TouchArcade iOS Gaming Roundup: 868-HACK, A Planet of Mine, Street Fighter IV Champion Edition, and More

Things are never boring in the world of iOS gaming, and that’s true once again this week. The majority of my time over at TouchArcade this week has been negotiating and scheduling all sorts of upcoming news under embargo that I wish I could talk about as I hate sitting on really awesome stories. But, in the interest of keeping everyone happy, I’d just keep your eyes glued to these roundups over the next couple of weeks for some pleasant surprises in the world of mobile gaming.

Picking up where we left off last week, there have been further developments in the mystery of what in the world is actually happening with the Five Nights at Freddy’s series. The game series has merchandise in both Walmart and Target stores, as well as a movie on the way, but the fate of the sixth installment is still up in the air. This week FNAF creator Scott Cawthon reiterated on Reddit that he’s stepping away from the series partly due to the community negativity and how discouraging it is. It’s ultra plausible, and makes a ton of sense, particularly as FNAF has grown beyond Cawthon’s wildest dreams, but… I’m not quite ready to believe that there won’t be a Five Nights at Freddy’s 6.

As far as roguelites (A “roguelite” is not quite a “roguelike,” although the internet loves arguing about the definition of both. Typically they’re games with random elements and permadeath.) are concerned, 868-Hack is one of the very best on the App Store. We absolutely loved it when it hit the App Store back in 2013 as it’s unbelievably clever how developer Michael Brough combined classic roguelike dungeon crawling elements with faux-hacking. The game has lingered on the App Store for years now, but this week was updated with loads of new content titled “868-HACK: Plan B” which is unlocked via a $2.99 IAP. Whether or not you spring for the IAP, at least check out our review and consider giving the base game a shot. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

My personal favorite hidden gem that hit the App Store this week is a lightweight 4X game titled A Planet of Mine. I get more in depth on how the game works over on TouchArcade, but the basic gist is the developers did an unbelievably fantastic job taking all of the various elements that go into a 4X game like Civilization, but streamlined into a format that can work on a touchscreen. This recommendation comes with the caveat that the game has a bit of a learning curve and not much of a tutorial, so definitely stick with it long enough to learn it. The good news is it’s totally free to try, with the “full” game available as a one-time IAP unlock for $4.99.

Better late than never, Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition hit the App Store this week. We have an in-depth review, but it’s basically a 2017 refresh of Street Fighter IV Volt which brought a shockingly competent port of Street Fighter IV to mobile. It has surprisingly workable virtual controls, MFi support, online multiplayer, and at a single premium purchase of $4.99 is free of gotchas and other freemium shenanigans that seem to permeate every other popular mobile fighting game.

In Hearthstone news, a patch hit this week that nerfed the Rogue quest card The Caverns Below. Completing the quest and unlocking the powerful reward of The Crystal Core now requires five of the same minion being summoned, up from four. This should slow down the deck significantly, which is a very good thing. Also, you can pre-order 50 packs from the upcoming expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, for $49.99. Aside from just getting them free by spending in-game gold, these pre-order offers are the cheapest way to get a bunch of new Hearthstone cards.

Battleheart and Battleheart Legacy are easily among my all-time top iOS games, as both of them provide some unbelievably great RPG gameplay in a format that works incredibly well on the touchscreen. (I seriously can’t recommend them enough.) The games’ developer, Mika Mobile, teased some information on the upcoming sequel, and I can’t wait. Battleheart 2 goes back to the core concepts originally explored in Battleheart, which is a departure from the full-featured RPG that Battleheart Legacy was. The sequel is deep in development, and Mika Mobile is famous for taking their time and not releasing something until it’s 101% completed, so it might be a while until we see the game, or get another update on its progress.

Phoenix II is a favorite over on the TouchArcade Forums, and from the looks of it, it’s going to be among the first games that take advantage of the new 120Hz display of the iPad Pro. Additionally, it’ll support the wide color gamut of recent iOS devices, which isn’t something we see often in games. We liked Phoenix II quite a bit in our review, and if you’re looking for a great, totally free, entry in the bullet hell genre you really can’t do much better than Phoenix II (particularly if you’ve got a new iPad Pro). This update will hit on July 27th.

Last, but not least, we’re working on growing our presence over on Twitch, and as part of that we’re on the hunt for iOS developers and publishers who also stream iOS gaming-related things on Twitch. If that describes you, please reach out to us or tweet @hodapp and we’ll add your channel to our auto-host list. The dream is to turn the TouchArcade Twitch channel into somewhere you can go to always see someone playing iOS games, even when we’re not actively streaming.

That’s it for me this week! If you like these roundups be sure to check out TouchArcade for all this news, and way more. Alternatively, you can always swing into our Discord chat server to find people talking about iOS gaming 24/7.

