‘Fortnite: Battle Royale’ is coming to mobile with crossplay support

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You already spend every waking second of your time playing Epic Games’ Fortnite: Battle Royale on your consoles and PC, but when you leave the house, you’re forced to leave the multiplayer shooter behind. That will no longer be the case, however, as Fortnite: Battle Royale is coming to mobile devices with cross-platform play.

Epic Games announced the port of Fortnite — which we shall call “Portnite” — on its website late Thursday, March 8. Initially available on iOS, the game will eventually come to Android platforms as well. A special “invite event” for iOS users will begin shortly, and interested players can sign up beginning on March 12.

To play Fortnite: Battle Royale on iOS, you’ll need an iPhone 6S/SE or newer, or a newer iPad, such as the Mini 4, Pro, or Air 2. You’ll also need iOS 11 installed, which might be an issue if you’re using a slightly older model due to the effect it can have on your battery life.

Mobile players won’t just be playing with each other, either. The game will support crossplay and cross-save with PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, and Android.

The Xbox One is being left out of the fun, but this isn’t due to a technical restriction. Back in September, Epic Games accidentally enabled crossplay between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game. Currently, the two platforms cannot play with each other, and Epic turned the “feature” off a short time later, calling it a “configuration issue.”

Microsoft is open to having crossplay between the two platforms, and has even enabled Xbox users and Switch users to play together in Minecraft, but thus far Sony has not budged.

Fortnite: Battle Royale has exploded in popularity recently, becoming the most-watched game on streaming service Twitch and putting its inspiration, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, to shame. In February, the game even managed to have 3.4 million simultaneous players. Battlegrounds recently launched its own mobile adaptations as well, though these are currently not available in North America and are not direct ports of the PC and Xbox One games.

Fortnite: Battle Royale is now available for free on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac. A 100-player, five-team mode is available now as well.

The “standard” version of Fortnite, which focuses on player-versus-environment content, can be purchased in several different editions which range in price from $40 to $150.

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Twitter CEO aims to overhaul verification as digital coin scams grow

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and product director David Gasca indicated during a Periscope live-stream on Thursday, March 8, that the company wants all users to sport a verification badge. Their intent arrives as scammers take to the social platform to steal money from unsuspecting victims through accounts created using a flaw in the verification system. Twitter users believe these accounts are “official” and backed by Twitter, handing over small amounts of digital currency to scammers for a promise of a big return, but remain empty-handed. 

“The main problem is we use it to mean identity, but because of the way it was originally started, where it was only given to certain very large public figures, celebrities, etcetera, it came to have a lot of status associated with it, as well,” Gasca said. “They think of it as credibility. Twitter stands behind this person, Twitter believes that this person is someone that — what they’re saying is great and authentic, which is not at all what we mean by the checkmark.” 

That is why victims fall prey to the cryptocurrency scams proliferating across Twitter: Many accounts appear to be verified and backed by Twitter, which they are not. The problem is getting out of hand, pushing legitimate Twitter accounts to continuously warn followers about the scams. In return, these accounts inadvertently violate Twitter’s policies and face a permanent ban.

A prime example is the Kraken Exchange cryptocurrency trading platform, whose support-related Twitter account temporarily went offline due to repeated warnings to followers. Twitter eventually lifted the ban. 

“Safety tip: Beware of twitter handles that are similar to ours that promise coin giveaways, if you send them a deposit first. We are not doing a giveaway at this time,” Kraken’s support team warns. 

One such scam uses the Kraken logo as bait. Victims are suggested to send up to five Ethereum coins (Ether) to a specific address for up to 50 Ethereum coins in return in a big 2,000-coin “giveaway.” But victims never see the big return, nor do they get their virtual coins back. It’s a growing problem related to the verification system that Twitter is now addressing. 

“The intention is to open verification to everyone,” Dorsey said on Thursday. “And to do it in a way that is scalable [so] we’re not in the way and people can verify more facts about themselves and we don’t have to be the judge and imply any bias on our part.” 

Twitter previously tried to overhaul the verification system in 2016 by accepting applications from users who want a verified account. Twitter performed the verification in-house, assigning the coveted checkmark to actors, musicians, and so on. But Twitter halted the application process in November after a backlash over the verification of Jason Kessler, the main organizer of the white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

“Our agents have been following our verification policy correctly, but we realized some time ago the system is broken and needs to be reconsidered,” Dorsey said at the time. 

