The New York Times has acquired a VR agency

The New York Times is acquiring an experiential agency known as Fake Love, which specializes in virtual and augmented reality.

The purchase is part of a bid for the Times to increase its revenue by offering additional ad agency services, and the most expedient way to do this was by purchasing existing agencies rather than creating new ones. The Times had worked with Fake Love previously on a special VR video ad to promote a Weinstein Company film Carol.

Fake Love is a smaller company, only housing about 50 employees, and will be helping the Times fill special requests it’s receiving on a regular basis, such as the market clamoring for chatbots and augmented reality projects thanks to the popularity of Pokemon Go.

Fake Love will retain its Brooklyn-based operation and branding while operating separately of The New York Times, while fulfilling the special needs unique to the publication.

Via: DigiDay

The hysterical hacking headlines of Def Con 24

You might’ve noticed that your regular news outlets have way more hysterical, random-seeming and utterly terrifying articles about hacking this week. That’s because hacking conference Def Con happened last weekend, where a fair number of journalists had the pee scared out of them and decided to share their irrational reactions with everyone.

This year’s big American hacking conference was bursting at the seams. By 2 PM on Friday, Def Con had unexpectedly sold out of its 20,000 specialty badges and started selling paper badges. The sprawling event straddled both the Bally’s and Paris casino hotels in Las Vegas, and packed enough attendees, speakers, staff and press under those combined electric skies to bring its double-wide causeways to a standstill.

In years past, only outliers like me would be writing about going to Def Con, and all the various and sundry exploits, attacks, demonstrations, vendors, workshops and talks about all things hacking. That’s because, until recently, journalists have been allowed at Def Con but have not exactly been welcomed.

This year it’s safe to say that Def Con has become much more media friendly, for better and for worse. The conference has gotten friendlier to journalists only in the past couple of years, and last weekend journalists flooded the venue. But prior to this year, Def Con could best be described as flat-out hostile to the media — especially major and mainstream news outlets.

This was heightened by an episode at Def Con 15, in 2007, when Dateline NBC associate producer and reporter Michelle Madigan acted … like a “reporter.” Thinking she’d do a shock piece on evil criminal hackers, she hid a camera in her bag to catch attendees confessing to felonies on video.

Def Con staff had actually spotted her bag with a hole in it and reached out to her several times to offer her press credentials. She was able to avoid them and was instead seen panning her bag around the “Capture the Flag” (CTF) room.

After that, she attended a talk by Def Con founder Jeff Moss. During the presentation, Moss announced a new game called “spot the undercover reporter.” If one was spotted in the room, he or she would be invited up to the stage to be presented with press credentials. At which point Madigan bolted from the room and out of the Riviera Hotel and Casino, chased by a pack of (an estimated) 150 attendees — plus other reporters and photographers, who recorded the whole mess.

While in the past taking photos was not allowed, this year not only did people take photos, but journos panned cameras across rooms — exactly what NBC got chased out for doing.

This year my fellow journalists didn’t do much better. Despite all the advisories not to use the conference WiFi on what’s been described as “the world’s most hostile network,” one reporter paid the price for ignoring even his own outlet’s guide and was hacked within 20 minutes. A pair of journalists tried to pass themselves off as “consultants” in hopes of getting hackers to talk, and failed. And pretty much all of them totally, completely freaked out about how everything is hackable, even though we’ve known this for decades.

Many journalists were attending a decades-old hacking conference for the very first time, and a good number of them were covering infosec for the first time, too. So while for some of us it just felt like the Walking Dead tryouts brought to you by DARPA, to the people writing your news it was a funhouse of horrors from which they may never recover.

When it came to differentiating between what was theoretical and what was real, most journalists really screwed up. Facts ran naked and unashamed away from the chaos, unchecked. The really important issues we should be warned about got lost in the miasma of what streamed out of the hacker panic clickbait factory.

And panicked it was. Glancing at “Your ‘intimate personal massager’ – cough – is spying on you,” one might think that vibrators with cameras were watching your every move. Er, no. Rather than a Def Con talk revealing a conspiratorial surveillance state in your pants, the researchers’ findings were actually about one “smart vibrator” company playing fast and loose with user data, an issue that truly needs to be addressed and fixed.

