The city of Barcelona is dumping Windows in favor of Linux

The city of Barcelona, Spain, announced its plan to dump Windows and Office in favor of open-source alternatives. Linux will be its operating system of choice, as officials attempt to save some money by dodging the subscription fees associated with Microsoft’s offerings.

Little has been said about how Barcelona plans to transition to open-source software, according to a report from Tech Radar. However, a pilot scheme is already underway, as some city employees have been outfitted with workstations that run Ubuntu and come pre-installed with Firefox to cater to their web browsing needs.

The plan goes beyond just picking and choosing the best open-source alternatives to Microsoft products out there, as Barcelona will apparently be hiring developers to create bespoke software. The idea is that these projects could potentially be rolled out across other Spanish cities if they’re up to the task.

It remains to be seen how successful the move away from Windows will be in the long run. Barcelona is far from the only European city to make a similar decision and previous examples have been less than encouraging.

In 2003, Munich announced its plans to switch to Linux, a process that took several years to carry out, according to a report from MSPowerUser. The city eventually decided to revert back to Windows, after widespread complaints from staff regarding reduced efficiency and productivity. Vienna made a similar transition to Linux in 2005 but would return to the Microsoft ecosystem in 2009.

Of course, the computing landscape has changed a great deal in recent years. There was once a time when Linux and open-source software was thought of as something for power users, but years of development brought many of these projects up to a very high standard, in some cases on a par with Microsoft’s products.

From packages like LibreOffice to the various free alternatives to Photoshop that are available, there has never been a better time to dive into open-source software. It remains to be seen whether Barcelona will succeed in its attempt to leave Microsoft behind, but it’s certainly in a better position to do so than Vienna was more than a decade ago.

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Real-life Doctor Dolittle aims to use A.I.-powered translator to talk to animals

What pet owner hasn’t, at some point, looked at their nonpaying houseguest and wondered what it is that they’re saying with those meows, barks, or assorted other sounds they make? Dr. Con Slobodchikoff, professor emeritus of biology at Northern Arizona University, wonders too — to the point where he’s spent the past 30 years examining the behavior. And now he’s created an artificial intelligence (A.I.) startup so we won’t be left wondering for too much longer.

“We are increasingly finding that animals have languages of their own,” Slobodchikoff told Digital Trends. “In my book, Chasing Doctor Dolittle: Learning the Language of Animals, I show that many animals have either language or language-like abilities. In the past, it was difficult to decipher these languages, but now we have the tools with which we can do this. The goal of Zoolingua is to start with dogs — because many people do not understand what their dogs are trying to say to them — and, using A.I. technology, build a device that would allow people to communicate with their dogs. Once that is built, we plan to expand to devices that will allow people to communicate with cats, horses, cows, pigs, goats, and wild animals.”

Slobodchikoff’s research started out analyzing the high-pitched calls of prairie dogs, which he found contained a complex language capable of describing everything from the presence of a predator nearby (obvious) to the color of specific humans’ clothing (less obvious.) He then teamed up with a computer scientist colleague to turn those insights into a machine translation tool. It was this work that prompted the creation of Zoolingua in 2017.

The company’s work won’t just focus on spoken words, though. “We are in the process of building a device that will read dogs’ body language and vocalizations, and using A.I. technology and cloud computing, will tell people what their dog is saying to them in English,” he said. “At the present time, some 2 million to 3 million dogs are euthanized each year in the United States, primarily because of behavioral problems arising from an inability of dogs to communicate their needs to people. With this device, we will be able to drastically reduce behavioral problems and euthanizations of animals. Also, people love to talk to their dogs and think that their dogs understand them. This device will show people that dogs do indeed understand what is said to them, and even have their own thoughts and opinions.”

Slobodchikoff says that such a device is two to five years away, depending on funding. If it works as well as described, though, we’ll be the first in line to buy one. Let’s hope that Slobodchikoff and his colleagues are barking up the right tree!

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The Autel EVO packages 60 fps 4K video in a compact folding drone

The folding DJI Mavic Pro may have just lost a competitor, but another company is bringing a new portable drone to the market — the Autel EVO. The recently announced EVO drone sports a 4K 60 fps camera mounted on a compact drone with a 30-minute battery life rating.

While 4K may be increasingly common, the EVO captures that higher-resolution video at 60 fps, which is tougher to find. The camera is mounted on a three-axis gimbal for steadier shots. The camera also uses computer vision to help the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) avoid obstacles, while an infrared sensor at the back adds more crash-prevention technology.