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Twitter CEO aims to overhaul verification as digital coin scams grow

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and product director David Gasca indicated during a Periscope live-stream on Thursday, March 8, that the company wants all users to sport a verification badge. Their intent arrives as scammers take to the social platform to steal money from unsuspecting victims through accounts created using a flaw in the verification system. Twitter users believe these accounts are “official” and backed by Twitter, handing over small amounts of digital currency to scammers for a promise of a big return, but remain empty-handed. 

“The main problem is we use it to mean identity, but because of the way it was originally started, where it was only given to certain very large public figures, celebrities, etcetera, it came to have a lot of status associated with it, as well,” Gasca said. “They think of it as credibility. Twitter stands behind this person, Twitter believes that this person is someone that — what they’re saying is great and authentic, which is not at all what we mean by the checkmark.” 

That is why victims fall prey to the cryptocurrency scams proliferating across Twitter: Many accounts appear to be verified and backed by Twitter, which they are not. The problem is getting out of hand, pushing legitimate Twitter accounts to continuously warn followers about the scams. In return, these accounts inadvertently violate Twitter’s policies and face a permanent ban.

A prime example is the Kraken Exchange cryptocurrency trading platform, whose support-related Twitter account temporarily went offline due to repeated warnings to followers. Twitter eventually lifted the ban. 

“Safety tip: Beware of twitter handles that are similar to ours that promise coin giveaways, if you send them a deposit first. We are not doing a giveaway at this time,” Kraken’s support team warns. 

One such scam uses the Kraken logo as bait. Victims are suggested to send up to five Ethereum coins (Ether) to a specific address for up to 50 Ethereum coins in return in a big 2,000-coin “giveaway.” But victims never see the big return, nor do they get their virtual coins back. It’s a growing problem related to the verification system that Twitter is now addressing. 

“The intention is to open verification to everyone,” Dorsey said on Thursday. “And to do it in a way that is scalable [so] we’re not in the way and people can verify more facts about themselves and we don’t have to be the judge and imply any bias on our part.” 

Twitter previously tried to overhaul the verification system in 2016 by accepting applications from users who want a verified account. Twitter performed the verification in-house, assigning the coveted checkmark to actors, musicians, and so on. But Twitter halted the application process in November after a backlash over the verification of Jason Kessler, the main organizer of the white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

“Our agents have been following our verification policy correctly, but we realized some time ago the system is broken and needs to be reconsidered,” Dorsey said at the time. 

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Smart toys accurately predict whether a guide dog will make it through training

Westend61/Getty Images

What do you get when you cross the latest artificial intelligence technology with man’s (or woman’s) best friend? On one end of the spectrum, it’s the door-opening, faintly militaristic robot dog created by robotics firm Boston Dynamics. On the other, it’s a new project coming out of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where researchers have used A.I. to predict which canines have the potential to successfully complete guide dog training.

As Ceara Byrne, a Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing told Digital Trends, training guide dogs is intensive work. Many service dog organizations, such as the Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), are nonprofits that rely on donations to operate. It costs these organizations upward of $50,000 to raise and train a single service dog from puppyhood through graduation. Unfortunately, up to 60 percent of dogs in the United States that start the training never complete it.

“The earlier that we can predict which dogs will become successful working dogs, the more we can help organizations, such as CCI, save on resources and other investments,” Byrne said.

To help carry out these predictions, the team developed a sensor-filled ball and tug toy. After two years’ of continuing data collection — analyzing metrics such as the force, frequency, and duration of bites — the team claims the smart toy can tell them which dogs will complete their training with 87.5 percent accuracy. This is achieved by analyzing the “measured interactions” with the toy using machine-learning techniques to discover the patterns of interaction that correlate with the successful placement of a working dog. The results could help save up to $5 million per year in resource costs across the U.S.

“Our initial prototypes were just the beginning of a research area with tremendous potential,” Byrne said. “We are currently exploring new form factors for the instrumented toys and new interactions that might allow us to extend our work to other domains, such as police dogs, search and rescue dogs, and other working dogs. Collecting interaction information could [also] be a powerful tool for professional dog trainers and pet owners alike, as dogs could be monitored for changes in their interaction patterns that might indicate their health status as well.”

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.

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Bose’s new prototype AR glasses focus on what you hear, not what you see

Bose is a company known for audio, from noise-canceling headphones to soundbars and subwoofers, so it may not be the first company you would imagine would be working on augmented reality glasses. That said, the idea makes a lot more sense than it might at first: These glasses don’t change what you see, but rather what you hear.

Like other AR glasses, these see what is going on around you, but instead of overlaying visual information on top of what you’re looking at, they play audio cues. Looking at the glasses, you may wonder where the sound comes from since there are no earbuds or headphones to pair with them, but Bose says it uses a minuscule acoustics package built into the frame of the glasses to produce sound.

