‘Dunkirk’ demands to be experienced in a theater

Dunkirk is a cinematic mic drop by Christopher Nolan — 106 minutes of sound, fury and, if you’re lucky, glorious 70mm IMAX film. It’s a movie that uses all of the latest technology to not only show you the relentless horror of war, but also make you feel as if you’re right there alongside the steadfast English soldiers. And for Nolan, it’s the best argument yet for why movies should to be experienced on massive screens, with sound systems that would get you evicted.

War films have been around since the dawn cinema, but Dunkirk’s biggest achievement is that it doesn’t look like anything in the genre we’ve seen before. Indeed, Nolan’s use of huge 70mm IMAX film makes it stand apart from any other movie I’ve seen. He’s toyed with the technology previously — first in a few scenes for The Dark Knight and its follow-up. Several years ago he used it to transport us through a wormhole and into another galaxy with Interstellar.

But those films used the format as a way to whet your appetite for the format’s potential. Dunkirk, on the other hand, is primarily a large-scale experience, with around 75 percent of the film shot on 65mm IMAX film (the other 5mm of the 70mm real hold the sound tracks). The rest of the film was shot on 65mm Panavision stock, which is still significantly larger than standard 35mm film.

Right from the start, the film takes full advantage of the full size of the IMAX frame. We see a group of soldiers walking down a quaint European street with leaflets raining down on them. It’s an evocative shot no matter how you look at it, but on an extra-tall IMAX screen (which has a slightly more square aspect ratio than traditional cinemas), it’s as if you’re caught in a sudden paper downpour.

Warner Bros.

It’s so enveloping that it’s almost like wearing a VR headset. That’s especially true of the segments where we’re following British Spitfire pilots as they patrol the English Channel. Just seeing those World War 2-era planes taking up the enormous screen, heading towards an endless horizon, was enough to make me tear up a bit. But once they encounter the enemy, Dunkirk uses the power of IMAX to deliver some of the most immersive dogfights put to film. You’ll find yourself leaning in your seat with every maneuver, especially during the shots from IMAX cameras planted directly on the plane’s wings. I still get the chills of vertigo while

Dunkirk’s aggressive audio mix — which can hop between silence to deafening gunshots and explosions at the drop of a hat — compliments the visuals. Nolan doesn’t break new ground, but the sound design is still impressive, taking full advantage of the powerful subwoofers and speakers in IMAX cinemas. Hans Zimmer’s score, as usual, drives home the tension and anxiety of every scene. At certain points, I had a hard time telling the difference between the explosions on the screen and the pounding music — which is probably the point.

Nolan has described Dunkirk as a film that’s meant to be immersive. There’s little dialog, not much backstory and we see only glimpses of the German soldiers keeping the English and French under fire. So for this movie, more so than most, the experience of seeing it in a theater is particularly important. Sure you can see Dunkirk on your laptop, TV, or, heavens forbid, your phone. But are you really seeing and hearing what it’s trying to convey?

Of course, there are issues with Nolan’s rosy view of the theatrical experience. For one, he’s crafted a film that can only truly be enjoyed to its fullest in a handful of theaters around the world. There are over 1,200 IMAX screens globally, but only a fraction of them offer support for the format’s original 70mm film. Instead, most of them are smaller retrofitted screens using digital projectors. Those theaters — dubbed “lie-Max” by cinephiles — still offer better picture and sound than a typical screen, but they lose out on the extra-tall framing you’d see in a full-fledged IMAX screen. (If you want a primer on the differences between IMAX formats, check out this guide.)

Nolan has also made it very clear he doesn’t care much for Netflix, both as a service to watch films, and as a platform for budding filmmakers. “Netflix has a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films,” he told Indiewire. “They have this mindless policy of everything having to be simultaneously streamed and released, which is obviously an untenable model for theatrical presentation. So they’re not even getting in the game, and I think they’re missing a huge opportunity.” He goes on to praise Amazon, which releases its films theatrically before placing them online.

The director’s comments might seem elitist and out of touch with the way we consume most media today. But, when watching a film like Dunkirk, it’s hard not to see his point. There’s something special about losing yourself to a film in a theater, where the screen is huge and you’re not distracted by any gadgets. Cinema demands patience and attention. And with the rise of digital media, that’s easy to forget.

