Windows 10 introduces holographic apps for all, coming 2017
It’s barely been a minute since Windows 10 Anniversary Edition arrived, but now Microsoft is looking ahead to its next W10 feature update: holographic apps.
Announced at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), executive vice president for Windows and devices, Terry Myers, introduced the update, saying that “all Windows 10 devices will include a holographic shell,” which is geared towards compatibility with Microsoft HoloLens and the just-announced Intel Project Alloy.
READ: What is Intel Project Alloy?
Windows 10 wants to position itself as the ultimate operating system platform for augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR), with headset compatibility opening up a new world of potential.
As the Microsoft promotional video shows (below), there is scope to run both 2D and 3D applications at the same time in your new virtual office environment, aiming for a seamless transition between the two.
But we’ll have to wait until December this year to learn about the developer-side specification for such apps, while the consumer update itself won’t roll out until 2017.
Even by then, will such an update lure people to buy VR/AR/MR devices in the first instance? And will those people want to use such devices at all times when running Windows? We have our doubts.
But, hey, you can have a virtual pet dog.
Ford plans to have fully autonomous cars on the road in 5 years
At the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, California the automaker announced it would have a fully autonomous car on the road with a ride sharing service in 2021. CEO Mark Fields said self-driving cars will be as important to Ford as the assembly line. “We’re designing the first generation of autonomous vehicles specifically for ride sharing and ride hailing,” Fields told the audience.
During the event Fields said, “today we’re no longer just an auto company, we’re also a mobility company.” The CEO stressed that its regular vehicles will continue to be available for folks that still want to drive. The company just sees ” Smart Mobility” as an additional revenue stream. So the F150 and Mustangs aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Ford CTO Raj Nair talked about how automaker decided to stop worrying about incremental steps and go full bore with self-driving vehicles. “We abandoned the stepping stones of driver assist technologies and decided to take the full leap to fully autonomous,” Nair said. He also said the carmaker would triple its development fleet by the end of the year (to 30) and triple it again next year.
As for autonomous vehicles being ready for the general public, Nair said it’ll be at least a couple years after the ride-hailing service goes live before you can buy your very own self-driving car because of the costs.
The five year plan to have a fully autonomous car on the road was hatched four years ago. “We’ve been at this for a long time and it gradually became apparent to us that the stepping stone approach was not going to work,” Ken Washington vice president of research and advanced engineering for Ford told Engadget.
Like other automakers, Ford has been moving aggressively into the ride sharing and autonomous car market. Earlier this morning it announced that it would be doubling its presence in Silicon Valley from 130 to 260 researchers by the end of 2017. It also invested $75 million into Velodyne for its LIDAR system.
As for how people will be able to actually hail these self-driving cars, Fields said that everything is on the table, “We may do things on our own. We may partner with others.” In five years, we’ll find out.
Intel’s Joule is its most powerful dev kit yet
We’ve seen plenty of unique dev kits from Intel, including the SD card-sized Edison, but not one as powerful as this. Intel announced Joule today, a tiny maker board that will allow developers to test RealSense-powered concepts and, hopefully, bring them to the market faster than before. The company says the tiny, low-powered Joule would be ideal for testing concepts in robotics, AR, VR, industrial IoT and a slew of other industries. And it also looks like it could be an interesting way for students to dabble in RealSense’s depth-sensing technology in schools.
There will be two Joule kits to choose from: the 550x, which includes a 1.5GHz quad-core Atom T5500 processor, 3GB of RAM and 8GB of storage; and the 570x, which packs in a 1.7Ghz quad-core Atom T5700 CPU (with burst speeds up to 2.4GHz), 4GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Both models include “laptop-class” 802.11AC wireless, Intel graphics with 4K capture and display support, and a Linux-based OS.
Microsoft is already using Joule for its robotic companion “Bamboo,” which reminds kids with diabetes to check their blood sugar levels, while the French company EyeLights is using it to power a heads-up display for police motorcycle helmets. The Joule kits will be available today for IDF attendees, soon at Intel’s online store and they’ll reach retail partners in September.
