are also providing their feedback on the ideal Linux machine to fit their working needs.

For instance, one user suggests that Razer develop a direct competitor to the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition laptop. The Linux-based Ubuntu 16.04 model starts at $1,000, with the base configuration consisting of an Intel Core i5-7200U processor, 8GB of LPDDR3 system memory, a 128GB solid-state drive, and a 13.3-inch screen with a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. However, Razer’s update would be an improvement such as a larger screen, a discrete graphics chip, and M.2 NVMe-based storage.

The current Razer Blade laptop is rather impressive, packing Intel’s Core i7-7700HQ processor, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 discrete graphics chip, 16GB of DDR4 system memory (2,400MHz), and PCIe M.2 SSD storage capacities ranging from 256GB to 1TB. The 14-inch screen can be configured with 1,920 x 1,080 or 3,840 x 2,160 resolutions (16:9 aspect ratio). However, developers suggest that Razer move to a 3:2 display ratio on a Linux-based Razer Blade model.

Amazon’s next Echo is coming later this year

Soon you may be able to call your BFF from your couch without touching a phone.

Amazon is beta testing new hardware for its AI assistant Alexa, and is also working on adding voice call support that will allow us to make calls entirely with your voice.

As reported by Recode, several unnamed sources have revealed that along with allowing for voice-initiated calls, Amazon is also looking to add intercom functionality between Alexa-enabled devices in your home.

From the Recode article:

As of last month, the new hardware was in beta testing inside of Amazon. Sources say they expect an announcement in the coming months. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.”

This follows news reported by the Wall Street Journal last month that Amazon and Google were both looking to add voice call functionality to their respective smart speakers. It would seem that Amazon may be the first to reach that goal.

At this point, we don’t know the finer details of exactly how voice calling via Alexa will work — will you simply need to sync your current cell phone number to your speakers or get a dedicated home phone number? We’re also curious to know how it will work with multiple users who each have their own contact lists and whatnot. Either way, this new feature for Amazon’s smart speakers seems like it will essentially act as a futuristic twist on the landline phone — something we’ve collectively been replacing with our smartphones over the past decade and a half. Meanwhile the intercom functionality could be really cool, but would obviously require you to have multiple Amazon devices connected throughout your home.

We’ll have more details on this as the official announcements are released in the coming months.

What do you think? Is this a feature that you’ve been wanting from your Amazon Echo? Let us know in the comments!

Amazon Echo

• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Top Echo Tips & Tricks
• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

Amazon

Amazon has an International Women’s Day surprise for Echo owners

The hardest working artificial woman on the planet has some things to teach you.

Everyone has a fairly decent understanding of the relationship between a human being and Amazon’s Alexa, even if only be watching the commercials that seem to air on every channel now. You wake Alexa up, ask a question about a particular topic, and Amazon’s massive network of data resources works to provide and answer. It seems simple now that we’ve had it for a while, but an impressive level of intelligence and engineering has gone into making all of this seamless.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, and to further recognize the women of our history that contributed in some incredible way to the world as we know it, starting March 8th Alexa is going to drop some lady knowledge on you.

Starting first thing on March 8th, saying “good morning” to Alexa will result in a reminder that International Women’s Day has arrived followed by your normal morning briefing. After this, if you ask Alexa “who inspires you?” you’ll get a brief history lesson starring a woman from our history. Alexa’s list includes:

• Heady Lamar
• Katherine G. Johnson
• Dorothy Vaughan
• Mary Jackson
• Ada Lovelace
• Simone Biles
• Grace Hopper
• Sally Ride
• Jane McGonigal
• Malala Youshafzai
• Serena Williams
• Jane Goodall
• Marie Curie
• Alexa Canady
• Melinda Gates

Each name will come with a brief anecdote or joke, with lots more information available by enabling the new Inspirational Women skill. It’ll offer detailed information for anyone who asks, including but not limited to the women listed above.

Amazon Echo

• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Top Echo Tips & Tricks
• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

Amazon

Daimler recalls one million Mercedes after dozens catch fire

German automaker Daimler AG announced a major worldwide auto recall today, encompassing one million recent models of Mercedes-Benz vehicles that are at risk of catching fire due to a potentially faulty fuse. So far, 51 vehicle fires have be reported, but there have been no reported injuries or deaths.

