Month: January 2017

Enlarge / Lenovo's Windows Holographic VR headset. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Microsoft will have Windows Holographic developer kits at Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017, according to a video on the company's Channel 9 site that was spotted by MSPoweruser. GDC will run February 27 to March 3 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The Windows 10 Creators Update, currently anticipated to be released in April, will include a wealth of new 3D, virtual, and augmented reality capabilities. This will be used with a range of relatively cheap headsets such as the one Lenovo showed at CES.

So far, however, Microsoft hasn't revealed a great deal about Windows Holographic's APIs, capabilities, or compatibility, though information has been trickling out. Insider preview builds of the Creators Update showed that the PC hardware requirements will be lower than those of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, with the GPU demands in particular being significantly reduced (with even integrated graphics acceptable).

Enlarge / A diagram of the transistors built in this paper, next to a false-colored image of the actual hardware.

Atomically thin materials like graphene and carbon nanotubes have the potential to provide significant benefits compared to today's electronics, like smaller features, lower operating voltages, and more efficient performance. So, even though we're struggling to figure out how to use them in bulk manufactured electronics, lots of organizations are spending money, brains, and time to work that out.

Note the phrasing above—potential. Since it's been incredibly hard to make transistors based on these materials, we aren't entirely sure how all of them will behave. A group of researchers from China's Peking University decided it was time to cut down on some of the uncertainty. The answer they came up with? Transistors made with carbon nanotubes and graphene that perform so well they're pushing up against the fundamental limits set by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

We still can't necessarily make a chip full of these things, but their work does show it's worth the continued effort to try to figure out how.

Enlarge / WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 18: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on Capitol Hill January 18, 2017 in Washington, DC. Pruitt is expected to face tough questioning about his stance on climate change and ties to the oil and gas industry. (Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images) (credit: Getty Images)

In his career as Oklahoma Attorney General, Scott Pruitt led or participated in many lawsuits seeking to block Environmental Protection Agency rules on water pollution, air pollution, and climate change. On Wednesday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee questioned Pruitt as they considered him for the position of EPA Administrator.

For the most part, Pruitt seemed comfortable and prepared as senators peppered him with questions for hours. As is generally the case for confirmation hearings, he avoided most specific questions about potential EPA actions, assuring the senators that he would carefully review any decisions before passing judgment. Republican committee members mainly used their turns at the microphone to paint the EPA under the Obama Administration as an oppressive rogue agency, tossing friendly questions at Pruitt that sought to highlight his qualifications. Democratic members, on the other hand, were sharply critical of Pruitt’s history, attempting to paint him as a friend to polluters.

In his comments, Pruitt repeatedly emphasized his intent to ensure that the EPA would respect “the rule of law,” be more deferential to state governments, and make sure “all voices are heard” during the rule-making process. The picture was a greatly restrained EPA meant to contrast with what he perceived as an agency that had overstepped its legal authority, interfered with states, and ignored the economic costs of regulations in favor of environmental and health benefits. Pruitt said he had tried to “stay in my lane” as Attorney General, and he clearly believes the EPA should have a narrow lane.

Enlarge / The Lawnmower Man revival's naive idiocy makes this guy very angry! (credit: New Line Cinema)

Last year's Sundance Film Festival was marked, in part, by quite a case of virtual-reality fever. Content creators and filmmakers began to embrace 360-degree videos, just as consumer-grade VR headsets started rolling out in greater numbers.

This year, Sundance appears poised to continue the trend, with the fest's kickoff being marked by the announcement of a VR project that nobody was necessarily asking for: The Lawnmower Man.

On Thursday, Jaunt, a 360-degree video production company, announced a slate of upcoming projects that will require VR headsets. Lawnmower Man stands out in this list as the only one based on a previously known film, though the only names currently attached to the project are its "rights holders." No directors, writers, actors, or production dates have yet been announced.

A Tesla S with autopilot features. (credit: Ron Amadeo)

On Thursday afternoon, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) concluded a months-long probe of Tesla’s Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) and Autopilot systems without finding any defects in the systems (PDF). The NHTSA opened the probe following a fatal crash that occurred in Florida while the car was in Autopilot.

Soon after the May 2016 crash, an internal investigation by Tesla concluded that the cameras on the Tesla did not register a truck that was turning left into the Tesla’s lane due to glare from the sun. While critics suggested this meant the car was unsafe, Tesla countered that having Autopilot engaged did not cede responsibility from the driver. A month later, the NHTSA then opened its probe to conduct “a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot.”

In the document the NHTSA released today, the administration found that the AEB system was “designed to avoid or mitigate rear end collisions” but that “braking for crossing path collisions, such as that present in the Florida fatal crash, are outside the expected performance capabilities of the system.”

Enlarge / STYLE!

For a game with Yakuza right in the title, there’s little yakuza-ing to be done in Yakuza 0.

It’s not just because the “zero” in the title marks this as a prequel to Sega’s long-running drama of Japanese organized crime, either. By the time the game starts, anti-heroes Kiryu Kazuma and Goro Majima have already been embroiled in organized crime for some time.

Two unrelated events before and during Yakuza 0 split the pair from their respective gangs, however, and they soon wind up fighting against the racketeers they once worked for. Meanwhile, a real estate conspiracy across two cities eventually connects the characters’ conflicts together—despite the fact that neither of them even knows the other exists.