Update: Intel reps tell me the Joule 570x is selling for $369, no word yet on how much the cheaper model will cost. Clearly, they’re aiming for much more sophisticated tinkerers than the $35 Raspberry Pi.
Source: Intel
Tom Clancy’s ‘Jack Ryan’ is now an Amazon exclusive series
Tom Clancy’s famous fictional CIA agent Jack Ryan is back in action after 2013’s critical and commercial disappointment Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Amazon has greenlit a 10-episode series, exclusive to Prime Video, that will star John Krasinski, of The Office fame, as the titular hero. Plot details are scarce, though it seems the series will be an origins story, with Ryan being an up-and-coming CIA analyst fighting terrorist groups.
This is the first time the Jack Ryan franchise is being turned into a series. But, there have already been five movies with four actors portraying the protagonist — Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine. This a big pickup from Amazon as it looks to take on Netflix and make video streaming a major draw for a Prime subscription. Jack Ryan will be joining Amazon’s already impressive lineup of shows that includes the likes of The Man in the High Castle, Transparent, and Hand of God. But, there’s no word yet on when Jack Ryan will make its Prime Video debut.
Source: Amazon
Integrated Xbox Wireless is coming to future PCs and accessories
If you’re a serial Xbox One controller user, you’ve probably used it with your Windows PC at some point as well, whether to get in some Steam gaming or to make controlling any game a little simpler. Previously, doing so meant you’d have to have a special wireless dongle to do so.
Going forward, Microsoft plans on offering built-in Xbox Wireless, beginning with the Lenovo IdeaCentre Y710 Cube, which will support all Xbox One wireless accessories without he need for additional adapters or equipment.
The Lenovo PC is the first partner device to have built-in Xbox Wireless support, but it’s not going to be the last, according to Microsoft. Additional PCs and other accessories in the future will be supporting Xbox Wireless as they make their way to store shelves. This should make things a little easier for anyone looking to take their accessories beyond simple console usage.
Source: Xbox Wire
‘Gears of War 4’ will require a monster machine to play in 4K
You might have been delighted to hear that Gears of War 4 will take full advantage of your PC, but you might not be quite so thrilled when you realize what it takes to run the game in its full 4K glory. On top of a 4K gameplay demo (below), Microsoft has outlined the Windows version’s system requirements… and they’re not exactly modest. While you can get by on mid-range 2014 hardware as a baseline, the “ideal” experience (effectively, 4K) demands both a high-end AMD FX or Intel Core i7 processor as well as one of the highest-end graphics cards in recent memory, such as a GeForce GTX 1080 or a Radeon R9 Fury X. You’d better have splurged on your system in recent months, in other words.
The steep demands aren’t entirely surprising. PC hardware has only just started making 4K playable without resorting to multi-card graphics, and it’s going to be a while before that kind of horsepower filters down to the mainstream. Even the latest low-cost cards, like the GeForce GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 480, fall short of being fast enough for that kind of pixel count. Look at it this way, though: this could be the excuse you need to buy a long-overdue system upgrade, and you’ll have a reason to revisit the game if you have to “settle” for a lower resolution on launch day.
Source: Xbox Wire
The USB-IF is certifying USB chargers going forward
There are so many USB chargers in the world, you’re bound to get stuck with one that doesn’t work the way it should, or it may not work at all. The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) has announced a Certified USB Charger Compliance and Logo Program to offer USB chargers for compliant USB Type-C devices.
Essentially, this means several USB chargers going forward will be certified based upon their specifications, meant to reduce the number of chargers consumers need to purchase or carry around, thus eventually minimizing the electronic waste in landfills that piles up as a result. Equipment will carry the promise that “it just works,” according to Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF President and COO.
As the USB-IF notes, non-compliant chargers can pose a risk to the functionality of electronics, which you’re probably well aware of if you’ve ever purchased a faulty piece of equipment that not only didn’t charge properly but also made your devices function strangely. Companies will be encouraged to submit their chargers for testing to earn the USB-IF certification going forward, and this type of certification can only be a good thing for buyers.
