It’s robot killing time in Overwatch’s Uprising event

Yesterday, without preamble or rumor, the French trailer for Overwatch’s next event leaked. Fans scrambling over the details discovered it would tell the story of mascot character Tracer’s first mission in the form of a player-vs-AI horde mode of invading robots. A tenuous silence emanated from studio Blizzard. Was this for real? Yes, the Uprising event is happening — and it’s officially live on PC and console.

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Overwatch “Uprising” file status: OPEN.

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⏰📂 https://t.co/jqvaWx0diz pic.twitter.com/12q4e7l2bV

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) April 11, 2017

Uprising is the first event to touch on Overwatch’s extensive lore, which mostly resides in the game’s Pixar-quality standalone cinematics, online comics and backstory entries. It explores Lena “Tracer” Oxton’s first foray on the superhero-stacked peacekeeping team, Overwatch, as they stoically resist the hordes of invading robot omnics. Appropriately, players get a new PvE game type while the event is active. Given how the Capture The Flag mode introduced during February’s Lunar New Year celebration became a permanent fixture, it’s entirely possible that the horde mode stays on after Uprising ends.

But it wouldn’t be Overwatch without a ton of Loot Box fodder. 100 new items are getting thrown in the mix — and, like every event, they won’t be available once it ends. While missing out on the minor errata won’t be a big loss, there are a few incredible character skins looped in, like Genji’s Metal Gear Solid-style suit or McCree’s dark ops Blackwatch outfit. Plus all the light-side Overwatch-team getups for your favorite good guy heroes. In short, it’s a collector’s nightmare. Get grinding.

Even if you could care less about player-vs-AI modes, the event is proof the team wants to take the game into new territory. While Halloween’s Junkenstein zombot brawl was a delightful twist on what had been a PvP-only game, Uprising shows that the team wants to bring the game world’s whispered history out of level backgrounds and into dedicated play. Good luck knocking down those bots, Overwatch fiends.

Source: Blizzard

Yahoo misused millions meant for humanitarian aid, lawsuit claims

Yahoo executives allowed the head of the company’s Human Rights Trust to use $13 million — the bulk of the organization’s funding — for personal gain, according to a federal lawsuit filed today in DC. These allegations aren’t new and the trust itself was dissolved in 2015 after years of suspicious activity, but today’s lawsuit puts Yahoo on the hook for $17.3 million, at least.

The Yahoo Human Rights Trust entered and exited this world under unfortunate circumstances. Yahoo established it in 2007 as part of a settlement with Chinese dissidents who were imprisoned in part because Yahoo cooperated with the Chinese government. The company had revealed the identities of Yahoo email users who were sharing messages Chinese authorities objected to, leading to their arrest and years of detainment, in some cases.

In the fall of 2007, Yahoo paid each affected family $3.2 million, CEO Jerry Yang was reprimanded by Congress live on television, and the company established the Yahoo Human Rights Trust, a $17.3 million fund meant to aid victims of Chinese rights abuses. It elected Harry Wu, a former political activist who spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps, to lead the effort.

Today’s lawsuit was brought by eight plaintiffs who had been imprisoned in China for using the internet to express dissident opinions or share information the government found objectionable, making them “past and future potential beneficiaries” of the Yahoo Human Rights Trust. They claimed Wu misused $13 million of the fund’s $17.3 million, while Yahoo executives turned a blind eye to his actions.

The lawsuit said Wu, who died in 2016, used the Human Rights Trust as a piggy bank, directly paying himself and his wife more than $1 million between 2007 to 2015. It also claimed he spent $4 million on a museum about Chinese prison camps and other real estate for his own non-profit, the Laogai Research Foundation. Plus, the plaintiffs alleged Wu used trust money for a series of personal lawsuits, some of which accused him of mismanaging federal grants and sexual harassment. Just $700,000 of the fund’s $17.3 million was used to directly aid imprisoned dissidents, according to the suit.

Plaintiffs claimed Yahoo executives were aware of Wu’s mismanagement and did nothing, even after they received letters from Laogai Research Foundation employees and others concerned that the trust was being misused.

“He will harm the organization and damage the image of Yahoo,” Wu’s assistant wrote to executives in 2010. “Scandals will be exposed and it would be a heavy blow to the human rights issue in China.”

Meanwhile, Yahoo continued to point to the trust as an example of its commitment to supporting freedom of expression and human rights, according to the suit. As suspicions about the trust’s finances grew, Yahoo dissolved it in 2015.

The plaintiffs in today’s case want Yahoo to replenish the full $17.3 million trust and change its wording so it can benefit only Chinese dissidents, and they’re asking for all money unlawfully spent by Wu to be returned.

