US Air Force launch costings give SpaceX all the marketing it needs

The US Air Force has revealed how much the government can save by having SpaceX launch some of its satellites instead of relying purely on United Launch Alliance. Launch prices used to be discussed in vague terms until the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act required the Department of Defense to include a budget for national security space programs in its annual reports. Now, the Air Force’s budget request (PDF) for the next few years, which Ars Technica got its hands on, finally has solid numbers we can look at: It shows that the division expects to pay as much as $423 million per launch by the year 2021 if it allows ULA — a Boeing and Lockheed joint venture — to have a monopoly on its launches.

The expected ULA launch prices for 2018 and 2019 are much lower at $202 million and $216 million, respectively. However, those amounts are still more than double the $83 million and the $96.5 million the Air Force is paying SpaceX to launch GPS satellites those fiscal years. SpaceX might raise its prices for 2020 and beyond, but it most likely won’t cost as much as $400 million for one launch. In response to Ars’ report, SpaceX chief Elon Musk tweeted that a price difference of $300 million per launch means its clients’ satellites are basically free:

$300M cost diff between SpaceX and Boeing/Lockheed exceeds avg value of satellite, so flying with SpaceX means satellite is basically free https://t.co/CaOulCf7ot

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 16, 2017

The best thing about being more transparent about launch prices? Lawmakers can now make more informed decisions about how and where to spend taxpayers’ money.

Source: Ars Technica

Engadget at E3: Checking in on indie game development in 2017

The indie-video-game industry is massive, churning out mainstream hits and padding the marketplaces on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, mobile and even Nintendo Switch. But the one thing that makes indie development so flexible — true independence from outside companies or investors — is also what makes it so unstable.

We sat down with a trio of veteran indie developers — Dennis Wedin (Hotline Miami), Erin Robinson Swink (Gravity Ghost) and Ben Ruiz (Aztez) — on the Engadget stage at E3, where we were surrounded by the crushing noise and lights of gaming’s largest publishers. It made for a fitting juxtaposition: The state of indie is strong even when creators are being ignored by companies like Sony and Microsoft. And the industry is becoming more secure by the day, thanks to a supportive community of developers.

See that part of the conversation right here:

One tasty tidbit that came up during the on-stage conversation (but didn’t make it into the edited video): Wedin, the man responsible for one of the most unapologetically bloody games of the past 10 years, was planning on becoming a kindergarten teacher just before Hotline Miami really caught fire.

Follow your dreams, kids.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Netflix will join net neutrality ‘Day of Action’ after all

After being on the front lines of net neutrality action for years, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently declared that it is no longer its “primary battle … because we’re big enough to get the deals we want.” That caused a lot of consternation among foes of the FCC’s plan to roll back consumer internet protections, but apparently the streaming giant has changed its mind. Organizers say Netflix will participate in the July 12 “Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality,” and the company tweeted that it “will never outgrow the fight for #NetNeutrality.”

Prior to the implementation of current net neutrality rules by former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Netflix was one of the primary lobbyists for new net neutrality rules. That’s because its video streams take up a big chunk of internet traffic, and carriers like Verizon or Comcast have incentive to limit its services in favor of their own cable and streaming options.

Netflix will never outgrow the fight for #NetNeutrality. Everyone deserves an open Internet. https://t.co/iHfQUjfq2x

— Netflix US (@netflix) June 15, 2017

As such, Netflix’s new stance likely seemed hypocritical to “Day of Action” backers, a large group ranging from consumer organizations like Demand Progress to journalist group Center for Media Justice to large website like Reddit to retail giant Amazon.

Net neutrality rules implemented in 2015 reclassified internet service providers as public utilities, putting them under closer regulatory scrutiny. Specifically, the laws prohibit ISP actions like paid prioritization and slowdown of lawful content. However, new FCC chairman Ajit Pai wants to gut the rules, believing that ISPs can regulate themselves and won’t take advantage of lax rules to screw consumers — even though they’ve proven that they’re willing to do that over and over again.

Other notable groups involved in the July 12th protests include Y Combinator, Mozilla, Kickstarter, Vimeo and Pornhub. “Net neutrality is vital to a healthy Internet: it protects free speech, competition and innovation online,” said Mozilla’s Denelle Dixon. “It’s also something a majority of Americans support — 76 percent, according to a recent Mozilla-Ipsos poll.”