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Sprint’s new plans encourage leasing, rather than buying, of smartphones

Why it matters to you

Sprint’s new leasing program could be the best option to get your hands on the latest smartphone without breaking the bank.

Sprint’s new leasing program aims to keep customers from struggling with whether they should purchase a particular smartphone or not. Similar to the existing plans the company has for the Samsung Galaxy and iPhones, Sprint Flex and Sprint Deals let customers lease any phone — based on its “value menu” of smartphone options — and upgrade to a new device after one year.

Sprint is currently the only carrier that allows customers to lease phones and return them in exchange for another device. The plan is its latest effort to give customers the opportunity to own the latest smartphones without having to shell out a large sum of money on the spot.

After choosing a phone under the Flex plan, you can lease it for 18 months and swap it out for a new phone or keep the one you already have and pay it off completely in one installment. If you want to keep the device but don’t have the money to pay it off right away, you can opt for six more monthly payments, with past lease payments counting toward the purchase price. Another option is to pay $5 a month extra and upgrade the device after one year instead.

With Sprint Deals, customers who let Sprint check their credit can qualify for a Sprint Flex postpaid plan that will ultimately make the smartphone more affordable. For entry-level models like the Alcatel Go Flip, LG Tribute HD and the ZTE Max XL, customers put $25 down and pay $5 per month. Higher-end devices like the iPhone 6s, LG X power, and Samsung Galaxy S6, are $30 down and $10 per month.

If you choose to avoid the credit check, you’ll receive an additional discount instantly — 50 percent off entry-level smartphones and 25 percent off high-end devices — but only if you’re on the Sprint Forward prepaid plan. With both of the Sprint Deals offers, customers still have the option of upgrading to a new device after 12 consecutive and on-time monthly payments.

Sprint is clearly making it known that it wants you to drop your current network. The announcement comes a month after it offered customers one year of free unlimited data for switching carriers — that’s on top of currently offering four lines of unlimited data, talk, and text for $90 with the fifth line free.

Close that torrent! Here’s how to watch ‘Game of Thrones’ online (legally)

Unless you’ve been living under the Wall for the past year — you know, that 300-mile stretch of fortification that runs along the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms — you’re probably aware that HBO’s smash fantasy series Game of Thrones is set to return on Sunday, July 16, for its seventh season.

It will continue to unfurl the brooding, incestuous bloodbath that is George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice, likely shocking new and old fans alike as it introduces more and more characters before unceremoniously killing them off. If you don’t have a cable subscription, however, you’re probably wondering about how to watch Game of Thrones online.

Though finding a legal and affordable way to stream the show has been somewhat difficult in the past, the premium cable network has now made watching the series easier than ever before. There’s HBO Now, the network’s stand-alone streaming service, as well as HBO Go, a free streaming option for subscribers to the cable channel. Both give you on-demand access to HBO’s vast library of original television series and exclusive movies. A few different services also offer on-demand access to HBO’s offerings as an add-on subscription. We sincerely doubt these extra means of watching will prevent the show from retaining its title as one of the most pirated shows of all time, but at least it’s now less of a hassle to watch it guilt-free — so long as you have a bit of cash to spare and a high tolerance for the occasional animal beheading.

Watch via HBO Go

Content is king, and no one provides content better than the source itself. HBO Go was once the only official method for streaming Game of Thrones in high-definition, prior to the announcement of HBO Now. It’s still a valid one, though, assuming you already have an HBO subscription with your cable provider. The excellent service provides unlimited access to all of HBO’s original programming — including past seasons of Game of Thrones and behind-the-scenes footage with the cast — along with a wide variety of theatrically released films and television specials currently playing on the premium channel.

As previously mentioned, accessing HBO Go online or through the accompanying app requires you to purchase a premium HBO package. If you already have cable, you can expect an HBO subscription to cost $15 at the very least, with the exact rate fluctuating based on your region and the host of available promotions. HBO Go is free once you opt for a subscription through participating TV providers, and can be accessed using the HBO Go website or a slew of different platforms ranging from Apple to Android. For your convenience, we’ve listed the supported devices below, but keep in mind that HBO Go availability is based on your service provider and may not be available for certain platforms within a specified area. Nonetheless, each new episode of Game of Thrones will be available for viewing within HBO Go immediately upon airing.

