Machine learning is helping researchers decipher bat speech

Egyptian fruit bats are widespread throughout Africa and often roost together in colonies of 1,000 or more individuals. With that many neighbors packed together, it’s no wonder they’re such a noisy bunch. And thanks to some exciting machine learning research from Tel Aviv University, we now understand a bit of what they’re saying.

The research, published Thursday in the journal, Scientific Reports, explains how they did it. First, the team spent 75 days recording two groups of 11 bats held in separate cages. The team then went through the video footage to suss out which individuals were squeaking at each other, what they were squeaking about — food, sleep, perch or sex (or lack thereof) — and the ultimate outcome of the argument. Finally, they trained the machine learning algorithm with 15,000 calls from seven adult females using those variables.

In the end, the algorithm managed to correctly identify the bat making the call (compared to the video footage) 71 percent of the time, the subject of that argument 61 percent of the time and the eventual outcome 41 percent of the time.

“What we find is there are certain pitch differences that characterise the different categories – but it is not as if you can say mating [calls] are high vocalisations and eating are low,” Yossi Yovel, co-author of the study, told The Guardian. “We have shown that a big bulk of bat vocalisations that previously were thought to all mean the same thing, something like ‘get out of here!’ actually contain a lot of information.”

The team hopes to further decipher bat language based on the squeak patterns and inflections. Eventually this research could reveal insights into not just bat behavior but also how human language itself evolved.

Via: The Guardian

Source: Nature

MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Copy of Fantastical 2 for Mac

We’re doing a series of holiday giveaways ahead of Christmas, and for today’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with Flexibits to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a copy of Fantastical 2 for Mac.

Fantastical is one of the most popular calendar apps in the Mac App Store, with a clean, easy-to-use layout and the ability to use natural language like “lunch with Eric at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday” to create calendar events and reminders.

There’s a full Mac app and a menu bar widget that makes it easy to see what you’ve got going on at a glance, and it works with all kinds of calendar accounts: iCloud, Google, Microsoft Exchange, Yahoo, and any other CalDav account.

It features a Notification Center widget, Handoff support, Action and Share Extensions, and it was recently updated with Touch Bar support for the new MacBook Pro. Fantastical 2 for Mac syncs with Fantastical 2 for the iPhone and the iPad, so your calendar is always at your fingertips no matter what device you’re using.

Other Fantastical 2 features include time zone support, geofence alerts, built-in maps, Google and Exchange integration, multiple themes, calendar sets for organizing work and personal calendars, support for multiple languages, and more.

Fantastical 2 for Mac normally costs $50, but 25 MacRumors readers will get a copy for free. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (December 22) at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time on December 29. The winners will be chosen randomly on December 29 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Tags: giveaway, Flexibits, Fantastical
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Apple Names Best-Selling Holiday Movies of All Time on iTunes, Including ‘Elf’ and ‘The Polar Express’

Apple today got in the holiday spirit by announcing the top five best-selling holiday movies of all time on iTunes, ever since the movie rental section of the digital marketplace opened in 2008.

The top five highest grossing iTunes holiday movies are:

Elf [Direct Link] – $9.99 HD Purchase / $3.99 HD Rental
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation [Direct Link] – $9.99 HD Purchase / $3.99 HD Rental
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas [Direct Link] – $9.99 HD Purchase / No Rental Available
Home Alone [Direct Link] – $9.99 HD Purchase / $3.99 HD Rental
The Polar Express [Direct Link] – $9.99 HD Purchase / $3.99 HD Rental Apple didn’t offer any specifics behind each film’s download numbers, but gave snippets about plots, writers, directors, and actors for each holiday favorite.

The company prompted users to ask Siri on an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV to search for the movies listed today, as well as other seasonal mainstays like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, The Night Before, A Christmas Story, The Santa Clause, It’s a Wonderful Life, Love Actually and Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

Tag: iTunes
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‘Super Mario Run’ Survey Asks Players How Much Game Should Cost, If They Would Play Sequel

Nintendo recently began sending email surveys to a few Super Mario Run players who linked the iOS game with their My Nintendo account, MacRumors has learned.

The 10-minute long survey asks basic questions pertaining to how users found out about the game, what modes they liked, and how much they are willing to pay for a game like Super Mario Run. The survey fluctuates between multiple choice and written answers.