“Bose AR represents a new kind of augmented reality — one that’s made for anyone and every day,” Bose Consumer Electronics Division Vice President John Gordon said in a statement. “It places audio in your surroundings, not digital images, so you can focus on the amazing world around you — rather than a tiny display. It knows which way you’re facing, and can instantly connect that place and time with endless possibilities for travel, learning, music and more. And it can be added to products and apps we already use and love, removing some of the big obstacles that have kept AR on the sidelines.”

When it comes to what the glasses can actually do, Bose came up with a number of potential uses. The glasses could translate road signs in a foreign language and read them aloud or explain the story behind a painting you’re viewing in a museum. The glasses can also register movement, so you could potentially change your music with gestures like nodding or shaking your head.

The prototype has Bluetooth built in, as well as a microphone, letting you use Siri or Google Assistant, or even use them for hands-free calls instead of a headset. This might seem strange at first, but could be useful in situations where you want to hear what is going on around you, like driving a car. Bose says it is using a proprietary technology that means nobody but you will be able to hear the sound coming from the glasses, so privacy may not be a concern.

Bose isn’t working alone on this project; it is collaborating with research institutes like the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab and the New York University Future Reality Lab, developers and manufacturers including ASICS Studio, Strava, TripAdvisor, TuneIn, and Yelp, as well as others with non-disclosure agreements that prevent them from being announced. These glasses are still just a prototype and Bose has said it is looking at other wearables like helmets and wearables, so it isn’t currently known when we will see products using the company’s new AR platform debut.

Who knows, these might even end up being AR glasses you wouldn’t be embarrassed to wear in public.

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Blink and you’ll miss it: This robot solves a Rubik’s Cube in 0.38 seconds

Whether it’s beating us at games like the board game Go or stealing our jobs, the killer combination of artificial intelligence and robots are owning us puny humans left and right. The latest example of a high-tech achievement that will make you feel on the verge of extinction? A robot that’s capable of completing a Rubik’s Cube puzzle in just 0.38 seconds flat — which includes image capture and computation time, along with physically moving the cube.

Not only is that significantly faster than the human world record of 4.59 seconds, but it’s also a big improvement on the official robot world record of 0.637 seconds, as set in late 2016. The 0.38-second achievement isn’t yet an official record, but if it manages to achieve the same results under record-testing conditions it certainly will be.

The puzzle-cracking robot was built by Massachusetts Institute of Technology robotics student Ben Katz and software developer Jared Di Carlo. The robot starts out by looking at the Rubik’s Cube using PlayStation 3 Eye webcams, functioning at 187 fps. Using this information, its software then identifies the colors, builds a description of the cube, and passes the information on to an algorithm called “min2phase.” The algorithm creates a “solve string” that is then sent to the robot’s high-end motor controllers, which possess an extremely high torque-to-inertia ratio. In a 10 microsecond quarter-turn move, the motor reaches over 1,000 RPM.

Impressively, during its hundreds of solutions, the robot only ended up going through four different cubes. Most amazing of all? The duo thinks their robot can go even better, although we may not see this for a while.

“The machine can definitely go faster, but the tuning process is really time-consuming since debugging needs to be done with the high-speed camera, and mistakes often break the cube or blow up FETs,” Katz wrote in a blog post about the project. “Looking at the high-speed video, each 990-degree move takes about 10 ms, but the machine is actually only doing a move about every 15 ms. For the time being, Jared and I have both lost interest in playing the tuning game, but we might come back to it eventually and shave off another 100 ms or so.”

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These are the best cases and covers for the Honor 9 Lite smartphone

Honor, a sub-brand of Huawei, offers some of the best budget phones on the market. The Honor 9 Lite costs around $280 and, as we mentioned in our hands-on review, we loved the build of the device. One of the key things we mentioned is that, unlike the Honor 9 ,its more premium sibling, the Honor 9 Lite has an all-glass back, a 5.65-inch display, and a bezel-less design.

Put all these things together, and you have a smartphone that will need some protection out in the wild. Here are our picks for the best Honor 9 Lite cases and covers.

Nillkin Leather Case ($10)

This Nillkin case maintains your phone’s thin profile and gives it adequate bump and scratch protection. It has a soft, fiber lining to safeguard the screen. The phone is encased in tough polycarbonate and there’s some shock protection in case of drops. There’s also an opening for the phone’s earpiece so you can take phone calls and speak on the phone with the front flap closed. This case comes in two colors, gold or gray.

