Microsoft’s HoloLens is no joke. We’ve now tried the company’s latest revision of its unreleased augmented reality headset and even built an app for it. The new hardware, which Microsoft also showcased during its Build developer conference keynote yesterday, feels very solid and the user experience (mostly) delivers on the company’s promises. Read More
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have created a smartphone ultra zoom solution that allows scientists in the field to image and size DNA. The tool, which uses a little 3D-printed box that acts as a high-resolution microscope, can be used to see objects as small as two nanometers in width. Read More
You’ve been able to use your voice (“Ok Google”) to do all sorts of stuff on Android for a while now. But said stuff has all been built-in by Google itself; third party developers haven’t really been able to tap into that functionality. Today, that changes. Read More
Forget Microsoft's "mobile first, cloud first" strategy. It appears that the company is going against that vision by launching Windows 10 first for PCs this summer, with the operating system available to other devices in the months following.
Microsoft Corporate VP Joe Belfiore of the Operating Systems Group described the rollout of Windows 10 as a "wave of benefit that starts in the summer and increases throughout the fall," noting that PCs will have access to the new operating system first, with staggered launches in the following months for phones, Xbox One, Arduino, and HoloLens.
Additionally, after it was leaked that Windows 10 would arrive in July, the launch timeframe is now confirmed by Gizmodo.
According to Belfiore, users may not get all the features of Windows 10 immediately at launch. It appears that Microsoft will launch the core operating system first and add features after the launch.
Belfiore did not give specifics on the features that may not make the July launch window for Windows 10.
This isn't surprising given all the changes that Windows 10 will bring, including an updated user interface and Start menu experience, Universal apps, support for Continuum to switch between different screens and form factors, support for IoT and wearables, the addition of Cortana and a new Microsoft Edge browser.
For those eager to get their hands on Windows 10, Microsoft is making the OS available in rough form in a Technical Preview. The Windows 10 Technical preview program has recently been renamed to Insider Preview to match the Windows Insider program.
As this is preview software, bugs and glitches are likely part of the experience at this time for early adopters.
http://ift.tt/1Jd1bBh
Amidst all the code talk (and there was tons during the Build 2015 Day 2 keynote), Microsoft revealed a fun/horrible new website that tells you how old you look based on various algorithms.
How-old.net does what it promises: you upload a photo - of yourself, friends, family, or someone you searched for via Bing - and out pops the age it thinks the person or people in the picture are.
During our tests, it was either spot on, slightly off or way off. It also gave different results for the same person, depending on the photo we uploaded. It was equally ego crushing and flattering, to say the least.
The website was born out Microsoft's Machine Learning team playing around with the firm's Face detection API and pairing it with the Bing Search API. What started out as a small test hoping for 50 people to try it out ballooned into more than 35,000 users.
How-old primarily pulls a person's age and gender from their photo, though data like the latitude and longitude of where the picture was uploaded are also taken into account. That data is then run against data from other users on the site using Microsoft Azure streaming services. Some backend tricks later, and voilà! Out comes a result you either want to share with friends or never let see the light of day again.
You can read more about the tech behind how-old.net on the Machine Learning Blog.
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For anyone that isn't a developer, the second keynote during Microsoft's Build 2015 conference was a bit of a snoozer. But Square Enix, the game studio behind the acclaimed Final Fantasy series, swooped in to save the day with a stunning game demo using DirectX 12.
Don't be surprised if you're forced to do a double take upon watching this demo or looking at these screenshots – I did exactly that. Once the video, titled simply "Witch: Chapter 0 [Cry]," was through, Microsoft Corporate VP and Chief Evangelist Scott Guggenheimer took direct control to show that these graphics were not pre-rendered but served up in real time.
Simply put, it's jaw-dropping how realistic these visuals look – Square Enix is quickly approaching Uncanny Valley territory here. From the texture of the woman's skin to how her tears refract the light on her face, what DirectX 12 can do is already stunning.
DirectX 12, referred to often as "DX12", is the Redmond, Wash. firm's latest collection of gaming APIs, or application programming interfaces. In short, this is one of the many tools that PC game developers use to make their games, directly dictating how those games look through what it offers.
Based on what was shown off today on the Build stage, DX12 offers game creators quite a lot. "Each of these scenes is over 63 million polygons," Microsoft Technical Fellow John Shewchuk said during Guggenheimer's live run-through of the demo. "That's about six to 12 times more than we could do with DX11."
