Where can you stream Microsoft’s 2 May event and what to expect

Microsoft is holding a hardware event on 2 May.

The company promised we can “learn what’s next” at the event and is promoting the whole thing with the hashtag #MicrosoftEDU. Microsoft is rumoured to be taking on Google during presentation, with maybe even its own cloud-based version of Windows 10 and Chromebook-like devices to run it. Here’s everything you need to know, including when and where you can watch the livestream.

Join us this Tuesday at 9:30AM ET for a livestream to learn what’s next. Add it to your calendar here: https://t.co/5FMz4mwro5 #MicrosoftEDU pic.twitter.com/gdsIASd0GX

— Microsoft (@Microsoft) April 28, 2017

• Microsoft will now release major Windows 10 updates twice a year

When is the #MicrosoftEDU event?

Microsoft’s next major event begins in New York City on 2 May 2017 at 9:30 am EST (6:30 am PST/5:30 pm GMT)

Where can you stream the event?

You can visit this page to watch a live-stream of the event’s main presentation, if you’re not able to attend in person. The stream is also available here. We will update this piece with a video embed when it becomes available.

What can you expect from Microsoft?

Microsoft tends to launch new hardware – specifically, Surface devices – at events in New York, but instead of a new Surface Book or Surface Pro, we expect the company to focus on education and maybe even show how it will compete with Google’s Chromebooks.

Windows 10 Cloud

Microsoft is rumoured to unveil a new version of Windows 10 called Windows 10 Cloud or Windows 10 S. Leaks have been popping up about this version for more than a year, suggesting it only supports apps from the Windows Store and doesn’t require high-powered hardware – much like Chromebooks. It’ll apparently look identical Windows 10 and will have improved battery life.

Chromebook-like hardware

To go with this new version of Windows 10, Microsoft may unveil new hardware. These could be the company’s long-awaited Chromebook rivals. We might even see a clamshell design for a Surface Book 2-type device. There’s a lot of unknowns right now, but we’ll likely see Microsoft’s usual hardware partners also introduce their own laptops at reasonable price points.

Education angle

Again, this is an education event, so expect an education angle.

Microsoft might pitch its Windows 10 Cloud or Chromebook-like devices as being perfect for students. In doing so, it could take the stage to introduce education-focused features in Windows. The Creators Update is all about creative effects and mixed reality applications, for instance. Plus, don’t forget Microsoft offers many products that students love (think Minecraft and OneNote).

These apps may even be offered in new hardware like a cloud-based Surface Hub. We also think Microsoft could do something with Microsoft Office. It’s already a key aspect to its education angle. Although it offers web-based versions of Office in order to tackle Google Docs, it could do more. So, will we see a full version enter the Windows Store so that its Chromebook-like devices can run Office?

Either way, we expect to see what’s next when it comes to Office.

• What’s new in Windows 10 Creators Update?
• The best new features from the Creators Update

Latest HTC U 11 leak shows almost everything the phone will feature

Want to know what HTC’s next flagship will feature?

HTC may be struggling when compared to Samsung, but that’s not stopping it from releasing more handsets this year. It will soon expand its HTC U lineup with a new flagship called HTC U 11. And Pocket-now has posted what it described as an almost-complete list of features taken from a leaked promotional image, and it mentions everything from a 5.5-inch Quad HD display to Snapdragon 835 processor. 

• HTC U 11 vs Samsung Galaxy S8: What’s the rumoured difference?
• HTC Ocean will be known as HTC U 11
• Best upcoming smartphones: The phones to look forward to in 2017

The upcoming phone will be the third HTC U-branded handset in a year, following the the HTC U Play and HTC U Ultra. Its leaked promotional image shows that it will likely feature 6GB RAM, a 12-megapixel rear camera with f/1.7 aperture, a 16-megapixel front camera with f/2.0 aperture, BoomSound, Hi-Res Audio, 3D Audio recording, IP57 certification, 4G LTE, NFC, and dual-nano SIM.

Pocket-now

Other specs listed include Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, and fingerprint recognition. There’s no word on the battery or headphone jack, but rumours have suggested it’ll pack a 3000mAh battery and will likely ditch the headphone jack. Check out Pocket-lint’s rumour round-up to see what else the phone is expected to feature. Keep in mind we’ll know for sure soon.

