Microsoft’s Cortana gets a simpler look on iOS and Android
Every major technology company is obsessed with voice control right now. From Amazon’s Alexa speakers to Google’s new Pixel phones — almost everything has an assistant which you can strike a conversation with. Not wanting to be left out, Microsoft is still hard at work on Cortana for Windows 10 and various mobile operating systems. Today, the company has announced a “fresh” and “simplified look” for the iOS and Android apps which lean heavily on the color purple. The apps are faster than before, and a new Quick Actions section puts your most common requests front and center, such as reminders, meetings and weather summaries.
The new-look Cortana app is available on Android today, ahead of an iOS update “in the coming weeks.” The big makeover is also the first time that both apps have been available in the United Kingdom. Quite why it’s taken so long to cross the pond isn’t clear — the apps have been available in the US for a year now — but they’re welcome arrivals all the same. If you’re fed up with Siri, or haven’t made friends with the Google Assistant yet, they could be worth digging into. Especially if your main laptop or PC is running Windows 10. Microsoft is pushing out plenty of updates over there too.
Source: Microsoft (Blog Post)
Malware infects computers by hiding in browser ad GIFs
Unless you still use Internet Explorer (and please don’t do that), you probably don’t have to worry about new malware discovered by Eset researchers. However, the Stegano exploit kit shows how adept hackers have become at slipping infected ads past major networks and then hiding the malware from discovery. It’s been operating stealthily for the last two years and specifically targeting corporate payment and banking services.
The attack starts with javascript-infected ads for a “Broxu” screenshot app and, ironically, “Browser Defense,” pushing them into large ad networks, where they appear on major news sites seen by millions of users. “We can say that even some of the other major exploit kits, like Angler and Neutrino, are outclassed by the Stegano kit in terms of [the quality of] websites onto which they managed to get the malicious banners installed,” the team said.
So how did they escape the powerful anti-malware tech used by big ad networks? Once the ad is served, it runs a custom, cloaked javascript that runs an environment check. It’s checking to see if you’re running virtual machines or other environments typically used by security researchers. For those cases, it serves up a clean image, but for vulnerable machines, it serves up a special GIF file, caching data within the “alpha,” or transparency channel.
As shown above, the image looks perfectly normal to the naked eye. When enhanced, though, you can see a pixel pattern that secretly contains malicious QR-like code. Another script scans, extracts and runs the code using a known Internet Explorer vulnerability, then checks the machine again for packet capturing, sandboxing, VMs and other security-enhancing products. It also checks the graphics and security drivers to confirm it’s running on an actual PC.
From there, it loads a 1-pixel iFrame off the screen and redirects via a TinyURL to a new exploit site. The landing page checks for the presence of Internet Explorer and loads a Flash file that contains another Flash file. The latter can serve up one of three exploits, depending on the version of Flash that it finds. To check, it passes information back to the server, encoded again as a GIF file. The server passes back a code to denote one of three Flash vulnerability exploits, along with the required password shell code to download the final payload.
It does yet another check for certain file types to ensure it’s not being snooped on by a security analyst. If nothing is detected, the payload is downloaded and launched. From there, you can be infected with a backdoor, keylogger, screenshot maker and video maker. At that point, thieves can steal any file, and as mentioned, they’ve been targeting the banking sector and probing for weaknesses that would presumably allow them to steal or extort cash.
All of that seems pretty elaborate, but it apparently paid off. “The Stegano exploit kit has been trying to fly under the radar since at least 2014,” the team says, and until now, no one spotted it (there’s no word of any successful exploits, though). All of this could be avoided by by “running fully patched software and using a reliable, updated internet security solution,” the Eset researchers say. (Eset sells just such a product, naturally.) And of course, by not using Internet Explorer in the first place.
Source: ESET Security
Starbucks locations are now ‘Pokémon Go’ Gyms or Pokéstops
We knew a Starbucks collaboration with Pokémon Go was on the way, but now it’s official. Niantic, the developer of the massively popular augmented reality game, revealed today that around 7,800 Starbucks coffee shops in the US have been turned into Gyms or Pokéstops. Aside from this, since these are sponsored locations after all, trainers can also pick up a special Pokémon Go Frappuccino drink. And, just like you can do at Sprint stores now, you’ll have access to a charging station too.
Whatever you do, remember to be aware of your surroundings while you’re trying to catch ’em all. Because you never know who may be creeping on you. That’s no joke.
Source: Niantic
HTC launches its own VR app and game studio for Vive
HTC spun its Vive VR business into a subsidiary back in June and today the company announced it’s launching its own studio for VR app and game development. The appropriately named Vive Studios will release games that are developed in-house and by other companies in an effort to boost interest in its virtual reality gear. The first title from the new initiative is called Arcade Saga: a trio of games that shows off HTC’s room-scale VR from the internal 2 Bears Studio.
