House Judiciary Committee hearing on social media called a ‘hoax’

“A few weeks after Mark Zuckerberg appeared in front of Congress, House Representatives once again discussed social media, however, this time the guests were a little different. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) convened a hearing on “Filtering Practices of Social Media Platforms,” without the attendance of any executives from Facebook, Twitter or Google in an event that ranking member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said “prioritized a hoax.” Alongside David Chavern of the News Media Alliance and American Press Institute, Berin Szoka of TechFreedom and New York Law School professor Ari Waldman were self-titled social media stars Diamond and Silk.

The two sisters gained notoriety for supporting Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, and maintain an active following for their videos on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. A familiar scrap with Facebook — where they have around 1.4 million followers — last year over monetization has led to the pair insisting that their videos are being censored for their conservative views, even though an evaluation of the data by ThinkProgress suggests their reach is faring better than similar liberal-leaning outlets like Rachel Maddow and The Young Turks.

Rep. Goodlatte statement claimed he “slammed” social media companies for skipping the meeting, saying ” There is, however, a big difference between removing illegal activity and suppressing speech. Americans recognize that and they want to know why they’re being banned, blocked, or labeled online, which is why we asked Facebook, Twitter, and Google to participate in today’s hearing.”

Diamond and Silk (real names Lynette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson) pushed the ongoing line by conservatives that their views are being censored, with Hardaway claiming that “If the shoe was on the other foot and Mark Zuckerberg was a conservative, and we were liberals, all fences and all chains would’ve broke loose, you know it and I know it!” More controversially, under oath the pair denied being paid by the Trump campaign, despite a Federal Election Commission record showing a payment of $1,274.94 for “field consulting.” In a statement to Slate, the campaign treasurer said it was a misunderstanding, with the payment representing reimbursement for air travel costs to a campaign event.

Meanwhile, Nadler said in his remarks that “the censorship argument—the central thesis of this hearing—doesn’t hold up under even the most basic scrutiny” since their page received more traffic in March of this year than in 2017. When Congress members asked about Facebook’s interaction with the pair during Zuckerberg’s visit, the company said it had tried to contact Diamond and Silk by phone and email after mistakenly sending a notification that their content was “unsafe.”

It’s unclear what benefit will come from their testimony — even with company execs this kind of thing can be a waste of everyone’s time — but you can watch the entire two-and-a-half-hour hearing yourself right here to get the full, uh, experience.

Source: House Judiciary Committee

Microsoft rolls out encryption, message forward prevention in Outlook

As promised, Microsoft is rolling out new security features to Outlook.com. The company said earlier this month that its online email client would soon introduce email encryption and an email forward prevention feature to better secure messages for all Outlook.com users. The rollout unsurprisingly arrives after Google unleashed a revamp of its web-based Gmail client on Wednesday. 

The new email encryption component essentially means the message remains encrypted from end to end, preventing hackers from reading your emails if they intercept and leak your communication. Recipients not using Outlook.com or Office 365 will receive a link to a trusted Office 365 webpage to either get a one-time passcode to read the message or re-authenticate with a trusted provider. Otherwise, messages can be decoded via Outlook.com, the Outlook apps for mobile, and Outlook for desktop. 

“When composing an email in Outlook.com, sensitive information like social security numbers can be detected to provide you with a suggestion to send with encryption,” Kirk Koenigsbauer, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, said in a statement. 

As for the “prevent forwarding” feature, this component puts a leash on your emails, preventing recipients from forwarding and/or copying emails you send through Outlook.com. Even more, all attachments sent through Outlook.com with the Prevent Forwarding feature switched on will be encrypted. 

That said, if a recipient downloads your attached file and sends it to someone else, it can’t be opened. The same restriction applies if the recipient saves your email as a file and sends it as an attachment. This keeps the conversations and data exchanged between you and the recipient private and prevents sharing (unless by you, of course). 

The two new features will appear on Outlook.com once you create a new message. The “encrypt” drop-down menu resides next to the Attach button and provides options to simply encrypt the message, or encrypt and prevent forwarding.  