The HTC U 11 is set to be officially announced on 16 May 2017.

How to be a human being in the comments: A refresher

So it has been a long time since we last posted comments guidelines and standards. To put it in perspective, the last time we talked comments with y’all, the iPhone 5 hadn’t been released, Android fans were using Jelly Bean and Facebook had just gone public. A lot can change in the course of nearly five years, but one thing that’s remained constant is our dedication to our readers. To that end, we wanted to take a minute to answer some questions, explain some features and, frankly, lay down the law when it comes to the comments section and our social channels. Pull up a chair and read on to find out what you need to know about Engadget’s comments and community.

Why do we have a comments section?

Comments sections get a bad rap: Everyone is familiar with the adage “Don’t read the comments,” and that didn’t become a common refrain because comments sections are full of hugs and puppies. Even so, there are some genuinely interesting conversations happening in our comments section, from personal experiences with gadgets to incredibly technical explanations of hardware, and we’re often impressed by what you have to say.

We have a comments section because we sincerely enjoy having a place for our readers to discuss the articles we write — and our readers often provide us with insights that add to the story, shed light on new angles or help us update the facts in the post. Many of you rely on the comments for additional information and alternative opinions, all while many other publications have opted to shutter their comments sections (or just use Facebook). We’ve kept ours open because it’s valuable to you as readers, which makes it important for us too.

While the rules of internet interactions naturally vary from one website to another (and in some cases are unclear), we took the time to rethink our guidelines and have laid out a detailed policy on what does and doesn’t fly here.

Commenting basics: features and functions

First, a few technical details. While the basics of logging in and posting a comment are largely the same as they’ve always been, there are a few handy features in our current system that are worth highlighting.

Editing and deleting. The options to edit or delete your comment can be found in a drop-down menu; the arrow for the drop-down menu appears when you mouse over the upper-right area of your comment. (Mousing over the upper-right of someone else’s comment will allow you to report that comment; more on that below.)

All links require approval. This means that any comment containing a URL will be held in “pending” until it has been approved by a moderator. Moderators will refuse comments with links that are broken or that direct to spammy or inappropriate content. We know the delay in approving comments with links isn’t ideal, but it helps keep a large amount of spam from getting through. Also, please don’t resubmit a link over and over again; each one will still wind up in pending.

Banned words. We have a list of banned words that will automatically remove a comment. No, you cannot see this list — but we will tell you that it largely consists of insults, swears and name-calling-type stuff. Any comment with an f-bomb is going to get pulled (no matter how you spell it), but we’re pretty lax about the other “blue” words as long as you’re not swearing at somebody.

Notifications. If you do not want to get an email notification when other commenters like your comment, reply to your comments or mention (@) you, you can disable all of that in your profile settings. (You can access settings by clicking your username next to the alert bell.)

Commenting basics: behavior

There is pretty much one golden rule here, and it’s “don’t be a jerk.” Please, don’t be rude or mean or nasty. We appreciate that you care about these topics and our stories (hey, we care too). But no matter how fired up the discussion, please be civil.

Don’t jump down people’s throat because they made a mistake or disagree with you. Don’t be insulting. Don’t call people names. Don’t make personal attacks. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Try not to jump to conclusions or make assumptions. Have some patience and compassion; everyone comes here to be a part of the community. No one comes here to be ridiculed or belittled. Treat your fellow community members and the Engadget staff with respect. Be nice, and if you can’t be nice, then at least be tolerant.

There’s a comment that is offensive. What can I do?

Please report it! The “report” button can be found on any comment by mousing over the upper-right corner of that comment; a drop-down arrow will appear, and from there you can select the “report” button to alert our staff. (We don’t currently have tools for community moderators, but we haven’t ruled out the idea.)

Every comment that’s reported to us is vetted by moderators; we delete those that we deem inappropriate or feel are in violation of our guidelines. Rest assured, we will not delete comments just because they’re argumentative or because someone has a different opinion than you. For more details on why comments get deleted, see the list below.

There’s a problem with the article

Every single writer and editor for Engadget does their best to produce stories that are clearly written, concise and informative, not to mention error free. However, every writer and editor at Engadget is also a fallible human being capable of making the occasional misstep. If you see a mistake in an article, be it a typo, an imprecise technical detail or a broken link, please do us a solid and let us know (because we’d obviously like to fix it!). You can holler at us by adding #articleerror to your comment, which will flag your comment for our moderators.