Yahoo — which was recently bought by Verizon, endured a handful of scandals and was absorbed into Oath — declined to comment on this story, citing pending litigation.

Russia hopes legitimizing Bitcoin will thwart crooks

Russia’s existing stance on bitcoin and other digital currencies is… less than welcoming. You could face website bans and prison time just for using it. However, the country is making an about-face on the idea. Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev tells Bloomberg that Russia hopes to recognize cryptocurrencies in 2018. Officials still have to determine how they will categorize this virtual money (assets? Cash? Securities?) sometime in mid-2017, but it’s now more a question of “when” than “if.” Of course, this isn’t a purely benevolent move — it’s really about cutting back on crime.

Moiseev pitches this as a bid to fight money laundering. If Russia knows who’s involved in a transaction (as is the case with regular money), it can thwart attempts to disguise crimes by shuttling money abroad. The country has already had success fighting conventional laundering schemes in the past several years, and this would prevent criminals from shifting to digital formats.

This recognition isn’t necessarily going to do much to thwart criminals who use bitcoin to hold devices for ransom (they’re not law-abiding to start with), and it’s certainly not going to affect state-backed hackers that regularly deal in cryptocurrencies. Even so, it’s a big step forward for both everyday Russians hoping to use digital cash as well as people abroad worried that Russia’s policies were letting many criminals go unchecked.

Source: Bloomberg

Drone sales doubled in 2016, proving they’re not a novelty

While it may have been a disappointing holiday season for some drone makers, dollar-for-dollar drone sales in the United States have more than doubled over the past year. According to a new report from market research company the NPD Group, “premium” drones — classified as anything over $300 — were the biggest money makers for the twelve months starting in February 2016, but high-end features like autopilot and “follow-me” mode are now making their way into the best-selling consumer level devices.

During the first two months of 2017, professional-level drones in the $1,000-plus category were the fastest selling, followed by drones and quadcopters in the $300-$500 price range, indicating that just slapping a decent camera on a quadcopter doesn’t cut it anymore. As an NPD analyst notes, autopilot-equipped drones sold five times faster than dumber models and drones with a follow mode sold nineteen times faster during that two month period. Although the FAA now has more than 770,000 registered UAVs in the US, another wave of amateur pilots and hobbyists came online during the 2016 holiday season, when the sudden variety of cheap drones in the $50-$100 range made up about 42 percent of all the unit sales across the country.

Source: NPD Group

Genetically-modified mice could spot next potential flu pandemic before it strikes

Why it matters to you

Deadly flu pandemics have the potential to kill millions of people. This transgenic mouse could be one way of spotting the new deadly flu strain before it strikes.

Once upon a time, canaries were used regularly in coal mining as an early-warning system. That’s because toxic gases like methane or carbon monoxide would kill the bird before they would affect human miners. A quick glance at the canary for signs of distress would therefore be enough to indicate that conditions were either safe or unsafe.

Jump forward to 2017, and researchers in Germany have developed a transgenic mouse for carrying out a not dissimilar task — only this time the aim is to identify new flu virus strains with the potential to cause a global pandemic.

More: Researchers build flu detector that can diagnose at a breath, no doctor required

In order for viruses from the animal population (remember swine and bird flu?) to cross over to humans, influenza strains must mutate to get around the human immune system. In their study, the German scientists were able to breed mice that show human MxA, an important protein in the human immune system. As a result, the generically-modified mice were able to be made susceptible to flu viruses that can be caught by people.

“Whenever a new strain of flu pops up, it has its genome sequenced, which allows researchers to predict whether it’s dangerous or not,” Professor Dr. Peter Stäheli, one of the co-authors of the study, told Digital Trends. “But it’s not always easy to do this, which is why we propose that we take these candidate viruses that should be evaluated for risk and experimentally infect the mice we have been breeding to see whether or not they induce disease.”

From a research perspective, inducing mice to react to human influenza strains allows the scientists on the project to understand more about the ways immune systems fight viruses.

However, the goal is also to use the information to be able to more accurately alert health organizations of influenza strains they should be concerned about. Considering that the famous flu pandemic of 1918 killed between 50 million and 100 million people, this is clearly an important ambition.

“It’s difficult to say exactly what should be done with such information,” Stäheli continued. “Our job is to say whether or not these virus strains are something we should be worried about. There are then health agencie,s which will try to come up with a solution to prepare for something which could become a new pandemic. I can’t predict exactly what they’ll do, but risk assessment is a very important step. It’s an additional help to create a quick assessment of potential problems with particular virus strains.”