According to Venture Beat, HTC plans to operate Vive Studios much like Microsoft and Sony do for their internal development of Xbox and PlayStation titles. Oculus also has internal studios, one focused on games while the other creates cinematic experiences for the company’s gear.
In addition to games, Vive Studios is working on virtual reality content for cinema, design, real estate sports and more. We’ve already seen uses for the Vive outside of gaming, including BMW employing the tech to design new vehicles. The internal development arm will also build games for HTC’s VR arcade push, an initiative the company says will lead to “thousands” of locations by the end of next year.
In terms of the first release, Arcade Saga is available today for $30 on Steam and the HTC Viveport store. Based on the trailer, Arcade Saga looks two-thirds a modern VR version of Breakout and one-third an archery-style shooter. The title’s three mini games include 84 levels where you’re playing as your computer’s CPU in a battle against the AI henchmen of a computer scientist who goes by Warlock. The so-called Overlords want to keep all AI, like your CPU, enslaved and working as they were intended. It’s a rather elaborate setup, but you can take a look at the game in the trailer down below.
Source: Venture Beat
The ‘Ocarina of Time’ soundtrack is coming to vinyl
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, music had a pretty big role. For instance, all it took to summon a rainstorm or change the time of day was playing a few notes on an the titular musical instrument. And now you can get in line to buy those iconic tracks and more on 180 gram vinyl. Hero of Time is scheduled to release second quarter of next year and will set you back $40 plus shipping. Rather than just pressing the MIDI score from the Nintendo 64 game to wax, however, a 64-piece orchestra performed the tunes. I see what you did there, iam8bit.
It’s a bit odd that it took this long for someone to give the score the fancy treatment on vinyl, to be honest. But the art — that bridge from the Lost Woods, though — and overall design might make up for the wait. Want to hear it in concert? Then maybe see if the (unrelated) Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses is playing a city near you.
Source: iam8bit
Killing children in ‘What Remains of Edith Finch’
Young Calvin Finch sits on a swing perched atop a steep seaside cliff while the afternoon sun warms the waves, grass and trees. Calvin’s left leg is in a cast, but he easily swings his feet back and forth, pushing higher and higher over the cliffside. He wants to do a full circle on the swing set; he knows it’s possible if he tries hard enough. Back and forth, back and forth. Cast kicking, he climbs higher, parallel to the ground and shooting back down, swinging his legs even harder. And then, with a final determined kick, he does it.
Calvin flies around and around, branches of the tree above him scratching his face and body, leaves and twigs falling to the ground. Suddenly, on the last high-velocity rotation, Calvin lets go of the chains, and his body soars over the cliff, cast and all. For a moment, he flies above the water, toward the setting sun. And then, he’s dead.
“I think there’s something inherently surreal about childhood,” says Ian Dallas, the creative director of What Remains of Edith Finch, a first-person video game set to debut on PC and PlayStation 4 in spring 2017. Dallas is the person who dreamed up the seaside cliff, the swingset and little Calvin Finch’s untimely, unintentional death.
What Remains of Edith Finch is obsessed with death. It feels more like a collection of short stories, each one about the mysterious demise of someone in the Finch family. The Finches are cursed: Beginning in the early 1900s, family members have been killed in strange, seemingly impossible ways, often at young ages. Today Edith Finch is the last of her name, and she’s convinced something is amiss in her life, so she travels to her family home in Washington to dig through her ancestral history.
Edith prowls through rooms and secret passageways that have been preserved like tombs for generations, with family members’ possessions frozen in time. One of these shrines is Calvin’s bedroom, once shared with his twin. Calvin’s side is bright and playful, featuring a space-exploration theme, including stairs that lead to a spaceship cockpit and an astronaut helmet.
Under the helmet is a letter from Calvin’s twin, explaining who Calvin was, how he lived and how he died. This is where the cliffside scene takes over the screen and players become Calvin, sitting on the swing set, kicking his legs as the letter is narrated over the tranquil scene. Press the controls forward and his legs pump forward; press back and his legs swing back.
It’s no secret that these motions will lead to Calvin’s death. What Remains of Edith Finch’s conceit is perfectly clear: This family is cursed, and these people will die. Yes, even the children. Still, the cliff is so peaceful and the motion so intoxicating that it feels OK to make Calvin swing higher and higher. Even though the player is effectively killing Calvin, everything feels right.
This is the tone that Dallas wanted to infuse into What Remains of Edith Finch: surreal joy and childlike wonder.
“It helps to set the players’ expectations up in the way that we want,” Dallas says. “There’s a reason we ended up with a lot of stories that ultimately deal with children. It was a little tricky with the Finch family tree, making sure people lived long enough to be able to have kids.”
Dallas isn’t a sadist with a penchant for fictional murder. What Remains of Edith Finch respects death in the same way it respects life. Every one of the death scenes is a sort of happy, fulfilling victory for the starring character, rather than a tragic end.
“There’s death but there’s also — in each of these stories, you as a player are coming into contact with the unknown because you have no idea what’s going to happen,” Dallas says. “Each story is completely different. But they all end in death.”
In this way, What Remains of Edith Finch holds a mirror to reality. Real life is filled with billions of unique stories that all, ultimately, end in death. But the game’s approach to these scenes — making each passing joyful, intriguing and beautiful — is cathartic, rather than morbid.
Dallas’ studio, Giant Sparrow, wants to make the world stranger. It started with The Unfinished Swan, a breakout independent game published by Sony Santa Monica in 2012, when Dallas and his team were still in school. Now, Giant Sparrow is working with Annapurna Interactive, the new video game publishing endeavor from the film studio behind Her and American Hustle.
While designing What Remains of Edith Finch, Dallas was inspired by HP Lovecraft and Jorge Luis Borges, short-story writers with a penchant for strange, supernatural horror scenes. The game is also (accidentally) reminiscent of another recent indie hit: Gone Home.
“It’s a young woman coming back to her family home in the Pacific Northwest in relatively modern times,” Dallas explains. “That’s a small pool. For us, I think it’s particularly great because the game is so different than Gone Home. When people come in with that expectation — any time people have an expectation, that gives us an opportunity to circumvent that and give them a little bit more of the unknown, which is so hard to find in the real world.”
The real world is insistent on making people feel comfortable, Dallas continues. What Remains of Edith Finch aims to infuse a little discomfort into our everyday lives.
“I would hope that people have a memorable experience,” he says. “I think, in order to have something memorable — when I think back on my own life, the things that I remember are usually not when things are going well. Often, there’s like some disaster but then it ends up being OK.”
It’s simple to make people uneasy in a game about killing children. Balancing that discomfort with happiness is where things get tricky. Giant Sparrow made sure to beta test What Remains of Edith Finch with parents, especially new ones; these people tend to have a different reaction to the game than childless players, Dallas says. They’re simply more sensitive to images of children dying — which is one reason What Remains of Edith Finch doesn’t talk about death directly. It shows death, but it doesn’t focus on the concept. Instead, it highlights the journey: the sun’s warm rays on the grass; the beautiful tree; the euphoria of swinging.
“All of these stories are about people being successful,” Dallas says. “They’re not the victim. Generally, they’re the people that are out there, causing the problem. They’re all pyrrhic victories — each story, it’s become this definitive, Finchian moment of knowing that you’re about to do something terrible, but marching joyfully to your inexorable end.”
Adobe Updates Lightroom for iPhone With One-Handed Editing Interface
Adobe today announced a new update out now for its Lightroom iOS and Android apps, bringing an all-new photo editing experience to mobile that improves the app’s ease of use thanks to a new one-handed interface. To create an improved editing experience Adobe talked to professional and casual photographers, who helped hone Lightroom’s new toolset.
First, the company has organized similar tools into relevant categories so it’s faster and easier to find tools that are normally used together. The company’s biggest priority was to introduce a system that was functional to operate with just one hand. As such, users can now see the entire image while editing it and have access to “often used tools,” such as viewing before and after iterations of a photo, without needing a second hand.
Lightroom mobile 2.6 represents a significant evolution of editing on mobile devices. We wanted to improve the ability to quickly find and access tools and ensure the fastest way to enhance and edit images on a phone. Our design team reached out to photographers of all skill levels to help us figure out how people edit with Lightroom mobile, what’s missing, and how we could make it even better. This update represents our first release taking advantage of this research.
Lightroom for iPhone is also gaining a new info section so users can add in titles, captions, and copyright onto an image. A “professional mode” within the app’s capture interface will let users set more granular controls over an image’s exposure and focus so it’s easier “to capture the shot you want.” Lightroom for iPad is getting all of the iPhone app’s updates except the new editing and info sections, but the company hopes to update the tablet app with these features “soon.”
On the Mac, Lightroom is gaining a “reference view” in the Develop Module that makes it simpler to compare two images side-by-side so you can make them visually consistent with one another. The company said this should help when trying to make a large amount of images from a single event aesthetically similar, or could help with “setting the white balance appropriately in mixed lighting conditions.”
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for iPhone is available to download from the iOS App Store for free [Direct Link]. Users can find the update for Lightroom on the Mac in the Help > Updates section of Adobe’s Creative Cloud app.