Roomba maker iRobot plans to sell digital maps of your home

While iRobot may have originated as a bomb-disposal robot maker at MIT in 1990, the company is probably better known as a robot vacuum company. So much so that it has taken to suing competitors like Bissell and Hoover, who sell their own robotic vacuum cleaners. The Roomba craze may not be as popular on the internet anymore, but iRobot reportedly has a new strategy in place: providing Roomba-gathered maps of your home to other smart device makers.

The CEO of iRobot, Colin Angle, tells Reuters that the “smart” home lighting, thermostats and security cameras currently on the market are all still pretty dumb when it comes to knowing what your home layout is. “There’s an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared,” Angle told Reuters. He also said that his company is working to sell the data in the next few years. Amazon’s Alexa can already control some Wi-Fi enabled models of the floor-cleaning robots; it makes sense that the company is looking for new ways to stay connected. We can only guess what a company like Apple could do with the data; asking Siri where in the house you left your Macbook isn’t too far-fetched.

Still, sharing a detailed map of your home raises some privacy concerns. While iRobot’s Angle promises that users will need to give their consent for the data to be shared, he shares no details on how it would work and whether it will be opt-in or opt-out. In addition, it’s believable that some consumers won’t like the idea of iRobot selling their data to other companies who don’t have the same commitment to user data security. We’ve reached out to iRobot for comment on this matter and will update the post when we hear back.

Source: Reuters

Google is still making money despite $2.7 billion EU fine

Google parent company Alphabet just announced its financials for the second quarter of 2017, and it looks like the company took a bit hit from the record fine the EU dropped on it late last month. Alphabet’s total net income for the quarter came in at $3.5 billion — that’s down significantly from $4.9 billion it pulled in a year ago. However, Alphabet was quick to note that without the EU’s heft $2.7 billion fine, net income would have come in at $6.3 billion. So this quarter’s drop isn’t about any fundamental issue in the Alphabet business, as the company doesn’t expect to be paying fines like that on a regular basis.

Overall, revenue from Google amounted to $25.8 billion, with “other bets” from Alphabet companies like Verily, Nest, Google Fiber and many other experimental projects coming in at $248 million. Other bets continue to be a drop in the bucket, but growth is definitely going in the right direction — this quarter’s revenue was up 34 percent on the $185 million pulled in last year. And while other bets continue to lose month, they’re losing less. This quarter, the loss was $772 million compared to $885 million one year ago.

Google’s “other revenue” segment is always an interesting one to look at, as that’s where you’ll find hardware like the Pixel phones and Google Home as well as the Google Play Store. This quarter, revenues of $3.1 billion were essentially flat compared to last quarter, but up a big 41 percent compared to a year ago. And that’s with much of Google’s hardware lineup getting a bit long in the tooth. Alphabet is holding its quarterly investor call at 5PM ET, and we’ll be listening in to see if Google CEO Sundar Pichai has any feedback on what’s working so well there.

But when it comes to Google and financials, it’s all about the company’s ad network, which makes up the vast majority of its revenue, and that business is healthy as ever. Ad revenue of $22.7 billion was up 19 percent year-over-year. We’ll likely hear more about why that trend continues on the call, as well — but it’s safe to bet that Google will cite YouTube and mobile as big sources of growth, as that’s been the story for several quarters in a row now.

We’ll update this post with any other details we hear from Google’s earnings call, which kicks off at 5PM ET.

Source: Alphabet

A behind-the-scenes look at how Intel broadcasts live baseball in VR

To a baseball fan, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of watching a game in person. But not everyone has the time or money to go to one, so most of us settle for watching it on TV. Intel, however, has partnered with MLB to introduce a third viewing option: VR. The idea? To make you feel like you’re at the game in the comfort of your own home. The Intel crew was in San Francisco’s AT&T Park recently to broadcast a Giants game in VR and I, along with a small group of reporters, had a behind-the-scenes look at how it all gets done.

