The head of Alexa AI is now working at Google

Ashwin Ram is now Google Cloud’s Technical Director of AI.

Amazon’s got a lot of people working on Alexa at any given moment, but one of its top employees has officially left for a position at Google. According to a LinkedIn post, Alexa AI’s head of research – Ashwin Ram – is Google Cloud’s new Technical Director of AI.

Per Ram’s post:

Excited to share that I’m joining Google Cloud as Technical Director of AI in the Office of the CTO. Google arguably has the best AI on the planet; my role will be to help make that AI even better and broadly available to everyone.

I’ve had an awesome couple of years at Amazon Alexa working with some of the smartest people I know. Delighted to have had the opportunity to create and lead Alexa Prize and to experience this legendary Day 1 company from the inside.

Although Google Cloud isn’t a consumer-facing product, it does power various aspects of services like YouTube and Google Search. Amazon hasn’t announced who will be replacing Ram’s position, but either way, this is a pretty solid win for Google in its quest to be the best at AI.

Shortly before Ram’s departure, it was announced that Amazon had purchased smart doorbell/floodlight maker Ring — just a couple months after it purchased Ring competitor Blink. Amazon’s hitting the connected-world with full force, and while Ram’s absence won’t necessarily help the company, it certainly won’t stop it from chugging along with everything it’s got.

The Best Alexa-Compatible Smart Devices

First five things you need to know about Moss for PlayStation VR

Meet Quill, the bravest, strongest mouse ever.

Since we first saw Moss at E3 last year we have been waiting with baited breath for it to arrive, and it finally has! Released on February 27th, it has already stolen our hearts and fills our hours with the beauty of a fully realized world.

Lets take a look at some of the top tips to make your journey through the land of Moss even better.

See at Amazon

You are not Quill

Though you control the actions of our little mouse adventurer, you do not actually play the game as her. You are a spirit, or as the game calls you the Reader, who is the companion of Quill and you have your own function to perform above and beyond just moving Quill.

Using the Sixaxis Controller you can pick up and move objects in the game. A lot of the time this means moving statues and pieces of puzzles to help Quill traverse the environment but other times it gets more complicated. Using your control you can pick up enemies to stop Quill from being overrun, or even more fun you can move enemies to help you open doors or activate switches where otherwise you wouldn’t be able to.

This level of cooperation and interaction is rare in any game so it is doubly exciting when you are in VR and playing it so close. It makes you think not just about what needs to be done to solve the puzzles but how you can achieve that goal using all the environment, not just turning a dial here or flipping a switch there.

Look Behind things

Moss has a set of scrolls to collect as part of the main story and they are hidden in some unusual places that you may need to move around to find. When playing the game you can get lost in the story and with watching Quill and you start to forget, at first, that you are in VR, until the first time you look around a column. When it happened to me I was trying to get a better look at some of the scenery and as I tilted my head I saw one of the scrolls behind the wall on the far side, easy enough for Quill to reach but had I been playing the game in the traditional way I would never have seen it.

Puzzles can be solved in the same way. By looking around obstacles or into smaller areas you can often see things you would notice normally and the change in perspective makes it much easier to solve the puzzles that, if you were on a fixed camera, would be much harder. Being able to look at the whole map and even lean in closer to the action has the added benefit of being able to appreciate the art that goes into a game like moss. Quill is a perfectly rendered little creature that feels alive, especially when you can lean down and see her ears and nose twitching randomly as she sits and waits for you. Speaking of waiting..

Quill is occasionally smarter than you

When you start playing the game the puzzles are simple enough, pull this lever, move this statue, that kind of thing but as you start to progress things become more challenging. The puzzles start to have multiple components that you need to do at the same time to get them to work and sometimes, after an hour or two of playing your mind just can’t piece it all together. Thankfully you are part of a team in Moss and not just on your own. It turns out the little mouse adventurer that is your partner in this game is far cleverer than you. She knows how to do it.

