Geek News

We haven't heard much about the next season of Stranger Things , but a rumor on Moviefone.com indicated that its directors, Ross and Matt Duffer , will be less involved after season three wraps up. This evening, Netflix tweeted "Rumors that the Duffer Bros are leaving Stranger Things after season 3 are false," which doesn't exactly refute the report, but hopefully means our Eggos and walkie-talkies are safe. The reported cited a source claiming the two would step back to work on two other projects for Netflix, so this could just mean they're more spread around. Still, we'll be watching carefully to make sure the quality holds up. Don't drop your Eggos. Rumors that the Duffer Bros are leaving Stranger Things after season 3 are false. pic.twitter.com/x4kbL9990e — Netflix US (@netflix) February 20, 2018 Source: Netflix (Twitter) , MovieFone via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2FfpLGJ"

Are you looking for the exact moment when the robots decide to turn on their human creators? You might want to mark this day on your calendar. Boston Dynamics has posted video of a SpotMini test where it gauged the bot's ability to adjust to interference -- in this case, from a pesky human. The quadruped managed to open a door despite a human pushing its hand down with a hockey stick, pushing the door closed and even tugging on its 'tail.' It clearly struggled, but its ability to adapt and rebalance left it unfazed. This certainly isn't the first time Boston Dynamics has subjected its robots to abuse , and the company even goes out of its way to address the elephant in the room: no, the robot isn't hurt or irritated by that cruelty. It's not actually going to revolt, and the lessons learned here could be useful for search and rescue or other situations where a robot might have to endure all kinds of resistance. Still, it's hard not to sympathize at lea...

The threat of someone hijacking your phone's camera to spy on you unawares is sometimes overstated, but it's definitely a possibility . Enough so, in fact, that Google is determined to do something about it. Recently discovered code submissions show that Android P should prevent idle apps from using both the camera and microphone. If an inactive program tries to use the camera, Android should shut it off and give you an error message. With the microphone, it's somewhat different: it'll allow recording but report empty data until the app is active. Malware wouldn't get away with recording in the background, but legitimate apps like a voice chat client (which stays active) shouldn't have an issue. Google hasn't even announced Android P, so it could be a while before you hear about these measures in any formal capacity (provided they make the cut). However, its engineers aren't shy about the goal: this is designed to "protect user privacy." ...

It's not just bicycle makers hoping Android will improve your two-wheeled transportation. Archos has unveiled a Citee Connect electric scooter with a 5-inch Android computer in between the handlebars. The hardware won't rival your phone (it an uses unnamed quad-core chip, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage), but it does have 3G built-in for directions and other tasks that might be handy while you commute around town. There's also a dedicated mobile app that can control the scooter's built-in reel lock. As for the scooter itself? The 250W motor is enough for a 15.5-mile range and a 15.5MPH top speed. Neither is particularly mind-blowing, but they're enough for downtown travel. It'll take you 2 to 3 hours to charge between rides. The Citee Connect arrives in the summer for €500 ($617). Archos hasn't said whether or not its scooter will be available outside of Europe, but we wouldn't count on it. The company is relatively new to scooters (it entered the sp...

Sorting and organizing may not always be the most difficult tasks, but they can certainly get tedious. And while they may seem like prime examples of something we might like robots to do for us, picking up, recognizing and sorting objects is actually a pretty difficult thing to teach a machine . But researchers at MIT and Princeton have developed a robot that can do just that and in the future, it could be used for things like warehouse sorting or cleaning up a disaster area. The team first trained the robot how to determine the best way to grip an object. They showed it bins of various items and then demonstrated which of four main grasping behaviors -- suction onto it vertically, suction onto it from the side, grip vertically and grip vertically while also using a flexible tool to coax objects away from a wall -- was the best option for a particular object. They did this over and over again, labeling which attempts were successes and which were not and eventually they plugged al...

After the Department of Justice filed suit last November to block AT&T's intended $85 billion merger with Time Warner, the telecom giant wanted to find out how much the White House was involved. The company had good reason to wonder how much direction the DOJ may or may not have taken from the Trump Administration given how much the President had publicly opposed the merger during his 2016 campaign. But today, a federal judge denied AT&T's request for any communications records between the DOJ and the White House. AT&T might have wanted the records to see if there was evidence that President Trump discussed the proposed merger with government lawyers, according to a Reuters report. From there, the telecom may have argued that politics played a role in the DOJ's decision to block the merger. The DOJ sued to block the merger out of antitrust concerns. While AT&T planned to dodge regulatory scrutiny by selling off some of Time Warner's FCC licenses...