The EVO can fly for up to 30 minutes on a charge, with a recharge taking a little over an hour. Speeds top out around 65 feet per second, while the drone can remain in range for about 4.2 miles. Intelligent flight mode options include object tracking, as well as following the drone’s flight path using a GPS. The ability to preset waypoint mission coordinates, along with flight patterns designed for 3D mapping tasks, is also slated to be included in the EVO.

The drone can be controlled with the Autel Explorer App on both iOS and Android — or with a controller that also has a 3.3 inch OLED screen that streams the drones viewpoint live in 720p resolution.

Based in Washington state, Autel is a relative newcomer to the drone scene — we included them in a list of new drone companies to watch in 2016. The EVO, once launched, will be the company’s new flagship, following the X-Star line launched in 2016.

The EVO appears to be a close competitor for DJI’s folding drone, the Mavic Pro, offering another compact option now that GoPro is withdrawing from the drone market and ceasing production of the Karma. The EVO has similar gimbal specs to the Mavic Pro, but a faster frame rate for 4K video and a slightly longer battery life, though DJI’s longer history, rugged design, and intelligent flight options at the same price point are still likely to sway many buyers.

Autel hasn’t released a launch date yet, but says the price point will sit right around $1,000.

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New pressure sensor for medical uses dissolves in the patient’s body

A biodegradable pressure sensor that has been developed by engineers at the University of Connecticut can make certain medical procedures much less invasive.

The small, flexible device is designed to monitor the forces at work within a patient’s body, including those related to chronic lung disease and brain swelling, before dissolving completely. The degradable quality means surgeons won’t have to dig back into the body to retrieve the sensor once its job is done.

“A lot of current devices used to monitor internal pressures are bulky and invasive,” Thanh Duc Nguyen, a UConn engineer who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. “They need to be removed after the implantation and such removal can damage the organs and delicate tissue.”

The sensor developed by Nguyen and his team is composed of an electrical film squeezed between two electrodes. This is then coated with a biodegradable material called polylactic acid, often used in medicine for things like bone screws.

“We wanted to make something that could be implanted and monitor the organ pressure and then just disappear without having to be removed,” Nguyen said. “To do that you can implant a soft and degradable sensor so that it could directly interface with soft tissue and then you have a wireless electronic implanted in a [place] far away from such delicate tissues.”

In other words, the sensors could be attached directly to the sensitive area that needs monitoring while the electronics that wirelessly transmit the sensor’s data are left nearer to the skin’s surface. After the sensor’s work is complete, the electronics can be removed through minimally invasive procedure while the sensor itself dissolves.

“You won’t have to remove these sensors that interface with the soft tissue so you don’t damage these delicate tissues,” Nguyen said. “And you only need a minimally invasive surgery to remove the electronic circuits based far away from the tissue you want to monitor.”

In a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nguyen and his team demonstrated the device at work transmitting information about the contractions of a mouse’s diaphragm over the course of four days, before dissolving.

Moving forward, Nguyen and his team hope to develop circuitry that can itself degrade within the body.

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First Hawaii, now Japan issues a missile warning in error

Many Japanese people had their dinner rudely interrupted on Tuesday night when their smartphones buzzed with a missile attack warning. But the alert, sent by the country’s national broadcaster, had been sent in error.

The blunder comes just days after Hawaiian authorities did the vey same thing, sending to islanders’ smartphones a warning of imminent attack.

Ten minutes after the Japan alert was issued, the broadcaster, NHK, confirmed on TV that North Korea had not launched a missile in its direction after all, and that the message, sent to everyone with the NHK app, had been sent by mistake.

It’s not yet clear how the alert came to be issued, though there were no reports of the kind of panic seen in Hawaii at the weekend. A spokesperson for NHK later apologized, saying a member of staff had “mistakenly operated the equipment to deliver news alerts over the internet.”

Missile alert

The warning went out at 6.55 p.m., telling people: “North Korea likely to have launched a missile…The government urges people to take shelter inside buildings or underground.”

With tensions on the Korean peninsula recently reaching crisis point, many who saw the warning may have feared the worst. Parts of Japan are just 350 miles from North Korea, so any missile attack would give those in the targeted location only minutes to take evasive action.

