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Signal adds a face blurring tool its secure messaging app
Signal has added a face-blurring feature to its app.
Amazon draws criticism for firing employee who led coronavirus protest
An Amazon employee claims he was fired by the company after he led a protest against its coronavirus safety conditions. In an interview with Bloomberg, Chris Smalls, former assistant manager at Amazon's Staten Island fulfillment center, said that he and more than 60 colleagues walked off the job on Monday to demand Amazon close the center for proper cleaning. Smalls said his employment was subsequently terminated.
Massively's first look at sandbox Shards Online
How many games have you played only to find yourself uttering the phrase, "If only I could run my own server"? Chances are, there at least one or two titles you''d love to make into a private playground for select friends using your own personal ruleset. Lucky for you, in Shards Online, you'll be able to do precisely that! Announced last month, this upcoming sandbox by former Mythic Entertainment devs is built on the premise that players will run the majority of the virtual worlds how they want to. Do you want a fantasy world where you can boot those who ruin immersion? You got it! What about the ability to take over mobs and fight the players while spouting personalized comments? Yup, that too. What if you want a hardcore world where survival is for the fittest? Mm-hmm, starving to death is an option, as is permadeath. And how about a world where gameplay unfolds around players as they explore rather than offers questing on rails? That's the theory behind the game. But how do these ideas hold up in practice? Last week I sat down with Citadel Studios co-founder Derek Brinkmann to witness a demonstration of Shards Online and talk all about the plans for the game. And what I saw certainly looks promising! So if this idea tantalizes your gaming taste buds, keep reading to get the scoop. I've even added a teaser video.
Twitter claims Venezuela is blocking its images to stifle protests
Venezuela's government has been trying to silence protests over shortages of basic goods, and that crackdown appears to be extending into the digital realm as well. A Twitter spokesperson tells Engadget and Bloomberg that pictures on its social network are "currently blocked" for at least some users. The country hasn't confirmed anything, but President Nicolas Maduro has already taken a TV station off the air after it showed unflattering protest footage (pictured here); this may be just a continuation of his policy. Whatever is taking place, Twitter is encouraging Venezuelans to sign up for text message updates to keep the news flowing. And locals can take comfort in knowing that government attempts to censor online content aren't always effective at crushing dissent -- if there's enough demand for political change, it can happen. [Image credit: Eduardo Massieu / NTN24, Twitter]
Valve demonstrates Steam Controller in new video
Valve issued a video demonstrating its Steam Controller today. The game pad, which features two track pads in lieu of joysticks, is used for its series of Steam Machines, announced in September. The controller shown in the video isn't final hardware, but rather a prototype controller lacking a touchscreen to be included in Valve's hardware beta program. Among the developers that have seen the controller, Super Meat Boy developer Team Meat said it was able to execute some of the game's more demanding moves on the pad.
PAX East 2013: Hands-on with WildStar's Spellslinger and Warrior
When you start following a game, you always worry that it won't live up to your expectations. It's inevitable, really. I didn't fall in love with WildStar after years of playing; I fell in love based upon a trailer and a design philosophy that appealed to me. The game itself could be far removed from my first impressions, or it could be a cocktail of half-finished systems and unsatisfying gameplay. Without some personal experience in Nexus, all I could to do was wait for the game and hope that it matched my hopes. Of course, WildStar hit the ground running at PAX East 2013. I wrote on Friday about my experiences with the new housing video and some of the game's zones, but that's no substitute for playing the game. So it was with a slight sense of apprehension that I found myself standing behind the demo station controls and jumping in for the first time at PAX. Would I be satisfied, or would this turn out to be a love affair that didn't survive contact with the game itself?
Kickfolio puts iOS apps on the web for hands-on interaction
Developers working on iOS applications have had a bit of a dilemma regarding app demos and beta testing. Getting a prerelease or ad-hoc version of an app out to testers' devices can be complicated, expensive or both -- although services like Testflight and Hockeyapp can streamline the process if needed. For marketing, many devs have used a short video to try to get across the key points of an app, while others use the freemium model to let users give the app a try before purchasing full functionality through an in-app purchase. They could also choose to not create a demo and use word of mouth and a good website to explain their app. Kickfolio, launched in December, is an innovative idea for developers who want testers to poke and prod or potential purchasers to try before they buy -- a fully functioning version of their app available in streaming fashion over the web. Kickfolio's service is quite reasonably priced. Developers get a private testing page for their apps, and for public access they pay by the number of embed sessions that are required -- in other words, how many times an app is accessed through a site other than Kickfolio. Prices start at US$9 per month for an unlimited number of apps and 500 embed sessions, on up to $69 monthly for unlimited apps and 5000 embed sessions. Enterprise plans with no cap on the number of embed sessions are also available upon request. To get the app online, the developer simply uploads the binary to his or her Kickfolio account. The embed is immediately available on the testing page, and can be dropped into any website in seconds. For customers visiting the website, the iOS app shows up onscreen with an "interactive demo" badge encouraging the user to touch or click on the demo app. From that point, the user is essentially working with a live version of the app. A small cloud icon provides the user with a way to share the app's iTunes App Store address via email or text message. The embed uses HTML5 and CSS, keeping Flash completely out of the picture. The resulting embed can be viewed and used in any modern browser, and response time is excellent -- a test of the RunKeeper app on the Kickfolio website was quite usable over an LTE connection on an iPad or iPhone. For developers, Kickfolio is a wonderful way to let potential purchasers or beta testers try an app. Thanks Derek!
