MLB’s VR push doesn’t include 360-degree live games

Major League Baseball’s At Bat streaming subscription service and app already adds an extra dimension to watching baseball games on TV or in-person. Starting next month, however, fans will be able to actually take all the live game footage and real-time data from MLB.tv into virtual reality with Google Daydream and MLB At Bat VR.

While Daydream still can’t make your big league dreams and put you on the mound just yet, At Bat VR offers a much more immersive experience than keeping the app open on your phone: live game footage plays in the center of the field of view, with a 3D strike zone map floating just below it. All the stats and data are still there, floating on either side of the footage window. The app also includes a library of behind-the-scenes, 360-degree video clips to explore, but there won’t be any live 360-degree game streams just yet. According to Variety, however, the league hopes to stream a full game in VR sometime before the end of the 2017 season. Elsewhere, the MLB also announced it will be livestreaming weekly games on Facebook without the frustrating blackouts that still apply to some games.

At Bat VR will be live on Google Daydream starting June 1st, with other VR platforms to follow in the future. The app is free to users with an MLB At Bat subscription, but you’ll need a MLB.tv Premium subscription to watch live games. While upgrading to virtual reality will involve buying new hardware for most people, MLB’s VP of games and VR strategy Jamie Leece claims the field of view in VR is equivalent to the biggest HD screens on the market — and it obviously takes up a lot less space.

For all the latest news and updates from Google I/O 2017, follow along here.

Facebook will stream live ‘Counter-Strike’ eSports events

Gaming and eSports have definitely hit the mainstream media. In fact, you can find FIFA tournaments live on ESPN and TBS is hyping Counter Strike: Global Offensive games as if they were championship boxing events. With Twitter and Sony already jumping into the lucrative industry, it was only a matter of time before Facebook joined the fray. In an announcement today, eSports leader ESL announced it has cut a deal with the social networking behemoth to stream exclusive events and content in six languages, all of it centered around the elite Rank S Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competition.

According to a release, ESL will bring 5,500 hours of esports content to Facebook, with about 1,500 of that exclusive to the platform. That content includes the elite Rank S Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches as well as ESL One and Intel Extreme Masters events, all of it streamed in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and German. The network has also announced an original 30-minute Facebook Live series that will look back at CS:GO match highlights and showcase top players as well as quickly rising talent.

Facebook and ESL’s eSports programming starts streaming in June and fans can tune in on ESEA’s Facebook page here.

Source: ESL Gaming

‘Destiny 2’ has the fundamentals to be a solid sequel

When it comes to serialized media, be it film, comics or video games, rarely does someone say with conviction that “the sequel was better.” The expectations are always too high. A good sequel not only has to embody the best of its predecessor, but also be new and original enough to stand on its own. Destiny 2’s gameplay premiere event didn’t completely assure me that it would surpass the original game, but it’s off to a great start.

It’s an effort borne from Bungie’s vast experience in creating strong sequels. Much like the games in the original Halo Trilogy, Destiny 2 borrows the most iconic elements of its predecessor, but tries to up the ante. The new game still has the same solid gunplay and excellent controls that defined the original, for instance, but gives more control over their Guardian’s loadout — letting them equip multiple weapons of the same type simultaneously. Fighting through waves of enemies still charges a super move, but now each character type has a new, more powerful attack that spawns an ephemeral sword, shield or staff for high-powered melee attacks.

Somehow, these minor changes to the original Destiny paradigm make the new game feel like a larger epic. The the new super moves made me feel ridiculously powerful, and the strong narrative of the demo missions I played did a better job of making my character feel like the hero than any mission I remember from my time with the original game. On their own, Destiny 2’s gameplay tweaks wouldn’t be enough to warrant a full sequel — but the world they’re wrapped in seem to push the experience beyond the purview of a regular update.

The universe just feels larger. The game’s opening mission, for instance, violates the safety of the original game’s Tower hub area, putting it under attack from a new threat and spreading Destiny’s heroes to the far reaches of the solar system. This sets the sequel’s narrative to unfold across four new planets: Titan, Io, Nessus and a new area on Earth. These new maps feel grand in scale, each with their own personality, architecture and breathtaking vistas. This new, spread out universe has the potential to feel more alive.