Apple iPad (2nd gen or later, iOS 8+)
Roku (details here)
Apple iPhone 4s or later (iOS 8+)
Xbox 360
Apple TV (4th gen: tvOS 9+, 2nd/3rd gen: 7.1.2+)
Xbox One
Apple iPod Touch (5th gen or later, iOS 8+)
Android phones (Android 4.1+)
Apple iPad Mini (1st gen or later, iOS 8+)
Android tablets (Android 4.1+)
Amazon Fire TV (1st gen or later)
Android TV (Android 5.0+)
Amazon Fire TV Stick (1st gen or later)
Amazon Fire Tablets
Samsung Smart TVs (select models)
Chromecast (details here)
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4
MacOS 10.6 or later
 Windows Vista or later

Watch via HBO Now

HBO Now functions much like the aforementioned HBO Go — providing quick access to all available HBO content — but without the need for a cable or satellite subscription. HBO is currently offering a monthlong free trial for new users, but after that period, you’ll be paying a $15-per-month subscription for the service (or $10, if you’re a student). Once subscribed, you’ll be granted access to HBO’s massive library of on-demand content. This includes the entirety of Game of Thrones, along with the latest episodes as they air.

It’s also important to note that, while HBO Now was once exclusive to Apple devices, the service is now available on a variety of devices and web browsers. The stand-alone service is an undisputed godsend for those who have cut the cable and turned to on-demand streaming services, but still long for the quality content HBO provides. If you’re not interested in cable, or cable alternatives like Sling TV, this is going to be your best option. See the full list of compatible devices below.

Apple TV (4th gen: tvOS 9.0+, 3rd gen: 7.1.2+)
Apple iPad (2nd gen or later, iOS 8+)
Apple iPod Touch (5th gen or later, iOS 8+)
Apple iPhone 4s or later (iOS 8+)
Amazon FireTV (1st gen or later)
Apple iPad Mini (2nd gen or later)
Amazon FireTV Stick (1st gen or later)
Android TV (5.0 or later)
Roku (2nd gen or later)
Android Phones (Android 4.2+)
Android Tablets (Android 4.2+)
Kindle Fire Tablets (3rd gen or later)
Xbox One
Xbox 360
Windows 7 or later
MacOS 10.11 or later
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4
Samsung Smart TVs (select models)
 Chromecast (details here)

Watch via Sling TV

Sling TV’s success is reflective of a changing entertainment landscape. The internet TV service has the potential to change the television industry forever, essentially offering up à la carte programming. There is one caveat, however, in that you must subscribe to one of Sling TV’s packages ($20-plus) before you can add the optional HBO channel for an additional $15. The core package, Sling Orange, will also grant you access to ESPN, AMC, CNN, and TBS, among a host of other channels.

If you do decide to pony up the necessary $35 for Orange and HBO, you’ll be able to access the same wealth of content you would if you decided to opt for HBO Go or HBO Now. You’ll have unrestrained access to all of network’s premium programming, from its award-winning documentaries to past seasons of Game of Thrones, directly within the Sling TV app, which is available across a wide range of devices (outlined below). It’s definitely one of the more expensive ways to go, but it does guarantee you’ll have immediate access to new Thrones episodes as they air, in addition to a plethora of desirable channels. And did we mention Sling TV allows you to stream HBO on up to three devices simultaneously? Well, it does, even if Sling TV typically enforces a single-stream limit.

Apple iPad (iOS 9+)
Xbox One
Apple iPhone (iOS 9+)
Roku (LT and higher)
Apple TV (4th gen)
Android TV (Android 4.4+)
Amazon Fire tablets (Android 4.4.2+)
Amazon Fire TV (all generations)
Android phones (Android 4.4+)
Android tablets (Android 4.4+)
Chromecast (details here)
Windows 7 or later
MacOS 10.7 or later

Watch via Hulu

For fans of network television, Hulu has been the go-to streaming platform for years. For $8 a month –or $11, if you want to eliminate commercials — you’ll get unfettered access to dozens of TV shows across a multitude of channels, including series like Rick and Morty that aren’t available via any other streaming platform. With its massive repertoire of original programming, Netflix might have a bigger catalog overall, but Hulu still boasts a ton of exclusive content that’s typically reserved for those with a cable subscription.

Hulu has been filling out its offerings with a slew of premium add-ons — the company even recently announced a live TV streaming service. Showtime, Starz, and Cinemax are all currently available, and each will cost you around $10 a month on top of your Hulu subscription. The undeniable star of the show, however, is HBO. As with Sling, forking over an extra $15 a month will net you access to the HBO’s entire library, including shows, films, and behind-the-scenes content. Tacking on HBO will also grant you access to the HBO Now app, in case you use a device that’s not compatible with one of the devices listed below.

PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4
Android TV
Xbox 360
Windows 7 or later
MacOS 10.6 or later
Roku 2.8+ (select models)
Amazon Fire TV Stick
 TiVo (select models)
Amazon Fire TV
Apple TV (2nd + 3rd gen)
Vizio Smart TVs (details here)
LG Smart TVs (select models)
Samsung Smart TVs (select models)
Sony Smart TVs (details here)
Windows 7 or later
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii U

Hulu has also recently introduced another app, which is integrated with the platform’s new live TV streaming service. Only a few devices are currently compatible, but we expect that list to grow quickly. Check out the table below for details.