Breakfast Topic: Have you ever protested about game issues in game?
So as I logged in each and every character recently to sync up all my goodies in preparation for Mists, I rediscovered a strange little level 1 gnome tucked away on Blackrock. Argent Dawn players, do you still have a thing going with the players on Blackrock? I haven't played on AD in years now, but back in the days of unstable launch-era servers, the "Blackrock kiddies" chose Argent Dawn to torment with their server-crashing antics whenever their own realm would crash. I'm not sure how making the AD players miserable with legions of profanity-blasting players shouting "Blackrock down! Blackrock down!" and taunting us for being roleplaying pansies was supposed to help their situation -- but it became a regular occurrence. Ironforge (best capital to hang out in because you could connect so quickly to Menethil) on Argent Dawn became a living hell whenever Blackrock went down. The lag was so bad you could guarantee you'd end up in the trench between the auction house and the bank. Then came the glorious day when Argent Dawn went down. I still can't believe I did it, but I did -- I joined the players flooding onto Blackrock to create level 1 gnomes. (Bad player. Bad.) We delighted in tacking on RP-esque "-eth" suffixes to the most ridiculous-sounding names we could think of, and we dogpiled onto the bridges of Ironforge for a naked gnomish dance party, chanting "AD down! AD down!" (Not sure what that guy in the screenshot shouting about drugs was all about. Looks like we didn't even manage to keep our main chant going. Oh, well.) I don't guess we ended up accomplishing anything of note -- we didn't crash Blackrock like their players did ours so many times, nor did we really intend to -- but it sure felt good to return the annoyance for just that little while. On a more serious note, WoW has been home to plenty of in-game marches, demonstrations, and protests of various sorts over the years. It was a very different era of customer relations back then, and many in-game protests were simply attempts to garner some attention from Blizzard over issues players felt strongly about. Today, of course, players enjoy much freer communication with Blizzard on the official forums, Blizzard blogs, and even Twitter and Facebook. Have you ever protested or marched in game over a game-related issue? Did you feel it was effective? Do you post in feedback threads and interact with the Blizzard blues outside the game now?
TUAW TV Live at 5 PM EDT: A spring harvest of accessories
It's springtime in the Northern Hemisphere, but for some reason it also appears to be harvest time... We're seeing a flood of new accessories for Apple devices, and many of those goodies are making it to the TUAW Labs™ for review. Today on TUAW TV Live, I'll take the time to familiarize you with number of these products, from a retro alarm clock dock to some computer cleaning supplies, a portable RAID to a tangle-free earphone, and even a trio of products designed to make your iPhone into a much better camera than it already is. I'll also have a few apps to demonstrate, and there's always time for chatting in the TUAW-TV chat room. As usual, I'll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we'll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you're unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel. The chat is now available as well on IRC: join us on server chat1.ustream.tv, chat room #tuaw-tv.
Eyes-on with Thunderbolt on Windows at IDF 2011 (video)
Sure, you've seen the announcement of Thunderbolt on the PC, the chips that'll power it and a bevy of compatible accessories, but how about actual proof of Thunderbolt working on Windows? Hidden deep in the recesses of IDF's technical showcase, we found just that and immortalized it on video for all to see. Essentially the same Chipzilla demo as when we first witnessed the interconnect on Macs, we watched the playback of four 1080p streams devour over 700MB of throughput off a PCIe attached SSD. You know the drill, serious bit slinging awaits in the gallery below and video after the break. Myriam Joire contributed to this report. %Gallery-134134%
Gamescom 2011: Guild Wars 2 shows off 40 minutes of gameplay
Hey Guild Wars 2 fans, bummed that you're not at Gamescom right now getting your paws, claws, or ferns on the game? We have the next best thing: nearly 40 minutes of video footage for you to digest. On the Gamescom floor, ArenaNet's Chris Lye took time to walk Wartower.de through the full Guild Wars 2 demo for the event. During the tour, he shows us character customization, the Asura, and the Charr starting experience, capping it off with a giant dragon boss encounter. So what's Lye looking forward to playing the most when the game goes live? "I've already found it: the Asura Thief. I love the size, I love the animations on the Asura, and I love how great they are as Thieves." Grab some popcorn and settle in for the full video after the jump!