On Saturday, officials in Hawaii made the same mistake, sending an alert to smartphones in the state warning of an incoming missile. News shows played video clips of terrified people running for cover in the belief that something terrible was about to happen. Like NHK, the warning was sent by mistake, though it took officials in Hawaii 38 minutes to inform islanders of the gaffe.

The error was reportedly the fault of a worker at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency who sent the warning to handsets after selecting the incorrect option on a computer during what was supposed to be a training exercise.

The message read: “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee said in a statement this week that a subcommittee will examine issues of safety communications, adding that the public “needs to be able to trust that the emergency alert they receive is legitimate. We need to make sure that a mistake like what happened in Hawaii never happens again.”

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Video offers peek at ultra-wide Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope has been a long time in the making when work on its mirrors started in 2007. It’s finally coming together, though. The LSST team has released a brief clip showing progress on the Chilean facility as of the end of 2017. Not surprisingly, it’s huge — that giant 3.2-gigapixel camera (potentially the largest in the world) and ultra-wide optics (3.5 degrees in diameter) take up a lot of space by themselves, let alone the rest of the complex.

As far as the LSST has come, it has a long way to go. It won’t see engineering first light (that is, first actual use) until 2019, and its 10-year survey won’t start until January 2022. This is more a preview of what astronomy will be like in the next decade. Between this and the Giant Magellan Telescope, scientists will capture an unprecedented level of detail that promises to reveal elements of the universe that just weren’t detectable before.

Source: LSST (YouTube)

‘Scribblenauts’ returns with a party game for consoles

Innovative wordplay-based game Scribblenauts debuted on the Nintendo DS at the end of the last decade, but we haven’t heard from the franchise since it headed to mobile for a semi-sequel in 2015. But today we got news that a new entry in the series, party game Scribblenauts Showdown, is coming to PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on March 6th.

Starting March 6th: Party with the newest #Scribblenauts game! Build your own avatar and face off on #NS #PS4 & #XB1 with 25+ awesomely cool mini games! #ReadySetParty #ScribblenautsShowdown pic.twitter.com/pvb5pOc0DO

— Scribblenauts Showdown (@ScribbleMaxwell) January 16, 2018

According to the Scribblenauts website, the new title will have 25 minigames and support up to four players. Players will be able to use the franchise’s signature Mad Libs gameplay to pit your favorite weird word against your opponent’s, so long as both are among the game’s 35,000+ word dictionary.

Source: Scribblenauts Showdown teaser (YouTube), Scribblenauts Showdown (website)

How to organize your PlayStation 4 game library and make custom folders

Between physical game installs, all those digital games you’ve picked up on sweet deals, and a steady stream of PlayStation Plus freebies, your PlayStation 4 library can become rather cumbersome to navigate over time. If you’re anything like us, you may browse your PS4 games list from time to time and come across a title you forgot you even owned. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to ensure your PS4 game library remains relatively painless to navigate, each of which can be tailored to what makes sense to you.

Gaming the ‘recently played’ bar

By default, your game library will show up on the home screen carousel in order of when you last interacted — played or just downloaded — with your games. This standard system can get bothersome come PlayStation Plus time each month. Just because you downloaded a new game, doesn’t mean you want to play it right away. Eventually, the games you have actually been playing slink all the way to the end of the carousel, or worse, into your full library.

It sounds pretty basic, but one quick way to stay on top of the games you are playing in your library is to always keep them in the first few slots. If Destiny 2 starts to slide but you know new content drops soon, simply open and close the game to move it up to the front of the batch.

Making sense of your library

Sometimes you want to browse your whole library of games. At the end of the home screen carousel, you’ll find the library icon. Organized by category and certain other parameters, the library holds all your PS4 games and applications. On the right hand side, you’ll see five categories below the search bar.

• All: Every game and app currently installed.
• Games: All games currently installed.
• Apps: All apps currently installed.
• Purchased: All games and applications you own, including those not installed on your hard drive.
• Folders: More on this in the next section, but if you’ve set up folders (which we’ll explain how to do), you’ll find that category between “All” and “Games.”

Unless you’ve created a system of folders, you’ll want to view by either “games” or “purchased.”

Game library

By default, the “games” section is sorted alphabetically. Three other filtered views are available to choose from in the dropdown menu.

• Reverse alphabetical order: Why not go Z to A
• Recently used: Display games by use. Freshly downloaded and recently opened games rise to the top here.
• Install date: Games will be organized by the time they were installed, disregarding your recent play sessions.

