Mozilla’s ‘Hubs’ builds a chatroom in VR for any browser and headset

On Thursday, April 26, Mozilla launched an early preview of a social experiment for mixed reality headsets called Hubs. It’s based on WebVR, a web-based platform enabling virtual reality experiences within a browser without the need for additional software, plug-ins, or an app store. Hub supposedly works in all browsers and with every mixed reality headset now available ranging from the HTC Vive to Google Cardboard. 

“You can even use your desktop or mobile phone if you don’t have access to any VR hardware. Everyone can come together and communicate with each other in this online social space,” Mozilla states. “The experience will progressively scale to make use of the hardware that is available to you.” 

So what is Hubs exactly? It’s a private room for hanging out with your friends. To start, simply choose one of three scenes: A living room, a medieval fantasy setting, or a terrace overlooking a deep rocky pool of water. After that, you choose a display name, an avatar, and grant Hubs access to your microphone. A share button generates a link so you can invite others to your virtual space. 

That is just for accessing a private room using a PC without a headset. We took the medieval setting for a spin with the Samsung Gear VR, and the only difference was a prompt to select the headset from a list: Enter on a phone, enter in VR (Cardboard), enter in Gear VR, or enter on Daydream using Google Chrome. After that, we jumped into Mozilla’s virtual space. 

In this setting, you will find a cottage occupied by a “frozen” farmer, meaning he appears to be plowing but is frozen in place. A pathway stretches in parallel with the cottage to lead you past a river house with a spinning wheel to a bridge manned by a frozen fisherman. The path continues across the bridge and into a small forest (with frozen deer), or into a castle where you can climb the steps and fondle a toy duck on the second floor. 

That said, the visuals are rather basic, sporting flat colors save for a little detail in the castle, rooftops, and wooden doors. The only moving components are a windmill, the river house wheel, and the castle’s two flags. If the clouds above are in motion, then they’re moving so slow we can’t see any change in the sky. 

The whole point of this experiment is not to dive deep into an immersive experience, but to hang out with friends in a private, virtual environment. Based on what we have seen thus far, the only purpose is to chat: There are no other tools for interaction such as games, objects to throw, and areas to really explore.

But don’t worry, this is just a start. Mozilla will release tools and new features in the coming months to scale up the experience. The goal includes custom spaces, additional avatar options, integration with existing communication tools, and more. 

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New startup promises ‘world’s first’ CRISPR-powered disease detection

Over the past few years, the gene-editing tool CRISPR has breathed new life into the field of genetics. Suddenly, genetic engineering was deemed both simple and efficient. CRISPR has been used to make specific tweaks to the genomes of myriad plants and animals, editing things like horns out of cattle and disease-resistance into crops.

Now, a startup called Mammoth Biosciences promises to offer unprecedented disease diagnostics, using CRISPR to detect biomarkers associated with practically any disease. Co-founded by Jennifer Doudna, one of the two researchers who first put the revolutionary tool on the map, Mammoth has branded itself as the world’s first CRISPR-powered diagnostic platform, offering high-tech disease detection via at-home tests.

The system will perform detection of any organism that contains DNA and RNA, according to the company, meaning every infectious disease (STDs, influenza malaria) and even cancers can be targets.

“Similar to a search engine, our scientists enter a code into the guide RNA to find the matching nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) strand in the disease,” Mammoth CEO Trevor Martin told Digital Trends. “Once the code is found, instead of only snipping the strand of matched RNA or DNA like one would for editing, it also has a collateral effect on reporter molecules that release a color to visually show the presence of the disease.

“For an at-home test, our vision is to have these molecules present on a disposable, credit card-sized paper test strip, which will be able to detect multiple tests on one strip,” he added. “It’s as easy as taking an at-home pregnancy test. You simply add a liquid sample to the strip and use the Mammoth app to read out the result. You’ll receive the result in under an hour.”