Digital collages go retro with app designed to mimic cut-and-paste look

Why it matters to you

Want an old-school collage to match those old-school Instagram filters? Pasted digitally mimics the physical cut-and-paste collage style.

Software companies from Adobe to startups are researching ways to use artificial intelligence to auto clip photos and separate the subject from the background, but a new app has already launched with a simpler idea — auto masking for a classic paper-and-scissors collage look. Pasted, an iOS photo collage app, is designed to mimic the look of a traditional cut-and-paste collage using facial recognition.

To be fair, Pasted isn’t attempting to auto mask out every single hair — it’s an app designed to mimic the look of a physical cut. That means that sections of the background are left intact and the clip is more or less a rough geometrical one, with facial recognition tech simply telling the system where to make the cut. Users can then go back in and edit the crop using the touchsreen and tracing with a finger.

Pasted

More: Sorry DSLRs, but this Adobe program could turn bad smartphone selfies into good portraits

Designed for crafting anything from a mood board to a fun social media collage, the app uses a mix of automated and custom edits. Along with clipping from existing photos (or photos you snap while in the app), the app also includes a number of clip art shapes and cutouts to add to the collage, though some are paid upgrades. Photo filters are also included.

The app comes from James Mercer, the lead singer of The Shins, along with Zeke Howard and Ben Fogarty of The Brigade, a digital agency that has worked with companies like Spotify, Nike, and Bose.

“We love the look of handmade collages; the style is both artistic and the type of thing you might see in an old yearbook,” Mercer said. “Pasted was designed to bring that open-ended, playful approach to your phone or tablet.”

The three developers formed Spruced last year; Pasted is their first app launch. The new company is focused on buildings tools for creators.

“Music initially brought us together,” said Howard, co-founder of Pasted and partner at The Brigade. “Our passion for art has led the three of us to create Pasted together, and we can’t wait to see how creators embrace the app and express themselves through collages.”

The free app is now available from the App Store.

Raspberry Pi 3 can now call upon Microsoft’s voice assistant, Cortana

Why it matters to you

Microsoft is advancing its plans for the Internet of Things by giving developers the ability to utilize Cortana on devices based around Raspberry Pi 3 hardware running Windows 10 IoT Core.

With the Windows 10 Creators Update, the Raspberry Pi 3 will be compatible with Microsoft’s voice assistant, Cortana. This means that creators will be able to use the single-board computer as the foundation for devices capable of responding to vocal commands from users.

The Raspberry Pi will need to be running Windows 10 IoT Core and have the Creators Update installed. Users will be able to interact with Cortana similarly as they can with other hardware and developers can even create customized commands tailored to their project.

Of course, the Raspberry Pi needs to be outfitted with some kind of microphone and speakers so Cortana and the user can hold a conversation. At present, there is not a great deal of choice in terms of components that are compatible with both the hardware and the Creators Update.

More: Which virtual assistant would you hire? Cortana vs. Siri vs. Google Now

The Creators Update only offers support for the Logitech S150 USB speakers, according to a report from PC World. However, there are several varieties of microphone that can do the job, including Microsoft’s LifeCam HD 3000 and other similar peripherals from the likes of VEC and Blue Microphones.

While the present selection is pretty slim, it is entirely possible that more speakers and microphones will add compatibility over the coming weeks and months. Microsoft has big plans for the Internet of Things and making it easy for creators to work with Raspberry Pi hardware and Windows 10 ties into the company’s long-term strategy.

There are several companies vying for supremacy in the IoT sector, but Microsoft is well-poised to use the ubiquitous nature of Windows to its advantage. Cortana compatibility allows creators to bring their Raspberry Pi-based devices into the wider Windows ecosystem and that might give the voice assistant an edge over competing technologies like Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.

Close to the Metal Ep. 38: The Ryzen Roundup

Not every brand can play catch up the way AMD has in the last year. Riding a wave of populist appeal that crested with the RX 480, what we’ve seen is a Red Team resurgence, and for good reason. The chip makers GPUs returned to relevance in striking fashion, and now the Ryzen 5 and 7 chips are attempting to push more cores into more systems, and it may just be working.

But we aren’t gathering today to discuss trajectories or marketing strategies, we’re sitting down to discuss performance and value. In that sphere, AMD’s Ryzen chips compete directly with Intel’s most popular SKUs, with the Ryzen 5 1600X across from the Intel Core i5-7500Km, and Intel’s Core i7-7700K posing a serious threat to the Ryzen 7 1700’s value.

Both chips sport surplus cores, unlocked multipliers, a modern feature set, and a brand new platform and chipsets to round off the package. The biggest question remains whether users need those extra cores now, or if they ever will in the future. Modern games rarely stress more than four cores, although the rise of streaming culture could help AMD’s odds.

Whether you’re gaming or editing video, the Ryzen 5 chips offer an interesting performance proposition that’s impossible to ignore. We’ll talk over the whole series thus far and let you know where the best chips lie.

Close to the Metal is a podcast from Digital Trends that takes a deep dive into computing and PC gaming topics. Each show, we’ll focus in on one topic, and leave no stone unturned as we show off the latest in hardware and software. Whether it’s the latest GPU, supercomputers, or which 2-in-1 you should buy,  we break down the complicated jargon and talk about how user experience is affected in the real world. Please subscribe, share, and send your questions to podcast@digitaltrends.com. We broadcast the show live on YouTube every Tuesday at 1pm EST/10am PST.

Guess which phone American teens are asking their parents to buy for them

Why it matters to you

While they may not have the most purchasing power, American teens go a long way in determining what’s hot and what’s not. And when it comes to smartphones, it’s the iPhone that they’ve crowned king.

Apple’s key to continued success? America’s teens.

They don’t just set trends in high school — the younger generation in the U.S. is determining what’s hot and what’s not both across industries and across the country. And when it comes to smartphones, the teens have spoken — the iEmpire reigns supreme. As per new data from Piper Jaffray gathered as part of its recent U.S. teen survey, 76 percent of youngsters in America who own a phone own an iPhone, a figure that is seven points higher than it was in the spring of 2016. It also makes the iPhone the single most commonly owned device in the teen market today.

And that trend doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. 81 percent of teen respondents said that their next smartphone would be an iPhone, another six percent increase from 75 percent this time last year.

More: Apple aficionado, huh? Here are 20 games you need to play on your Mac

So what makes the iPhone so desirable? Apparently, it’s the ability to stream video, shop online, and send and receive messages. But wait, you say, can’t … all smartphones do that? Sure, but apparently, Apple has some secret sauce that keeps the teen demographic wanting more. And as the iPhone’s popularity has increased, it looks like Android devices are becoming less desirable in teenagers’ eyes. Whereas last year, 17 percent of respondents said their next phone would be an Android, only 13 percent reported the same this year.

Outside of Apple, another “A” company has also won over teenagers in America — 43 percent of respondents said that Amazon was their primary online shopping destination, and 17 percent said that all their shopping now takes place online. But Amazon’s video offerings aren’t quite as popular as those from competitor streaming service Netflix, which was cited by 38 percent of teens as their video viewing platform of choice.

And as for social media, unsurprisingly, Snapchat takes the cake. 39 percent of Jaffray’s study participants said they used Snapchat most often, with Instagram coming in a distant second at 23 percent. Facebook, which is doing all it can to emulate Snapchat these days, tied with Twitter for third place at 11 percent.

So pay attention, tech companies. Apple is doing something really right when it comes to young customers, and it will likely pay off to pay attention to what that is.

Nvidia launches MacOS beta drivers for its latest Pascal graphics cards

Why it matters to you

If you run an old Mac Pro or a Hackintosh, you can now reap the benefits of the latest generation of Nvidia graphics cards.

Nvidia wasn’t kidding or just trying to curry favor when it said it planned to release MacOS-compatible drivers for its latest-generation Pascal graphics cards. Just a few days later, it has followed through on that pledge by debuting the first beta release of drivers that support the new graphics processors (GPU).

The list of Apple systems that can support add-in graphics cards is short and rather antiquated at this point — the last time Apple released an officially supported, upgradeable graphics card system was prior to the 2013 Mac Pro overhaul. However, those users and anyone running a Hackintosh now have the option of more powerful graphics, thanks to the new Pascal drivers.

More: Remember the Mac Pro? So does Apple, and it says a new one is on the way

Until now, the best that those users could hope for is Nvidia’s Maxwell graphics cards, which, while impressive, don’t hold a candle to Pascal in terms of efficiency and raw power. With the new Pascal drivers, they can make use of everything from a GTX 1050 right through to the latest top-of-the-line GPU, the Titan Xp.

Released as part of the WebDriver-378.05.05.05f01 package, the drivers add support for all Pascal cards and can be found at this direct download link, according to 9to5Mac. It could come in handy for MacOS gamers, as well as those who need additional graphical power for rendering 3D effects or video editing.

Alongside older Mac Pro owners and Hackintosh users, there is another group that will likely benefit from this release — those running external graphics cards. Reports of successful implementation with the Thunderbolt-connected Akitio eGPU system have already begun appearing on Reddit, so we may see newer Mac Pros running Pascal graphics cards before long.