news.buyenne.com

Such DNA. Paleogenetic. Wow. Very archaeological evidence. (credit: Doge)

Dogs were some of the first animals that humans domesticated. These furry pals were living with people for thousands of years before we invented agriculture and started keeping other animals like goats and pigs. Though we have archaeological evidence of dog bones within human communities dating back 15,000 years, scientists still aren't sure where humans began the process of converting wild wolves into snuggly companions. Now, a new study suggests that dogs were domesticated twice—once in Europe and once in Asia, probably around the same time.

A large group of researchers with expertise in everything from archaeology to paleogenetics has collaborated on a paper in Science explaining how it reached this conclusion. The group began by sequencing DNA from ancient and modern dogs to measure genetic drift. The linchpin of the study was a well-preserved bone from a dog that lived 4,800 years ago in Ireland, roughly around the time that Stonehenge was being constructed. By comparing this dog's DNA with that of more than 600 modern dogs and snippets of DNA from other ancient dogs, the team could determine that this Western dog belonged to a genetic group that diverged from Asian dogs between 14,000 and 6,400 years ago.

Evolutionary biologist Greger Larson told Science's David Grimm, "I was like, ‘Holy shit!’ We never saw this split before because we didn’t have enough samples."

(credit: Scott Beale)

It's easy to joke about the average shelf life of a major social media platform, especially one that hinges its reputation on young users. After all, this era has seen its share of MySpaces and Friendsters. In both cases, platform downfalls came after a change in the popularity guard, and new numbers unearthed on Thursday may point to another virtual torch-passing—this time between Twitter and Snapchat.

Citing "people familiar with the matter," Bloomberg reported that the Snapchat smartphone messaging service officially surpassed 150 million daily active users. That figure soundly beats Bloomberg's estimate of Twitter's 136 million daily users (derived from the service's publicly announced 310 monthly active users and Twitter's announced estimates of how many of those use the service on a daily basis).

In recent years, Snapchat's basic functionality—of auto-deleting messages and posts while connecting friends to photo and video feeds—has expanded. The service now boasts hugely popular auto-filter functions, which attach silly face-matched images to users' faces and eyes in much better fashion than what the Nintendo DSi introduced in its simple camera app back in 2009. These days even many professional publishing houses connect to the service to post frequent phone-video updates (if you're asking: ars_technica).

The top of the Alienware Steam Machine is a bit reminiscent of an armored turtle.

It's been about seven months now since Valve officially got into the hardware business with its Steam Machines, a line of Linux-powered gaming console/PC hybrids paired with a unique dual touchpad Steam Controller. Today, we're getting our first concrete glimpse of the impact that hardware has had on the wider market for gaming machines—and the numbers don't look too good for Valve.

As part of an update on new Steam Controller functions, Valve announced that it has sold over 500,000 Steam Controllers since the early November launch. A Valve representative confirmed to Ars that this number includes the controllers that are packaged with every branded Steam Machine sold through Valve's hardware partners.

Put it together, and you find that there have been less than half a million Steam Machines sold over a span of more than half a year. The real number could potentially be much lower when you consider curious Windows gamers who bought a Steam Controller and SteamOS players who bought additional controllers. While the 500,000 number doesn't necessarily include people who decided to download and install SteamOS on their own PCs (or all sales of Valve's $50 Steam Link streaming box), it probably serves as a good ceiling for the wider SteamOS market at this point.

The hardware is nice, but without support from major publishers, it could have trouble attracting a mass market. (credit: Kyle Orland)

As impressed as we have been with the technology behind new, consumer-level virtual reality headsets, there has been something important missing from the initial selection of software available for the likes of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive: games from the industry's biggest, most popular publishers. It's still early, but the lack of initial enthusiasm for VR from most AAA studios continues to be a headwind to the technology's potential success.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick recently verbalized the problem. At the Cowen and Company 44th Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference yesterday, the head of the multi-billion-dollar publisher said VR's current $2,000 asking price (when you factor in high-powered PC costs) and need for a dedicated play space limit the potential for mass appeal.

"We have like $300 to spend on an entertainment device and we do not have a dedicated room," he said. "We have a room for a screen, a couch, and controllers. We don’t have something where you stand in a big open space and hold two controllers with something on your head and, you know, not crash into the coffee table. We don’t have that."