‘Assassin’s Creed Origins’ could arrive on October 27th

Ubisoft is expected to launch a new Assassin’s Creed at E3 2017, but some Game Informer subscribers who got their next issue early might already have the details the developer plans to announce. Based on photographs of the magazine posted by HungryGhost57 on Reddit and Imgur, the new entry in the series entitled Assassin’s Creed Origins will be released on October 27th with the tagline: “As an empire falls, a brotherhood rises.” The announcement’s accompanying illustrations show the titular assassin against a backdrop of pyramids and sphinxes, just like the retail pre-order card that was also leaked a couple of days ago.

The illustrations are a dead giveaway that the game will be set in Ancient Egypt. According to Polygon, previous reports also indicate that it would feature naval combat similar to Black Flag’s and that it’ll come out for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. In the comments section on Reddit, HungryGhost57 posted more details from the magazine, as well. He said the game takes place during the reign of Cleopatra and has more than one playable character, a brand new fighting system, a day/night cycle and no minimap, among other details. As always, though, take these leaks with a grain of salt: you’ll only have to wait a few days to hear the official details from Ubisoft anyway.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Via: Polygon

Source: HungryGhost57 (Reddit), (Imgur)

Apple Pay Cash in iOS 11: What is it and how does it work?

Apple will introduce a feature, called Apple Pay Cash, in iOS 11 to make it easier for you to send money or receive money from friends.

Apple Pay Cash is technically part of Apple Pay, Apple’s mobile payment system, but it lives in Apple’s iMessage app. And all the money you receive via Apple Pay Cash will live on virtual card called Apple Pay Cash card, which exists within Wallet, Apple’s other app for storing credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards, boarding passes, tickets, and more. So, are you confused yet? No worries.

Pocket-lint has explained everything you need to know below.

• Will my iPhone or iPad get iOS 11?
• iMessage apps: Which should you download first and how to install them?

How does Apple Pay Cash work?

iMessage app

Apple

When iOS 11 launches, Apple will allow person-to-person payments, just like apps Venmo, Square Cash, and believe it or not, Snapchat. Apple Pay Cash can be found in Apple’s iMessage app. All you have to do is tap the Apple Pay thumbnail within the redesigned app drawer in iMessage. You can then set the payment amount, tap either request or pay, and approve the transaction.

TouchID authentication

Apple

If you’re requesting money from someone, a link to make the payment will show up in your iMessage chat window with that person. If you’re paying someone, you must hit the send button and use TouchID to approve the transaction. The TouchID sensor offers secure authentication for any type of Apple Pay Cash transaction, and yes, all transactions will be encrypted.

Wallet app

Apple

Payments will be sent from your debit card or credit card stored in Apple’s Wallet app. But any money received will go into your “Apple Pay Cash” card, a virtual card that lives in Wallet. Apple is partnering with prepaid payment card company Green Dot on the virtual Apple Pay Cash card. From there, you can use the funds in the virtual card to pay others via iMessage and more.

Siri assistance

Apple

Siri will be able to detect any conversation in iMessage about cash or payments. It’ll automatically bring the Apple Pay app to the front of your iMessage app drawer if you or your friends are talking about money in iMessage. Furthermore, if any payment amount is mentioned, that amount will automatically be set when you open up the Apple Pay app, making it a breeze to send cash.

Where does Apple Pay Cash work?

Apple Pay Cash works wherever Apple Pay is supported. You can learn more about Apple Pay from Pocket-lint’s guide here. Not only can you use funds in your Apple Pay Cash card to send and receive money via iMessage, but you can also use it to make Apple Pay purchases at retail locations, on the web, and in apps. You can even transfer the funds to your own bank account.

Which devices support Apple Pay Cash?

Apple Pay Cash will be available through iOS 11 on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. But it only works on TouchID-supported devices, including Apple Watch, which means older iOS devices won’t be able to take advantage of the peer-to-peer payments service.

Apple

Here is the list of support devices:

• iPhone SE
• iPhone 6 and later
• iPad Pro
• iPad 5th generation
• iPad Air 2
• iPad Mini 3 and later
• Apple Watch

Are there any fees?