Buy one now from:

Nillkin

KuGi SS Case ($8)

If you want a bit more drop protection in a more traditional case, then this one by KuGi may fit the bill. It’s made of high-quality thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) that offers protection and is also soft to the touch. Everything is open to give you full access to the display, headphone jack, and camera. The back is a textured material that resembles leather, and the sides are also textured to offer better grip. The company claims military-grade drop protection, and you can order this case in black, navy, gray, and red.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Caseflex Gel Case ($4)

Do you want to cover up your Honor 9 Lite or show off the beautiful design? Well, you can do both with the Caseflex clear gel case. The raised button covers give you great feedback and a tactile feel. The case also has large, reinforced corners for great drop protection. On closer inspection, you can see that the corners extend so that the phone’s display never touches down on any surface.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Sleo Wallet Case ($11)

Who doesn’t love a good wallet case? Sometimes you need to run out the door, and you don’t want to carry a lot of things. This wallet case from SLEO has a synthetic leather exterior and a soft TPU material on the inside. The case holds the phone securely and protects against drops. Inside the cover, you’ll find pockets for your credit cards and cash. The wallet has cutouts for the camera, fingerprint scanner, and all other buttons. You can order this wallet in pink, black, red, and white.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Mama Mouth Shockproof Case ($8)

This heavy-duty, shockproof case is for people who want their phone to survive serious abuse. The case features a dual-layer system. It has TPU inside for shock absorption and a hard polycarbonate shell. It also has a locking kickstand that is perfect for watching videos or reading. The textured design provides very good grip. It’s a rugged case, so it definitely adds some bulk and the design is chunky, so it won’t suit everyone. You can order this case in green, black, blue, magenta, orange, purple, and red.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

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The best screen recorder

A good screen recorder will help you capture video of any portion of your computer screen, edit it, and upload or share to whatever platform you desire—and a free download is also nice. We’ve got a collection of great recorder apps, so take a look!

OBS Studio (Windows, Mac, Linux)

OBS Studio is one of the top screen recorders for general purposes, including everything from casually capturing video to professional livestreaming. It also offers some of the best compatibility we’ve seen, working well with Windows, Mac and Linux.

There’s a lot to unpack with this app, but it includes the ability to create scenes from multiple different sources like window captures, images, text, browser window captures, and webcams, and combine them all into one video for later publishing (yes, Twitch and YouTube support is included). The interface will be familiar if you’ve working with video editing before, and it offers full dock customization so you can have everything just where you want it. There’s also audio mixer options, hotkeys, and just…everything you could want. However, newcomers have a lot to learn, so keep reading if you want a simple option.

Try it now at:

Open Broadcaster Software

Flashback Express (Windows)

Flashback Express offers a free recorder that offers a bit more simplicity than OBS Studio. There’s a greater focus on streamlining options to make them easier for newcomers to understand experiment with. You can record anywhere on the PC screen with whatever sized recording window you want (including sound) and even create a schedule to record something while you are away.

If you want, you can add notes to the recording and immediately publish it to YouTube when you’re done, all from the app. There are no watermarks to worry about and no complicated tools to learn – you can literally get started in minutes after you download. Needless to say, it’s an easy recommendation.

Try it now at:

FlashBack

TinyTake (Windows, Mac)

As the name suggests, TinyTake is a smaller, friendlier screen recorder that excels capturing short clips. You can only take 120 minutes of video at a time, but the interface is the most user-friendly we’ve found, while still managing to include major features. You can adjust the screen capture window to the size you need, annote the captured video with text, drawings or objects, and share the content in whatever way you need. If you don’t need a screen recorder for a large project but still need a high-quality tool for a particular task, TinyTake is an excellent choice.

Try it now at:

TinyTake

Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder (Web-based)

Apowersoft is a web-based recorder, which means all you have to do is visit the website and click on the button that says “Start Recording.” Well, it’s slightly more complicated than that—you also have to input information about what recording mode you want and what region you are in. When finished, you can quickly upload the video to a variety of platforms in many different formats, based on your needs. It’s a very simple recorder without some of the flashy features that other free recorders have, but it’s fast, and nothing is simpler to use.

Try it now at:

Apowersoft

Snagit (Windows, Mac

Snagit has an excellent drag-and-adjust capture window that makes it easy to quickly capture exactly what you want. The app backs this up with full editing interface that allows you to add whatever text or icons you need – as well as linking specific people to portions of the video. Additional capabilities, like extracting text from a screen capture, or sharing via Screencast, only make Snagit more useful. It’s particularly well-suited to crafting tutorials and explanations.

