Hilton Debuting ‘Connected Rooms’ Controlled via Smartphone Next Year

Hilton today announced the upcoming debut of the “Connected Room,” a high-tech guest room that will enable hotel guests to control the temperature, lighting, TV, window coverings, and more from their smartphones using the Hilton Honors app.

Guests will also be able to personalize their rooms using technology that loads popular streaming media and other accounts to their in-room TVs. Eventually, guests will also be able to use voice commands to access content and upload artwork and photos to display in their rooms.

Hilton already allows guests to use the Hilton Honors app to check into their rooms and open their room doors using their smartphones, but with the Connected Room expansion, additional in-room controls will be available.

“At Hilton, almost all digital products are born out of necessity and shortcomings in the marketplace – and Connected Room is no exception,” said Joshua Sloser, senior vice president of Digital Product, Hilton. “The technology we put in hotel rooms has to be intuitive, simple and quick to pick up because guests typically spend a limited amount of time in their rooms and we want them to spend that time enjoying the experience instead of adapting to new technology.”

The Connected Room is live in one Hilton hotel and will deploy “in the coming weeks” to several more before rolling out on a wider scale in 2018.
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iOS HomeKit bug exposed smart locks to unauthorized access

Apple has another security issue to deal with. As 9to5Mac reports today, Apple’s HomeKit framework has a vulnerability that allows unauthorized access to connected smart devices like locks and garage door openers. Apple has already put in a server-side fix that rectifies the issue, but the fix also disables remote access to shared users. Apple says that the reduced functionality will be restored with an iOS 11.2 update next week.

While 9to5Mac didn’t share the details of the vulnerability, it also reportedly opened up smart lights, thermostats and plugs to unauthorized control. This issue follows a High Sierra bug discovered last month that allowed users to gain admin access without a password.

Because the server-side fix has already been implemented, users do not need to take any additional steps to secure their smart products. Just be sure to install the iOS update when it’s released in order to regain the reduced functionality.

Source: 9to5Mac

Hilton plans to offer a smart hotel room system next year

From a Watson-powered concierge to in-room VR porn, hotels are getting more and more tech-savvy and connected. There’s an Amazon Echo in every room when you stay at Wynn’s Las Vegas hotel, and more destinations are adding ways to watch your own Netflix and Chromecast when you stay. Now Hilton is ready to roll out a new mobile-centric connected room. The smart room system is currently in beta at one Hilton hotel and set to deploy to several more in the coming weeks. A full deployment to all Hilton hotels is planned for next year.

The Hilton Honors app will let you manage your stay from check-in to check-out. You can already check in, choose a room and open your door with an app-based digital key. Hilton will add smart home tech to each room, too, including smart lights, motorized blinds and smart thermostats – all controlled from your phone. It also sounds like you’ll be able to connect your own streaming media like Netflix to the systems, as well. Future plans include adding voice commands for room controls, plus a way to upload and display your own artwork. Hilton will also allow you to set preferences via your Hilton Honors profile to customize your room with smart home-like scenes. Moving to an app platform lets Hilton update new features on the fly, without having to the replace traditional remote controls in use now.

Source: Hilton

How to trigger every ‘Destiny 2’ Heroic public event and max out your loot

Destiny 2‘s public events provide nice, little challenges to blast through while en route to your next mission, Strike, Adventure, or between attempts at conquering the Leviathan Raid. Completing Public Events, which reoccur in set locations across each planet’s map, drops a treasure chest with a bit of loot. As your power level gets higher, Public Events may no longer feel challenging and the rewards might not be worth your time. That’s where Heroic Public Events come in. Heroic events are activated while in the middle of an event. Triggering Destiny 2 Heroic Public Events makes the foes much stronger, but you reap the rewards with more powerful gear drops and increased Glimmer. Here’s how to trigger all Heroic Public Events in Destiny 2 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Cabal Excavation

This public event can be found on Io and EDZ. Simply stand in the white circle surrounding the drill and take out the invading enemies. The “Overriding Lander” timer tracks your progress to 100 percent. Right around the 30 percent mark, a smaller Cabal ship called a Thresher will come into view and circle the drill site. Concentrate your fire on the ship. Destroy it and the event will turn Heroic. A strong Cabal Centurion called an Excavator Valus spawns. Avoid the boss’ spray of missiles and take it down to complete the event.

