Month: December 2018

Enlarge / "Part of the journey is the end." How many of the original Avengers will survive Avengers: End Game? We'll have to wait until May 3, 2019 to find out. (credit: Marvel Entertainment)

There is much rejoicing on the Internet today as Marvel Studios finally dropped the long-awaited first trailer for the movie formerly known as Avengers 4. Now we know it will be called Avengers: End Game, and, as expected, that's exactly what the trailer tells us it's going to be: a fitting conclusion to the shocking events of Avengers: Infinity War.

(Spoilers below for Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp)

Infinity War was technically an ensemble Avengers film, but Thanos (an intergalactic supervillain from Titan) is the central character. He is on a quest to collect all six Infinity Stones: the Power Stone, the Space Stone, the Time Stone, the Reality Stone, the Soul Stone, and the Mind Stone. Once collected and placed in the Infinity Gauntlet, they will give Thanos the power to wipe out half of all living beings in the universe. Why would anyone want to do such a thing? Thanos is the ultimate Malthusian, believing that the universe is overpopulated and will eventually run out of resources—precisely what happened to his own home town.

Enlarge (credit: The Game Awards, YouTube)

The forthcoming new season of Stranger Things will be accompanied by its own mobile game. Series creators Matt and Ross Duffer announced a new mobile game, simply titled Stranger Things 3: The Game, last night at The Game Awards and dropped a short trailer to tease the game. The game will follow the events of season 3 and will reportedly be available on all mobile platforms.

The Duffer Brothers didn't provide any more details about the game, and the trailer is quite short, so it doesn't give too much away. However, it does show some of the show's beloved characters, including Hopper and Steve, fighting enemies in messy storage rooms, a food-court-like setting, and in front of a movie theater. Users will reportedly be able to take control of characters and go through some of the season's events, with surprises throughout.

The locations shown in the trailer jive with the mega-mall that will come to Hawkins, Indiana, in the show's third season. The season's cryptic yet nostalgia-filled trailer promised that the town will "step into the future" with the addition of the Starcourt Mall, where we can expect to see characters hang out, shop, and even work (Steve appears to be the newest employee of the Scoops Ahoy ice cream shop).

Developer Bonus XP partnered with Netflix to create this 16-bit title, following up their previous partnership that created Stranger Things: The Game. That was another mobile, top-down game that was based loosely on the first season of the popular sci-fi show.

Enlarge (credit: The Game Awards, YouTube)

The forthcoming new season of Stranger Things will be accompanied by its own mobile game. Series creators Matt and Ross Duffer announced a new mobile game, simply titled Stranger Things 3: The Game, last night at The Game Awards and dropped a short trailer to tease the game. The game will follow the events of season 3 and will reportedly be available on all mobile platforms.

The Duffer Brothers didn't provide any more details about the game, and the trailer is quite short, so it doesn't give too much away. However, it does show some of the show's beloved characters, including Hopper and Steve, fighting enemies in messy storage rooms, a food-court-like setting, and in front of a movie theater. Users will reportedly be able to take control of characters and go through some of the season's events, with surprises throughout.

The locations shown in the trailer jive with the mega-mall that will come to Hawkins, Indiana, in the show's third season. The season's cryptic yet nostalgia-filled trailer promised that the town will "step into the future" with the addition of the Starcourt Mall, where we can expect to see characters hang out, shop, and even work (Steve appears to be the newest employee of the Scoops Ahoy ice cream shop).

Developer Bonus XP partnered with Netflix to create this 16-bit title, following up their previous partnership that created Stranger Things: The Game. That was another mobile, top-down game that was based loosely on the first season of the popular sci-fi show.

Enlarge / Shanghai. (credit: Dong Wenjie / Getty Images)

Welcome to Ars UNITE, our week-long virtual conference on the ways that innovation brings unusual pairings together. Each day this week from Wednesday through Friday, we're bringing you a pair of stories about facing the future. Today's focus is on AI in the city—get ready for a lot of smart buildings and self-driving stuff!

Cities generate lots of data. The exact amount depends on the size of the city and its sophistication and ambitions, but it's certainly more than mere humans can absorb and use. The Smart Cities movement, which looks for ways to find data-driven technological solutions to everyday urban challenges, is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to deliver "services" to its residents—everything from locating gunshots and finding tumors to dispatching work crews to pick up trash.

New York is one of about 90 cities worldwide that uses a system called ShotSpotter, which uses a network of microphones to instantly recognize and locate gunshots. In Moscow, all chest X-rays taken in hospitals are run through an AI system to recognize and diagnose tumors. And Taiwan is building a system that will be able to predict air quality, allowing city managers to warn residents of health dangers and work to lessen what the data tells them will be the worst of the impacts.

Enlarge / Shanghai. (credit: Dong Wenjie / Getty Images)

Welcome to Ars UNITE, our week-long virtual conference on the ways that innovation brings unusual pairings together. Each day this week from Wednesday through Friday, we're bringing you a pair of stories about facing the future. Today's focus is on AI in the city—get ready for a lot of smart buildings and self-driving stuff!

Cities generate lots of data. The exact amount depends on the size of the city and its sophistication and ambitions, but it's certainly more than mere humans can absorb and use. The Smart Cities movement, which looks for ways to find data-driven technological solutions to everyday urban challenges, is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to deliver "services" to its residents—everything from locating gunshots and finding tumors to dispatching work crews to pick up trash.

New York is one of about 90 cities worldwide that uses a system called ShotSpotter, which uses a network of microphones to instantly recognize and locate gunshots. In Moscow, all chest X-rays taken in hospitals are run through an AI system to recognize and diagnose tumors. And Taiwan is building a system that will be able to predict air quality, allowing city managers to warn residents of health dangers and work to lessen what the data tells them will be the worst of the impacts.