Daily Archives: September 17, 2015

Amazon’s new Fire TV box has 4K support and Alexa voice control

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Today’s a big day for Amazon. Not only did it unveil four new Android tablets, including one that costs $50 and can be bought in a six-pack, but it also unveiled a new Fire TV set-top box.

The new Amazon Fire TV looks a lot like the original Fire TV box, but it’s gained the ability to play 4K video, which is a big deal if you’re lucky enough to have a 4K TV. The new Fire TV box also comes with a Fire TV Voice Remote that allows you to access Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant, to do things like check the weather and sports scores and also play music.

In terms of raw specs, the new Fire TV box has a quad-core MediaTek processor, a Power VR GX6250 GPU, 8GB of storage, a microSD slot, 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.1, and HDMI, Ethernet, and USB ports.

The new Fire TV box is available for pre-order today for $99.99 and it’ll begin shipping on October 5. That bundle includes an Amazon Fire TV Voice Remote, but if you’d prefer a package that includes a Fire TV Game Controller, you can get the $139.99 Fire TV Gaming Bundle that includes a Fire TV box, game controller, 32GB microSD card, and two games. Amazon is also selling a Fire TV Stick bundle that includes the Fire TV Voice Remote for $49.99.

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This Neural Network’s Image Descriptions Are Hilariously Bad — And Also Really Advanced AI

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This Neural Network’s Image Descriptions Are Hilariously Bad — And Also Really Advanced AI
When will a neural network know who Donald Trump is? How long until one can come up with a joke on its own? How about recognize Yoda? It may not be much longer, with neural network models progressing at breakneck speed. But there’s still a long way to go.

September 17, 2015 at 10:09AM
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‘Game Art’ Puts The Video Game Art Debate To Bed By Giving Creators A Say

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Video games are art now and everybody has something to say about it.
Ever since 2010, when acclaimed late film critic Roger Ebert asserted video games are not art, the games industry rose up to the contrary. From Gamasutra to the Guardian, dozens of video game critics have weighed in on the topic. The Smithsonian American Art Museum established a traveling exhibit on the Art of Video Games. And all the while, video games themselves have been improving their graphics and music and color palettes for stunning immersive experiences.
Just when I thought this topic had been done to death, I received a review copy of Game Art by Matt Sainsbury. Since Ebert’s words were heard around the world, I’ve read several reactionary video game art books, though it would be more accurate to say I “looked at” them. Game Art is a welcome change of pace. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but Sainsbury’s interviews with dozens of game creators give them context.
Game Art includes art from 40 games and 21 different interviews with their creators. Sainsbury’s reporting spans the major studios—like Bioware, Square Enix, and Ubisoft—but devotes just as much time to independent creators. The games featured range from the recognizable, like Final Fantasy, to lesser-known but no less beautiful indie favorites. There are games designed for children, games designed strictly for adult audiences, and everything in between.
The result is a thorough cross-section of the games industry today. Sainsbury doesn’t pull away from some of gaming’s most controversial topics. His interview with Gouchi Suda of Lollipop Chainsaw fame doesn’t just acknowledge the studio’s penchant for gratuitous violent and sexual content—Sainsbury makes that boundary pushing the focus of his interview.

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Europe not getting the Samsung Gear S2 3G, not yet

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Okay, Samsung, what did Europe do to you? First no more laptops, then no Note5 and now no Samsung Gear S2 3G… That’s right, the 3G-enabled version of the Tizen-powered smartwatch will be launching only in the US and South Korea, Europe and other markets are only getting the versions without mobile data.

Samsung points to the e-SIM – an “embedded SIM” format that’s available in the US but hasn’t been adopted by EU carriers. It can’t be removed from the device, instead carriers can reprogram it to make it their own.

Apple has a similar feature, Apple SIM used in US iPads, and UK carrier EE even supports it. But not the GSMA-standardized e-SIM. The original Gear S used a tiny nanoSIM and avoided such problems.

VP of Samsung Mobile for Samsung UK says that fitness is the driving factor behind smartwatch adoption and for that you need GPS.

GPS is available only on the Gear S2 3G, the plain S2 and Gear S2 classic don’t have a receiver. They still have fitness tracking functionality, but runners and bikers will be missing out.

Launch details for the Samsung Gear S2 will be unveiled next week. The VP hinted at a price around £320 for the models to be available in the UK.

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LG phones in Korea reportedly have razor-thin margins

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It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and the mobile realm has become such a competitive arena that even major companies are often struggling to survive. LG, which is currently runner up in sales on its home Korean turf after Samsung, is facing major sales challenges and has reportedly been forced to depreciate its models to prices that bring in mere cents in profits.

The information was obtained by analyzing recently released Mobile carrier SK Telecom statistics that include the average handset prices by Manufacturer. The numbers in question are for subsidized units on the company’s most-popular contract – KRW 60,000, or about $51 a month. Apparently LG’s phones average at around KRW 175,341 ($150), while Samsung units are valued much higher at KRW 414,357 ($354) and Apple’s iPhones go for even more at KRW 858,533 ($733).

What this means is that carriers are slashing unit prices to almost absurd levels just to ensure that LG at least sells it stock. And this is done with flagship models, like the LG G4, as well as mid-range offers. Consequently, LG’s mobile division came flat in terms of year-over-year revenue in Q2, but with a whopping 99.7% drop in operating profits. This means that the OEM’s phones are currently selling for about their factory value and that definitely spells trouble.

This major depreciation is felt of international markets as well, which is even more worrying for LG. At least this strategy is moving units and should prevent the company form suddenly falling dead in the market with a lot of stock that it can’t sell. Shipments have apparently dropped by only three percent year-over-year and are now at 14.1million units.

Still spirits seem to remain high at LG, which boats a new record for LTE phone shipments, which now broke the 8 million marks and make up about 57% of all sales.

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Amazon announces new Fire TV and Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote

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Amazon has announced the new Fire TV. The main feature here is support for 4K content, with the device being able to play back 4K movies and TV shows from Netflix, Amazon Video, and Prime Video. The quality of 1080p content has also improved with the new HEVC codec support, that’s also more efficient.

The new Fire TV runs on a 64-bit quad-core MediaTek processor that is said to have 75% more processing power than the previous Fire TV. There’s also Wi-Fi 802.11ac with MIMO, microSD support, Amazon Mayday customer service, and Dolby Audio over HDMI and Bluetooth. The new Fire TV also comes with the new Fire OS 5 “Bellini”, that includes Alexa, Amazon’s new search assistant first seen on the Amazon Echo. The voice functionality works with Amazon’s Voice Remote.

As before, the Fire TV has support for Android games on the Amazon Appstore. You can separately purchase the wireless Fire TV Game Controller to pair with the Fire TV. Additionally, Amazon will also be selling a Fire TV Gaming Edition, that comes with the controller as standard, along with a 32GB microSD card and two free games, Shovel Knight and Disney’s Ducktales.

The new Fire TV is priced at $99.99 and the Gaming Edition at $139.99. The Fire TV Game Controller can separately be purchased for $49.99.

Amazon also announced the new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote. It’s the same Fire Stick as before but now comes with the Voice Remote so you can use Alexa to search for things instead of typing on the remote. The Fire Stick is priced at just $49.99.

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