And that’s the crux of everything we experienced at Bungie’s Destiny 2 gameplay premiere: potential. The game, its characters and the world it’s building bleeds with it. From the PC-version of the game’s excellent keyboard and mouse control implementation (not to mention the gorgeous, ultra high frame rate graphics) and the improved matchmaking and clan management tools, to the deeper narrative the game’s campaign missions tease — Destiny 2 has the building blocks it needs to surpass the original. All Bungie needs to do is stick the landing.

Four-legged, 3D-printed soft robot can crawl over rough terrains like pebbles

Why it matters to you

This versatile soft robot could one day be used to scrabble over rocks as part of search and rescue missions.

Robots are getting better and better at dealing with the real world, but one area a lot can still struggle with is moving on rough surfaces like sand or pebbles. That is a challenge that a new project developed by engineers at the University of California, San Diego tries to grapple with — resulting in a 3D-printed, four-legged soft robot that is designed to be able to crawl over all manner of different terrains.

“Our robot is actuated using compressed air, allowing it to achieve complex motions without a complex control scheme,” Michael Tolley, a mechanical engineering professor at the UCSD, told Digital Trends. “The design was enabled by using a multi-material 3D printer which allows us to fabricate complex geometries made from digital combinations of soft and rigid materials.”

According to Tolley and co-researcher Dylan Drotman, the soft robot was inspired by biological systems like the octopus, which are able to squeeze their bodies through extremely small openings due to their lack of a rigid skeleton. The robot’s walking gait was meanwhile inspired by terrestrial quadrupeds like the turtle.

“Multi-material 3D printing is a key enabler as it allows us to rapidly fabricate much more complex 3D soft designs than previous methods such as molding, which has been primarily used for previous soft robots,” Tolley continued. “We have also demonstrated in related work how multi-material 3D printing can be used to print gradients in stiffness to reduce stress concentrations.”

Next up, the researchers plan to equip the robot with sensors that will let it better understand its local environment and potentially to find a use in an area like search and rescue missions. It is unlikely that the final form of the robot will be exactly like this one but it is still a valuable contribution toward robotics’ eventual goal of creating a robot that is able to deal with any scenario thrown at it.

Tolley and Drotman’s 3D-printed robot will be shown at the upcoming Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Conference on Robotics and Automation, running (or should that be crawling?) from May 29 to June 3 in Singapore.

Razer will sell themed ‘Destiny 2’ versions of four gaming peripherals

Why it matters to you

PC gamers waiting impatiently for Destiny 2 have even more to look forward to this September.

Bungie’s Destiny 2 is right around the corner and the company recently teamed up with Razer to celebrate the franchise’s debut on PC in the form of themed gaming peripherals. These will consist of Destiny 2 versions of the DeathAdder Elite mouse ($70), the Ornata Chroma mechanical keyboard ($100), and the ManO’War Tournament Edition headset ($110). Rounding out this package will be themed Goliathus Speed gaming mouse mats ($15 to $35) in four sizes.

Destiny 2 and Razer’s themed peripherals are slated to arrive on September 8. The hardware specs for the PC version are unknown for the moment, but it will be an exclusive title to Battle.net. That is surprising given the Battle.net platform was built for Blizzard’s PC games like Overwatch, Diablo III, StarCraft II, and World of Warcraft. Then again, Blizzard is a part of Activision which, in turn, is publishing Destiny 2 on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC.

“Blizzard has an established and successful global internet infrastructure we’ve used for years to support our own games,” Blizzard recently said. “Creating a new network client for Destiny 2 would needlessly extend the development period for the game, so we offered to share our PC platform with our sister companies for this release.”

As for the themed peripherals, the DeathAdder Elite optical mouse has a sensitivity of up to 16,000 dots per inch, an acceleration of up to 450 inches per second, seven programmable buttons, and Razer Chroma lighting supporting 16.8 million colors. It sports an ergonomic right-handed design and textured rubber side grips so that PC gamers don’t lose control during intense action.

Meanwhile, the Ornata Chroma keyboard fuses membrane with mechanical. It provides mid-height keys for faster travel/actuation time, meaning the keys are lower than the typical PC gaming mechanical keyboard but higher than the keys used on chiclet “membrane” keyboards. They are powered by Razer’s Mecha-Membrane switches built to support the soft cushioned touch of a membrane rubber dome mixed with the tactile click of a mechanical switch.

