Jeff Bezos offers a peek inside Blue Origin’s capsule for space tourists

Why it matters to you

Wannabe space tourists with their eye on Blue Origin’s service will be pleased to know they’ll be traveling in some style.

If you’re loaded with money and rather like the idea of a trip to the edge of space, then Blue Origin is probably on the list of companies you’re currently considering for your ride of a lifetime.

Founded by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin has been making steady progress with its New Shepard reusable rocket system that’ll one day take space tourists on unforgettable suborbital adventures. With a growing number of successful unmanned missions under its belt, the company is hoping to launch the service as early as 2018.

As Blue Origin moves ever closer to the first human test flights of its system, expected later this year, Bezos this week released several images offering a glimpse of the kind of comfort paying passengers can expect to enjoy during their trip.

The plushly designed capsule, which looks suitably science fiction, features six comfy-looking reclining seats positioned close to the large windows so the tourists can enjoy a view like no other. “Every seat’s a window seat, the largest windows ever in space,” Bezos said in an email update on Wednesday.

The seats will become temporarily redundant when the capsule reaches a spot 62 miles (100 km) above the surface of the Earth, as the passengers will be permitted to unbelt and have some fun floating idly about in a weightless environment.

More: Blue Origin’s emergency crew capsule test was one of its most dramatic missions yet

Speaking at the Space Symposium event in Colorado Springs last year, Bezos described the kind of experience Blue Origin space tourists can expect.

“We want people to be able to get out, float around, do somersaults, enjoy the microgravity, look out of those beautiful windows,” he said, adding that the training for the trip would be “relatively simple.”

Blue Origin is yet to reveal how much it’ll cost to go on its 12-minute suborbital adventure, though rival outfit Virgin Galactic has been charging around $250,000 for reservations aboard its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 official, full trailer coming

Electronic Arts has confirmed the sequel to Star Wars Battlefront, revealing the name and that a full trailer will be available mid-April.

Unsurprisingly, the next game in the series is officially called “Star Wars Battlefront II”, with a logo published by the games publisher on its own website.

EA also said that the full trailer will be premiered at Star Wars Celebration on 15 April at 2.30pm EST (7.30pm BST). It will be livestreamed from the convention along with a panel session involving Dice, Criterion and Motive developers, who will talk about the forthcoming game.

• Star Wars Battlefront review: Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?

Electronic Arts

Battlefront 2 is expected for release later this year, most likely in the fall. It’ll likely be available for the same platforms as the two-year-old remake: PS4, Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs. The last game was released on 17 November 2015 so we think it’ll be in the same area this time around.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, otherwise known as Episode VIII, will hit UK cinemas on 15 December, so it seems about right.

We also expect to see and even play some of the game at this year’s E3 videogames convention in June. It is highly possible that levels based on The Last Jedi will be available soon after release as DLC.

It has also been previously said that there will be a single-player campaign with this year’s edition.

Will.i.am’s first headphones are the wireless Buttons

Ex-Black Eyed Peas member and noted gadget lover Will.i.am has returned to the tech world with another new product. The i.am+ Buttons are a pair of wireless Bluetooth in-ear headphones, with a connecting neck strap.

• Best Bluetooth headphones 2017: 10 of the best on/over-ears for wireless listening

The outside of the ear pieces look, as their name suggests, like buttons, although the official press release says they’re inspired by vinyl records. We can see where they’re coming from.

The earphones themselves sport 11mm drivers which promise “optimised sound and clarity” among with “superior sound and deep bass”. You’ll be able to experience that superior sound for up to six hours on a single charge. 

An in-line remote and microphone lets you carry out play/pause and track skip functions, as well as taking hands-free calls. And when you’re not using the Buttons, you can leave them hanging around your neck, where they’ll magnetically attach to each other to make sure they stay in place.

Will.i.am said of his new headphones: “Technology doesn’t have to look like technology…it’s gotten to the point where no one has imagination. Everyone is making what everyone else is making”.

“We wanted to do away with all that, now that technology is ubiquitous, shouldn’t you look fresh?”

If you fancy looking fresh and want to grab a pair of i.am+ Buttons, they’re available now in black, gold, grey and roe for £169.

