communication
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Twitch brings video calls to its game communication app
Twitch wants to move beyond live streaming to cover your game communications, and to that end it bought Curse back in August. Just what is it doing with its newly acquired app, though? Well, now we know: Curse is rolling out desktop support for both video calls and screen sharing on top of its existing voice and social features. You and four other people can now see each other while you play, and share what's on your display if you want to brag about a victory or show vital info to your teammates.
This is how the world looks on Facebook's population maps
Facebook's Connectivity Lab today released its high-resolution population maps for Malawi, South Africa, Ghana, Haiti and Sri Lanka, with the promise to make more datasets available over the coming months. The population maps are a joint effort between the Facebook Connectivity Lab, Columbia University and the World Bank, though Facebook is interested in the project as part of its effort to launch wireless communication services in rural regions around the globe.
Simulation of hidden ocean tides could lead to better sonar
There's a lot of tidal movement under the ocean's surface, but we haven't had a great understanding of it so far. Internal tides, created around continental shelf breaks, are far more difficult to predict than the ocean waves you can see. However, MIT researchers just made a breakthrough: they've accurately simulated those hidden tides for the first time. They melded a hydrodynamic model with data from a coastal sound wave study to replicate an ocean environment (in this case, a shelf break near the US' eastern coast) with a previously unseen level of complexity, complete with background elements like currents and eddies. The technique should be useful for predicting climates and fishing populations, but it could lead to a surprising amount of technological progress, too.
Become a cuddly teddy bear with Oculus Rift and Adawarp
Adawarp, a two-man Japanese tech startup, is in the long-distance bear-hug business. The company's Telepresence virtual reality technology transports one person, wearing an Oculus Rift, into the body of a robotic teddy bear, with real-time movements, sight, voice and all, no matter how far apart the bear and user are. Turn your head and the teddy bear turns his, and use an Xbox controller to articulate the bear's arms, as MIT Technology Review reports. Users can talk through the bear's speaker system, hear responses through a microphone and see out of its eyes (each one encircled by a fine layer of fuzz, of course).
Nucleus wants to take the friction out of video calling
Video calling is a great example of a technology that once felt highly futuristic but is now available on nearly every computer and smartphone out there. FaceTime, Hangouts, Skype -- there are plenty of options, and they all work pretty well, and work in pretty much the same way. A new company called Nucleus thinks that there's still a lot of room for improvement in video calls, particularly in terms of connecting people instantly. That's the goal of its new product (also called Nucleus): it's a tablet you can mount on your wall or place on a counter that lets you connect with other users in less than a second.
Major CIA overhaul ramps up focus on cyber operations
The CIA is working on a major reorganization, and it's said to be one the largest in the agency's 67-year history. A big piece of the overhaul is a larger focus on operations in cyberspace, leveraging the latest technology in its intelligence gathering workflow. CIA chief John Brennan is setting up a Directorate of Digital Innovation to lead the charge, keeping track of and implementing advances on the cyber front, including advanced communications tech. As Reuters reports, the National Security Agency is typically on the edge of innovation inside the US government, but the CIA hopes an internal shuffle with help it keep up with the "pace of change." The new directorate will join the four other major departments that focus on Science and Technology, Support, Analysis and Operations. [Image credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Facebook at Work tackles office communication with familiar tools
We heard rumblings about Facebook's plans to tackle communication in the office back in November, and now the app is starting its rollout. Facebook at Work allows you to chat with colleagues with the social network's tools rather than email with either a website or dedicated mobile app. The apps haven't popped up in iTunes of Google Play just yet, but The Wall Street Journal reports that only a limited number of companies will be able to employ it at first. Those that do can expect a similar design to the regular Facebook experience, except there aren't any ads and Zuckerberg and Co. won't track and hold data from the project.
The Think Tank: Keeping in touch with the friends in the magic box
Earlier this week in the comments of the article about MMO social network ZergID, readers went off on a tear about how MMO players keep in touch and communicate with guildies and friends beyond the game -- as my mom used to say, the people in the magic box. What quickly became obvious is that there's no one accepted method. Social media, forums, chats, IMs, Steam, and this crazy invention called a telephone were all mentioned. I thought we could use a more formal discussion, so in today's Think Tank, I asked the Massively writers how they keep in touch with guildies and MMO friends when they're not playing or when they're between games... if they keep in touch at all.