The Tournament Edition of Razer’s ManO’War headset is compatible with all devices with a built-in analog 3.5mm jack. Weighing a mere 0.73 pounds, it is optimized for extended wear and includes a fully retractable microphone and in-line volume controls. The headset is powered by extra-large 50mm custom-tuned drivers residing behind closed ear cups sporting plush “circumaural” padding.

Finally, the Goliathus Speed is a soft gaming mouse mat sold in four sizes: small, medium, large, and extended. They consist of a slick, taut surface designed and optimized for fast but precise mouse movements. They have a cloth-based design backed by an anti-fraying stitched frame and an anti-slip rubber base. The extended version is huge, measuring 36.22 inches across and 11.57 inches deep.

“The team has come up with some cool ways to pair Destiny‘s art and designs with Razer’s high-performance hardware, providing players with new ways to customize their Destiny 2 experience,” said Jim McQuillan, Creative Director, Brand and Marketing at Bungie.

Razer currently doesn’t provide any pricing information about the Destiny 2-themed products. However, there may be a slight price increase to cover licensing.

AMD Radeon Crimson Relive Edition update speeds up ‘Prey’ on the RX 580

Why it matters to you

Go download the latest drivers to get the most out of your Radeon RX 580 8GB investment.

AMD has been making waves lately with their next generation of CPUs and GPUs. The Ryzen CPUs based on the Zen architecture are lauded for their price-performance propositions versus Intel’s Core processors and the next-generation GPU Vega architecture is slowly making its way to the market.

In addition, AMD has pushed some new GPUs based on its older Polaris architecture, including the RX 570 and 580, which offer their own value propositions. The latest Radeon Crimson Relive Edition software is aimed at making sure that the latest GPUs offer the best possible performance.

Specifically, AMD has improved the performance of the popular new first-person shooter Prey in Radeon Crimson Relive Edition version 17.5.2, with a focus on the Radeon RX 580 8GB GPU. That combination should perform up to 4.5 percent better compared to the previous driver version, 17.5.1.

AMD also fixed some issues from previous driver versions. Here is the complete list directly from AMDs release notes:

• Nier: Automata may experience a random hang or application crash after short periods of gameplay.
• Forza Horizon 3 may experience very long map/launch load times.
• The primary display adapter may sometimes appear disabled in Radeon Settings while driving a display from the linked adapter in Multi GPU system configurations.
• Radeon RX 550 series graphics products may experience a system hang when entering sleep or hibernate modes.

No driver update would be complete without some known issues, and this version is no different. Here are the known issues for version 17.5.2 from AMD’s release notes:

• Virtual Super Resolution may fail to enable on some Radeon RX 400 and Radeon RX 500 series graphics products.
• The Display feature in Radeon Settings “GPU Scaling” may not function for some games.
• A few apps may still experience issues with Borderless Fullscreen mode and AMD FreeSync technology if other applications or game launchers are running on the primary screen in the background.
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and World of Warcraft may experience flickering or performance issues the first time the game is launched on a system boot with AMD FreeSync technology enabled. Workarounds include exiting and restarting the application or task switching (alt+tab) in and out of the game to fix the issue.

If you’re a Radeon Relive users, then you will want to check out some known issues for that feature as well. As always, you can grab the drivers from AMD’s support site.

Android O’s security features use machine learning to combat malware

Why it matters to you

Android O implements more protections against viruses and malware than any version before it.

The new version of Android O puts security first and foremost. At an I/O developer session on Google’s California campus on Thursday, the search giant detailed the ways the operating system protects against malicious files, viruses, malware, and other threats.

Google’s unifying its security efforts under a new brand — Google Play Security — going forward.

Find My Device, a redesigned and upgraded version of Google’s Android Device Manager, is a part of it. It tracks phones, tablets, and Android Wear devices associated with your Google account and shows stats like battery capacity, Wi-Fi status, and last known location.

Google’s other changes affect the core of Android’s operating system. “Verify Apps,” which scans apps installed from the web and third-party app stores, is enabled by default in Android O.

Android O also packs rollback protection — supported devices won’t boot older, potentially compromised operating systems. And encryption, which has seen a significant uptick in adoption — from 25 percent of devices on Android Marshmallow to 80 percent of devices on Android Nougat, Google said — has been improved.

