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The tech that makes MMO development easy for indies
SpatialOS is the technical foundation that makes massive, persistent, online world-building possible, even for small video game studios. Think of large, mainstream games like Destiny or Elder Scrolls Online: These are huge universes that support thousands of players at a single time. It typically takes millions of dollars and hundreds of people multiple years to make one of these games -- let alone support it post-launch -- which is one reason it's notoriously difficult to secure funding for the development of massively multiplayer online games. However, SpatialOS puts a spin on this standard. Improbable's computational platform offers cloud-based server and engine support for MMO games, allowing developers to easily create and host online, multiplayer experiences with persistent features. SpatialOS first made a splash at GDC 2015, when it promised to power MMO games with a swarm-like system of servers that switch on as they're needed in locations around the world.
Peugeot concept learns from your IoT gear to improve the ride
While the Geneva Motor Show is just days away, Peugeot didn't wait for the festivities in Switzerland to debut its latest concept. Instead, the automaker revealed an autonomous car here at Mobile World Congress. Dubbed the Instinct Concept, the vehicle blends self-driving tech, home automation and cloud-based connectivity to define user profiles. The vehicle uses Samsung's ARTIK IoT platform to pull in all of your information from mobile devices, wearables and connected home gear to adapt the best driving or riding experience.
Amazon wants Alexa to answer customer service calls
In the near future, Amazon's Alexa could be on the other end of your next call to tech support. With call centers expected to become a more than $15 billion industry in the next five years, the online retail giant has apparently identified another market that is ready for a shift in technology. According to a new report from The Information, Amazon is currently prepping a commercial version of Alexa developed specifically for fielding questions from phone calls and text messages.
Amazon outage breaks large parts of the internet
If your favorite website or internet service isn't accessible today, it's probably not just you. Amazon Web Services' S3 cloud storage is experiencing "high error rates" that have caused chaos among many of the sites that depend on AWS to work. Our own website is one of them, but the failure has also affected some or all of Giphy, Medium, Slack, Quora and a slew of other websites and apps you likely use. Some connected home devices aren't working correctly, either. Even Amazon's ability to report problems was broken for a while -- the AWS dashboard wasn't changing color because its issue was "related" to S3's problems.
NASA rocket will form artificial clouds in space
When you watch a rocket launch, it's usually to enjoy the show put on by the rocket itself. With one of NASA's next launches, however, you'll likely be more interested in what's left behind. When one of two Black Brant IX rockets blasts off for an aurora science mission between February 13th and March 3rd, it'll form artificial clouds in space, around 60 to 100 miles above the Earth. The vehicle will deploy a small amount of trimethyl aluminum that should react with the atmosphere and produce white puffs that will help scientists track auroral winds.
NVIDIA brings GeForce Now cloud gaming to Mac and PC
Ever wanted to be a PC gamer, but didn't want to buy a gaming PC? NVIDIA's Jen-Hsun Haung wants your number. Taking the stage at CES today, the CEO announced GeForce Now for Mac and PC -- an offshoot of its cloud gaming service aimed at prospective PC gamers. Despite sharing the same name as the streaming service, it offers to NVIDIA Shield users, GeForce Now for Mac and PC isn't a gaming-subscription service. It's a server rental program.
Comcast's new 'Gateway' will manage your smart home
Comcast already dominates many people's living rooms, and now it's looking to expand its reach to the rest of your house. Today at CES, the company announced it will release a series of Gateway smart-home hubs throughout the year. In particular, as you might expect, these hubs will allow Comcast's Xfinity customers to manage the menagerie of Internet of Things devices that inhabit the modern home.
WooHoo is an Echo with a touchscreen, facial recognition and more
We're beginning to see a trend here at CES. A ton of companies are either injecting their tech with a dose of Alexa or building their own Amazon Echo competitors from scratch. SmartBeings falls into the latter category, but its WooHoo device packs a lot more punch than the online retailer's smart speaker. WooHoo can do some of the things Echo handles, but it's also equipped with both facial and voice recognition, Android-powered software and a 7-inch touchscreen. Oh, yeah, and it's a full-on IoT hub for all of your smart home tech.
TiVo appears to be testing cloud DVR recording
While a few companies have tried on network/cloud DVR features, TiVo has always been associated with storage that's sitting right in your living room. Previous leaks pointed to a new TiVo box, codenamed Mantis, that might do network recording of OTA channels, but now Dave Zatz posted this picture, showing that there may be similar features in the works for the existing Bolt DVR.
Plex can pull media from Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive
Plex has added support for Google Drive, OneDrive and DropBox to its Plex Cloud service. The original idea with the service, which debuted in beta this September, was to void the need for a dedicated media server or network attached storage (NAS) drives. That way, assuming you have a decently fast internet connection, you can stream your movies or songs wherever you are via files that are parked securely in the cloud.
