Play ‘Doom’ with motion controls on Nintendo Switch

Doom’s arrival on the Nintendo Switch back in November was something of a surprise, given the limitations of the platform, but it’s quickly captured the hearts of many a gamer. Now, developer Bethesda has improved the gameplay experience even more. Polygon notes that a patch released today enables motion controls for the game.

Once you install the update, head into the menu and toggle “motion aiming.” This allows you to aim by moving the right Joy-Con, similar to controls in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2.

Sean Buckley, one of our associate editors, spent some time with Doom before the game was released, and he was impressed with the port. He was surprised by the fact that “Doom on the Nintendo Switch feels identical to Doom on other platforms,” given the Switch’s hardware limits. He was enthusiastic from his limited time with the demo, and it looks like Bethesda has done the game justice.

A new update is now available for #DOOM on #NintendoSwitch, which includes Motion Aiming and multiplayer party support! https://t.co/UmNUdWunLk pic.twitter.com/GnRIj7TVip

— DOOM (@DOOM) February 20, 2018

Via: Polygon

Source: Bethesda

Existing EV batteries could be recharged five times faster

Lithium-ion batteries have massively improved in the last half-decade, but there are still issues. The biggest, especially for EVs, is that charging takes too long to make them as useful as regular cars for highway driving. Researchers from the University of Warwick (WMG) have discovered that we may not need to be so patient, though. They developed a new type of sensor that measures internal battery temperatures and discovered that we can probably recharge them up to five times quicker without overheating problems.

Overcharging a lithium-ion battery anode can lead to lithium buildup, which can break through a battery’s separator, create a short-circuit and cause catastrophic failure. That can cause the electrolyte to emit gases and literally blow up the battery, so manufacturers impose strict charging power limits to prevent it.

Those limits are based on hard-to-measure internal temperatures, however, which is where the WMG probe comes in. It’s a fiber optic sensor, protected by a chemical layer that can be directly inserted into a lithium-ion cell to give highly precise thermal measurements without affecting its performance.

The team tested the sensor on standard 18650 li-ion cells, used in Tesla’s Model S and X, among other EVs. They discovered that they can be charged five times faster than previously thought without damage. Such speeds would reduce battery life, but if used judiciously, the impact would be minimized, said lead researcher Dr. Tazdin Amietszajew.

Faster charging as always comes at the expense of overall battery life but many consumers would welcome the ability to charge a vehicle battery quickly when short journey times are required and then to switch to standard charge periods at other times.

There’s still some work to do. While the research showed the li-ion cells can support higher temperatures, EVs and charging systems would have to have “precisely tuned profiles/limits” to prevent problems. It’s also not clear how battery makers would install the sensors in the cells.

Nevertheless, it shows a lot of promise for much faster charging speeds in the near future. Even if battery capacities stayed the same, charging in 5 minutes instead of 25 could flip a lot of drivers over to the green side.

Via: Clean Technica

Source: University of Warwick

The ESA says preserving old online games isn’t ‘necessary’

The video game industry as a whole does a poor job of preserving its history — especially when it comes to online games. The Entertainment Software Association — responsible for E3; counts Electronic Arts, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Ubisoft as members — is petitioning the US Copyright Office to not make DMCA exemptions for abandoned online multiplayer games. It’s an effort to block the folks at the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in California who would like to see an exemption made to how the DMCA treats titles like the original Everquest.

The ESA’s reasoning for opposing? It thinks that letting third parties operate online servers will result, more or less, in a library or museum committing copyright breach. Giving access to the proprietary server code could hypothetically lead to preservation societies building their own infrastructure and charging for access. Thus, they’d be a direct competitor to the original developers and publishers, which is something the ESA isn’t exactly keen on.

As Torrent Freak notes, MADE already does this with offline games, charging $10 admission for all-you-can-play games. This is something the ESA doesn’t seem too happy about either, saying that non-profit organizations “enjoy no special immunity” from copyright violations. There’s also a worry that it’d lead to more people jailbreaking their consoles so they could play online from home. In its (admittedly weak) defense, the ESA says its members do work to maintain gaming’s history.

“The prevalence of reissues of older games belies any claim that game companies lack incentive to preserve older titles,” the ESA writes. Sure, but those remasters rarely if ever feature the full-fat original online multiplayer experience. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, for instance, only shipped with a handful of the original game’s classic maps.

The ESA suggests the proposed DMCA expansion should be rejected, saying that although the Copyright Office has said “properly crafted exemption for preservationists can satisfy their needs without impacting the market,” the expansion is “far from properly crafted.”

“Although the proponents purport to seek the broadened exemption for the purpose of preservation, proponents appear to view recreational gameplay as within the ambit of ‘preservation,’” the ESA writes. “Online multiplayer gameplay is not necessary for preservation or for subsequent scholarly purposes.”

Tell that to the academics studying human behavior in online multiplayer games, or, in a few years, to someone who wants to play vanilla World of Warcraft so they can see how their parents met.

There’s a 40-plus page legal document at the source link below if you want to read the ESA’s full reasoning. The DMCA exemption was made in 2015 and needs to be renewed every three years. The ESA moved to block online games from being protected back then as well. Last October, the Copyright Office said it didn’t find “any meaningful opposition” to renewing the original DMCA exemption.

Via: Torrent Freak

Source: Entertainment Software Association (PDF)

Fox News’ streaming service will cater to ‘superfans’

Fox News is joining the ranks of conventional broadcasters launching stand-alone streaming services. The channel has revealed plans for Fox Nation, an internet-only subscription video service for “superfans” of its ultra-conservative programming. The service will focus on opinion shows, and will include special events as well as access to 20 years of back catalog videos that won’t be available elsewhere. The service doesn’t yet have a price ahead of its debut in the fourth quarter of 2018, although we’d expect it to be relatively inexpensive given that it’s an offshoot of a single channel.

This isn’t the same as watching the TV network on the road, though. Fox News is only promising “interaction” with its familiar opinion hosts, so you’ll probably have to stay glued to a TV if you can’t get enough of the company’s big-name presenters.

Whether or not the service succeeds isn’t certain. Fox News is counting on those “superfans” precisely because they’re religiously loyal — paying a little extra per month could be worth it to them if it means never having to go without their favorite brand. However, that doesn’t mean they’re willing to embrace a streaming-only service. As the New York Times observed, the median Fox News viewer is 65 years old — these aren’t exactly millennials hooked on streaming video. They may not sign up for Fox Nation simply because their viewing habits don’t involve smartphones or the web.

Via: New York Times, EW

Source: Fox News

Installation begins on Bezos-backed 10,000 year clock

How will our actions affect our grandchildren? Our great-grandchildren? And their great-grandchildren? That’s the kind of long-term thinking that the non-profit organization the Long Now is trying to foster. And now Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has revealed that construction has begun on the organization’s ambitious project, the 10,000 year clock.

The 10,000 year clock is designed to measure time in years and centuries, rather than minutes and seconds. It will tick once a year. The century hand will advance, you guessed it, once a century, and the cuckoo will emerge once a millennium. The idea is to give us a greater sense of the impact of our decisions, and to think about long-term consequences of what we do.

According to Bezos’ tweet, the clock will be powered by day and night thermal cycles and synchronized at solar noon. The team just finished drilling a 500 foot deep vertical shaft for the clock. You can see a video about the process embedded in Bezos’ tweet below. (His connection to the project: The clock is being installed on a plot of land that he owns in Texas.)

Installation has begun—500 ft tall, all mechanical, powered by day/night thermal cycles, synchronized at solar noon, a symbol for long-term thinking—the #10000YearClock is coming together thx to the genius of Danny Hillis, Zander Rose & the whole Clock team! Enjoy the video. pic.twitter.com/FYIyaUIbdJ

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) February 20, 2018

Source: Twitter, 10,000 Year Clock

’Elite Dangerous: Beyond’ Chapter One arrives on February 27th

If you’ve been eagerly waiting for the third season of Elite Dangerous, your time has almost come. Today, Frontier Developments announced that the first chapter of the new season of the space MMORPG, called Beyond, will arrive on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on February 27th. The company also released a trailer for the third season, which you can see below.

Beyond will be free for all Elite Dangerous players and will incorporate core gameplay changes based on user feedback. The overhaul includes a redesigned response to and consequences for criminal activities, the introduction of GalNet Audio to allow news updates without leaving the game’s action, increased chances to acquire tech based on personal narrative and the inclusion of a trade data overlay to help increase the profitability of trading. The developers have also overhauled the mission rewards system.

‘Burnout Paradise’ is back with a $40 4K remaster March 16th

Burnout Paradise was one of those rare racers that transcended its genre and was just a killer game. If its recent 10th birthday had you feeling nostalgic, then we’ve got good news. Come March 16th, you’ll be able to hit the streets of Paradise City once again, to the complete original soundtrack, and replete with all 150 cars and eight main expansion pacls — including the “Big Surf Island” premium DLC — in Burnout Paradise Remastered.

The game will run in native 1080p on PlayStation 4 and Xbox hardware, and EA promises 4K resolution and 60 frames per-second on PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X. “We’ve given Burnout Paradise a complete graphics overhaul, with high-resolution textures and a range of technical enhancements designed to deliver all the high-octane chaos with an almost irresponsible level of visual fidelity,” EA writes. Check out the image below to see side-by-side comparisons from old to new.

Its expansive multiplayer offering is on tap again as well. Remastered will also feature the entire original soundtrack, with Killswitch Engage and Avril Lavigne unfortunately returning alongside Guns N’ Roses’ anthemic “Paradise City.”

What’s tragic here is that EA would rather make money off of Criterion’s past achievements (with a new team at the helm) than let the vaunted racing team make a new game. Remastered will set you back $40 and is available for digital pre-order on PS4 and Xbox right now.

If you’d rather not wait, or spend $40, the original game is backwards compatible and costs $15 on Xbox One. Last we checked, the decade-old game’s action held up incredibly well and there was a decent online population to boot. And if you’re feeling nostalgic for the Burnout series’ “crash mode” gametype, you can always check out Danger Zone from former Criterion developers.

Source: Electronic Arts (1), (2)

If NBC can’t improve its VR Olympics coverage, it should just stop

If you’re watching the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics on TV like a normal person, you may not realize there’s another option. I viewed the opening ceremonies, skiing, curling, figure skating and other events in virtual reality on my Samsung Gear VR (2017) headset via NBC’s app. I didn’t expect the coverage to be as smooth as TV, but I thought it would be a cool way to watch the events as if I were a live spectator. Sadly, with one exception, the experience was spotty and disappointing.

During the Rio Games in 2016, NBC broadcast the Olympic opening ceremonies in virtual reality for the first time, so I tuned in to have a look. It was a solid start: Despite problems like poor resolution, I felt like I was there, not watching on TV. Two years is a long time for tech like VR, so when NBC and Intel announced they’d cover the opening ceremonies and several live events once again in 2018, my expectations were higher.

Accessing the Games in VR in the US is relatively smooth, provided you have a live TV/cable option and the right headset. Among the models that will work are the Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

You simply install NBC’s app at the Oculus, Microsoft or Google Play store and enter the name of your cable provider, along with a username and password. This grants you access to live coverage of several events per day, along with full replays of those events as well as the opening ceremonies and highlights of others. Some broadcasts are available in 180-degree 3D VR, and others in 360 degrees and 2D.

Once you’re set up, the fun (and problems) begin. On the Gear VR, every time you want to tune in — and even when you want to change sports — you have to go through an annoying intro. The app is also pretty glitchy, and I was often greeted with a black screen when loading sports. The only way to fix it was to quit the app and go back in.

The first event I wanted to watch was men’s downhill skiing. Unfortunately, it was canceled due to high winds, so I watched the training run instead to get a taste of it. This was probably the worst event to view on this technology. Both the downhill and giant slalom are ill-suited to VR, at least the way NBC handled it. The skiers zoom by the fixed camera positions in blink-or-you’ll-miss-them blurs, so the only real way to follow it is via the “VR Cast” mode, with cameras controlled by a director. It does give you an idea of what it’s like to be a spectator, albeit without the cowbells and hot toddies. But other than for a couple of seconds per run, you’re watching the same 2D broadcast feed as anyone.

That brings up another thing: NBC and Intel haven’t improved the image quality much since the last Olympics. It’s not bad for close-up shots, but with wide angles it’s too pixelated at times to even make out someone’s face. I know it’s possible to do better, because NextVR’s NBA and concert broadcasts, done with multiple 6K RED 3D camera rigs, result in a much better resolution for viewers.

The next event, curling, provided the sole bright moment in my viewing experience. “You’re Canadian,” you might say, “so that doesn’t count.” No, it’s not that. Because of the relatively calm pace and controlled atmosphere, it was actually quite fun to watch in VR. Most of the cameras aren’t too wide, so resolution problems were minimal. And curling is a game of depth, so the 180-degree 3D view was ideal.

On the other hand, ice skating was abysmal in NBC and Intel’s VR because of the poorly placed cameras and the necessarily wide view. The latter made it hard at times to tell if there was even a skater on the rink. (The “kiss and cry”[c] part, when scores are awarded, was okay, again because it’s closer.) Ski jumping, snowboard halfpipe, bobsled and luge were also not great, because the athletes move by the cameras too quickly to see much. Again, the frame rates and resolution can’t keep up, so sometimes the athletes are literally just a blur.

There were a few things I did like, even when the coverage was otherwise poor. It’s fun to just look around at things that the broadcasters normally don’t let you see. The ski jump, freestyle, bobsled and alpine skiing locations are particularly picturesque, for instance, especially at night.

I also enjoy the silly little things, like the little kids picking up the teddy bears after a figure skater’s performance, the professional photographers, volunteers and spectators, and athletes chatting during lulls. All of that let me soak up the atmosphere and feel what it’s like to be at the event. As far as watching the sports goes, though, you’re still much, much better off with good old TV, especially for select events NBC is broadcasting in 4K HDR.

As for why NBC hasn’t gotten better at this yet, I can’t help but wonder if a big part of the problem is Intel’s True VR technology. Both NextVR and Intel cover the NBA, for instance, but on a Gear VR headset, Intel’s tech is clearly inferior. It’s also obvious that VR is still an afterthought for NBC, letting the network tick that box and save its best for the main broadcast.

That’s understandable, but I think NBC has to try a lot harder next time, or not bother at all. If they’re listening, I do have a few suggestions:

• Do whatever it takes to make the images much better, including ditching Intel if it can’t deliver.
• Don’t waste your time with 360-degree video; it’s useless for sports. Focus on 180-degree 3D, and do it better. (I know some people don’t like 3D, but I’m not one of them.)
• Get more creative with camera positioning. VR is useless unless you’re right in the middle of the action. Bobsled, for instance, would be insane with cameras mounted on every sled.
• Improve the app so it’s more immersive and less glitchy.

As for the 2020 Summer Olympics, I’m expecting a lot better. They’ll be hosted in Tokyo, and Japan is expected to put on a technological tour de force, with 8K broadcasting and more.

Setting the Olympics aside, virtual reality isn’t exactly setting the world on fire in general, thanks to problems like nausea, cost and a splintered market with a lot of players. The VR market will be a completely different animal by 2020, so hopefully the next Olympics will be a breakout moment for a technology that really needs it. The PyeongChang games certainly weren’t.