Bay Area transit operator cuts cell service to thwart protest, activists abandon cause for Angry Birds
It looks like not even good old civil disobedience can survive without decent reception these days. In a seemingly successful attempt to shut down a protest of BART -- the Bay Area's answer to a subway system -- operators pulled the plug on cell service to multiple train stations, leaving would-be activists without a major organizing tool. The demonstration would have been the second in as many months in response to the shooting of a man by transit police. Officials had this to say in defense of the disruption: A civil disturbance during commute times at busy downtown San Francisco stations could lead to platform overcrowding and unsafe conditions for BART customers, employees and demonstrators. BART temporarily interrupted service at select BART stations as one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform. That didn't seem to sit well with some, as the cutoff has lead to a campaign by hackers, comparing the system to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who disconnected the country's internet during its recent revolution. It may have a ring to it, but muBARTek does seem a little much, don't you think?
HAPMAP navigational system keeps your eyes on the prize, your hands on the route (video)
Alternative navigational systems aren't exactly new, but the concept shown here just might have wings. HAPMAP was one of a handful of projects selected for demonstration at SIGGRAPH's E-tech event, aiming to keep a human's eye away from the map (and in turn, on whatever's in front of them) by developing a system that guides via haptics. With a handheld device capable of both navigating and vibrating, the interface indicates complex navigation cues that follow the curvature of a road or path -- it's far more detailed than the typical "go straight," and there's also opportunity here to provide handicapped individuals with a method for getting to previously inaccessible locales. By mimicking the operation and interface of sliding handrails (as well as using motion capture cameras), it's particularly useful for the visually impaired, who need these subtle cues to successfully navigate a winding path. Hop on past the break for a couple of demonstration vids. %Gallery-130395%
Vection Field controls traffic at SIGGRAPH, fictional cities from the future (video)
So, let's set the stage. You're walking down a semi-busy street in a semi-foreign city. You're curiously hanging close to the middle of the sidewalk. You bust out your smartphone and figure out that your so-called engagement just got "Complicated." Your gait has an irregularity. You look up and spot what appears to be a local, eerily perturbed and somewhat flummoxed by your current position. You dodge left. So does he. You dodge right, knowing full well that it'll only complicate matters when he follows suit. Before long, you're tiptoeing around a stranger while a full-on traffic jam builds up behind you. You've just ruined the universe, and that's not doing anyone any good. The solution? The University of Electro-Communications's Vection Field, which hones in on large moving visual cues that "induce a sense of self-movement." Funny enough, the lenticular lenses pathway here at SIGGRAPH actually worked -- we never expected an optical illusion to solve such a monumental issue, but we'll take it. Vid's past the break, per usual.
NVIDIA, Fusion-io and HP drive a dozen 1080p streams on four displays at SIGGRAPH (video)
A dozen uncompressed 1080p video feeds, simultaneously running off a single workstation. Yep, you're looking at it. NVIDIA's showcase piece here at SIGGRAPH was undoubtedly this wall -- a monster that trumps even Intel's CES wall in terms of underlying horsepower. A relatively stock HP Z800 workstation was loaded with the NVIDIA QuadroPlex 7000 Visual Computing System (that's four GPUs, for those counting) in order to push four HD panels. A pair of Fusion-io's ioDrive Duos were pushing a total of three gigabytes per second, enabling all 12 of the feeds to cycle through with nary a hint of lag. We're still a few years out from this being affordable enough for the common Earthling, but who says you need to wait that long to get a taste? Vid's after the break, hombre. %Gallery-130280%
NVIDIA's quad-core Kal-El used to demo next-gen mobile graphics, blow minds (video)
You might think yourself too grown-up to be wowed by shiny, glittery things, but we doubt many will be able to watch NVIDIA's new Glow Ball tech demo without a smidgen of childlike glee. Built to run on the company's quad-core Kal-El processor, it shows us the first example of true dynamic lighting on mobile devices and also throws in some impressive physics calculations like fully modeled cloth motion. Instead of the pre-canned, static lights that we see on mobile games today, NVIDIA's new hardware will make it possible to create lighting that moves, fluctuates in intensity, and responds realistically to its environment -- all rendered in real time. The titular glow ball can be skinned with different textures, each one allowing a different amount and hue of illumination to escape to surrounding objects, and is directed around the screen using the accelerometer in your tablet or smartphone. NVIDIA demoed the new goodness on a Honeycomb slate with 1280 x 