Karma’s anonymizing LTE hotspot arrives January 15th

Want to keep your internet activity under wraps regardless of what device you’re using or where you are? You won’t have too much longer to wait. Karma has revealed that its anonymizing Karma Black LTE hotspot will ship on January 15th, with pre-orders open now. Spend $149 ($249 after January 15th), plus $20 per month for security services, and you’ll get a portable router that encrypts all your internet traffic while masking your location and other potentially identifying data markers. You can use it to boost the privacy of your home connection, too, and there’s the promise of feature expansions that include Tor anonymity network services, antivirus safeguards, ad blocking and parental controls.

That’s not a trivial amount to pay, especially if you intend to use LTE data (which starts at $7 per 1GB). In some cases, software might be enough. However, this could be the answer if you absolutely refuse to leave digital tracks and can’t ensure that you’ll always be going online in the same location or while using the same devices. And like it or not, there’s a stronger incentive to use the Karma Black than there was before. Thanks to the death of net neutrality and the elimination of consumer privacy rules, it’s now easier for internet providers to block competing services and sell your information — in theory, routers like the Black can help you avoid those headaches.

Via: The Verge

Source: Karma Newsroom

Worlds collide: VR and AR in 2018

Oculus, the company responsible for kickstarting the $2 billion virtual reality marketplace, knows virtual reality is not the future. As its engineers pour millions of Facebook’s dollars into the second generation of VR headsets, the company’s head of research, Michael Abrash, is preparing for a world where augmented reality dominates our everyday lives.

“No matter how good VR gets, few people would be comfortable socializing in person with someone whose eyes they can’t see, and social acceptability is an absolute requirement for anything we wear in public,” Abrash said at Facebook’s F8 conference in April.

Though VR has the ability to connect people across continents and express powerful, emotional experiences in more-immersive ways than ever before, those bulky headsets simply aren’t appealing. VR hardware — dense visors with unwieldy straps and thick lenses — physically separate the user from the real world. Wearing a VR headset is akin to voluntarily strapping on a blindfold; it feels vulnerable. Plus, it looks weird.

The way a product makes people feel is difficult to quantify and even harder to design around, but it’s incredibly important to the success of any new tool. Abrash knows this. Oculus knows this. Facebook, Oculus’ parent company, knows this too, as do other major tech manufacturers like Google, Apple and HTC. And it’s one reason AR is the future rather than VR.

“We all know what we really want: AR glasses,” Abrash said in April. “They aren’t here yet, but when they arrive, they’re going to be one of the great transformational technologies of the next 50 years.”

However, just because VR is DOA doesn’t mean the industry will disappear anytime soon. In fact, major VR manufacturers are already preparing their users for the day VR is indistinguishable from AR — when those thick plastic headsets will transform into stylish, clear lenses projecting virtual worlds atop the physical plane, with the option to block out reality completely in favor of an immersive experience.

VR proved itself in 2017. The industry is expected to generate $2.2 billion this year, and there are three mainstream headsets on the market, a handful of popular devices for mobile VR and dozens of cheap knock-offs lining the shelves of Target and Walmart. Sony is leading the pack when it comes to tethered headsets: It’s sold 2 million PlayStation VR devices since their debut last fall, handily outstripping estimated sales of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift — combined.

However, these numbers can’t compete with sales of mobile VR headsets like Google Cardboard, Daydream View or Samsung Gear VR. Google has shipped more than 10 million Cardboard headsets since 2014, and it’s estimated to have sold between 2 million and 3.5 million Daydream devices in 2017 alone. Meanwhile, Samsung is on track to sell as many as 6.7 million Gear VR headsets this year, according to analysts.

One reason mobile VR has exploded, while the Vive and Rift have seen sluggish sales, is accessibility. The Vive and Rift are not only priced higher than other headsets — Daydream View is $100 while the Rift is $400, for example — but also require high-end PCs, easily raising the cost of entry above $1,000.

That’s all about to change. The second generation of VR is on its way, and there are a lot fewer cables involved. Standalone VR is the next step, removing the PC (or the smartphone, for that matter) from the equation entirely.