The game that we were at was the sixth-ever matchup that was broadcasted live on VR by Intel. The Intel True VR team had already started live streaming MLB games every Tuesday since June, but the summer classic was not the first sport it’s ever broadcasted in VR. The chipmaker’s first experience broadcasting live VR sports was actually several months ago during March Madness, when it used seven VR camera rigs per stadium to stream the NCAA finals in 360-degree views. Later in May, Intel partnered with the PGA Tour to live stream the Players Championship golf tournament with three cameras — one at the 17th tee, one on the walkway, and one in the water next to the green.

Broadcasting baseball in VR requires a similar approach, yet has its own unique set of challenges. As we climbed down the steps to the field on our tour, the Intel spokesperson pointed out four different camera arrays. One was tucked behind first base near the visitor’s dugout, the other was behind third base, and the third was located high up behind home plate up near the press box, which shows the entire field. The latter, he says, is also known as the “High Home” shot, a camera view that’s familiar to most people who are into baseball. Each rig is equipped with six pairs of lenses, or 12 cameras total, to capture a stereoscopic 180-degree view.

“In all ballparks, we try to find three basic locations: the third baseline, the first baseline and high home,” said David Aufhauser, the Managing Director of Strategy and Product for Intel Sports, of the three aforementioned shots. “But in each stadium, we also try to find one or two more locations that’s specific to that stadium.” So in Chase Field in Arizona, one camera would be by the swimming pool, a feature not found in other ballparks. At Fenway Park in Boston, one camera would be by the Green Monster, the iconic nickname for the high left field wall. At the game we were at, the fourth camera was located by the Giants dugout, so that viewers can see the comings and goings of players in and out of the clubhouse.

The reason why the location of the cameras is so important is because the viewers actually get to pick which camera POV they want throughout the live game. If all they want to do for all nine innings is to stare at that pool in Chase Field, they can. If they want to switch camera POVs around, they can.

“In baseball, every stadium has unique features, and we try to take fans to places that they otherwise would not be able to go,” added Aufhauser. “That’s the story behind VR; to do things that you can’t normally do.”

There is one other camera in the ballpark, and it’s located way up on the scoreboard by center field. That, however, is not an VR camera; it’s just a regular broadcast camera designed to zoom in and frame the pitcher and the batter in a single shot. This, Aufhauser said, allows for a simulcast effect, whereby the pitcher-batter shot can be overlaid with the High Home shot through a virtual Jumbotron (see image for example).

Of course, if the viewer doesn’t want to choose any of these views, that’s OK too. “We also have a fully produced view, which is very similar to a normal television broadcast,” said Aufhauser. Intel also built in a replay system into the traditional broadcast, so the team could decide to play a repeat of a great play in case the situation arises, just like you would watch on TV. This, he says, is part of VR Cast, which is an Intel-produced view in case viewers don’t want to do all the driving. “The fan can lean back and just enjoy watching and not have to decide what camera to see. We’ll help do that storytelling for them.”

And a lot of that storytelling happens in the live broadcast setup located right outside the stadium. In order to check it out, we were led through the Giants clubhouse and went out the northside of AT&T Park, where we were greeted by a white van and a smaller white trailer underneath a stretched out tarp shelter. The white van had the “Intel True VR” logo emblazoned on the side and there were wires and cables running in every direction.

When we peeked inside the aforementioned van, we saw a crew of about six people behind what was the control room for the VR broadcast. It was about an hour or so before the game, and the editors were busy making sure the left and right views of each camera were synced up and ready to go. When the game is live, the stitching happens entirely in real-time through Intel’s True VR software.

And there’s more. When a viewer watches the game through the Gear VR, they’ll see the scoreboard above and the camera and player controls below. If they want, they can then bring up live in-game stats on either side of the video. When the game starts, for example, you’ll see the lineup of each team, along with the names of the players and their positions on the field. Throughout the game, you’ll see more stats, like the number of runs, hits, balls, strikes and innings pitched per player. You can toggle these stats from side to side, and even bring them to the forefront if you want to pay more attention to them.

As for audio, Intel uses a mix of in-game audio that the camera picks up as well as the audio feed from radio and TV, which tends to be pretty high quality. Interestingly, Intel actually hired a national broadcaster by the name of JB Long to do the play-by-play commentary each week. During our tour, he was sitting in the small trailer next to the van, where he provided commentary on the game while watching the video feed.