If you are struggling to figure out what to do with a certain puzzle just wait for a minute and look at Quill. Eventually, she will get impatient and start showing you, using American Sign Language, how to complete it. Honestly, I enjoy waiting to see what she says anyway because the animations are so fluid and well done. Most of the time she gives you that last little piece that’s missing, like telling you to turn the stairs or make the bug shoot, which makes your brain turn on and you can start figuring. It doesn’t always help mind you, and she won’t tell you how to get the scrolls that are hidden on the levels, but invariably she can point you in the right direction.

More: Everything you need to know about Moss, the most anticipated PlayStation VR game of 2018

You can hold things and move Quill

A lot of the game puzzles in Moss require you, the reader, to move objects in the world using your Sixaxis Controller. They make this action as interesting as possible by making the variety of things you need to move, well, varied. From statues to gears and cogs there is a long list of things you can do to help Quill get through the maze including using the enemies that appear too. Using enemies is extremely helpful as they can be moved to stand on plates that Quill can’t reach.

What makes Moss almost unique in puzzle games is that you can move yourself and Quill at the same time. By holding an enemy in place while moving moss to another area you can solve puzzles that normally wouldn’t work, or use this skill in combat to make a huge difference. You can use your hold maneuver to drag enemies away from Quill while she fights another enemy, stopping her from getting overrun, it’s very satisfying and adds a layer of complexity to Moss that elevates the whole game.

You can use enemies to kill other enemies

This is a really helpful tip for combat. Quill is very brave but a little squishy, it only takes two or three hits to knock her out and restart the level so you need to use all the dirty tricks you can. You can use several enemies in the game when you have them in your Sixaxis grip to fire, or explode parts of the landscape to help solve puzzles, happily they can also kill each other using that power too.

When you are in combat with multiple enemies keep your eyes peeled for the ones that fire or explode and use that ability to keep Quill out of combat. I managed to complete a big fight by hanging Quill on a ledge and using the shooting beetle to kill all the little guys, then Quill finishes off the one I was controlling. Keeping your little mouse friend alive is really your only task as the “reader” so you may as well use the forces of evil against themselves.

This is just the beginning

These five tips are really just the start of what you can do in Moss but they will help you get started in fine fashion. navigating this world with Quill really does feel like a partnership so you learn together how best to succeed. Let us know in the comments if you find any other cool tips for your fellow readers.

PlayStation 4

• PS4 vs. PS4 Slim vs. PS4 Pro: Which should you buy?
• PlayStation VR Review
• Playing PS4 games through your phone is awesome

Amazon

LG G7 makes an appearance at MWC 2018 along with V35, new watch, and more

LG’s could-have-been flagship for 2018.

LG’s appearance at this year’s MWC was, timid, to say the least.

The company’s new LG V30S is essentially just a spec bump over the regular V30 with a couple small software tweaks, but apparently, LG had more exciting things to show off behind closed doors.

According to Ynet, LG had a working unit of the G7 (codenamed “Neo”) to show off to select attendees of the trade show. This is the G7 that LG’s new mobile head scrapped in favor of the new “Judy”, but nevertheless, it gives us an idea of what we could see with that phone when it’s released this June.

As you can see from the above photos, the G7 follows the steps of other Android OEMs by adopting the iPhone X’s notch with its screen. However, LG built a software trick around this to give users the option of hiding it with a black status bar. As for the screen surrounding that notch, it’s reportedly a 6-inch, 19.5:9 panel with a resolution of 3120 x 1440.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 powers the phone, there’s 64GB of internal storage, and two different models with 4 and 6GB of RAM.

On the back of the G7 is a glass back (this particular model features a blue color), fingerprint sensor, and two cameras that are positioned in a vertical fashion.

Shortly after this news came out, Evan Blass also gave us this little nugget:

Little bird told me that in the same venue that this G7 was being shown, there was also a Q7 and V35. And a new watch.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 28, 2018

We don’t have any images of the above gadgets, but I’m really curious to see what comes of this mystery smartwatch. LG’s last wearables were the Watch Style and Watch Sport, and while they were supposed to lead the Android Wear 2.0 charge, each one had too many quirks to be truly great.