Oculus

Oculus has two standalone headsets in the pipeline: Go and Project Santa Cruz. Go is a wireless headset for the masses, priced at $200 and slated to land in early 2018. Project Santa Cruz is an impressive standalone VR headset featuring full positional tracking and six degrees of freedom, allowing the wearer to move around more naturally in digital spaces. Santa Cruz is due to ship to developers by the end of next year.

HTC and Sony are diving into the second wave too. HTC has the Vive Focus, a 6DoF, untethered headset that debuted in China this December for about $600. Meanwhile, Sony is quietly improving the PSVR. It launched an updated, HDR-capable version of the headset in Japan in October, though it’s still tethered. And Google is partnering with HTC Vive and Lenovo on a pair of standalone headsets.

Despite the relative lack of wires in the coming generation of VR headsets, the hardware itself is still bulky and strappy, and it blocks the user’s eyes — an unmarketable sin, according to Abrash. VR lacks elegance, and this factor likely keeps out another major technology manufacturer, Apple, whose $900-billion brand is dependent on producing meticulously designed products. Apple hasn’t demonstrated an interest in building VR hardware, though it’s rumored to be working on an AR headset due to be announced in 2019.

“My own view is that augmented reality is the larger of the two, probably by far, because this gives the capability for both of us to sit and be very present talking to each other but also have other things visually for both of us to see,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in late 2016.

Microsoft doesn’t have the same excuse as Apple. Historically, it isn’t afraid to push experimental products onto an unsuspecting public. However, the company has a small footprint in the VR marketplace so far, offering a handful of relatively cheap Windows-powered headsets built by third-party companies. This tentative approach seems to be on purpose: Microsoft is preparing for a reality where VR represents just a sliver of the experiences offered by the lenses perched on our noses. The company is already playing around in the space between VR and AR with its mixed reality platforms, laying the foundation for these two ecosystems to coexist. In the near future, the company seems much more interested in AR, as demonstrated by its focus on HoloLens.

Since its launch in 2015, Microsoft’s $3,000 HoloLens headset has found a market in the business world, now available in 39 countries and used by companies including Ford and Thyssenkrupp. It’s an AR headset and a tool for gaming, though few people have thrown down that kind of cash simply to play Minecraft on their tabletop. The next version of HoloLens isn’t due out until 2019, though when it lands, it’ll reportedly have a beefy AI system that should improve the headset’s voice- and object-recognition capabilities.

And then there’s Magic Leap. The company has been building AR hardware for years, with much of its work shrouded in secrecy and dogged by worrisome rumors — but that’s all about to change. Magic Leap plans to ship its first consumer-grade mixed reality headset in 2018, though there’s no word on price just yet. The final hardware design is sleeker than anything we’ve seen in the first generation of VR or AR headsets, though this sucker would definitely stand out (in a not-so-great way) in public.

If the AR hardware market is sluggish, the software side of things has exploded over the past few years. Massively popular apps like Pokemon Go have established AR in the wider marketplace, showing mainstream consumers what’s possible when we mix the digital world with reality. Apple is going HAM on AR software with ARKit, which allows developers to play around in these mixed spaces, and Google is right behind with its ARCore ecosystem. Microsoft has the Mixed Reality Capture Studios and Mixed Reality Academy at its Reactor in San Francisco, inviting creatives to come in and experiment with AR, VR and everything in between.

A lot of this innovation is happening on mobile devices. Both Apple and Google have emphasized AR in their most recent smartphone lines, showcasing shopping, entertainment, translation and gaming apps live onstage during major press conferences. Facebook has taken huge steps to integrate AR into its platforms as well, alongside its moves in social VR with Spaces.

“I am confident that now we are going to push this augmented reality platform forward,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in April. “Long term, all of the work that we’re doing here is going to go into the glasses that we all want. It’s all the same technology.”

VR and AR are following different paths to the same conclusion: a combination of VR and AR that makes humans more intelligent, capable and informed. That looks a lot like Microsoft’s mixed reality dream, if we’re being fair.

The distinction between AR and VR will vanish.