To send money using Apple Pay Cash, you will have to add a debit card or credit card to Apple’s Wallet app. Money-transfer services backed by a debit card will be free, while those backed by a credit card will be charged a 3-per cent fee – the same as competitors. You can transfer directly to a bank account without having to pay a service fee, though the transfer may not be immediate.

When can you use Apple Pay Cash?

Apple Pay Cash person-to-person payments (also called peer-to-peer payments) is coming to iOS 11 this autumn. It will be made available across all your Apple devices, like iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

Where is Apple Pay Cash available?

Apple Pay Cash will only be available in the US at launch. There’s no word yet on UK availability.

Are there Apple Pay Cash alternatives?

Apple Pay Cash will go up against competing offerings from PayPal, PayPal-owned Venmo, Square Cash, Snapchat’s Snapcash feature, and popular bank services like Chase QuickPay. But unlike those competitors, Apple’s service is limited to iMessage users on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, and it doesn’t offer a ledger option so you can keep detailed memos about each transaction.

Want to know more?

Check out Pocket-lint’s guides for more information:

• Apple iOS 11: 11 new features coming to your iPhone and iPad
• Apple iMessage explained: What’s new and how to use it
• These are the best iOS 11 features Apple didn’t announce
• What is Apple Pay and how does it work?

Xbox exec reveals Scorpio has 9GB of RAM available for games

We’re still a couple of days away from seeing Microsoft officially reveal its Project Scorpio Xbox, but details continue to dribble out. Xbox & Windows gaming platform VP Mike Ybarra tweeted that the team “Unlocked extra GB of RAM for (game developers), now 9GB of GDDR5.” In April, program manager Kevin Gammill told Gamasutra Scorpio would ditch the Xbox One’s 32MB ESRAM / 8GB GDDR3 setup for specs showing 12GB of GDDR5 RAM built-in (the devkits that we’ve seen feature 24GB of RAM), with 8GB available for games. The rest of the resources are reserved to handle system features, multitasking apps and other non-game elements.

We’ll keep tuning Scorpio to empower creators to share the best versions of their games. Unlocked extra GB of RAM for them, now 9GB of GDDR5

— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) June 8, 2017

Sometimes system optimizations can free up resources, as we saw with the PS3, or disabling features, as we’ve seen with the Xbox One using Kinect or Snap picture-in-picture. Early demos of the Project Scorpio hardware have shown its ability to handle 4K, 60fps gaming, but every bit of extra RAM doesn’t hurt, as Ybarra explained that even when games don’t use the extra RAM directly (read: unoptimized existing Xbox One games), it will be available for caching to speed things up. The only thing that hasn’t expanded, however, is the space on your DVR, which you may need since Xbox boss Phil Spencer says the company’s Sunday afternoon press conference is likely to stretch beyond the scheduled 90 minutes.

Games that don’t use the full 9GB, the rest of the RAM will be used as a cache (making things load way faster, etc.). All games = better. https://t.co/yZTGOvBJRx

— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) June 8, 2017

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Source: Mike Ybarra (Twitter)

It sounds impossible, but physicists created a magnet that is one atom thick

Why it matters to you

World’s thinnest magnet could have possible application in quantum computing.

You may have heard of graphene, the ultra-thin wonder material that is a single layer of pure carbon, derived from graphene. Well, scientists at the University of Washington and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have just employed the same technique that is used for skimming graphene from graphite to develop the thinnest magnet ever created.

It is so thin, in fact, that it counts as the world’s first 2D magnet, with a thickness of just one atom. This counts as being functionally two-dimensional because electrons can only travel within the atomic sheet, akin to pieces moving on a chessboard. Up until now, no 3D magnetic substance has been able to retain its magnetic properties after being thinned down to a single atomic sheet.

The development demonstrates that magnetism can work in the 2D world, which could have major implications for building future quantum computers.

“In general, magnets have critical application in sensing and information technologies, such as modern hard-disk storage,” Xiaodong Xu, a University of Washington professor of Physics and of Materials Science and Engineering, told Digital Trends. “2D magnets may offer new opportunities in nanoscale spintronic devices along the same line of applications. However, since this is the first discovery of isolated monolayer magnet at the truly 2D limit, lots fundamental questions need to be addressed before figuring out the killer applications.”