If we’ve learned anything about diagnostics startups who make big promises, it’s to filter their claims through a healthy dose of skepticism. That said, if Mammoth’s ambitions hold true, it would mean huge changes in efficiency and productivity for fields like healthcare and agriculture.

Martin wouldn’t share specifics on how much these at-home tests would cost but he insisted that the system would be, “affordable and as simple as taking an at-home pregnancy test.”

He added, “Our vision is to democratize access and knowledge to your own health and make it more accessible, so affordability is a priority.”

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Facebook, Microsoft follow Google’s lead, replace gun emoji with a water pistol

Emojipedia

Following the news that Google is replacing its pistol emoji into a water pistol, two more companies have decided to do the same. Both Facebook and Microsoft have openly announced plans to follow suit.

The growing trend has been seen by a variety of companies over the last few years. Apple had been the first to start the trend in 2016, with tech giants like Samsung and Twitter following its lead. Facebook and Microsoft are the last two companies to make the official switch from the original gun emoji to the water pistol.

But it’s important to note that Microsoft originally displayed its gun emoji as a ray gun back in 2013. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to take off and the company reverted back the same year Apple made the switch.

According to Business Insider, a Facebook spokesperson explained that the company is making the change in order to stay consistent and to avoid confusion. It plans to discuss consistency as a whole when it comes to all tech brands with the Unicode Consortium.

Meanwhile, Microsoft took to Twitter to announce the changes it’s making to the gun emoji. The tweet included a preview of what the new emoji will look like and a brief blurb behind why it’s making the switch. But the company has yet to release information on when exactly the water pistol will be available on Windows 10.

We are in the process of evolving our emojis to reflect our values and the feedback we’ve received. Here’s a preview: pic.twitter.com/BlB3yYTSht

— Microsoft (@Microsoft) April 25, 2018

As for the aesthetic of the new water pistol emojis, mostly all of the companies are sticking to the same design. Apple, Samsung, and Twitter all have a similar green and yellow design. The only company to go against the grain a bit was Google, whose water pistol looks far more like a Super Soaker and also boasts an orange color. According to Microsoft’s preview, it seems the company went for more of a hybrid among the existing versions — combining the super soaker design with a green, yellow, and orange color scheme.

It makes sense that these tech companies want to make the change to provide uniformity for its users across all brands but it also comes at an interesting time. With conversations of gun control and violence on the rise in the United States, it’s also a way to take a less controversial stance on the matter.

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Samsung’s latest 970 EVO SSDs offer stellar performance with a price to match

The humble M.2 solid state drive is easy to overlook — after all they’re only about the size of a stick of gum.

M.2 drives typically live on your motherboard somewhere, tucked away on the back or hidden away under all the other hardware in your PC. And it’s a shame, because some M.2 drives — like Samsung’s 970 EVO — deserve a lot more attention than they get.

Spoiled for storage

With all the cloud storage options we have available to us, it’s easy to take storage for granted. Our phones have between 128GB and 256GB of space, while Google, Apple, Microsoft, Dropbox and dozens of other companies offer gigabytes upon gigabytes of cloud storage for free. That’s great for sharing documents, photos, and other files between devices but cloud storage can’t do everything. When you need to store files locally, for gaming, photo/video editing, or just to keep them close at hand, your choice of hard drive or solid state drive matters.

How quickly your computer can serve up those files, move them around, or make them accessible to powerful software suites like Adobe Premiere, can bottleneck your everyday performance and that’s where Samsung’s 970 EVO drives come in.

Quick and quicker

We tested both the 500GB and 1TB models of the 970 EVO, and both drives performed beautifully. Even the massive 1TB model managed to maintain read and write speeds upwards of 2.5 GB/s (gigabytes-per-second). Specifically, the 500GB model hit read speeds of 2,738 MB/s and write speeds of 2,494 MB/s. Meanwhile, the 1TB model hit slightly higher read and write speeds: 2,765 MB/s, and 2,503 MB/s respectively. The differences in speed here are more than likely just the natural variation between SSDs rather than any indication that either drive is truly quicker than the other.

