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Google will no longer scan your Gmail for ad targeting
Gmail is the de facto standard for personal email accounts, with more than more than 1.2 billion people using the free service. One criticism, however, is that Google scans your email for keywords so it can better target ads directly to you. Not anymore, though. Just like Google did away with email scanning in the G Suite enterprise version of Gmail, it will do the same for the consumer app. The new rule will go into effect later this year. Google's Diane Greene makes it fairly clear in a blog post: "Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for any ads personalization after this change."
Surface Pro review: Microsoft's best hybrid notebook plays it safe
The Surface Pro is everything we've ever wanted from Microsoft's Surface line. It fixes the few remaining problems from the Surface Pro 4, a machine that I adored. And yet it's far less exciting than its predecessors. It's the second incremental upgrade since the Surface Pro 3, and while there's something to be said for sticking with a solid design, in a way it feels like we've seen all of this before. Given that it's been a year and a half since the launch of the Surface Pro 4, I expected more.
YouTube’s mobile app will adjust to display videos of any size
YouTube is having a pretty busy week. The Google-owned video site announced six new shows for its new Red Originals program, its YouTube TV initiative expands to ten new metropolitan markets in the US and its new VR180 technology aims to change the way you watch your videos both in and out of VR. IN addition to all that, YouTube is sprucing up its apps to try and give you a better video watching experience, with a mobile app update that will dynamically adapt to whatever size and ratio you're watching in. The team at Vidcon also reminded us that the updated desktop app, previewed last month, has a new look on the way, as well.
Current theories might be wrong about how a galaxy evolves
With the help of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, researchers made a surprising discovery that goes against what we thought we knew about old galaxies and how they evolve. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a disk-shaped spiral galaxy. Typical of this shape of galaxy, the Milky Way's stars move around with predictable regularity and new stars are being formed throughout. From astronomers' observations, older galaxies that have stopped producing stars take on an elliptical shape with star motions that are unpredictable, different from the Milky Way and other younger galaxies.
'Pokémon Go' badasses can now play Raid Battles
Some Pokémon Go players can now start working in groups to take on powerful creatures in Raid Battles, one of the long-awaited features for the popular augmented reality game. There's a catch, though: Pokémon trainers have to be level 35 and up to access the new co-op mode, so don't get too excited if you're a noob. In addition to that, developer Niantic says the Raid Battles are only live at "select" Pokémon Go Gyms around the world, though it's unclear which exactly. Those of you who do happen to be near one will have the chance to capture rare Pokémon and unlock a handful of other rewards, such as Rare Candies, Golden Razz Berries and different types of Technical Machines.
An algorithm customizes exoskeletons to fit a person's needs
Scientists have been studying exoskeletons in nature for years, and they've been trying to figure out how to adapt them for human use. After all, a powered exoskeleton could change the lives of people who have mobility issues, whether due to age, injury or disease. The problem is that exoskeletons aren't one size fits all. Adapting them to individual humans is a difficult and time-consuming process. But now, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University may have found a way to make it a whole lot easier.
Google's neural network is a multi-tasking pro
Neural networks have been trained to complete a number of different tasks including generating pickup lines, adding animation to video games, and guiding robots to grab objects. But for the most part, these systems are limited to doing one task really well. Trying to train a neural network to do an additional task usually makes it much worse at its first.
Watch SpaceX launch and land a reused Falcon 9 rocket
Today, SpaceX will hopefully launch and land a Falcon 9 rocket that it's already flown to space. The launch window opens at 2:10 PM and lasts for two hours; launch time is currently scheduled for 3:10 PM ET. You can livestream the launch, with commentary, at SpaceX's website.
Some Uber employees want Kalanick back in the CEO chair
Travis Kalanick stepped down as Uber's CEO earlier this week, leaving the CEO, COO, CFO and general counsel positions open. But while he's no longer head of the company, Kalanick is far from gone. He's still a member of the board and controls the majority of voting shares, meaning he'll play a not insignificant role in selecting his successor. And it's not exactly surprising that he would want to. He is the founder after all.
Symantec refuses Russia request for source code access
Security firm Symantec will no longer allow Russian authorities to inspect its source code, according to Reuters. "It poses a risk to the integrity of our products that we are not willing to accept," the company's Kristen Batch said. The worry is that by allowing the supposedly independent Federal Security Service (FSB) to examine source code, it would give Russia an inside view of potential software vulnerabilities and exploits.
