Microsoft’s AI earns perfect Ms Pac-Man score

Some tasks are just too complex, too nuanced to tackle all at once, like beating all 256 levels of Ms. Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 while earning a perfect score of 999,990. That’s why Microsoft didn’t even try to train its AI to take it on in one go. Instead the company, as it announced on Wednesday, split this monumental challenge up into smaller, chomp-sized pieces and trained a hivemind of 150 AIs to accomplish it as a team.

Developed by Maluuba, a Canadian AI firm that Microsoft recently acquired, the AI system relies on reinforcement learning to develop its strategy. Reinforcement learning is an AI training technique wherein the algorithm is rewarded for using more efficient outcomes and dissuaded from using the less effective based on previously observed outcomes. The idea is that, with enough time and tries, the system will eventually figure out on its own what the best course of action will be. This is the same technique that Google used to beat the world’s Go champions.

But with sufficiently complex tasks, a simple reinforcement learning system is too slow — think monkeys on typewriters reproducing the complete works of Shakespeare. So, the Maluuba team split the task into smaller sub-tasks, like avoiding ghosts or getting to a specific pellet within the maze, and gave each to one of 150 parallel neural networks to figure out. The team then installed a master AI on top of that array of networks to direct the swarm’s actions and help achieve their common goal of beating the game.

The master AI takes the response of each sub-AI in a given scenario, weights them and then makes a decision for the group. That is, even if half of the sub-AIs are saying “Go right, get that pellet” but a few are saying “No, don’t, there’s a ghost down that hall” the master AI will defer to the not-dying contingent rather than the pellet-getters. The team has dubbed its unique system a Hybrid Reward Architecture.

The gameplay results speak for themselves but the company hopes to leverage this success to make future AI systems faster, more reliable and more self-sufficient. As the Microsoft Blog points out, this technique could be used by a sales team to figure out which clients need their attention most at any given time throughout the week or even day. It can also be employed to improve natural language recognition systems. But let’s see it beat Contra without using the Konami code.

Source: Microsoft

‘Super Mario Odyssey’ may look bizarre, but it feels just right

There’s perhaps no better example of Nintendo’s creativity in game design than the Super Mario Bros. franchise. At a glance, the company’s mascot seems like an unchanging, static figure. In reality, every game he stars in tweaks the Mario formula ever so slightly — adding new power-ups in Super Mario Bros. 3, rethinking level design in Super Mario World or the introduction of exploration in Super Mario 64. If the E3 demo of the newest game in the franchise is any indication, our favorite plumber’s latest adventure is no different: Super Mario Odyssey is a creative, joyously fun remix on a formula the company has been tweaking for decades.

Specifically, Odyssey is an evolution on the now classic open-exploration platforming of Sunshine and Mario 64. Just like in those games, the player has free reign to wander around myriad unique and interesting worlds, choosing if and when they want to continue the game’s story by hunting down collectibles and completing challenges. The difference here lies in the worlds Mario explores. They are much, much more vast — and often wildly different in style to each other.

At first, this is almost jarring. In New Donk City, a sprawling metropolis, Mario’s short, squat body looks noticeably out of place. Enough so to make me turn to the presenters at Nintendo’s E3 booth and ask a weird question — is Mario even human? The spokesperson on hand said the company’s official line for that particular query was to say that he was a native son of the Mushroom Kingdom.

It’s a surprisingly revealing answer. In Super Mario Odyssey, each “world” you visit is referred to as a “Kingdom.” Alternate, perhaps, to the land the game’s titular character hails from. Exploring the idea may dive too deep into Mario’s extremely limited lore, but it gives an interesting reason for why Mario looks a little out of place in some of Odyssey’s worlds — they’re intentionally, strikingly foreign. Knowing this doesn’t make the plumber’s cartoonish design look any more fitting in the big city.

If you can get past how weird Mario looks in some of these settings, however, it sets an interesting precedent. Super Mario Odyssey could potentially take the character anywhere — even to venues that don’t match the traditional Nintendo themes or aesthetics.