Microsoft to raise some UK prices by up to 22 percent over Brexit
Like it or not, the outcome of the Brexit vote has caused a lot of financial uncertainty in the UK. The government has yet to decide which course to take when it invokes Article 50, effectively triggering an exit from the European Union, but some major tech companies have already moved to reduce the impact of the falling pound. In a recent blog post, Microsoft shared that it too will soon amend prices, confirming that from January 1st, 2017, business software pricing will rise by 13 percent and cloud services will see a 22 percent increase.
Scan photos into Office 365 with Office Lens on Windows 10
Microsoft's Office Lens app has let folks upload photos from their iOS and Android devices since April 2015. But now your Windows 10-running phone, tablet, PC can snap photos — or even the Hololens, if that's your thing.
Dropbox tackles security fears surrounding its Mac app
Dropbox has already raised some eyebrows over its requests for ever-deeper access to your computer, and recent discoveries aren't helping things much. Users now claim that Dropbox's Mac app asks for overly broad permissions, swipes your password and even hacks the operating system. The cloud storage service denies the claims and is trying to allay those fears, though. Desktop app team member Ben Newhouse has responded to concerns on Hacker News with both an explanation of design decisions and a promise to improve its transparency.
Google Drive for Android now creates file and folder shortcuts
Google's latest Drive update makes it easy to access your favorite files on Android. It adds the ability to add file and folder shortcuts to your homescreen, so you don't need to launch the app every time there's something in there you want to open. You can do that by going to your device's Shortcuts menu and choosing Drive shortcuts, which could be next to the Drive scan and toolbar options. That might sound minor, but it could help you become more productive if you use the app as your primary cloud storage.
UK's first cloud DVR lets you watch recordings anywhere
To be blunt, Bush isn't a brand known for particularly innovative products. But, come the end of the month, it's the name you'll see on the first cloud DVR to launch in the UK. Bush's Digital TV Recorder is an affordable set-top box -- arriving exclusively at Argos on August 30th for £100 -- that lets you watch and record Freeview channels. What's special about it, though, is the integration of ShowDrive, a service that takes those recordings and uploads them to the cloud so you can watch them wherever you want, and on basically any device.
Intel buys an AI processing powerhouse
Intel isn't the biggest player in the artificial intelligence world, but it might change that very shortly. The chip giant just bought Nervana, a startup specializing in processor-based "deep learning as a service" through technology like its upcoming Nervana Engine, a dedicated AI hardware accelerator due in early 2017. The Intel crew isn't shy about its intentions. It wants Nervana's expertise to help boost the AI performance of its Xeon and Xeon Phi processors on top of broadening its AI know-how -- it's a fast track to the future.
Samsung Cloud safeguards your phone's data
The star of Samsung's Unpacked show might be the Galaxy Note 7, but one of its biggest surprises is something you can't really touch: its long, long rumored cloud storage service. The tech giant is launching Samsung Cloud, an online storage option that's focused on safeguarding your phone's data. Much like iCloud, you can use it for both backing up and restoring your phone's data -- helpful when you're replacing a phone and don't want to spend hours recreating your settings.
Google buys a backbone for pay TV services
Google is snapping up Anvato, a company with tech that's designed to make it easy for broadcasters to put live video online. The system is currently used by plenty of brand-name firms to pump out online video, edit clips in the cloud and handle pay-per-view transactions. Anvato counts companies like NBC and Fox Sports as customers, the former uses it as the backbone for NBC.com, while the latter used it to stream the Super Bowl. Anvato's software and employees will now join Google's cloud platform team, enabling other firms to benefit from what's being called "scalable media processing and workflows in the cloud."
Microsoft partners with a legal weed startup
Microsoft is going into the legal marijuana business by teaming with a weed financing startup called "Kind," according to the New York Times. The two companies will create Azure-powered cloud apps that track plants from "seed to sale," helping legal dealers comply with laws. The decision to enter the trade was probably not taken lightly by Microsoft, as most corporations still won't touch it with a ten-foot bong. However, the software giant is based in Washington state, where it's perfectly legal to sell pot, and sees the potential for profits.
Samsung will take on Google and Amazon in the cloud
Cloud computing! Doesn't the mere mention of it just get your blood pumping? Okay, it might be dull, but we all depend on those data centers for CPU-intensive services like Google Now and Siri, storage for photos, documents and video, and infinitely more. So, it's big news that Samsung has acquired Joyent, a US-based cloud platform, for an undisclosed sum. The company will be able to power its mobile apps, internet-of-things (IoT) business and storage, and possibly break into artificial intelligence (AI), an area dominated by Google, IBM's Watson and others.
