The Morning After: Friday, June 9th 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

As this week wraps up we’re getting you ready for E3, and digging into Boston Dynamics’ new owner. Plus: A peek inside the new iMac.

The Japanese company has a ‘vision of catalyzing the next wave of smart robotics.’Softbank buys Boston Dynamics (and its robots) from Google

It’s been over a year since Google’s parent company Alphabet said it wanted to sell its robotics company Boston Dynamics, and now it has a buyer: Softbank. The Japanese company has been working on its own robots for years, including the helpful Pepper, and now they’ll be under the same umbrella as Handle, Big Dog, Atlas, WildCat and all the rest.

So many leaks that the company put out their own images.OnePlus shows off the OnePlus 5 – at an intentionally specific angle

It’s only been two days since OnePlus announced the June 20th launch date for its upcoming OnePlus 5 flagship phone, but it didn’t take long before leaks started to appear. With that dual camera, LED flash, antenna bands and shade of gray, commenters were quick to point out the heavy resemblance between this device and the iPhone 7 Plus, which is presumably why OnePlus decided to post the above image to make a point. Indeed, from this angle, the OnePlus 5 appears to feature a unique outline running from the side to the top. But, well, besides that, it still looks a lot like an iPhone.

It’s not done yetNASA’s Mars 2020 concept is perfect for Space Batman

NASA showed off a futuristic-looking concept of the Mars 2020 rover with a shiny black body and intimidating wheels at the Kennedy Space Center. If you think that it looks like it popped right out of a superhero movie or a video game than an actual vehicle meant to explore the red planet, then you’re right.

The ultimate GoProGoPro finally shows its all-in-one 360-degree shooter.

The first action camera from GoPro made for shooting 360-degree video is this Fusion. It has a 5.2K resolution but is still only a shade larger than the Hero5 Black. Despite this early preview, key facts like how much it will cost are still unknown.

Throw-and-go aerial selfie revolution isn’t quite here just yet.Flying the DJI Spark drone by waving your hand isn’t as great as it sounds

James Trew has been waving his arms at drones for the last few weeks. No, his brain hasn’t finally broken — he was testing out the DJI Spark. The drone, which can be controlled by gestures. may have an innovative new control method, but James believes it’s not quite the spontaneous, simple experience it needs to be for new drone owners.

But it isn’t easy and it will void your warrantyIt is technically possible to replace the RAM and CPU in a new iMac

While we tested what it’s like to use one of Apple’s newest all-in-ones, iFixit took their usual route of pulling one apart to see what’s inside. They found CPU and RAM that aren’t soldered to the motherboard which is a good thing for upgrades and repairs, but there’s just one small catch. Accessing them requires removing the screen and voiding your warranty.

And new ‘collaborative gameplay’ is on the way‘Pokemon Go’ anniversary celebration includes big IRL events

We’re coming up on one year since the launch of Pokemon Go, and after some ups and downs, it’s time to celebrate. The game’s developers are planning events worldwide as well as in game. More importantly, they also mentioned that gyms will shut down temporarily while they work on some new “collaborative gameplay” features that could bring head to head battles into the app.

It’s all CG, but it’s a start.‘Life is Strange’ studio’s ‘Vampyr’ arrives this November

The makers of Life is Strange, Don’t Nod, has decided to go full-tilt fantasy on its new game, Vampyr. A new trailer shows more of the studio’s supernatural take on 1918 London and confirms a November release date on PS4, PC and Xbox One.The new teaser, however, doesn’t reveal much in the way of gameplay, only showing pre-rendered footage of people lurking moodily in dark places. With the developers promising players a semi-open world, fast-paced combat, and an environment where every in-game action carries a consequence, it’s all sounding rather ambitious.

But wait, there’s more…

• Those awkward AirPods will automatically link up to your Apple TV
• Oppo’s 4K Blu-ray players are the first with Dolby Vision HDR
• Roli expands its modular music gear with the touch-friendly Seaboard
• Super realistic racing returns with ‘Project Cars 2’ in September
• The trailer for life-creating sim ‘Everything’ could make gaming history and win an Academy Award

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t subscribe.

Valve releases the first multiplayer campaign for ‘Dota 2’

Dota 2 isn’t just an ever-repeating, five-on-five race to destroy your enemy’s base. Every so often, Valve adds temporary cooperative game modes to the MOBA that unite the toxic player base against an entirely different end goal. In the build-up to The International 7 — a yearly tournament that’s like the Wimbledon of Dota — Valve has just released the most elaborate of these yet. It goes so far as to call “Siltbreaker: Act I” the first multiplayer Dota campaign, since it plays more like a quest-centric RPG than anything else. Unlike the core MOBA, though, it’s not free-to-play.

To try out Siltbreaker — both this first act and the second, which arrives next month — you need the $10/£8 International Battle Pass. Valve puts out these “compendiums” several times a year ahead of major tournaments or competitive seasons. They unlock in-game rewards like the Siltbreaker campaign and players are tempted to level up their Battle Pass with their wallets or by completing challenges and achievements as part of the normal game. For your time and/or money, you win exclusive hero cosmetics, loading screens, audio modifiers and various other bonuses that are the Dota equivalent of crack.

What’s particularly important about the International Battle Pass is that some of the proceeds are pumped straight into the prize pool for the upcoming championship. This funding tactic is why the annual Dota tournament consistently boasts the highest money pot in eSports. The International 7 kicks off in early August, and already the prize pool stands at over $14 million.

Source: Dota 2 blog

Apple CEO Tim Cook to Attend White House for Kushner-Led Tech Summit

Apple CEO Tim Cook will visit the White House later this month for the first meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump’s American Technology Council, a report revealed on Thursday. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are also expected to be in attendance, but Facebook has not yet responded to its invitation to the event.

The meeting, which was formed as part of an effort to modernize government technology and digital services, will include a gathering of top executives followed by smaller sessions on specific topics, such as technology sales to government agencies and cloud computing, according to Bloomberg.

The council will be led by Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner and will be attended by government officials including the U.S. chief technology officer, said people with knowledge of the matter. Eleven companies have been invited to participate in the June 19 summit, .

The meeting comes just a few weeks after Cook and Nadella publicly criticized the Trump administration for its decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Technology companies including Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook have also been critical of a proposed U.S. travel ban on passengers from majority-Muslim countries, with the companies being among 97 that filed a legal brief in February opposing the ban.

Trump held a roundtable discussion with tech executives in December, before his inauguration. The meeting focused on jobs, trade, immigration, and China relations. Afterwards, industry leaders said an area of broad agreement was the potential for the Trump administration to innovate in government services.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Donald Trump
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Apple Music Loses Exclusive Streaming Deal With Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is making her entire back catalog of music available across all major streaming services, bringing Apple Music’s exclusive content deal with the singer to an end (via TechCrunch).

Beginning today, rival services including Spotify, Amazon Music, and Tidal will all be able to list the artist’s existing discography, including Swift’s album “1989”, which has sold 10 million copies worldwide, it was also announced on Friday.

The move potentially marks a change in the way artists see streaming services, which have previously been criticized for underpaying content creators. With Spotify boasting 50 million paid subscribers and Apple Music now on 27 million, the sheer number of listeners appears to be making up for the decline in physical album sales.

Swift famously got into a spat with Spotify in 2014 because her music was available on the service’s free ad-supported tier. The singer said at the time: “I think there should be an inherent value placed on art,” contrasting it with how on “Beats Music and Rhapsody you have to pay for a premium package in order to access my albums. And that places a perception of value on what I’ve created.”

At the center of the split was Spotify’s refusal to let any music only appear on its paid tier and not its ad-supported tier, which led Swift to pull almost all her music from the service.

Swift later berated Apple Music, when the service initially declined to pay royalties to artists if their music was played during the free three-month trial of the service. Apple later reversed course and agreed to pay artists for the free plays, leading to better relations with Swift, who went on to become a promotional figure for the service in several ads and even an exclusive concert film.

Tags: Apple Music, Taylor Swift
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Customising the Huawei Watch 2: Straps, colours and faces for perfect personalisation

A smartwatch is a more personal gadget than many of the other devices in your tech arsenal. Getting a smartphone or pair of headphones that fit your unique needs and individual style is key, but a smartwatch like the Huawei Watch 2 takes tech personalisation to new levels.

Building on a hugely impressive set of specs – including a stunning 1.2-inch circular AMOLED display, inbuilt GPS, an integrated heart-rate sensor, and Google’s latest Android Wear 2.0 operating system – the Huawei Watch 2 is a device that oozes appeal in its luxurious looks. It’s about more than its standard appearance, however.

Key to the Huawei Watch 2’s appeal is its extensive customisation options. This is the most personalised of personal gadgets and will fit effortlessly into your lifestyle, no matter what your tastes, needs, or style. Here are some of its top customisable features.

Customising the Huawei Watch 2: Apps

This isn’t a watch that comes with only a handful of pre-installed apps. With Android Wear 2.0 software on board, the Huawei Watch 2 comes with the Google Play Store, giving you instant access to a world of compatible apps directly from your wrist. Many of these no longer need a synced smartphone to work either.

Pocket-lint

Whether you’re after on-the-go tunes through Google Play Music, instant access to your online cycling community through Strava, or simply want to indulge in some watch-based gaming, it’s all just a couple of taps away to make for your personalised app experience. And with the Huawei Watch 2 playing host to 4GB of internal storage, there’s plenty of space for all these apps too.

Customising the Huawei Watch 2: Colourful Combinations

Before you get to download all those apps, there’s an initial choice to make about which watch to purchase, as the Huawei Watch 2 comes in two guises: the standard, sporty-focused model (dubbed simply the Huawei Watch 2); and the more refined Huawei Watch 2 Classic.

Pocket-lint

Both watch options are a pleasing 12.6mm thick, with the Classic’s 47g form slightly weightier than the 40g Watch 2. Which model is best for you will depend largely on your personal taste.

The Huawei Watch 2 has been crafted from rugged, hard-wearing plastic and plays host to a stunning ceramic bezel that’s six times harder than stainless steel, helping the watch better stand up to daily scuffs and scratches.

It comes in a variety of colours, too. For those who favour understated style, the black model is elegantly refined. You don’t have to hide your inner energy, however, with vibrant orange and modernly cool green models also available.

By contrast, the elegant Huawei Watch 2 Classic features a stunning, stainless steel body for a more refined finish.

Customising the Huawei Watch 2: Straps

Whether opting for the Huawei Watch 2 or Huawei Watch 2 Classic, you can switch out the device’s strap to give your Watch a fresh new look. It’s the Classic, however, that brings the most strap-based customisation options.

Pocket-lint

Whatever your style, there’s a watch strap to fit your needs with Huawei offering a selection of luxurious leather and hard-wearing silicon strap options. From the classic black or tan leather to more eye-catching polka dot designs, there is a strap style ideal for you.

Giving you ultimate control over your watch’s customisation, the Huawei Watch 2 Classic also supports all 22mm watch straps. This standard sizing means you’ll be able to pop the strap off your old analogue watch and add it to your new smart offering, or choose from the thousands of traditional 22mm watch straps out there to find a fit and look perfectly attuned for you.

Customising the Huawei Watch 2: Watch Faces

The joy of smartwatch customisation is that you don’t have to sit with the same style day after day. What’s more, switching up your look is completely free thanks to easily interchangeable digital watch faces, something the Huawei Watch 2 is filled with as part of its Android Wear 2.0 software make-up.

Pocket-lint

Whether you’re after a smartwatch with the look of a traditional chronograph or a more modern digital display, there are dozens of options available to choose from. You can mix them up as regularly as you like, too, with one office-suitable face swapped out for a party-ready style in a matter of seconds.

You can add more options, too, with hundreds of additional Android Wear watch faces able to be downloaded from the Play Store that’s now built directly into the watch itself and can be accessed using the watch’s inbuilt 4G capabilities, so no need for a synced smartphone.

Customising the Huawei Watch 2: Creative ‘Complications’

Once you’ve picked your watch face of choice, it’s time to crank the customisation gauge up to 11 and get down to making the Huawei Watch 2 truly your own. You can do this by altering certain elements of the watch face, including its colours, switching up the hue of the surrounding style, numbers and watch hands.

Pocket-lint

Where you can really customise the watch to your needs, however, is with the watch face Complications, those small elements such as the date or a second timezone that appear on your selected watch face.

Thanks to the watch’s Android Wear 2.0 software, certain Huawei Watch 2 watch faces let you choose what goes where. If a real-time step-counter is more important to you than the date, or you favour instant call access over heart rate details, that’s all possible. Just long press the screen, hit the customisation button and attune those Complications to what you want, whenever you want.

‘Artificial tongue’ can tell fine whiskey from hooch

Are you absolutely sure you can tell the difference between a top-tier whiskey that comes in a handcrafted wooden box and the cheapest one from a grocery’s liquor aisle? Uwe Bunz’s synthetic tongue can, and it leaves no room for doubt. It can differentiate between every bottle of whiskey based on their brand, age, blend and even country of origin. The researcher from Heidelberg University, Germany says it can’t ID an unknown blend from scratch, but it can tell whether the sample you have is the same as a known one. “If you buy a crate of expensive whiskies,” he said, “you can test if they are actually what you think they are.”

While Bunz calls his creation an artificial tongue, it’s actually a fluorescent solution. You simply mix in a whiskey sample if you want to identify it. In that sense, it works just like the organ. “Our human tongue consists of 6 or 7 different receptors — sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami, and hotness — and they’re able to identify food by differential reactions of those elements,” he said. “The combination of differential receptors gives you an overall taste impression of what you eat.”

The solution was able to tell 33 different whiskies from each other during Bunz’s tests, since it gives off a unique reaction for each one. Even better, it’s much quicker and cheaper to use than current techniques employed to determine the authenticity of drinks. Bunz is now planning to create a version for red wine, but it has lots of other potential applications. According to his paper, it could also be used to detect counterfeit prescription drugs and perfumes in the future.

Source: New Scientist, Physorg

OnePlus confirms OnePlus 5 design and camera with official image

OnePlus doesn’t care about keeping its next phone under wraps.

The company is set to announce the OnePlus 5 in less than two weeks, but we already know a lot about the phone through leaks. And now, thanks to OnePlus, we even what it looks like. Sure, a high-res image of the OnePlus 5 surfaced a few days ago, showing off the dual-camera setup and overall look of the device’s top half, but OnePlus has just one-upped that leak with an image of its own.

On the official OnePlus Twitter account and OnePlus Google+ page, OnePlus posted an image of the OnePlus 5’s top half with the tagline “Dual Camera. Clearer Photos.” So, that’s it. Everyone knows what the OnePlus 5 will look like when OnePlus officially unveils it in 12 days. It’s unclear if the company planned to reveal the phone over social media or if it felt pressured by the recent image leak.

• Dual lens cameras: The history running up to iPhone 7 Plus
• OnePlus 3 review: The flagship killer we’ve been waiting for

Whatever the reason may be, the cat is out of the bag now, though the phone won’t be officially unveiled until 12pm EST on 20 June. At that event, we will likely hear more specific details, including features, pricing, and a release date. In the meantime, check out Pocket-lint’s rumour round up for more information about what the phone is thought to feature and maybe cost.

We also have a guide on how to stream the OnePlus 5 event.

A continuous hard edge, refined over 3 years. https://t.co/KVXBWmhBt8 pic.twitter.com/KBNppQ0R0U

— OnePlus (@oneplus) June 8, 2017

Hackers demand ransom from The Witcher developer to not reveal details of new game

CD Projekt Red is in a bit of a bind. The developer behind The Witcher 3 and Gwent: The Witcher Card Game has revealed that hackers have obtained design documents of its next title, Cyberpunk 2077, and are demanding cash to prevent a massive leak.

Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most eagerly anticipated role-playing games, considering how good the last Witcher instalment turned out to be – one of the best RPGs ever, in our opinion. The developer has released few details about it so far, however, so any leak would be lapped up by fans.

Polish firm CD Projekt Red remains resolute in its decision to refuse the hackers’ demands. It stated, via Twitter, that the design documents stolen are from early in the development process and, while they will reveal certain story points and spoilers for the game, are unrepresentative of its current vision.

pic.twitter.com/eP2OatjZZW

— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) June 8, 2017

CD Projekt Red has urged gamers who don’t want their experience of Cyberpunk 2077 spoiled before it has been released not to read any leaked documents about it.

We wonder if an extended trailer or other official information might also be released next week, during E3 2017, to soften the documents’ impact. We do know though that CD Projekt Red will not have its own stand or behind closed doors demo area this year.