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Netflix (Twitter)

Ai Weiwei’s ‘Hansel & Gretel’ is a surveillance playground

Should you Instagram an art exhibit?

Taking an art selfie might mean participating in the aesthetic experience, hacking and remixing it with your presence. Then again, maybe commoditizing the affair for likes detracts from art’s ability to make us slow down and be immersed in something outside ourselves.

At Hansel & Gretel, an interactive installation about modern surveillance by Ai Weiwei, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, selfies are part of the experience.

The installation begins in a 55,000-square-foot dystopian playground. Set within New York’s Park Avenue Armory, the hall is cool, dark and quiet, giving the illusion of privacy. But everyone who enters is tracked relentlessly from above by 56 computers with infrared cameras, projecting bird’s-eye images of visitors onto the ground next to them, outlined with red boxes. Start walking and these ghostly portraits remain, leaving a digital trail. The spying feels aggressive when whirring drones survey the area, but they’re just a distraction when everyone is already being tracked in silent, subtle ways without escape.

Yet people are overwhelmingly having fun. They spin around, strike ballet poses and make snow angels on the ground, then whip out smartphones to capture the imprint.

The more fun you want to have, the more you have to step into the light.

The floor is lighter in several areas, which create more snapshots of your movements. People gravitate toward them. The more fun you want to have, the more you have to step into the light.

The juxtaposition of an imposing environment with carefree enjoyment is disconcerting but understandable. While visitors share the pervasive feeling of being watched, they don’t know who’s watching, or to what ends. It’s hard to care. Besides, everyone else is consenting to being monitored too, and look at the fun they’re having.

This is the heart of the installation: how we trade our privacy for fun.

“We also are actively involved in this,” said Jacques Herzog on a panel at the installation’s opening. “It’s not just that we are victims.”

Every time we use services like Instagram or Snapchat, we voluntarily give up our data in exchange for entertainment. The more we give — adding geolocation, tagging friends, linking other social media accounts — the more we’re rewarded with interesting features.

Sometimes the nefarious ways our data is used comes to light — advertisers used to be able to exclude Facebook users on “ethnic affinity,” and Uber bought anonymized Lyft receipts pulled from the email inboxes of Unroll.me customers. But for the most part, the knowledge of what personal information we’re giving up is hazy.

A post shared by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on June 6, 2017, at 10:18 p.m. PDT

“As a New Yorker, or somebody in the city, you expose yourself to surveillance all the time, no matter where you go,” said Ai Weiwei at the panel. “Even if we know there’s a camera there, we don’t even know what is being recorded and how later [it] would become something which is useful.”

Ai knows these issues intimately. While Hansel & Gretel uses surveillance for fun, the iconoclastic artist has also made fun of surveillance. In 2012, while under state monitoring in Beijing, he wryly broadcast four live webcams from his house to weiweicam.com until the government shut it down in less than two days.

While we seldom get a peek behind the panopticon, the second part of Hansel & Gretel provides the viewpoint of the person doing the watching. In a separate area, visitors use iPads to watch feeds from the security cameras, drones and infrared cameras following those in the main hall. They can take a picture of themselves and facial recognition will identify grainy photos of them wandering the building earlier.

“The first part was physically disconcerting — I couldn’t see where I was walking,” said Yvonne Caruthers, a fellow visitor. “The second part was alarming.”

Yet, like tech companies, the exhibit made public only a sliver of the insights they potentially could have harvested. With all that motion tracking and video footage, perhaps other inferences could be made: who a visitor interacts with, how rapidly they move through the exhibit, which areas they spend the most time in. If the exhibit showed people just how much big data thinks it knows about them, the cost of their earlier fun would be more apparent.

A lot of what art institutions are doing is surveilling their population. They’re trying to figure out how to get young, hip people to come back to their spaces.

Elizabeth Losh

Chelsea Beroza (R + A)

The irony of an installation spotlighting intrusive surveillance is that museums — like many institutions — already monitor their visitors via social media.

“A lot of what art institutions are doing is surveilling their population. They’re trying to figure out how to get young, hip people to come back to their spaces,” said Elizabeth Losh, an associate professor at the College of William and Mary, in Virginia, who studies the relationship between digital and traditional media.

Every hashtag of an installation or museum creates data that curators can use to analyze what features of an exhibition a visitor fixated on and whether those people are social influencers who could attract an even larger audience.