Assuming LG’s Judy has any resemblance to the G7 Neo, are you looking forward to what we see from LG later this year?

LG V30S hands-on: A 2017 smartphone with 2018’s buzzwords

The moon may have formed inside the early Earth

Scientists have been puzzling over the moon’s formation for a long time, and now there’s a new theory that might explain some of the baffling mysteries surrounding our satellite. A new study published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets posits that the moon may have actually formed inside the Earth, before our planet had fully taken shape.

This new theory is based on a new planetary object called a synestia. These are produced when two planet-sized bodies crash into one another, resulting in a quickly spinning formation of rock. The release describes it as, “a giant donut of vaporized rock.” Synestias only last a century or two before they condense into a planet.

“Our model starts with a collision that forms a synestia,” Simon Lock, a graduate student at Harvard and coauthor of the article, said in a release. Once this occurred, the moon could have formed in a number of ways. The synestia may have ejected molten rock into its orbit, which began to form the moon. As the synestia shrank, the moon accumulated more matter. “The Moon forms inside the vaporized Earth at temperatures of four to six thousand degrees Fahrenheit and pressures of tens of atmospheres,” Lock said.

The current prevailing theory on the moon’s formation surround a collision between the Earth and a planetary body the size of Mars. This crash ejected molten rock and metal, which eventually came together to create the moon. This new theory has one major advantage over that one; mainly, that it explains the similarities between the composition of the moon and the Earth, but it also leaves room for the differences: Because the moon formed at very high temperatures within the synestia, elements that could easily vaporize are not present on the moon.

Source: Eurekalert

VW’s first electric bus begins service in mid-March

The I.D. Buzz might not be the first electric Volkswagen bus you see roaming the streets. VW’s Scania brand has announced that its first electric bus, the Citywide Low Floor, is going into full-fledged service in the Swedish town of Österlund in mid-March. And it’s not a tiny experimental run, either. The initial three buses will run a 9.3-mile route with about 40 stops, and they’ll make a total of 100 trips each day. The vehicles’ 10-minute charging intervals (helped by massive charging stations) keep them from being sidelined for hours like typical electric cars.

This certainly isn’t the first electric bus. Scania is a powerhouse in the mass transit world, however, and this deployment could lead to many more public transit systems adopting electric transport. And it’s not necessarily just for the sake of environmental concerns. Electric buses are potentially cheaper to run (both due to fuel savings and lower maintenance), and they’re much quieter — you don’t have to endure the noise of massive diesel engines. Real-world service like this could illustrate the benefits and increase adoption beyond a handful of cities.

Source: Volkswagen

Spotify’s public filing reveals key stats about the streaming giant

Spotify quietly signaled its intention to become a publicly traded company in December of last year, even though several lawsuits over licensing were looming. Now the streaming service has filed for a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange, an alternative to the more typical initial public offering (IPO) that offers the company a savings on underwriting fees and a dilution of existing shares.

The prospectus document provides quite a bit of information on the company’s financials, which helps investors make a more informed decision when purchasing stock. The data speaks to how hard it is to make money as a streaming services provider. For example, the company’s losses are increasing rapidly. In 2015, 2016, and 2017, the company incurred net losses of €230 million, €539 million, and €1,235 million, respectively. That’s despite revenues of €1,940 million, €2,952 million, and €4,090 million in the same years. Plus, their closest competitor, Apple Music, claims a 45 million song base, while Spotify has 35 million.

Things aren’t all bad, however, as the company says that its paid subscriptions are growing much faster than its ad-supported ones. The 71 million paid subscriptions have increased at a rate of 46 percent year over year as opposed to 19 percent year over year growth for free accounts. The company has 159 million monthly active users, too, with each of them averaging 25 hours of listening time per month. In addition, the premium churn – a measure of how many subscribers quit the service, continues to decrease. That points to better customer satisfaction over time.