“We have to imagine our audience differently,” said Long, when asked about the difference between hosting a VR broadcast versus a traditional one. “Not only are we doing a national game, we’re likely doing it for an audience that’s more technology-savvy and maybe less baseball ingrained.”

Long said that much of the commentary is about the experience of being at the park, not on the game itself. “Not that the game is secondary, but what makes our product unique is not the score, but the environment.” So for example, Long talked about how cold it was at AT&T Park in July, which is how it often is in San Francisco. “To my knowledge that is what VR is about,” he said. “It’s delivering really unique experiences without needing to be onsite.”

In addition to Long, Intel also hired an announcer to fill in 90 seconds or so gaps in between innings. The reason? Because the VR broadcast doesn’t have commercials that a regular TV show does.

Another challenge of live VR broadcasting is that the team has to create graphic overlays on the fly. They can’t conjure traditional lower thirds with player names, for example, because there are so many different cameras and so many different angles. Instead, Intel has someone in the trailer truck create a baseball card graphic to float over player’s heads. The graphics also have to be offset slightly to give the right depth. Plus since the players can sometimes move, the cards aren’t always in the same space all the time and have to be moved around. It’s a seemingly small feature that requires a lot of additional work, because it’s in VR.

“The hardest part is not the number of cameras,” said Shaun Carrigan, the Experience Producer for Intel Sports. “The hard part is how do you give a really great experience in the headset; we can’t just watch it on the screen, we have to use it on the headset too.”

I watched a tiny bit of the game on the Intel True VR app on the Gear VR, and it was a little surreal at first. I was able to view the game as if I was right on the field, and it was kind of cool to be able to see players up close and personal if I wanted to. Changing camera views did take a few seconds of buffering time though, so you’d potentially miss a few seconds here and there of the game if you like switching camera angles a lot. I also liked having a 360-degree view of the game, with the stats on either side of the video, and the ability to pause and replay the game just with my gaze.

Yet, the experience wasn’t perfect. For one thing, the resolution just isn’t as sharp as watching the game on a high-def TV set. Also, you only have those four aforementioned camera positions to choose from. You can’t joystick around and choose whatever angle you like, so getting to see what the game is like from a player’s POV is out of the question.

But it’s still early days for live VR and that technology could arrive eventually. “We’re just starting to see that as a possibility,” said Aufhauser. “Imagine being able to be one of the players, and feel what it’s like for a 90 mph fastball coming down at you.”

That could come from a volumetric capture tech that Intel has thanks to its acquisition of Replay Technologies last year. Right now, the tech is only used for freeze frame 360-degree shots, which has already been used in certain NBA and NFL games. But the time could come in the future where you would have free reign to view any game from literally any angle.

“If you’re live at a game, you have the experience of being there,” said Carrigan. “If you’re watching TV, you get to see close-ups. With VR, you get to have both.”

As fascinating as the VR experience is though, I have to say that it still doesn’t quite beat being at a game in person. For me, it’s not enough to pretend as if I’m on the field or in the dugout with the players. Being at a ballpark is more than that. It’s about the camaraderie of strangers rooting for a common cause. It’s the thrill of being mere inches away from your favorite player. It’s the possibility that you just might catch that home run ball. It’s holding a cold beer in one hand and a hot dog in the other, while jumping for joy at a great play.

Watching a game in VR is certainly more interactive than on TV, and I look forward to what VR sports will look like in a few years. But until then, you can find me by the bleachers, rooting for my home team along with 40,000 other die-hard fans.

NASA moves ahead with plans to build a quiet supersonic jet

NASA’s dreams of a quiet supersonic jet are one step closer to fruition. The agency tells Bloomberg that it’ll start taking bids to build a larger (94-foot) real-world demo version of the aircraft that it tunnel-tested in June, and we now have a clearer sense of how well it’ll perform in real life. The design is expected to reduce noise to no more than 65dBa, which is exceptionally quiet for an aircraft — co-designer Lockheed Martin likens it to the inside of a luxury car. That would make it safe to fly just about anywhere. The Concorde, by contrast, was an assault on your ears at 90dBa and was limited to overseas flights.