Vast, immersive exhibits like Rain Room encourage the most social media posts and, therefore, the most data. Visitors to Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors have reportedly waited in line for over three hours, while Wonder, at Washington, DC’s Renwick Gallery, brought 732,000 viewers in eight months to an institution whose prior annual attendance was 150,000.

“It has privileged certain kinds of blockbuster shows, certain kinds of optics,” said Losh. “For example, there’s no way you’re going to be able to shoot something selfie-appropriate if you’re looking into a microscope at tiny miniatures. It requires certain aesthetic features in order for that combination of the art and social network platforms to work.”

Hansel & Gretel has those aesthetics features. The stylized reflections it creates are made for the art selfie, and visitors start snapping because of how they’re conditioned to interact with this genre of installation.

The photos that result help to market the exhibition and feed into the data banks of Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. Ai, Herzog and de Meuron have made an installation with a watchful Big Brother at its center, but it’s not because of the ominous drones or cameras. The real monitoring devices are the smartphones we voluntarily point at ourselves. We’re creating our own surveillance.

The CIA has been rooting around in your WiFi router

A recent Wikileaks document dump revealed that the CIA has been hacking wireless routers. The documents suggest it has been going on for years and as many as 25 devices from 10 different manufacturers were targeted.

This latest leak included user manuals and installation guides for a number of hacking tools. One of them, dubbed CherryBlossom, let the CIA monitor a target’s internet activity, redirect their browser and scan for information.

The list of compromised router brands includes, but is likely not limited to, Asus, Belkin, Buffalo, Dell, Dlink, Linksys, Motorola, Netgear, Senao and US Robotics. Apple is not on the list, but it’s unclear how many other devices might have been targeted after these documents were created.

The weak security of WiFi routers is well documented and this is just the latest device revealed to have been hacked by the CIA. Past Wikileaks reveals have included smart phones, laptops and Windows computers.

Whether these implants are still in use or if the CIA has moved on to something else isn’t yet clear. But we’ll surely be seeing some frantic updates from the affected router brands very soon.

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: ZDNet

Microsoft Reveals Wireless ‘Modern Keyboard’ With Hidden Fingerprint ID Sensor

Microsoft has quietly posted two new accessories onto its online storefront, called the “Modern Keyboard” and “Modern Mouse” (via Engadget). Both devices are built to visually match the company’s line of Surface products and connect to Windows PCs, but the Modern Keyboard will also connect to any macOS and iOS device that supports Bluetooth 4.0.

The Modern Keyboard has a low profile with an aluminum frame that Microsoft says is “virtually indestructible,” while still remaining sleek. It can also be used wirelessly through Bluetooth 4.0 or with a wired connection, includes a rechargeable battery that can last up to two months on one charge, and weighs about 14.79 ounces.

Notably, the Modern Keyboard includes a hidden fingerprint sensor located between the Alt and Ctrl keys that lets users unlock their Windows 10 devices with a simple finger press using Windows Hello. Although the keyboard can be used on a Mac, iPhone, and iPad to type, the fingerprint unlocking feature is not compatible with Apple devices.

Microsoft said that its goal was to seamlessly blend the fingerprint sensor into a key on the keyboard, “so it would appear to be any other key.”

Our vision was to blend the Fingerprint reader into a keyboard, so it would appear to be any other key.

We iterated relentlessly to improve each layer, making sure they came together to create a flawless typing experience that felt like any other key.

Microsoft’s new keyboard falls in line with a similar product requested by Mac fans since the debut of Touch ID within the MacBook Pro’s keyboard last year, which would be a Magic Keyboard for Mac with Touch ID included somewhere on the device. Last week, Apple launched a new Magic Keyboard with a number pad, but it lacks a Touch Bar and Touch ID.

The Modern Mouse is made out of similar metal material as the keyboard and includes “premium precision pointing and clicking,” according to Microsoft, but it lacks compatibility with macOS. It also uses AAA batteries with a battery life of around 12 months.

Both devices have a “coming soon” banner on their pages, so it’s unclear when exactly the accessories will launch. When they do, users will be able to buy the Modern Keyboard for $129.99 and Modern Mouse for $49.99.