Domino’s delivers pizza in Europe with wheeled drones

Domino’s has unleashed another set of pizza delivery drones, this time in Germany and the Netherlands. Last year, it worked with Flirtey to drop pizza to customers in New Zealand using unmanned aerial vehicles. For this pilot program, however, it chose to use autonomous rovers developed by Starship Technologies, a company built by two of Skype’s founders. Domino’s told Engadget that launching this program doesn’t mean it has given up on developing its own delivery drones, which it’s been doing for a year now.

Both this pilot and the one in New Zealand come under the auspices of DRU (Domino’s Robotic Unit), the same division that’s developing its homegrown machine. “[I]t’s not a matter of changes,” a spokesperson told us, “but running multiple programs to bring technology, that makes ordering faster and simpler, to our customers as quickly as possible.” Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Chief Executive Officer Don Meij also said in a statement that if the company doesn’t add drones to its fleet through initiatives like this, it won’t have enough delivery drivers with its growth plans over the next five to 10 years.

Starship’s autonomous rover is a battery-powered wheeled machine designed to run on sidewalks. It can carry up to 20 pounds of food — eight pizzas or a combination of pizzas, sides, drinks and dessert products — per delivery, kept inside a cargo hold. Customers can unlock that cargo hold with a code sent to their phones.

Unfortunately, the pilot isn’t available all over the two European countries. In fact, it’s only open to people living within a one-mile radius of certain stores in select German and Dutch cities. If you live in either country, you’ll have to call your local branch and ask if it can send a wheeled drone your way.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Domino’s

Microsoft’s Twitch competitor can remind you to stretch

Microsoft’s Twitch competitor, Beam, has arrived on Xbox One. And seemingly in an effort to keep streamers healthy, there are a few tools in the back-end to remind folks to do things like eat and stretch. Simply check the “Enable Health Reminders” box and at a user-defined intervals you can get pings to stand up and shove some food in your face.

Of course, Beam isn’t the first to incorporate this sort of thing. The Apple Watch, for example, has activity reminders. Given how bad for you sitting can be, and how easy it is to lose track of time while at a computer in general, not just hosting a stream, it’s good to see Microsoft address this. For more info on Beam, check out this post on Xbox Wire.

Source: Beam

Lyft tests a new fixed-route ‘Shuttle’ service for commuters

Now that shared rides represent a sizable portion of Uber and Lyft’s business, both companies have been looking for new ways to expand their offerings while making the whole system more efficient and affordable at the same time. According to TechCrunch, Lyft is currently testing a new version of its shared Line rides called “Lyft Shuttle” aimed directly at commuters and riders who regularly take busy routes.

As it’s only a test for now, Lyft Shuttle is only available in Chicago and San Francisco. Riders in those cities will see the “Shuttle” option while searching for Line rides in the app — but only if their pickup and drop off locations are close enough to one of the test routes. The service is only available during the morning and evening commute hours (6:30-10AM, 4-8PM), but the fares are a fixed price so riders can avoid surge pricing during rush hour.

Uber tried a similar feature for UberPool called “Smart Routes” back in 2015, and it still highlights nearby pickup points for shared rides, but the bus-like highlighted routes seem to have fizzled out. And unlike other services intended to cover long-distance commutes like Waze Rider, Lyft’s offering is meant for shorter trips within the city limits. In San Francisco, at least, Lyft will be competing more directly with Chariot, which runs private shuttles along popular commuter bus routes and handles ticketing through its own app. Chariot was bought by Ford last year and the automaker intends to expand to eight more cities by the end of 2017, so there’s definitely a market for this type of in-between service.

Source: TechCrunch

Police report explains little about Uber’s autonomous wreck

After one of its self-driving Volvos in Tempe, Arizona was struck by another car, Uber temporarily shut down all autonomous testing in the state and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. No major injuries resulted and both sites resumed operations early this week. But even after the Tempe Police Department’s report was released today, it’s unclear whether the autonomous vehicle took an unnecessary risk and sped up to make the light.

