New Drone Footage Shows Nearly Complete Apple Park Campus at Night

Apple Park, Apple’s second campus in Cupertino, California, is set to have its grand opening this month, and ahead of its official debut, last minute construction and landscaping is continuing on at a rapid pace.

As part of a mid-month update, drone pilot Duncan Sinfield has shared a new video of Apple Park, this time getting some gorgeous nighttime shots of the campus lit up at night. In the evenings, the lights on the ring-shaped main building stay on, and it’s an impressive sight.

The nighttime shots are towards the end of the video, which also shows the completed parking structures, landscaping work with hundreds of trees being planted, final construction on the main building, furniture installation, and more.

While employees are set to start working at Apple Park at some point in April, landscaping and construction on auxiliary buildings will continue into the summer.

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Dragonstone: Guilds & Heroes – Early Access (Review)

Dragonstone: Guilds & Heroes is a game in progress by Ember Entertainment, the guys that made Empire Z and Bingo Beach (with cats?) and others. The game is available now on Google Play and the Apple app store. It is very kid friendly – until you look at the in-app purchases, more on that later – and is surprisingly complete (and bug-lite!) for a supposedly incomplete game. Anyhow, lets get into this review. Pull out the popcorn, or an axe. I’ll let you choose.

But wait, can I install it?

Well, as for minimum android version, It is tagged with needing 4.1 (Jellybean) or higher. Once installed (and its downloaded all of its extra data) the file size is about 174mb(and slowly climbs,) so keep that in mind if you install it. If you don’t have Google Play Games, don’t worry – the app will complain once, then work fine.

WAIT! I like privacy!

Well, Dragonstone is surprisingly light on permissions.

Nb – Despite having nougat, the app has never asked for the storage permission. It may have use later on, or be removed.

So no unusual permissions, except from vibration – but being able to make you phone vibrate, even if it gets as bad as me not turning on WiFi for two days and then being swamped in YouTube notifications, is not really a privacy matter.

How do i get started?

Ah yes, the tutorials. When you launch the app, It’ll download and install extra data. This took about 30 seconds for me, then it loaded up. Firstly, you are greeted by some warrior, who very briefly explains basic combat to you., while asking you to free a Ranger. Just tap your attack, then the victim.

Image credit – Android Gameplay Uploader

After you free him, you are tasked with adding him to your team (made easy with arrows and forced camera) before continuing.

Next up – You defend your vault from yet more monsters. you also get taught how damage types – specifically, magical and physical – work, as well as how to tell what would be better against some opponents.

Image credit – Android Gameplay Uploader

THEN (YUP! Not done yet!) you get a chest. Yup, this game has the Clash Royale chest system.

As for the rest of the tutorial, it talks about how you can use the bosses you kill to defend your town, and gives you another character and more information for combat. You may notice a blue bar under your health bar (and enemy’s health bar) you can only attack when that is full, and it charges while not full. I’ll admit, both are pretty good mechanics that can make this feel much less turn based, and give a good reason to pursue bosses.

It also explains how rarities and building levels work – You upgrade your town hall to allow building upgrades, then barracks to increase level limits, and camps to add more people to your attacking or defensive parties. The rarities of heroes and bosses dictate their individual level caps, along with how well their stats rise on level up.

But how does it play?

The game handles a lot better than I expected it to. You get 4 resources – Wood is used to build and upgrade, Mana is your stamina (which is stored in your vault) Gold is also used upgrades, but can also be combined with ‘shards’ (dropped from monsters) to create and upgrade weapons, armor, and pets. Lastly, gems are your ‘premium currency’ used to speed up things and get premium goodies.

Then you have the fight modes. The Campaign sees you on a quest to find allies and defeat a variety of enemies over 9 acts. Its a long plot, so not something that you can finish in a couple of hours. Dungeons are timed-event levels that have you fighting tough opponents to get rewards based on what doors are open. Not easy, let me tell you that. Raid mode allows you to send a party off, using raid tickets, to gather resources. They usually take about 4 hours.

World arena is a PvP mode fairly similar to Game of War: Fire age where you are given a global map, and can find a target of your choice to send a party to. when the get to the target village, you can either continue on (Using that base as a checkpoint of sorts) or fight at the village you arrived at. You get to fight other players 3 times a day with no cost, before having to use mana. You also get 100 ‘march tokens’ which increase walking speed for the current trip. they can be stacked too, which can turn long trips into much shorter ones. If you run out, you can buy more with gems.