Google’s implemented “tamper-resistant” hardware with Android O — similar to the chip embedded in credit cards, Android devices support hardware-based security. And Google’s revamped permissions, the systems which allow you to allow or deny apps access to your device’s sensors or personal data.

In Android O, permissions are less abusable by harmful apps. Ransomware apps can no longer obscure the phone’s lock screen or status bay, for example, and cannot use the admin permission to prevent deletion or to change your password.

Project Treble, a framework that makes it easier for hardware manufacturers to update devices quickly, isolates bugs from core parts of the operating system. Exploits are now more difficult for malicious apps to reach, Google said, and the Media Server — the software component of Android N that handles audio and video playback — has been split into individual components with “much tighter” control over permissions.

More than 20 percent of security bugs from the beginning of this year are no longer an issue, Google said.

Google has worked to improve overall app security, too. The Webview renderer, which apps use to put webpages in a readable format, is now isolated from other parts of the app. And Google brought Safe Browsing, the Chrome browser feature which uses machine learning to alert you of potentially harmful web content, to Web View.

Finally, Android O supports FIDO U2F security keys, the hardware-based fobs used to authenticate social media accounts and web logins.

The new security features build on Google’s efforts to harden Android against attackers. Google’s SafetyNet, which rolled out alongside Android Marshmallow last year, verifies that devices are what they claim to be. And Google is using machine learning and statistical analysis to pinpoint potentially harmful apps.

Google’s real-time, cloud-based security platform, consists of more than 20,000 processors, the company said and scans more than 50 billion devices every day.

Asus unveils the ZenFone AR, the world’s slimmest Tango smartphone

Project Tango, Google’s mobile augmented reality platform, made a big splash earlier this year with the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro. The 6-inch leviathan boasted cutting-edge depth-sensing and motion-tracking tech, but it wasn’t perfect. Lenovo’s handset suffered from a subpar camera, middling display, and occasional tracking problems — issues Asus aims to rectify with its first Project Tango attempt, the ZenFone AR.

Pricing and availability

The Asus ZenFone AR will launch on Verizon in the coming months. That news comes courtesy of Google, which confirmed the phone’s release window at its annual I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California.

Unfortunately, Asus has yet to share pricing and availability details — Asus CEO Jerry Chen previously said the ZenFone AR would launch “at a competitive price.” But we’re expecting to learn more this summer.

Powerful hardware

The ZenFone AR’s depth-tracking sensors react to forward, backward, and strafing motions — if you take a step forward in a Tango game, digital objects on the screen stay in perspective as you circle around or duck under them. Project Tango can identify objects in the real world, like a desk in a living room and the walls of a home office. And even more usefully, it can calculate the dimensions of those objects. Want to get a bed’s length? The ZenFone will provide the measurements in your metric of choice.

The ZenFone AR — the latest addition to Asus’ ZenFone line of smartphones — is the “thinnest” and “lightest” device to support Tango, a feat made possible by Asus’s proprietary TriCam system: A 23-megapixel PixelMaster 3.0 primary camera, a motion-tracking camera, and an infrared camera in a configuration that “reduces their footprint within the phone.”

Some of those same sensors enable support for Daydream, Google’s virtual reality environment. It’s the spiritual successor to Google’s debut VR effort, Google Cardboard, but far more holistic in scope: it consists of three components; a headset, a motion controller, and a suite of virtual reality apps including HBO, YouTube, Hulu, Gunjack, Hunters Gate, and more.

It’s worth noting that not all of those components come in the box. Prospective buyers will need to shell out for a Daydream-compatible virtual reality headset like Google’s Daydream View. Rumor has it that the company’s working on an self-contained augmented reality headset with Tango-like tracking technology, but it’s unclear whether it’ll interface with the ZenFone AR.

The rest of the ZenFone AR’s hardware isn’t anything to scoff at. It packs Qualcomm’s Tango-optimized Snapdragon 821 and Adreno 530 graphics card — not the silicon behemoth’s latest processor, granted (that’s the Snapdragon 835), but one that Qualcomm guarantees delivers “VR with high-resolution display, ultra-smooth graphics and high-fidelity sensors for precise head tracking.” And it sports a massive 8GB of RAM (a world’s first), a 5.7-inch WQHD (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) Super AMOLED screen, and a powerful five-magnet speaker system.