The news arrives after Google launched a revision of its web-based Gmail client. It’s mostly an interface upgrade so you can manage your volumes of email faster and more easily. For instance, move the cursor over an email and see a new overlay with options to archive, delete, mark as read/unread, and snooze the message. 

“Gmail will also ‘nudge’ you to follow up and respond to messages with quick reminders that appear next to your email messages to help make sure nothing slips through the cracks,” Gmail product manager Matthew Izatt said. 

Gmail currently doesn’t provide an end-to-end encryption component, or does it prevent recipients from forwarding your email. To encrypt messages, Gmail users must install an extension in Chrome such as Secure Mail by Streak. It inserts a lock button next to the Compose button and requires you to generate a password the recipient will need to open the message. The recipient also needs the extension installed in Chrome as well. 

The two new features added to Outlook.com are part of a larger security update to Office 365. New goodies include File Restore for personal OneDrive accounts, ransomware detection and recovery, password-protected sharing links, and more. 

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Gmail to get much-needed visual updates and advanced security features

Dell’s new patent application shows how a two-screen laptop deals with DRM

A patent application just published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shows that Dell wants to create a laptop with two screens. Following on the heels of Apple and Microsoft, the patent indicates that Dell’s design sports two connected screens: One serving as the primary display and one as the secondary, the latter of which could serve as a virtual keyboard. The laptop will determine which of the two displays will serve as the primary based on orientation. 

According to the provided diagrams, the two screens are connected by a 360-degree hinge enabling your typical 2-in-1 modes: Laptop, tent, stand, and tablet. For the latter two, the second screen will be switched off while both screens will remain illuminated when the device is in laptop (or clamshell) mode. Integrated sensors will determine the orientation of the current form factor and switch on/off the appropriate screen. 

But there is an issue with digital rights management (DRM), which the patent addresses. Based on the design, one screen connects to the laptop’s motherboard using an embedded DisplayPort (eDP) connector while the second uses a standard DisplayPort connector. According to the patent, the eDP component includes circuitry to decrypt encrypted content. 

Thus, the laptop will determine if the content is locked with DRM and evaluate the type of applied DRM: Extended mode, clone mode, or single mode. For extended mode, content can stretch across both screens, depending on the orientation. Clone mode simply routes the content through the eDP port and renders a copy of the same content on both screens. Meanwhile, single mode routes the content through the eDP connector and renders it only on one screen. 

Dell’s design includes a crossbar switch, which is simply a switch that connects multiple inputs to multiple outputs. It also includes a controller that determines the display mode, if the content includes DRM, and the orientation of the laptop. This controller selects the appropriate routing from one of the multiple connections to the crossbar switch. 

“In some cases, a user may provide user input to temporarily keep a particular orientation, a particular routing, or both,” the patent states. “While the orientation and/or routing is temporarily locked, the controller may ignore the data provided by the operating system, device driver, and sensors. When the user provides additional user input to remove the lock, the controller may resume determining an orientation and selecting a routing of the crossbar switch based on the data provided by the operating system, device driver, and sensors.” 

Overall, the patent mostly focuses on routing content on a dual-display computing device and doesn’t really go into detail about the underlying hardware. The patent diagrams reveal where the content control resides within the hardware layout, showing the “first content” piped through the eDP port and the “second content” piped through the normal DisplayPort connection. Both go through the crossbar switch managed by a controller before exiting to the displays. 

Dell filed its two-screen patent application on December 20.  

Editors’ Recommendations

• A future Microsoft laptop could have a foldable touch screen
• Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 review
• Dell XPS 13 9370 review
• Dell XPS 13 vs. Dell XPS 15 2-in-1
• The XPS 15 2-in-1 is Dell’s version of a concept car. Here’s how it was built

The best Asus Laptops

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Asus isn’t the biggest PC maker around, but it nevertheless manages to offer a wide range of notebook PCs. Whether you’re looking for a gaming notebook, a budget machine, a productivity-focused 2-in-1, or in some cases a mashup laptop that checks off more than one box, chances are Asus will have something made just for you.

While Asus doesn’t offer many stratospherically expensive laptops as do Microsoft and Apple, it hits just about every other price point. You can spend well under $1,000 or more than $2,000 depending on which model you look at, and you’ll enjoy solid build quality, great performance, and a nod to style that likely won’t make you feel like you’re overdressed for any computing occasion.