Onyx communicator lets you live out your 'Star Trek' dreams for $99
Don't deny it -- at some point, you watched Star Trek and wondered when you could simply slap a device on your chest to speak with your crew. You won't have to wait hundreds of years, thankfully. OnBeep has just unveiled the Onyx, a clothing-worn communicator that lets you chat with groups just by pressing a button. The Bluetooth add-on lets you securely message up to 15 people once using your Android phone or iPhone as the home base; you can also see where they are and whether they're available. The saucer-shaped design isn't nearly as discreet as Captain Picard's badge, but it's light and won't wreck your favorite shirt.
Xpress Yourself: A wonderful way to talk with friends
Xpress Yourself is a chat app in an already crowded field. However, it is also a very polished a fun app and provides the full suite of features you would expect, and then some. In addition to the usual text and photo capabilities, it also adds the ability to draw on pictures, send video and audio, and provides the capability of sending ephemeral messages that expire after 3 to 9 seconds never to be seen again. It also provides a set of built-in themes to let you customize the app in one of twenty ways (ten colors or ten patterns). Getting started is straightforward and a pretty friendly experience. The app walks you through the initial steps to create your account and authorize the app to access various features of your iPhone. After that, it's all about finding friends you can communicate with. You can find friends through the usual methods (searching by name, email, phone number, or by uploading your address book and searching in bulk that way. You can also invite friends by SMS, Email, or by posting notes to Facebook or Twitter. The main screen is called the Hub and it lists recent conversations you have had (most recent at the top). Conversations can be with individuals (in which case, the icon will be that of the person you've been speaking to) or groups. Groups are conversations with multiple people that anyone can create. When you create a group, you can give it a name and a picture (and if you don't, then the icon will forever be the first letter of the group name you give it - you cannot edit either the name or icon once it has been created), and then invite friends to it. The actual conversation view is in many ways, a standard instant messaging view. Your messages are pushed to the right, those of your friends are pushed to the left. What makes it especially interesting and useful is that there is a thin column on the right side with all of your most recent conversations listed (by icon only, no names are displayed). This lets you easily switch between multiple conversations. This feature is just wonderful and I wish all such apps did this kind of thing. The text, audio, video, and picture messages you can send all render nicely in the conversation view. When you opt to make a message (any type) ephemeral, you are setting it so that it only can be viewed for 3, 5, 7, or 9 seconds (in the case of text and pictures) or the duration of a video. Once the time runs out, they may not be looked at again though a placeholder remains in the conversation view as a reminder that such a message was sent at that particular time. The way the display handles showing you the date and time of messages is also very nice, floating the date at the top and embedding the time on each message. It is very easy to see what happened when. All in all, this is a very well polished, fun app to use. I very much enjoyed using Xpress Yourself during testing and I have continued to use it to communicate with people off and on. Like any app of this kind, the biggest issue will be finding an audience. But this is one that is definitely worth checking out.
Researchers use wearable sensors to better communicate with dogs
Sometimes it can be difficult to get your canine companion to get the commands you're giving, but there could be an easier way in the future. Researchers at North Carolina State University are working on a means to improve those communication skills with the help of a smattering of gadgets. The team developed a harness that carries tech for two-way chatting, packing sensors that monitor posture to pick up on a dog's behavioral cues. There are also haptic items built in to enhance the human portion of the equation with software that interprets speech into easily understood signals.
London Science Museum catalogs 200 years of communication tech
Her Majesty the Queen took to Twitter for the first time today, but not to complain about the amount of ice in her post-brunch frappé. Instead, Liz was announcing the opening of a new permanent gallery at London's Science Museum that takes visitors on a journey through more than two centuries of information and communication technologies. "Information Age: Six Networks That Changed Our World" delves into the history of electric telegraphy, telephone and broadcast networks, as well as exploring the later development of satellite communications, mobile networks and the web: all the technology we take for granted today. Among over 800 exhibits are gems including Sir Tim Berners-Lee's NeXT computer, which hosted the first web server, the BBC's first radio transmitter, a piece of the first transatlantic cable connecting the UK to the US, and a replica of the first computer mouse. Taking pride of place at the heart of the gallery is the Rugby Tuning Coil (pictured above), a vast contraption that, in its day, was the most powerful radio transmitter in the world.