800 resolution and the frame rates remained smooth throughout. In order to emphasize the generational leap that we can expect with Kal-El, the company switched off two of the four cores momentarily, which plunged performance down to less than 10fps. That means the simulations we're watching require a full quartet of processing cores on top of the 12-core GPU NVIDIA has in Kal-El. Mind-boggling stuff. Glow Ball will be available as a game on Android tablets once this crazy new chip makes its way into retail devices -- which are still expected in the latter half of this year, August if everything goes perfectly to plan. One final note if you're still feeling jaded: NVIDIA promises the production chip will be 25 to 30 percent faster than the one on display today. Full video demo follows after the break.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: PinPoint
Have you ever lost your cursor on your screen? Do you do lots of screen-sharing demonstrations? How would you like an app that puts some customizable animations around your cursor to help you or your audience spot it? PinPoint is an app that does just that -- it puts a circling animated highlight around your cursor. The app comes with different animations, from circling lines to dog paw prints, each with a plethora of options. The full-screen crosshairs, for example, are particularly useful if you're trying to make precise adjustments to graphics or layouts. You can even create your own custom animation using an image file, something that could be great for branding presentations or screenshots. Several activation options are also available, whether you want it on all the time or just when the cursor is moved. PinPoint can also show your keystrokes in an on-screen pop-up with the option to limit it to just modifier keys. A menu bar icon acts as an indicator to show you whether PinPoint is turned on or off, which you can do with a keyboard shortcut. If you're prone to losing your cursor on the screen, waving the mouse around like a madman trying to spot where it is, PinPoint will certainly help. Likewise, if you're someone who does demonstrations of applications on the Mac, being able to highlight cursor and keyboard input could be a real boon. PinPoint is available in the Mac App Store for US$2.99.
LG shows off 47-inch transparent IPS LCD with multitouch and Full HD resolution (video)
Where Samsung leads, LG inevitably follows (and vice versa, of course). The Korean electronic arms race has now heated up by an extra few degrees with LG's demo of a crazy new 47-inch display that packs in everything a geek could want: IPS technology, 1080p resolution, multitouch, and some good old transparency... just because. This so-called Window Display is sadly intended for advertisers and other digital signage proprietors, meaning that even if it wasn't still at the concept stage, it likely wouldn't be populating living rooms anyway. Ah well, so long as LG makes sure John Anderton and the precrime unit get one, we'll be happy. Video for the rest of us after the break.
Martin Jetpack flies again, sees IPO on horizon but no commercial sales yet (video)
We were all aflutter this time last year when it was announced that the Martin Jetpack was finally available commercially and would be heading out to eager buyers in exchange for $86,000. Regrettably, the time since then hasn't been filled with bunches of happy new owners levitating on the power of their dual-fan-equipped Jetpack and even less encouragement can be found on the product's website, which still says that sales to private individuals will begin only once "development and refinement" of the vehicle is complete. To that end, we've got video of the Jetpack's latest test, which shows it elevating as high as it's ever done, but even that's tinged by the fact it's carrying a testing dummy and is remotely controlled by a grounded human below. Ah well, at least the company itself seems to be in good shape still and is looking forward to floating about 30 percent of its value on the local stock market in order to gain extra funding. We get the feeling if they could just start selling the darn things, cashflow shouldn't be a problem. Video after the break. [Thanks, Sean]
NASA's Global Hawk completes unmanned airborne refueling simulation, will do it for real next year (video)
While some bot makers are busying themselves designing AI to simulate humans' natural and distinct lack of intelligence, it's nice to see there are still old-fashioned researchers out there keeping the Skynet dream alive. Northrop Grumman's aeronautics gurus have paired together a Global Hawk unmanned aircraft with a manned Proteus ship way up in the skies -- 45,000 feet, to be precise -- with the vessels of ingenuity managing to fly in tandem at a distance as short as 40 feet. Unsurprisingly, this is the first time such intimacy has been reached between UAVs (the Proteus had a monitoring crew on board to ensure the insurance bill wasn't through the roof) in high altitude, and the ultimate goal of having two Global Hawks doing the deed without any human intervention is said to be within reach by next year. That's when these light and agile air drones will be able to refuel themselves and go on for a mighty 120 hours in the air... plenty of time to complete a well planned extermination down below, if one were so inclined.
