Month: August 2024
ESPN’s ‘Where To Watch’ Tries To Solve Sports’ Most Frustrating Problem
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Too often, new tech product or service launches seem like solutions in search of a problem, but not this one: ESPN is launching software that lets you figure out just where you can watch the specific game you want to see amid an overcomplicated web of streaming services, cable channels, and arcane licensing agreements. Every sports fan is all too familiar with today’s convoluted streaming schedules. Launching today on ESPN.com and the various ESPN mobile and streaming device apps, the new guide offers various views, including one that lists all the sporting events in a single day and a search function, among other things. You can also flag favorite sports or teams to customize those views.
“At the core of Where to Watch is an event database created and managed by the ESPN Stats and Information Group (SIG), which aggregates ESPN and partner data feeds along with originally sourced information and programming details from more than 250 media sources, including television networks and streaming platforms,” ESPN’s press release says. ESPN previously offered browsable lists of games like this, but it didn’t identify where you could actually watch all the games. There’s no guarantee that you’ll have access to the services needed to watch the games in the list, though. Those of us who cut the cable cord long ago know that some games — especially those local to your city — are unavailable without cable.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Too often, new tech product or service launches seem like solutions in search of a problem, but not this one: ESPN is launching software that lets you figure out just where you can watch the specific game you want to see amid an overcomplicated web of streaming services, cable channels, and arcane licensing agreements. Every sports fan is all too familiar with today’s convoluted streaming schedules. Launching today on ESPN.com and the various ESPN mobile and streaming device apps, the new guide offers various views, including one that lists all the sporting events in a single day and a search function, among other things. You can also flag favorite sports or teams to customize those views.
“At the core of Where to Watch is an event database created and managed by the ESPN Stats and Information Group (SIG), which aggregates ESPN and partner data feeds along with originally sourced information and programming details from more than 250 media sources, including television networks and streaming platforms,” ESPN’s press release says. ESPN previously offered browsable lists of games like this, but it didn’t identify where you could actually watch all the games. There’s no guarantee that you’ll have access to the services needed to watch the games in the list, though. Those of us who cut the cable cord long ago know that some games — especially those local to your city — are unavailable without cable.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Quantum computing: the inevitable threat to information security
In an era where technological advancements continually reshape our world, one of the most significant emerging threats is quantum computing. This powerful technology, while promising revolutionary benefits, poses a substantial risk to our current cybersecurity infrastructure. As we stand on the brink of this quantum revolution, it is imperative to understand the potential dangers and prepare accordingly. The quantum leap Quantum computing harnesses the principles of quantum mechanics to perform computations at speeds unimaginable with classical computers. In 2019, Google proclaimed to have demonstrated “quantum supremacy” when its Sycamore processor solved a problem in 200 seconds that would take…This story continues at The Next WebOr just read more coverage about: Security
In an era where technological advancements continually reshape our world, one of the most significant emerging threats is quantum computing. This powerful technology, while promising revolutionary benefits, poses a substantial risk to our current cybersecurity infrastructure. As we stand on the brink of this quantum revolution, it is imperative to understand the potential dangers and prepare accordingly. The quantum leap Quantum computing harnesses the principles of quantum mechanics to perform computations at speeds unimaginable with classical computers. In 2019, Google proclaimed to have demonstrated “quantum supremacy” when its Sycamore processor solved a problem in 200 seconds that would take…
This story continues at The Next Web
Or just read more coverage about: Security
Meta will open up Horizon Worlds access to preteens
When I was a preteen, social media was just getting going, so there weren’t many restrictions in place regarding access. Now, regulations — and the consequences of not having them — are everywhere, with the latest example coming courtesy of Meta (a case study for all the good and bad social media has to offer). Meta has announced it’s opening up Horizon Worlds to preteens with parent-approved access to a Meta account.
Anyone aged 10 to 12 can soon request entry to the VR game and explore different worlds like The Space Station or Citadel. Each world is also getting a rating of ages 10+, 13+ or 18+, with ones in the last category not shown as an option to anyone 17 or younger. Parents can either approve all worlds in a specific age bracket, go through and pick specific ones or wait for their kid to send a request.
Further safety features in Horizon Worlds for preteens include the fact that voice chat is disabled for everyone except parent-approved contacts, there are no follow suggestions and there are automatic offline status and visibility settings — something only a parent can change. All parent-managed accounts will also permanently have the personal boundary feature turned on, stopping other avatars from getting too close. Plus, anyone using a Meta Quest 2 or 3 headset will have to re-enter their birthday before playing.