Tag: Microsoft
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Eating a cookie of the future made with recycled bread

There’s plenty of food to go around, but most of it is left rotting in the back of our cupboards rather than in the hands of those who need it. Imagine the scenes at a bakery at the end of a slow day, its shelves packed high with bread that’s rapidly going stale. It’s a problem that French startup Expliceat is hoping to cure with its plan to turn spare loaves into cookies, muffins and pancakes.

It’s not a new idea, and you can scour Pinterest for hundreds of recipes that recycle bread into cakes using a blender to create breadcrumb flour. What’s novel here is that Expliceat has built a commercial mill that’s just designed to crumb down bread that it rents out to commercial bakeries. In addition, the startup is working with French mega-retailer Carrefour on a small trial of the product that, if successful, will see these cookies sold all over the country.

I’ve tried a few of these recycled food products over the years, including cupcakes from Mexican startup Limmo. In that instance, Limmo powder is made up of leftover fruit residue from a smoothie factory that’s used as a bulking agent. Because of its fruity sources, burger buns made with Limmo’s product are also far healthier than the standard options. If there’s a downside, it’s that you’re always aware that you’re not eating the real thing, although it’d be easy to get used to.

Speaking of taste, I’m told that Expliceat’s cookies will be marketed as a premium product designed to accompany a swanky coffee. I’m sorry to say that you’ll need something alongside the foodstuff because it’s not that pleasant on its own. The crumb is a little bit too big and you need plenty of oil and butter to bind it all together, making the end product far too oily. The bitter chocolate chips don’t help matters, and the recipe needs tweaking to be a little more palatable.

It’s important to remember, however, that climate change is an ever-increasing threat to our crops and food production. By reducing the amount of wastage, it may help to ensure that future generations can get bougie cookies without any guilt.

‘Vampyr’ is more about who you kill than how you do it

Developer Dontnod has taken a sharp turn from its previous games Life is Strange and Remember Me with Vampyr, but there’s more to think about than just another angle on gender politics. We stopped by the booth and got a guided tour throughout a few sections of the game that showed us more about how combat works and what kind of choices your character will have to make. Going beyond mere moody lurking in the shadows, we watched the player’s character Dr. Jonathan Reed struggle between his role as a doctor in Spanish Flu-stricken 1918 London and the reality of being a recently turned vampire who kills humans to survive.

While the hospital where he works has been declared neutral ground, adversaries in the game will include vampire hunters, as well as “skals,” dangerous creatures that vampires can turn into. The action and combat sections will be fairly familiar to gamers, with special powers that are charged up by Reed’s blood bar, plus the standard health and stamina meters. The combat we saw leaned heavily on the ability to stun enemies, who can bring items like guns or flamethrowers to the battle. Naturally, there are deep skill trees available that will allow a player to customize their character and attack in the way that they want to as the game goes on.

Vampyr

Focus Home Interactive

The real twist, other than the game’s post-World War I atmosphere, is how relationships between each character in the game exist and are affected by Reed’s actions. A section we saw that’s not in the trailer below showed Reed interrogating a man who, as it turned out, was a serial killer with numerous victims. His crimes gave Reed more reason to consider sacrificing him for his blood, however, another option was to kill his adopted mother, who, while innocent of murder, had better quality blood that would give Reed more XP. Another thing to think about is that when you drink someone’s blood, you gain access to their memories, and with many situations to investigate that may come in handy.

The section ended with the same choice shown in the video, with Reed choosing what to do about a fellow vampire who he suspects of attacking a man at the hospital, putting everyone at risk. Of course, choosing who to kill and who to spare will change things for everyone in the world of Vampyr, and may help this tile break out of the action-game pack when it arrives this fall on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Source: Vampyr

Meet the people behind Engadget’s $500,000 immersive art grant

Just over a month ago, I announced the Engadget Alternate Realities grant program, an initiative aimed at funding art projects that embrace new media and immersive technologies. With just two weeks left until our submission deadline (June 30th, 2017), I wanted to give you a little more information about the project and the people who helped shape it.

We’re at a critical moment in the development of new creative platforms. Companies like HTC, Sony, Microsoft and Google are fundamentally altering the way we experience the world through AR, VR and AI. Meanwhile, artists, musicians, filmmakers and developers are pushing the boundaries of traditional storytelling, embracing those technologies to explore world’s beyond our own.