According to Bloomberg’s account of the report, it faults the green Honda that turned left into the autonomous Volvo. The Uber employees sitting in the car’s front seat confirmed that it had been set to autonomous mode, and in a statement to the police, said their vehicle was traveling 38 miles per hour, just under the 40 MPH speed limit. But one witness, who didn’t realize a human wasn’t in control, said that the Uber had appeared to accelerate to make it through the yellow light.

What little details we have provoke questions about the autonomous car’s capabilities and decisions. Did its sensors not catch the yellow light? Or did it make a judgment call to enter at a more dangerous moment than waiting for a green? Whether the Uber took an unnecessary risk is unclear, especially since the circumstances aren’t certain: For one, the green Honda driver maintained that she couldn’t see the autonomous Volvo approaching, while the employees sitting in the Uber stated that they couldn’t see the turning car because their vision was blocked by traffic.

Source: Bloomberg

FCC pushes Lifeline broadband subsidy approval back to the states

Why it matters to you

Your choice in Lifeline subsidized broadband services might be limited given a recent FCC rule change.

The Federal Communications Commission has undergone a few changes since the recent transition to a new president. The new FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai, has been at the heart of a few of those changes and a recent decision to alter the agency’s Lifeline subsidies for broadband subsidies is the latest.

At the heart of Pai decision is a change to how companies can be approved to participate in the Lifeline program with regard to broadband services. This change basically reverses a change from 2016 that would have expanded approvals from the states to include the FCC, Ars Technica reports.

More: The FCC just rolled back some of its privacy rules, reversing previous positions

Lifeline is a federal program that provides a $9.25 per month subsidy to low-income citizens that can be applied toward telecommunications and broadband services. Not just any telecom or broadband company can participate in the program, however. Approval must be granted first, which was originally provided on a state-by-state basis. A March 2016 rule changed that process, adding the FCC itself as an “additional alternative.”

As the FCC stated when passing that rule change, “This action preserves states’ authority to designate ETCs [eligible telecommunications carriers] to receive Lifeline reimbursement for qualifying voice and/or broadband services, while adding to that structure the option for carriers to seek designation as Lifeline Broadband Providers through the FCC.” This change allowed companies to avoid getting approval from every state that they served.

A total of nine broadband providers were granted approval by the FCC under the new rules, which Pai rescinded earlier this year. In addition, 36 approvals are pending FCC approval and Pai opposes those as well. That would leave 259 out of the more than 900 Lifeline providers who are offering subsidized broadband services, and those same companies provide service to 99.6 percent of those customer receiving a broadband subsidy. The immediate impact is therefore on the remaining 0.4 percent who will need to find another approved provider or lose subsidized broadband services.

Unsurprisingly, there is significant opposition to the rule change. Mignon Clyburn an FCC commissioner and a Democrat, asserted that the result will be fewer choices for low-income Americans in selecting a subsidized broadband provider. “While today’s announcement is not surprising, it is nonetheless deeply disappointing,” Clyburn stated.

Pai counters that argument by alleging significant fraud in the Lifeline program. While the FCC’s March 2016 rule created a national eligibility verifier to help avoid fraud, Pai asserts that the states remain the proper agents for keeping the program clean. For now, at least, it’s with those same states that Lifeline broadband approvals will remain.

Spice up a desktop’s innards with colorful Corsair Vengeance RGB memory sticks

Why it matters to you

PC builders wanting to spruce up the innards of their desktops with colorful hardware now have five new memory kit options from Corsair.

Corsair began selling its five new Vengeance RGB DDR4 memory kits, which range in price between $150 and $600, on March 21. As the name implies, these high-performance DDR4 memory sticks sport a “precision-engineered” light bar across the top of the heat spreader to light up the innards of your desktop with various colors and effects. They can even change color based on system temperatures.

Here are the specs and pricing of all five kits:

CMR16GX4M2A2666C16
CMR16GX4M2C3000C15
CMR32GX4M4A2666C16
Kit contents (size):
2x 8GB
2x 8GB
4x 8GB
Type:
DDR4
DDR4
DDR4
Number of pins:
288
288
288
Performance profile:
XMP 2.0
XMP 2.0
XMP 2.0
SPD latency:
15-15-15-36
15-15-15-36
15-15-15-36
SPD speed:
2,133MHz
2,133MHz
2,133MHz
SPD voltage:
1.2 volts
1.2 volts
1.2 volts
Tested latency:
16-18-18-35
15-17-17-35
16-18-18-35
Tested speed:
2,666MHz
3,000MHz
2,666MHz
Tested voltage:
1.2 volts
1.35 volts
1.2 volts
CAS latency:
C16
C15
C16
Price:
$150
$155
$300

CMR32GX4M4C3000C15
CMR64GX4M8A2666C16
Kit contents (size):
4x 8GB
8x 8GB
Type:
DDR4
DDR4
Number of pins:
288
288
Performance profile:
XMP 2.0
XMP 2.0
SPD latency:
15-15-15-36
15-15-15-36
SPD speed:
2,133MHz
2,133MHz
SPD voltage:
1.2 volts
1.2 volts
Tested latency:
15-17-17-35
16-18-18-35
Tested speed:
3,000MHz
2,666MHz
Tested voltage:
1.35 volts
1.2 volts
CAS latency:
C15
C16
Price:
$305
$600

Each Vengeance RGB memory stick consists of a custom performance printed circuit board, hand-screened integrated circuits, and a built-in heat spreader for cool, superior performance no matter the load. The XMP 2.0 support means that each chip can safely switch between preconfigured, tested Intel XMP profiles for safe overclocking.

“Vengeance RGB’s Corsair Link software control is compatible with a wide range of Intel DDR4 platforms, from dual-channel Z270 and Z170 to quad-channel X99, with more boards adding compatibility every week and AMD Ryzen support planned soon,” the company said.

Corsair added that each Vengeance RGB stick packs “specifically designed” lighting circuitry, meaning users won’t see a memory performance decrease with the lighting enabled. And through the Corsair Link tool, users can synchronize the memory’s lighting and effects with other compatible Corsair products installed in the system. The lighting effects include Static, Rainbow, Breathing, and Color Shift.

According to Corsair, the new Vengeance RGB memory sticks are compatible with third-party motherboard software RGB control. The first motherboard maker to embrace Corsair’s colorful new memory is Gigabyte, which now supports Vengeance RGB lighting in its RGB Fusion app. Other motherboard partners will add support for the Vengeance RGB sticks “soon.”

As a refresher, CAS latency is the time between the memory controller’s initial command to the availability of stored data on the output pins. Naturally, the smaller the number, the faster the memory performance per clock cycle. The four-digit latency numbers actually represent four parameters: CAS latency, Row Address to Column Address Delay, Row Percentage Time, and Row Active Time.

Thus, for an additional $5, customers get less latency and higher memory speeds using the CMR16GX4M2C3000C15 kit than they would with the CMR16GX4M2A2666C16 kit. But the performance increase also increases the power draw, upping the usage to 1.35 volts from 1.2 volts.

Bioware: Expect ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ support info Tuesday

The latest installment of Mass Effect is here, but so far, Andromeda doesn’t look like it’s a high point for the series. A Metacritic score in the 70s puts it well below earlier games that all rate in the 90s, as concerns have been raised over facial animations, squad combat, game-breaking glitches, character romance options and more. Tonight, Bioware tweeted a message from the team behind the game, confirming that feedback is “an important part of our ongoing support of the game,” and promised to share its “immediate” plans on Tuesday, April 4th.

A message from the @masseffect Andromeda team: pic.twitter.com/PRyeZFBzmT

— BioWare (@bioware) March 30, 2017

There aren’t any details yet regarding exactly what will be addressed, but Bioware says developers are”listening, working around the clock to gather information and plan out solutions to improve and build on Mass Effect: Andromeda.” The game’s lead designer also tweeted about various issues the team is working on for upcoming patches but hasn’t provided a timeframe.

This all feels like deja vu after the disappointing launch and subsequent patching process for No Man’s Sky, but with a bigger budget game. We’ll check back on Tuesday to hear about the incoming fixes, but with options like Horizon Zero Dawn and Zelda out there, it’s hard to know if players will wait around to see the game we were expecting and hoping for.

Source: Bioware (Twitter)