The work was described in a paper published this week in the journal Nature. It details the process of creating the magnets, which are derived from a ferromagnetic material called chromium triiodide. This is stripped down into individual flakes one atom thick using a surprisingly low-fi technique: Using Scotch tape to peel off layers. Chromium triiodide has various properties that led researchers to theorize it could be used to create 2D magnets, such as the fact that it is “anisotropic,” meaning that its electrons’ spin direction run perpendicular to the plane of the crystal.

Interestingly, the magnetic signal of the 2D magnet disappeared when the flakes were two atoms thick instead of just one, although the magnetic property returned in sheets of three layers.

It sounds impossible, but physicists created a magnet that is one atom thick

Why it matters to you

World’s thinnest magnet could have possible application in quantum computing.

You may have heard of graphene, the ultra-thin wonder material that is a single layer of pure carbon, derived from graphene. Well, scientists at the University of Washington and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have just employed the same technique that is used for skimming graphene from graphite to develop the thinnest magnet ever created.

It is so thin, in fact, that it counts as the world’s first 2D magnet, with a thickness of just one atom. This counts as being functionally two-dimensional because electrons can only travel within the atomic sheet, akin to pieces moving on a chessboard. Up until now, no 3D magnetic substance has been able to retain its magnetic properties after being thinned down to a single atomic sheet.

The development demonstrates that magnetism can work in the 2D world, which could have major implications for building future quantum computers.

“In general, magnets have critical application in sensing and information technologies, such as modern hard-disk storage,” Xiaodong Xu, a University of Washington professor of Physics and of Materials Science and Engineering, told Digital Trends. “2D magnets may offer new opportunities in nanoscale spintronic devices along the same line of applications. However, since this is the first discovery of isolated monolayer magnet at the truly 2D limit, lots fundamental questions need to be addressed before figuring out the killer applications.”

The work was described in a paper published this week in the journal Nature. It details the process of creating the magnets, which are derived from a ferromagnetic material called chromium triiodide. This is stripped down into individual flakes one atom thick using a surprisingly low-fi technique: Using Scotch tape to peel off layers. Chromium triiodide has various properties that led researchers to theorize it could be used to create 2D magnets, such as the fact that it is “anisotropic,” meaning that its electrons’ spin direction run perpendicular to the plane of the crystal.

Interestingly, the magnetic signal of the 2D magnet disappeared when the flakes were two atoms thick instead of just one, although the magnetic property returned in sheets of three layers.

All you have to do is hover on a link to catch this PowerPoint Trojan

Why it matters to you

This new kind of attack will make you want to double-check your Office apps to make sure that Protected View is turned on.

Most often, you need to actually click on a link or run a program in order to get infected with a virus or other malware. Sometimes, however, black hat hackers figure out a way to infect a machine without the user doing anything at all.

That is the case with a new PowerPoint malware, which was discovered security company Trend Micro. This particular attack merely needs users to hover over a link with their mice in order to install a banking Trojan that has remote access, network traffic monitoring, information access, and other nefarious capabilities.

The Trojan is delivered to users in a spam email with a PowerPoint Show (PPS) or Open EML Slide Show (PPSX) file attached. These files are different from the usual PowerPoint files (PPT and PPTX) in that they can not be edited and they only open in presentation or slideshow modes.

Malicious links are embedded in the PowerPoint slides that use the mouseover action to execute code that seeks to install the Trojan. For users with Protected View turned on in later versions of Microsoft Office, a security prompt pops up that the user must click through in order to enable the installation. As usual, users should never click “Enable” in such dialog boxes unless they are absolutely certain of what is actually going to run. Needless to say, clicking “Enable All” almost universally a bad idea.

Trend Micro

On older versions of Office, however, or those without Protected View turned on, then the installation proceeds without any notice to the user or need for anything to be actively enabled. That makes this particular piece of malware particularly insidious and difficult to protect against. Note that Office 365’s web mode and PowerPoint Online are not affected by the attack.