Engadget wanted to shed a light on that work, so we reached out to some of the people making that work possible, and, with their input, created the Engadget Alternate Realities grant program. From now until June 30th, we’re accepting submissions for new, existing or altered works that make creative use of new technologies to explore the theme of Alternate Realities. Those projects will debut at The Engadget Experience, a one-day event at the United Artists’ theatre in downtown LA November 16th, 2017.

You can find more information about the event, our grant program and how to apply at the event page here. In the meantime, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to the incredible people helping to shape the event and select the recipients of our first-ever Engadget Alternate Realities grant program.

Stacy Switzer, Fathomers

Stacy Switzer, Fathomers

Stacy Switzer is curator and executive director of Fathomers. Launched in Los Angeles in January 2016, Fathomers is a creative research institute dedicated to producing sites and encounters that challenge us to live and act differently in the world. Fathomers’ first projects include a round-the-world collaboration with artist Michael Jones McKean designed to unfold over the next seven to 70 years, visioning the biological internet with artist and MycoWorks founder Phil Ross, and an exploration of value and ethics with artist Jill Magid. Switzer was artistic director of Grand Arts, a contemporary art project space in Kansas City, Missouri, from 2004 to 2015, and is co-editor of Problems and Provocations: Grand Arts 1995-2015, published by Grand Arts and available from Artbook | D.A.P.

Alison Hearst, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Alison Hearst, Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth

Alison Hearst is Assistant Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Hearst is the curator of the museum’s FOCUS exhibition series and has presented solo exhibitions of artists including Fred Tomaselli, Joyce Pensato, Glenn Kaino, Thomas Demand, Lorna Simpson and Stanley Whitney, among others.

Hearst was the assistant curator of the major exhibitions “Urban Theater: New York Art in the 1980s” (2014) and “México Inside Out: Themes in Art Since 1990” (2013). She recently organized “Donald Sultan: The Disaster Paintings” (2016), which was on view at the Lowe Art Museum, Miami, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The exhibition is currently on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., and will travel to the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, and the Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln.

Bryn Mooser, RYOT

Bryn Mooser, RYOT

Bryn Mooser is the CEO and co-founder of RYOT. Recently acquired by AOL, RYOT is the leading immersive- media company specializing in virtual and augmented reality. As a twice-Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Mooser has overseen the production of more than 200 linear and immersive films created by RYOT. Mooser is also pioneering narrative virtual reality storytelling, launching the first-ever virtual reality global news show and comedy series.

RYOT’s work has earned accolades across the industry, including recognition as an Emmy Awards 2016 finalist for HuffPost RYOT’s “The Crossing” and a Peabody Award finalist. Before starting RYOT, Bryn spent years as a humanitarian, serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and working in Haiti, where he helped build the country’s largest secondary school in Port-au-Prince, which now educates 3,000 Haitian youths per year.

Eugene Chung, Penrose

Eugene Chung, Penrose

Eugene Chung is a film director and the founder of Penrose, a startup focused on augmented and virtual reality. Previously, Eugene was Head of Film & Media at Oculus VR, which was later acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. While at Oculus, Eugene co-created Story Studio, bringing together storytellers and artists from Pixar. Prior to Oculus, he was with New Enterprise Associates and Pixar Animation Studios. He holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Harvard.

Source: Engadget Alternate Realities

Amazon is buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion

In a surprising turn of events, Amazon and Whole Foods Market announced this morning that they are merging; Amazon will acquire the high-end organic food company for approximately $13.7 billion cash. The deal is expected to close during the second half of this year. Whole Foods is retaining its CEO, cofounder John Mackey, and they will continue to operate their stores independently. The company’s headquarters will remain in Austin, Texas.

Mackey emphasizes that this purchase is a partnership with Amazon, rather than any sort of takeover. “This partnership presents an opportunity to maximize value for Whole Foods Market’s shareholders, while at the same time extending our mission and bringing the highest quality, experience, convenience and innovation to our customers,” he said in the press release. It’s Amazon’s largest acquisition, after the company’s purchase of Zappos in 2009 for around $1.2 billion.

Amazon has been contemplating this takeover for some time, as they have been moving more and more into the food sector with services like AmazonFresh. But this move also gives the online retail giant immediate brick-and-mortar access to a certain type of consumer with disposable income. While it’s true that many companies Amazon has acquired have continued to operate independently, it’s hard not to wonder whether we’ll start seeing Kindles and Amazon Echos popping up at Whole Foods.

Source: Amazon