The survey’s construction and questions are similar to the ones Nintendo used to give out to Club Nintendo users so they could receive points to spend on exclusive merchandise from the company. Now, it appears Nintendo is aiming to discover for itself what players think of Super Mario Run, following a week of press that mostly centered around the opinion that $9.99 is too high a price for the amount of content presented within the game.

With the new survey, players can now give Nintendo their own thoughts on the matter. One of the questions even asks if users would play a sequel to Super Mario Run “if one was released in the future.” As of now, Nintendo is supposed to be gearing up to announce more information on the launch of Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem for iOS, both said to debut before March 2017 if the company’s original plan from 2015 remains intact.

The negative reactions to the pricing structure and online requirements of Super Mario Run have gone so far as to cause Nintendo’s stock to lower earlier this week, with players rating the game a 2.5/5 on average on the App Store. Although news has been scarce, in May it was reported that Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem would adopt the free-to-play model, with users able to purchase in-game items and boosts of some kind after downloading at no cost.

Miitomo — Nintendo’s first true iOS game — was free-to-play, but the user base slacked off precipitously after launch, with data suggesting “users didn’t really get” the game and its basic, social network inspired gameplay loop.

Super Mario Run [Direct Link] got its first update this week, introducing a new “Friendly Run” mode where players can compete against ghosts of friends and family members, with the caveat that no coins or Toads can be collected during each run. There’s also a few new holiday-themed items in the Kingdom Builder shop.

(Thanks, Dan!)

Tag: Super Mario Run
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All about Kodi: What it is, how to get it, and which boxes have it pre-installed

Cord cutters are raving about Kodi.

If you’ve been hearing people talk about Kodi lately, here’s a quick breakdown of what it is, why it’s great, and a couple recommendations for Android TV boxes that come with it pre-loaded.

What is Kodi?

Kodi is an open-source media center app that’s been developed and built out over the past decade. Its latest build is one of the most complete media centers you’ll find, allowing you to consolidating all your media — videos, music, and photos — into a single destination with a customizable interface that’s both stylish and easy to use. There’s also a slew of third-party add-ons available within Kodi, which grant you access to all sorts of streaming options from around the world. Kodi is widely available, with builds available for nearly all operating systems and devices.

See at Kodi.tv

Why it’s great

Kodi makes it easy to organize and watch your favorite media from your computer, smartphone, or TV via a Kodi-enabled device. Available in the Google Play Store, Kodi can be installed on pretty much any Android device. While it’s pretty easy to setup Kodi on your own, there’s been increased interest in TV boxes that come with Kodi pre-installed. Simply connect these boxes up to your TV, connect them to your Wi-Fi and you’re ready to start streaming content. Depending on how much you’re planning to invest, these boxes can come loaded with 4K capabilities.

Top picks for pre-installed Kodi boxes

Given how versatile and easy it is to get Kodi, you may already have a device that’s ready to roll — whether you’ve got a computer hooked up to your TV, an Android TV device such as the NVIDIA Shield or the Xaomi Mi Box, or you’re looking for a new project for your Raspberry Pi.

But all these options take some setting up and tweaking, which is why many smart TV boxes are coming preloaded with Kodi. Sometimes referred to colloquially as “Kodi boxes,” these devices range drastically in terms of quality and security, but they’re also extremely affordable and require little setup. Take a look at some of these options available from Amazon for under $100.

Q-Box Amlogic S905 Smart TV Box

This Android TV box supports up to 4K playback, runs on Android 5.1 and comes pre-loaded with a bunch of popular apps, including Kodi — though you’ll probably need to do some tweaking to get everything up to date with the latest versions. You’ll be able to update and get more apps for other streaming services you might be subscribed to via the Google Play Store. There’s 16GB of internal storage available for your own media, along with an SD card slot on the back. The Q-Box comes with a remote, but also features two USB ports on the back if you’d prefer to control it with a mouse and keyboard.

Aesthetically, this box has a ring of changing light around the perimeter, which might feel a bit gaudy to some, but it can be toggled in the preferences.

See at Amazon

MX3 Advance Android TV Box

The MX3 Advance also is capable of supporting 4K playback and should handle all your binging needs without feeling sluggish. It also comes with Kodi installed and preloaded with a bunch of popular add-ons. There’s 16GB of internal storage along with an SD card slot so you can load up your personal media, and there’s also two USB ports on the back.