ReadWrite said “Future hackers might freeze you out til you pay up,” making a talk about connected thermostats sound like you could be frozen or fried in your home by malicious hackers at any moment. The Memo even assured us, “Gold-digging hackers will seize your smart home heating.” In reality, this was a proof of concept showing that it’s possible for skilled attackers to hack into a Nest Thermostat, but only if people actively download and transfer malware to their thermostats.

By the time you got to reading “Hackers Could Break Into Your Monitor To Spy on You and Manipulate Your Pixels,” you were probably scared shitless, and understandably so. Plenty of journalists were ready to buy in to the irrational fears brought on by a lack of nuanced understanding about active threats and possibilities. The Ledger and PhysOrg concluded that the only way to stay safe is to turn off your computer. The Guardian literally gave up and told its readers “we’re all screwed.”

I won’t blame you for associating Def Con with an urge to run for the hills and live in a shack without electricity, lined in tinfoil, just like your hats and Faraday pajamas. But … but … this conference and everything it has been trying to tell people has been going on for two decades.

It’s definitely annoying to see my industry unable to separate the important talks and real issues from the hackerfluff, or miss the real point of these presentations and demos. But it’s also really great to see hackers being taken seriously, finally, and being heard by people who can amplify their messages.

Images: Violet Blue

Aukey is offering its Quick Charge 2.0 chargers for as little as $5

Aukey is currently offering a bunch of its Quick Charge 2.0 accessories for as little as $5 at Amazon. Whether you need a new charger for the home, car or one to travel with, there is something for you. The company has its single port and three port wall chargers on sale, as well as a car charger. You’ll save between $5 and $7 on the purchase with a simple coupon code.

The deals include:

• Quick Charge 2.0 Wall Charger – $5 with coupon code C398PPH5 (Save $7)
• Quick Charge 2.0 Car Charger – $6 with coupon code GGRY6CCZ (Save $5)
• Quick Charge 2.0 3-Port Charger – $9 with coupon code SFF78BMY (Save $7)

If you are looking for a new charger, you’ll want to grab one of these quickly. We don’t know how long the deal will last, so don’t wait too long to place your order.

A computer program that can replicate your handwriting

Handwriting is a skill that feels personal and unique to all of us. Everyone has a slightly different style — a weird quirk or a seemingly illegible scrawl — that’s nearly impossible for a computer to replicate, especially as our own penmanship fluctuates from one line to the next. A team at University College London (UCL) is getting pretty close, however, with a new system it’s calling “My Text in Your Handwriting.” A custom algorithm is able to scan what you’ve written on a piece of paper and then reproduce your style, to an impressive degree, using whatever words you wish.

To capture your scrawl, the team will ask you to write on four A4-sized sheets of paper (as little as one paragraph can deliver passable results, however). The text is then scanned and converted into a thin, skeletal line. It’s broken down by a computer and a human moderator, assigning letters and their position within a word. They also look for “splits,” where the line changes from a letter into a “ligature,” — the extra bits you need for joined-up handwriting. Finally, there are “links” which indicate that two separate marks are part of the same letter, for instance when crossing a “t.”

The algorithm then works to replicate your handwriting style by referencing and adapting your previously scanned examples. You will have written the same letter on a number of different occasion, so the computer will look for the one that works best for the word or phrase it’s trying to sketch out. A degree of randomness is then applied to ensure that the same letters and combinations aren’t used more than once (an easy way for humans to figure out if a computer has written something).

Once your written examples or “glyphs” have been selected, the computer will figure out the appropriate spacing in between each letter. The height of each character and where it sits on the line is also taken into consideration. Finally, the “ligatures” are added to the computer-generated piece, along with some basic texturing to mimic the pen and ink you were using.

The results are fairly believable. As an experiment, the team asked a group to decide which envelopes — all seemingly handwritten — were produced by a computer. They chose incorrectly 40 percent of the time.

“Up until now, the only way to produce computer-generated text that resembles a specific person’s handwriting would be to use a relevant font,” Dr Oisin Mac Aodha, a member of the UCL team said. “The problem with such fonts is that it is often clear that the text has not been penned by hand, which loses the character and personal touch of a handwritten piece of text. What we’ve developed removes this problem and so could be used in a wide variety of commercial and personal circumstances.”