Rediscover treasure hunting with Figibox
Figibox is a location based messaging app. A user goes to a location of their choosing and can drop a Figibox message that can include text and photos for another user to access. You can also locate other Figiboxes left by other users and open them on location like you would with a classic treasure hunt. There is an option to send both public and private messages. Public messages (green Figiboxes) can be used to inspire and communicate with other users in your neighborhood. Private messages (red Figiboxes) can be used as a sentimental and fun way to message your nearby friends and family. This app requires iOS7 or later is compatible with the iPhone, iPod, and iPad. It is optimized for iPhone 5. Upon downloading the app, a user can find messages close to them that have been created by the app developers. This is a tutorial of sorts. I went and found some of the boxes. which included messages about how to use the app and leave messages at locations. This app is a fun way to cleverly communicate something I noticed at a given location (graffiti, a local art piece, etc.), or if I simply want a friend to go out of their way to locate something cute I want to say to them. The location service is very easy to use. I had no problem at all finding Figiboxes and opening them. The interface is designed with a basic white background, indicating that the creativity and artistic expression is left up to the user within their own Figibox messages. There is a lot of freedom to create something very original and interesting. I could see people getting hooked on creating experimental public messages with political and artistic themes. I like the idea of giving a physical location to a message for the public, but this seems like an inefficient way to send messages to one specific person or even a group of close friends. If I were to send a visual inside joke I would just text the person. Additionally, there are apps that exist already (like instagram) that allow a user to post video and photo messages with a geographic location tagged. The treasure hunting aspect of it could be fun publicly. I can see myself experimenting and seeing what myself and others are capable of creating and sharing. Someone with a bit of design sense and a strong voice could possibly become a Figibox celebrity user known for special artistic messages they leave in a community. Figibox is new and I am really excited to see the app grow in popularity. Currently very few seem to be using the app regularly. I think once it takes off, it could be a really unique way of expressing yourself in your community through messages created on location.
Flameseeker Chronicles: What's next for Guild Wars 2?
Happy second anniversary, Guild Wars 2! We've heard news on the September feature pack, did a cupcake run for ArenaNet to celebrate (I heard that there were bacon cupcakes, but why would you do that), and got some previews of the profession balance changes we can expect to see soon. As happy as I am about that cleave on Necromancer's mainhand dagger, updated axe animations, and being able to resurrect others while in Death Shroud -- and I think the other professions got some stuff, too -- it's been a rocky few weeks for GW2. We've had the privilege of having an unusually close relationship with the developers behind our favorite game, and unfortunately that can lead to tempers running hotter when things go awry. Nevertheless, I think most of us would like to see that relationship continue to flourish and improve. So what went wrong?
Send a message that's impossible to screenshot with Zeph
While Snapchat popularized the idea of sending photos that disappear after a quick view, sometimes you might need to just send a quick message to someone without a visual that you don't want the receiver holding on to. Enter Zeph. A free app for iPhone requiring iOS 7.0 or later, Zeph has pioneered a unique way to send messages to friends that not only disappear, but are impossible to screenshot. Everything about Zeph is extremely easy to use, right from the start. Signing up simply requires a username and password, just like logging in would. The only extra step is to follow up with your mobile phone number for verification and to check for any contacts already on Zeph. After logging in, the app displays a list of contacts who have messaged you. Though the color scheme is blue and white, Snapchat is no doubt the inspiration behind the design. If you have an unread message, tap the contact read it. I received an automatic greeting from "Teamzeph." It's in the way you read the messages where Zeph really works its magic, or perhaps rather in the way Zeph displays them. The team at Zeph calls it "rolling glow technology." When you view a message, only a small part of it is shown at once, about the length of a word or two. The rest of the message will gradually fade in as the previous parts fade out and disappear entirely. Imagine you wrote a message in invisible ink, shined a black light on it to reveal the words and then slowly moved your hand (and thus the light) across the length of the message. That's the illusion of this rolling glow technology. When the message is completely gone, you have two options at the bottom: replay or reply. The replay button disappears a few seconds after the message does, so you have to act fast if you want to see it a second time. If you decide to replay, you won't be able to do so again for the same message. Two strikes and you're out. Tapping the reply button slides the keyboard in and allows you 160 characters to type out a response, the standard amount for an SMS text message and 20 more than a tweet. Composing a new message works the same way, but is done so instead through the top right button above your main list of messages. To send messages on Zeph, it does require that you have friends or family already using the app. Sending invites through the app should help out with that, but they have to join to view your messages or respond to them. A tad bare bones for now, Zeph is teeming with the potential for even more powerful features. Snapchat does offer the ability to just text chat with friends without sending any photos, but the problem with the app as a whole is that it's relatively easy to screenshot and keep pictures and messages. Zeph fixes Snapchat's problem in a simple, yet elegant manner that's totally fool-proof in my experience.