Intel’s not very happy about Qualcomm-powered Windows 10 PCs

As its 8086 chip architecture nears 40 years old, Intel has put Qualcomm on notice about recent news that Windows 10 PCs will run Snapdragon 835 chips with x86 emulation. “There have been reports that some companies may try to emulate Intel’s proprietary x86 ISA without Intel’s authorization,” said chief lawyer Stephen Rodgers and Intel Labs Director Richard A. Uhlig in a blog post. “We do not welcome unlawful infringement of our patents, and we fully expect other companies to continue to respect Intel’s intellectual property rights.”

The 8086 launched on June 8th, 1978, and Intel ran through its innovations over the last 39 years including SIMD multiprocessing, SSE media rendering, encryption enhancements, security and more. It points out that it has a portfolio of over 1,600 patent to protect all that tech.

The article then shifts into a more lawyerly tone, pointing out that “Intel carefully protects its x86 innovations, and we do not widely license others to use them.” Specifically, it cited past battles with AMD, Cyrix, Chips and Technologies, and others over the last few decades.

The original 8086 CPU (Konstantin Lanzet/Wikimedia Commons)

Making note of the x86 and Win32 emulation that Qualcomm plans to use, the company wrote, “Emulation is not a new technology, and Transmeta was notably the last company to claim to have produced a compatible x86 processor using emulation (‘code morphing’) techniques.” It said despite the emulation, Intel enforced its patents against Transmeta, adding that the company exited the CPU business a decade ago.

As Engadget’s Cherlynn Low pointed out, there are some pretty nice benefits to having Qualcomm on Windows 10. Those include lighter, smaller machines thanks to Qualcomm’s tinier parts, integrated 5G LTE connectivity and much better battery life, all part of Microsoft’s “always connected” dream for Windows 10. Qualcomm notably built the Snapdragon 835 with 10-nanometer technology, while Intel’s latest chips still use last-gen 14-nanometer parts.

Unlike Transmeta, Qualcomm has vast resources, and we imagine that the company’s lawyers didn’t let it jump onto Intel’s turf without serious due diligence. Microsoft is also fully behind the partnership, because its new strategy for Windows 10 S seems to depend on Qualcomm’s participation. Other OEM partners, including Lenovo, HP and ASUS are also on board. And as much as Intel blusters, it’s very dependent on Microsoft, which could easily sidestep its IP with Windows 10 if it decided to.

Via: Hot Hardware

Source: Intel

Self-navigating cargo ships are coming to an ocean near you

Why it matters to you

With shipping firms eyeing big savings over the long term, it’s little surprise they’re keen to incorporate the technology into their newest vessels.

Diminutive drones may be getting all the attention when it comes to the autonomous delivery of goods, but gigantic cargo ships, too, are expected to take on board similar technology before too long.

We already know that Rolls-Royce is developing a crewless cargo ship, and now shipping companies in Japan are teaming up to work on a similar design that could go into service as early as 2025.

Among those investing in the project are Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Nippon Yusen, according to news outlet Nikkei, with local shipbuilder Japan Marine United looking to build around 250 of the self-navigating vessels in the coming years.

Incorporating an AI-powered steering system, the ships will have the ability to make sense of, and respond immediately to, automatically gathered data regarding changing weather conditions along the route, and nearby vessels and obstacles. Using that data, the ship would be able to calculate the best route in terms of fuel cost and ensure a safe journey from port to port.

The technology could even predict — and therefore prevent — on-board technical and engine issues, improving efficiency and thereby saving shipping companies huge amounts of money.

Autonomous ships will also allow designers to remove the bridge and living quarters, freeing up more space for cargo.

Japan’s initial ship design involves retaining a small number of crew members  to oversee certain operations, though completely uncrewed, autonomous ships are the ultimate goal.

This differs somewhat to Rolls-Royce’s plan, which would see unmanned ships monitored remotely by a “captain” stationed at a base located back on land, though Rolls-Royce, too, expects to have entirely autonomous ships on the water in the next 20 years.

Oskar Levander, Rolls-Royce’s VP of marine innovation, insisted last year that autonomous ships would replace the human-operated cargo ships of today.

“This is happening — it’s not if, it’s when,” Levander said. “The technologies needed to make remote and autonomous ships a reality exist … we will see a remote-controlled ship in commercial use by the end of the decade.”

The company is already testing an autonomous control system in Finland, and also running trials of sensor arrays in a range of operating and climatic conditions.

While such advancements isn’t good news for the many people who work aboard today’s ships, it’s likely to be some time before a large portion of the world’s cargo ships is sailing without anyone on board.