The ability to scan and interpret handwriting isn’t new — plenty of apps let you sketch with a stylus or finger, and then convert this into text. Similarly, it’s possible for software to reproduce digital text in a variety of seemingly human, handwritten styles. But the ability to reproduce your personal penmanship — with words and sentences you might not have shown the computer — is unprecedented. It could be used to help elderly people who are starting to lose their writing ability, or translate handwritten text into new languages while keeping the personality of the author.

If you’re wondering if this sort of technology could be used to forge signatures and documents, the answer is yes, it’s possible. The team at UCL has stressed, however, that their system works both ways, meaning it could be used by law enforcers to spot computer-aided forgeries too. Still, it’s best to be wary the next time someone tries to sell you an autograph.

Via: BBC

Source: UCL, My Text In Your Handwriting (Paper)

Sony Xperia XR vs Xperia Z5: What’s the rumoured difference?

Sony is one of the only manufacturers left to announce a new flagship in 2016 and it looks like the beginning of September might be when we will see it appear.

The name is a little up in the air at the moment though, after the company scrapped the “Z” series at Mobile World Congress and marked the “X” series as its future. There have been a couple of names rumoured, but we are going with the Xperia XR for the sake of this feature.

We’ve compared the rumoured specs of the Xperia XR, also called Xperia F8331, to the Xperia Z5 to see what the differences are, based on current speculation.

Sony Xperia XR vs Xperia Z5: Design

There have been several leaked images of what is claimed to be the next Sony flagship, all showing a device that follows the same OmniBalance design Sony smartphones exhibit.

The Sony Xperia XR is claimed to be coming with a brushed metal finish measuring 146.4 x 71.9 x 8.1mm. Based on the leaks, it looks like the fingerprint sensor will remain on the side power button, while USB Type-C will be present for charging and data transfer.

The Sony Xperia Z5 also has an OmniBalance design but it features a tempered glass rear with a metal frame rather than an all metal finish. The side button is present with the fingerprint sensor but the Z5 appears to offer a slightly more rounded top and bottom compared to what is expected for the new device.

The Z5 measures 146 x 72 x 7.3mm, meaning it has a similar footprint to that suggested for the Xperia XR but it is slightly slimmer. The Z5 measures 154g and features Micro-USB.

Sony Xperia XR vs Xperia Z5: Display

The Sony Xperia XR is said to be coming with a 5.1-inch display and a Full HD resolution. This would put its pixel density at 432ppi, which is lower than competitor devices like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5.

There was talk of Sony introducing a pressure sensitive display for the next Xperia, but those rumours have since died down. We’d love to see a higher resolution for VR, and an edge-to-edge display like the Xperia XA would be welcomed, but leaks suggest neither will be the case.

The Sony Xperia Z5 comes with a 5.2-inch Full HD display, which puts its pixel density at 424ppi. There are a couple of Sony technologies on board, including X Reality, but all-in-all, the Z5 has a pretty standard display with no fancy features.

Sony Xperia XR vs Xperia Z5: Camera

It is thought the Sony Xperia XR will offer the same sensor as the Xperia Z5, X Performance and X smartphones on the rear, which would mean a 23-megapixel resolution.

Leaked images suggest the camera layout will change however, with a dual-LED flash reported to be sitting beneath the camera lens, rather than next to it. The front-facing camera resolution hasn’t been mentioned, though we’d expect 13-megapixels like the X Performance and X smartphones.

Rumours have said the Xperia XR will be capable of 4K video recording from both the front and rear cameras however, meaning we can expect at least an 8-megapixel sensor for the front if this is true.

The Xperia Z5 features a 23-megapixel rear camera, coupled with a 5-megapixel front camera. There is an LED flash, a sensitivity of 12,800 ISO and a wide angle front lens.

Sony Xperia XR vs Xperia Z5: Hardware

According to rumours, the Xperia XR will arrive with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. Other hardware specs haven’t been detailed in any plausible rumours, but we would expect to see 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a battery capacity around 3000mAh.