With all of that said, here’s our list of the best Asus laptops.

The Best

Asus ZenBook UX330UA

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Highlights

Screen: 13.3-inch IPS with Touch

Resolution: FHD or QHD+

Processor: Core i5-8250U

Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620

Memory: 8GB

Storage: 256GB SATA SSD

Camera: HD

Connectivity: Wireless AC, Bluetooth

Ports: 2x USB-A 3.1, 1x USB-C 3.1, microHDMI, microSD, 3.5mm combo audio

Battery: 57WHr

Thickness: 0.53 inches

Weight: 2.64 pounds

Price: $750

The ZenBook UX330UA isn’t the most premium Asus laptop, but it’s the one most people should buy. It’s been our favorite budget notebook for a while now — and for good reason. Pull it out of your backpack to lay it down on a table in your favorite cafe, and you won’t feel too out of place in a sea of Apple MacBooks and Microsoft Surface devices. It’s priced for buyers with a limited budget, but it looks like they spent considerably more money.

Just looking at the specifications, it’s obvious that this isn’t the most powerful laptop you can buy. Its quad-core eighth-generation Intel Core i5-8250U is plenty fast but not at the top of the class, and the SATA solid-state drive (SSD) isn’t as fast as PCIe versions on more premium laptops. Nevertheless, it’s plenty quick enough for the usual productivity tasks that are important to students and the typical office worker, and that’s more than good enough for web browsing and watching Netflix video.

Of course, it’s also just $750, and that’s a great value no matter how you spin it. Toss in its solid all-metal build quality and distinctive Asus “spun-metal concentric circle” aesthetic, and you’ll feel comfortable carrying it around and won’t think you wasted your money on a cheap, plastic, boring-looking machine.

The display is good enough, the connectivity is a mix of old-school and modern, and it’s a rather comfortable weight and thickness. Really, you just can’t go wrong if you need a laptop but have under $1,000 to spend.

You can check out our full review here.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

The Rest

Asus ZenBook 3 Deluxe

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Highlights

Screen: 14-inch IPS with touch

Resolution: Full HD

Processor: Up to Core i7-8550U

Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620

Memory: 16GB

Storage: 512GB PCIe SSD

Camera: HD

Connectivity: Wireless AC, Bluetooth

Ports: 2x USB-C with Thunderbolt 3, 1x USB-C 3.1, 3.5mm combo audio

Battery: 46WHr

Thickness: 0.51 inches

Weight: 2.41 pounds

Price: $1,700

While our previous pick was rather conservatively styled, that doesn’t mean Asus is incapable of making a bold, unconventional laptop. The ZenBook 3 Deluxe is a prime example, being an upsized version of the company’s original ZenBook 3 that was just a little too small and under-equipped for our tastes.

The ZenBook 3 Deluxe model fixes a lot of what we didn’t like about the earlier version, and then some. To begin with, it’s a lovely laptop with its deep Royal Blue color scheme, spun-metal design, and gold-colored trim. It does a great job of straddling that line between elegance and ostentation — pull it out of your backpack and you’ll have onlookers marveling at its gorgeous aesthetic and not just rolling their eyes.

It’s also a solid all-metal build without any flexing, creaking, or cracking. That’s an achievement, because it’s also incredibly thin at 0.51 inches and light at 2.42 pounds. Really, it’s built to look and feel like a little jewel of a notebook.

And yet, it still packs in a 14-inch Full HD display that provides a great experience, with plenty of brightness and contrast. It’s plenty powerful as well, with a quad-core Intel eighth-generation Core i7-8550U and fast PCIe SSD that will let you churn through your productivity tasks. You’ll need dongles to connect to legacy devices, but Thunderbolt 3 support means your future connectivity needs will be well met.

Battery life will be a little limited thanks to the 46 watt-hour battery capacity, but it should still be enough to get through a good part of a working day. If you want a great looking laptop that won’t force you to compromise on performance, then the ZenBook 3 Deluxe is an excellent choice.

You can read our review here.