According to Reuters, the recall affects over 300,000 newer model year vehicles in the United States alone, including the current 2017 model year. The majority of the fires — 30 of them to be exact — were reported in the US. As a Mercedes-Benz spokesman explained, new vehicles rolling off the production line and those already on dealers’ lots will be fixed before they’re sold. Although Daimler and Mercedes-Benz USA didn’t provide any insight as to which models are affected by the fire-prone fuse, the company has updated their recall site where owners can check their vehicle’s VIN number and says it will start notifying drivers in the US later this month. However, the fixes won’t actually begin until the necessary replacement parts arrive in July.

Via: Reuters

Source: Mercedes-Benz USA

Bring out your inner ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ at Alt.Ctrl.GDC

Ah, the Alt.Ctrl.GDC booth. It’s the real reason thousands of people flock to downtown San Francisco every year, under the guise of attending panels, networking and showing off their work at the annual Game Developers Conference. Alt.Ctrl.GDC is a collection of games that use experimental controls — that means no keyboards, no mice and no gamepads. Instead, the booth is filled with things like laser harps, spaceship control panels, giant inflatable dark rooms, DIY bookcases, record players, furry cat hats, cardboard boxes and waist-high, carpeted treadmills.

These games may be experimental, but that doesn’t mean they can’t one day become commercial products. Take Super Furry Neon Cat Heads for example: It’s a VR rhythm game for the HTC Vive that uses a cat tower as a controller (and a cat hat as flair). Players see a virtual version of the tower, complete with neon mice streaming down to the beat of a peppy electronic song, and they slap the appropriate spots on the real-life tower as the rodents run by. It looks wonderfully silly, but take away the cat hat and replace the tower with a more traditional control scheme, and it’s a fun new VR game that anyone can play at home.

And then there’s Spacebox, a Calvin and Hobbes-inspired game that has players sit inside a cardboard box with a goofy colander strapped to their head, tilting and tapping to maneuver an on-screen spaceship through enemy territory. If the developers figure out how to contain their tilt- and tap-sensing technology in a durable, portable container, Spacebox would be something that kids everywhere could play. All they’d need is a cardboard box and a screen.

On the other hand, Zombie Crawler may not ever be a game for the living room, but it makes sense as a cool new arcade installment. The controller is a waist-high treadmill-like platform with grips along the tread. Players grab the fabric and pull; on-screen, a comic book-style zombie crawls down a narrow hallway toward a potential victim with a shotgun. The treadmill tilts right and left, letting players dodge shotgun blasts when the appropriate animation appears, and buttons on either side of the treadmill make the zombie swipe at furniture and other pesky objects — like the human at the end of the hall. Picture it nestled between a Skee-Ball machine and NBA Hoop Troop at your local Dave & Buster’s. It makes a lot of sense.

Not all of the games at Alt.Ctrl.GDC will become commercial products, but many of them certainly could. Regardless of their mainstream appeal, playing with these wacky prototypes at GDC continues to be a highlight of the entire show.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from GDC 2017!

Bungie will reset everyone’s ‘Destiny’ characters for the sequel

As the sun sets on Bungie’s shooter MMO Destiny, its fans look ahead to a new dawn, when the old game hands its reign (and playerbase) over to its sequel coming sometime this year, currently called Destiny 2. Unfortunately, its loyal constituency had a bit of a rude awakening this morning when Bungie announced that every player character would be reset going into the new game. That’s right, folks: All your Gjallarhorns, No Land Beyonds and skill points won’t be coming along for the ride.

Your Guardians will still be kitted-out Trials-rocking demigods if you load them up in Destiny 1, but all power, possessions, and Eververse-related items and currency will be locked in the first game. The only that will carry forward are personalizations for characters that have made it past Level 20 and completed the Black Garden story mission.

This global reboot might be a harsh blow to folks who have been grinding away for years at the RNG altar of Destiny’s miserly loot-awarding system, but it’s a no-frills way to ensure player parity. Nobody else will be carrying their PVP-dominating legendary weapons into the new game, either. It also gives the sequel’s developers all the room they need to improve and advance the game without having to keep accounting for legacy guns and powers.

Bungie is sending off the original Destiny with one last event: Age of Triumph. The studio will reveal details of its first MMO’s last hurrah on March 8th, when it will trot out members of the Live Team to explain the game’s final block of new content. Event rituals will follow on March 15th along with a sandbox update on the 22nd — and then we play the waiting game for the sequel.

Source: Bungie

Uber used ‘Greyball’ tool to evade authorities around the world

Saying this week could’ve gone better for Uber is a massive understatement. After its SVP resigned over undisclosed sexual harassment investigations and its CEO argued with one of the company’s own drivers for complaining about its lower pay, Friday might have seemed like the end of a long few days. It wasn’t. The New York Times just released a report revealing Uber’s years-long clandestine program to deceive authorities from across the globe.

