Month: December 2016

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference in Boston, speaking to C-SPAN Senior Executive Producer Peter Slen. (credit: NCTA)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler today announced he will leave the commission on January 20, the day of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.

"Serving as FCC Chairman during this period of historic technological change has been the greatest honor of my professional life," Wheeler said in a statement issued this morning before the commission's monthly meeting. "It has been a privilege to work with my fellow Commissioners to help protect consumers, strengthen public safety and cybersecurity, and ensure fast, fair and open networks for all Americans.”

Wheeler thanked President Obama for appointing him as chairman, and praised commission staff for "contribut[ing] to a thriving communications sector, where robust investment and world-leading innovation continue to drive our economy and meaningful improvements in the lives of the American people."

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Fitbit confirmed it was buying Pebble for $40 million last week, and now we have our first communication from inside the transition. In a Pebble blog post, written by Jon Barlow, a Pebble watchface developer and member of Pebble's Developer Evangelist Team, it details that Fitbit will not shutter the company's services just yet. Pebble software and services will continue to run normally through 2017.

"To be clear, no one on this freshly-formed team seeks to brick Pebble watches in active service," Barlow writes. "The Pebble SDK, CloudPebble, Timeline APIs, firmware availability, mobile apps, developer portal, and Pebble app store are all elements of the Pebble ecosystem that will remain in service at this time."

Pebble users will be happy to hear that their watches will still work and continue to receive updates—for now. The post also says that developers are welcome to make and update apps for Pebble devices; it's hard to believe, however, that many developers would spend more time on apps for a system that will be shut down eventually.

On Wednesday California’s Energy Commission (CEC) announced that it would adopt new energy efficiency rules for computers and monitors sold in the state, requiring computers to sip less power when they’re not being used and requiring monitors to be built using high-efficiency screen technology.

In all, the CEC estimates that Californians will save an average of 2,332 GWh per year (PDF) after these new rules are fully implemented in 2019. But the rules could have a much wider impact on the US. California is a massive market for technology, with an estimated 25 million computer monitors, 21 million desktop computers, and 23 million notebooks currently being used in the state. In many cases, a manufacturer will find it more economical to meet California’s standards for all products it sells in the US than to create an energy efficient version of its products for California and an less-energy-efficient version of its products for the rest of the US.

According to the CEC, the standards for desktop computers set an “energy use target” that manufacturers must meet depending on what technology can be found in the unit. “The targets center on the performance in idle, sleep and off modes and do not set a limit for active mode,” the CEC writes. A first tier of the standards for computers must be met by January 1, 2019, and then a second, more stringent version of the standards must be met by July 1, 2021. The energy commission estimates that these new standards will add $10 to the cost of desktop computers on average, but will save the owner $40 in electricity bills over five years.

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The commercial arm of the BBC is teaming up with rival UK broadcaster ITV to launch BritBox, a subscription streaming service that will give US anglophiles access to hundreds of British TV shows.

US-based AMC Networks, maker of hit shows like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, will own a minority stake in BritBox, but will not have any voting rights.

Pricing for BritBox is yet to be announced but, we're told, it will launch in the first quarter of 2017 on iOS, Android, Roku, AppleTV, and Chromecast, as well as via Web browsers. Other streaming services like Netflix and Hulu typically cost around the $10 mark. BBC Worldwide added that while the service will be US-only initially, it has an "ambition" to roll it out to other international markets in the future.

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Dolby Atmos support is coming to the Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs in 2017.

The object-based sound format—which promises a more immersive 360-degree 3D audio experience—has so far been limited to a few key PC games, including EA's Star Wars: Battlefront and Blizzard's Overwatch (albeit in a naff, pseudo-surround headphone mix for the latter), as well as certain Blu-ray players.

The announcement makes the Xbox One and Xbox One S the first consoles to support Atmos in games, although—as it stands—only Blizzard has actually committed to bringing an Atmos-compatible game to the console in the form of its multiplayer shooter Overwatch. As part of Atmos support, the Xbox One and Xbox One S will also finally feature Dolby Bitstream pass-through, which fires audio data over HDMI untouched to a TV or receiver for decoding.

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Ubisoft's Steep, while not wholly original in and of itself, is new in the context of extreme sports games. Essentially, it's the snowboarding edition of Watch Dogs, The Crew, or Assassin's Creed, complete with all those wonderful Ubisoft idiosyncrasies that you either love or loathe.

There's a large open world to explore, with events and activities like skiing, wingsuit flying, snowboarding, and paragliding strewn about the Alpine environment, and presented in such a way that you're free to tackle them in any order you see fit.

In a sense, Steep is heavily formulaic (or at least Ubisoft-formulaic). But seeing this familiar form applied to the world of extreme sports does make for an interesting game. Sadly, it doesn't make for a good one.

Steep starts well. Despite what you might expect, there's a refreshing lack of clichéd "dude-bro" language and frat boy sensibilities to accompany the extreme sports. Steep celebrates the daredevil nature of snowboarders and skiers, without the inane drivel that the media so frequently attaches to it. Combined with the wealth of options available thanks to the inclusion of numerous extreme sports and you've got a game that boasts an engaging attitude, along with the potential for experimentation.