The larger prototype will fly as high as 55,000 feet and manage its supersonic speeds despite running on just one of the two engines you see in the F/A-18 Hornet. In practice, it could cut the flight time from New York to Los Angeles in half, to 3 hours.

NASA has already outlined plans to fly the finished aircraft by 2020 (including over populated areas), and already has funding for the first year of its 5-year roadmap. This isn’t the same as a passenger aircraft, alas, but not to worry. The organization plans to hand out the knowledge from its tests to private manufacturers, some of whom (such as Boom Technology) already have plans for supersonic passenger jets. It won’t happen for a long while, but there should be a day when a flight across the country no longer chews up most of your day.

Source: Bloomberg

Apple Exchanging Some 2012 and Early 2013 MacBook Pros Needing Battery Service With Newer Models

After hundreds of charging cycles, a MacBook Pro’s battery begins to lose its ability to hold a charge and should be replaced. Apple offers battery service free of charge with AppleCare+ coverage, or it charges an out-of-warranty fee of $199 in the United States, £199 in the UK, or $259 in Canada.

Due to a severe constraint of top case assemblies with integrated batteries, however, Apple has informed its Genius Bar employees and Apple Authorized Service Providers it is currently unable to service the batteries of 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display models released in Mid 2012 and Early 2013.

According to Apple’s internal directive, obtained by MacRumors, top case assemblies with batteries for the aforementioned MacBook Pro models will remain severely constrained until September 15, 2017. The directive does not identify a reason for the shortage, which has been ongoing since at least March.

As a temporary solution, Apple’s directive says customers may choose to delay battery service until inventory becomes available, in exchange for Apple covering the cost of the repair. Alternatively, to avoid the delay, Apple’s directive says customers may exchange the MacBook Pro for a functionally equivalent model.

Given the affected MacBook Pro models were released between four and five years ago, however, an increasing number of customers have shared stories of Apple replacing their notebooks with significantly newer models.

Reddit user NoTNoS, for example, said Apple exchanged his 2012 model 15-inch MacBook Pro for a 2017 model 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. He said the process took about 10 business days, and he was allowed to keep his old MacBook Pro during the wait. The only cost was the $199 battery service fee.

Dozens of other MacBook Pro owners have shared similar experiences on Reddit, while only a handful of users have shared unsuccessful attempts. Many users appear to have received refurbished 2015 MacBook Pro models, but some others claim to have received even newer 2016 or 2017 models.

In order to potentially qualify, you must have a Mid 2012 or Early 2013 model 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display that requires battery service. To check, click on the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the macOS menu bar, and then click on About This Mac > System Report… > Power.

A section called “Health Information” lists the battery’s cycle count, which should be under 1,000, and condition, which should say “Service Battery” or equivalent. Apple’s definition of a consumed battery is one with a full charge capacity below 80 percent, which can be checked with a tool like coconutBattery.

Since the process appears to differ on a case-by-case basis, each customer’s mileage may vary. For instance, some customers successfully exchanged an eligible MacBook Pro with over 1,000 charge cycles. Apple could stop acknowledging this internal policy at any time, and not all employees may be aware it exists.

There doesn’t appear to be any regional limitations to the policy, with customers who successfully exchanged their MacBook Pro models residing in the United States, UK, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and other countries. It also doesn’t appear to matter if the Mac is covered by AppleCare+ to qualify.

Eligible customers that wish to press their luck may visit any Apple Store, or supposedly select Apple Authorized Service Providers. Apple will run a diagnostic test to determine if the battery requires servicing. Booking a Genius Bar appointment through the Apple Support website is recommended.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
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This is the thinnest Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus case on the market (Giveaway + Review)

I’ve been on a bit of a phone case kick recently. I’ve never been big into protecting my devices as I seem to go through them so fast that they never end up picking up wear and tear. I’ve decided to slow down on new devices at this point in my life so I’m doing everything I can do protect the devices that I do have. I purchased the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus on the day it came out from one of my local T-Mobile stores and I’ve been in search for the perfect case ever since.

PITAKA recently contacted us and wanted us to take a look at its Aramid Phone Case for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus as well as its car mount. When the rep emailing me stated that it was the thinnest phone case on the market, I was intrigued. I love the industrial design of Samsung’s devices so I hate to cover it up but I thought the thinnest case on the market might do it some justice.