Their program used a secretive tool called Greyball to collect data from Uber’s app, along with other information-collecting techniques, to deliberately evade officials. Greyball worked by tagging known officials and serving up fake versions of the app populated with ghost cars, sources told The New York Times. When a code inspector working for the the city of Portland, Oregon tried to catch Uber in a sting operation, the company ‘Greyballed’ his phone, pretending to send cars and cancelling the fake rides.

The Greyball tool was originally used under an umbrella program called Violation of Terms of Service (VTOS) which Uber used to identify people it thought were abusing or improperly targeting its service. The company started VTOS in 2014 and continues to use it, mostly outside the US.

In a statement provided to The New York Times, Uber said, “[The VTOS] program denies ride requests to users who are violating our terms of service — whether that’s people aiming to physically harm drivers, competitors looking to disrupt our operations, or opponents who collude with officials on secret ‘stings’ meant to entrap drivers.”

When Uber began moving into a new city, they appointed a general manager to spot enforcement officers. They used a few methods to do this: One was to draw a digital perimeter (“geofence”) around authorities’ offices and monitored which nearby account users kept opening and closing the app, which could indicate a city agency worker checking the app for enforcement purposes. Other methods were more mundane, like seeing whether a user’s credit card information was tied to an institution like a police credit union or even just looking up folks’ connections on social media.

But neither side stopped there. When enforcement officials bought dozens of cellphones to create different accounts, Uber employees went to that city’s electronics stores to check device numbers of the cheapest phones — the models most likely bought by cash-strapped city agencies. If a driver picked up a suspected officer by accident, Uber called them to give specific instructions to end the ride.

In short, Uber created a tool and processes to tag investigators checking up on them along with a playbook to extend the cat-and-mouse game and stymie investigations. And according to The New York Times’ sources, even some internal members of Uber’s team were uncertain whether it was ethical or even legal. While ‘Greyballing’ was first used in new cities to muddle the locations of UberX drivers to fight local taxi competition, Uber engineers soon saw those tactics’ potential use in evading law enforcement. Soon, they made a playbook and passed it along to general managers in a dozen countries.

Source: The New York Times

Fan requests didn’t change ‘Nioh’ too much

In an age where developers seemingly bend over backwards to accommodate fan requests (cough, the Mass Effect 3 ending, cough), Team Ninja decided to buck that for its latest game, Nioh. That’s not to say that the developer didn’t take feedback to heart for its samurai action title, just not all of it according to a post on the PlayStation Blog.

“The first problem we encountered after researching feedback was that many members of our team became too influenced and affected by the opinions of the players,” Team Ninja’s Fumihiko Yasuda writes. Specifically, people kept asking for the game to be open world and for the Ki Pulse system to be scrapped. Both ideas were ultimately rejected.

But fan suggestions for things that wouldn’t fundamentally alter the game or cost a ton of money were taken into account. How the game’s camera lock-on system for enemies works was one instance where player feedback was implemented.

“Ultimately, I tried to remind everyone that we are the developers who are creating this game,” Yasuda says. “By attempting to consider all of those opinions, we were not arriving at solid solutions, but rather creating more questions.”

Given Team Ninja’s rocky history after the departure of Dead or Alive creator and Ninja Gaiden resurrectionist Tomonobu Itagaki, the studio establishing its own identity with a new game was absolutely crucial. And, given Team Ninja’s output since Itagaki left (Ninja Gaiden 3 was not good whatsoever), it was of the utmost importance that the studio to get its next project right.

Based on what critics and fans have said, at least in terms of Metacritic ratings, Yasuda’s instincts were right.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from GDC 2017!

Source: PlayStation Blog

‘Descent’-inspired ‘Sublevel Zero Redux’ coming to PS4

If you’re interested in some Descent-like shooter action, you could wait for Descent Underground, the crowdfunded game from from a developer behind Star Citizen. However, it’s not expected to arrive until next year, and when it does, there are no plans for a console release. There is another option, though: Sublevel Zero: Redux. Based on the well-received original that launched on Steam in 2015, the console version for Xbox One and PS4 brings new content, campaigns and more.

“The game itself is an homage to one of our favorite games, the classic 6DoF shooter Descent,” says lead artist and cofounder Gary Lloyd from developer Sigtrap. However, it’s been updated with random procedural generation, looting and crafting, permadeath and other modern elements.