Just look at the kind of speed we saw out of the previous generation Samsung 960 PRO. In the Origin Neuron gaming desktop, the 512GB 960 Pro hit an impressive read speed 2,557 MB/s, and write speed of 1,987 MB/s. It’s important to point out that these are great speeds, but look at how they compare to the 870 EVOs. That’s a huge performance jump in just one generation. To clarify, even a decent mechanical hard drive will only hit a fraction of these speeds. We typically see read and write speeds around 150 MB/s for mechanical drives.

So, it’s impressive that the 1TB model is just as quick as its smaller sibling. That means this tiny stick-of-gum-sized hard drive can offer incredible speed, and massive amounts of storage space without the need for a backup mechanical drive.

That’s good news for a couple reasons. First, because who doesn’t want to slim down the interior of their desktop PC? Second, because it shows that M.2 drives aren’t just for operating system partitions or occasional use. The 970 EVO proves you don’t have to sacrifice speed for storage space. You’ll just have to pay a little extra for it.

Tricky pricing

Samsung’s best SSDs have never been cheap and there’s a reason for that — they’re quick, spacious, powerful, and among the best on the market. We’ve come to expect storage to be cheap because it’s typically disposable — like those free cloud storage accounts we all use. Mechanical hard drives are getting cheaper and cheaper as SSDs slowly start to take their place in the market. Go search any electronics retailer for “1TB hard drive,” and chances are you’ll find one for under $50 bucks. It’s not going to be fast or small (or maybe even reliable), but it’ll be cheap.

Samsung’s 970 EVO SSDs are the opposite: They aren’t cheap, but they are small, quick, and reliable. The 970 EVO lineup starts at $120, for the 250GB model, $230 for the 500GB, $450 for the 1TB model, and $850 for the 2TB model. That’s not exactly cheap, but you get what you pay for here.

The TB 970 EVO will last you a very long time. It’s going to be a couple years at least before we start treating terabytes like gigabytes. Chances are, if you invest in a Samsung 970 EVO SSD, it’s going to be going strong long after your GPU and CPU start to show their age.

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This robot eel glides through saltwater without making a sound

Even before Gore Verbinski’s disappointing recent horror movie A Cure for Wellness, we were pretty creeped out by eels. As if the real thing wasn’t unnerving enough, however, engineers and marine biologists from the University of California, San Diego, have created an eel robot that’s designed to swim silently through saltwater — using the same rhythmic, ribbon-like motions as its natural counterpart.

“The robot is powered by artificial muscles that contract and expand when stimulated with electricity,” Caleb Christianson, a Ph.D. student at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, told Digital Trends. “By arranging these muscles and stimulating them in a certain sequence, we can generate forward propulsion.”

The eel robot does not carry an onboard electric motor. Instead, it is decked out with cables which apply voltage to both the water around it and to pouches of water inside its artificial muscles. The robot’s electronics deliver a negative charge to the surrounding water and a positive charge internally, thereby activating its muscles. These charges cause the muscles to bend. Fortunately for surrounding marine life, they are low enough current to be perfectly safe — so that any creature which hasn’t already fled in terror from the robot eel won’t find itself harmed by being in the same vicinity.

“Traditional robots for underwater exploration are typically powered by propellers or jets that generate a lot of noise, and are made out of rigid materials that may damage their surroundings if they were to bump into them,” Christianson continued. “Instead, the structure of our robot is completely soft, which reduces the risk of damage to the environment. The artificial muscles that we use are [also] silent, which allows the robot to swim without making any noise.”

Christianson noted that, right now, the project is still a proof-of-concept to demonstrate a means of underwater propulsion. In the future, the team hopes to add a variety of sensors and cameras, as well as optimize the design, so as to use the eel-bot for the purpose of underwater exploration.

A paper describing the work, “Translucent soft robots driven by frameless fluid electrode dielectric elastomer actuators,” was recently published in the journal Science Robotics.