Michael Abrash, Oculus chief scientist

The future of AR — or mixed reality as a whole — is tied to the future of artificial intelligence. As the AI industry advances, developers will be able to pack more power into smaller and more-streamlined headsets, until it’s impossible to spot the differences between analog and AR spectacles. Hell, even Facebook (that is, Oculus) is getting in on the AR hardware game, promising to eventually launch a pair of unassuming spectacles capable of projecting new worlds onto our own in everyday situations.

“Twenty or 30 years from now, I predict that instead of carrying stylish smartphones everywhere, we’ll wear stylish glasses,” Abrash said. “Those glasses will offer VR, AR and everything in between, and we’ll wear them all day and use them in almost every aspect of our lives. The distinction between AR and VR will vanish.”

The companies building VR are also dabbling in AR, while those focused on AR are learning from the trials of the burgeoning VR industry. The future, however, is clear — literally. Eye-blocking headsets are not the end game for any manufacturer, not even the OG VR evangelists at Oculus.

VR isn’t doomed after all. It’s just going to look a lot like AR.

Tidal launches app for Apple and Android TVs

Today, Tidal launches its Tidal TV app, allowing subscribers to use the streaming service on their Apple TVs and Android TVs. The app’s “Home” section displays recommendations and popular concerts, livestreams, music videos, albums and podcasts. And users can curate their own “My Collection” section, which can house all of their favorite content.

Tidal also recently made its service compatible with Apple’s CarPlay and integrated direct control for Sonos speakers. While all of these features may have come a little later than they did for users of rival Spotify, it’s good Tidal is developing them now since rumor has it the company has only six months worth of cash left. Anything that can draw in or retain users will be good for the company.

The Tidal TV app works with fourth generation or later Apple TVs and any Android TV. It’s available now.

As ‘PUBG’ finally exits beta, its creators look to the future

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has been this year’s biggest surprise. Since launching on Steam Early Access in late March, the game, which started life as a DayZ mod, has picked up 25 million players on PC, not to mention a marketing and publishing deal from Microsoft for an Xbox One version. This week, version 1.0 arrives on Steam, gaining a second map and new instant replay feature in the process.

But for PUBG Corp. CEO Chang-han Kim, even though the game is losing its beta status, work is far from done. “When we first started this project and thought of the Early Access model, we never took it as a model where you start developing a game, you complete it, you ship it out and then be done with it,” Kim said through a translator. “As long as we have fans out there playing our game, it will never be complete.”

Prior to PUBG Kim worked on multiplayer games in South Korea where each project spent around five years in development. He said the hardest part was getting meaningful feedback from players during limited alpha or beta tests, and then being able to implement it in the game before it was too late to make sweeping changes. For PUBG he wanted to try a different approach: get a working prototype out as fast as possible and from there, keep tacking on features, all while keeping an ear to the ground. “We took an indie development approach,” he commented.

“As long as we have fans out there playing our game, it will never be complete.”

Kim said this alone has given the team a chance to focus on making the core gameplay the best it can be. The benefits are obvious. While the main menu is sluggish and pre-game lobby chugs along, once your brief cargo plane ride is over and you’re on the ground, almost everything smooths out. That’s when the addictive hunt for weapons and people to shoot them with begins. Not to mention, the quest for the ever-illusive “chicken dinner” for being the last of 100 players standing.

When I spoke with PUBG Corp.’s Brandon “PlayerUnknown” Greene in October, he said that there wasn’t a release date for a PlayStation 4 version of the game because the team was focused on getting the Xbox port out the door. That and his team was concentrating on getting the Xbox version up to par with PC as fast as possible versus adding another console into the mix.

The result of that diligence could be cross-platform play between PC and Xbox One players.

“It’s important that we get the two build versions to be identical to make it happen,” Kim said. “Cross-network play between the PC and Xbox is something the entire team really wants,” he added, but there are a lot of issues that we have to resolve before that can happen. For starters, PUBG Corp. needs to figure out how to fairly match PC players using a keyboard and a mouse against people using a gamepad on Xbox One.

Microsoft has linked Forza Horizon and Gears of War 4 players, so it seems likely that once the two versions reach parity PUBG will eventually get the same treatment. But don’t expect that any time soon. “We’ve only just launched on the Xbox Game Preview Program, and right now, the bigger focus has to be trying to further stabilize and optimize the [game].”