Android phones (Android 5+)
Android tablets (Android 5+)
Apple TV (4th gen)
Chromecast (details here)
Apple iPhone 5 or later
Apple iPad (4th gen or later)
Apple iPod Touch (6th gen or later)
Apple iPad Mini (2nd gen or later)
Xbox One
Xbox One S

Watch via Amazon

Amazon seems to have a hand in everything these days. The online shopping giant has found success with its Amazon Prime Video streaming service — a service available to Amazon Prime members — and with its line of streaming devices, like the Fire TV Stick. On its own, Amazon Video is rather robust, boasting a solid slate of programming. New offerings are added each month, and the service hosts content from a number of different sources, giving subscribers a lot of options to choose from.

If that’s not enough, the company’s Amazon Channels service also allows Prime members to subscribe to premium channels — HBO, for example — via Amazon. If you decide to go this route, you’ll be able to log into HBO with your Amazon credentials, and watch the full range of HBO content via the Amazon Prime Video app on compatible devices (listed below). A subscription will cost you $15 a month on top of your Amazon Prime subscription, which costs $9 a month or $99 annually. You will be able to watch the entirety of Game of Thrones in 4K with select Fire TV products and smart televisions, as well as gain full access to HBO Now.

TiVo (details here)
Roku (details here)
Apple iPhone (iOS 7+)
Xbox 360
Apple iPad (iOS 7+)
Xbox One
Apple iPod Touch (iOS 7+)
Android phones (Android 4.0+)
Apple iPad Mini (iOS 7+)
Android tablets
Amazon Fire TV (2015)
Select Blu-ray players (details here)
Amazon Fire TV Stick (2015)
Kindle Fire Tablets (1st gen or later)
Smart TVs (select models)
Select A/V receivers (details here)
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4
MacOS 10.6 or later
 Windows Vista or later
Nintendo Wii
Select home theater sound systems (details here)
Nintendo Wii U
Select home theatre systems (details here)

Update: Added Hulu and Amazon as options, and updated the list of compatible devices across each platform.

Fly over the water with the eFoil electric hydrofoil surfboard

Why it matters to you

We’ve seen hydrofoil surfboards before, but never like this one, which has an electric motor to do the work for us.

The world may not be ready for the level of cool that is this electric surfboard. Meet the new eFoil from Puerto Rico-based company Lift Foils. It’s an electric-powered hydrofoil surfboard, or in layman’s terms, a flying surfboard. So if you thought surfing couldn’t get any more dope, think again.

The eFoil depends upon a submerged hydrofoil to lift the actual board of the surfboard completely out of the water when you’re going at speed. And what’s more, these boards actually have an electric motor in the hydrofoil itself so that you can just ride the water without actually doing any work. Think of it as an electric skateboard, but instead of shredding pavement, you’re shredding the glassy surface of the water.

eFoil’s battery packs quite a punch at two kilowatt hours, and it ought to get you a solid 45 minutes of hang time. Recharging the battery is also relatively speedy at two and a half hours.

Riders control the eFoil electric hydrofoil surfboard by way of a wireless handheld controller, which is connected to the board by Bluetooth. And if you drop it, don’t worry — as long as you’re not in the midst of any treacherous waves, you should be able to find the controller just fine as it’s designed to float above the water’s surface.

Capable of reaching top speeds of up to 25 miles per hour, the eFoil board comes in two sizes: the standard E1 eFoil and the E1 Sport model. “The standard eFoil is more stable with the bigger deck, while the smaller board is more nimble and turns quicker,” Lift Foils founder Nick Leason told New Atlas. No matter which model you choose, you can select from four colors — carbon black, carbon free, carbon blue, and carbon purple.

Despite the steep $12,000 price tag, the waitlist for this new age surfboard is already threatening to outpace production capacity. Lift Foils will begin producing these boards in September, and volume is expected to increase in October.

“We’ll be scaling up production one step at a time, and I’m currently bringing on additional suppliers for each of the components and we’ll continue to scale up production across 2018 in preparation for manufacturing a broader range in 2019,” said Leason. “The aim is to have a couple of different price points and a couple of boards with different construction materials. I’m hoping for a linear growth in our production capacity over the next few years.”