0.85mm thick, 18g heavy. Like it’s barely there.

And I have to say, this is the thinnest case I’ve ever used on any phone. The only case that comes remotely close is the Samsung Official Clear Cover, but it still falls short. The Aramid case is made of synthetic fibers that promise high performance. PITAKA states that Aramid is used in products like aircraft, aerospace products, and in super cars due to its high strength, resistance to abrasion and heat, and that it is non-conductive. In addition to that, it doesn’t pick up fingerprints and has a low flammability rating.

It doesn’t pick up most fingerprints.

While that might seem like a lot of marketing mumbo jumbo, what it breaks down to is an incredibly thin, but strong case. There is some flex in the case, but it’s rather rigid. I was able to bend the case and I feel like if I really try I could flex it enough to break it, but it would be pretty tough. This thing isn’t going to crack and should last for a long time.

One of the biggest reasons you’d buy a case is for drop protection, but that’s a tough task with a phone designed like the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. This thing is all glass and curves and neither of those things tends to be durable. I don’t think this case will provide a ton of drop protection, but it is above average for how slim the case actually is. Additionally, you should be free of scratches on the back of the device with this thing on, so there’s that.

The cutouts on the bottom and sides of the device do not hide or impede any of the ports or buttons that are vital to using the phone although the cutouts on the bottom can be a bit sharp which can become uncomfortable during very long sessions with the device. But honestly, I only ran into this issue once or twice in the several weeks I’ve had the case. It might be a nit-picky flaw, but it does exist.

So far, I’ve tested 20 or so cases for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus and the PITAKA Aramid case is one of my favorites. It does have some very minor flaws, but overall I love the extra grip it gives me on an otherwise very slippery phone and just how thin it is. You wouldn’t think a case this thin would be so strong but it is. Color me impressed.

Due to the placement of the magnet and the wireless charging sensor in the phone, I have to remove the case to use my wireless charger

PITAKA also sent over the MagMount car mount for us to check out too. This mount is a rather standard air vent mount for your car. You apply the included magnet to the inside of your case (or I suppose, to your phone if you’re a crazy person) and then attach it to the mount. It worked decently well and I’ve never had an instance where the phone has fallen off the mount when going over bumps, but it has slid down a little bit once or twice. The head of the mount swivels 360-degrees so you can position your phone however you’d like it. It’s perfect for using Android Auto.

PITAKA also makes cool wallets out of carbon fiber. You can see in the video below how they work and check out the Kickstarter for more info.

PITAKA MagWallet – the coolest wallet on the planet

🎉🎉3 PITAKA New Carbon Fiber Wallets GIVEAWAY🎉🎉Check the below video to witness the 😎COOLEST😎 wallet ever, PITAKA New Wallet!And share this video & like our page & tag friends to enter the giveaway.🎉🎉3 lucky winners🎉🎉 will be picked and announced Aug.1.So what are you waiting for? Share this video and win😮this amazing wallet!!😮Grab yours on Kickstarter while the supplies last:https://goo.gl/VV38fk

تم نشره بواسطة ‏‎PITAKA‎‏ في 20 يوليو، 2017

Giveaway

We’re teaming up with PITAKA to give away two prize packs. Both packs will include a case of your choice for the Samsung Galaxy S8 or Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus and an Air Vent Mount. This giveaway is for US residents only (sorry, international readers!) and will conclude on July 31, 2017, at 11:59 PM.

In the widget below you will have several options to enter. The only mandatory option is entering your email address and that’s so we can contact the winner. You can get additional entries by following AndroidGuys on Twitter, following PITAKA on twitter, and/or tweeting a message. You can tweet once a day for additional entries.

Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Silent Age: Point-and-click done right (Review)

In an era where endless games with pixel graphics abound in the Play Store, it is always pleasant to find developers who focus on providing a different, rewarding, and immersive experience. Even though people think that polished, refined games are reserved for consoles, we’ve seen through the years that developers can also come up with compelling experiences for our little mobile devices.