Tag: Adobe Lightroom
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European Union Moves Forward With Plans to Eliminate Roaming Charges Next Year
European Commission members met on Wednesday to discuss draft rules intended to eliminate roaming charges in the European Union as of June 15, 2017.
(Image: TapSmart)
The Commission said it is determined to put an end to roaming charges commonly billed by carriers when a customer calls, sends messages, or uses data on their mobile device while abroad in the European Union, outside of their primary country of residence, subject to proportionate checks for abusive usage.
European regulators have proposed a “Roam like at Home” solution that would allow travelers to call, text, and browse the web on their mobile devices when abroad in the European Union for no extra charge than the price they pay at home. It is not intended to be used for permanent roaming.
“Roam like at Home” is aimed at people who travel in the European Union for work or leisure. “They spend more time at home than they do abroad, and they make most of their calls, texts and use data in their home country,” the Commission explained.
Example: with his €70 per month contract, Tim living in Netherlands gets unlimited calls, texts and data for his smartphone. When he travels abroad on holidays, he will have unlimited calls and text. For data, he will get twice the equivalent of €70 worth of data at the wholesale roaming data price cap, i.e. 0.85 cent/MB according to the Commission wholesale proposal, meaning more than 16 GB in this case. While roaming, he will get twice the volume he has paid for.
The latest draft further clarifies consumer rights, such as ensuring that customers abusing a carrier’s roaming policy are not subject to over-intrusive background checks and establishing a minimum alert period of 14 days before roaming charges can be imposed on customers who exceed fair usage.
The revised rules also introduce safeguards to ensure carriers remain competitive. Customers can be asked to prove they live or have “stable links” to a specific country before “Roam like at Home” is included in their contract, while those roaming excessively can be sent a warning message and/or small roaming charge.
If, over a 4-month period, billing data suggests that a consumer has been more abroad than at home, but also consumed more data while travelling in the European Union, the operator can send a warning message. This message will warn the consumers that they have two weeks to inform their operator about their travel situation, or to change their travel or use patterns. Only a very small roaming charge […] can then be applied.
The proposed surcharges for customers who exceed fair usage are €0.04/minute per call, €0.01 per SMS, and €0.0085 per MB of data usage.
The draft legislation has now been sent to representatives for each European Union member state, who will meet on December 12 to vote on the text. Afterwards, the European Commission will be able to adopt the rules.
EU member states include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
In September, the Commission said the European government agreed to its proposal to end roaming charges in Europe. This week, the Commission said it will be steadfast to ensure an agreement is reached as soon as possible.
Tags: European Commission, Europe
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New Photos Offer an Inside Look at Apple Campus 2
Apple shared some updated photos and information on its spaceship-shaped second campus with employees, which French site MacGeneration managed to get a hold of. The photos give a detailed view of the exterior building, and give us one of our first glimpses at its interior.
Apple Campus 2 has been in development for more than two years, and is nearing its completion date. We’ve seen a series of monthly drone videos cataloguing progress at the site, and as of December, much of the main ring-shaped building is finished, with Apple now working on landscaping.
Just recently, Apple installed the glass panels for the atrium of the main building, which will be used as a cafeteria for employees. Along with the cafeteria, there will be vast outdoor eating spaces covered with greenery native to California.
The floor-to-ceiling doors of the atrium are each made from 10 glass pieces and are similar to the giant glass doors that were introduced in Apple’s San Francisco Apple Store. The doors open an entire side of the building to let in light and air for an outdoor feel.
To install the doors, Apple has used cranes outfitted with suction cups to hold the glass in place while it’s secured into the building.
The ceiling of the ring-shaped building is equipped with a series of skylights that will let in natural light, while cutouts in marble walls will house speakers in some areas. Close attention has been paid to the smallest of details, and Apple says in just one access tunnel, it’s taken 60 workers five months to lay small tiles on the curved walls. Ledges extending out over windows block light, as do built-in window shades.
Outside, full-sized trees and other plants are being installed. Ahead of being added to the campus, many of the trees were grown at a local nursery. Apple has said more than 3,000 species of trees will be on the campus, including many fruit trees.
Apple plans to finish construction on the campus in the first quarter of 2017, though landscaping work will extend into the second quarter of the year. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said employees will begin working at the campus in early 2017.
Tag: Apple Campus 2
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This huge 200GB SanDisk microSD card can be yours for just $64
Should you be on the hunt for some more storage for your smartphone or tablet, you’ll want to check out this whopping 200GB SanDisk microSD card, which can be yours for just $64. We’ve covered similar deals on these SanDisk cards in the past, and now there’s yet another opportunity to pick one up for less.
This class 10 removable storage can be used in a portable device or with an adapter for a laptop. The choice is yours. It’s definitely worth checking the manual for your smartphone or tablet to see if this capacity is supported before you hit purchase.
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