In the months PUBG was in Early Access, being developed in public as it were, it picked up a high-profile competitor, Fortnite: Battle Royale from Epic Games. Epic’s Unreal Engine is the toolset that powers both PUBG and Fortnite, and the studio admitted it was inspired by Kim and Greene’s game in marketing materials for its free battle royale add-on mode. “At Epic, we’re huge fans of the battle royale genre, and games like PUBG and H1Z1,” worldwide creative director Donald Mustard said in a trailer (below) hyping his own spin on the genre. “We thought Fortnite was the perfect world to build one in.”

PUBG Corp responded in several ways. In a press release, Kim said that PUBG Corp was never asked permission to use his team’s game as part of their promo tactic. Kim also said he was worried that “Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known.” The way he closed the press release is especially telling: “The PUBG community has and continues to provide evidence of the many similarities as we contemplate further action.”

This week, Kim was far more reserved, saying that the experience wouldn’t affect him using Early Access for future projects. “Early Access and the competition are two different things that are not necessarily linked with one another,” he said. “We feel like PUBG is a title that really embarked on a new battle royale” and that because of PUBG Corp’s success, it was only natural to expect other games in the genre, including the Fortnite mode.

When I pressed Kim for follow-ups based on his comments in September’s press release, a Microsoft spokesperson interrupted me to say that our interview was only going to cover the PC version’s 1.0 milestone.

PUBG’s story, in many ways, mirrors Minecraft. Despite its 1.0 status, the game is still very much a work in progress. But the underlying ideas are enticing enough that one can overlook the kludgy graphics and occasional bug. Version 1.0 is a major milestone, but in many ways it’s anticlimactic — this is just another iterative update, fixing glitches and rebalancing combat. It was inevitable that copycat titles would crop up along the way (it happened with Minecraft too).

For PUBG, the challenge remains the same, regardless: keeping the community happy, and adding more features without losing what made the game special in the first place.

Samsung’s new wall-mountable soundbar has a built-in subwoofer

CES 2018 is right around the corner and we’re starting to get a peek at what we’ll be seeing there. Today, Samsung announced that it will be showing off its new wall-mountable soundbar, the NW700 Sound+. Samsung says that the soundbar, which is just over two inches wide, is 41 percent narrower that its previous model, but that doesn’t mean Samsung has skimped on the sound. The NW700 Sound+ has a built-in subwoofer and distortion-cancelling tweeters. It also has three sound modes including Standard and Surround Modes and a Smart Mode that automatically adjusts volume and surround sound effects.

Some other Samsung products being featured at CES include the new Samsung Notebook 9 Pen and three new Notebook 9 laptops. And it’s rumored that we’ll also be getting a look at the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.

There’s no word yet on when Samsung’s soundbar will hit the market or how much it will cost, but we could get more information at CES.

Image: Samsung

Source: Samsung

Apple TV Can Now Be Purchased on Amazon and Will Deliver When Stock is Available

Two years after Amazon first removed the fourth-generation Apple TV from its online store, the retailer today has begun selling both the fourth- and fifth-generation Apple TV boxes for customers, although all versions are currently out of stock. Over the last week the devices had received placeholder pages that stated they were “Currently unavailable,” but now Amazon customers can add the 32GB Apple TV, 32GB Apple TV 4K, and 64GB Apple TV 4K to their shopping cart.

Unfortunately, each device is temporarily out of stock as of writing. Amazon notes that the Apple TV can still be added to your cart and purchased, and the company will deliver it “when available” and update you via email “as soon as we have more information.” If you checkout right now, you won’t be charged until the Apple TV ships from Amazon. Prices haven’t changed, so the 32GB Apple TV is $149.00, the 32GB Apple TV 4K is $179.00, and the 64GB 4K model is $199.00.

Amazon’s original reason behind removing the Apple TV from its website was the product’s incompatibility with the Amazon Prime Video streaming service. With Amazon launching its Prime Video app for Apple TV earlier in December, the company is now placing Apple’s set-top box back onto its storefront.