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The ‘Am I Stoned?’ app gives a new definition to your ‘high’ score

We have previously written about Breathalyzer-style tests that cops may one day be able to use in the event that they suspect a person to be driving under the influence of marijuana. But what if there was an app which could let users carry out a quick self-assessment to find out just how impaired they are after an evening with the wacky ‘baccy? That is what researchers at the University of Chicago claim to have created with an in-development mobile application called, subtly, “Am I Stoned?”

“We have developed an initial prototype of a phone application that measures THC-induced cognitive and psychomotor impairments,” Elisa Pabon, a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, told Digital Trends. “The application is comprised of four tasks, which span a variety of cognitive and psychomotor skills. These were based on prior findings stating THC consumption led to impairments or changes in attention, reaction time, and various facets of memory.”

The idea of the app is to gauge a baseline sober and under-the-influence performance from users, thereby allowing the app to work out an accurate personalized impairment measure. Am I Stoned? comprises a variety of minigame-style activities, including a test of how quickly you can tap the screen, a memory game, and a test that requires you to shake your smartphone whenever a blue dot appears on the display.

The app’s efficacy has been measured by its creators on 24 irregular marijuana users, who each took a capsule containing either a placebo or 7.5 or 15 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the cannabis ingredient which causes intoxication. The findings were promising, although the researchers still say that work needs to be done before the finished product is released to the public — if, indeed, this happens at all.

“[The app still] needs to be optimized and continually tested in order to confirm its validity and reliability,” Pabon continued. “I hope it is a first step toward developing discrete and reliable measure of THC-induced impairments. This would prove immensely beneficial for users who want to understand the level of impairment they are experiencing and how it may differ from their own perception.”

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The ‘Am I Stoned?’ app gives a new definition to your ‘high’ score

We have previously written about Breathalyzer-style tests that cops may one day be able to use in the event that they suspect a person to be driving under the influence of marijuana. But what if there was an app which could let users carry out a quick self-assessment to find out just how impaired they are after an evening with the wacky ‘baccy? That is what researchers at the University of Chicago claim to have created with an in-development mobile application called, subtly, “Am I Stoned?”

“We have developed an initial prototype of a phone application that measures THC-induced cognitive and psychomotor impairments,” Elisa Pabon, a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, told Digital Trends. “The application is comprised of four tasks, which span a variety of cognitive and psychomotor skills. These were based on prior findings stating THC consumption led to impairments or changes in attention, reaction time, and various facets of memory.”

The idea of the app is to gauge a baseline sober and under-the-influence performance from users, thereby allowing the app to work out an accurate personalized impairment measure. Am I Stoned? comprises a variety of minigame-style activities, including a test of how quickly you can tap the screen, a memory game, and a test that requires you to shake your smartphone whenever a blue dot appears on the display.

The app’s efficacy has been measured by its creators on 24 irregular marijuana users, who each took a capsule containing either a placebo or 7.5 or 15 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the cannabis ingredient which causes intoxication. The findings were promising, although the researchers still say that work needs to be done before the finished product is released to the public — if, indeed, this happens at all.

“[The app still] needs to be optimized and continually tested in order to confirm its validity and reliability,” Pabon continued. “I hope it is a first step toward developing discrete and reliable measure of THC-induced impairments. This would prove immensely beneficial for users who want to understand the level of impairment they are experiencing and how it may differ from their own perception.”

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Sprint plans competing version of T-Mobile’s unlimited data plan for seniors

It looks like Sprint is gearing up to better compete with the likes of T-Mobile. According to a recent report from Android Police, the company is planning a new data plan specifically for seniors 55 years or older. It’ll be an unlimited data plan, and will allow for two lines for only $70 per month — which is far cheaper than most average unlimited data plans in the U.S.

The plan is apparently aimed at competing with T-Mobile’s own 55+ plan, which also allows those 55 years and older to get two lines for $70. On a regular T-Mobile plan, this would cost around $120 — so seniors are getting a pretty significant discount.