Stop the Witches Ritual

Nestled inside a building on Titan, your team must stop the Hive Witches Ritual. Two Hive Wizards conjure up a spell to open a giant portal at the end of the room. To turn the event Heroic, you must stand in each of the two green circles (located on opposite sides of the room) and shoot the crystals at the top of the big portal. Once the first crystal is taken down, you are given a time bonus to eliminate the other. After both have been eliminated, the event turns heroic and a large, powerful knight will come through the portal instead of a witch.

Glimmer Extraction

Available at several locations in the EDZ and on Nessus, Glimmer Extraction tasks you with stopping Fallen from mining every Guardian’s favorite shiny rock. The event can be completed by running around and taking out each Fallen enemy you encounter, but to trigger the Heroic event, you must refrain from being trigger happy. During each wave, a small contraption spawns right next to the drill. Destroy the machine first, then take out the Fallen. Do this three times, and the Heroic event will begin.

In the Heroic phase, your team must defend a large pile of Glimmer from the Fallen: Take out your enemies while standing in the designated position.

Taken Blight

A straightforward event that involves slaughtering large quantities of Taken, Taken Blight turns Heroic by taking out a set of large, floating orbs while using a special, easy-to-miss buff. Throughout the three waves, tall pillars encased in force fields surrounding a large floating Taken blob. Step into the force fields to earn Blight Receding status. To destroy the blight blob, step back out of the field quickly shoot the orb until the buff disappears. The Blight can only take damage when you have that buff. Rinse and repeat until the blob is defeated to turn the event Heroic. From there, take out the Blightmaker and rake in the rewards.

Injection Rig

In this event, the Cabal will drop a large injection rig. To start, you must take out three Infiltrator Psions. When they are defeated, vents emanating heat will appear in three spots around the rig. Three vents will open at the top, then three in the center, and finally one at the bottom. Destroy these vents to trigger the Heroic event. With the vents eliminated, a strong Centurion will spawn, signaling that the event has successfully triggered the Heroic event. While doing this, do not kill the Infiltrator Valus. If you do, the event will be completed sans Heroic. After the vents are destroyed, take out the Valus and the surrounding enemies to win the Heroic battle.

Disrupt Vex Construction

During the Vex Construction event, Vex funnel toward a sacrificial circle called the conflux. You must shoot them before they are able to complete their sacrifice. To trigger the Heroic event, you must capture three areas that surround the confluxes. The areas in question can be found by following the radiating white lines from the center of the conflux. A timer will count to 100 when capturing the areas. Once the three areas are captured, the Heroic event begins. To finish the event, take out the Hydra, a large, flying Vex.

This one is particularly challenging with fewer than three guardians, as splitting up to capture points helps you meet the conditions for triggering the Heroic event.

Ether Resupply

The Ether Resupply event involves taking out a giant Servitor, which happens to be a rather annoying bullet sponge. You may be tempted to concentrate all of your fire on the large foe, but to trigger the Heroic event, pay attention to the smaller Servitors that spawn throughout the event. Once you see one of the lesser foes, quickly direct your fire to them. They won’t be there long, but if you kill two of the smaller Servitors in two consecutive waves, the heroic event will trigger.

In the Heroic event, the large Servitor will become much stronger: Keep firing until it’s blasted to smithereens to complete the event.

Arsenal Walker — Weapons Exchange

The Arsenal Walker event simply asks you to take down one of these large mechanical beasts. But if you want the heroic version, you have to play a variant of capture-the-flag. Once the Walker falls down, it will drop arc charge orbs. Grab these orbs and carry them over to the shields surrounding the Walker to deposit them. You and your fellow Guardians will need to secure and drop-off six orbs in total — two for each shield — before the walker is defeated. When you do, a second walker drops onto the battlefield, and the Heroic event begins.