The lesson here, first, is to make sure that Protected View is turned on in your Office applications. You can check on this by going to File, then Options, then Trust Center then click on the Trust Center Settings button. There, you want to select Protected View and make sure all of the options are checked. You can also look at your Macro settings while you are there and turn those off unless you’re sure you need them — Office Macros are another vector of attack.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

It is bad enough that our machines can be infected by hackers who trick us into clicking on links and running programs. The fact that we can get infected without doing anything at all is even worse — and means we need to be even more vigilant in ensuring that all of the various security features for our software and hardware are turned on and properly updated.

Like a robot jigsaw puzzle, modular bots snap together to carry out tasks

Why it matters to you

From tables to spacecraft, these origami-inspired robots showcase the versatile power of modular bots.

The ancient Japanese paper-folding art of origami (“ori” meaning “folding,” and “kami” meaning “paper”) probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think about groundbreaking robot research.

That’s possibly because you’re not a roboticist at Switzerland’s National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics or École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Researchers there have developed a modular robot project called Mori, which involves various small triangular bots that snap together to create a range of different shapes, depending on the number of pieces used. The robots each comprise an actuator, various sensors, and an onboard controller — contained in a plasticized casing.

“The idea behind modular and shape-changing robots is to create systems that can adapt to all sorts of environments and applications,” Christoph Belke, a member of EPFL’s Reconfigurable Robotics Lab, told Digital Trends. “We want to be able to have a robot that, whatever you need it to do, can reconfigure into the appropriate shape and tool in order to accomplish the task. In this respect, our robot Mori has distinct advantages over other systems thanks to our fusion of origami and modular robots. It is easy to transport, can deploy into large, thin-walled structures, and reconfigure by folding a large number of degrees-of-freedom, making the potential applications of our robot endless.”

Belke suggests that these applications could include home-based systems, such as a table that changes its shape according to whatever is placed on it, or more profound applications like molding to a person’s body to provide customized support in case of injury.

“Since our system is entirely scalable, we can also envision a system that can be sent to space in order to create reconfigurable capsules, or repair damage to an existing structure by re-creating the original shape and forming to it,” he said. “For us, this is just the beginning of modular origami robots. We continue to work on the technology in order to extend the possibilities and realize real-world implementations.”

We’ll never look at a folded paper crane the same way again!

How to get the Pride flag reaction on Facebook

Share some love on Facebook during Pride Month!

Android Central loves, well, love. With that in mind, we’re sharing something fun for those who feel the same. If you’re celebrating Pride Month and have a Facebook account, you’ve already seen most of the account tweaks you can add, like temporary profile banners. If you want to go a little deeper, Facebook now lets you share the Pride flag as a reaction to both posts and comments. It’s not a takeover of an existing reaction, it’s an entirely unique reaction you can share!

Here’s how to enable the Pride reaction for your account!

Enabling the Pride reaction on your Facebook Account

Like many other custom reactions on Facebook, you can opt-in by liking a specific page. In this case, liking the LGBTQ@Facebook page will enable the Pride reaction for your account.

Once you’ve liked the page, if you hadn’t previously liked it, wait about five minutes and you’ll see the rainbow option appear on both mobile and the web. This will probably only be around for the rest of the month, so enjoy it while it lasts!

Step-by-Step instructions

Open the Facebook either through the app or browser
Search for LGBTQ@Facebook in the top search bar
Like the LGBTQ@Facebook page
Wait five minutes
Spread delightful rainbows as far and wide as you choose

Got it? Great! Have fun, and remember…

Apple Business Chat in iOS 11: What is it and how does it work?

Apple is adding a major new feature to its iMessage app in iOS 11.

On Apple’s Developer site, there is a new section outlining the feature, called Business Chat, even though Business Chat wasn’t directly mentioned by Apple during its WWDC 2017 keynote in June. Based on how the feature is described on the site, we know Apple wants to provide businesses with a way to make themselves available for quick chats in the iMessage app for customer service purposes.