A couple of years back, Mattel and Tynker partnered up to produce programming lessons based on Hot Wheels and Monster High. Now the two companies are expanding their partnership to launch seven new Barbie-themed coding lessons this coming summer. The curriculum, aimed at teaching girls about computer programming, will also expose them to them potential careers like becoming a veterinarian, astronaut or robotics engineer. The larger goal is to introduce coding to 10 million kids by 2020. The Barbie programming curriculum has been designed for beginners grades K and up. It puts learners in career roles alongside Barbie as it introduces concepts gradually. It's not all just Barbie, of course, with a few different initiatives coming in 2018, including a Mattel code-a-thon and teacher outreach program as well as involvement in the Hour of Code in December. "For close to 75 years, Mattel has taken a visionary approach to advancing play for kids around the world, most recently ...

A few weeks ago, Microsoft outlined new plans for its Mixer streaming service, including Direct Purchases. The feature would enable viewers to buy whatever game (or DLC) they're watching direct from the company's store, which would then give streamers a cut of the revenue. Today, that goes live , making it easier for players to get content -- and ensure they're buying straight from Microsoft. Direct Purchases should indeed make it easier to acquire the content users are watching -- just click on the stream and a window will pop up to buy the matching game or DLC, no switching to a separate storefront necessary. Nor do you need to fiddle with codes or tokens; Once bought, content sits in a user's Windows 10 or Xbox library, waiting to be downloaded. Buying directly from a streamer gives them a 5 percent cut of the purchase price, which is a nice feedback loop for viewers to give back to their favorite channels. And it makes things easier on the broadcaster's end...

Netflix's show about managing suburban life with a zombie wife, Santa Clarita Diet , proved popular enough to secure a second season last spring. A year from that renewal, fans will finally get to watch when it arrives on March 23rd. We're fine! pic.twitter.com/MKKvaATZIC — Santa Clarita Diet (@SCDiet) February 20, 2018 The second season sees husband Joel (Timothy Olyphant) and wife Sheila (Drew Barrymore) Hammond trying to keep things seeming normal while she slakes her zombie hunger on hapless neighbors. They're joined by rival couple Chris (Joel McHale, Community ) and Christa (Maggie Lawson, Psych), along with retired army colonel Ed (Gerald McRaney, This Is Us ) and an amateur zombie sleuth (Zachary Knighton, Happy Endings ). Via: Entertainment Weekly Source: Santa Clarita Diet (Twitter) via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2Cb6R5t"

We liked what we saw of the ASUS' foray into Windows Mixed Reality hardware at IFA 2017 , but we always figured it would likely be pricey . That's been proven true now as the HC102 headset and two controllers are finally on sale in the US for $429. While this might be the best mixed reality headset so far, it's a little late to the party, too. Both Samsung and Acer released their take on the tech last year. They're also both less expensive, with the former coming in near $300 and the latter for $400 with two controllers. HP has its own model , as well, which retails for $450. Via: The Verge Source: B&H Photo via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2Hx315N"

Facebook has had the option to post 3D objects for a while, and now you'll have some better reasons to use it. The social site has introduced support for a standard 3D file format (gITF 2.0) that not only allows for richer objects with more realistic rendering like textures and lighting, but easier ways to share those objects. New developer hooks in Graph let any app share 3D content, including things you've created on your phone. Xperia XZ1 owners can capture an item in 3D Creator and send it directly to their Facebook feed, for instance. You can also share objects directly from libraries like Oculus Medium or (eventually) Google Poly . The company has also hinted at "higher quality" 3D models, animations and more augmented reality . Facebook isn't shy about why it's pushing these improvements. It has a vested interest in fostering as much VR-friendly material as it can, and that means encouraging people to share in 3D on a regular basis. The more you s...

The long-awaited second season of Jessica Jones will finally debut next month and today Netflix gave us another look at what we can expect from it. In the first trailer , released earlier this month, we saw Jones grappling with her past and trying to get some answers to the many questions she has about her powers and the car crash that killed her entire family. In the second trailer we see how her anger affects, and often complicates, the life she has now. The trailer opens with Jones in an anger management session, throwing a ball at a wall with increasing force as she runs down all of the reasons she has to be angry -- the death of her family, being experimented on, and the abduction, rape and mind control perpetrated against her by Kilgrave. Throughout the trailer we see Jones trying to resist a life she didn't ask for while also acknowledging a growing threat that could affect the people she cares about. And ultimately we see her doing what she does best -- harnessing that ...

When car-soccer game Rocket League arrived last November, it included two DC Comics-inspired customization options like The Flash wheels and player banner. On March 5th, the game will get an entire roster of Justice League cars from Warner Bros., including two different Batmobiles -- one from the 1989 film and the other from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises . This isn't the first time we've seen the '89 version of Batman's sweet ride in a video game. Both it and the Batsuit from the film appeared in Batman: Arkham Knight a few years ago. Still, this is the whole group of top tier DC heroes. In addition to the custom Batman cars, Rocket League players will be able to kit out their soccer cars with decals and player banners representing Aquaman, Cyborg, Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Superman and Wonder Woman. The Flash and Wonder Woman get their own set of wheels, while the former also receives a special Speed Force Boost for getting to the socce...