Visual style aside, however, Odyssey is very much a Mario game. The skyscrapers of New Donk City are designed to be climbed and explored and are the perfect playground for 3D platforming. As I wall-jumped between scaffolds, climbed up telephone poles and stood on the rooftops of the city, I stopped caring that Mario was shorter than the other people in Donk. I was focused on collecting coins, finding the “moon” items needed to power the Odyssey (Mario’s airship), and learning how to use Mario’s new abilities to defeat enemies and find new secrets.

And naturally, that’s where the experience comes together — the gameplay. Odyssey is built on top of classic Mario platforming rules, but he also has a few new abilities. Sure, he can run, jump and bounce across the game’s landscape — but his hat now serves as a do-it-all weapon. Mario can throw his cap to defeat enemies or collect coins, and holding down the throw button allows you to lock it in place for long enough to jump off of it, creating an impromptu platform that can save you from falls or help you get to out of reach ledges.

Mario’s hat can be used to “capture” enemies too, allowing the player to possess them and take control of their body. This seems to be the game’s take on traditional power-ups. Instead of equipping Mario with a Bullet-bill themed costume, he simply takes control of a Bullet-bill to fly across portions of a level. This hat trick works on objects, too. See a springy pole in the big city? Throw your hat on it, and use it to fling Mario across the world.

For all that’s new in Super Mario Odyssey, the core DNA of the franchise persists. Heck, some sections of the game flatten Mario out to his familiar 8-bit NES sprite for completely traditional 2D platforming. Super Mario Odyssey is creative and weird but may be the first step towards moving the franchise into a more realistic setting. The game’s Metro Kingdom (home of New Donk City) and its Forest Kingdom shown in other trailers are lush and detailed — but the game’s Sand Kingdom is as cartoony as anything we saw in Super Mario Sunshine.

There’s still a lot of this game we haven’t seen, but if E3 convinced us of anything, we want to see a lot more of it. It’s a wonderfully creative, genuinely fun exploration game that just might fill the shoes of some of the franchise’s greatest platformers. It just looks a little weird at first.

Super Mario Odyssey will be available on Nintendo Switch on October 27th.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Google Drive will soon back up any file or folder on your computer

If you use a cloud storage app on your PC, there’s a good chance you use it as much for backing up your system as you do for accessing files on different devices. And Google knows it. The internet giant is reinventing its Drive desktop app as Backup and Sync, a tool that… well, just look at the name. While it largely accomplishes the same tasks, it’s now focused more on safeguarding your data, regardless of where it’s stored on your computer. That includes pictures, too — the updated software integrates the Google Photos desktop app, so you only need one app to sync it all. The only real limitation is the amount of Drive space you have… that 15GB free tier might not cut it.

Backup and Sync will launch June 28th for Mac and Windows users. At the moment, though, it’s not meant for business — Google would rather point you to its upcoming Drive File Stream if you rely on its cloud services for work. If all you need is a safety net for your personal documents, though, you won’t have too much longer to wait.

Source: G Suite Updates

‘Echo Arena’ is competitive, virtual reality frisbee in zero gravity

When we saw Lone Echo at Oculus Connect 3 late last year, it solved one of virtual reality’s biggest limitations by ignoring humanity’s most common form of locomotion: walking. The game takes place entirely in zero gravity, asking players to navigate its virtual world by pushing off of bulkheads like an astronaut, or using hand mounted jets to fly around like Iron Man. It worked shockingly well and easily became one of our favorite games from the show. Intel must have thought so too — it just made the game’s multiplayer component half of its new VR eSports league.

Called Echo Arena, the multiplayer part of the space exploration title pits teams of five weightless robots against each other in a frantic game of zero-g frisbee. The goal is pretty simple: get control of the flying disc, avoid attacks from other players and toss the space frisbee into the opposing team’s goal. Actually doing this is pretty hard. Not only is navigating four dimensions difficult in itself, but the momentum of tossing yourself off a wall in zero gravity means it’s exceptionally hard to catch a pass. With time and practice, it can be done — but between the mechanics of the game and the VR experience movement model, there’s a very clear skill curve.