According to the Android Police report, Sprint’s plan will offer some decent bonuses, too — probably as a way to lure older customers to Sprint instead of T-Mobile. For example, customers will get unlimited ho spot use, as well as access to the Sprint roaming service, which allows customers to use 2G speed data at no extra cost. Of course, if you do use a hot spot, you’ll be limited to 3G speeds, which will be a little frustrating.

As you would expect from a Sprint unlimited data plan, there are some limitations to consider. For starters, there are speed caps on some types of data — like video, which is capped at 480p, and music, which is capped at 500kbps.

As Android Police notes, Sprint’s new plan likely won’t quite match up to T-Mobile’s. While both offer the same price for two lines of unlimited data, T-Mobile has better roaming considering it offers unlimited data instead of Sprint’s 100MB limit. Still, both of the plans should offer some interesting benefits to those 55 and older.

In general, the carriers are getting increasingly competitive with their unlimited data plans, and hopefully that will only continue. T-Mobile has largely been the leader in the industry, at least when it comes to price, and the company generally strays away from the small print limitations that the other carriers employ. It will be interesting to see if Verizon and AT&T follow suit with their own unlimited data plans for those over 55 years old.

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This camera eliminates the ocean waves so scientists can study coral

Think space is the final frontier? As NASA researcher Ved Chirayath points out, scientists know more about the surface of the moon and Mars combined than the ocean floor. With a camera and artificial intelligence, however, Chirayath is working to change that. Fluid Cam is a camera system that uses fluid lensing technology in order to eliminate the distortion of waves to see more detail and study the coastal ocean systems.

Fluid Cams use a mix of hardware like the custom optics and software in order to remove the movement of the water from the image. Without the disruption of the waves, the scientists viewing the image can see the detail on the coral, down to the centimeter, along with noting if the ocean floor there is rocky or sandy, NASA says. The camera can’t see the deepest ocean floors, but removing the waves allows researchers to see details they otherwise couldn’t in otherwise clear waters, ideal for looking at coral.

NASA has been experimenting with Fluid Cams since 2015, conducting tests on how the cameras work and creating benchmarks for the camera system. The Fluid Cam has already flown on a drone (like that whale snot drone) but now NASA researchers are facing the next challenge: Managing all that data. After all, the Fluid Cam has 550 MB per second coming off the camera (enough to fill the typical laptop in 200 seconds).

Chirayath says the next step is to label the images already collected in order to develop an artificial intelligence program capable of going through the mass amount of images from Fluid Cam and collecting data on the corals. Once researchers can quickly assess all that data, the plan is to use a Fluid Cam on a satellite to monitor the health of the coral reefs.

The camera technology, however, could be used to understand more than just coral health. “We’re pushing new boundaries every day and we are going to be able to do new science at an unprecedented level,” Chirayath said. “We can actually take a multi-spectral light source and couple it with these cameras to create a whole type of new remote sensing that can be used even on Mars rovers to imaging satellites going by Pluto.”

The research is being funded by a grant from the Earth Science Technology Office.

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Oculus Go: Everything you need to know!

The next headset from Oculus should be here any day now.

At Oculus Connect 4, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Oculus is working a new headset that sits in a “sweet spot” somewhere between Gear VR and Rift.

Officially called Oculus Go, this headset requires no phone and no cables running to the PC. It will be able to play movies, run games, and help you meet up with friends in VR. We’ve got the details for you here!

April 26th Update: F8 Conference live stream details!

If the rumors are to be believed, Facebook plans to use its annual F8 conference to unveil the sales plan for Oculus Go. It’s possible some time during this presentation will be used to offer retail availability, as well as an opportunity to pre-order the long-teased standalone VR headset. If you want to catch the Keynote presentation live so you are first in line, be sure to watch the F8 live address on May 1st!

Watch the F8 Live Stream here!

What is Oculus Go?

Oculus Go is the third headset from Oculus, and it’s meant to sit between Gear VR and Oculus Rift. A cordless headset, you’ll no longer have to strap in with your PC or have enough juice on your phone in order to play in VR.