The default A-Z view seems like the most universally intuitive, but if you want to check out your recent gaming habits or peruse downloaded games you may have forgotten about, each of the other views each has its own appeal.

Purchase library

When sifting through the purchased category, you can use two helpful views in addition to the pair of alphabetical parameters.

• Purchase date: Displays recent purchases first.
• Install status: Our favorite is purchased view, as this places all games not currently on your PS4 first, allowing you to peruse potential downloads without having to scroll past legions of installed titles.

Folders are your best friend

This is where things get interesting. If you want to take control and organize your game library, the PS4 gives you the ability to create custom folders that divide and store games using whatever organization system makes sense to you. I, for example, separate my games into four categories: “currently playing;” “to play;” “evergreen” for games like NBA 2K18, which I play intermittently throughout the year; and “VR” for my PSVR games.

Making a folder is very simple. We’ll show how right here:

Step 1: Press options (+) on your PS4 controller and choose “Add to Folder.”

Step 2: Choose “Add to New Folder.”

Step 3: Name the folder and click OK. Your new folder will now appear at the front of the carousel.

Editing folders

You can edit the name and content in each folder at any time by pressing options (+) on the folder icon.

Step 1: Select “Edit Folder.”

Step 2: Press “Select” to bring up a grid of all games on your PS4. Checked boxes above icons means a game is currently in that particular folder.

Step 3: Choose the game(s) you’d like to add to the folder and press “Confirm.”

Step 4: From here, you can shift icons around to place games in the desired order within each folder.

Step 5: Enjoy the peace of mind that comes with having your PS4 library curated exactly to your liking.

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Here’s how to set up a virtual private network (VPN) on your Xbox One

As the 21st century slides into cyberpunk dystopia, online privacy is (or should be) on everyone’s mind, particularly given the United States Federal Communications Commission’s recent ruling on net neutrality. Virtual private networks (VPNs) are an increasingly popular way to assert a bit more control over your traffic, protecting your data from the prying eyes of nefarious hackers and greedy telecom monopolies alike.

For the purposes of this article, we will assume you know what a VPN is and how it works. If you have questions about them, or simply need a refresher course before digging in, we recommend checking out our handy-dandy VPN explainer.

Why use a VPN for your gaming console? The same reasons that you would use one in general: To protect your identity and activity from those who want to track you, including corporations, hackers, and the government; circumventing different countries’ versions of streaming services and storefronts; and — particularly key for gaming — preventing your  internet service provider from throttling your bandwidth.

Before we begin, you need to find and sign up for a VPN service. (If you’d like a recommendation, we keep a running list of the the best VPN services available). Once you’ve found one you like and signed up, you’re ready to bring your console on board. Here’s our quick guide on how to set up a VPN for your Xbox One.

Connecting to a VPN through your router

There are two methods for setting up a VPN on Xbox One — through your router or through your PC. We recommend doing setting it up through your router, as the PC-based method requires you to keep your Xbox connected to your PC via Ethernet cable.

Step 1: Log in to your router’s control panel and enter the details provided by your VPN

Generally, this entails entering your router’s IP address into a web browser connected to your local network, but refer to your router’s operating instructions for the particulars. Find the tab for controlling your router’s connection to the outside network. (The name varies, but it’s generally called something like “Basic,” “Network,” or “WAN Setup”). Enter the details provided to you when you signed up for your VPN (IP, Subnet Mask, username and password, etc.). Again, the particulars will vary: When in doubt, follow the instructions provided by your VPN for getting your router hooked up.

Step 2: Connect your Xbox to the router

Press the Xbox button to bring up the Guide, go all the way to the right into Settings, then go to Network, highlight Network settings, and press A. Select “Set up wireless network” and configure your Xbox to use the router we connected to your VPN in Step one. If your layout allows, you can opt to connect your Xbox to the router directly via Ethernet, which we recommend for the most stable connection if online gaming is important to you.

That’s all you need to do! You’re now ready to browse, stream, and game in anonymous safety.

Connecting to a VPN through your computer

Note that running your Xbox One through your PC’s VPN connection requires that your PC have two network adapters — one for the internet, and a second for the console. Laptops typically have both a wireless and a wired adapter, but desktop PCs vary more, especially if they were home-built. If you don’t have two network adapters ready when you begin the process, some of the relevant configuration options will not even appear. Between that and the fact that hooking up your system this way requires you to keep your PC on whenever you use your Xbox One online, we generally recommend the above method as far simpler in the long term, if it’s feasible for you.