Those ports might come in handy, since the included remote control has a very limited range and is not so good. You’d be better off getting a wireless controller (See the suggestions on the Amazon page for good options with built-in QWERTY keyboards), or using those USB ports for a keyboard and mouse combo.

See at Amazon

Your picks?

What are your favorite ways to access Kodi? Let us know in the comments below!

Apple Pay unlimited: Where can you use your iPhone or Watch to pay more than £30?

With contactless payment in the UK becoming more popular and services like Apple Pay becoming part of everyday life, a number of shops on the high street have started to allow Apple device owners to pay for things way beyond the £30 contactless limit.

Sadly, not many of them are good at communicating it. So while you can pay more than the limit in plenty of places, using your iPhone or Apple Watch, it’s hard to know where exactly. And you don’t want to attempt it in public only to find that the cap is in place and you look like a fool.

For things like a London Tube ride or lunchtime sandwich at Pret, it’s pretty much a no brainier (unless you’ve opted to buy the whole office lunch), you’ll barely need to go over the contactless limit anyway. But, did you know that at Waitrose you can pay for your whole weekly shop with a single tap? Or pay for a tray full of ramen at Wagamama’s without battling an eyelid?

That’s why we’ve found out the stores, restaurants and even petrol stations that now accept payments via Apple Pay in the UK regardless of the cost. Here they are:

Where you can pay more than £30 with Apple Pay: Grocery

• Marks & Spencer
• Waitrose
• Lidl
• Aldi

Where you can pay more than £30 with Apple Pay: Clothes and fashion

• New Look
• Uniqlo
• Burberry
• Dune

Where you can pay more than £30 with Apple Pay: Restaurants

• Pizza Hut
• Bill’s
• Wagamamas
• TGI Fridays
• Starbucks

Where you can pay more than £30 with Apple Pay: Fuel

• BP
• Shell (rolling out)

Where you can pay more than £30 with Apple Pay: Other

• Boots
• Halfords
• Harvey Nichols
• Apple Retail
• Liberty
• Cabs
• Transport for London

Raspberry Pi releases an OS to breathe new life into old PCs

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released an experimental version of its Linux-based Pixel OS for Windows and Mac PCs. The OS, originally designed to run only on the Raspberry Pi hobby board, comes with the Chromium web browser and a suite of productivity and coding tools. “We asked ourselves one simple question: If we like Pixel so much, why ask people to buy Raspberry Pi hardware in order to run it?” founder Eben Upton wrote in a blog post.

Built on top of Debian, the OS is light enough to run most old machines, provided you have at least 512MB of RAM. “Because we’re using the venerable i386 architecture variant it should run even on vintage machines like my ThinkPad X40 (above),” Upton said.

It’s easy to try out, but Upton urges you back up machines that may have valuable data. After downloading the image, you burn it either to a DVD or USB stick, then enable booting of those devices. You can normally do that by tweaking your PC’s BIOS or by holding the “C” key down when you boot up a Mac.

From there, it’ll run the OS with no need to install anything. If you booted on a USB stick, you’ll get the option to run “with persistence,” meaning any changes or files will stick for the next session. If you’d rather just play around and start fresh next time, you can run without persistence or reset it. As mentioned, you get a full suite of apps and a browser, but unlike with the Pi version, there’s no Minecraft or Wolfram Mathematica because of licensing issues.

There are plenty of lightweight Linux distros for older PCs (including Debian itself), or you could use Neverware, which turns your old laptop into a Chromebook. However, the Pi Foundation supplies a lot of useful Linux apps with Pixel, and aims to make it as easy to use as possible. By porting it to desktop machines, Upton also feels “we can more easily see where [the operating system’s] weak points are and work to fix them [on the Pi].”

The group thinks it could be a perfect for schools (where the Raspberry Pi already has a big foothold) to help students learn programming and various apps. The idea is that they can learn at school, then using the persistent boot option, continue working at home with exactly the same setup.

As mentioned, the Pixel OS is still in the experimental stages, and doesn’t run on all machines. On his own modern Mac, Upton said, “the machine fails to identify the image as bootable.” They’ll be releasing more updates going forward, but if you’re interested in giving it a try, you can hit announce post to find it.

Source: Raspberry Pi