Snagit does come have one negative, however—you have to pay for it, and it’s not exactly cheap. That makes this app best for long-term work when you know you’ll have to use a screen recorder long into the future. To be sure, get the trial version first and make sure that you like it well enough.

Try it now at:

TechSmith ($50)

Filmora Scrn (Mac)

Finally, a screen recorder designed specifically for Macs! It’s a good one, too. You can adjust the recording to anywhere between 15 and 120fps, record from your webcam and your screen simultaneously for those livestreaming sessions, and add edits or effects wherever you want. The interface is also aimed at Mac users—and to no surprise, the app excels at augmenting video for design purposes.

Try it now at:

Wondershare

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Latest round of Motorola layoffs could spell the end of the Moto X smartphone

Just a few weeks ago, we reported that HTC had laid off a large portion of its U.S. smartphone division. Now, it looks like it could be Motorola’s turn.

According to a post on TheLayoff from someone claiming to be a former employee, Motorola has told a large portion of its Chicago workforce that their last day of work will be April 6. The initial post mentioned that the company may have laid off as much as half of its Chicago workforce, however Motorola has since denied that. The post also sparked rumors that the Moto Z may be nearing the end of its life span — another claim that Motorola denied. It could instead be the Moto X that gets the chop, according to an anonymous source in a report from Android Police. We reached out to Motorola for conformation, and received a replay saying that the company “does not comment on rumors.”

“In late 2017, (Motorola parent) Lenovo announced a worldwide resource action that would occur over the next several quarters, and impacting less than two percent of its global workforce,” said Motorola in a statement to GSMArena. This week’s employment reductions are a continuation of that process. We are reducing our Motorola operations in Chicago, however this did not impact half of our workforce there, and our Moto Z family will continue.”

While it’s good to hear that the Moto Z will continue, the “premium midrange” Moto X has been a staple of Motorola’s lineup for years now, and it would be sad to see it go. It seems as though the latest iteration of the device was in its final stages of development — it leaked online just a few months ago. We assume that both the flagship Moto Z3 and budget Moto G6 are both still moving forward.

The news is just the latest in a series of Motorola layoffs. Most recently, it was announced in late 2016 that Lenovo would be laying off as many as 1,100 employees. At the time, the company said it was committed to keeping the Chicago branch, and while the latest news doesn’t mean it will be closing the headquarters, the fact that even more layoffs have been announced could mean that the end may be near for Motorola in Chicago.

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Blue shell your commute: Mario Kart temporarily races onto Google Maps

To honor Mario Day this Saturday (Mar.10 — get it?), Google has added a special, cross-promotional surprise to its Maps app: Mario Kart. Starting on Friday, March 9, both iOS and Android users of Google Maps will be able to press a yellow question mark button (familiar to any longtime Mario fans) on the bottom left corner of their screen to enable “Mario Time.” This will supplement the traditional blue guidance line that leads you to your destination with a 3D rendering of everyone’s favorite Italian plumber, cruising along your chosen route.

Google, for its part, asked that people still be safe and not use the app feature as an excuse to “throw bananas or red shells at other drivers in real life.” The update which introduces the feature has already begun rolling out to users on Friday, March 9, and it will remain active for the following week. Google has encouraged fans to screenshot and share their Mario commutes on Twitter with the hashtag #MarioMaps (though of course people should be careful not to dox themselves). Although it feels like a transparent bit of cross-promotional advertising between Google and Nintendo, a Google rep assured TechCrunch that no money changed hands in order to make this happen.

WHO SAYS NO TO THIS?!Thanks @googlemaps ???????? pic.twitter.com/C441XnTPhE

— Trisha Hershberger (@thatgrltrish) March 9, 2018

Wahoo! Now you can navigate the world as Mario in @GoogleMaps to celebrate #MAR10Day! Check out #MarioMaps on Google Maps now for a week. pic.twitter.com/iX3uZMfLrc

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 9, 2018

Google has a long history of lighthearted joke features like this in its various products, particularly on April Fools Day. Previous Google Maps pranks include an explorable TARDIS from popular BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who or the ability to navigate through street view as the Loch Ness Monster. You can check out our running list of our favorite Google pranks here. Google and Nintendo previously collaborated on a 2012 April Fools Day launch of a supposed 8-bit version of Google Maps that came in a plastic cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Nintendo has made a tentative foray into mobile gaming in the last several years, finding mixed success with games like Super Mario Run, Miitomo, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. Now that the seal has been broken, we would not be surprised to see more collaborations between Google and Nintendo in the future, given both companies’ playful sensibilities.

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