Finally, only 13 percent of the payment-enabled smartphone users in Spotify’s 61 countries and territories use the platform as of the end of last year. That means the company has a ton of potential subscribers who they can entice to the platform. Of course, this is all just basic facts. We’ll see if the streaming giant can figure out how to turn this all into a profitable company in the months to come

Via: Bloomberg

Source: SEC Filing

Discord bans a number of alt-right servers

The gaming chat service Discord has reportedly banned several alt-right groups. The move comes six months after the platform shut down racist accounts in the wake of the Charlottesville protests in order to ‘take action against white supremacy, nazi ideology and all forms of hate.’ But Discord backed away from calling out particular groups that it kicked off its service; Instead, it has removed a number of unnamed groups due to violations of the platform’s terms and services, a spokesperson told Engadget in a statement.

“Discord has a Terms of Service (ToS) and Community Guidelines that we ask all of our communities and users to adhere to. These specifically prohibit harassment, threatening messages, or calls to violence. Though we do not read people’s private messages, we do investigate and take immediate appropriate action against any reported ToS violation by a server or user. There were a handful of servers that violated these ToS recently and were swiftly removed from the platform. We will continue to be aggressive to ensure that Discord exists for the community we set out to support – gamers.”

Though the company didn’t confirm which groups were banned, they supposedly included The Right Server, Nordic Resistance Movement and Iron March. Among their number was also the Atomwaffen Division, a ‘terroristic national socialist organization’ according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which was thrown off YouTube today after media backlash. Discord kept mum about when it started booting out groups, but a post on the platform’s subreddit listed over half a dozen servers that were deleted overnight, Polygon noted.

A Discord representative told Polygon that the platform is working with the SPLC to rid Discord of hateful groups. But The Verge noted that at least one of those recently banned has sprung up with another name. Bigot whack-a-mole isn’t reserved for Twitter and Facebook, it seems.

Source: Polygon

Paste Music and Daytrotter made a free app for live music lovers

You have a few options when it comes to streaming music and whether you’re subscribed to Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal or something else, there’s a lot of music right at your fingertips. But live recordings offer their own sort of listening pleasure, and while you may find some on those streaming services, Paste Music thinks you should have access to a ton of them all in one spot. Together with its sister site Daytrotter, Paste Music has just launched an app that brings together hundreds of thousands of live recordings for you to enjoy including concerts, comedy performances and interviews. And similar to what NPR did with its One app, Paste Music and Daytrotter’s lets you take their sites’ offerings with you on the go and personalize your listening experience.

In the Paste Music & Daytrotter mobile app, you can find performances like Run-DMC on their first tour, Jimi Hendrix playing the Winterland Ballroom in 1968, the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals and the entire archives of promoter Bill Graham. In the Paste Music section of the app, you can browse through staff picks, popular concerts, Paste Studio recordings, interviews, comedy and Paste’s favorite playlists. In the Daytrotter tab, similar to how its site is set up, you’ll find music broken down by genre, Daytrotter legends, Daytrotter picks, new and trending sessions and featured recordings. You can also search for bands or events, set up playlists or a queue and save your favorites.

It’s a cool new addition to the music streaming scene, especially if you’re into live music. The app is free and available now for both iOS and Android.

Source: Paste Magazine

‘The Blackout Club’ is a co-op horror game from ‘BioShock’ veterans

Many horror games are solitary affairs — a little odd when horror movies are frequently shared experiences. Why not make games which play off the social side of fear? Question is trying just that. The group of BioShock and Dishonored alumni has unveiled The Blackout Club, a co-op horror title where survival depends on working as a team. You play as a group of teens who’ve uncovered a terrifying conspiracy in a small town, and they can only see the villains’ central “boogeyman” by closing their eyes (part of the reason for the “blackout” in the name). If your group is going to live, everyone will need to keep watch — you may save a friend who doesn’t realize they’re in danger.