As thought out as these measures seem, parents and guardians might not want to trust that Meta will take care of everything without question. The company has hardly kept young people’s well-being at the forefront of their decisions, with lawmakers slamming (and suing) Meta for its disregard. Nearly every state across the US has taken part in lawsuits alleging Meta hooks teenagers onto its platforms and repeatedly promotes safety features while ignoring staff pleas to devote more time and resources to protecting children. Our deep dive into all of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s dangerous decisions (including the company taking minimal action to stop adults from sexually harassing children on Facebook and Instagram) is available here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-open-up-horizon-worlds-access-to-preteens-130059930.html?src=rss
When I was a preteen, social media was just getting going, so there weren’t many restrictions in place regarding access. Now, regulations — and the consequences of not having them — are everywhere, with the latest example coming courtesy of Meta (a case study for all the good and bad social media has to offer). Meta has announced it’s opening up Horizon Worlds to preteens with parent-approved access to a Meta account.
Anyone aged 10 to 12 can soon request entry to the VR game and explore different worlds like The Space Station or Citadel. Each world is also getting a rating of ages 10+, 13+ or 18+, with ones in the last category not shown as an option to anyone 17 or younger. Parents can either approve all worlds in a specific age bracket, go through and pick specific ones or wait for their kid to send a request.
Further safety features in Horizon Worlds for preteens include the fact that voice chat is disabled for everyone except parent-approved contacts, there are no follow suggestions and there are automatic offline status and visibility settings — something only a parent can change. All parent-managed accounts will also permanently have the personal boundary feature turned on, stopping other avatars from getting too close. Plus, anyone using a Meta Quest 2 or 3 headset will have to re-enter their birthday before playing.
As thought out as these measures seem, parents and guardians might not want to trust that Meta will take care of everything without question. The company has hardly kept young people’s well-being at the forefront of their decisions, with lawmakers slamming (and suing) Meta for its disregard. Nearly every state across the US has taken part in lawsuits alleging Meta hooks teenagers onto its platforms and repeatedly promotes safety features while ignoring staff pleas to devote more time and resources to protecting children. Our deep dive into all of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s dangerous decisions (including the company taking minimal action to stop adults from sexually harassing children on Facebook and Instagram) is available here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-open-up-horizon-worlds-access-to-preteens-130059930.html?src=rss
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is grounded after fiery landing failure
SpaceX has yet to set a new date for it’s delayed Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 rocket launch. | Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket following a failed landing attempt during a recent Starlink mission. After successfully carrying the satellites into orbit on Wednesday, the first-stage booster returned to Earth and toppled into the Atlantic Ocean in a fireball shortly after touchdown, ending a streak of 267 successful landings.
The FAA has ordered an investigation into the failed touchdown. “The incident involved the failure of the Falcon 9 booster rocket while landing on a droneship at sea. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported,” an FAA spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. “A return to flight of the Falcon 9 booster rocket is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the anomaly does not affect public safety.”
After sending 21 Starlink satellites on their way to orbit, Falcon 9 booster 1062, making its 23rd flight, tipped over and exploded as it landed on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’. It was the first Falcon 9 landing failure since Feb. 2021. Watch a replay of our live… pic.twitter.com/Dquqk2DL2R— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) August 28, 2024
The grounding order could cause further delays to SpaceX’s high-profile Polaris Dawn mission, which aims to carry four people into orbit to attempt the first private spacewalk. The Polaris mission was expected to launch this week, but was pushed back due to poor weather conditions and a new date hasn’t been set yet.
These investigations tend to wrap up fairly quickly at least, with SpaceX responsible for conducting the probe itself and the FAA then assessing its findings. This is the second grounding for SpaceX this year after a liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon 9 booster caused a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” during another Starlink satellite delivery mission in July. The FAA permitted the Falcon 9 to be returned to flight just 15 days later.
Groundings for SpaceX workhorse rocket are rare, with the last one occurring in 2016 prior to the two incidents this year. According to SpaceX, the specific booster that failed on Wednesday was on its 23rd flight.
SpaceX has yet to set a new date for it’s delayed Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 rocket launch. | Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket following a failed landing attempt during a recent Starlink mission. After successfully carrying the satellites into orbit on Wednesday, the first-stage booster returned to Earth and toppled into the Atlantic Ocean in a fireball shortly after touchdown, ending a streak of 267 successful landings.
The FAA has ordered an investigation into the failed touchdown. “The incident involved the failure of the Falcon 9 booster rocket while landing on a droneship at sea. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported,” an FAA spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. “A return to flight of the Falcon 9 booster rocket is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the anomaly does not affect public safety.”
After sending 21 Starlink satellites on their way to orbit, Falcon 9 booster 1062, making its 23rd flight, tipped over and exploded as it landed on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’. It was the first Falcon 9 landing failure since Feb. 2021. Watch a replay of our live… pic.twitter.com/Dquqk2DL2R
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) August 28, 2024
The grounding order could cause further delays to SpaceX’s high-profile Polaris Dawn mission, which aims to carry four people into orbit to attempt the first private spacewalk. The Polaris mission was expected to launch this week, but was pushed back due to poor weather conditions and a new date hasn’t been set yet.