From what we can tell, you can find a business using Safari, Maps, Spotlight, or even Siri, and then you can initiate a text-based conversation with the business through Apple’s iMessage app. You can get answers to questions, resolve issues, and complete transactions, and more. Here’s everything you need to know about the feature, including how it works and when can start using it.

• Apple iOS 11: 11 new features coming to your iPhone and iPad
• Apple iMessage explained: What’s new and how to use it

Apple/TheVerge

What is Business Chat?

Business Chat is a new tool that will allow businesses to offer real-time customer support. A similar feature exists in Facebook Messenger. But unlike that offering, Apple won’t require businesses to have a social media account. Customers can search for a business in iOS via Safari, Maps, Spotlight, or Siri, and from any of those services, they can open iMessage and chat with the business.

How does Business Chat work?

Customer support

During a WWDC session, Apple explained Business Chat in more details, including how it works, according to The Verge. When in a chat with a business, you can shop, schedule appointments, ask general inquiry advice, file a dispute, and more – all from the same chat thread. There are also other built-in features, like predictive text, which will load an address or number a business asks for it.

Shop

Just like in Messenger, you can shop and buy products directly from chat. But your only payment solution will be through Apple Pay, of course. Businesses can show items in stock in a list format, which will appear in the conversation and doesn’t require you to open a new window.

Appointments

If you want to use Business Chat for appointments, the feature will link up to your own calendar and smartly suggest time slots that won’t conflict with your schedule. Businesses may sometimes direct you to download an iMessage app to complete certain request. An airline, for instance, might have a separate app that helps you select a seat. This can all be down within the conversation.

How do you start a chat?

Customers can find a business either through Safari, Maps, Spotlight, or Siri, and they can initiate a conversation with that business from Apple’s updated iMessage app on their iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. You will see a different thread for each business you’re chatting with. 

Which businesses are using it?

Any business can register, integrate their customer service platforms, and develop their own custom features, like a separate iMessage app to complete certain tasks. A handful of companies have already signed up, including LivePerson, Salesforce, Nuance, and Genesys. Business Chat therefore isn’t limited to retail or businesses with retail locations. We suspect more will be signing up soon.

When can you try Business Chat?

Apple is currently offering Business Chat in a developer preview. Businesses can register here. The feature won’t officially be available for all customers to use until iOS 11 rolls out this autumn.

Want to know more?

Check out these iOS 11 and iMessage guides:

• These are the best iOS 11 features Apple didn’t announce
• Will my iPhone or iPad get iOS 11?
• iMessage apps: Which should you download first and how to install them?

Ubiquiti AmpliFi Router review

With all the technology around these days, it is not hard to imagine that there are certain ones that we generally take for granted. I work for a healthcare company and we offer a number of technologies to our patients during their stay to make it a little more enjoyable. Other industries have been doing the same thing for years, including coffee shops, department stores, restaurants and more. WiFi is the most often implemented and taken for granted, with advancements in wireless technologies allowing for guest connections, temporary licensing and more, it makes things safe, easy, and relatively inexpensive for companies to offer internet connections to their customers.

Right, enough about what big business does for us, what about that wireless connection at our house? How can we make that better and easier? What if I want to let friends and family connect to my internet but not get inside my network? Well, Ubiquiti reaches for an answer to all of these questions with their AmpliFi line of products. Now that might sound a little familiar to you since I wrote a review on the AmpliFi MeshPoint as a standalone range extender and it works pretty well. The range on it is good and the quality of parts is top notch, as with all Ubiquiti products, but it is a little expensive to be a simple range extender (at least when used outside of the AmpliFi family).

My hope for this review is to get a better idea of what issues Ubiquiti is aiming with their AmpliFi product line. Let’s jump in and see if this is worth the investment.

Setup

Physical setup is as straightforward as any other. Plug in the router and run Ethernet cables to all your necessary devices. If you ended up buying one of the mesh points, I would recommend plugging it in close to your router now to make initial setup a little easier.

Software setup is a little different than the average router. In the same method as the MeshPoint, the setup for the AmpliFi router is done completely on your mobile device. The app is available on both Android or iOS, meaning no matter what your preference, you will have a favorable Ubiquiti experience.