Say, speaking of buying….

What are the In-app purchases like?

Short answer: Painful.

Long answer: You can buy resources, except wood, for anywhere between £4.69 and £93.99 (other currencies are available) This is close to, but just a little bit cheaper than games like Clash of Clans, or any Nintendo mobile game.

The pricing! THE PRICING! AHHHHH!

Of course, there’s starter bundles. Of course there’s a starter bundle, most games offer these for about a fiver-

Dragonstone, Do you want money? Huh. Thought so. Anyway, the other bundles are:

• Three variations of a hero pack, increasing in size, at £18.99, £46.99, and $93.99.
• Three variations of a building pack (that i assume come with wood,) also increasing in size, at £9.49, £18.99 and £46.99.

Again, other currencies are available, and the prices should be identical.

So, is it worth it?

Honestly? It is a well designed game, with some now common elements blended together to create a fairly unique experience. The IAP’s deter me personally, but if you are not going to buy them, you needn’t worry. I might leave it on my phone to sit around, see how I like it in the long term. However, for a supposedly unfinished game, it seems quite full-featured.

Urbanears Plattan 2 review

We all have a preference on how we listen to audio–music, podcasts, videos, or online meetings–our global society is never far away from a pair of headphones or earbuds.   Choosing the right pair, however, can be a daunting experience.  Hovering right around the USD$50 mark, these mid-range headphones deliver exactly what one would expect in term of quality, convenience, and comfort.

Design

Like many headphones on the market today, these headphones are stylish above anything else.  They are sturdy and come in an array of colors.  They are relatively comfortable for a trip on the train into town, or to listen to audio while writing a paper, but I wouldn’t suggest them for an eight-hour workday.  Although they do not come with a carrying case, they are ultra-portable, since they flip up and the nylon cord can be used to wrap them up.  The cups are only 2.5 inches in diameter and can fold up, and the cord is an impressive 45” long.  The entire headphones weight 130 grams.

Sound

These headphones are not sold as noise-cancelling, but I did notice that it did a great job of muffling outside noises (like most over-the-ear headphones do).  To me, the bass comes through a lot more on these headphones than others that I have used, so if you’re into bass, these might be a good option for you.  For spoken-word, they did the job, but for music, it sounded a little muddled, but not horrible.

One thing that I noticed is these headphones are not quiet.  I typically keep my audio settings right in the middle, but with these, I had to turn them nearly all the way down.  These are loud headphones, which is great in a noisy area or an airplane, but not necessarily ideal in a quiet office.  According to Urbanears’ website, the frequency response is from 10Hz to 20kHz.

Features

The coolest thing about these headphones is what Urbanears calls the Zoundplug. This allows the user to plug the 3.5mm jack into either the left or the right side of the headphones, so depending on the placement of the device, this is incredibly convenient.  Also, because of the secondary jack, you can share your audio with a friend.  The audio will play out of both jacks simultaneously, even to another pair of headphones. If multiple people all have the Plattan 2, you can daisy chain an infinite loop of sound.

The nylon cord also includes a mic and remote, so you can take your calls with these headphones, and also use the single button to skip a track (depending on device/software).

Wrap-up

These headphones are not overly expensive, but for the price, I like them.  They are a decent mid-range headphone and perform as expected.  It may seem trivial, but I love the ability to put the cord on either the right or left side.  The ability to share audio is gimmicky to me, but kind of neat nonetheless.   The sound runs loud, but the quality is okay–neither poor nor excellent.  I would wear them on the train, but not all day long.

Samsung Galaxy S8 AKG earbuds: how good are they?

It would appear that Samsung has yet again made a couple of great phones with the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, which isn’t too surprising considering their recent phones. You know, besides that one. Aside from that setback, Samsung has continued to innovate, pushing the limits of hardware design. And they did so without removing the headphone jack. In fact, the company appears to be doubling down on the standard by including a pair of earbuds in the box. And not just any ol’ pair of ‘buds, either.

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Bundled with your Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus, you’ll also get a $99 pair of earbuds from AKG, a well-known and trusted audio manufacturer whose parent company Harman was bought by Samsung just last year. With a build that’s half-plastic and half-braided fabric, they’re a mix between the plastic cables you’re used to getting with smartphones and a more premium feeling pair. That is, assuming your smartphone even came with headphones (I’m looking at you, Google).