The next video-game controller is your voice
For all of modern gaming's advances, conversation is still a fairly unsophisticated affair. Starship Commander, an upcoming virtual reality game on Oculus and SteamVR, illustrates both the promise and challenge of a new paradigm seeking to remedy that—using your voice. In an early demo, I control a starship delivering classified goods across treacherous space. Everything is controlled by my voice; flying the ship is as simple as saying "computer, use the autopilot," while my sergeant pops up in live-action video to answer questions.
'Overwatch’ loot boxes will have fewer duplicates
Players of Overwatch and Hearthstone should pay attention to Blizzard. The company has made two separate announcements that will significantly affect the loot systems in both games.
Keiichi Yano wants to make a music game with heart
"Now let me welcome everybody to the wild, wild West. A state that's untouchable like Eliot Ness." It's rare for a video-game developer to rap during an interview. It's rarer still for him to recite a Tupac track with perfect pitch and cadence. But that's Keiichi Yano, the Tokyo-based game designer behind cult classics Gitaroo Man and Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, better known as Elite Beat Agents in the West. He loves music and will happily talk for hours about jazz, electronica or the intricacies of mumble rap. His latest game, Project Rap Rabbit, fell woefully short of its Kickstarter goal this week. I met Yano a few days prior, during the chaos of E3, when it already seemed inevitable the campaign would fail. We talked about the title, its development and how he might proceed without public funding. To my surprise, Yano was unfazed by the Kickstarter's fate and hinted that there might be another way to bring the game to market. "I can't comment on anything we're doing right now or anybody that we're talking to. But yeah, I hope we can get this out one way or another."
Android’s in-app browser gets a security upgrade
One often-used component of Android is WebView, a micro-browser that lets you view web pages from inside apps, rather than having to use Chrome. However, pointing a slender window towards the internet is an easy way for a nefarious type to get past your device's security. It's an issue that the folks at Google are taking seriously enough to spend real time and effort making WebView more secure.
Nintendo's 3DS isn't dead, but it is trapped in the Switch's shadow
Earlier this year, Nintendo announced a brand-new console, a hybrid portable device that serves as both a portable entertainment machine and a game system for the living room. At a glance, it looked great -- but some criticized the Nintendo Switch for having "nothing to play" except the new Legend of Zelda game, of course. Nintendo's E3 show served as a strong answer to those critics: Between Super Mario Odyssey, the promise of a new Pokémon game, new Xenoblade, Yoshi and Kirby titles and a Switch port of Rocket League, Nintendo gave buyers every reason to pick up its latest portable console. At the same time, it gave fans almost no reason to pick its other handheld device. If you don't already own a 3DS, you're probably never going to buy one now.
Google purges private medical records from search
Very few things qualify for removal from Google's search results, and according to Bloomberg, that list just grew by one. The tech titan has apparently begun purging personal medical records from results pages -- Google didn't make a big announcement about it, but a new line on its Removal Policies website confirms the new rule. Under the section marked "Information we may remove," there's a new entry that says "confidential, personal medical records of private people."
The Air Force and IBM are building an AI supercomputer
Supercomputers today are capable of performing incredible feats, from accurately predicting the weather to uncovering insights into climate change, but they still by and large rely on brute processor power to accomplish their tasks. That's where this new partnership between the US Air Force and IBM comes in. They're teaming up to build the world's first supercomputer that behaves like a natural brain.
Amazon dreams of putting a giant drone beehive in your city
Patents don't mean anything right up until the moment that they mean everything, so take it as read that none of this could happen. Amazon has, however, registered a patent for a concept that it's calling a "Multi-Level Fulfillment Center for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles." Which is a fancy way of saying that it wants to build enormous cylindrical warehouses at the heart of towns and cities. Rather than delivery folks driving parcels to your home, the building will be jam-packed with drones, which fill fly in and out of the location's many windows.
You'll never play 'Super Mario' like this
You have a lot of Super Mario games to choose from, but you'll probably never be able to play one of the most fun versions out there. That's because it was created as an unofficial augmented reality game by developer Abhishek Singh for the Microsoft HoloLens. It's a first-person AR game, to be exact, so you'll literally have to walk and jump around to avoid virtual pipes, step on Goombas and chase mushrooms. Singh told CNET that the thought of recreating a whole Super Mario Bros. level struck him while learning the basics of HoloLens development, because why not?
The Morning After: Friday, June 23rd 2017
Welcome to your Friday morning. As we prepare to phone in the rest of the day, read about how a lensless camera is possible with math, how car buyers aren't quite sold on autonomous vehicles, and how one company's working on a Photoshop for your voice.