Upon first login, you are presented with a setup screen, asking if you would like to setup a new device. Choose to setup the new AmpliFi router. Assuming that the router has never been set up before, you will receive the option to setup the SSID and password for your wireless network. and you are given the option to have your network password also be the device password for your router (makes things easy and secure).

Once you have set up the network you are set free to change all sorts of things like your network’s IP address, DNS addresses, PPPoE settings (if you have that), and other traditional router settings.

Hardware

The first thing that you notice about the AmpliFi router is how clean and classy it looks. Boasting a stark white exterior with a circular LCD screen this modern looking piece of technology would add some style to any desk or counter top. According to the AmpliFi website, this stylish piece of equipment was meant to be shown off, thus the addition of the LCD screen which allows you to see a clock, a throughput readout, or even the connectivity status of the four ethernet ports on the rear of the router.

The AmpliFi router does sport a respectable amount of internal hardware to get the job done. When we look just inside the device we see a 3-stream MIMO antenna, designed to get maximum range out of a device without having ugly external antennas. It also sports the now standard 802.11 AC wireless band connection with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band availability.

The single biggest gripe I have with the hardware is that it only comes with a three-foot cord. Really? Most desks are between two and three feet tall and who knows where the nearest outlet is going to be in any given location. Come on Ubiquiti, If I am paying $150 for a quality router, I would like to be able to place it wherever I want without having to stretch an extension cord all over the place.

Function

My overall experience with the AmpliFi system is better than expected. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I work for a large Healthcare system in California. What I left out is that I work 100% from home so my routing (specifically WiFi) system is very important for my career (and my AndroidGuys writing too).

At any given time, I have a minimum of 9 devices connected to my router. What is amazing about the AmpliFi system is that it does use a three-stream MIMO antenna in both the router and MeshPoint, what this means is that you can transfer more data at a time, closing bottlenecks across networks.

Another distinct advantage of a mesh network is that it instead always following a predetermined line to transfer data, the system will help you choose the shortest hop route to access that information, saving you time on your data transfers. Granted, this may not be very relevant to people who have smaller homes or may only be using a single mesh point, but considering that the AmpliFi line of products is specifically marketed to people with larger houses and minimal Wifi footprints, I think it’s something worth mentioning.

The guest network feature is something else that is different than your average router. Not only can you set up a guest router but you can make it available for a set period of time. So if you have a party with a bunch of friends over, you can change your guest network password and set it to only be active for 4 hours, after which it will be disabled.

One last thought on how this system functions. I left off my MeshPoint review hoping that the hand-off from router to MeshPoint would be better than from third-party router to MeshPoint. I have to say that the handoff is better, but not perfect. I’m not 100% sure if this is a software issue between router and device (this would make sense) but I would love to get a hand-off that would not disrupt a download that is in progress.

Added Features

This is where this router, and for that matter a lot of Ubiquiti products, shines. The simple amount of added features all available on your mobile device is pretty amazing. For starters, they recently updated the system so you can access your router and network remotely. Yeah, I said remotely. Like you can be across the country on a business trip and launch the app change your wireless password or enable the guest network. Cool, right?

Other notable features include:

• Internal speed test from right in the app
• Current throughput speeds
• Cotal data transferred readout
• Easy readout of all devices (both WiFi and Ethernet)
• Ability to pause connection (on all devices or single devices)
• Create groups to manage device connection schedules (parental lock-down)

• 1 of 8

  
  

  
  Throughput

  
  Guest Network quick setup

  
  Set a timer for guest network availability

  
  LED and LCD screen settings

  
  Quick reference troubleshooting

  
  Overview

  
  Current router settings

  
  Group settings

Conclusion

Setting up WiFi access in your home is no complicated feat. It doesn’t need to be expensive or something to be afraid of but, when you dig into some of the most common issues with those basic $30 routers on the shelves of big box stores or the pages of Amazon most of them come down to slowness and connectivity issues. The entire AmpliFi system aims to resolve those issues. With clever use of Mesh networking as well as the addition of 3-stream MIMO antennas, network bottlenecks and in home dead spots can be a thing of the past. Oh yeah, and all the cool features I mentioned.