The fourth-generation Apple TV launched in 2015 and introduced tvOS, the first App Store on an Apple TV device, the Siri Remote, and eventually supported Apple’s TV app for accumulating most of a viewer’s video content into one space. The fifth-generation Apple TV 4K launched this past September and includes all of the same features as the previous model with added support for 4K HDR video playback.

Google’s Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra devices are also making a return to Amazon alongside Apple TV, but as of writing these devices still have a “Currently unavailable” marker on their Amazon pages. Amazon and Google have been battling over the lack of support that each company has for the other company’s products, most recently involving Google’s removal of YouTube from Amazon Show and Fire TV devices. Now the companies appear to have made some form of agreement with the return of Chromecast, but Google Home still hasn’t appeared on Amazon.

Related Roundup: Apple TVTag: AmazonBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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Tidal Rolling Out Apple TV App on tvOS App Store

Tidal today unveiled apps for both Apple TV and Android TV devices, which will let subscribers listen to their music and view videos on their television. The Apple TV app will be rolling out throughout the day, according to The Verge, so users might not see it immediately within the tvOS App Store.

With Tidal for Apple TV, you get the same High Fidelity experience you’ve come to expect from Tidal directly on your television. See the latest music videos, concerts, and your favorite video playlists in HD. Listen to the latest albums and tracks from your favorite artists. All from the comfort of your living room.

The launch of a Tidal app for Apple TV follows a report from last week that said the company was facing money problems amid “stalled” user growth. Specifically, Tidal was said to have enough capital only to last another six months, after which the future of the company could be in jeopardy if its subscriber count doesn’t increase. The addition of more ways for users to interact with Tidal content, particularly on larger screens, could be the next step in the company’s plan to gain new users.

Similar to Apple Music and Spotify, Tidal is a subscription-based music service that allows users to stream music and watch videos on-demand at a price point of $9.99/month for standard sound quality. A premium tier of $19.99/month is available and brings lossless High Fidelity sound quality to its subscribers. Both tiers, as well as numerous other family, student, and military options, support high definition music videos, which users can now also watch on Apple TV.

Related Roundup: Apple TVTag: TidalBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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Apple Seeds Second Beta of tvOS 11.2.5 to Public Beta Testers

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.2.5 update to its public beta testing group, one week seeding the first public beta and one day after providing the beta to developers. The second tvOS 11.2.5 public beta comes just a week after the release of tvOS 11.2.1, an update that fixed a HomeKit vulnerability.

The tvOS 11.2.5 public beta can be obtained by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under “System.” “Get Public Beta Updates” will need to be toggled on, and once it is, the Apple TV will download the beta software.

It’s not yet clear what features and changes might be included in the tvOS 11.2.5 update as no outward-facing changes were discovered in the first two developer betas.

It’s likely the update features security improvements and fixes for bugs that have been discovered since the release of tvOS 11.2 and tvOS 11.2.1.

Related Roundup: Apple TVBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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Apple Releases Second Beta of iOS 11.2.5 for Public Beta Testers

Apple today released the second public beta of iOS 11.2.5 to its public beta testing group, one week after seeding the first public beta and one week after releasing iOS 11.2.1, an update that addressed a HomeKit vulnerability. Today’s beta is identical to the beta that was provided to developers yesterday.

Beta testers who are members of Apple’s beta testing program will receive the iOS 11.2.5 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on an iOS device.

Those who want to join the beta testing program can sign up on Apple’s beta testing website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas. iOS betas are not always stable and should not be installed on a primary device.

No new features were discovered in the first two developer betas of iOS 11.2.5, so it’s not entirely clear what new features this beta introduces.

It’s possible it focuses primarily on security improvements and bug fixes, and if that’s the case, we may not know the extent of what’s in the update until it sees a public release complete with detailed release notes.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
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Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 46 With Bug Fixes and Feature Improvements

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced more than a year ago in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview release 46 includes bug fixes and feature improvements for Security UI, Privacy, CSS, Rendering, Storage Access API, Web Inspector, Web Assembly, Web Driver, JavaScript, Media, and WebRTC. Today’s update also enables Service Workers by default and makes several Service Workers tweaks and improvements.

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple’s aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

Tag: Safari Technology Preview
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