There’s a problem with the comments section

If, however, you are experiencing a problem with the comments system or functionality itself, then please let us know by emailing us with as much detail as possible at commentsupport@engadget.com, so we can alert the developers.

Comment deletion

We prefer to keep a light hand when moderating, but there are still several reasons we might remove your comment. Here are some of the most common reasons for deletion.

• Spam of any kind (human or robot) is always deleted. Trying to sell something in the comments, pitching us about your product or repeatedly posting discount links and referral codes all count as spam. Posting the same comment over and over again also constitutes spamming.
• We don’t currently ban all swearing by default, but all f-bombs are going to get caught automatically by the banned-words filter. Profanity directed at another person — be it a commenter or staff member — will pretty much always be deleted.
• Comments that are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic or otherwise hateful will be removed. Suggestions that someone is mentally ill, disturbed or should “take their meds” will be removed. (Let’s just assume everyone’s already taken their meds, OK?)
• Any comment that contains a threat, that threatens violence or that encourages self-harm or violence toward someone will be deleted. Comments that threaten other commenters or staff members will result in that member being banned from the community.
• Name-calling. Perhaps unsurprisingly, name-calling in a comments thread does not encourage a positive response. You should be able to have a conversation without resorting to name-calling — and that includes Engadget’s writers and staff members. Our banned-words filter will automatically pull comments with a variety of ruder terms, so keep it classy.
• You’re just slagging on us. If all you have to contribute to the conversation is how much we suck, are biased, don’t deserve our jobs, can’t perform our jobs, are shills and/or have been bought out by Apple/Samsung/Microsoft/Google, then don’t be shocked if your comment disappears (or, in extreme cases, if you are banned altogether). We’re perfectly willing to hear constructive criticism, but we are also under no obligation to let you insult us without merit.
• Comments that are unnecessarily political, polarizing or incendiary are at risk for removal. Please don’t jump into a thread just to say things to incite other people or tick them off; that’s pretty trolly (and boring). Please don’t make generalizations or stereotypes to draw conclusions about another commenter (i.e., “all you millennials/liberals/Trump voters”).
• We reserve the right to delete comments that are off topic. This includes comments that complain about comments being closed on another story; hijacking the thread to a different article only reinforces the feeling that we were right to keep comments closed on the initial article.

In short, we want the comments section to be like an interesting conversation happening in a college classroom: thoughtful, respectful, insightful, funny and interesting. What we don’t want is a comments section that’s like a fight on a kindergarten playground: pushy, mean, spiteful and requiring adult intervention.

We want our comments section to be a place where our readers and staff can interact civilly, learn from one another and participate in an awesome community. And as much as we know some of you like to break out the popcorn and watch the fanboy fights, that’s not really the kind of community we’re looking to host.

Articles without comments

Here’s the real deal, straight up: We are not required to have a comments section on Engadget. Likewise, we’re not obligated to have comments open on every article. While we strongly prefer to give the benefit of the doubt and leave comments open on all stories, there are going to be some instances where it makes more sense to leave comments closed.

Our desire to leave comments open comes down to a number of factors, including the proportion of comments that have violated our rules or guidelines, how many moderators are available and how contentious the comments section has gotten on articles on similar topics. A closed comments section is not an invitation to call us names, hijack other threads or otherwise pout about it. We don’t want to close comments and will only do so when absolutely necessary. Please respect that and know that the best way to make sure comments sections stay open is to treat one another respectfully and follow our guidelines.

“This is just censorship and you’re afraid of hearing feedback”

This is a common complaint we hear when we delete comments or close comments sections. And to this we have to say: Nah, man. Let’s be clear about this: Commenting on our site is not a right of law passed down to you in the Constitution, and Engadget’s comments section is not an open forum where you can say whatever you please. Engadget is a news site and a business, which along with its parent company, AOL, allows commenting in order to further the discussion, engage our readers and let interested parties have a good time. Commenting here is a privilege, not a right, and if you must be nasty, well, then … it’s a big internet and you can do that on your own website. And to be frank, if we really didn’t want to hear feedback from our readers, we wouldn’t have a comments section at all.

Banning

If you create a user history of trolling, harassment or offensive behavior, or if you only visit our comments section to act like a total jerk, congratulations! You will get banned. That means your user name, email and potentially IP address will all be barred from our system and you will no longer be able to comment.

What do we mean by “trolling, harassment or offensive behavior”? Hate speech of any kind is always unacceptable. If you just dropped by to say something nasty concerning someone’s race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age, don’t be surprised when you find your privileges revoked. If your only purpose in life is to comment on all of our articles to tell us how much we suck and deserve to be fired, then bye, Felicia. If you can’t seem to have a discussion without attacking another commenter, using insults, calling people names or cursing at someone, then you’re outta here. If at any point you threaten another user or an editor with any form of physical violence or encourage them to commit acts of self-harm, you are no longer welcome here.

In conclusion

We know that the comments section has been through a lot of bumps and bruises over the past few years, and we’re dedicated to making upgrades and changes that will improve the experience for all of our users. You can help make the comments a better place by observing our guidelines and reporting comments that show disregard for our community. We don’t want Engadget to be just another site where people “don’t read the comments” — we want the comments to be a reason to come to Engadget.

The federal courts have already given up on net neutrality

The head of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, has not been quiet about his plans to gut net neutrality, and the US legal system is taking him seriously. A federal court on Monday denied a group of internet service providers the chance to re-argue their case against net neutrality rules implemented by former President Barack Obama’s administration. The judges’ reasoning? The FCC is about to get rid of those regulations anyway.

The service providers had requested an en banc review of net neutrality rules, but the DC Circuit Court of Appeals said that would simply be a waste of time.

“En banc review would be particularly unwarranted at this point in light of the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the FCC’s Order,” the ruling reads. It further says the court “could find itself examining, and pronouncing on, the validity of a rule that the agency had already slated for replacement.”

Last week, Pai laid out his plans to dismantle net neutrality as follows:

• Strip the internet of its Title II “common carrier” status, which means it’s treated like a public utility. Instead, make the internet a Title I “information” service, dramatically reducing regulation in the industry.
• Remove the “internet conduct standard,” which enables the FCC to investigate zero-rating schemes like AT&T’s Sponsored Data and Verizon’s FreeBee Data 360. These plans exclude certain services from monthly data allowances.
• Review 2015’s “bright-line rules” that make it illegal for carriers to block access to legal content online, arbitrarily throttle internet traffic, or create “fast lanes” for certain services.

These changes would also place the Federal Trade Commission, not the FCC, in charge of privacy complaints. Pai’s plan will go to an initial vote on May 18th and the FCC will technically be open to public feedback, though a wave of opposition is unlikely to sway the commission.

The ISPs can now take their case against net neutrality to the Supreme Court, if they still think that step is necessary.

Source: recode, The Hill

Tynker app teaches kids Apple Swift with coding games

Coding is as essential to our kids’ education as math and history lessons, with tech leaders, presidents and coding organizations touting the importance of the skill. Learning how to create the stuff on which our modern society runs will ready future generations to make the things that the rest of us will use. Tynker, a company that creates self-paced and school-based coding lessons for kids, has partnered up with Apple’s Everyone Can Code program to provide two new courses for students in Kindergarten to 5th grade. The free curriculum — available via the free iTynker iPad app — is also integrated across two new curriculum modules for teachers in iBooks.

Apple’s efforts in encouraging children to learn coding skills — and its own Swift language — isn’t new. It has partnered with Tynker in the past to provide coding “camps” in its retail stores, while the Swift Playgrounds app teaches coding skills by way of game-like activities. This new partnership reinforces these educational efforts with new content to help younger students learn the concepts behind Swift, while the teacher guides give educators practical coding lessons along with offline activities to use in the classroom. There are 115 levels of “coding puzzles and do-it-yourself projects” in the curriculum, which starts with “Space Cadet” for K-2 students to solve puzzles set in space. “Dragon Spells” is for students in grades 3-5, tasking them to train dragons and collect treasures while they learn.

The Tynker iPad app is available in the App Store for free. Students are able to share their work in a special Tynker-led community, while teachers can keep track of individual student progress. Teachers can create their own Tynker accounts for themselves and their students for free, as well.