Also, a trend seen more frequently nowadays is to port a PC game to Android and iOS in order to cater to a wider audience, while still providing a greater experience than what we are used to see on our phones. This is the case of The Silent Age, a game developed by House on Fire. The Silent Age is a point-and-click game that tries to do exactly that: entertain mobile gamers in a different way. Not through ultra-high difficulty, high scores, and endless characteristics, but with a fascinating story and marvelous audiovisuals.

Developer: House on Fire
Price: Free

Setup

As you know, since Android 6.0 Marshmallow you can decide which permissions to grant to apps. This has stopped developers from requesting non-sensical permissions, such as access to contacts in a single player game.

Unfortunately, The Silent Age keeps this practice, asking for a total of three different permissions upon start up: Storage, Phone, and Location. Denying the three of them has no impact on the game (at least not noticeable), which makes you wonder why they’re there.

After that, you will be presented with a very uncommon view: language selection. There’s a total of seven languages available, and I find it awesome that you can choose among them from the start. For example, I have my phone in Spanish but I need to play my games in English so that you all can understand my screenshots. It’s a very isolated use case but I appreciate the option nonetheless.

Overview

There’s a pretty cool introduction to the backstory of the game.

The game shows a kind of lengthy introduction. Basically, the main character is a man who is stuck working as a janitor. However, after his boss gives him more responsibility for the same salary (been there, done that), he finds himself in a completely unexpected situation. I won’t spoil the rest.

Having said that, the story is one of the highest points of this game. Some small parts of it feel tacky at first, but it gets better and better with every step you take. It is as intriguing as it is cohesive with the environment in which the game develops.

There are two episodes, though. So, if you want to experience the game fully, you will need to pay five bucks to unlock the second episode, since only the first is free. Personally, I don’t dislike this model. You get to play the game for free at first and if you like it, then you pay for the rest. If not, then you just move on. This way, you get to experience stuff that you would be reluctant to pay for, and the developer gets to a bigger audience. Win-win.

Since this is a point-and-click game, there’s no controls other than tapping the screen. Stuff you have to do is often straightforward, so you won’t ever feel lost. Puzzles will get a bit more complicated, though, but nothing that would turn the game into a frustrating chore.

Me in life.

However, the whole game just feels very relaxing to play. If you’re looking for a game in which you can be competitive, get high scores, and find collectibles, then this is not the game for you. However, if you appreciate getting a nice experience, enjoy a good story, and appreciate the artwork, The Silent Age is a good bet.

Graphics

I’ve mentioned the graphics before, but the artwork is stunning. The main character reminds me of a 70s version of Ringo Starr. Objects have the right amount of details, colors are vivid, and the setting matches perfectly the story the game is telling.

The main character can be pretty multi-faceted.

There are objects you find scattered around that will aid you in your quest, such as keys, cards, and weapons. All of these sprites follow closely the overall theme as well. You can easily see that a lot of effort has been put in providing top-notch graphics, and the result is simply superb.

Sound

Graphics and sound make a nice, cohesive package.

Music in the game is not prominent but it provides a nice background to the gameplay. Sound effects aren’t that big either, but the ones that are there add a lot to the eeriness and intrigue of the game.

Something that is very uncommon in mobile games, but present here, is voice acting. For the most part, it’s very well made, although I would argue that the main character is sometimes way too hesitant, even muttering very simple phrases. This is probably done to create a character that resembles the most a normal, working-class individual, rather than a brave, fearless character, like most games usually have. NPCs also have outstanding voice acting. This is top-quality work overall, something rarely seen on mobile games.

Conclusion

The Silent Age provides an intriguing story with superb visuals and astounding audio work. It is as relaxing as it is eerie and mysterious. Very rarely (in the Play Store, that is) one sees a game in which story, gameplay, graphics, and sound all coverge together to create such a cohesive result. Sure, it might be a port of a PC game, but that does not  If you want a game to relax and get immersed in a surreal world, then give The Silent Age a shot.

Download and install The Silent Age from the Google Play Store.

Alleged Intel Coffee Lake CPU specifications leak online

Why it matters to you

Intel’s Coffee Lake could be decent competition for AMD’s resurgent flagship Ryzen hardware.