Make your budget phone better with these Moto E4 tips and tricks

Motorola set a high benchmark with the first Moto E, in 2014. The budget Android-based smartphone stood out not because of its hardware, which was decidedly middle-of-the-road, but because of its price — it started at 4999 rupees in India, or just about $77. The newest generation of Moto E, the Moto E4, is no different. The Moto E4 may be a little more expensive than its predecessors, but it’s more capable, too. $130 nets you a 5-inch HD screen, Qualcomm’s speedy Snapdragon 425 processor, a battery that lasts all day, and a surprisingly good camera. There’s even more to the Moto E4 than meets the eye, but unlocking its full potential requires a little elbow grease. Luckily, we’ve done the hard work for you, compiling a list of all the Moto E4 tips and tricks we could find.

Change your home screen wallpaper

Changing your Moto E4’s wallpaper may not sound like a big deal, but depending on which one you choose, it can be the most meaningful — and personal — customization you make.

To get started, open Settings and go to Display, where you’ll get the option of choosing between your own photos or a gallery of custom and animated wallpapers from Motorola. Alternatively, you can browse the many backgrounds available in the Google Play Store — or check out our list of the absolute best Android wallpaper apps.

Once you’ve made a selection and specified whether you’d like the wallpaper to appear on the home screen, lock screen, or both, that’s it — your newly selected background will take the place of whatever artwork or photo was there before it.

Enable gestures and actions through the Moto app

Motorola’s clever Moto Display and Moto Actions save time by condensing multiple steps into single taps and swipes. Take Moto Actions, for example — you can place the phone face down to silence notifications and calls, or lift it to switch incoming calls to vibrate. With a single-finger swipe downward, you can shrink the Moto E4’s interface for one-handed use. And you can use the phone’s fingerprint sensor to navigate menus, home screens, and apps.

Moto Actions and Moto Gestures are easy to enable. Find the Moto app and tap it — you’ll see settings related to Moto Actions and Moto Display. Want to hide sensitive notifications on the Moto E4’s lock screen? Select Moto > Moto Display and tap which apps can show notifications and how much they’ll display. From the same screen, you can switch on Moto Display’s pause feature, which stops your music when the Moto E4 goes to sleep, and night mode, which discretely shows notifications from your lockscreen between sunset and sunrise.

Extend your battery

We were impressed by the Moto E4’s battery in our review, which tended to last about a day. But the phone’s power-saving features can boost it further.

The easiest is Battery Saving Mode, Android’s built-in power-saving mode that disables nonessential features like vibration, global positioning, and apps that rely on background data (like email and messaging). You’ll have to put up with poorer-than-normal performance, but it’s useful in a pinch if you’re away from a charger.

To enable Battery Saving Mode, open Settings, tap Device, and select Battery. Then tap Menu and enable Battery save.

Battery Saving Mode isn’t the only way to stretch your phone a few extra hours. Try lowering the screen brightness by swiping down on the Moto E4’s quick toggle menu and dragging the brightness slider toward the left side of the screen. Alternatively, try adjusting the screen timeout duration: Open Settings, scroll down to Device, tap Display, select Sleep, and select a lower timeout value.

Get the perfect shot, and share it with friends

The Moto E4’s camera takes pretty good shots, but with a little tweaking, you can make them even better; try enabling high dynamic range (HDR), which captures greater luminosity and color contrast than your average camera. Open the Camera app, look near the top of the camera or video screen, and tap HDR. The next time you take a shot, the Moto E4 will automatically adjust brightness to your surroundings.

By default, the Moto E4’s camera app calibrates most settings automatically, but you can adjust them manually in Professional mode. To enable it, open the Camera app and tap the three-circle Menu button. Then tap Professional mode and tweak the white balance, aperture, shutter speed, and focus to your heart’s content.

You can make selfies look better with the Moto E4’s Beautify mode, which applies an obscuring blur effect to wrinkles, blemishes, and damaged skin. To switch it on, open the Camera, select Beautify, and choose between Auto, Manual, or Off. 

To share your best shots with friends, family, and others, use the Camera app’s built-in sharing features. Swipe up, then tap Photos. Select a thumbnail to open it and tap the triangular Share button to see a list of options and contacts. To select multiple files, open a folder, touch and hold a photo, and then tap others. Finally, select the Share button and choose which apps/people you’d like to share with.

Pin important shortcuts to your home screen

If you need quick, easy access to an important document (say, a boarding pass), no worries — the Moto E4 has you covered. Screen pinning lets you pin a persistent shortcut to the screen for easy access no matter what you’re doing.

To set up screen pinning, swipe up in the Settings menu, then head to Security > Screen pinning. (If you want to secure your phone when you activate screen pinning, tap Lock device when unpinning now.) Tap the switch to turn it on, and pin something by opening an app, touching and holding the Recents button, and tapping the thumbtack icon.

Unpinning is just as simple. To get rid of the apps you’ve pinned to the screen, touch and hold the back button until you see the Screen unpinned message.