These headphones have slightly angled ear tips that shoot sound right into your ear, but they’re also not great at staying in your ear. Since these come free with the phone, it might be worth it to at least invest in a good pair of memory foam ear tips for better fit and noise isolation since the plastic ones they come with aren’t all that great. On a lighter note, the earbuds do have a well-built control module made of a hard plastic. The buttons have plenty of click to them and you’ll never be left wondering whether you actually pressed it or not.

There’s much more to dive into over the next few weeks and even months when it comes to putting the Galaxy S8 through the ringer, but luckily that isn’t the case with the earbuds. If you want to know all the pros and cons of these $99 ‘buds, be sure to head over to Sound Guys for the full review!

Samsung Galaxy S8 AKG earbuds review [Sound Guys]

Did you buy a Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus? If so, what do you think of the AKG earbuds? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Coal company plans Kentucky’s biggest solar farm for old mine site

Amid the decline of coal power, one fossil fuel company is refurbishing one of its old strip mining sites as a solar farm. Berkeley Energy Group is setting up two sites in eastern Kentucky as test locations to see if the concept is feasible. Early estimates peg the farm’s production at 50 to 100 megawatts, which would yield five to ten times more electricity than the largest existing solar facility in the state.

Berkeley Energy Group is pursuing this trial in partnership with EDF Renewable Energy. The project will be the first solar farm in the Appalachia region, which has seen the coal industry decline for decades. The project won’t explore replacing coal production entirely, a Berkeley Energy Group executive told the Courier-Journal, only to repurpose land that had already extracted its share of the fossil fuel — and create some jobs on the way.

A coal company exploring solar options probably isn’t what Donald Trump had in mind when he campaigned for the mythic — and unreal — “clean coal.” He signed an executive order in March rescinding former president Obama’s environmental protections to ease restrictions on fossil fuel production and reopen federal lands to coal mining as concessions to the energy industry. Berkeley Energy Group’s partnership experiment likely won’t take advantage of these relaxed guidelines, but it will surely be clean.

Via: ThinkProgress

Source: The Courier-Journal

Microsoft’s authenticator app is now all you need to log in with your smartphone

Why it matters to you

Although two-factor is almost always better than a single point of failure, smartphone logins are significantly more secure than simple passwords.

Microsoft has made it possible to use only your smartphone to log in to your Microsoft account, ditching the need for what is traditionally the first line of defense against unwanted account access: the humble password. Although less secure than complete two-factor authentication, Microsoft contends that this is still more secure than just using a password and much less cumbersome for the user.

One of the oldest and still hardest-to-solve questions within any technology space is how do you digitally prove someone is who they say they are? Passwords are one of the most common practices, but as has been shown time and again, they rarely offer much of a hurdle for nefarious actors. Two-factor authentication with a smartphone is becoming more common, but Microsoft has decided that it’s better just by itself.

The problem with a password, Microsoft claims in its explanatory blog post (via Ars), is that passwords can be easily phished, stolen, or forgotten. Consider too that most people already have a pin code or similar security on their phone and the firm believes smartphone logins are secure enough while feeling “natural and familiar.”

While Microsoft’s login system does let you use the authenticator app to double down on security for a number of sites and services, the Microsoft account can be logged into with smartphone authentication only. It is also limited to iOS and Android platforms for now, despite the app being compatible with Windows phones. It may add support for that much smaller user group in the future, we’re told, but only if this feature sees some success.

To be one of the first to trial this smartphone-only authentication system, download or open up the app on your handset, select the drop-down button on your account and choose “Enable phone sign-in.” That’s it.

There will be options for password usage if your phone isn’t with you, which could open up a vector for more traditional hacking. However, these sorts of security features have the potential to benefit the least secure out there, so removing a potential password reuse login system for those users could lead to improved overall digital security for some.

Microsoft is looking for feedback on its new system, so if you have something to say about it, don’t be afraid to let the company know.

AMD quietly launches entry-level Radeon RX 540 mobile graphics chip

Why it matters to you

AMD’s newest mobile graphics option is looking like a decidedly entry-level offering. The Radeon RX 540 will apparently offer better-than-integrated graphics performance and not much more.