Step 1: Connect your computer to your VPN service

The particulars will vary depending on what VPN you use but generally, this entails downloading and running a software client that lets you easily manage which server you’re connecting to.

Step 2: Connect your Xbox directly to your computer’s network adapter via Ethernet cable

Step 3a (Windows): Enable Internet Connection Sharing

Make sure you are logged in as a user with administrator-level privileges. Press the Windows key plus “X” to open the Power User menu and select Network Connections. Select “Change adapter options” from the menu, then right-click on your VPN connection and select Properties. Open the Sharing tab and check the box to “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection. From the dropdown menu that appears select Ethernet or Local Area Network. Press “OK” and your Xbox should now be able to get online through your computer’s VPN connection.

If your Xbox is not recognizing the network, go to Network settings (Step 2) and make sure it is set to connect through a wired network.

Step 3b (Mac): Enable Internet Connection Sharing

Click the apple icon in the top-leftmost corner of the screen and select System Preferences, then open Sharing. Select Internet Sharing from the list on the left. From the “Share your connection from:” dropdown menu choose your VPN’s network, then under “To computers using:” select Ethernet. With these options set you should now be able to check the box next to Internet Sharing to enable it and will see a green circle icon confirming that it’s active.

If your Xbox is not recognizing the network, go to Network settings (Step 2) and make sure it’s set to connect through a wired network.

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The upcoming Lenovo Moto Z3 apparently leaks online in all its mod-packing glory

Another year, another set of Motorola devices from Lenovo. This year, we’re looking forward to seeing the Moto G6, Moto X5, and Moto Z3 — the latter of which is the flagship Moto device. Previous iterations of the Moto Z have done pretty well. Not only do they seem to offer flagship hardware, but the original Moto Z also kickstarted a new ecosystem of modular add-ons that can help make your phone both more functional and more unique.

But exactly what will the new Lenovo Moto Z3 offer? Will it be all that different from previous Moto Z phones? So far it seems as though there will be at least two Moto Z3 phones — the Moto Z3 and the Moto Z3 Play. We may not know everything there is to know about the new phones just yet, but here’s everything we do know, thanks largely to a new leak from Droid Life.

Design

In a major leak from Droid Life, we got our first images of what will reportedly be the new Moto Z. The images show a few differences from previous generations of the phone. For starters, the display on the Moto Z2 Play seems to be a little larger, and accompanying text says it will measure 6 inches — up from 5.5-inches on both the Moto Z2 Force and Moto Z2 Play. The result of that larger display is that it covers much more of the front of the phone, and means there’s no home button at the bottom. The resolution of that display will come in at 2,560 x 1,440, with an aspect ratio of 18:9. The phone will also feature rounded corners.

The standard Moto Z3 will feature an even more modern look, with images showing that the display may curve slightly around the edge. The resolution will reportedly be the same as the Moto Z3 Play. On the display, the images also seem to show a new white software button that we assume is for navigation.

The back of the phone looks much the same as previous Moto Z phones. That makes sense — Lenovo will want to ensure that the Moto Mods already available will fit on new Moto Z phones The camera bump is presumably the same size, and shows a dual-sensor camera. Both of the phones have a dual-lens cameras on the front of the device, too, meaning the fingerprint sensor could be ditched in favor of facial recognition. Neither of the phones seem to sport a fingerprint sensor, though it’s possible that one could be located under the display, like the new Vivo phone that was shown off at CES 2018.

Speaking of Moto Mods, an image of the Moto Z2 shows what looks to be a “5G” mod. What that means remains to be seen, though if we had to speculate, we would assume that the mod includes the radios necessary to connect to 5G networks.

Specs

We don’t know too much about the specs of the phone just yet, but the Droid Life leak suggests that a third Moto Z3 is planned down the road when the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 is made available. That seems to suggest that the first two devices will instead feature the last-generation Snapdragon 835 — which is still a very respectable chip. We don’t know anything else about the specs just yet — though the Moto Z2 Force last year featured up to 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage, so we expect to see up to the same levels or even higher on the new phones.

Price and release date

We don’t know much about pricing or availability for these phones just yet. Lenovo announced the Moto Z2 Play early in July, with the Moto Z2 Force coming just a few weeks later. We’ll likely see the new phones at similar times this year.

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