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: Tynker

The ‘mother of WiFi’ gets her due in a new documentary

Twenty minutes into Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, I realized I know the actress for an embarrassing reason. We’re introduced to one of the defining moments of Lamarr’s career. She appears nude, hiding in some bushes in a 1933 black-and-white Czech-Austrian movie called Ekstase (or Ecstasy), which I first saw exhibited in a German art museum earlier this year. Back then, as executive producer Susan Sarandon put it, “She was the first woman to reenact an orgasm on screen!” I wish I knew Lamarr for a nobler reason, but I was only one of many who associated the actress with her less-savory exploits.

Whether or not you remember Lamarr, and regardless of what you know her for, her achievements are many — that much Bombshell makes clear. She was a hardworking actress, a determined producer, a patriotic supporter of American troops, a wife (many times over), an unpredictable mother and an icon of Hollywood glamour. But one title Lamarr never got real recognition for during her lifetime was that of inventor.

Inspired by her father, who would explain how things worked, a young Lamarr took apart and reassembled any gadget she could get her hands on. She then moved from tearing apart music boxes to coming up with water-soluble tablets that created instant sodas. According to the film, Lamarr even helped Howard Hughes design a more aerodynamic structure for airplane wings by combining the shapes of fish fins and bird wings.

But those creations are paltry compared to Lamarr’s wartime invention that earned her the title of “mother of WiFi”. She came up with a method of sending radio signals by making them jump between channels called frequency-hopping out of a desire to help the Navy deploy radio-guided torpedoes without enemy interference during World War II. Lamarr teamed up with composer George Antheil to design a method using piano-rolls to send and receive the scrambled signals, and the pair received a patent for their work.

After the patent lapsed about 20 years later, Lamarr and Antheil’s schematics for their proposed frequency-hopping system became public domain. Other engineers were then able to study and interpret the design, and it eventually formed the backbone for securing wireless-communication protocols like Bluetooth, WiFi and CDMA networks.

But Lamarr and Antheil never got timely and appropriate credit for the invention. From the beginning, Bombshell shows how Lamarr’s beauty and scandals kept many from appreciating her more-intellectual achievements. And sadly, in its effort to cover every aspect of Lamarr’s eventful life, the documentary doesn’t spend quite enough time putting into perspective the impact of her invention.

Through a mix of recently discovered taped interviews with Lamarr, archival footage as well as quotes from her friends and family, Bombshell pieces together a story mostly told from the inventor’s perspective. It paints a picture of a misunderstood woman whose genius was overshadowed by her beauty and her many escapades. The documentary says many things about Lamarr: how she was a pioneer in Hollywood, the reasons she eventually became a recluse and the ways her life would have been better had she gotten the recognition she deserved. It even shows Lamarr as a hardworking immigrant who contributed greatly to US military technology — a tale that’s exceptionally relatable and timely today. But Bombshell fails to pick one message to drive home.

In attempting to push so many ideas to the viewer, Bombshell becomes almost too convoluted to follow. But first-time director Alexandra Dean manages to string together a chronological narrative thread, peppered with humorous quips from charming interviewees like Mel Brooks, that holds my attention and keeps the story afloat. The film closes with a statement that the frequency hopping invention’s market value is now an estimated $30 billion, and a few lines from Kent M. Keith’s poem The Paradoxical Commandments as narrated by Lamarr to her son: “The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.”

It’s an incredibly strong way to end a story about overlooked achievements, even if that’s the first time that idea appears in the film. Bombshell isn’t the first to explore Lamarr’s contributions to technology, nor will it be the last (actress Diane Kruger and at least one other member in the audience at the film’s Tribeca premiere are working on related productions). Because it lacks a coherent message, the documentary risks being forgotten, just as its predecessors and subject have. Still, it’s a comprehensive study of the life of a multifaceted and incredibly talented woman and is worth a look when it premieres on PBS’s American Masters series later this year.

Follow along with all of our Tribeca 2017 coverage here.

Ford-backed Bridj shuts down its on-demand shuttle service

When Ford backed the on-demand shuttle service Bridj, the future looked rosy: there would soon be a day where an economical trip to the airport involved just a few taps on your phone. However, it now looks like that vision will have to wait. Bridj has revealed that it’s shutting down after failing to close a deal for a “sizable transaction” with a “major car company” (not necessarily Ford). Both sides expected to clinch the agreement, Bridj chief Matt George says, but it didn’t go through.