That’s probably why Intel chose Echo Arena to be one of two games in its VR Challenger League. Starting in July, Intel and the Electronic Sports League will host a competitive VR gaming series in both online and localized events before a finale at the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Poland next year.

After half an hour of training and four quick rounds of Echo Arena, it’s hard to say for sure if it’ll be the Rocket League of VR — but it’s definitely a start. Playing the game absolutely feels sport-like. Carefully balanced offense and defense are necessary for winning a match, and when our team didn’t work together, things fell apart quickly. But not all sports are fun to watch. Even after I played a few rounds of the game, I found being a spectator it difficult — it just wasn’t easy to tell what was going on from an outside perspective. And without spectators, VR eSports just isn’t going to work out.

It’s an issue, but not an insurmountable one. Live commentary and a solid spectator mode could go a long way toward making sense of Echo Arena as a spectator sport — and Intel is serious about making VR eSports viable. In all, up to $200,000 in prizes will be awarded to top players of Echo Arena and Insomniac Games’ The Unspoken. That’s a big investment.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Box’s desktop app is fine for you, but better for businesses

When you think of cloud storage services, your mind probably drifts over Dropbox or Google Drive. You might not remember Box as well — it was one of the earliest cloud providers out there and it’s thriving today. Now, it’s catching up with some of its biggest rivals in a notable way: it finally has a desktop app so you manage your entire Box archive sans web browser.

Ready for the caveat? It’s still technically in beta. In a conversation with ZDNet, Box product VP Rand Wacker said the tech is good enough for use in the field — it just doesn’t offer offline syncing yet.

If the broad strokes sound familiar, well, congratulations: you have a pulse and own a computer. Similar functionality has been available from cloud storage rivals and more for years now, and Box itself has been working on its native desktop app for at least two years. The delayed launch was almost certainly due to the nature of its most important customers. While competitors skew toward consumer use, Box has focused heavily on becoming the sort of platform large-scale enterprises rely on. That means serious security, among other things.

Sure, the average user can use Box Drive to ferry files into their slice of the cloud just fine. Your mom at home probably doesn’t need to worry about her online files being stored in compliance with HIPAA, though. In this case, Box thinks — or hopes — that companies in healthcare and financial services will take a shine to the new app, since those firms often rely on virtual machines where other syncing services can be wonky. (Naturally, Box Drive also works with macOS and Windows.) In any case, go forth — go forth and manage your clouds and let your hearts be full of joy.

Via: ZDNet

Source: Box

‘Duck Season’ is equal parts nostalgic and creepy

When I was a kid with the original Nintendo Entertainment System, I of course played Duck Hunt. Fast forward 25 years and I did so in virtual reality, live on stage at E3 in front of the entire internet with Duck Season — a tribute to the classic NES title. What was my high score? And, more importantly, how often did I shoot my hunting companion, an anthropomorphic dog that looks ripped straight out of Five Nights at Freddy’s? You’ll have to watch the above video to find out.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Ohio drunk drivers ordered to install Uber or Lyft

Drunk drivers may have a new consequence for getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. They’ll still face stiff penalties like fines, mandatory driver’s prevention programs and possible jail time, of course. However, according to The News-Herald, Ohio Municipal Court Judge Michael A. Cicconetti has been ordering those convicted of Operating a Vehicle Impaired (OVI) to download ride-sharing apps like Uber or Lyft as part of his sentencing. They must also enter their credit cards into the app as a condition of probation.

“If you can save one person from getting another OVI, one person from getting into an accident, one person from hurting somebody else, it makes sense,” Cicconetti told The News-Herald. “It’s just common sense. It doesn’t cost anybody anything to install it and activate it, and it’s far cheaper than paying the thousands of dollars you’d have to pay for another OVI.”