AMD recently announced another line of desktop graphics cards based on its Polaris GPU architecture, specifically the Radeon 500 series that ranges from the Radeon RX 550 up to the RX 580. Not all of the details have been released yet, but speculation was that AMD would also release a 500 series GPU for the mobile market.

AMD has now published a product page for its newest mobile graphics option, and it’s looking like a decidedly entry-level offering. The Radeon RX 540 appears likely to be the mobile version of the RX 550, and will offer better-than-integrated graphics performance and not much more, according to The Tech Report.

The chip that AMD is using in both the RX 550 desktop card and the RX 540 mobile version is a small one at 101 mm², and as The Tech Report describes, it’s “exactly half of a full Polaris 11 in some ways.” That means the RX 540 will likely serve as AMD’s budget notebook option going forward and will mostly compete with Intel’s integrated graphics and Nvidia’s low-end mobile options.

In terms of specifications, the Radeon RX 540 will support up to 4GB of GDDR5 memory running on a 128-bit interface and provide up to 96GB/s bandwidth. The chip will offer eight compute units and 512 stream processors, up to 1219MHz frequency, and 16 ROPs. It will also likely be a very low-power chip, drawing something less than the 50 watts required by the RX 550. Overall performance is rated at 1.2 TFLOPS, 39 Gtexels/s, and 19.5 Gpixels/s.

Of course, the Radeon RX 540 will support all of AMD’s most important technologies, including Radeon Chill and ReLive, FreeSync, and Eyefinity. It will also provide HDMI 4K support, 4K H264 Decode and Encode, and H265/HEVC Decode and Encode. Operating system support will include Windows 7 and 10 32-bit and 64-bit, Linux x86_64, and Ubuntu X86 64-bit.

According to AMD’s product page, the Radeon RX 540 has already launched. The company hasn’t indicated which notebook original equipment manufacturers will be utilizing the chip, but given its overall performance, its most likely competitor will be the Nvidia GTX 940MX that’s made its way into a number of machines as an alternative to integrated graphics.

Shock wave? Tsunami? Debris? Here’s how an asteroid will probably kill you

Why it matters to you

Although deadly impacts are rare, this study may help us better prepare for future asteroids.

A new study has answered a question you never knew you had: If a deadly asteroid struck Earth, which one of its effects would most likely kill you?

Conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Southampton in England, the experiment compared seven effects, including heat, flying debris, tsunamis, wind blast, seismic shaking, and cratering. Using a computer model, the researchers simulated an asteroid assault on Earth and ranked the outcomes based on which effects would kill the most people.

“We realized that no study had previously been performed which directly compared the various asteroid impact effects in terms of how harmful they are for human populations,” Clemens Rumpf, lead author of the study, told Digital Trends. “Previous studies have looked at individual impact effects and have made statements about their potential for destruction, but not within the framework of a coherent comparison.”

Asteroid impact effects vary in intensity and kind. Tsunamis, for example, would impact people inland differently and to a lesser extent than those on the coast.

To calculate the power of each impact effect, Rumpf and his team used an online simulator called Impact Earth, bombarding the planet with 50,000 asteroids in various regions.

“Using such a large sample size increased our confidence that we capture many of the impact scenario nuances that the global population distribution, the geography … and asteroid impact conditions … can offer,” Rumpf said.

They then estimated how many fatalities would result from each of these effects. The results showed that wind blasts and shock waves would likely do the most damage, accounting for over 60 percent of the lives lost. Thermal radiation, cratering, seismic shaking, flying debris, and tsunamis followed in the ranking.

“A big take away is that land impactors are much more dangerous than water impactors because the former are naturally closer to population centers,” Rumpf said. He also pointed to the dominance of aerodynamic effects — strong winds and shock waves — that can be seen in infamous impacts like the Tunguska event in 1908, which flattened 770 square miles of Russian forest.

“Such results can be useful when giving advice on how to prepare for an asteroid impact should we find ourselves in that situation,” he added. “Protective places similar to tornado shelters could offer good protection against these types of hazards.”

The researchers published a paper detailing their study today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Tribeca Film Festival to stream events with Godfather cast, others on Facebook

Why it matters to you

Can’t get tickets to the Tribeca Film Festival. Facebook Live has you covered. The festival will stream 12 star-studded discussions on its Facebook page.

Whoever said you can not learn anything by spending hours on Facebook lied to you. Starting on Thursday, the Tribeca Film Festival will live-stream 12 star-studded discussions via Facebook Live on its Facebook page.