Sketchy Rumor: iPhone SE 2 Will Debut at WWDC With Classic Design But Larger 4.2-Inch Display

We’ve already heard multiple rumors suggesting Apple will unveil a so-called iPhone SE 2 later this year, and a new supply chain report from Chinese news website QQ.com claims to have knowledge of the device’s tech specs.

First, the report says the new iPhone SE won’t look like the iPhone X, which would make sense given it’s a lower-end device. Instead, the new model will purportedly have a similar design as the original iPhone SE, with a metal back and frame, top and bottom bezels on the front, and a home button.

A key difference would supposedly be a larger 4.2-inch display, but this is questionable given it could make it harder to use the iPhone SE in one hand, which is preferred by a subset of customers. However, it’s certainly possible Apple could trim down the bezels of the new iPhone SE slightly.

Apple is likely more focused on making under-the-hood improvements to the iPhone SE, as the device is now outdated by a few years. The report claims the new model will be powered by a faster A10 Fusion chip, although it will supposedly still have 2GB of RAM with 32GB or 128GB of storage available.

The report suggests Apple is planning to unveil the iPhone SE 2 at WWDC 2018 in June, which is certainly possible, but Apple hasn’t introduced a smartphone at the event since the iPhone 4 in 2010. If history repeats itself, the new iPhone SE could be introduced at a smaller media event around March.

While most of these tech specs would make sense, the source doesn’t have an established track record, so this rumor should be viewed with some skepticism. KeyforWeb.it spotted the report earlier.

There have been many rumors about Apple launching a new iPhone SE in 2018, with many of the sources based in Asia, including research firm TrendForce and publications like the Economic Daily News. One of the latest rumors suggested a new iPhone SE with wireless charging could launch in May-June.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who relays information from Apple’s supply chain in Asia, recently cast some doubt on rumors about a second-generation iPhone SE launching in the second quarter of 2018.

If there really is a so-called iPhone SE 2 on Apple’s roadmap, Kuo expects it will have few outward-facing changes. He predicts the device would likely have a faster processor and a lower price, rather than iPhone X-like features like a nearly full screen design, 3D sensing for Face ID, or wireless charging.

The current iPhone SE looks much like the iPhone 5s, including its smaller four-inch display preferred by a subset of customers. The device is powered by Apple’s A9 chip, like the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, and it has 2GB of RAM, a 12-megapixel rear camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and Touch ID.

Apple hasn’t fully refreshed the iPhone SE since it launched in March 2016, but it did double its available storage capacities to 64GB and 128GB last March. It also dropped the device’s starting price to $349 last September.

Related Roundup: iPhone SETag: qq.comBuyer’s Guide: iPhone SE (Don’t Buy)
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Apple Seeds Third Beta of macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 to Developers

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the second beta and a month after releasing macOS High Sierra 10.13.3. The update also comes one day after the release of a 10.13.3 Supplemental Update to address a bug that could cause apps to crash when receiving a character from the Indian language Telugu.

The new macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 beta can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center or through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store with the proper profile installed.

macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 includes bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that weren’t addressed in macOS High Sierra 10.13.3.

The update also offers support for some features that are available in iOS 11.3, like Messages on iCloud, which uploads all of your iMessages to the cloud. It will also support Business Chat, a feature coming when iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 are released to the public, and it includes improved support for eGPUs.

The macOS 10.13.4 brings the smoke cloud wallpaper that was previously only available on the iMac Pro, it replaces the “iBooks” app with the new renamed “Books” app, and it introduces a warning when opening up a 32-bit app as part of an effort to phase them out.

In the future, Apple plans to phase out 32-bit Mac apps, just like it did with 32-bit iOS apps. Apple says macOS High Sierra is the last version of macOS that will support 32-bit apps without compromises.

Related Roundup: macOS High Sierra
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