Transfer your data to the Moto E4

If you’re migrating to the Moto E4 from another device, no need to fret about getting your contacts, settings, and preferences onto your new smartphone — Motorola’s Moto Migrate software takes the pain out of data transfer by restoring your messages, call history, and settings automatically.

Get started by downloading Motorola Migrate from the Google Play Store on your Moto E4. Open it and select Send data TO this device, and tap until a QR code appears.

Next, install Motorola Migrate on your old phone. Open it and select Send data FROM this device, and tap until a QR code scanner appears on your old phone. Point your Moto E4’s rear camera toward the QR code to start the transfer, and wait until it finishes.

Send a distress signal

If you run into trouble, the Moto E4’s Motorola Alert app can signal for help. Once configured with your preferences, it’ll alert close friends and family to your location with a single click.

To set up Motorola Alert, find the Alert shortcut on your phone’s home screen or in the app drawer. Accept all the terms and conditions, and hit the Next button until you reach the Pick Alerts contacts screen. Enter the names of the contacts you want on your emergency alerts list, and tap Next when you’re done. You’ll see an option to send them a message saying you’ve made them an emergency contact.

Once you’ve done that, you can set up messages for different modes on the main menu: Emergency, Meet Me, or Follow Me. In Emergency Mode, you can set the app to ring local emergency services in addition to the contacts you’ve specified.

Once everything’s set up and configured, tap any of the big buttons on the main Alert screen to activate them.

Are the walls moving?! These modular homes and offices can transform in hours

Why it matters to you

Modularity is the new hot trend in construction, and DIRTT’s unique platform and products lets customers design, envision, and reconfigure entire suites in a matter of days.

From Marriott’s widespread adoption of modular hotel rooms to the emergence of factory-built homes in New York City, prefabrication and modular technology seem to be popping up everywhere. DIRTT Environmental Solutions — a 15-year-old Canada-based company whose acronym stands for “Doing It Right This Time” — is encouraging its clients and colleagues to look at modular construction from a different point of view, by producing modular walls and rooms that can be reconfigured in hours. Imagine instantly turning a hospital ward into a triage unit or turning an empty shell of a building into a functioning school in a matter of days.

The company’s vice president of development and co-founder, Geoff Gosling, told Digital Trends that the concept of DIRTT originally came from the founders’ experience in building command and control spaces for applications like 9-1-1 operations and NASA space launches. Because these spaces are in operation 24/7/365 and are technologically and ergonomically intensive, they’re challenging to reconfigure.

Those constraints inspired Gosling and co-founders Mogens Smed and Barrie Loberg to look at modularity from a different point of view.

Rethinking prefabrication and modular construction

“Prefabrication is a difficult term, because you’re just talking about where something is built,” Gosling said. “What we were trying to do was to create a new notion of modularity. Could we achieve environments that were nimble, expressive, and adaptive and still create them through a somewhat contained manufacturing process? This was the heavy lifting we were trying to achieve.”

The DIRTT concept originally came from building applications for 9-1-1 operations and NASA space launches.

The platform that enables DIRTT to function is really built on multiple aspects. The first innovation was the company’s ICE software program, created by Barrie Loberg, which the company likens to a video game for design. Based on the Java object-based programming language (which Geoff’s brother James Gosling, the “father of Java,” invented), ICE enables architects and designers to create a fully enabled 3D environment in real time.

Recent innovations have included the ICEreality technology platform, which uses Microsoft HoloLenses to combine virtual reality with existing spaces, enabling designers and clients to see proposed interior designs in real time.

“ICE was really meant to allow designers to design,” Gosling said. “It’s disposable in the sense that it allows designers to explore without a significant investment of time. It enables the ability to explore and get real-time feedback in terms of not only space but also cost. It’s also a unified dataset in that it will only point to real, manufacturable items. Unlike a CAD program, ICE won’t allow you to create anything that isn’t real.”

Technology independent of context

The development of ICE enabled the founders to launch DIRTT in 2003 and land their first project in 2005. Since then, the publicly traded company has grown to include nearly 10,000 employees (affectionately known as “DIRTTbags”), with manufacturing facilities in Alberta, British Columbia, Arizona, and Georgia.

The company also maintains Green Learning Centers in cities throughout North America, as well as a software development team in Salt Lake City. To date, it has worked with 7,600 unique businesses and organizations to create custom interiors and spaces around the world.

Essentially, ICE enables a language for objects to talk to each other, independently of context.

If one object cares about what its neighbor is up to, you create a domino effect anytime you change something.

“We started to break the world down into layers,” he said. “If one object cares about what its neighbor is up to, you create a domino effect anytime you change something. If they’re not related, we can change small things or big things without penalty to the things around them. That behavior allows for reconfiguration over time, but it also allows us to invent new things.”