While inspired by the original’s 8-bit low-poly look, Sublevel Zero: Redux was modernized with “hyper-saturated” neon lighting and colors. “The soundtrack likewise starts from chiptune roots and adds a modern twist to create a pulse-pounding orchestral glitch score,” adds Lloyd. Other new features include over 70 new rooms, an enhanced campaign that gets harder as you get better, two new enemies, elite unlockable foes and more.

The team had overcome some adversity to get to this point, as its original publisher went bankrupt shortly after the original Sublevel Zero was released. The game launched last week on the Xbox One, and is coming to the PS4 on March 8th.

Source: Sony

The Border Patrol can take your password. Now what?

There’s a whole world of bad security advice going around about traveling in and out of the United States. It’s largely because under the Trump Administration there has been an uptick in Customs and Border Protection agents searching the phones and digital devices of travelers at airport checkpoints.

While traveling inside the US border, it’s important to know that the TSA isn’t supposed to confiscate laptops, search digital devices, or demand passwords. The agency’s site states, “Should anyone at a TSA checkpoint attempt to confiscate your laptop or gain your passwords or other information, please ask to see a supervisor or screening manager immediately.”

But border patrol can. That’s because they exist in a grey area not exactly protected by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, which ostensibly protect us from unreasonable searches and self-incrimination, they’ve been doing it for years.

If you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably noticed that it’s only getting worse when it comes to demanding passwords and searching people’s electronic devices. Just last month US citizen Sidd Bikkannavar was detained upon his return from a vacation in Chile. Border agents strong-armed him into turning over his phone’s passcode, which was owned by his employer, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

No sensible person is going to want to give up their password — but we have little choice. Yes, you should encrypt your phone, close out of all apps when going across the border, and make sure everything is password protected.

But if they ask and you refuse to give them your password, or pretend you don’t know it, they will make life very difficult for you. They’ll detain and interrogate you, handcuff you while demanding your password, confiscate your devices for days (or longer), and possibly refuse you entry into the US. Increasingly, border enforcement is copying the contents of devices and keeping it, though CBP isn’t supposed to keep that data longer than a week.

Once border agents have your password, we have to wonder, what do they do with it? Where they keep it, how secure it is, and how long they can hang on to it?

The answer to the last question is, probably indefinitely. What’s worse, it’s anyone’s guess who sees your password, or how well it will be secured. It’s also fair to assume it can be used again during future border encounters.

When asked, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told NextGov that the agency can indeed record and store a password to facilitate digital searches once a device has been detained. “The spokesperson did not say whether the password would be deleted from a traveler’s record after the search is over,” NextGov wrote.

In fact, according to NextGov, data in the system can be kept for upward of 75 years — or for the duration of a “law enforcement matter” or any “other enforcement activities that may become related.”

“One of the few laws that would constrain how CBP would collect, keep and disseminate personal information is the Privacy Act of 1974, which regulates how federal agencies treat sensitive personal data. But the Homeland Security Department, CBP’s parent agency, exempted TECS from that law since at least 2009.”

Sure, the Twitter watercooler of jaded security “cool kids” will say, duh, only stupid people wouldn’t change their device passwords after a border search. But most of the people currently being traumatized by border agents are likely focused on other things once they emerge from interrogation. And they’re probably not thinking about whether their passwords or pin numbers are re-used across multiple services.

This practice opens up a whole new avenue for abuse by a class of enforcement officers who aren’t exactly having a good time in the press with their reputation.

Agents could shake down people they think are attractive, or those they want to humiliate. Those truly lacking a moral compass could then try traveler’s passwords on other accounts — if it worked on a phone or tablet, maybe it’ll work on their bank account too. And this isn’t pure paranoia: Border agents have been caught condoning, aiding and covering up the wrongdoings of managers for all manner of bad behavior, including harassment.

Painting this trend as anything but dangerous to the individuals most at risk of exploitation — travelers crossing our borders, and everyone they’re connected to — is so flagrantly irresponsible it’s inevitable that we’re going to learn a painful lesson the hard way.

Really, if anyone is collecting travellers’ passwords it’s only a matter of time until we find out if they’re being abused, and how. Or maybe a database gets popped by hackers and put online. Or perhaps some negligent idiot will just leave a database of passwords exposed to the entire internet.

Ultimately we’re putting people at risk, in the name of reducing risk which is as pointless as it sounds.

Image: John Moore/Getty Images (Border Patrol check)