The service wasn’t far-reaching when it started in Kansas City and went on to cover Austin, Boston and Washington, DC. This is an abrupt end, however. And whichever company was involved in the deal, Ford will emerge relatively unscathed. The automaker recently bought a shuttle service, Chariot — it can devote its attention to an on-demand business it controls instead of supporting a partnership. It won’t be shocking if Ford fills the gaps created by the shutdown, especially as it prepares for a day when many more people don’t own cars.

Via: The Verge

Source: Matt George (Medium), Bridj

3D audio will make the next ‘Doctor Who’ episode even scarier

This Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who is a spooky affair called “Knock Knock,” and it’s getting a special binaural edition online immediately after the episode’s premiere. Anyone wearing headphones (it’s best experienced with headphones) can enjoy the 3D “surround sound” effect as they follow the Doctor and Bill on their latest adventure.

What’s so special about binaural audio? It’s a recording technique that typically uses a mannequin’s head and two microphones, one in each ear, to create a 3D stereo sound effect that mimics how we hear naturally. Although musicians and tech companies have experimented with binaural audio since the 1800s, it’s never been more than a novelty. That could change soon, however, with the rise of virtual reality. VR needs 3D audio to build a truly immersive experience, and some companies are turning to binaural recording to achieve that effect. Last year at CES, for example, Sennheiser debuted Ambeo Smart Surround headphones, which uses two in-ear microphones to capture and play back sound as easily as one captures video on a smartphone.

If you’re interested in trying it out, grab some headphones and check out this Doctor Who preview clip. For comparison, here’s a link to the standard audio version of the same clip.

Via: The Verge

Source: BBC

Avegant’s light field tech gives hope to a mixed-reality future

Virtual reality has arrived. With high-end gear like the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive and PS VR (and mobile-friendly models like the Gear VR and Google’s DayDream) on the market for well over a year now, it’s safe to say that VR is here to stay. The state of augmented reality, however, is far murkier. While much has been said about products like Microsoft’s Hololens and the mysterious Magic Leap, consumer-friendly AR still seems decades away. But a recent demo from a Bay Area startup has given me hope that the future of AR could actually be a lot closer than we thought.

The startup is Avegant, a company you might already know. A few years ago, it created the Glyph, a personal entertainment center that looks (and acts) like a pair of headphones. At the same time as it was making Glyph, however, the swirl and excitement around VR and AR was in the air, and it was hard to ignore. “Everything was moving forward to more wearable computing devices,” said Edward Tang, Avegant’s CEO. “So we looked into it.”

The team soon found that there was a fundamental problem with much of the transparent, mixed reality displays out there — and it’s that all of them have a fixed focal point. You could pin virtual things to a wall and manipulate them remotely with controllers, but you couldn’t get up close. “The real experience I want to have is, I want to be able to just walk up to something and hold it or touch it, and have something feel like it was right in front of me,” says Tang. “At the end of the day, if you want to display something within about a meter, the focus needs to be correct.”

The solution, as Avegant announced last month, was to look into light field technology. The technology displays multiple focal points at the same time, meaning that objects appear blurry and sharp depending on your focus. In short, it mimics the way you actually see in the real world.

Light field display technologies already exist — it’s the same tech that Magic Leap allegedly uses — but Avegant says that those aren’t really feasible in the very near term. “They require crazy computers and a lot of mechanical active optics,” says Tang. “There are some pragmatic problems between building a product like that and actually shipping it in the next few years.”

So Avegant invented something new. It’s a brand new optical component that the company says is a whole new way of generating light field. The key difference, according to Tang, is that Avegant’s tech would be able to use existing manufacturing techniques and the existing supply chain. “This allows us to scale in volume.”

The company wouldn’t go into detail as to what the magic component actually is, but I did get to try out a demo headset showcasing the tech. I was brought to a dimly lit room in Avegant’s office in Belmont, CA that was outfitted with several tracking sensors along the walls and ceiling. Tang then handed me the headset, a pretty rough engineering prototype with tape along the side and thick cables connecting it to a nearby PC.

My first demo took place in the solar system. Almost immediately, I was struck by how clear everything was. The asteroids floating through space looked pin sharp — certainly sharper than any HD display I’ve ever seen. Also, unlike that of Microsoft’s Hololens, the field of view on Avegant’s prototype was enormous. It felt like I had a 100-inch TV in front of my face. One of the reasons for this clarity is Avegant’s previous experience with retinal imaging. the image of that solar system was projected directly into my eyes with an array of tiny micromirrors.