DIRTT’s products include highly flexible products like its new LEAF line of folding walls, which can not only be reconfigured on the fly but can also be retrofitted into existing construction.

“Rather than having to understand what the future state is, corporations can now just design the space for what they know today with the understanding that it can be reconfigured for a future application,” Gosling said. “For example, a hospital is not one thing; it’s patient-care spaces, residential units, offices, and all sorts of other applications. With our technology, a piece of a hallway can become part of a patient-care space, which can then become an office. Just about anybody can reconfigure our products, which gives our clients ownership over their own changes. We take a very populist approach where everybody has access to reconfigurations and design.”

Building custom solutions

DIRTT works in all sorts of fields — the founders consider DIRTT to be a construction company, rather than a modular product manufacturer. But the technology lends itself well to evolving spaces, such as age-in-place facilities where spaces may need to move from residential units to health care facilities and back again. Gosling explained that a DIRTT team can completely configure 20,000 square feet into a ready-to-use space in less than five days, while existing spaces can sometimes be reconfigured in a single day. The company also has a dedicated team to respond to clients that require custom solutions.

“DIRTT has allowed people to understand that you can have all the things you want in terms of self-expression and adaptation without any constraints on the idea of modularity,” Gosling said. “A lot of that has to do with our willingness to let our clients completely express themselves. If something doesn’t exist in the world that our clients would like, we have a product development team that does nothing but project-related unique design. That expression can be an aesthetic expression, a technological need, unique environmental constraints, etc. The other thing that is unique about our framework is that our designs can carry just about any material on the planet. If a client has a unique material that they want to employ, the DIRTT solution can just grab it and assimilate it.”

Moving forward without a plan

Even as competitors in the modular construction industry continue to emerge at a breakneck pace, the founders of DIRTT find themselves completely unconcerned with what other companies are doing.

“Our clients drive where we’re going,” Gosling said. “Our clients’ needs cause us to respond from project to project. We have no clue where we’re going in that sense, and it’s the most exciting aspect of this business. What I’m most excited about is that our clients push us and make us better and more engaged with what we’re doing. Even greater work is going to come out of this experience; I know it.”

DIRTT continues to innovate, grow and evolve in the modular construction sector, using its pioneering technology and manufacturing platform to help clients adapt, evolve and grow themselves.

“We’re very proud that DIRTT has taken the concept of modularity and proven its power,” Gosling said. “I think we’re at a point now where people understand the value of our approach from a precision standpoint as well as the benefits of manufacturing things inside of a controlled environment and the velocity you can achieve when working this way. Modularity is here to stay, and the more that the industry understands the potential for a different perspective on modularity, the better.”

Bicycle-inspired elevator uses pedal power to move you between floors

Why it matters to you

Vycle’s elevator alternative could help you get ore exercise at the office.

Given the choice between using an elevator and the stairs, it’s pretty clear which the healthier option is. Elevators might be easier — and even pretty awesome at times — but climbing the stairs gives you a free workout, which contributes toward your daily physical exercise quota. That’s especially good if, as many of us do, you work in a sedentary office job.

However, 29-year-old London-based architect Elena Larriba has come up with a third option — and it’s a doozy!

Called Vycle, Larriba’s concept is a personal lift that uses cyclical body movements as a source of energy to control the rider’s ascension and descension. Essentially, it’s a wall-mounted bicycle which allow you pedal from one floor to another.

“Taking my architecture background as a source of inspiration, I started analyzing current methods of vertical transportation and identifying areas of opportunity,” Larriba told Digital Trends. “I saw a big spot between the stairs and [the elevator]. My passion in the field of human-machine interaction and sustainability started to shape and narrow down possible solutions. The concept of the project comes from comparing horizontal movement and vertical movement. When people move around in the city, they do it through walking, cycling, or taking the car. If we compare these with how people move vertically, we can see that there is a correlation between people walking and taking the stairs, as well as with the car and the lift, but there is nothing like the bike in vertical transportation.”

Vycle

Larriba said that Vycle’s lightweight, low square footage design would make it suitable for retrofitting into existing office buildings. (Although we do have to question how you’d get around the problem of it being able to pick you up at whichever floor you needed it!)

Sadly, there are no plans to bring this to market just yet, though. The proof-of-concept model was created as part of Larriba’s Innovation Design Engineering masters program at London’s Royal College of Art (RCA), and is therefore more a tech demo than a real product. That’s not to say this couldn’t change, though.

“I would love to keep exploring applications and morphing Vycle to different needs,” she said. “Potential routes to take it forward would be through an incubator, or even through a company that may be interested in developing it. At the moment I am in conversation with some of them. Hopefully in the future Vycle can find a sweet spot in the market where it could make a positive impact.”

Hey, considering that Google employees once strung up a zip-line between offices, there’s got to be some kickass tech startup that would be all over this idea for their kitted-out HQ!