It is built to be lightweight, has a new mesh foam interface, and it supposedly has the best visual clarity so far seen in VR, thanks to new lenses and a WQHD LCD fast-switch display with a higher fill-factor than OLED. We learned at CES 2018 that Oculus Go is going to be made by Xiaomi, and it will be run by a Snapdragon 821 processor making it more than capable of playing the awesome games that are going to be available.

Oculus says this headset lives somewhere in between the Gear VR and Oculus Rift, but it leans much closer to the Gear VR than you might expect. This is a standalone headset, meaning the computer is inside the headset with the display, but it’s still an Android-powered headset. The good news is this means it will run many of the apps currently available for the Gear VR. That means the headset will not let you walk around and do much. Functionally, this will be very similar to the Gear VR.

Read more: Lenovo Mirage vs Oculus Go

Whats the difference between Oculus Go and Gear VR?

To begin with, Oculus Go is a stand-alone headset. This means no need to be wired into your computer like Oculus Rift, or the need for a top of the line phone like with Gear VR. It’s a middle of the road option that is priced affordably in an effort to draw in new users to help Oculus reach their goal of one billion VR users.

Instead of including headphones with the headset, a spatial audio experience is built right into the headset. That is spatial speakers that are built on the rails of the headset to let you hear what’s going on clearly without headphones. Of course, if you’d rather go with classic headphones, you can plug a set of your own into a 3.5mm jack. Oculus Go will have a controller similar to that of Gear VR, meaning devs can create apps that work on both platforms.

Indeed, a lot of the Gear VR’s best apps will be available for the Oculus Go from day one. The controller employs three degrees of freedom (DoF), which is the same as the Gear VR controller. It’s interesting to note that the Go headset will also use three DoF. To put that into perspective, the Oculus Rift uses six DoF.

Oculus Go will also have access to its own catalog of games and apps to dive into on launch day. While ports of Gear VR games are sure to show up, you’ll be getting access to new content with Oculus Go. From the photos we’ve seen of Oculus Go, there is also a fairly pared down look compared to Gear VR. No touchpad on the side of the headset, and only two buttons on the top; volume controls, and a power button.

Games and Experiences

Since we have been notified that Gear VR apps and games will be compatible with Oculus Go we know we’ll have plenty to keep us occupied. Some of the titles in games you’ll be able to play are:

• Where’s Om Nom?
• Bait!
• Cloudlands VR Minigolf
• Lands End
• Ocean Rift
• Smash Hit
• Rush
• VR Sports Challenge
• Dragon Front
• Sing Space
• Dead and Buried
• Anshar Wars 2
• Ultrawings
• Rangi
• Catan
• Anshar Online
• Piece By Piece: Assembling They Suspect Nothing

And as for Experiences you’ll have:

• Facebook 360
• Netflix
• Discovery VR
• Hulu
• Jurassic World: Apatosaurus
• Rooms
• A Night’s Sky
• Star Chart

When is it launching?

The official website for Oculus Go still has the announced release date to be sometime in early 2018. If you want to keep notified keep checking in or sign up for their e-mailed newsletter by following the link below.

Redditer LifeWithAdd has found an image released by Oculus where it simply says “2018” instead of “early 2018″. Yet, as the website still shows “Early”, we’ll be expecting the headset before June 2018!

Get notified about the launch date at Oculus

How much will it cost?

While we don’t have an exact launch date yet, we do know how much Oculus Go is going to cost. You’ll be able to pick up this standalone headset for a tidy sum of $199. Considering Gear VR alone costs $129.99 and requires a top of the line smartphone, this is pretty exciting news!

Are you excited?

For now, we don’t have a ton of information about everything that Oculus Go will be able to offer, but that should be changing soon. However, the details we do have are definitely worth getting excited about, especially since this is a stand-alone headset, with an affordable price tag. Are you excited about Oculus Go, or are you sticking with another Oculus headset? Let us know about it in the comments below!

Updated April 2018: We’ve updated this article with new information for developers planning to prep apps for Oculus Go!