Vex Crossroads

Curse of Osiris‘ new public event, Vex Crossroads, pretty much asks you to complete it as you normally would before triggering the Heroic event. Mow down the Vex until the meter reaches 100 percent. When the gatekeepers arrive, pick your side, grab the charges, and place them at the gate. You will then be blasted through the air onto an island where you must destroy the Keeper of Ages. Afterward, instead of heading back, turn around to see a large floating crystal at the end of the island. Shoot the crystal to create a platform. Look for the next crystal and continue shooting and creating platforms until you wind up at the very top of the island. Stand on the center marker for a few moments to bring on the Heroic event.

With the new version triggered, you have to hunt down and kill Gatekeepers to lower the Gate Lord’s shield. Each time you kill a Gatekeeper, it will drop several keys (orbs). Take the orbs to the glowing launch pad to vault onto a circular platform to place the orbs. Fire away when the Gate Lord’s shields go down. You will have to repeat the process a few times, but keep going and the Gate Lord will fall.

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As promised, Google is killing off Chrome Apps everywhere but Chrome OS

If you’ve been using Chrome Apps to get your work done, then you’re going to need to rethink how you do things. Effective immediately, Google has made it a bit more difficult to find Chrome Apps in the Chrome Web Store in what is likely a huge hint from the search giant that you’ll want to start finding alternatives.

The news comes via Ars Technica, which noticed that the Chrome Apps option has been removed from the Chrome Web Store. Now, only Extensions and Themes remain, although Chrome Apps are still available via direct links — you’ll just no longer be able to search and browse for them as in the past.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

This move by Google isn’t a surprise. It announced the change more than a year ago, in a blog post that prompted developers to move away from Chrome Apps unless they’re happy developing for Chrome OS only. That platform will continue to support Chrome Apps into the future, along with Android apps. As Google indicated, the impact won’t be felt by too many Chrome users, as only 1 percent of them actively use Chrome-packaged apps, or those that are downloaded to a machine and are fully available offline.

According to Google, the future on PCs other than Chromebooks is Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). As Ars Technica describes them, PWAs combine WC3 standards to create app-like experiences that can work in any browser and on more platforms. Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Firefox, and Opera, among others, currently support PWAs to one extent or another, and therefore provide more assurance of a consistent experience no matter which device you happen to use.

You’ll want to start migrating your workflow away from Chrome Apps as soon as you can, but never fear — the apps won’t stop working simply because Google has de-emphasized them in its Web Store. However, they’ll no longer be actively supported on any platform other than Chrome OS. Google plans to implement PWA desktop apps sometime in 2018, and there’s no word yet if it means to remove Chrome Apps from Chrome OS and bring its own platform in alignment with the rest of the industry.

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Open source suicide: This 3D-printable ‘death pod’ provides painless euthanasia

Death isn’t a subject we talk about too often in tech. It’s a world where CEOs are already onto their second startup at age 21, billionaires are minted at 30, and people plan to retire long before their bodies start physically failing them. Even when we do discuss old age, it’s more likely to be in the context of ways to extend life — or cheat death altogether by uploading the mind into a machine.

Dr. Philip Nitschke is concerned about a different aspect, though. He is one of the most outspoken proponents of euthanasia, referring to deliberate intervention taken by a person to end his or her life to relieve suffering. And as the founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International, he is using tech to help his cause. Working alongside Netherlands engineer Alexander Bannick, Nitschke developed a 3D-printed euthanasia machine called Sarco which, he claims, could serve a valuable social purpose.

“The Sarco has been developed specifically to provide a peaceful and reliable death for a rational adult without the need for specific medical or technical assistance,” Nitschke told Digital Trends. “This is important as, while suicide is legal in many jurisdictions, assisting a suicide is a serious crime. With Sarco, no assistance is required.”

Prior to using the machine, users would have to complete an online questionnaire in order to establish their mental competency. After this, they receive a four-digit access code which opens the device. In the chamber, they can start it using voice recognition, the press of a button, or even a series of blinks for paralyzed individuals. Liquid nitrogen is then used to trigger a drop in oxygen, which Bannick says is a “common method used by those seeking a peaceful elective death.” The capsule, which attaches from its base, can be used as a coffin.

