Month: March 2016

Computer scientists at Microsoft have developed a new artificial intelligence platform atop the hugely popular video game Minecraft. Dubbed AIX, the platform hooks into Minecraft and allows the AI to take control of a character and learn from its actions. It's early days for the project; so far, the scientists have been hard at work getting the the AI to learn to climb a hill.

It's a simple enough task to program directly, but for an AI that starts out knowing nothing at all about its environment or what it's supposed to be doing, that's a big ask. The AI not only needs to understand its surroundings, but it also needs to figure out the difference between day and night, why walking on lava is probably a bad idea, and when exactly it has achieved its goal via a system of rewards.

Microsoft's AI isn't quite there yet, but those wanting to program their own can do so this summer when the AIX software will be released for free and as open-source code. Budding programmers and researchers need only purchase a licence for the Java version of the game, which currently goes for £17.95 ($26.95/€19.95). AIX will run on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS, and researchers can programme their AI in any programming language they like. The only proviso is that AI experiments won't be able to interact with other players online—at least not yet.

Google has suffered a major blow in Russia, after a court sided with an earlier ruling that the ad giant had violated the country's anti-trust rules by having its services bundled on Android-based devices.

Last September, competing search engine—Yandex, which is headquartered in Russia—brought a successful complaint against Google pre-installing its products on Android phones and tablets. At the time, the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) ruled that users of Google's operating system shouldn't be lumped with the ad and search giant's other services.

On Monday, Moscow's Arbitration Court chucked out Google's appeal against that ruling, and said that it "fully supports" the earlier FAS decision. "Google['s] actions led to prohibition of pre-installation of apps of other producers," it added.

Artist's impression of the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter at Mars. (credit: ESA)

The spaceways to Mars are littered with the debris of probes trying reach the dusty red planet's surface. In 55 years of Mars exploration, no space agency in the world other than NASA has ever landed a probe on the surface of Mars that survived more than a handful of seconds.

NASA's success in putting a sequence of increasingly larger and more complex onto the surface of Mars, culminating with the 1-ton Curiosity rover in 2012, has been rather remarkable in comparison to other space agencies. Eight of NASA's nine missions to the surface of Mars have been successful, with only its Mars Polar Lander failing to safely reach the surface in 1999.

By contrast, four of five Soviet Union landers failed to reach Mars safely, and the one that did, Mars 3 in 1971, survived for only about 15 seconds. In addition there have been a number of failed Soviet and Russian attempts to reach the Martian moon Phobos.

The Galaxy S7 Edge (left) and Galaxy S7 (right).

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The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are finally here. Samsung's newest flagships stick pretty close to the Galaxy S6 formula, but they add a brand new SoC—the Snapdragon 820—and bring back some of the features the Galaxy S6 missed out on.

While we liked the Galaxy S6's overall evolution, you didn't have to look far to see people that saw the handset as a step backwards. Galaxy S5 customers complained that "upgrading" to the Galaxy S6 would mean losing the MicroSD slot, removable battery, water resistance, and Micro USB 3.0 port. In response, Samsung has re-introduced some features from the Galaxy S5 back into the Galaxy S7. The MicroSD slot is back, as is the water resistance. The water resistance is actually improved—you'll no longer have to fiddle with the clunky, unreliable port cover to protect the S7's innards.

The device still isn't a straight upgrade for Galaxy S5 owners, though. The removable battery isn't making a comeback; it's firmly fixed in place on this latest Galaxy phone. You won't get those USB transfer speeds back either—the Galaxy S7 still has a MicroUSB 2.0 port, making it the last flagship to not upgrade to USB Type C. You're also missing out on an IR blaster, which was present on the Galaxy S5 and S6.