These investigations tend to wrap up fairly quickly at least, with SpaceX responsible for conducting the probe itself and the FAA then assessing its findings. This is the second grounding for SpaceX this year after a liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon 9 booster caused a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” during another Starlink satellite delivery mission in July. The FAA permitted the Falcon 9 to be returned to flight just 15 days later.
Groundings for SpaceX workhorse rocket are rare, with the last one occurring in 2016 prior to the two incidents this year. According to SpaceX, the specific booster that failed on Wednesday was on its 23rd flight.
The Witcher 4 will begin full production soon – “work on Polaris is progressing” says CD Projekt Red
CD Projekt Red has provided an update on the development of The Witcher 4 and the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel.
CD Projekt Red has provided an update on the development of The Witcher 4 and the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel.
In a new press release looking back on the studio’s financial report for the first half of the year, joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said that CD Projekt Red is now “gearing up to begin the full-fledged production phase” of the next major Witcher game – aka Project Polaris – and that its Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, Project Orion, is now in the planning phase.
“Work on Polaris is progressing – its development team is nearing a major milestone which will mark the end of the preproduction phase,” Nowakowski said.
“The first half of the year was also a busy period for our Boston studio, which is laying the groundwork for Project Orion – a new game set in the Cyberpunk universe.”
The next Witcher game “Polaris” is nearing ending pre-production and will enter full production soon.The next Cyberpunk game “Orion” makes good progress.https://t.co/2IHWXsrhiP pic.twitter.com/EVMrAmQczSAugust 28, 2024
In a separate earnings call covered by VGC, Nowakowski reaffirmed that work on the studio’s ongoing projects is “pretty stable” and that they “have been progressing at a consistent pace.”
“The Polaris team is maintaining the right scale to enter the production phase very soon, while our work on both announced and unannounced projects is steadily progressing,” the CEO added.
Polaris was announced in March 2022 and will kick off a new saga for the role-playing game (RPG) series. As of July 31, 2024, it’s now being worked on by 410 developers, which was predicted by CDPR CEO Adam Kiciński last year.
As for Project Orion, the next Cyberpunk game will be made by the developers responsible for fine-tuning Cyberpunk 2077 and designing Phantom Liberty team and was said to be in the conceptual design phase during October 2023.
Cyberpunk 2077‘s quest director Paweł Sasko, now associate game director of the sequel, revealed this summer that the game is being worked on by former modders.
“Half of the quest team [on the next Cyberpunk] – this is the team that builds the quests which is at 24 people right now – are former modders,” Sasko said. “[They come] from Witcher, Cyberpunk, and other games.”
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DJI Neo leak reveals just how temptingly affordable the tiny drone might be
The hardware, price, and release date of DJI’s latest drone, the Neo, has seemingly been revealed in a video by YouTuber enontheroad.
In an unboxing video by Italian YouTuber enontheroad, the hardware of DJI’s rumored drone for beginners, the DJI Neo, has seemingly been revealed, along with claims about what the product’s list price and release date will be.
In the video, it appears that the FPV-style ‘baby’ Avata 2 drone is already available in some markets, despite not officially being unveiled – enontheroad was able to pick up a retail unit in Malaysia, along with the recently announced HoverAir X1 Pro.
enontheroad was not able to fly the drone in the video, which is no surprise given the product isn’t official yet. But it did reveal the Neo’s FPV-style design in the apparent unboxing, as well as the pricing and release date that it claims it was told by DJI representatives (see the video, in Italian, below).
DJI Neo rumored pricing and teased release date
According to enontheroad, the DJI Neo will start at just €199 in the Eurozone (that’s about $220 / £167 / AU$325). We’ve already seen rumors that a DJI Neo Fly More Combo kit, which typically includes extra batteries, a charging hub, and an improved controller, will cost close to double that fee, at around $350 / £295 / AU$550. enontheroad claims it was told that the Fly More Combo will be around €350.
Joining the rumor mill, regular DJI leaker @Quadro_News shared on X (formerly Twitter) what looks like DJI’s official teaser for the Neo (see below), which shows the product announcement will be on September 5 at GMT+8 (that’s 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm UK time).
However, the three-second video reveals the product name as Neo, which would be an unusual move by DJI for a teaser video, so we can’t be sure yet if the teaser is the real deal.
👉That’s it. A teaser of the DJI Neo! Thank you, DJI.#dji #djineo pic.twitter.com/r9Gr3KoEGWAugust 29, 2024
If the rumored pricing of the rumored DJI Neo turns out to be accurate, then it could be an absolute steal.
There have been plenty of other Neo rumors that suggest it could be one of the best drones for beginners, from it being DJI’s smallest ever drone (notwithstanding DJI’s Ryze Tello) at around half the weight of the Mini 4K, to it being ready to go out of the box, equipped with AI-subject tracking and DJI’s QuickShots flight moves.
If the rumors are true, it won’t be long until the Neo is taking off from the palm of our hands.
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