“We [currently] have an accurate 1:7 model 3D printed for our launch in Toronto in October at the Exit NuTech ‘New Technologies for a Peaceful Death’ conference,” Nitschke continued. “The next step is a 1:1 working model as a display, and also to test programming for the 3D-printed version. On completion and testing, it will be made open-source. Exit International has no interest in financial gain from the development, and sale of such a device would lead to inevitable criticism for profiteering over death. The only cost will be in the printing, and the sourcing of the [liquid nitrogen.]”

There will no doubt be plenty of controversy about the creation of Sarco, just as there is around the wider topic of euthanasia. But it’s definitely an example of open-source 3D-printing models we’ve not considered before.

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Photo editor VSCO gives users a chat option for creative conversations

VSCO is an app that falls under both photo editing and social media and the platform is expanding the community aspect by launching a new option for private messaging. On Wednesday, December 6, VSCO announced Messages, a chat option inside the app’s creative community.

Like other private messaging platforms, Messages on VSCO allows users to send a message to just one person (or a group of people) rather than publicly sharing within the photo community. While chat makes sense for social-focused apps, VSCO has designed the tool around their photo community specifically.

Using the new messaging option, users can send other users a photo, a video, an entire profile or share journals, VSCO’s term for a blog post. While the app will soon be gaining options to share those types of content in the chat directly from the image or profile itself, users can also chat in the more traditional sense by sending text-based messages, such as asking where a photo was shot or how an image was edited. No matter how the message was shared, whether through a forward of a photo or text, all the messages will appear inside the conversation thread in the new direct message platform.

To start a chat, users navigate to a profile and tap the “message” option below the username. While browsing content from photos and videos to journals, VSCO users can forward the item to another user by tapping the triangular paper airplane icon.

VSCO users can only send messages to users that follow them, while users also have the option to block or report messages they didn’t want to receive.

“One of our most requested features, Messages is a new way to connect, share inspiration, and learn from other creators in the VSCO community,” the announcement reads. “Exchange editing tips and tricks, share compelling profiles and published content and receive creative feedback from peers.”

The chat option will be built into VSCO’s main app. The announcement comes just as Instagram began testing a Facebook Messenger-like split to place Direct messages in a separate app.

The new feature will roll out to VSCO X users first, part of the app’s paid subscription for unlocking the most features and accessing all of the presets. The tool will then roll out to all users over the next few weeks.

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What would Twitter look like in AR? With TweetReality, you don’t need to imagine

If the future entails everyone clad in glasses mixing reality and digitizations, what will future social media platforms look like? That’s the question iOS developer Oscar Falmer asked when he started development for TweetReality, the first app to put Twitter inside an augmented reality space. The iOS app mixes your Twitter feed with your surroundings, putting Tweets into floating boxes to interact with.

TweetReality is made possible through Apple’s latest focus on AR using the ARKit launched earlier this year. Using those tools, Falmer developed a 3D space for displaying a Twitter feed. “My goal was to innovate in what the future will look like, mainly by thinking to the upcoming glasses we’ll all probably be wearing,” he wrote. “It was a lot of research about what is the best interface for humans interact within a 3D space, designing and coding.”

The app takes your feed and arranges the posts into a 3D grid, arranged in the shape of one end of a sphere, which is of course overlaid with the real world around you by using the iPhone (or iPad) camera. The app allows users to tap on the tweet to view the post larger along with options to like or retweet. On the edges of that grid of tweets, TweetReality offers options to navigate to more tweets, compose your own Tweet, search or access notifications.

TweetReality is an interesting take on what Twitter might look like in AR, but as Falmer’s comments suggest, the app is a basic idea that could be taken farther as AR progresses into the future. Twitter’s format makes the network ideal for tweeting about TV shows and sporting events as they air on TV, but augmented reality could mix tweets with live games, concerts, or events if the app adapted to display specific hashtags in real time. As The Verge points out, mixing relevant tweets with the real scene in front of you, and doing so while wearing glasses rather than looking through a phone screen, could bring the idea a bit further.