We’d like to see IP65 or IP68 water and dust resistance return, something that was missed off the spec sheet for the X and XA, and we’d like to see USB Type-C, which is expected as we mentioned previously.

The Xperia Z5 comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 2900mAh battery. There is microSD support for storage expansion too, which is also something we’d also expect for the new device, and the Z5 is IP68 and IP65 water and dust resistant.

Sony Xperia XR vs Xperia Z5: Software

The Sony Xperia XR will probably launch on Android Marshmallow rather than Android Nougat and it will more than likely feature Sony’s bloatware over the top.

The Sony Xperia Z5 launched on Android Lollipop but it has since been updated to Marshmallow and will probably see an update to Nougat at some point.

We’d expect Sony to announce a couple of new software features with the new flagship as is normally the case, but the experience between these two devices should be pretty similar overall.

Sony Xperia XR vs Xperia Z5: Conclusion

Based on speculation, the next Sony Xperia flagship should improve on the Xperia Z5 in terms of performance and hardware, as you would expect from a succeeding device.

The leaks also suggest the design will stay familiar but incorporate more of the Xperia X range, as well as changing things up slightly, but not so much that you wouldn’t recognise it as a Sony smartphone.

For now, everything is speculation, even the name. We will keep this feature updated as we hear more though so keep checking back over the next few weeks. You can read our next Sony Xperia rumour round up for more detail on the rumours and leaks surrounding the Xperia XR.

Virtual reality programs could help paralyzed patients walk again

Results from a recent experiment have demonstrated that special brain-machine interfaces, when used in addition to exoskeletons and virtual reality, could very well help paralyzed patients regain movement after spinal cord injuries. In short, virtual reality physical therapy could eventually help patients to walk again.

The system and its resulting experiments, conducted by Duke University neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis and his colleagues, was successful in opening up partial restoration of muscle control and sensations in patients’s lower limbs. This was possible after the patients were put through an aggressive training regiment with brain-controlled robotics and VR technology. This level of recovery is unprecedented in patients with long-term paralysis, according to the research, and was successful in restoring some sensation to eight patients previously diagnosed with spinal cord injuries.

The training programs utilized brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) in conjunction with virtual reality tech to establish communication between the brain and a computer, which gives patients control over external devices using only their mind. Virtual reality assisted patients with visualizing the brain-controlled movements and mind-body awareness. With a representation of their own bodies they were able to better make a connection between VR and their physical beings to make the training regimen more successful.

Patients regained varying amounts of sensation, ranging from some feeling and muscle control to an astonishing ability to move in a 32-year-old woman who had been paralyzed for 13 years. She was able to move her legs on her own with her body weight supported by a harness after just 13 months of treatment.

While these experiments aren’t the first to test treatments like this one, they are certainly some of the more promising ones. The researchers are looking forward to testing out additional treatment plans in the future on more recently-injured patients to see how things change.

Via: Gizmodo

Netflix’s pricey Baz Luhrmann hip-hop drama arrives today

Of all the Netflix productions, including the critically panned, $90 million Marco Polo, none have had as difficult a gestation (and high a price tag) as The Get Down. You can now download the hip-hop drama, set in the Bronx of the 1970s and created by notorious perfectionist Baz Luhrmann. It reportedly cost $120 million and strained relations between its director, producer Sony Pictures and Netflix, but the end result is “both messy and wonderful,” according to Variety.

The series takes place in New York in the ’70s when the city was in ruins and nearly bankrupt. Despite the problems, it gave birth to hip-hop, disco and punk, in part due to the desperation of artists to break from poverty. The series follows a band of teenagers who develop hip-hop from “The Get Down,”or four-break groove that forms a song’s core. The main cast, made up entirely of actors of color, includes Justice Smith, Jimmy Smits, Giancarlo Esposito and Will Jaden Smith. Luhrmann directs the premier 90-minute episode.

Though the film suffers from balky pacing and some patented Baz schlock, it’s been well-received by critics with a 73 percent average rating. Most agree that the $120 million budget is all on the screen and that the production accurately captures the era. Netflix is only releasing six of the twelve episodes instead of the entire season as it usually does, and the second half will come sometime in 2017.

Via: CNET

Source: Netflix