Swiss scientists just 3D printed an artificial heart that beats like the real thing

Why it matters to you

Functional silicone heart could one day be used as an artificial organ for those in need.

The dream of technologists is to one day be capable of 3D printing functioning organs ready for transplant. Right now, that dream is still pretty for off from becoming reality. That means that most current research in this domain is limited to the production of lab-grown capillaries for implantation in 3D-printed tissues, or getting 3D bioprinted human cartilage to grow inside mice.

A new project at Switzerland’s ETH Zurich is going physically bigger than that, though. What scientists there have developed is a functional beating heart — made of silicone, using a 3D printed mold — which represents one of the most advanced replicas yet created of one of our most important organs.

While not a biological replica of the actual heart, the idea is that it could be used as an artificial heart in scenarios such as when a patient is awaiting a heart transplant.

“I met with a heart surgeon, Professor Volkmar Falk, now head of the largest heart surgery clinic in Europe, at the Charité [teaching hospital] in Berlin,” Wendelin Stark, professor at the Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering at ETH Zurich, told Digital Trends. “He asked me if we could think about a new artificial heart. I had no clue at first. Then we learned that current heart support machines are made of hard materials like steel or titanium and plastic. When a patient receives such a hard device, its blood tends to make clumps — so the patient is given a so-called ‘anticoagulant,’ a drug that reduces blood clot formation.”

Stark said that, despite everyone’s best efforts, the result can mean serious problems for patients — ranging from strokes to lung problems to intestinal bleeding. “It was astonishing to find out that the anticoagulation therapy was the largest single cause of problems in patients with heart implants,” he continued. “We realized that a soft implant might allow this to work without such blood-thinning agents.”

Because of Stark’s history with 3D printing, his team decided to make a 3D-printed mold, which could then be used to create a silicon rubber heart.

“We used the mold to make silicon soft pumps, and optimized the design to fit a human heart-type pumping pattern,” he said. “We teamed up with Mirko Mebolt, a mechanical engineer, and tested the prototype against a human-like blood flow resistance.”

The current model is promising, but not yet stable enough to be used in an actual patient. At present, it only works for several thousand beats, lasting around 30 to 45 minutes. Over time, Stark said the plan is to develop a model which could conceivably work over a period of years.

That, to use the technical term, is what might be known as a “game-changer.”

Google Maps will now tell you the best time to hit the road

Why it matters to you

Google Maps can now help you plan your next trip by showing you estimated travel times based on when you decide to leave.

Google Maps has added a helpful feature to navigation that should make it a little easier to plan your next journey. The app will now tell you how long your travel time may be depending on when you leave. A bar graph compares your current estimated time of arrival to what it would be if you left in the next half hour, or even two hours into the future.

The feature is already live on our devices, so Google might not be doing a lengthy rollout with this particular new feature. The information is presented as a bar graph that looks very similar to the one used to denote hours when businesses are busiest. You can even look one hour in the past, to kick yourself over how much time you might have saved if you just left a little earlier.

The feature is only available in the United States and United Kingdom, according to Android Central, and didn’t accompany an app update — meaning users in other regions will have to wait for Google to flip it on.

Google sources traffic data all day, all around the world, so it’s nice to see it used to deliver a new tool that makes driving easier and traffic jams less unexpected.

Every couple of months, Google quietly updates Maps with helpful little features, like a parking availability indicator or floor plans with marked staircases and elevators to denote wheelchair-accessible places. It can honestly be difficult to stay on top of everything you can do with Maps, which is why we’ve written a guide featuring the most useful tips and tricks.

At the same time, the company has been fighting back against problems like fake listings for locations and businesses that are aimed at extorting travelers. According to Google, about 70 percent of these listings have been weeded out over the past two years. New policies instituted since then have prevented unverified businesses from creating listings in bulk, or registering locations far away from their existing operation. Google says most of the offenders are now identified before they ever appear to the public.

Hack your way to glory with Darknet on Daydream!

It’s hacking time.

This review was conducted on Daydream, but Darknet is also available on HTC Vive, Gear VR, Oculus Rift, and PlayStation VR.

Looking at the glowing blue nodes in front of me, I’m very aware of my mission. I need to hack my way through the smaller nodes, break through the shields, isolate the root node and hack my way into the information that this corporation has been trying to hide away. I can see the clock out the periphery of my vision counting down slowly until I’ll run out of time and have to abandon the job. Thankfully, I’ve got plenty of time and the tools I need to get it done. After deploying an exploit that knocks the shield off of a nearby node, I dive in throwing viruses out onto the grid and watching as I capture the prize. The root node is within my reach now, and I knock it out securing the intel I was sent for. This is Darknet.

Read more at VRHeads