TweetReality is a free iOS app that’s compatible with iOS 11 or later on devices compatible with the ARKit, including the iPhone 6s, SE, 7, 8, X as well as the Plus versions of those models and the latest iPad Pro models.

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Selfie-style answers let celebs respond to frequently asked questions on Google

Did you ever wonder if Will Ferrell can play the drums? The movie that changed Nick Jonas’ life? Yes, me neither. However, if you’re into that sort of thing, Google released a new program on December 7 that will be right up your alley. The tech giant now offers a selfie-style answer program for celebrities.

Right now the program is only available for mobile users in the United States. Celebrities can answer their “most asked questions” through the program, according to Google’s announcement. It’s unclear how many of those questions each celebrity answered or how often they will update their answers.

While the program is not meant to provide answers to every question, it does aim to serve as a surprise for users who opt for Google over Bing or other search engines. People who use Google will get a definitive answer from their favorite personality, instead of sifting through sometimes dubious and conflicting search results that appear when you ask these types of questions in that manner.

Google has not announced exactly what questions each celebrity answered and, from our testing, finding these selfie-style answers can be a challenge. For example, if you search “Does Tracee Ellis Ross like to sing?” you’ll get the standard list of search results. However, if you search “Can Tracee Ellis Ross Sing?” the top result will be a video response from Ross. While the questions were not exactly the same, we assumed they would be close enough to both elicit a selfie-style answer.

The celebrity selfie program is still in its infancy. Currently a handful of stars are participating including, Will Ferrell, Tracee Ellis Ross, Nick Jonas, Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Seth MacFarlane, Jonathan Yeo, Gina Rodriguez, Prijanka Chopra, and Dominique Ansel. If the program is successful, expect to see more in the near future. Google has not announced whether it intends to offer the program to users outside the U.S.

If you want to give the selfie-style answer program a spin, input in Google search, “How many languages does Priyanka Chopra speak?” on your phone. The answer may surprise you.

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Watch Nvidia’s powerful A.I. change day into night, and winter into summer

Artificial intelligence is so awesome these days that it can turn summer into winter, and day into night. Well, in a video at least. Presented at this week’s Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), researchers from Nvidia showcased some seriously smart machine-learning tools that are able to digitally alter a video of a winter scene so that it looks like it was shot on a sunny July 4 weekend.

We’re not referring to a simple palette swap, either; we’re talking about eliminating roadsides lined with snow and replacing them with grassy banks. The only thing that’s missing is a family out having a barbecue.

“The goal of our research is to give machines the ability to create or ‘imagine’ scenes on their own,” Ming-Yu Liu, a senior research scientist at Nvidia, told Digital Trends. “This is a difficult challenge, because most A.I. today require you to have images as training data that exactly correspond for both the input and target image. Let’s say you wanted an A.I. that could turn a driving video from night into day, or convert a sunny day into a rainy day. Today, you would need to record video of that street during both daytime and nighttime, shot from exactly the same location, with the objects — vehicles, trees, pedestrians — in exactly the same location. In contrast, our method just needs a set of daytime images and another set of nighttime images for training, and these images can be taken in different cities or countries. Without the requirement of corresponding images, collecting data for training our model is much easier.”

To create their image-altering tool, the Nvidia researchers developed a novel neural network design to achieve unsupervised image-to-image translation. The algorithm and its source code is described in a paper available here. While it’s certainly an impressive tech demo, Liu points out that it has numerous real-world applications. For example, it could be immensely useful in video editing work. However, Nvidia has a much more immediate application in mind: Training self-driving cars.

“We did this research to help train self-driving cars under different weather and lighting conditions,” he said. “You can shorten training time for self-driving cars by teaching them with simulation. Using our technique, we can convert daytime to nighttime video, add rain or snow, and use that to help train self-driving cars [to deal with a wide range of scenarios they might face].”

Next up, the team wants to work to improve the robustness of the technology, while finding even better ways of improving data efficiency — allowing them to train their neural network with less data.

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