Source: BusinessWire
Apple builds an R&D center in China to survive a tough market
There’s no question that China isn’t as much of a money maker for Apple as it once was. However, it’s not about to quit the country — if anything, it’s settling in for the long haul. The company has unveiled plans to build a Chinese research and development center by the end of the year. Just what it’ll work on isn’t evident at this stage, although it’s part of an overall increased investment in Apple’s second-largest market.
It has a few good reasons to set deeper roots in China. Much as with the massive investment in Didi Chuxing, it’s at least partly about assuaging regulators who’ve been banning services and are otherwise jittery about an American company on their turf. Apple is trying to show that it can create jobs and otherwise contribute to the Chinese job market beyond stores and factory contracts. This also helps Apple recruit Chinese talent that would be difficult or impossible to bring overseas.
The moves might be necessary in a nation whose smartphone market is particularly volatile. Apple isn’t the only one hurting — IDC estimates that Xiaomi, a darling of the Chinese market just a year ago (it’s sometimes billed as China’s Apple), saw its shipments plunge a whopping 38.4 percent year-over-year during the second quarter. The exact reasons for its trouble are mixed, although it’s a latecomer to advertising (it historically relied on online sales) while rivals have stepped up their game.
Both Apple and Xiaomi might also simply be facing a changing of the guard. While Huawei is still the top phone brand in China, it’s technically eclipsed by BBK’s rapidly growing smartphone empire. It owns Oppo and Vivo, whose shipments surged (in Oppo’s case, by 124 percent) to make them the second- and third-largest phone brands in China this spring. Combine that with the smaller but plucky OnePlus badge and BBK largely has the country covered, ranging from budget phones for the mass market to attention-getting flagship devices. Anyone trying to take on BBK faces a multi-pronged assault, making it that much harder to topple.
Source: Reuters, IDC
Airbnb tests an app that plans your trips
Airbnb’s efforts to plan your whole trip, not just your stay, just got a little more concrete. The home rental outfit is testing an Airbnb Trips app for Android (an iOS version should also be in the works) that shows you what to do once you’ve unpacked your bags. You can flip through a guidebook of local attractions, not just the tourist traps, and set an itinerary to keep you moving during your vacation. The test is closed to the public, but it’s just as well. A Bloomberg source says that the features and even the name could change between now and launch, so what you see now may not be representative.
It’s not certain just when Airbnb Trips will be ready, although Bloomberg believes the company may use its yearly conference in November for a debut. The Information recently claimed that Airbnb would kick off a program that pays hosts to recommend restaurants and offer tours, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the two are related. One thing’s for sure: Airbnb appears bent on cornering your whole travel experience, rather than leaving the tourism to outsiders like TripAdvisor.
Via: Bloomberg
Source: Google Play
Edward Snowden suspects NSA hack was a Russian warning
The National Security Agency (and the US itself) may have just received a shot across the bow. Hackers identifying as the Shadow Brokers claim to have breached the Equation Group, a hacking outfit widely linked to NSA activities, and the data they’ve posted leads Edward Snowden to suspect that it might have been a state-sponsored Russian operation. If the intruders really did publish the spoils of a NSA cyberweapon staging server as they say, it’d suggest that someone wanted to show that they can prove US involvement in any attacks that came from the server.
But why does Snowden suspect the Russians? If you ask him, the breach may have been “more diplomacy than intelligence.” He theorizes that this was an attempt to “influence the calculus” of US officials wondering just how harshly they respond to the reportedly Russia-based DNC hacks. Chastise Russia too much and the country could promptly show that the US has been equally sneaky. Putin and crew could show that the NSA hacked American allies, for instance.
This doesn’t definitively link the Russians to the incident. The Shadow Brokers say they will “auction the best files,” so they might have a financial incentive. The timing is suspicious, however, and it’s certainly plausible that Russia could be trying to control its reputation right as many are accusing it of interfering with American politics.
9) This leak is likely a warning that someone can prove US responsibility for any attacks that originated from this malware server.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) August 16, 2016
Via: The Next Web
Source: Edward Snowden (Twitter)
