Month: July 2016

Way back in the autumn of 2004, I may have invented the world's first GPS-based augmented reality game. In light of the stratospheric success of Pokémon Go, I'm wondering whether I should have perhaps attempted to patent my invention.

My game was called Augmented Reality Multi-User Dungeon, or ARMUD for short, and it was the topic of my university thesis. The idea seemed quite simple to me: I started with a text-based MUD, and then layered a real-world positional element on top of it. As you walked around the university campus you would move through the MUD's zones. In the real world you might be standing in the student union bar; in the game, reading the zone's description on your mobile device, you were actually inside an uproarious tavern full of stereotypically angry dwarves, behooded humans, and trixy hobbits.

If you bumped into another player, you could trade or fight or talk, or send in-game whispers if you didn't want to talk to the person in real life.

After leaking and then confirming news of the slim, white, Xbox One redesign just over a month ago, Microsoft today announced that its Xbox One S console hardware refresh will hit retailers on August 2. A 2TB system will cost $399 and will be available in "limited quantities" in the US, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Europe on that day. Versions with 1TB and 500GB hard drives will be available for $349 and $299, respectively, at a later date.

Besides being 40 percent smaller than the original Xbox One (and sporting an internal power supply rather than that unsightly power brick), the new redesign adds support for 4K Blu-rays and streaming videos, as well as high-dynamic range (HDR) color support in certain upcoming games. The new system also comes with a slightly redesigned controller, featuring a textured rear grip and bluetooth support.

The Xbox One S shouldn't be confused with Microsoft's upcoming Scorpio update, also announced last month and promised for a holiday 2017 release. That system will be capable of true 4K gaming, as well as VR support, while being fully compatible with all existing previous Xbox One games, Microsoft says.

Featuring brand new gameplay footage captured on PC (AMD), Mark takes Adam Jensen on his first mission into the heart of the aug ghetto Golem City. (video link)

I've spent the last hour hunting down an elusive black market ID syndicate in the heart of Prague, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided's sprawling city hub. In the aftermath of a devastating worldwide attack, for which augmented humans were responsible, security is tight. Perhaps overly so. Manhandled by a prejudiced police department and endlessly scanned and monitored by robotic drones, augs have been shunned by society, forced into ghettos where resentment runs rampant, and violence becomes the answer. And so, even under the employment of Task Force 29 (an Interpol-led anti-terrorist group), super-aug Adam Jensen can't charm his way past a protected police post. He needs that ID, and I'm going to help him.

Which, when I stop and think about it, is odd, because that wasn't the reason Jensen was in Prague in the first place. Earlier, he'd fought his way through a sandstorm in Dubai, gunning down augmented terrorists on the hunt for weapons, before being caught out by an unfortunate explosion. The convenient result (for the developers in charge of player progression at least) was that Jensen's augmentations stopped working, and the only man who could fix them was a doctor living in Prague. That's the thing about Deus Ex: no matter how hard you try to stick to the mission, no matter how much you want to reveal the next snippet of the story, it's there, pushing and prodding you into one of its many side quests.

UK chip designer ARM has agreed to a whopping buyout offer from Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank for £24.3 billion (~$32 billion)—the deal comes just weeks after Brits voted to exit the European Union.

SoftBank said it would retain ARM's senior management team, brand, and lucrative partnership-based business model.

ARM will remain headquartered in Cambridge, and SoftBank has vowed to double the staff headcount in the UK over the next five years. The smartphone chip designer currently has 4,064 employees on its books worldwide.

Battery research focuses on balancing three competing factors: performance, lifetime, and safety. Typically, you have to sacrifice one of these factors to get gains in the other two. But for applications like electric vehicles, we'd really like to see all three improved.

In an investigation recently published in Nature Energy, scientists demonstrated the ability to use a magnetic field to align graphite flakes within electrodes as they're manufactured. The alignment gives lithium ions a clearer path to transit the battery, leading to improved performance.

The electrodes of Lithium-ion batteries are often composed of graphite, which balances attributes such as a high energy density with non-toxicity, safety, and low cost. Graphite, composed of stacked sheets of carbon atoms, is often incorporated into these electrodes in the form of flake-like particles.