Cooling all that hardware is a vapor-cooling system which Asus says enables the CPU and GPU to work “more efficiently,” and delivers “enhanced performance to prevent overheating.”

New Tango apps

The ZenFone AR is launching alongside new augmented reality experiences from Asus.

The smartphone maker partnered with Gap to develop Dressing Room, an augmented reality experience that lets users “try on” the clothing retailer’s latest fashions. And it teamed up with BMW to develop the i Visualizer, a Tango-enabled app that allows users to configure, customize, and walk around BMW’s i3 and i8 cars in a digital environment.

The BMW app is launching in select BMW dealerships in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Norway, Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, China, and Japan in the coming weeks. Later this year, it will become more broadly available from the Google Play store.

“In our initial tests, as people entered the car virtually in the app, we saw them ducking down, as if there were really a roof there for them to bang their heads on. It’s a level of detail which means this technology offers the customers real added value,” BMW’s group vice president of sales strategy and future retail said in a press release. “You can list out a car’s features on a sheet of paper or a webpage, but this doesn’t help customers with the emotional connection […] Videos can help, but Tango gives people a much more immersive experience.”

Article originally published in January. Updated on 05-18-2017: Added info about Verizon exclusivity.

Microsoft makes OneNote more consistent across platforms, easier to access

Why it matters to you

You will no longer struggle to remember how to use Microsoft OneNote when you switch devices.

Microsoft OneNote is one of the best note-taking apps around, offering the ability to type, speak, or ink notes across a variety of platforms. Whether you’re running Windows 10, MacOS, iOS, or Android, there is a solid OneNote app available that will leverage the strengths of each device.

So far, however, while OneNote has been quite functional on each platform, it has suffered from a distinct look and feel that can make switching devices a bit jarring. Microsoft is fixing that discrepancy, meaning that if you use the app on different platforms then you should feel more at home on each.

The first big change in the latest versions, at least those for Windows 10, MacOS, iOS, and Android, is a much more consistent user interface that provides the same basic notebook, section, and page layout. Navigating through a notebook will now become second nature on most devices, with the desktop version of OneNote included with Office 2016 being the primary outlier.

The navigation is not only more consistent across devices, it has also been simplified. Namely, all navigation controls are now located on the left-hand side of the app, which makes it easier to move between notes and helps with assistive technologies.

Speaking of enhanced usability for people who need assistance, Microsoft has focused on that aspect of OneNote as well. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put it, “We will focus on designing and building products that our customers love and that are accessible to everyone and built for each of us.” Microsoft shared a video highlighting the ability for users with disabilities be able to navigate through OneNote using only keyboard shortcuts.

You can get the app for Windows 10, MacOS, iOS, and Android. If you have any suggestions for Microsoft, then visit the OneNote UserVoice, and you can get help at Answers.Microsoft.com.

Microsoft makes OneNote more consistent across platforms, easier to access

Why it matters to you

You will no longer struggle to remember how to use Microsoft OneNote when you switch devices.

Microsoft OneNote is one of the best note-taking apps around, offering the ability to type, speak, or ink notes across a variety of platforms. Whether you’re running Windows 10, MacOS, iOS, or Android, there is a solid OneNote app available that will leverage the strengths of each device.

So far, however, while OneNote has been quite functional on each platform, it has suffered from a distinct look and feel that can make switching devices a bit jarring. Microsoft is fixing that discrepancy, meaning that if you use the app on different platforms then you should feel more at home on each.

The first big change in the latest versions, at least those for Windows 10, MacOS, iOS, and Android, is a much more consistent user interface that provides the same basic notebook, section, and page layout. Navigating through a notebook will now become second nature on most devices, with the desktop version of OneNote included with Office 2016 being the primary outlier.

The navigation is not only more consistent across devices, it has also been simplified. Namely, all navigation controls are now located on the left-hand side of the app, which makes it easier to move between notes and helps with assistive technologies.

Speaking of enhanced usability for people who need assistance, Microsoft has focused on that aspect of OneNote as well. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put it, “We will focus on designing and building products that our customers love and that are accessible to everyone and built for each of us.” Microsoft shared a video highlighting the ability for users with disabilities be able to navigate through OneNote using only keyboard shortcuts.

You can get the app for Windows 10, MacOS, iOS, and Android. If you have any suggestions for Microsoft, then visit the OneNote UserVoice, and you can get help at Answers.Microsoft.com.