Buy one now from:

Asus

Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501VI

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Highlights

Screen: 15.6-inch IPS display @ 120Hz

Resolution: Full HD

Processor: Up to Core i7-7700HQ

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 with Max-Q

Memory: Up to 24GB

Storage: Up to 1TB PCIe SSD

Camera: HD

Connectivity: Wireless AC, Bluetooth

Ports: 1x USB-C with Thunderbolt 3, 4x USB-A 3.0, 1x HDMI, 3.5mm combo audio

Battery: 50WHr

Thickness: 0.67-0.70 inches

Weight: 5.0 pounds

Price: $2,700

Asus has a strong gaming division knows as the Republic of Gaming (ROG), which puts out a variety of peripherals and PCs aimed squarely at the hardcore gamer. If you’re in the market for a gaming laptop, then chances are you’ll be taking at look at one or more Asus ROG variants.

Today, that means giving strong consideration to the ROG Zephyrus GX501VI, an extremely thin gaming notebook that nevertheless packs in some of the most powerful mobile components around. It’s a marvel of industrical design and makes use of some of Nvidia’s most recent tech, specifically Max-Q that’s aimed at reducing GPU heat and power draw while still maximizing graphical performance. For the Zephyrus, that means equipping a GeForce GTX 1080 with Max-Q and using some tricky engineering — the laptop’s bottom plate actually opens up — to help create the airflow needed to keep the laptop from self-combusting.

Unsurprisingly, the Zephyrus is a performance beast no matter what you’re using it for. It blows away productivity tasks, of course, with its full-power mobile CPU blazing the way. And in terms of gaming, you’ll find few laptops this thin that can accomplish such high frame rates. We have to note that its benchmark and real-world gaming results aren’t the fastest we’ve seen from gaming notebooks, but that’s not the point of this machine. It’s intended to pack super power into a thin chassis, and it accomplishes that feat with aplomb.

For your $2,700 you’ll get a Full HD display that’s capable of 120Hz, has plenty of expansion ports, and is easy enough to carry around. What you won’t get is great battery life, as the 50 watt-hour capacity is just insufficient to keep all that power running for very long.

Here’s our review.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Asus ZenBook 13

Highlights

Screen: 13.3-inch IPS panel with touch

Resolution: FHD and QHD

Processor: Intel Core i5-825oU

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce MX150

Memory: 8GB

Storage: Up to 512GB SATA SSD

Camera: HD

Connectivity: Wireless AC, Bluetooth

Ports: 2x USB-A 3.1 Gen1, 1x USB-C 3.1, 1x HDMI, microSD, 3.5mm combo audio

Battery: 50WHr

Thickness: 0.50 inches

Weight: 2.50 pounds

Starting price: $1,000

Today’s laptop market is chock full of excellent thin and light options, and the vast majority of them are great for your typical productivity tasks. But what if you want to do a little light gaming? With most laptops in this diminutive category, you’re stuck with integrated Intel graphics that are simply unfit for anything but older titles. That’s where the ZenBook 13 comes in: it manages to squeeze a discrete GPU into a very thin chassis for some lightweight gaming on the go.

Before you get too excited, note that it’s only the Nvidia GeForce MX150, a decidedly entry-level GPU. That won’t get you 60 frames per second (FPS) in modern titles at high graphic settings. What it will do, though, is let you game at 1080p in esports games and even tolerable FPS in some modern games if you’re willing to turn the details down low. The fact that you’re carrying that much gaming power around in a laptop that’s just half an inch thick and weighs only two pounds is actually rather remarkable.

And just in case you worry your boss might object, the ZenBook 13 also packs in a quad-core eighth-generation Intel Core i5-8250U that’s plenty fast for productivity tasks. The SATA SSD is slower than some premium offerings, but it won’t slow you down too much unless you’re accessing massive databases. And you’ll enjoy the decent display, serviceable connectivity, and competent keyboard and touchpad.

And did we mention that’s is a great looking laptop as well? It’s got a sharp glossy Royal Blue coating on the lid and an otherwise subtle yet elegant aesthetic. There’s a reason why we recommended the ZenBook 13, and you can read all about it in our review.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Asus ZenBook Flip 14

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Highlights

Screen: 14-inch IPS panel with touch

Resolution: Full HD

Processor: Core i7-8550U

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce MX150

Memory: 16GB

Storage: 512GB PCIe SSD

Camera: HD

Connectivity: Wireless AC, Bluetooth

Ports: 1x USB-C 3.1 Gen1, 2x USB-A 3.0, 1x HDMI, 1x microSD, 3.5mm combo audio

Battery: 57WHr

Thickness: 0.55 inches

Weight: 3.31 pounds

Starting price: $1,300

If you’re inclined to pull out a pen, flip your display around into tablet mode, and do some inking on your laptop, then you’re clearly looking for a convertible 2-in-1. You’re in luck, because the Windows ecosystem is full of great options. The thing is, unless you want to go whole hog and grab a 15-inch monster, you’re likely to get stuck with integrated graphics and a poor gaming experience. Once again, though, Asus has you covered if that notion leaves you wanting.

The ZenBook Flip 14 plays basically the same role for thin and light 2-in-1s as the ZenBook 13 does for clamshells. It fits the same Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU into a chassis that’s very thin at 0.55 inches (although not quite so light at 3.31 pounds). And just like with its less flexible sibling, the ZenBook Flip 14 is strong enough for esports and lower graphical detail in 1080p.

And for a reasonable $1,300 given the 16GB of RAM and 512GB PCIe SSD, you’re also getting a fast quad-core eighth-generation Intel Core i7-8550U GPU that’s more than capable of keeping you efficiently productive. In addition, battery life is competitive and should let you ink away for a solid working day.

Overall, while we weren’t huge fans of the keyboard or pen input, we couldn’t overlook the excellent productivity and gaming performance that’s a cut above the usual convertible 2-in-1 with the same size display or smaller. For that reason, we recommend the ZenBook Flip 14 for inkers and casual gamers, and be sure to read our entire review.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Editors’ Recommendations

• Asus ZenBook 13 UX331 billed as the ‘thinnest laptop with discrete graphics’
• The best HP laptops
• Asus ZenBook 13 vs. Dell XPS 13
• Asus just rolled out the world’s slimmest gaming laptop with GTX 1070 graphics
• The best laptops

MLB’s virtual reality home run derby comes to PSVR and HTC Vive

Major League Baseball got into VR with a home run derby simulator that fans tried at the All-Star game and select ballparks last season. Earlier this year, the MLB promised it would bring the experience to consumer virtual reality sets in spring. While it didn’t arrive in time for Opening Day, aspiring sluggers can load up the game today and tee off on their own virtual home run derby on PSVR and HTC Vive for $20.

In MLB Home Run Derby VR, fans can play in three recreated ballparks: Marlins Park in Miami, Nationals Park in Washington, DC, and Progressive Field in Cleveland. The league will also debut the game with a full virtual reality setup at 12 stadiums across the country this year, from the Arizona’s Diamondback’s Chase Field to the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field.

If gamers don’t have a virtual reality headset, they can still play the free 2D mobile version on iOS and Android, which has an updated roster for the 2018 season with more than 50 players from the last eight years of MLB home run derbies.

Pinterest made its app more accessible to the visually impaired

Pinterest announced some design changes this week aimed at making its app and website more accessible for the blind and visually impaired. The company partnered with Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired and collected feedback from individuals with various levels of vision impairment to better understand Pinterest’s limitations and what could be improved. Pinterest employees also tried to experience the issues firsthand by wearing visual-impairment goggles or attempting to navigate the app with only a keyboard, Co.Design reports. “We tried to help [ourselves] understand all the different disabilities people might have when they use Pinterest,” Long Cheng, the company’s lead designer, told Co.Design.

Included in the changes that resulted from that work is better screen reader support, which will improve signing up, browsing and saving. Additionally, the UI now features greater color contrasts to make text more readable and outlines around active buttons and menus to make it easier to see which part of the site is currently in focus. And for those who are colorblind, color is no longer used to denote action or meaning. It’s instead used only to boost legibility and aesthetics.

Pinterest says it’s currently adding these new features to its iOS and web platforms. They should expand to Android sometime soon.