"Just to give you an idea on the textures that you're seeing here," Shewchuk continued, "those are 8K by 8K textures. Again, significantly more than we were able to do [before]."
If those numbers sound like nonsense to you, that's because the demo was running on a Digital Storm gaming PC with four Nvidia Titan-grade graphics cards working together.
"I think where it gets really interesting, though is – look at the hair," Shewchuk said. "Every piece of hair that you're seeing is being rendered as a polygon. This isn't surface map stuff. And as those polygons are running through the pipeline, they're running over 50 different shaders to generate that level of clarity on this."
Of course, keep in mind that this demo doesn't consider even half of the graphical elements that a game released to the public would have to. You can clearly see in some scenes that the "63 million polygons" are confined to a pretty small surface area. So, I wouldn't expect the next Final Fantasy game to look exactly this good on PC, but it should be mighty close.
http://ift.tt/1bjb5Wo
Google announced today that it will begin running tests of a new way to deliver search results to mobile users with slow connections. The company’s pilot trials will initially take place in Indonesia, a country where the Internet is playing a greater role in people’s lives – especially among younger users – but is still plagued by slow mobile connection speeds,… Read More
Secret is dead: RIP Secret. It turns out that people are pretty awful when there are no consequences, but Secret's failings were ultimately down to not fulfilling a "vision", so said the founder.
But getting those secrets out is therapeutic for those of us with a tendency to wallow. So what will you do with all your deepest, darkest secrets and confessions now?
The pretender to Secret's throne, Yik Yak's schtick is that it will help you "find your herd" by anonymously posting your thoughts to a feed based on location. People can upvote and reply anonymously to your anonymous posts so, theoretically, you end up feeling less alone. After three seconds on the app, it becomes clear that most users are young people taking exams. Caution: you may feel old and tired and alone.
We posted our secret about how we didn't have any secrets and it was eating us up inside, and, actually, yeah, we do feel a bit better just getting it out there. After three seconds: no upvotes or replies. We checked again every eighteen seconds for the next four hours before we accept that no one else is going through the pain of being secretless. Even the person who just said "Looney tunes" got two upvotes. We feel much worse than before.
Wizters lets you share text pictures and video anonymously. You can share anonymously with your Facebook friends, it says, but we don't trust it enough to link it to a Facebook account (and we're pretty sure none of our friends are on Wizters, either).
There's no iOS app yet so we sign up online and we were instantly depressed by the homepage which makes a big deal about having nothing to show us. Start a group with your friends! It says - we don't have any friends on here, so thanks for making us feel forever alone.
Our first anonymous post summed it all up: "People are the worst." Nothing happened. We clicked around a bit trying to join a group or start a group or do anything to alleviate the feeling that we are the only one in on this website, but nothing happened. We gave up.
Cloaq thinks you need the mask of anonymity before you can become who you truly are; its a social network that lets you share and comment on stories without anyone knowing that witty riposte was actually written by a 43 year old accountant with elbow patches. It chooses a secret codename for you, which we didn't realise until after we'd spent five minutes trying to log in with our own personally chosen handle.
Most people seem to be using it to ask advice from the community of could-be-anyones, rather than sharing secrets. We asked if anyone ever wonders if they are wearing the clothes they will die in. No answer yet.
Whisper is what you'd get if Secret, Post Secret and Yik Yak got together and had a baby. Every secret comes with an image and a location tag so you can share your pain with those around you. You can use your own image, or you can let Whisper pick one for you based on your secret. My secret was about how I wish I was taller (welcome to my inner psyche) and the image it chose was of a very tall woman next to a very short woman which seemed a bit insensitive to be honest.
To pass the time while the likes came flooding in, I had a look at the local secrets based on my location and they were all basically humblebrags about how popular or tall they were.
Whisper also has a messaging function, so we sent someone called Mr_Haze a message of congratulations on his secret about people watching. He has yet to respond.
DiaryMS is a little different in that it's not ALL about the social. It's primarily a digital diary for pouring your heart into, but for the brave there's the option to publish their entries publicly.
The result is a rolling feed of pathos and high school crushes, as users upvote and comment on one another's anonymous confessions. Usually, dare we say it, those comments are actually quite nice and supportive.
Most of these confessions are heartfelt and sometimes even poignant, but perhaps none more so than the person who simply posted "I want to buy a lovely cat".
We hear ya.
If you just have to get your secrets out without any fear of repercussion, this is one method that never fails. Also works for cursed crockery, warts and the staked hearts of vampires.
http://ift.tt/1GJGgVW