There are many technological “solutions” to the drunk driving problem, of course. Researchers have developed a laser that can detect drunk drivers remotely. There are apps with hardware add-ons to help you decide if you’re too drunk to drive. Some car-makers have anti-drunk driving technology built in. And yet there are still too many people choosing to drive while intoxicated; 604 Operating a Vehicle Impaired citations were issued in 2016 for defendants in Painesville Municipal Court. Installing an app and having it set up with a credit card for easy access could certainly encourage folks to grab an Uber or Lyft from the bar. Now if only we could ensure that the Uber drivers are sober.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: The News-Herald

Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 33 With Netflix AirPods Bug Fix

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced one year ago in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview release 33 includes fixes and improvements for JavaScript, WebRTC, Media Streams and Capture, Media, CSS Grid, Web API, Rendering, and Web Inspector.

Today’s update also includes a specific bug fix that allows Netflix to properly work with Safari when using AirPods and it addresses an issue causing stuttering audio in YouTube when the page changes visibility.

With Safari 11 now available to developers through the macOS High Sierra beta, Apple is providing two versions of Safari Technology Preview, one for macOS Sierra users and one for those using macOS High Sierra.

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple’s aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

Tag: Safari Technology Preview
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Most Popular Ringtones Free offers a small collection of average ringtones, nothing more (Review)

Overview:

I don’t know about you, but I often get bored with the sounds my phone makes. So I try to change my ringtone or my sound alarm as often as I can. That’s why I’ve tried numerous ringtone apps throughout the years. Luckily, there’s a large variety of them to choose from. Which brings me to the latest app I’ve downloaded. It’s called Most Popular Ringtones Free and it’s a pretty straightforward app – easy to use, but sadly also quite easy to forget.

Developer: TM

Cost: Free

Impressions:

Getting started is super easy. Tap on the Most Popular Ringtones Free icon and …you’ll be greeted by the app’s welcome screen, followed by a super annoying ad. Whoa, that didn’t take long!

Anyhow, find the “X” on the upper left corner and tap on it to get rid of it. Finally, you’ll be transported within the app where you’ll see the list of ring tones. It’s not a super extensive one, but there are plenty of choices including bits like “Comet Journey”, “Introspective Tine” or “Dubtrance Sense”.

Tap the “Play” button to listen to the ringtone and adjust the volume using the volume slider located at the top. However, don’t expect to find anything too complex. This app simply offers a database of basic sounds reminiscent of the ones your phone comes loaded with. But if you already used all of them up, you’ll probably be grateful for this app.

Once you have zeroed in on a particular Ring Tone, press the next button and proceed to set it as:

–    Main ringtone
–    Contact ringtone
–    SMS/Notification
–    Alarm Tone
–    Timer
–    Widget

The “Set as Alarm” option will not affect existing alarms, but only the new ones you create. Users can easily delete existing alarms and create new ones.

To set a Ringtone as a widget you can either go to Home Screen>Press Menu button on phone>Add>Widget>Choose Most Popular Ringtones Free>Choose sound or go to Home Screen>Long press on desktop> Widget>Choose Most Popular Ringtones Free>Choose a sound. It depends on the kind of phone you have. Anyway, once you perform this string of actions, a widget will pop up on your Home Screen allowing you to play the Ring Tone anytime you want simply by tapping on the icon.

As I mentioned above, the app is pretty straightforward, but it’s also quite lacking in some areas. First off, the interface seems pretty ancient, I would have liked to be able to work with something more modern. Secondly, it would be have been nice not to be spammed by an ad every time you tapped on an option. I also noticed that some ringtones aren’t as loud of others. What’s up with that?

Another major issue with this app is that it offers next to nothing in terms of customization. So if you don’t like anything in the list, you might as well just uninstall the app and be done with it.

To be frank, using this app brought back the nostalgia of Ringtone Maker. The app allows users to select music from their personal collection, cut it down and even adjust things like waveform to create the desired effect. It comes equipped with great editing tools, so you’ll be able to get your custom ringtone in no time.

