Geek News

Given that Amazon's latest Super Bowl ad mentions Alexa no less than 10 times, that begs a question: will you have to unplug your Echo speaker to avoid Burger King levels of chaos as it responds to every single utterance? Thankfully, the answer is "no." Amazon has confirmed that it'll use acoustic fingerprinting techniques to prevent Alexa-equipped devices from going into a tizzy during the 90-second commercial. Your gadgets will know they're listening to the ad, not someone in your living room, and will ignore the requests. The company doesn't go into to too much detail about what the fingerprinting involves, but it stems from a command filtering patent . For the Super Bowl ad and other promos where Amazon already knows what's coming, Amazon will send fingerprints in advance so Alexa can compare input and ignore requests from ads. In situations where Amazon can't predict what will happen (such as a TV segment ), it uses dynamic fingerprinting t...

Just days after video game high score champ Todd Rogers was stripped of his Dragster title for mathematically impossible times, the man who was the Donkey Kong king for almost 20 years has also come under scrutiny. Billy Mitchell's 2010 high score for Donkey Kong has been called into question on a Twin Galaxies dispute forum by Jeremy Young, the moderator of Donkey Kong Forum (DKF). Young has presented a wealth of evidence to show that Mitchell's performance was likely faked , and has thus removed the high score from DKF's leaderboard. Billy Mitchell is known to video game fans as the King of Kong, a title made world-famous by the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters about the race for the Donkey Kong world record. Mitchell's 1982 score of 874,300 points reigned for 18 years until Tim Sczerby passed it by with 879,200 points in August of 2000. Mitchell retaliated in 2004 with a total 933,900 points, while Steve Wiebe (also in The King of Kon...

Today Apple announced it's launching a repair program for a "small percentage" of iPhone 7 owners who are affected by a "no service" issue. Late last year MacRumors said Apple was investigating the problem and appeared ready to replace affected devices, which would display "No service" in their status bar even when cell signal was clearly available. The cause of the problem is apparently a failed component on the logic board, and Apple says affected units (with model #s A1660, A1679, and A1780) extend through its entire production run from September 2016 until now. If your unit is on the list then Apple will fix it free of charge (within two years of the original purchase date) by sending it to a repair center. If you've already paid for a repair then look out for an email about reimbursement, and if it doesn't show up then give Apple a call. This is hardly the first recall/repair program we've seen for various iPhone issues, which h...

Earlier this week, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky told reporters that he wants the city to field a fleet of drones that automatically survey areas after guns are fired. The city would detect firearm discharges using its existing ShotSpotter system, WDRB reported , and immediately send the UAVs to the scene, potentially before emergency responders are even called. But this isn't coming out of nowhere: Louisville could just be the first of over 300 cities that have applied to a federal program that provides funding for local governments that are trying to start their own drone programs. Cities had to apply for the FAA and DOT's US Unmanned Aerial System Integration Pilot Program by the end of last November, but of the hundreds of applicants, only five will be chosen. So far, only Louisville is proposing this particular use for a drone fleet, according to Gizmodo . But the city's mayor and civic innovation chief believe a host of UAVs buzzing in to photograph or vid...

UK officials have approved two women for mitochondrial replacement therapy , the fertilization procedure that results in a baby technically parented by three people, the Guardian reports. The procedure, which still isn't approved in the US , was legalized in the UK in 2015 and the Newcastle Fertility Centre, where the two women will be treated, was granted a license to perform the procedure last March. While it's not the first time a procedure like this has been done, it is the first time it will happen in the UK. The two women reportedly carry genes that cause a condition called MERRF syndrome -- a rare disorder affecting the muscles and nervous system that can result in recurrent seizures, movement issues and dementia. The genes that cause the syndrome are transferred to offspring through a mother's mitochondrial DNA, and that's where mitochondrial replacement therapy comes in. To remove the risk of MERRF, doctors use the father's sperm to fertilize an egg fr...

HP has been working on bringing voice control to its printers, introducing Cortana and Google Assistant skills last year that let users tell their virtual assistants to print a variety of different documents for them. Now, as of this week, Alexa-enabled devices can also connect to HP home printers . Alexa can follow through on a number of different commands. Users can ask her to print games like sudoku puzzles or bingo cards, their to-do or shopping lists, coloring pages and even graph paper, blank calendars or notebook paper. You can see instructions on how to set up your printer to connect with Alexa here . The Cortana and Google Assistant skills allow for similar commands, though each assistant has capabilities that the others don't. For example, you can use the Google Assistant to print your Google Calendar or Alexa to print your Amazon shopping list. The Google Assistant HP skill launched last May while the Cortanta skill became available in October. Anneliese Olson, H...

Bungie has spent much of its recent time addressing gripes with Destiny 2 's story and cooperative play, but players in the competitive Crucible mode? Not so much -- some have complained that the Crucible just isn't that exciting, and the infamous Prometheus Lens incident arguably wouldn't have happened if Bungie had been paying closer attention to Crucible gameplay. You might not have that complaint for much longer, though. The studio has detailed some of the changes coming with the March 27th update, and a large chunk of them are designed to ratchet up the intensity of player-versus-player fights. Virtually every form of movement is faster -- both overall and with abilities like gliding and Supers. Those Supers and power weapon ammo will be available more frequently, too. And if you thought the regular gameplay revolved too heavily around auto rifles, you'll be happy to hear that hand cannons, fusion rifles and other guns should be more useful. There are other ...

