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Pop culture's many takes on artificial intelligence
Over the years, artists, writers, filmmakers and game studios have all tackled the concept of artificial intelligence. Often their vision is of machines that are brutally hostile to humans. Philip K. Dick envisioned androids that murder their owners. The iconic HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey ... also murders his human companions. Of course, there's Skynet, which launches an all-out war on mankind. We could go on like this for a long time. But there are also those, like Spike Jonze, who envision us having a more complex relationship with computer-based personalities; one in which they could even be love interests. And in Star Trek: The Next Generation Data is not only a "good" android, but he's often the hero of the show. We've pulled together 13 of our favorite portrayals of AI over the years and put them in the gallery below. It is by no means comprehensive. So please, let us know what we missed in the comments or tweet at us (@engadget) to let us know your favorite AI character from the film, TV or books using the hashtag #EngadgetAIWeek.
Gerty and Marvin: The best iOS ebook reader apps you're not using
Earlier this year, on the recommendation of former TUAW lead Megan Lavey Heaton, I gave iBooks the heave-ho and installed Marvin on my iPad. A US$3.99 app, Marvin, Megs insisted, was the ebook reader I'd been waiting for, and one that I could easily fall in love with. She was right. Feature rich, beautifully realized, Marvin quickly migrated to my iPad home page, and from there, onto my launch bar. It offered all the reading control I needed to immerse myself in stories. There are too many incredibly useful features to mention, so go look at the product page. Among my favorites are the slide-to-dim when moving from a bright room to a dark one, perfect font adjustments, progress tracking, and so forth. It's an absolutely fantastic app for reading DRM-free EPUB. Marvin does not support Mobi or PDF reading at this time. When developer Kristian Guillaumier approached me to take an early look at his new ereader app Gerty, I was surprised. Marvin is excellent. What more needed to be said or developed in this space? Malta-based Guillaumier explained his motivation. Over time, Marvin had grown and grown based on user requests, created a very purposeful code base that really couldn't be re-directed the way he envisioned. Although Marvin has in no way reached its end of life, Gerty would re-imagine this space for a new audience. To Guillaumier, reading wasn't just an end-point, it was the beginning of an experiential process. To him, books involve the space, the reader, the learning, and the environment as well as the material on the rendered page. Gerty, his new passion project, would allow users to bring those elements into their books, creating annotations and journals related to book content. Users could annotate texts, add tagging, detail their progress, and more. Whether in the class room or on a real-world journey, the greater book experience could be collected and incorporated to build a richer ebook library. Like Marvin, Gerty (free with $3.99 IAP to unlock all features) is packed with product highlights. Guillaumier has spent a lot of extra effort adding these in with great subtlety. You discover items almost accidentally, as the interface graciously defers to your natural interactions, offering features you hadn't thought to look for yourself. A tap on the page brings up a set of tools for adjusting your presentation. Another tap dismisses it. A drag on the book overview screen reveals statistics about your reading sessions. Little quotes here and there enliven the interface, emphasizing a profound connection between reading and the love of books. In terms of visual design, Gerty puts Marvin to shame. When using the app, I kept wishing more and more features would migrate back so Marvin could share the beautiful menus and font choices. Every menu, every presentation, every feature has been enhanced for visual clarity. While I may not agree with all the choices made, it's clear that Gerty was grown to put design first. (Guillaumier assures me that the improved Gerty design sensibilities will migrate back to Marvin over time, particularly in the upcoming Marvin 3.0 update.) Simple taps enable you to add journal entries, photos, and geotagging. Built-in Dropbox linking makes importing books a snap. One of the features I much prefer in Marvin is its traditional page by page presentation. Gerty defaults to scrolling chapters. This is an ebook reading style that I acknowledge is quite popular, even though it's not really my thing. There are elements that are still being developed, and others that will likely change as users gets their hands on the app and start offering feedback. For me, I haven't quite decided whether I'm now primarily a Marvin user or a Gerty user. I suspect over time I'm going to begin exploring more of the Gerty-style journaling features on my iPhone. Marvin remains, however, my ereader app of choice on my iPad. I'm really glad I have access to both.
Marvin celebrates its first birthday by going free for a limited time
Marvin is one of the best-kept secrets on the App Store. The iOS eReader app is celebrating its first anniversary, and as part of the anniversary, the developers are simplifying the product line and making both versions of Marvin universal and designed for iOS 7. The new free version of Marvin lets you read one book at a time, while the new US$2.99 paid version allows you to have multiple books in progress. Both versions of the app have Marvin's superb organizing features and fine-tuned control over your reading experience. Extra themes are available for $0.99 each. However, for a limited time to help existing users migrate, the paid version of Marvin is free. Those migrating from the free version of Marvin to the universal app can consult this tutorial to back up their libraries. We'll be taking a more in-depth look at Marvin and how this app helped me to make my iPad mini my permanent eReader soon.
Meet Marvin, the ginormous solar-assisted catamaran
Nah, it's not actually able to get engine power from the insanely large solar panels adorning its roof, but Marvin still utilizes the 35 square meters of photovoltaic panels to run everything else in an eco-friendly fashion. Sadly, this 50 foot fiberglass cruising catamaran is merely a concept for now, but we're hoping that a few VCs get together in order to make this bad boy a reality. Surely there's a Russian billionaire in need of a boat to visit his new home in Newark, right? [Thanks, Panos]
All the World's a Stage: Class is in session
All the World's a Stage is skipping class (gasp!), and playing with roles every Sunday evening.Our spells are shiny and bright, well worth using in more than just combat situations! Last time we talked a bit about this idea, as well as how druids, hunters, and mages could use their spells to entertain their friends. Today we turn to the remaining classes: priests, paladins, rogues, shamans, warlocks and warriors. Each roleplayer would do well to sit down and examine his or her action bar to pick out those spells which can be used outside of combat, and think of whatever opportunities imaginable to make good use of them. Chances are, if you put your mind to it, you can come up with some really creative ideas.Buffing, for instance: You've got these beautiful abilities that can benefit anyone around you, no matter what class or level they are. If you're going to bless them with such a neat thing, why not say something about it while you do so? You can say, "<Deity Name> guide you, sir!" or, "you look pretty dumb -- have some extra intellect!" or whatever expression sounds right for your character.
Self-driving "Marvin" SUV gets set for DARPA's Urban Challenge
It looks like DARPA's newly-instated Urban Challenge is shaping up nicely, with this self-driving Isuzu SUV from Austin Robot Technology and the University of Texas now joining the likes of Team LUX's Volkswagen Passat and NC State's Lotus Elise in competing for the top prize. As with those other vehicles, the SUV (dubbed Marvin) is completely autonomous, relying on an array of sensors, video cameras, artificial intelligence, and machine-learning technology to (hopefully) avoid catastrophe as it motors about. As you might guess, the Urban Challenge presents a few different obstacles for the vehicles to deal with than the Grand Challenge does, including intersections, improperly parked cars, and traffic laws that must be followed at all times. Marvin still has a ways to go before it can get a chance to drive away a few million dollars richer, however, with it required to pass a basic driving test this summer and a national qualifier in October before it's allowed to enter the big event in November.[Photo courtesy of Ralph Barrera/American-Statesman]
