Month: May 2016

(credit: iFixit)

Currently, only two virtual reality platforms exist on Windows PCs: the Oculus Rift and the SteamVR-powered HTC Vive. Each set has its strengths and weaknesses, but until recently, they at least both offered limited compatibility with their rival's software stores. Oculus headset users can pick through compatible games on the SteamVR store and interface, while HTC Vive wearers could install a fan-made patch to play Oculus software.

SteamVR still plays nice, but the other side changed its tune on Friday with a major Oculus app update for Windows PCs, complete with advertised "updates to platform integrity checks." It didn't take long for the team behind that aforementioned HTC Vive patch, dubbed "Revive," to announce that those "integrity checks" appeared to block users' access to Oculus games on unauthorized hardware.

"Oculus has added a check [to look for] whether the Oculus Rift headset is connected to their Oculus Platform DRM," Revive developer "CrossVR" posted to the Vive Reddit community on Friday. "While Revive fools the application [into] thinking the Rift is connected, it does nothing to make the actual Oculus platform think the headset is connected."

Microsoft outlined new anti-terrorism policies today. Terrorists are no longer welcome to use Microsoft's online services, and the company will remove terrorist content when it's reported to be on the company's systems.

With the change, terrorist content joins hate speech and the advocacy of violence against others as expressly prohibited. Microsoft says that it will be using the Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List to determine whether something is terrorist or not; content posted by or in support of the individuals and groups on that list will be prohibited.

The policy for Bing will be different; links to terrorist content will be removed only in response to a takedown demand compliant with local law.

(credit: CSPAN)

In a matter of weeks, Vermont could be the first state to require drug makers to justify steep price increases for medications.

The bill that would set that requirement has already passed through both houses of the state’s legislature and now only requires the final sign off from Governor Peter Shumlin, who the AP reports is likely to sign the bill. Shumlin is expected to decide on whether to sign by early next month.

The bill was inspired by the recent rage-inducing trend among pharmaceutical companies to dramatically up the price of drugs without clear reasoning—beside price gouging. The most notable case was that of Martin Shkreli, who as the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals decided last fall to increase the price of a decades-old anti-parasitic drug from $13.50 a pill to $750 overnight. Shkreli has since stepped down from Turing and currently faces several criminal charges unrelated to drug pricing, but he became a poster-child for the greed of the pharmaceutical industry.

(credit: Yuri Samoilov)

A co-leader on Google's product security team has waved a piece of red meat in front of already frothing privacy advocates by deleting part of a blog post saying he wished the Allo messenger app the company announced Wednesday would provide end-to-end encryption by default.

To critics, the deletion by Thai Duong amounted to tacit admission that his employer was willfully choosing to leave messages sent by the vast number of Allo users open to government surveillance. The critics have argued that because end-to-end encryption will be turned off by default and turned on only in an incognito mode, most users will never avail themselves of the protection.

In a blog post published shortly after Wednesday's announcement, Duong said the move would benefit people who want their messages to be processed by an artificial intelligence agent that would offer auto-replies based on the content of the messages. A built-in digital assistant, for instance, might automatically suggest nearby restaurants or available movies when parties are making plans, but only if the encryption feature is turned off. Then Duong went on to say something that he later deleted from the post:

The Project Ara Developer Edition.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—After numerous delays, Google's modular smartphone concept, Project Ara, is still kicking inside Google. At its I/O conference, the company announced another developer kit for the device (called only the "Developer Edition") due out in 2016. The consumer version has received yet another delay, however, this time to 2017.

Pictures and a signup page for the Developer Edition are up on a new Ara website, and this update will replace the current "Spiral 2" dev kit. Project Ara started in 2013 and, like all ATAP projects, it was expected to take two years. The initiative was delayed past its 2015 deadline when it failed to deliver on a promised Puerto Rican pilot (where the phone was going to be sold out of food trucks). Now in 2016, Project Ara is delayed again to a supposed 2017 consumer launch, but there's going to be heavy redesigns to make that happen.

Most of the modular promises have been toned down—now all the "base components" of a smartphone are built into the Ara body, just like a normal smartphone. The Ara body contains a fixed CPU, GPU, antennas, sensors, battery, and display. The Ara page says this "frees up more room for hardware in each module," but it also removes Ara's promise of upgradability. The modules will now be for the camera and speakers, along with accessories to the base smartphone like a fingerprint reader or an extra display.

(credit: Adrien Sifre)

For giant pandas, there’s nothing like having friends in low places. The bears rely on chummy relations with their gut microbes to extract nutrients from their vegetarian diet, but an annual switch from noshing bamboo stalks to leaves can plunge the pandas' gut microbes into disarray. According to a study of panda poop, this switch potentially causes one grizzly problem.

The authors of the study suggest that the microbial mayhem explains why the bears occasionally poop out their intestinal mucosal linings amid that seasonal shift. The slimy dumps likely expunge broken microbiomes, clearing the way for the bears to forge fresh microbial alliances. Based on the numbers of gooey poops in captive bears, however, that yearly bowel reboot often doesn’t go well, leaving many pandas suffering from chronic inflammation, intestinal ulcers, and unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms. And those gut troubles often coincide with mating season and pregnancies, the researchers report in Frontiers in Microbiology.

If the hypotheses hold up in further studies, the findings may help explain why pandas are notoriously bad breeders—it’s likely hard to get in the mood if you’re battling stomach cramps, bloating, and mucus poops. Currently, there are only a couple thousand giant pandas in the wild.

Minecraft's iconic Steve character will finally land on Chinese computers and smartphones thanks to a licensing deal with a Chinese game publisher. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

When Microsoft opened its wallets in 2014 and traded $2.5 billion for Mojang, the public by and large nodded their heads in agreement. Right, the makers of Minecraft. Those dudes are worth a lot of money.

But any doubters who questioned that sky-high valuation saw a new feather drop onto Microsoft's cap this week: Minecraft's PC and smartphone versions are finally coming to China. On Friday, Microsoft and Mojang announced the beginning of a "five-year exclusive partnership" with Chinese software publisher NetEase, Inc to roll the game out onto Chinese computer and smartphone marketplaces.The game's Chinese rollout date and release details have yet to be announced, and neither company confirmed how much money exchanged hands for the deal.

China isn't hurting for games originally published in the West, but Minecraft is arguably the world's most popular video game. Microsoft was able to publish the game on Xbox One consoles late last year, but those consoles have yet to penetrate the Chinese market to the extent that PCs and smartphones have, and the fact that even Microsoft had to license the game to someone else as opposed to launching it from its own Shanghai campus is a stern reminder of what roadblocks stand in the way of Western software developers.