Among the events you will be able to watch on Facebook is a discussion with the cast of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the first of the two films. The discussion will include the films’ Academy Award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola, as well as acst members Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and Robert De Niro. The talk starts at 8:10 p.m. ET on April 29 as part of the festival’s Closing Night gala and is already sold out, so it’s Facebook or bust if you want in.

Girls creator Lena Dunham and the show’s executive producer Jenni Konner will talk with Superstore star America Ferrera about the HBO show that just cam to an end, as well as their experiences in the entertainment industry. Retired NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and animator Glen Keane will talk with Michael Strahan, an NFL Hall of Famer and co-host of Good Morning America, about the new Dear Basketball animated short film Bryant and Keane worked on together. Both of those discussions are part of the Tribeca Talks: Storytellers series, which will also feature conversations between Tom Hanks and Bruce Springsteen, among others.

These talks will provide some of the earliest insight about the next TV shows and films you could be binging on. Most of the discussions will take place following an accompanying film or episode screening, which will not be featured in the Facebook Live stream. Hulu will world premiere its new drama series The Handmaid’s Tale at the festival on Friday prior to a discussion with the creators and cast. National Geographic will world premiere its new show Genius about Albert Einstein; executive producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are among those included in the subsequent discussion.

The Tribeca Film Festival kicks off Wednesday. You can find the full schedule of events that will streamed on Facebook Live here.

Facebook talks connectivity through drones, helicopters at F8 2017

Why it matters to you

Facebook’s latest connectivity tech could deliver internet in rural regions, disaster areas, and dense cities.

Facebook wants to connect the billions of people in the world who lack an internet connection, and it’s launching a volley of solutions at the problem. At the F8 developer summit on Tuesday, Facebook provided updates on its Aquila drone project, its Tenna-tether portable antenna, and its Terragraph node system.

With its Acquila drones, Facebook said it set a record with millimeter-wave radio, the technology it’s using to beam internet from the stratosphere to terrestrial microwave dishes. Engineers achieved a speed of 36Gbps from a distance of more than 10km, about double last year’s maximum speed of 20Gbps (and fast enough to stream 4,000 Ultra HD (4K) movies simultaneously).

Aquila still has a ways to go — Facebook hasn’t tested the improved millimeter-wave technology on one of its drones yet, instead opting to use a Cessna aircraft circling about four miles away. But it believes that airborne millimeter-wave radio has potential. “The ground-to-air record modeled, for the first time, a real-life test of how this technology will be used,” Yael Maguire, a director for Facebook’s connectivity program, wrote in a blog entry posted during the keynote presentation.

Facebook is also developing a short-term connectivity solution for emergencies: “Tether-tenna.” The nascent project consists of a Volkswagen Beetle-sized helicopter and flexible antenna that can be “deployed immediately and operate for months at a time.” It’s in the early stages, but Maguire said the Tether-tenna will eventually be able to tap into a fiber line, plug into an electrical source, and then rise hundreds of feet in the air to broadcast a signal.

The challenges are myriad, Maguire said. Tether-tenna prototypes have only been able to operate up to 24 hours continuously, and they need to be able to survive high winds and lightning.

A more permanent solution is Terragraph, Facebook’s effort to replace fiber connections in “dense urban areas.” Speaking onstage at the F8 conference, Facebook vice president Jay Parikh described it as a “multi-node wireless system focused on bringing high-speed connectivity” to cities.

Terragraph, like Aquila, relies on open wireless standards to beam millimeter radio waves between wireless nodes. But unlike Acquila, the transmitters are mounted on telephone poles and Ethernet or Wi-Fi hubs mounted on the exteriors of buildings. Facebook said a single distribution node currently maxes out at 2.1Gbps, but that it expects speeds to improve as testing continues.

It’s not perfect. Millimeter wave signals are prone to interference from water, and can’t travel through walls or windows. But ARIES, a new antenna design from Facebook’s Connectivity Lab, will help mitigate the issues. It’s single-base station is capable of eliminating noise and supporting as many as 24 different devices on the same spectrum, Facebook said.

“Slow internet speed is especially prevalent in developing economies where mobile networks are often unable to achieve data rates better than 2G” Facebook explained in a blog post. “Developed economies are hampered by Wi-Fi and LTE infrastructure that is unable to keep up with the exponential consumption of photos and video at higher and higher resolutions.”