Conclusion

Most Popular Ringtones Free doesn’t bring much to the table, aside from a (small) collection of pretty rudimentary ringtones. Some tunes work better than others and if you want to truly customize your ringtone, you might as well just skip this app and install Ringtone Maker or a similar title.

Download Most Popular Ringtones Free from the Google Play Store

Razer Blade Stealth 2017: Our First Take

Razer’s Blade Stealth is no longer a new contender to the laptop world, and Razer is taking steps to ensure it stays relevant against newcomers. This time around, that means expanding the screen without — changing the chassis –raising the price, and offering a new color. Gunmetal.

This more subtle option should make it a better choice for anyone not looking to broadcast their gamer status, and it won’t cost any more than similarly equipped matte black Blade Stealth. We spent a few minutes with the system at E3 2017, and it’s shaping up to be a solid update.

More attractive than ever

Draped in attractive gunmetal, the already sexy Razer Blade Stealth cuts an even more appealing figure. It’s slim, light, and feels great in hand, something Razer has never had trouble with. The bezels, which stretched to almost a full inch on the previous model, are slimmer than before, something we’ve continually seen from higher-end laptops. It makes the system a lot sleeker, which is clearly at the front of Razer’s mind. The new Gunmetal option is absolutely gorgeous, and has a premium feel not found in less expensive systems.

Razer has also expanded the touchpad in the new generation of the Blade Stealth. It felt more precise, and stretched all the way to the bottom of the system’s chassis. Clicking the surface gave us a nice, chunky ‘thunk,’ and the touch surface felt smooth as we effortlessly flicked through multi-touch gestures.

The keyboard felt great, with long travel and a spacious layout that defies the laptop’s small size. The model we checked out had Chroma lighting, but Razer says the gunmetal rendition will just have white backlights — another testament to its commitment to taking Razer’s brand into the boardroom by cutting back on flashy elements.

Of course, building an attractive machine with solid set of input methods isn’t all there is to building a portable laptop. Razer learned that lesson with last year’s Razer Blade Stealth, which performed very well, but fell behind in battery life.

In response, Razer has changed the resolution to a user choice of 2,560 x 1,440 or 3,200 x 1,800, cutting out the 4K option in the 13.3-inch model. As far as we’re concerned, that’s a good idea. 4K resolution didn’t provide a lot of tangible benefits at 13 inches or lower, and it became a burden that weighed down battery life.

Still won’t game out of the box

While the Blade Stealth has received update, its core concept remains the same. Its thin, light chassis crowds out room for a discrete graphics chip. Gaming on this laptop is no better than on a Dell XPS 13 or HP Spectre x360.

Gaming is possible, however, if you enlist some help. Razer intends the laptop to be used with its Razer Core external graphics dock. A $400 add-on when purchased with a Blade Stealth ($500 otherwise), the Core dock adds a desktop-class GPU to the picture and connects over Thunderbolt 3.

That’s an expensive add-on, and frankly, we don’t think you should buy the Blade Stealth at all if serious gaming is your goal. It’d be wiser to tolerate the heft of Razer’s standard Blade, or simply opt for a gaming desktop alongside an inexpensive ultrabook.

But the option is there. The Core can even be upgraded with a new desktop graphics card at your leisure, so it does provide upgrade options when it comes time to boost the laptop’s performance.

The rich get richer

As part of the upgrade process, Razer has bumped the starting price from $1,100 to $1,400 — which doesn’t exactly feel like a selling point. However, the new base Stealth is much better equipped than the previous one, with an Intel Core i7-7500U, 256GB SSD, and 16GB of memory.

Razer will continue offering certain models of the 12-inch Blade Stealth with a 4K panel that sports, in our testing, an impressive 95 percent AdobeRGB coverage. That’s not exactly the simplest way to promote a product, but at least the internals are a bit faster.

Whether a new color and upgraded hardware is enough to draw people over to the Blade Stealth remains to be seen. It’s clear Razer has responded to user feedback, and worked to make the system a bit more subtle — a factor far more important in a portable laptop than a gaming system like the Blade.