Images: Pinterest

Via: Co.Design

Source: Pinterest

Investigators used online DNA databases to hunt Golden State Killer

Yesterday several police departments in California announced the arrest of the “Golden State Killer,” who killed a dozen people between 1978 and 1986 and has been accused of over 50 rapes. At the time, investigators said DNA played a role in identifying former Auburn, CA police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, and today went a step further with the explanation.

The LA Times and New York Times report that investigators took DNA samples from the old crime scenes and plugged them into online databases, looking for familiar matches that would help narrow down the suspect. The Olympian reports that by combing through family trees of partial matches they focused on DeAngelo, who was the right age and had lived in some of the areas. Before arresting the subject they got a DNA sample from something DeAngelo had discarded and checked for a match. That match led to his arrest and charges for two of the murders, with more expected to follow.

While everyone will be glad to hear that a suspect has been identified and arrested in a cold case that had seemed like it may never be solved, the method used is likely to reignite debate over the privacy implications of DNA-based services. Already, representatives for sites like 23andMe and Ancestry.com have denied involvement in the search. Testing websites don’t generally take submissions on behalf of a third party, as Erica Joy notes, however, there are other databases like GEDMatch that allow for uploading from other sources.

Having this much information available to search for matches could help solve many crimes, but it’s unclear whether people submitting their samples are aware of the possibilities for how their data will be used. Also, it could be a problem for someone whose DNA has been transferred to a victim or crime scene inadvertently, which is rare but almost landed a California man on death row in 2012.

Source: New York Times, LA Times, Olympian

IBM’s blockchain for jewelry will steer consumers clear of blood diamonds

IBM is showing that there is wider usage for blockchain outside of cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin. With TrustChain, a blockchain’s decentralized ledger could now be used to track the provenance of jewelry from the mines to retail stores, bringing greater transparency to the jewelry business. This gives jewelers and consumers the ability to see various parts of the supply chain involved in the process.

“What we are announcing and bringing forward has been in the works for some time. It’s the first end-to-end industry capability on blockchain that has its core in trust,” IBM general manager of blockchain services Jason Kelley told TechCrunch.

Various companies in the jewelry supply chain have signed on board with TrustChain so far, including diamond supplier Rio Tinto Diamonds, precious metals refiner Asahi Refining, U.S. retailer Helzberg Diamonds, precious metals supplier LeachGarner, and jewelry manufacturer the Richline Group. Even Underwriters Laboratories is part of the initial consortium to give third-party authentication to the process.

Rather than relying on today’s current paper trail in the jewelry manufacturing process, IBM’s TrustChain would allow the entire supply chain to go digital to keep detailed records. Going digital also makes it easier to view and verify each transaction along the process.

“If there is a dispute, instead of calling and following back through the process in a more manual way, you can click on a trusted chain, and you’re able to see what happened immediately,” Kelley said. “That reduces the number of steps in the process, and speeds up what has been a paper-laden and manual effort.” This allows data to be shared accurately within the network.

This means that only valid and certified members would be allowed into the permissioned blockchain network, and every member on the network must consent to allow each new member to join TrustChain. Given that this is a collaborative effort, if errors are found along the way, IBM hopes that members will correct mistakes quickly along the way.

“This is collaboration among responsible and ethical organizations across the jewelry industry, supported by governance and guidance,” the consortium said. “The blockchain collaboration … will track and authenticate diamonds, precious metals, and jewelry at all stages of the global supply chain, from the mine to the retailer.”

On the consumer side, IBM hopes that in a year, consumers can use an app on their smartphones to scan a QR code on the jewelry at retail stores to see every step in the supply chain.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Is there horse in your hamburger? How blockchain could fight food fraud
• IoT Group revives a power plant to fuel a blockchain applications complex
• What is a blockchain? Here’s everything you need to know
• From the doctor to the DMV, blockchain can make governments swift and secure
• Blockchain may power future elections, but it’s no silver bullet for fraud

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. 

Editors’ Recommendations

• Apple AR glasses: News and rumors about ‘Project Mirrorshades’
• Stanford’s VR experience puts you in the shoes of one of California’s homeless
• Sotheby’s is making homebuying immersive with AR app Curate
• Mozilla announces Firefox Reality, a browser for augmented and virtual reality
• From horror fests to shoot-’em-ups, here are the 20 best Oculus Rift games

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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