As I started to walk around, I found that at certain angles, I could actually shift my focus from one planet to another, blurring out the surrounding environment. For example, when I was standing next to the Earth, the moon orbited right in front of me. When I focused directly on the moon, the Earth faded into the background. And when I then shifted my gaze back on the Earth, the moon blurred into the foreground. I was a little shocked and surprised by it, and I remember exclaiming out loud, “This is so weird!” But of course, it shouldn’t be weird at all, because this is how we normally see. It’s just that I’m not used to looking at virtual objects this way.

I had the same experience in the next demo, which simulated the feeling of being in an ocean, with fish and turtles floating around me. What’s more, a school of fish would swim in and around a chair, as if they were using it as a hiding spot. Ripples of water would cascade around chairs and tables. It all felt so real, as if I was really under the sea. Avegant tells me that this was done with the help of those tracking sensors and the fact that they mapped the physical objects ahead of time.

Perhaps the most surreal experience I had was when I interacted with a virtual human being. She had a bit of an uncanny valley vibe; she looked real, but not quite real enough. As I walked closer toward her, she smiled, and I could actually see the freckles on her face and the details of of her eyelashes. As I walked away, her facial expression changed to one of sadness and confusion. Tang says this is an example of how you could have social experiences in AR. The proof-of-concept is certainly there, though I have to admit the experience was a little too strange for me.

Of course, the headset shown here is still in its prototype stage, but Tang tells me that the technology is actually pretty mature. There is no reason that it can’t be made available to consumers today. Indeed, the computer that the prototype was attached to was just a standard gaming PC. The headset can even be outfitted and adapted to mobile chipsets, like that of NVidia’s Tegra lineup or the latest Snapdragon processor.

“We’re no strangers to building cutting-edge display technologies and actually bringing them to market in a manufacturable and affordable way,” says Tang. “We’re not a science company, we don’t just do research. We actually want to take these concepts and turn them into manufacturable things.”

Still, Avegant is a small fish in an increasingly big pond. It simply doesn’t have the mindshare of bigger, more established entrants in AR. Magic Leap has millions more in investment money and a whole lot more hype, and even though Microsoft’s Hololens doesn’t offer as good of an experience, it’s at least an actual product that developers can get their hands on. What’s more, Facebook has announced that it’s working on AR glasses of its own, which could very well rival anything Avegant plans to do.

Yet, Avegant’s light field technology is still incredibly promising. Tang even showed me a mockup of what the final Avegant light field headset might look like, and it’s a slim and lightweight affair that’s miles more stylish than what Hololens looks like right now. Magic Leap is perhaps the closest to what Avegant is proposing, but hardly anyone has seen it in action and it doesn’t look like it’ll be a reality any time soon.

Yes, Avegant doesn’t have the mindshare of the bigger companies mentioned here, but at least it’s attempting to push AR forward. Even if the company doesn’t eventually make it to the finish line, it could very well have offered a glimpse into what affordable consumer-ready AR will actually look like.

Airbnb agrees to register all hosts in San Francisco

Airbnb, HomeAway and San Francisco have finally set aside their differences and figured out how to automatically register all hosts in the city. The house-sharing service sued the City by the Bay in federal court after an ordinance was passed by supervisors that levied fines against short-term rental companies that allowed guests to book with unregistered hosts.

In 2015, San Francisco passed a law that required all short-term rental hosts to register with the city. According to San Francisco only about 2,100 of the estimated 8,000 hosts have placed their properties in the registry. Now all Airbnb hosts will be automatically placed in the city’s database.

“This agreement helps protect the city’s precious housing supply by obligating these companies to ensure that all their listings are legal and properly registered. This is a game changer. The settlement will also make it easier for residents who follow the rules to supplement their income by renting out a spare room or their home while on vacation,” said city attorney David Herrera in a statement.

Airbnb spokesperson Christopher Nulty told Engadget, “similar to other agreements we have established with cities all around world, this agreement puts in place the systems and tools needed to help ensure our community is able to continue to share their homes.”

The terms of the settlement require that all hosts must be registered with 240 days and going forward, all properties will have a registration number.

Via: Reuters

Source: City of San Francisco