Launched early last year as a form of resistance against the Trump administration, Resistbot allows anyone to send faxes to their congressional representatives. Now the service is headed to Twitter , which makes a lot of sense given the service's rise in stature with our head tweeter-in-chief . All you need to do is send the word "resist" to @resistbot on Twitter to start the process, similar to the text messaging system. You can write to your congress people, your governor, send a letter to the editor of your local paper, and even find the closest town halls, Swing Left district or Mueller rally. Resistbot can send you daily reminders to get political, as well. The service is free, and using it on Twitter (as well as Messenger or Telegram ) will save on text message fees for the folks behind the bot. "I can use your donations for delivering more letters to Congress instead and having a greater impact in Washington," the team wrote on Medium . Source: Re...

The 2018 Winter Olympics are just around the corner and while anyone with access to NBC channels will be able to watch the competitions and events , those with Hulu Live TV will get to build a personalized viewing experience tailored to their interests. Starting today , Hulu will let those with a Live TV subscription pick which Olympic sports they're most interested in and from there, it will customize users' UIs based on those preferences. For example, users selecting luge and freestyle skiing as their favorites will see coverage of those events appear up top in the Olympic Winter Games section of the Hulu UI. They'll also see replays, highlights and athlete profiles surfaced. Subscribers will have access to all of NBC's Olympics coverage, but content in their Olympics collection will be ranked based on their preferences. Hulu is also putting together other collections of content that will compile highlights and clips from the Games. Comcast announced earlier this...

The 2018 cybersecurity race to the bottom is off to an exciting start. First out of the gate is Strava — now widely known as the " social network for athletes " -- and its reckless data-visualization "heat map" gimmick that revealed details of secret military bases around the world . It was the kind of incident deserving of a plot line in a ridiculous Hollywood drama. And yet, here we are, with Twitter and the whole world discussing and dissecting fitness routes of soldiers and agents in sensitive locations, such as American bases in Afghanistan and Syria, a possible secret CIA base in Somalia, military facilities in war zones and much more . I'm not sure how many times we need to go through this. The trifecta parable of confusing privacy settings, post-publication safety considerations, and the requirement of major headlines for companies to give a shit. It's as if the makers of Strava and its ilk are living in a completely different internet. Let...

It's almost time to head to Hope County, Montana . In addition to Far Cry 5 's American vibes, there will be more to explore if you pony up for the game's season pass . The trio of adventures will have you battling the undead in "Dead Living Zombies," the Viet Cong in "Hours of Darkness" and gigantic spiders in "Lost on Mars." Sure, aside from "Hours of Darkness" these sound pretty over-the-top, but they aren't out of the ordinary for the series. For example, Far Cry 3 had the awesome, '80s-inspired "Blood Dragon" add-on pack that starred Michael Biehn. More than that, Ubisoft recently announced an add-on scenario for Rainbow Six: Siege where you're battling zombies and aliens in New Mexico. Ghost Recon: Wildlands also entered the jungle with a Predator -themed expansion late last year. So yeah, the season pass' deviations from Far Cry 5 's main story aren't entirely unprecedented. More tha...

One more month, folks. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is due to land in the United States, Europe and elsewhere around the world on April 17th, a one-month delay from its original release date. To soften the blow of this announcement, publisher Sega also revealed the launch date for the Yakuza 6 demo: It'll go live on PlayStation 4 on February 27th, and save data will transfer to the full game. "This will be the first time everyone will have a chance to play the game (a moment we have long been anticipating!) and we can't wait to hear what you think about it," Sega wrote on Twitter. "We have many new plans to reveal over the coming weeks to give you all more insight into the series, so stay tuned!" An important update on Yakuza 6 : The Song of Life pic.twitter.com/8MILlBPI4x — Yakuza Game (@yakuzagame) February 2, 2018 Yakuza 6 came out in Japan in late December, closing up series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu's vengeful storyline in the fictional Jap...

By Rachel Cericola This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter , reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . Imagine walking into your home at night, arms overflowing with groceries. To turn your smart lights on, you'd need to put the bags down, pull out your phone, unlock it, open the app, find the control for the lights you want, and then tap the icon. With an Amazon Echo and Alexa , you simply say, "Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights." And it's not just lights; Alexa is capable of controlling everything from basic smart plugs to garage doors . Smart bulbs Photo: Grant Clauser All models of the Philips Hue smart bulb, our pick as the best smart light bulb , allow you to power multiple lights on and off, dim, change a bulb's color, and even create light groups to enable color schemes throughout th...

Usually an automaker's entry-level vehicle is where features initially dropped into the premium line trickle down. Mercedes has taken a different approach with the introduction of the new A-Class. The entry-level Mercedes will be the launching point for three new features. The voice-centric infotainment system, MBUX we demoed at CES, an extended blind-spot assist that's on for three minutes after a car has been parked to watch for approaching cyclists and the new casual, private car-sharing feature via the Mercedes Me app. It's that last one that's important as automakers figure out how cars will be used and shared in the future. Mercedes CEO Dr. Dieter Zetsche noted onstage in Amsterdam at the vehicle's unveiling that the car-sharing feature is for close friends and family. With it, the key can be left in the car for those folks to borrow your vehicle for a set amount of time without actually having to meet up with the owner. Helpful for when you're at wo...

Elon Musk has said that he wants to die on Mars -- after it's been colonized by his company SpaceX. He may not have the precise details yet, but Musk will figure the mission out in style: The SpaceX space suits are sleek and form-fitting, while his cherry red Tesla sports car will be aboard the maiden flight of the interplanetary Falcon Heavy rocket. Meanwhile, on Earth, he'll work on connecting our brains to computers through tiny electrodes, building underground networks of car sleds that function like a personal subway system, firing passenger trains through a vacuum tube at the speed of sound and replacing air travel with his Big Fucking Rocket (BFR) spaceship that gets passengers anywhere on the planet in under an hour. That's without mentioning his efforts to advance electric cars and solar energy. Or the fact that this week, he made $10 million in four days selling promotional flamethrowers. With every outlandish company announcement or tweet, Musk can come acros...