The game has a decidedly Stranger Things vibe, as PC Gamer noted, and it’s not just the basic setting. A large part of the game involves proving that the threat is real (many of the adults are unwitting pawns), and that means putting yourself in harm’s way so that others can record footage. And while there’s an element of Left 4 Dead in the emphasis on getting from A to B as quickly and safely as possible, you can’t exactly blast your way through — these are teens, after all, so just neutralizing one foe is a significant achievement. You instead rely on powers that influence how you play, such as a never-ending sprint option that can keep you ahead of the invisible threat.

Blackout Club is poised to launch on PS4, Xbox One and PCs in the first quarter of 2019. That’s a long time to wait, and there’s no certainty that it’ll work as well in practice as the design suggests. The pedigree of Question’s team is promising, though, and they clearly have a sense of how collective fear can work.

Via: PC Gamer

Source: The Blackout Club, Question (YouTube)

Consumer Reports Says iPhone X Offers the Best Smartphone Camera

Apple’s newest flagship device, the iPhone X, has the best smartphone camera currently available according to new rankings published this week by Consumer Reports.

Furthermore, Apple devices took up most of the spots on Consumer Reports’ list of top 10 smartphone cameras, with the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus following the iPhone X. The iPhone 7, 7 Plus, and 6 Plus also earned top 10 spots.Apple iPhone XApple iPhone 8Apple iPhone 8 PlusSamsung Galaxy S8+Apple iPhone 7Apple iPhone 6s PlusSamsung Galaxy S8Samsung Galaxy Note8Apple iPhone 7 PlusSamsung Galaxy S8 ActiveIntroduced in November, the iPhone X has two 12-megapixel rear lenses arranged in a vertical orientation, one that’s an f/1.8 aperture wide-angle lens and an f/2.4 aperture telephoto lens. These lenses are combined with features unique to Apple like an Apple-designed image signal processor with advanced pixel processing, improved color filters, a better sensor, faster autofocus, and optical image stabilization for both the telephoto and the wide-angle lenses, a first for an iPhone.

The iPhone X’s rear camera is combined with the front-facing TrueDepth camera system that enables neat features like a selfie Portrait Mode, which blurs the background of a selfie image and sets it apart from the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus.

Apple has also done a lot of work on software to complement the camera offerings on the iPhone X, introducing features like Portrait Lighting for adding studio-quality lighting effects to your images. The result of all of these features is the best camera that’s been introduced in an iPhone to date, and it’s been highly praised in reviews and evaluations.

Photographer Austin Mann, for example, said the iPhone X camera was the “most exciting” upgrade he’d seen since he switched from a Blackberry 7230 to the original iPhone back in 2007. Photography site DxO gave the iPhone X’s camera a score of 97, higher than any other iPhone, while DPReview, another noted photography review site said it is capable of “extremely impressive” results.

Apple smartphones have long been some of the most widely used and popular cameras available, topping the list of Flickr’s most popular camera for multiple years running. The iPhone’s popularity as a photography device has spurred Apple to make continuous improvements to photo quality with each new iteration, and iPhone image quality is now at the point where it comes close to offering the kind of effects you can get with a DSLR camera.

Consumer Reports’ current list does not include the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+, and it will be interesting to see how Samsung’s newest devices measure up to the iPhone X. Both of Samsung’s latest smartphones feature Dual Aperture 12-megapixel lenses with f/1.5 and f/2.4 modes, with the lenses able to switch between these two apertures depending on the lighting conditions.

This kind of Dual Aperture functionality is useful for finding a balance between light and image quality. The f/1.5 lens is useful in low lighting conditions because it lets in more light, but with a wider aperture comes a compromise in image sharpness in certain areas of the photo. Therefore, in conditions where the lighting is better, the f/2.4 lens that’s also included will provide a crisper, higher-quality image.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTag: Consumer ReportsBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums