‘Overwatch’ deathmatch modes are live

For over a year since it launched in May 2016, Blizzard’s Overwatch only let teams of players compete against each other in completing objectives — none of that kill-more-than-the-other-team hogwash. Then the studio about-faced early this month when it announced that those Deathmatch modes would really be coming to the hero shooter. Today, both team-based and free-for-all modes go live — along with a few balance tweaks to some heroes.

Survival means victory.
Deathmatch has arrived.

Play it now in the Arcade! 👉 https://t.co/FY88PqhqGX pic.twitter.com/5VEj2H0qz3

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) August 29, 2017

The two deathmatch modes will show up in the Arcade area for alternative modes. Free-For-All pits one player against seven others and the first to 20 kills wins (placing in the top four will count as a win for weekly loot box rewards). Team Deathmatch is 6v6 with the first to 30 kills winning, though Mercy resurrections will take a score away from the enemy team.

Maps have been modified to accommodate deathmatch play — namely, objectives like capture points and payloads have been removed. But there’s even a brand-new map dedicated to the mode: Château Guillard. In the game’s lore, this is where the character Amelie LaCroix (née Guillard) resided before she was brainwashed and transformed into the Talon operative Widowmaker.

Overwatch team lead Jeff Kaplan explained their reasoning for bringing the classic first-person-shooter mode to the game in a developer update (below).

In short — don’t claim that Blizzard never listens, as it’s clearly bowed to fan demand. Obviously, it’s way too early to see if deathmatch starts entering professional competition, but the mode is slotted in the Arcade area for a reason. Another long-requested mode, Capture The Flag, was added to the game back in February and that hasn’t filtered into competitive rotation. It’s unlikely that Blizzard will consider deathmatch for their Overwatch League they’re still getting off the ground, but with the studio’s change of heart adding the traditional FPS mode to the game at all, anything’s possible.

Source: Overwatch (Twitter), Overwatch (Patch Notes)

Robot caregivers are saving the elderly from lives of loneliness

Relying on 300-pound bear-faced robots to help nursing home residents get out of bed in the morning is much more effective if those folks actually have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Elderly people dealing with social isolation and loneliness are at increased risk of a variety of ailments, from cardiovascular disease and elevated blood pressure to cognitive deterioration and infection. In short, being old and alone can kill you. But robots aren’t just good for improving the elderly’s movement, they’re surprisingly adept at keeping retirees socially, emotionally and mentally engaged as well.

These support robots are already springing up around Japan, where in 2016 the annual birth rate dropped below a million for the first time since 1899 and a quarter of the population is already greying. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry expects the robotic service industry to boom to nearly $4 billion annually by 2035 — 25 times its current level. Though Europe and the US aren’t facing quite the apocalyptic shortfall of qualified human caretakers that Japan is, these two regions are also accelerating the development and adoption of support robots.

Though the current generation of these robots are far from what The Jetsons’ Rosie could provide, they can still offer geriatric patients a variety of services that fall, generally, within three categories: serving and fetching, communications and emotional support.

Serving robots do exactly that. Take the Care-o-bot from Fraunhofer IPA, for example. This robot has been deployed in a number of German assisted living facilities. It is able to ferry food and drinks to residents from the kitchen as well as keep them entertained by playing memory games to help keep their minds sharp. And to put those people at ease who may not be 100 percent onboard with having a 4-foot tall robot butler zipping around the halls, the Care-o-bot is programmed to behave like a gentleman, Dr Ulrich Reiser, Project and Group Leader at Fraunhofer IPA, wrote in a 2015 release.

Rather than over-promise what it’s capable of by presenting an overtly human form, the Care-o-bot instead focuses on what’s inside. “It always maintains a respectful distance, shows what it has understood and what it intends to do, while also being able to make simple gestures and reflect emotions,” Reiser wrote.

Honda’s Asimo robot, the one which famously fell down that flight of stairs, has come a long way since its humiliating faceplant. Not only can the current iteration climb stairs, it can jump and even use sign language. Honda’s research team eventually hopes that Asimo will serve as a go-fer for people with limited mobility — say, bringing a glass of water or turning off a light switch.

“ASIMO was designed to help those in society who need assistance, and Honda believes that these improvements in ASIMO bring us another step closer to our ultimate goal of being able to help all kinds of people in need,” Satoshi Shigemi, senior chief engineer at Honda R&D Co., Ltd. Japan, told Business Insider. “We need to understand what people expect from ASIMO and what people want ASIMO to do.”

These robots don’t even need to be people-sized. The Dinsow elder care robot from CT Asia Robotics acts as a personal assistant of sorts. It helps its human remember to take their pills, tracks their health and automatically answers incoming calls from family and doctors. There’s even a Dinsow Mini, released in 2015, which is small enough to live on the night stand of bedridden patients. The Dinsow does not come cheap, however. It retails for $2500, but yeah, you go tell Grandpa Joe he’s got to keep staring at his in-laws until he keels over (or you find that Golden Ticket) because you didn’t want to shell out for a little robobuddy for the man.

Of course, growing old in a nursing home is a vastly different experience than doing so in your own home. Care facilities are, by their very nature, communal — there’s nearly always someone around. But for elderly folks who live alone, the services that robots provide must go beyond turning off lights and fetching small items.

The ElliQ is a system similar to the Dinsow, available December here in the States. It’s basically an interactive robot holding a tablet. Like the Dinsow, ElliQ tracks its users pill regimen and connects them to family, friends, and medical professionals through video calls and social media. It also acts as a companion, inquiring how their user is feeling both physically and emotionally. It can check the weather and suggest outdoor activities so its user doesn’t stay all cooped up for extended periods and go stir crazy. More importantly, the ElliQ learns. The system utilizes machine learning to figure out its user’s preferences and quirks. It can then make proactive activity recommendations based on what it knows its user enjoys.

Sometimes, elderly folks who lie alone don’t just need a little buddy, they need a guardian as well. And that’s where the likes of the MiRo robotic dog comes in. The MiRo is a mechanized canine companion, like the AIBO but more capable. Like the other robots discussed today, it runs the typical gamut of pill regimen management, general companionship and appointment reminders. But it also keeps an eye on your health.

“It tries talking to you,” MiRo’s designer, Sebastian Conran, told The Guardian, “and then it will send a signal to the hub saying there seems to be a problem. The hub will then broadcast on the home speaker, asking again if you’re all right, and telling you to slap your wrist.” That refers to a biometric sensing wristband that the user wears which tracks their vitals.

“If you slap your wrist the process will stop but will be logged,” he continued. “If you don’t slap your wrist it will… go to a carer, who can see your heart rate and body temperature, and rewind your life using the cameras in the home to see what happened. So when the ambulance gets there, they’ll know what they’re working with.” Of course, this scenario also assumes that the person is comfortable living in a digital fishbowl, surrounded by a suite of monitoring cameras and IoT sensors. Whether your grandma, who still refers to the microwave as “the science box,” will be ok living in 1984-like conditions — even if it’s for her own good — remains to be seen.

Sometimes all you need in a robotic pet is something soft to snuggle with and boy is the Paro perfect for that. Designed to resemble a Canadian Harp seal pup, the Paro has been employed in Japanese nursing homes since 2003. It’s essentially a pettable ball of fur that can’t be hurt even if someone goes full “Lenny” on it. But the Paro doesn’t just respond with lifelike movements to tactile stimuli, it also recognizes temperature, posture, and light. Say its name or shower it with praise, and the Paro will respond.

The therapeutic results so far have been impressive. “We’re already finding that, for some difficult cases of depression, this could be a catalyst that helps people move on and get back to their healthy state,” said Dr. Simon Davies, a staff psychiatrist and clinical scientist at Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. “It’s very therapeutic — another approach to use alongside all the regular treatments proving effective in depression treatment.”

However, not all medical care professionals are thrilled about the coming support robot revolution. “Social isolation of seniors is a significant concern amongst gerontologists and caregivers alike. Robot care, in my mind, would only compound that issue,” Susan Madlung, gerontologist and Clinical Educator for Regional Programs and Home Health Re-Design at Vancouver Coastal Health, told AgingCare.

She expects that it may be a generation or three before people are inherently comfortable with being cared for by a robot. “Although robots might seem like a good response to the growing need for caregivers, I could see this as being quite detrimental to the emotional and psychosocial well being of anyone, not just seniors,” she continued. “Humans need humans.”

Burger King is using cryptocurrency as a loyalty program in Russia

Rather than give you another punch card or plastic loyalty card for your wallet, Burger King has a different idea for rewarding its customers: cryptocurrency. In Russia, The BK Lounge has started issuing Whoppercoins when people buy food. Save enough and you can redeem them for nuggets, burgers and King Bouqets Buckets in the country. A billion Whoppercoin have been issued thus far via the Waves paltform, and more will follow if demand does.

“Eating Whoppers now is a strategy for financial prosperity tomorrow,” the chain’s Ivan Shestov said in one of the best press release quotes ever written. Now I’m wondering if that’s just the pen name J. Wellington Wimpy is using, though.

No matter. The press release says that for every rouble spent (59 roubles roughly converts to $1) earns a single Whoppercoin, and free Whoppers are 1,7000 Whoppercoins. More than that, if you’re of the vegetarian or vegan persuasion, like other cryptocurrencies, you can sell and trade these online. Burger King is expected to release Android and iOS apps to track your collection next month.

Not in Russia? You can monitor the way Whoppercoins are trading online. As of publishing time, there have been 36 transfers. Given that rival McDonald’s has Hamburglar on its payroll, maybe Burger King would be wise to up the security here.

Via: The Verge

Source: Waves

Aston Martin will go EV and hybrid only in the mid-2020s

The car James Bond drives in the next 007 film might be a hybrid. Aston Martin, famous for supplying the spy’s chosen vehicle, announced that its entire automotive lineup would be hybrids by the mid-2020s. By 2030, the automaker intends for a quarter of its sales to come from electric vehicles, the company’s CEO told Financial Times.

The promise comes soon after Volvo pledged to stop selling gas or diesel-only cars within the next two years in favor of hybrids and EVs. Not that Aston Martin is jumping on a trend: The automaker has been making concepts and working on commercial versions of hybrid and plug-in electric cars since 2015. While the company’s plans to make EVs with LeEco-connected Faraday Future stalled out, it’s going ahead with production of its all-electric concept car, the RapidE. Though that sportscar is nowhere near consumer-affordable with a $255,000 price tag, it will be the automaker’s first EV when it rolls off the line in 2019.

Aston Martin will be building its own electric driving systems instead of getting them from its partner Daimler, which supplies the British carmaker with setups for its V8s. Building tech in-house is a sure sign for how important the company thinks electric vehicles will be:

“You need to keep core technology inside the company,” Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer told Financial Times. “That’s why we make our own V12 engine. We believe that EVs [electric vehicles] are a core technology, and therefore we want to do them ourselves.”

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Financial Times

Fight zombies on your street with ‘Walking Dead’ AR mobile game

How long would you last during a zombie apocalypse? Because let’s be honest, the chances are you’d be shuffling among the living dead in next to no time, no matter how good your baseball swing. But instead of waiting for the end of all humanity to prove us wrong, you can soon test your mettle against the zombie swarm in almost real life, with augmented reality mobile game The Walking Dead: Our World.

Like a far more horrifying and adrenaline-pumping version of Pokemon Go, AMC and Next Games’ The Walking Dead: Our World uses the latest in mobile phone augmented reality tech to put gamers squarely in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Here, you can battle walkers on the street, in the park, or even on the sofa, if you’re up for a bit of apocalyptic disaster without any of the effort. You’ll even have The Walking Dead’s Rick, Daryl and Michonne by your side as you go. The game will be available from iTunes’ App Store and Google Play, but there’s no word yet on exactly when the game will launch, so you’d better start thinking about your survival strategies now.

Misfit delays its Android Wear smartwatch to October

Misfit said that its Vapor smartwatch would arrive this summer, but the season’s nearly over and it has yet to put the device on your wrist. What gives? Well, there’s been a delay… although you won’t have to wait too much longer. The company tells us that the Android Wear device is now slated to ship in October, 9 months after its CES debut. Misfit tells us that it moved the release because it has “high expectations” for the Vapor and wants to “refine every detail” until the device is “truly outstanding.” In other words, the Vapor still had some rough spots as the end-of-summer deadline approached.

For Misfit, getting this watch on to store shelves is important. It’s the company’s first touchscreen smartwatch, and proof that it can stand out among Fossil’s many watch brands. Also, simply speaking, it’s one of the more interesting Android Wear designs in the pipeline — it checks off a number of valuable features (water resistance, GPS and heart rate tracking) while offering a posh-looking stainless steel case that you might enjoy showing off. There’s no guarantee that it’ll be the Android smartwatch of choice, but it stands a decent chance when other watches (such as the Huawei Watch 2 and LG Watch Sport) all make significant sacrifices.

Uber gives free insurance to drivers in India

Uber’s reputations in India and the Philippines aren’t stellar, to put it mildly, but the ridesharing company is making amends in both countries. To begin with, it’s providing free insurance to its roughly 450,000 Indian drivers. As of September 1st, they’ll have coverage for death, disability and hospital stays in the event of accidents. It comes a while after Uber had cut incentives, but it’s still an important gesture.

In the Philippines, meanwhile, Uber has put an early end to a one-month suspension on its services by agreeing to pay about $9.6 million in penalties, including a fine and financial help to drivers who were hurt by the suspension. The country had ordered a stop to Uber’s business after it ignored a demand to stop signing up new drivers while officials caught up on ridesharing permits. Uber had previously offered to pay a far smaller fine but had been rejected.

Neither is a selfless act, to be clear. Uber’s India move follows an earlier drivers’ strike that raised complaints about disappearing incentives, and the company was losing potential income (not to mention the goodwill of drivers) every day it let the Philippines ban stay in effect. Even so, Uber’s decision to make back-to-back reparations suggests that it’s another part of efforts to improve the company’s standing following the ouster of Travis Kalanick. Although the company still isn’t squeaky clean, it seems to be more interested in finding peace than the confrontations that defined it in the past.

Source: Reuters (1), (2)

Apple Stores in Omaha and South Pittsburgh Relocating on Saturday

Apple this week announced that two of its retail stores, located at Village Pointe in Omaha, Nebraska and South Hills Village in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will reopen Saturday, September 2 at 10:00 a.m. local time. Both locations have been closed for renovations for the past several weeks.

Apple’s old Village Pointe store in Omaha, Nebraska
Apple Village Pointe will remain located on Davenport Street in an expanded storefront. The additional space should be a welcomed change for both the store’s employees and customers, as foot traffic to Apple stores has undoubtedly increased since the location originally opened in September 2006.

Apple South Hills Village will relocate to a different unit within the shopping mall, and it will likely gain some extra square footage as well.

Each store has received a makeover based on Apple’s next-generation retail design, which typically includes wide, open spaces with some combination of large glass doors, sequoia wood tables and shelves, large video screens for Today at Apple sessions, and light boxes spanning the length of the ceiling.

All new Apple Stores opened since September 2015 have been based on the new design language, including flagship-tier locations such as Apple Union Square in San Francisco and Apple World Trade Center in New York City. Apple has also renovated over 40 other stores to reflect the newer aesthetic.

Via: Storeteller on Twitter

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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September 12 Date ‘Nearly Locked In’ For Apple’s iPhone Event

Apple is aiming to hold its annual iPhone event on Tuesday, September 12, TechCrunch reported today, confirming information shared yesterday by The Wall Street Journal.

According to TechCrunch, the September 12 date is “nearly locked in,” but may hinge on whether Apple is able to complete work on the Steve Jobs Theater at its new Apple Park campus in time. Construction on the theater is still underway, but Apple is said to want to inaugurate the theater with the launch of the iPhone 8, its most radically redesigned iPhone in years.

Because media invites often go out 7 to 10 days before a major event is held, Apple has very little time to make a decision on where the event will be hosted, if a decision has not been made already. With Labor Day coming up next Monday, Apple will need to send out invites by the end of this week or on Tuesday, September 5 at the latest if the event is to be held on September 12.

Should the 1,000 seat Steve Jobs Theater not be completed in time, Apple could elect to use the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, where several past iPhone events have been held. There’s nothing on the auditorium’s schedule for the week of the 12th, so it remains a possibility.

With September approaching, it won’t be long before Apple’s plans are confirmed. If Apple does hold an event on September 12 — and it’s unlikely the event would be pushed beyond that date — the new iPhones could see an official launch on Friday, September 22. If Apple accepts pre-orders, sales could start a week ahead of launch on Friday, September 15.

Apple’s 2017 iPhone event will be its biggest in years thanks to the launch of a redesigned OLED 5.8-inch iPhone with an edge-to-edge display, inductive charging, facial recognition, and dozens of other new features. The new high-end device will launch alongside two standard but also redesigned devices in typical 4.7 and 5.5-inch sizes.

Apple is also expected to unveil a new 4K Apple TV and a third-generation Apple Watch with LTE at the event.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
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Upcoming Amazon Prime Video App for Apple TV May Not Be Ready for September Launch

At its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple announced that an Amazon Prime Video app would be coming to the Apple TV later this year.

No release date was given, but Apple’s September iPhone event seemed like an ideal time for the app to see an official release. Unfortunately, that may not happen. In a piece on Apple’s troubles establishing TV-related deals, Recode says that according to its sources, the app may not be live in time for debut at the iPhone event.

An Amazon Prime Video app is something that Apple TV owners have desired for years, as it is one of the only major streaming video services absent from the set-top box.

With no targeted launch date on the horizon, it isn’t clear when the app will see a launch, but we can expect it before the end of 2017 based on Apple’s initial announcement.

While an Amazon Prime Video app may not launch at Apple’s September event, Apple TV enthusiasts do have one product to look forward to — a fifth-generation TV with support for 4K HDR. The new set-top box, with an upgraded processor and perhaps other upgraded features, is set to launch in September alongside new iPhones and an LTE Apple Watch.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Don’t Buy)
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