Wacom lets people share handwritten notes across devices and platforms
Wacom has been pushing into the world of mobile for a while, and its efforts have just culminated in a pretty bold move: A single, cross-platform standard for sharing handwritten notes and sketches between users, regardless of whether they're using a stylus or a finger, an iPhone or a PC, an app or a browser. The tool is called "WILL" -- "Wacom Ink Layer Language" -- and it captures a pen stroke's coordinates, pressure and the identity of its creator (through a unique "Pen ID"), as well as allowing the scribble to be edited by others. Users can also see other people's handwriting being created in real-time, i.e. we're not just talking about static images. Beginning next month, Wacom will promote WILL by distributing SDKs for iOS, Android, Mac OS and Windows, as well as for browsers and cloud platforms. These SDKs are meant to make it easier for developers to create apps that accept signatures scrawled on a touchscreen, or DIY smileys, or hand-drawn highlights on a cloud document, or any other sort of handwritten input. Of course, the concern with any such format is that it'll need to be embraced by a large number of companies in order to reach a tipping point and become widely accepted. Wacom doesn't seem to be ready to announce even a single partner just yet, but where there's a will... (Ahem, sorry.)
Pope Francis sees the internet as a blessing for communication
Some may see the internet primarily as a source of anger or a dangerously addictive distraction, but not Pope Francis. In a message for the Catholic Church's World Communications Day, the pontiff called the internet a "gift from God" for social outreach. It helps people meet, experience differing opinions and feel a sense of unity, he says. However, he's also aware of the potential for abuse. Digital citizens can choose to see only things that reinforce their existing views, and they risk isolating themselves from real people. The internet is potentially "rich in humanity" and kindness, but only if we put in that effort -- something we'd do well to remember regardless of our belief systems.
BitTorrent's peer-to-peer Chat service will use strong encryption to protect your identity
In the NSA age, being paranoid really doesn't mean they're not out to get you, so placating your fears has suddenly become a cottage industry. BitTorrent, for one, has just spilled more beans about Chat, it's peer-to-peer, encrypted messaging service that recently sent out a call for alpha testers. Rather than receiving a username, you'll actually be given a so-called cryptographic key pair, making it nearly impossible for others to guess your identity. Security is also enhanced with distributed hash tables (DHTs) -- like those used in uTorrent -- so that message requests are passed securely along the network to your intended recipient. That also avoids the use of a central server which could give a single point of attack for snoopers. There's no word yet on a release date, but the group is busy upgrading its backend for the service so you might be able to put the tinfoil hat in mothballs soon.
Flameseeker Chronicles: How to win friends and influence Guild Wars 2's development
By the time this article goes to press, it'll be Halloween in Guild Wars 2. No, not October 31st; a little known fact is that Halloween actually encompasses the entire month of October and is allowed to sneakily take over part of September if you're particularly excited about it or even seep into November if you're having difficulty letting go. Since it's too early to carve pumpkins and expect them to still be around at the end of the month, MMOs are great places to get your scary on without spending a lot of money on perishable gourds or "stocking up early" on bags of candy that will also mysteriously disappear by the 31st (pro tip: blame ghosts). In the meantime, though, I have one more week before this column can officially turn into the Fearspooky Creepicles and it becomes professionally acceptable to devote at least 200 words to candy corn (note to self: double check with lead editors [Editor's note: /approved! -Bree]). So let's discuss something awesome that's happening on the GW2 official forums under the direction of ArenaNet's Studio Design Director, Chris Whiteside. Let's talk about collaborative development.
Iran seemingly lifts restrictions on Facebook and Twitter access
It hasn't been outrightly confirmed by the government of Iran, but at least some within the nation's borders are now able to access both Twitter and Facebook. For those keeping score, public access to the networks has been banned since 2009, shortly after the reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, seems fairly convinced that Iran itself should not be restricting its citizens to information available via social channels, and a number of trusted accounts -- including Rouhani himself along with The New York Times' Thomas Erdbrink -- have tweeted in recent hours without the use of a proxy. It's unclear whether the lift is intentional, or if it's scheduled to remain permanently, but we're obviously hoping it's a sign of meaningful change.