A trio of processors from Intel’s upcoming Coffee Lake lineup have allegedly been leaked online. While Intel has yet to confirm them in any capacity, the leaks are piling up and a new information dump reveals much more about a trio of Core i7 processors, all featuring six-cores and 12 threads.

Built as a successor for the Skylake and Kaby Lake generations of Intel’s CPU lineup, Coffee Lake is built upon a 14nm process and is expected to offer up to 30 percent improved performance over mobile chips from the Skylake range. Its most standout feature though is a move toward more cores. Core i3 CPUs will come with four cores for the first time, while i7 and possibly i5 chips will sport six cores apiece.

If the specifications leaked by Eteknix prove to be accurate, however, we now have a lot more information about the upcoming Coffee Lake lineup. The trio of Core i7 CPUs — which aren’t named — have six cores each, though they have a variety of base clock frequencies. At one end of the table is a chip with a 3.1GHz core speed, turboing up to 4.2GHz in single-core mode and 3.9GHz with all six cores enabled. In comparison, the fastest of the bunch has a base clock of 3.7GHz, turbos up to 4.3GHz with just one core enabled, or 4GHz with all six enabled.

Eteknix

The former of those two chips has the lowest power draw at 65-watt. It also doesn’t support overclocking of either the CPU or the memory. The latter certainly does support overclocking of all kinds, though it does come with a much heftier power requirement of 95w.

The anomaly of the trio, however, is the chip in the middle of the table. It has the same power requirements as the fastest of the bunch, but sports much lower clock speeds. Its base clock is 3.2GHz, but only turbos to 3.6GHz, even with just one core enabled. It does, however, support overclocking, so it could be that it’s just as capable as its heftier counterpart, you just have to do the heavy lifting yourself.

Coffee Lake chips don’t have a confirmed release date as of yet, but it’s expected to be before the end of this year. If they are competitive with AMD’s Ryzen on pricing, the additional cores could go a long way to narrowing the performance gap in multithreaded scenarios.

Shocking device will keep drivers awake with an electric impulse

Why it matters to you

Drowsy drivers kill up to 6,000 people each year in the United States, but this device helps keep them alert until they find somewhere to sleep.

Drowsy driving may not be as frowned upon as drunk driving but it can be just as dangerous. Drowsy drivers may cause as many as 6,000 fatal crashes each year in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control. And although coffee, energy drinks, and loud music can help keep drivers awake, they’re temporary fixes rather than solutions. The creators of a new wearable think they’ve found a better fix with Steer, a wrist-worn shocking device that vibrates and shocks when it detects a driver dozing off.

The team has taken this shocking device to Kickstarter to drum up support, and it has already doubled its pledge goal with nearly 100 backers and a week to go in the campaign.

“I and people around me frequently notice that we become very drowsy while driving a long distance,” Vlad Ilyin, founder of Creative Mode who designed the device, told Digital Trends. “I did not take it very seriously until about two years ago, a friend of mine got in a car accident, he crashed into a tree because for a few seconds he fell asleep. Fortunately, he is all right but on that day he broke his collarbone. I investigated this matter further and found out shocking statistics about how dangerous driving drowsy can be. In the end of 2016 I brought up my team together and we started to think how we can prevent accidents and even deaths caused by this.”

Steer uses two different sensors to detect changes in heart rate and sweat secretion, biometrics that signal when someone is getting drowsy. When the device is first put on it records the wearer’s heart rate and skin conductance level. If a wearer’s heart rate lowers by ten beats per minute and skin conductance by one unit from baseline, the device gives a slight vibration. When skin conductance decreases by another unit and heart rate falls by three more beats, Steer delivers a gentle shock.

“We thought of different ways of how to wake up a person, so it’s not too distractive and too irritating,” Ilyin said. “At the first, vibration came to our minds. Then, after a few tests, we found out that in certain situations vibration is not always noticeable and there should be something stronger. The electric shock seemed like a crazy idea at first but, after a few kinds of research, we found that a gentle electric impulse is not harmful and at low amperage, it does not hurt at all.”

The shock is meant increase serotonin, cortisol, and other hormones to keep the driver awake, according to its designers. The hope is then that drivers will pull over and get some much needed sleep rather than powering through trip. Steer will retail for about $230 but it’s available on Kickstarter for under $130.