If you're watching the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics on TV like a normal person, you may not realize there's another option. I viewed the opening ceremonies, skiing, curling, figure skating and other events in virtual reality on my Samsung Gear VR (2017) headset via NBC's app. I didn't expect the coverage to be as smooth as TV, but I thought it would be a cool way to watch the events as if I were a live spectator. Sadly, with one exception, the experience was spotty and disappointing. During the Rio Games in 2016, NBC broadcast the Olympic opening ceremonies in virtual reality for the first time, so I tuned in to have a look. It was a solid start: Despite problems like poor resolution, I felt like I was there, not watching on TV. Two years is a long time for tech like VR, so when NBC and Intel announced they'd cover the opening ceremonies and several live events once again in 2018, my expectations were higher. Accessing the Games in VR in the US is relat...

If you've been eagerly waiting for the third season of Elite Dangerous , your time has almost come. Today, Frontier Developments announced that the first chapter of the new season of the space MMORPG, called Beyond , will arrive on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on February 27th. The company also released a trailer for the third season, which you can see below. Beyond will be free for all Elite Dangerous players and will incorporate core gameplay changes based on user feedback. The overhaul includes a redesigned response to and consequences for criminal activities, the introduction of GalNet Audio to allow news updates without leaving the game's action, increased chances to acquire tech based on personal narrative and the inclusion of a trade data overlay to help increase the profitability of trading. The developers have also overhauled the mission rewards system. via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2FgBYuL"

How will our actions affect our grandchildren? Our great-grandchildren? And their great-grandchildren? That's the kind of long-term thinking that the non-profit organization the Long Now is trying to foster. And now Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has revealed that construction has begun on the organization's ambitious project, the 10,000 year clock . The 10,000 year clock is designed to measure time in years and centuries, rather than minutes and seconds. It will tick once a year. The century hand will advance, you guessed it, once a century, and the cuckoo will emerge once a millennium. The idea is to give us a greater sense of the impact of our decisions, and to think about long-term consequences of what we do. According to Bezos' tweet, the clock will be powered by day and night thermal cycles and synchronized at solar noon. The team just finished drilling a 500 foot deep vertical shaft for the clock. You can see a video about the process embedded in Bezos' tweet belo...

Fox News is joining the ranks of conventional broadcasters launching stand-alone streaming services . The channel has revealed plans for Fox Nation, an internet-only subscription video service for "superfans" of its ultra-conservative programming. The service will focus on opinion shows, and will include special events as well as access to 20 years of back catalog videos that won't be available elsewhere. The service doesn't yet have a price ahead of its debut in the fourth quarter of 2018, although we'd expect it to be relatively inexpensive given that it's an offshoot of a single channel. This isn't the same as watching the TV network on the road, though. Fox News is only promising "interaction" with its familiar opinion hosts, so you'll probably have to stay glued to a TV if you can't get enough of the company's big-name presenters. Whether or not the service succeeds isn't certain. Fox News is counting on those "supe...

The video game industry as a whole does a piss-poor job at preserving its history -- especially when it comes to online games. The Entertainment Software Association -- responsible for E3; counts Electronic Arts, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Ubisoft as members -- is petitioning the US Copyright Office to not make DMCA exemptions for abandoned online multiplayer games. It's an effort to block the folks at the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in California who would like to see an exemption made to how the DMCA treats titles like the original Everquest . The ESA's reasoning for opposing? It thinks that letting third parties operate online servers will result, more or less, in a library or museum committing copyright breach. Giving access to the proprietary server code could hypothetically lead to preservation societies building their own infrastructure and charging for access. Thus, they'd be a direct competitor to the original developers and publishers, which i...

Lithium-ion batteries have massively improved in the last half-decade, but there are still issues. The biggest, especially for EVs, is that charging takes too long to make them as useful as regular cars for highway driving. Researchers from the University of Warwick (WMG) have discovered that we may not need to be so patient, though. They developed a new type of sensor that measures internal battery temperatures and discovered that we can probably recharge them up to five times quicker without overheating problems. Overcharging a lithium-ion battery anode can lead to lithium buildup, which can break through a battery's separator, create a short-circuit and cause catastrophic failure. That can cause the electrolyte to emit gases and literally blow up the battery, so manufacturers impose strict charging power limits to prevent it. Those limits are based on hard-to-measure internal temperatures, however, which is where the WMG probe comes in. It's a fiber optic sensor, prot...